Fascism

Trump’s Military Parade Will Not Include Heavy Vehicles

March 12, 2018 Associated Press. Resist! Fascism, Militarism and War, Trump Administration

Donald Trump looks set to get the military parade he wants in Washington, on Veterans Day in November. But a Pentagon planning memo issued on Thursday and released on Friday said the parade being planned for 11 November will “include wheeled vehicles only, no tanks consideration must be given to minimize damage to local infrastructure”. In other words, heavy tanks could tear up the streets of DC and will thus not be allowed to rumble past the president on his reviewing stand. The event will “include a heavy air component at the end of the parade”, the memo said, meaning lots of airplane flyovers. Older aircraft will be included as available. The memo did not include a cost estimate. The White House budget director recently told Congress the cost to taxpayers could be between $10m and $30m.

Democrats Become The Party Of Military & Intelligence Candidates

March 9, 2018 Patrick Martin, Wsws.org Educate! Electoral Politics, Fascism, Wars and Militarism

An extraordinary number of former intelligence and military operatives from the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Council and State Department are seeking nomination as Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. The potential influx of military-intelligence personnel into the legislature has no precedent in US political history. If the Democrats capture a majority in the House of Representatives on November 6, as widely predicted, candidates drawn from the military-intelligence apparatus will comprise as many as half of the new Democratic members of Congress. They will hold the balance of power in the lower chamber of Congress. Both push and pull are at work here. Democratic Party leaders are actively recruiting candidates with a military or intelligence background for competitive seats where there is the best chance of ousting an incumbent Republican or filling a vacancy, frequently clearing the field for a favored “star” recruit.

Italians March To Protest Fascism, Racism, Labor, Vaccines

February 26, 2018 Staff, AP.org Resist! Fascism, Italy, Labor, Protests, Racism

ROME (AP) — Students opposing a neo-fascist party have scuffled with police in Milan at one of at least a dozen rallies being held across Italy on the last weekend for political action before the March 4 national election. Thousands of police have been deployed for protests Saturday in Rome, Milan and other Italian cities, seeking to prevent clashes during an election campaign that has increasingly been marked by violence. One Rome march protested racism and neo-fascism, while another targeted the center-left government's labor reforms. A third rally in Rome was opposing mandatory vaccines, which has become a campaign issue.

The Importance Of Antifa In Confronting Fascism

February 13, 2018 By Mark Bray, Truth-out.org Resist! AntiFa, Fascism

Before analyzing anti-fascism, we must first briefly examine fascism. More than perhaps any other mode of politics, fascism is notoriously difficult to pin down. The challenge of defining fascism stems from the fact that it "began as a charismatic movement" united by an "experience of faith" in direct opposition to rationality and the standard constraints of ideological precision. Mussolini explained that his movement did "not feel tied to any particular doctrinal form." "Our myth is the nation," he asserted, "and to this myth, to this grandeur we subordinate all the rest." As historian Robert Paxton argued, fascists "reject any universal value other than the success of chosen peoples in a Darwinian struggle for primacy."

How Corporate Power Killed Democracy

December 8, 2017 Richard Moser, counterpunch.org Educate! Corporations, Democracy, Fascism, State

By Richard Moser for Counter Punch - The rise of Corporate Power was the fall of democracy. Over the long haul, US politics has revolved around a deep tension between democracy and an unrelenting drive for plunder, power and empire. Granted that our democracy has been seriously flawed and only rarely revolutionary, yet the democratic movements are the source of every good thing America has ever stood for. Since the mid-1970s, when the corporations fused with the state, a new imperial order emerged that killed what remained of representative democracy. Not only would corporations exercise public authority as only government once had, but government would coordinate and serve corporate activity. Power and profits became one and the same. Corporate power has replaced democracy with oligarchy and justice with a vast militarized penal system. Instead of innovative production, they plunder people and planet. To achieve this new order, elections and the economy had to be drained of any remaining democratic content. Both Democrats and Republicans were eager to have at it. By the 1990s “Third Way” Democrats like Bill Clinton abandoned what was left of the New Deal to try to outdo the Republicans as the party of Wall Street. The Republicans pioneered election fraud on a national scale in 2000, 2004, and 2016; a lesson the Democrats learned all too well by the 2016 Primary. Neither major party wants election reform since free and fair elections would threaten the system itself.

