{"id":23363,"date":"2022-08-27T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T22:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23363"},"modified":"2022-08-27T15:00:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T22:00:29","slug":"the-threat-of-republican-fascism-part-iii-why-grassroots-direct-action-is-needed-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/08\/27\/the-threat-of-republican-fascism-part-iii-why-grassroots-direct-action-is-needed-now\/","title":{"rendered":"THE THREAT OF REPUBLICAN FASCISM, PART III: WHY GRASSROOTS DIRECT ACTION IS NEEDED NOW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FRI, 8\/19\/2022 (occupy.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is the third installment in an exclusive Occupy.com series about the modern Republican Party\u2019s embrace of fascism as a political strategy. Click the hyperlinks to read parts one<\/a> and two<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of us who have been following the January 6 hearings over the last few months, legal accountability for former president Donald Trump\u2019s role in the January 6 insurrection is appearing to take shape. The Department of Justice also appears to be nearing the indictment phase of an investigation into Trump\u2019s alleged theft of top-secret documents \u2013 some of them potentially pertaining to nuclear secrets<\/a> \u2013 following the FBI\u2019s execution of a search warrant<\/a> at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as central of a figure the former president has been, he\u2019s merely a symptom of the fascist turn the Republican Party is taking, not the root cause. And fascism can\u2019t be truly defeated until it\u2019s also been uprooted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DEFEATING FASCISM WITH GRASSROOTS DIRECT ACTION<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

History has already shown that when fascism takes root and spreads to the highest levels of government, society, and culture, its defeat only comes after democratic nations join forces and meet it in the battlefield with guns, bullets, and bombs. But like cancer, fascism in its latent phase can be eliminated if diagnosed and treated early enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As has been discussed in parts one and two of this series, the world\u2019s two most notorious fascist leaders \u2013 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini \u2013 came to power only after a decade-plus period of hyper-local vigilante violence (led by Mussolini\u2019s Blackshirts<\/a> and Hitler\u2019s SA\/Brownshirts<\/a>) and informational warfare via the use of strategic propaganda (Hitler\u2019s Mein Kampf<\/a> and the Beer Hall Putsch trial<\/a>). Identifying and shutting down both fascist propaganda sources and efforts of fascists to publicly gather and organize is crucial in order to prevent the fight against fascism from morphing into a full-fledged war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, American fascists have become more emboldened in their organizing efforts. A 2021 conference held by the America First Political Action Committee (AFPAC) \u2013 founded by a man who has described himself as \u201cjust like Hitler<\/a>\u201d \u2013 featured U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) as a headlining speaker<\/a>. The 2022 event attracted even more elected officials<\/a>, with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho), and state senator Wendy Rogers (R-Arizona) joining Gosar on the speaker\u2019s list. AFPAC is considered the far-right alternative to the mainstream Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), even though just weeks ago the 2022 CPAC audience gave a warm welcome<\/a> to Hungarian leader Viktor Orban despite his recent statements against race-mixing in Hungary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fascists of 1920s Italy recognized the power of organizing, and resoundingly defeated the socialists of their time by using violence to prevent socialists from gathering in public<\/a>. Anti-fascists in the US haven\u2019t shied away from violently confronting fascists<\/a> when they publicly gather, though these instances are a small representation of what anti-fascist action (also known as \u201cantifa\u201d) actually looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an article for national security analysis website WarOnTheRocks.com, University of Pittsburgh professor Michael Kenney and Soufan Center senior fellow Colin P. Clarke explained<\/a> the day-to-day operations of American antifa activists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cActivists\u2019 \u201crepertoires of contention<\/a>\u201d include a mix of violent and non-violent practices\u2026 supporters create websites, write articles, post videos, distribute leaflets, and organize public events. They expose and intimidate white supremacists by \u201cdoxxing<\/a>\u201d them, publishing their private information on the Internet in order to embarrass them, build support against them, and \u2014 whenever possible \u2014 get them fired from their jobs. At protests, some anti-racists, taking a page from their anarchist counterparts, form \u201cblack blocs<\/a>,\u201d especially when they expect to scuffle with the police or confront white supremacists. In these formations, protestors wear black clothes and masks to create a more intimidating presence and make it harder for the police to identify individuals for arrest and prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does antifa look like in practice? In June, an unknown tipster alerted police<\/a> in Coeur D\u2019Alene, Idaho, about a plot by a white supremacist group to riot during the city\u2019s Pride event, which resulted in 31 arrests of white supremacist militants from multiple states. A 2020 event organized by neo-Confederates in Georgia was abruptly cancelled<\/a> after local anti-fascist organizers made their intentions known to stage a counter-protest. In 2019, the Discord server for white nationalist group Identity Evropa \u2013 one of the groups present during the violent 2017 Unite the Right gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia \u2013 was leaked<\/a>, resulting in the publication of the group\u2019s leadership and organizing structure. The group quickly abandoned its former name and rebranded<\/a> itself as the American Identity Movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we seek to prevent large-scale violence against a unified fascist government, it\u2019s important to make it impossible for fascists to unify. Weaponized research of anti-fascists and digital mobilization against fascist leaders and groups is an incredibly valuable and underutilized tool that can prevent fascism from gaining further ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ADOPTING ANTI-FASCIST FRAMING IN OUR LANGUAGE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The Three Evils of Society<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A core part of combating fascism is being unafraid to use accurate language to describe it when it manifests. As has been discussed in parts one and two of this series, fascists throughout history have used violence as a means of achieving political goals, and have sought to extinguish democracy given that democracy is incompatible with fascism. The past several years show that, judging by these criteria, fascism is spreading at an alarming rate even after Donald Trump\u2019s defeat in the 2020 election and in spite of his looming legal problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s incumbent upon journalists to be unafraid to use the txerm \u201cfascist\u201d or \u201cproto-fascist\u201d to describe what we\u2019re seeing. The steady march to pass state laws with the goal of making voting more difficult<\/a>, and the ascension of Republican nominees for election overseer positions who doubt the legitimacy of the 2020 election<\/a>, are clear evidence that the anti-democracy component of fascism is growing in power and influence. And the wave of politically motivated violence sweeping the country shows the seeds of fascism are germinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The January 6 insurrection is just one example of how the burgeoning fascist movement in the United States is now in its insurgency phase, as it steadily carries out acts of targeted violence in the service of its political objectives (which is also how the FBI defines terrorism<\/a>). Individually, these acts of violence could be seen as isolated incidents in which mentally unstable individuals with easy access to guns committed mass murder. But in a larger context, it\u2019s difficult to view this wave of violence as anything other than fascist guerilla warfare carried out by the movement\u2019s most dedicated shock troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n