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Subjects Archives: Fascism

[Archive photo] The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) Picture: Reuters

NUMSA condemns the military coup in Zimbabwe

Pressed by the military forces, the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has finally resigned from his seat after 37 years in power. Although his resignation was celebrated by many, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa warns that nothing good ever came from a military coup in Africa.

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Abstract art from László Moholy-Nagy

Against legal fetishism (part two)

Couching Trump as a “lawless” autocrat-in-the-making has become a matter of routine, something of a mantra repeated by “liberals” and “conservatives” alike. The trouble with this characterization is not that it is inaccurate, but rather that it is incomplete.

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Abstract art from László Moholy-Nagy

Against legal fetishism (part one)

Law here, law there, law everywhere. The first nine months of the Trump administration have thrust questions about the force of law, legal strategy and tactics, and the role of judges in the United States’ much-vaunted system of constitutional checks and balances to the fore of public attention.

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writers congress

The Popular Front Novel

I became interested in literary relationships with communism and anti-fascism when I was an undergraduate student. I was curious about how modernist writing, often thought to have peaked by the mid-1920s, was transformed by the rise of fascism and the coming of the Second World War.

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Fascist torch march in Kiev (1/28/2017)

The current upsurge of fascism

To describe the present upsurge of fascism as nationalist or populist would be misleading. Neither is it a replication of the fascism of the 1930s. However, it is marked by four features, which have been common to all fascist upsurges in the past, namely: rise of supremacism, apotheosis of unreason, proliferation of fascism as a […]

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A meeting of one of the many local Committees.

Spanish state to Catalonia: “Surrender or we’ll take you over”

Catalonia’s Premier Carles Puigdemont officially declared an independent Catalan republic on October 10, only to announce the immediate suspension of independence to allow for negotiations with the conservative Spanish People’s Party (PP) government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The declaration of independence formalised the result of the October 1 referendum held under extreme police repression: […]

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Nazi flag flies from Austrian legation in Washington, D.C. on March 12, 1938 (New York Public Library) .

How American racism shaped nazism

Depending on the reader’s perspective, Whitman’s central argument seems either modest or bold, as he claims, “What all this research unmistakably reveals is that the Nazis did find precedents and parallels and inspirations in the United States” (10). The most radical Nazis were often the most enthused about American legal precedents. More moderate, less anti-Semitic […]

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Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Nazi officials, 1938

Henry Ford’s dirty history

Donald Trump’s reluctance to denounce neo-Nazis marching on the streets of the US has shocked many people. But there is a long history of US businessmen flirting with fascism, writes John Newsinger.

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Oakland Raiders teammates kneel during the national anthem, Sep. 24, 2017

Take a knee: The revenge of Colin Kaepernick

After Trump’s deranged demand that ownership purge NFL athletes who fail a loyalty test, it felt a little miraculous when, by a quirk of a game being played in London, Sunday morning dawned on the vision of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens arm in arm during the National Anthem. Standing with them was Shahid […]

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