#antifascism

Perspectives on Anarchist Theory: Transformations!

Perspectives on Anarchist Theory‘s 33rd issue, Transformations, published by the Institute for Anarchist Studies, is available directly from the IAS, as well as from AK Press, Powell’s Books, or a bookshop near you! Click here to order a copy for yourself, or for your local … Read more

Dispatch from Portland’s Protests

by Sarah Mirk

Sarah Mirk is a comics journalist, author, and teacher. She works as an editor at The Nib and as a digital producer for Reveal. Her most recent book is Guantanamo Voices: True Stories from the World’s Most Infamous Prison, available here. This is her documentation of the … Read more

Interview with Shane Burley, Editor of No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis

Paul Messersmith-Glavin: Talk about what was going on in the world four or five years ago and what motivated you to put this collection together. I think I first came up with the idea in 2018 when I was at a bar with Kim Kelly … Read more

Organizing Disruption: Fiction that Calls Us to Action

by Dylan Patrick Delos Santos Clymer

Review: Kung Li Sun, Begin the World Over (AK Press, 2022) & Robert Evans, After the Revolution (AK Press, 2022) Javier Sethness Castro, author of “From ‘Trotsky in Tijuana’ to ‘Chernobyl’: Caution & Reason” said, “[t]he promise of historical and speculative fiction is the reconstruction of the past … Read more

Jewish Anarchism

by Shane Burley

A Review of No Masters But God, by Hayyim Rothman, (Manchester University Press, 2021) If anarchists know Jewish history at all, it is likely the role of Jewish radicalism in the political battles of the early 20th century. Jews made up huge portions of the anarchist … Read more

Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

2022 Submissions

We are living in interesting and accelerating times! As we move forward through this year, we at Perspectives on Anarchist Theory are reflecting on how the events of the past few years have been continually shifting the ground beneath our feet on a collective level. … Read more

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)

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.