Fascism In America: A Preventable Danger

December 6, 2017 Richard E. Rubenstein, transcend.org Strategize! Capitalism, Class Struggle, Fascism, Repression

By Richard E. Rubenstein for TRANSCEND Media Service - Over the past few months, the possibility of a fascist America has moved from the realm of academic speculation to that of common concern. In August 2017, a coalition of organizations calling themselves “Unite the Right” organized a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest the planned removal by the city government of a statute of General Robert E. Lee, leader of the pro-slavery Confederate forces in the Civil War of 1860-65. The resulting confrontation between protestors and counter-protestors culminated tragically when a 20-year old white supremacist named James Alex Fields, Jr. drove his auto into the crowd, sending nineteen people to the hospital and killing 32-year old Heather Heyer, a counter-protestor. At this writing, “Unite the Right” has requested a permit to hold another rally in Charlottesville. But even without this provocation, there would be growing concern about the resurgence of U.S. organizations with fascist or neo-fascist sympathies and ideas. The Southern Poverty Law Center, an anti-fascist watchdog group, reports a burst of growth on the Far Far Right, with about one thousand hate groups currently active.[1] These organizations come in a variety of brands, ranging from white nationalists and members of the racist Ku Klux Klan to neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, patriot militias, anti-Muslim organizations, militant Christian identity groups, and others.

Media Freedom Threatened Throughout The World

December 2, 2017 Staff, article19.org Educate! Corporate Media, Fascism, Freedom of Press, Journalism, Media, Repression

By Staff of Article 19 - “For the first time, we have a comprehensive and holistic overview of the state of free of expression and information around the world. Unfortunately, our findings show that freedom of expression is under attack in democracies as well as authoritarian regimes. “The XpA Metric is a tool for understanding where governments are succeeding and failing in their duty to promote and protect our rights. We hope that it will help journalists, activists and policymakers to monitor free speech, challenge the threats to it and hold governments and companies to account. “But it also offers us a positive guide for how freedom of expression and information can be realised so that we can all participate in public life, enjoy a private life, and exercise our right to free speech.” Global media freedom at lowest level for a decade 17 years. One of the most serious findings of the Expression Agenda (XpA) is that global media freedom is at its lowest level for a decade. The rise of citizen journalists, bloggers and information activists has put more individuals and groups at risk than ever before. The threats they face include state repression, organised crime, business interests and religious fundamentalism. There has been an alarming rise in attacks on journalists, human rights defenders and activists who seek to expose corruption and abuse. A decline of media pluralism has been accompanied by a parallel decline in democratic freedoms. Brazil, Turkey, Burundi, Egypt, Poland, Venezuela and Bangladesh have seen particularly disturbing drops in a diverse and independent media.

Fascism Came To America Wrapped In Rainbow Flag & Wearing A Pussyhat

November 29, 2017 Caitlin Johnstone, informationclearinghouse.info Educate! Fascism, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, United States

By Caitlin Johnstone for Information Clearing House - It’s a good quote, whoever said it. It warns that if manipulative oppressors are going to seize control of a nation’s government, they will obviously need to do so by appealing to the spirit of the times, the current values system of the masses. They’re not going to make their entrance screaming “Freedom is slavery!” while a band plays the Darth Vader theme. This is obvious to anyone who possesses any insight into how people think and behave. But it’s a quote from a bygone age. Christianity and flag-waving patriotism still hold value in red states, but they’ve become largely invisible to the major culture factories of New York and Los Angeles, and thus to the dominant culture of the greater United States. If fascism came to America wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross today, it wouldn’t have enough broad public support to implement its agendas, because crosses and flags don’t hold that much sway over America’s dominant value system. In order to rope in those who don’t value the old cultural value symbols, something more is needed. So when fascism came to America, it came wrapped in a rainbow flag, and wearing a pussyhat. Do you know why Democrats fixate so much on the completely unsubstantiated narrative that Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government to steal the 2016 election?

Fixation On Trump’s Crimes Distracts From Criminal System

October 28, 2017 John Steppling, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Crime, Donald Trump, Fascism

By John Steppling for Counter Punch - I cannot remember U.S. culture ever being quite so compromised by ruling class control. Hollywood turns out one jingoistic and militaristic and racist film and TV show after another. Corporate news is completely controlled by the same forces that run Hollywood. It is the complete capitulation of the liberal class to the interests of the increasingly fascistic U.S. elite. And this didn’t start with Donald Trump. Certainly in its current incarnation it goes back at least to Bill Clinton, and really it goes back to the end of World War Two. The ideological trajectory was formed under the Dulles brothers and military industrial complex — representing U.S. business interests and exhibiting a demand for global hegemony. But once the Soviet Union collapsed, the project was accelerated and intensified. Another starting point might well be the 1960 Bay of Pigs fiasco, or the 1961 CIA (and MI6) assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Or Kennedy’s 1962 speech at American University calling for the end of Pax Americana. We know what happened to Kennedy soon after that. Pick any of these incidents. But it was the fall of the U.S.S.R. that signaled to the governing class, the proprietor class, that the last real obstacle to global domination had been removed. In the interim, one finds the Iran/Contra affair, and the invasion of Iraq.

