Group of Antifascists in Bloc

Repression Knows No Boundaries, Neither Does Resistance!

A review of Confronting Fascism: Discussion Documents for a Militant Movement & Alerta! Alerta! Snapshots of Europe’s Antifascist Struggle

by Cíntia Melo

Confronting Fascism: Discussion Documents for a Militant Movement, by Don Hamerquist & J. Sakai, Anti-Racist Action Chicago and Mark Salotte, (AK Press, 2017) and Alerta! Alerta! Snapshots of Europe’s Antifascist Struggle, by Patrick O. Strickland, (AK Press, 2019) (translated from Portuguese) In the opening essay … Read more

Beyond Anti-Fascism Reflection

The Beyond Anti-Fascism, But Not Without It statement was circulated in December, 2017, generating a number of both positive and negative responses.

Positive responses include Hillary Lazar’s piece, Connecting Our Struggles: Border Politics, Antifascism, and Lessons from the Trials of Ferrero, Sallitto, and Graham, in the forthcoming print issue of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory (N.30, “Beyond the Crisis”), as well as other writing we’ll be sharing on-line soon.

Negative responses included critiques that the call was, a) being improperly essentialistic about identity politics and b) disregarding the fact that some of the white men writing about fascism/anti-fascism are Jewish and therefore it was insulting to say they don’t understand the history of fascism.

In light of these responses, we have rewritten the statement and are including it in the new print issue of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. Below you’ll find this new version, followed by a reflection on how we got from the original to this one, and what we still find inadequate and needing in our discussions of fascism and anti-fascism. And here we really want to encourage you to use our comments section for discussion, or send us your thoughts to be considered for posting on-line.

antifa_Justseeds_web
(Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative)

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Beyond Anti-fascism, But Not Without It

Antifascist demo in london, 1935
(Anti-fascist demonstration, London, 1935)

Since Trump’s election, fascism has barged onto center stage, moving more brazenly into public space, mainstream media and public discourse than it has in decades. This renewed and emboldened presence of overt fascism has been met by an explosion of analysis and discussion about its history and politics, and the conditions necessary for its emergence. A proportionally growing attention is also being paid to the history and politics of anti-fascism.
This is welcome, and it is crucially needed. However, it’s also true that the bulk of the writing and speaking on fascism and anti-fascism—the better-selling books, the high-profile interviews–are being done by white men.

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