Essays

Capitalism

Can We Trust Monopolies to Play Fair?

Current debates on Big Tech and antitrust law lack a clear definition of “competition”

October 19, 2020 • by
----- For the anti-monopoly movement, the past three months have been exciting but sobering. In late July, the House Antitrust Subcommittee held a landmark hearing at which members of Congress forced the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google to admit to business practices they would rather have stayed private. Amazon ...
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Can We Trust Monopolies to Play Fair?
Activism

Why Street Fighting Is No Way to Resist Fascism

The French left’s popular front strategy from the 1930s is a better way to resist the far right

October 15, 2020 • by
It is almost futile to try to pinpoint the ideological underpinnings of antifa. Natasha Lennard in her writings speaks of Foucault and “microfascisms,” but in America, antifa groups seem to be inspired more by the anarchist Hakim Bey and his proposal to create “temporary autonomous zones.” Mark Bray, in ...
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Why Street Fighting Is No Way to Resist Fascism
Democracy

Ghosts of Weimar

Is factual accuracy even the point when it comes to the discourse of antifascism?

October 15, 2020 • by
Alexander Yanov, the emigré historian of Russia and Russian nationalism, was critical of major Western approaches towards post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s. He criticized the "devious simplicity" of the Western logic holding that, because a non-market Russia had been the West’s sworn enemy, a free-market Russia would become its partner. ...
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Ghosts of Weimar
Democracy

It’s…It’s…His Emails!

As voters stream to the polls, the Trump campaign frantically distracts from the GOP’s attack on democracy

October 15, 2020 • by
Tuesday began with a breathless story from a Murdoch tabloid, The New York Post alleging that, according to Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Joe Biden’s son, Hunter dropped off three laptops for repair in 2019 and never picked them up again. Then, the story alleges,the FBI subpoenaed the hard drives, but ...
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It’s…It’s…<i>His Emails!</i>
Interviews

On Fascism, Non-fascism, and Antifa

Natasha Lennard in conversation with James Miller

October 15, 2020 • by and
JM: Since you've written an entire book with the title Essays on a Non-Fascist Life, can you tell me a bit about how you chose that title, and what the term "non-fascist" means to you, in the context of those essays? We both know the appearance of the phrase in the context ...
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Activism

Varieties of Antifascism

Russian notes towards a global debate

October 15, 2020 • by
_____ A question may bе raised as to why, if we wish to explore new resources for combating fascism, we do not give as much attention to the "potential antifascist." The answer is that we do study trends that stand in opposition to fascism, but we do not conceive that they ...
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Varieties of Antifascism
Democracy

The Question About Religion Someone Should Have Asked Amy Coney Barrett

This nomination brings a long-cherished Christian political project to fruition

October 15, 2020 • by
I was taught at church, at school, and at home that America is a Christian nation. Judge Barrett has advocated against abortion rights, and she has two adopted children. I too was an adopted child, and in my unofficial career as a child preacher, I once sermonized that God had rescued ...
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The Question About Religion Someone Should Have Asked Amy Coney Barrett
North America

Fascism for Our Time?

On the use and abuse of political concepts

October 15, 2020 • by and
In August, in the midst of the Democratic Convention, the party’s most prominent progressive, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, declared on social media that this year’s Presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was about “stopping fascism in the United States.” Shortly afterward, in an essay for The New Republic, a trio ...
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Fascism for Our Time?
Democracy

Far-Right Populism is Bad Enough

On fascism, populism, and democracy

October 15, 2020 • by
From more or less mad Roman emperors to -- of course -- Adolf Hitler, by now it would seem easier to name historical figures to whom Donald Trump has not been linked than ones whom he has been said to resemble. By the same token, there has been a deluge ...
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Far-Right Populism is Bad Enough
Democracy

Did the Militia Group that Planned to Kidnap the Michigan Governor Commit Treason?

They stand accused of hoping to trigger “a civil war leading to societal collapse”

October 14, 2020 • by
On Wednesday, October 7, the Michigan Attorney General filed 19 state felony charges against seven men who are accused of being members, or associates of, an anti-government militia group calling itself the Michigan Wolverine Watchmen (Wolverines is also the name of the University of Michigan football team).  The alleged militia members ...
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Did the Militia Group that Planned to Kidnap the Michigan Governor Commit Treason?
North America

Last Call for White Supremacy

Trump’s attack on democracy

October 13, 2020 • by
Neither a Biden nor a Trump victory on November 3rd is likely to calm America’s political and social turmoil. For one thing, a profound urgency underlies the attack on democracy by Donald Trump and the Republican Party. After four years we are thoroughly familiar with the man’s personal intensity, driven by ...
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Last Call for White Supremacy

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