Our Ever-Deadlier Police State

October 24, 2017 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Fascism, Police State, Racism, State Violence

By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - None of the reforms, increased training, diversity programs, community outreach and gimmicks such as body cameras have blunted America’s deadly police assault, especially against poor people of color. Police forces in the United States—which, according to The Washington Post, have fatally shot 782 people this year—are unaccountable, militarized monstrosities that spread fear and terror in poor communities. By comparison, police in England and Wales killed 62 people in the 27 years between the start of 1990 and the end of 2016. Police officers have become rogue predators in impoverished communities. Under U.S. forfeiture laws, police indiscriminately seize money, real estate, automobiles and other assets. In many cities, traffic, parking and other fines are little more than legalized extortion that funds local government and turns jails into debtor prisons. Because of a failed court system, millions of young men and women are railroaded into prison, many for nonviolent offenses. SWAT teams with military weapons burst into homes often under warrants for nonviolent offenses, sometimes shooting those inside. Trigger-happy cops pump multiple rounds into the backs of unarmed men and women and are rarely charged with murder.

Univ. Of Florida Drowns Out White Supremacist

October 20, 2017 Alex Harris and Martin Vassolo, www.miamiherald.com Resist! Fascism, Neo-Nazis, Racism, White Supremacy

By Alex Harris and Martin Vassalo for the Miami Herald. When prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer came to the University of Florida on Thursday, incidents of violence were limited because of a $600,000 police presence from across the state. What conflict did occur — pepper spraying, punching, chasing — was largely instigated by anti-fascist protesters. There were five minor injuries and two arrests — one for a Gainesville man charged with resisting arrest without violence and the other for a media member’s security guard found with a pistol and a knife. Supporters of the alt-right firebrand were largely outnumbered, as hundreds of protesters flooded the street outside the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, where Spencer spoke.

The Front Lines Of Antifascism In Eastern Germany

October 14, 2017 Morgan Meaker, www.psmag.com Resist! AntiFa, Fascism, Germany

By Morgan Meaker for Pacific Standard - A shy grin spreads across Maximillian's face as he stretches out his arm to show where he was bitten by a Nazi. A faint, teeth-shaped scar marks where the attacker's jaw clamped down on the 17-year-old. Wearing suspenders and a flat cap studded with anti-fascist badges, Maximillian says his assailant was probably on drugs but that he knew he was a neo-Nazi because the guy called Maximillian "a fucking anti-fascist." Maximillian shrugs as if to say it happens all the time. In the same month, December of 2016, he was ambushed by another gang of neo-Nazis in the town center. That time, they broke his jaw. The teenager's hometown of Bautzen in eastern Germany has earned a reputation for right-wing extremists since Angela Merkel opened Germany's borders to almost 900,000 refugees in 2015. Over the past two years, Bautzen has seen anti-migrant demonstrations, a mass brawl between the town's residents and its asylum-seekers, and an attack on the information desk of a pro-diversity non-profit. But the town's rising tensions reflect a nationwide surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AFD). In the recent national election, the AFD became the first far-right party to sit in the Bundestag since World War II, with 12.6 percent of the vote (according to provisional results).

Protest Alone Won’t Stop Fascism

September 12, 2017 Shamus Cooke, www.counterpunch.org Strategize! Fascism, Protests

By Shamus Cooke for Counter Punch - When news struck that anti-Muslim protests with ties to white supremacists cancelled rallies across the country — in response to the huge anti-fascist rally in Boston — a clear victory was celebrated by the Left. A further anti-fascist victory was won in San Francisco, where a giant mobilization outnumbered a tiny smattering of far-right protesters who scurried away scared. But these victorious battles won’t end the war. The cockroaches that crawled back under the floorboards will resume their work underground, where they join a mass of fascist termites eating away at the base of the U.S. political system. The more conscious leaders of the budding fascist movement study history’s lessons. After Boston they made a strategic retreat, recognizing the balance of forces shifted against them. They’ll return to fight another day on more favorable terrain. Meanwhile they’re organizing. The larger “alt right” white supremacist movement will continue to use ultra-wealthy donors and growing networks to refine their organizing in order to position themselves as the political “solution” to the deepening economic-political crisis experienced by millions of people.

African-Americans Fighting Fascism And Racism

September 3, 2017 Matthew Delmont, www.theconversation.com Resist! Fascism, Nazis, Racism, Wars and Militarism

By Matthew Delmont for The Conversation. There is a historical relationship between Nazism and white supremacy in the United States. Yet the recent resurgence of explicit racism, including the attack in Charlottesville, has been greeted by many with surprise. Just look at the #thisisnotwhoweare hashtag. As a scholar of African-American history, I am troubled by the collective amnesia in U.S. politics and media around racism. It permeates daily interactions in communities across the country. This ignorance has consequences. When Americans celebrate the country’s victory in WWII, but forget that the U.S. armed forces were segregated, that the Red Cross segregated blood donors or that many black WWII veterans returned to the country only to be denied jobs or housing, it becomes all the more difficult to talk honestly about racism today.

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