ni & Lyn welcome Portland author Alexander Reid Ross to discuss his book Against the Facist Creep and the ongoing efforts of right wing extremists to co-opt social movements. They'll be joined by writer and filmmaker Shane Burley and his new book Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It. To get copies of both books call (877) 500-5266 during the show and pledge your support to KBOO.
As the election of Donald Trump shows, fascism in all its white nationalist and “alt-right” permutations is alive and well in the United States. A terrifying tour of the history and influence of the forces that helped bring the 45th president to power, Against the Fascist Creep maps the connections and names the names. It traces today’s often-disguised forms of rightwing extremism through the decades and across the globe to show how infiltration is a conscious and clandestine program for neofascist groups that seek to co-opt and undermine both the mainstream and the new social movements of the left.
-from Truth-out.org :
In light of the fact that Donald Trump is president, and that his consigliere Steve Bannon has publicly expressed a favorable view of the Italian fascist and SS enthusiast Julius Evola; considering the possibility that the neofascist Marine Le Pen's Front National could win the 2017 elections in France; and given the explosive violence targeting Muslims, Jews and people of color in the US since Trump's election, the time is certainly right to read and widely discuss Alexander Reid Ross's new book, Against the Fascist Creep.
As the title suggests, Reid Ross is concerned here with the "fascist creep," which is related to the idea of the "fascist drift," or the disturbing attraction many 20th-century leftists felt for this new reactionary ideology. Fascists reject mainstream conservatism as decrepit and corrupt (see the contemporary alt-right's repudiation of the GOP), and while they violently oppose liberalism, socialism and anarchism, they paradoxically wield left-wing notions, such as solidarity and liberation as part of their ultranationalist schemes for a falsely classless society, which is to be characterized by "natural hierarchy." Fascism also relies heavily on myth, in the sense that its proponents seek to restore a "golden age" that supposedly existed in the putatively heroic past by means of "national revolution" against the existing liberal-parliamentarian order. This romantic-revolutionary element represents another commonality in the creep between fascism and leftism, considering the nostalgia for the precapitalist "lost paradise" that sometimes drives left-wing passions. In fact, Reid Ross writes that fascists gain ground precisely by deploying "some variant of racial, national, or ethnocentric socialism," opportunistically inverting the internationalist goals of socialism. Clearly, fascists and leftists differ principally on the question of egalitarianism, with the latter defending equality by organizing against capitalism, the state, borders, patriarchy and racism, while the former use these oppressive systems to reproduce inequality, domination and genocide.
Reid Ross's newest volume is an excellent and disconcerting study of fascism's origins, development, present and possible futures. Against the Fascist Creep deserves the broadest possible audience. Hopefully, it can help to inspire a new mass movement to resist all authoritarian ideologies, whether emanating from the State or the "autonomous" grassroots. To overcome the severe threat that fascism and neofascism pose to the Earth and its peoples, only mutual aid and cooperation on a vast scale can succeed. We must press forward by struggling militantly against Trumpism, the "radical" right, Third Positionism, "autonomous nationalism" and authoritarian leftism alike. Against these myriad political and philosophical absurdities, let us advance global anti-authoritarian revolution.
Plus....
Fascism Today looks at the changing world of the far right in Donald Trump’s America. Examining the modern fascist movement’s various strains, Shane Burley has written an accessible primer about what its adherents believe, how they organize, and what future they have in the United States. The ascension of Trump has introduced a whole new vocabulary into our political lexicon—white nationalism, race realism, Identitarianism, and a slew of others. Burley breaks it all down. From the tech-savvy trolls of the alt-right to esoteric Aryan mystics, from full-fledged Nazis to well-groomed neofascists like Richard Spencer, he shows how these racists and authoritarians have reinvented themselves in order to recruit new members and grow.
Just as importantly, Fascism Today shows how they can be fought and beaten. It highlights groups that have successfully opposed these twisted forces and outlines the elements needed to build powerful mass movements to confront the institutionalization of fascist ideas, protect marginalized communities, and ultimately stop the fascist threat.
Shane Burley is a writer, filmmaker, and antifascist based in Portland, Oregon.
- KBOO