Fascism is Back. We Need to Take it Seriously.
about 10 years ago
my son was born at the time i was living
overseas
in trinidad and tobago and he didn’t
have the right to citizenship of that
country
so we applied for his british passport
and it was rejected my son had become
stateless for a brief period this was
intensely stressful
as i tried to figure out what we were
going to do
in the end i was able to resolve the
situation because i had connections not
because i had rights
at the same time in my country britain
state security institutions
were imprisoning and deporting long-term
law residents
who were rendered stateless as a result
without rights
when media pressure forced a u-churn of
these policies
the same state institutions deliberately
went slow
on compensation and restitution leaving
some of the victims to die
penniless in exile i want to talk to you
today about
fascism it’s no longer a dark chapter of
20th century history
it’s back and it seems to be winning
let’s look at some examples
an unpopular government uses
unconstitutional means
to suspend the legislature in order to
force through
an ultra-nationalist political agenda
in another country a former army captain
comes to power after an explicitly
racist political campaign
he institutes new laws that remove
protections for
indigenous minorities and celebrates a
historic
coup that had led to decades of military
dictatorship
elsewhere an aggressively nationalist
ruler
makes himself ruler for life
he institutes a program of mass
incarceration of an ethnic minority
and also pursues unfounded territorial
claims against neighbours backed up with
military threats
somewhere else again a traditionally
secular state
a violent political movement seeks to
redefine
citizenship as based on religion
members of religious minorities are
subjected to violent
pogroms and estate terms are blind eye
historic places of worship are bulldozed
in an attempt to
erase the religious minorities right
to have ever been part of that country’s
story
and finally an authoritarian president
does everything he can to undermine
faith in the outcome of an election that
he’s clearly lost
in a final desperate throw of the dice
he whips his supporters up into a
violent
frenzy and their attempt an insurrection
against the country’s legislature and of
course i’m talking about the events of
the 6th of january in washington dc
you might recognize some of the other
examples
the british government suspending
parliament
the fascist presidency of bolsonaro in
brazil
the suppression of the uyghurs in china
the ultra nationalist hindu movement in
india
okay so i’m a liberal and i don’t like
those politics but is it fascism do we
need to use the f
word is this even a useful term
if we call people fascist do we lose the
argument before it’s even begun
well fascism doesn’t actually have a
single dictionary definition but it’s
ultra nationalism expressed in violent
and authoritarian ways and because
fascism is nationalist
it takes a different form in every
country in the 20th century in the uk
fascists were obsessed with the history
of england oliver cromwell henry viii
if you look in india fascism has tried
to incorporate
ancient ideas of hindu nationalism into
its belief system
in america fascists are trying to align
their activities with the history
of america’s revolutionaries against the
british colonial rule
it’s always taking that national form
and the other thing about fascism is
this confusion with nazism
nazism was fascism but not all fascists
are nazis
so if we use that word we’re not saying
that these people are behaving like
hitler
but you don’t have to behave like hitler
to merit the description of fascism
authoritarian nationalism is always a
bad thing it always brings with it
oppression arbitrary arrest and
imprisonment
violence denials of minorities rights
we can’t just stand around and say don’t
worry they haven’t opened any
concentration camps yet as if that means
things are still okay
so why are these things happening well
there are lots of factors
some unrelated but they all come
together the traditional media has
become hyper partisan
look at the way fox news has covered the
aftermath of the insurrection in america
constantly saying well we need to bring
the country together
and yet fox news has done more to put
the country apart
than almost any other channel
social media concentrates people into
bubbles they’re only talking to people
they already agree with or people who
hold
similar but more extreme views than
themselves
and there’s a dislocation associated
with globalization
many communities seeing their
traditional industries and places of
work close down
the resulting disaffection with
democratic politics
is obvious in 2008 40 percent of people
in democracies were dissatisfied by 2020
that figure is 60
and the numbers are higher in the larger
democracy such as the usa
and finally there’s the pandemic effect
of fascist politics itself
it drives fear and hostility between
countries further empowering ultra
nationalism
and that has led to a concomitant
collapse of the global order
nobody believes in the un or the eu
anymore
it’s all about my country first america
first britain first china first
might overwrite
in spite of that fascists will work
together across international boundaries
if it’s in their interests
you look at the example of trump
addressing hindu nationalist rallies in
india
or trump’s advisor steve bannon helping
far-right parties in europe get to power
vladimir putin funding again far
right across the world so
fascists will work together while
liberals are dissipated and divided
so why does this matter well
you don’t have to wait for nazism for
fascism to be a problem
i proposed this talk last year long
before the events of the 6th of january
but let’s see where that has led a
violent insurrection
at the american congress
and there are other effects all over the
world the destruction of the brazil’s
rainforest
rise in sectarian violence in india
these are all features of 21st century
fascism
fascists work together as we’ve seen if
their nationalist aims
coincide but fascism stops countries
from working together in the global
interest
if we’re going to tackle the climate
emergency fascists have to lose power
but perhaps the most important point is
that fascism isn’t democracy it’s not
what the people want
donald trump lost the election by
millions of votes
boris johnson may have a large
parliamentary majority in the uk
but he got that from 43 percent of the
vote
rodrigo duterte in the philippines a
outright fascist
won his election on 39 of the vote
it’s not that fascists are what the
people want
it’s just that fascists are better at
taking and holding on to power
so what can we do i think there are
three things
we have to fight complacency
if we look at recent events brexit the
election of trump
there’s been many occasions when people
rather lazily thought they knew what the
outcome was going to be
we have to recognize that there’s a
problem and take
action we can’t wait for things to
happen
now if you’re not happy with the f word
i don’t mind that much
but we can’t pretend that normal
politics is in play at the moment
the second thing is i think we need to
educate ourselves
i’ve done some research on this i’ve
seen that half the world’s population
are currently living in countries run by
ultra nationalists let’s learn about
that
let’s learn about how fascists operate
they dehumanize their opponents they
make them stateless they take away their
rights
but the other thing they do is they
break
constitutional orders they behave in
ways
that cause accepted methods and
behaviors
to disappear look at what happened in
america
america’s constitution relied on the
loser of a presidential election
accepting the result and conceding the
refusal to do that
has created what could easily turn into
a violent insurgency in that country
and let’s recognize that this is a
global fight
it’s not enough to worry about elections
in your own country alone
you’ve got to think about what’s
happening to democracy everywhere
educate yourself about the struggles of
the democratic movement in hong kong for
example
look at what’s going on in india realize
that this is a global issue
now there are things we probably
shouldn’t do
shouting you’re a fascist at the
supporters of ultra nationalism probably
isn’t going to help very much
we have to strengthen the appeal of the
other side
many of the people who’ve been dragged
into supporting these politics are
people
who feel that they’ve lost their way
they’ve run out of options
we’ve got to give them reasons to leave
those politics behind
so final thoughts i think a lot of
people thought
that if joe biden won the election in
america
this would be a great setback for the
politics of
violence of white nationalism of
anti-democratic forces but what we’ve
seen is the opposite
it’s not just about the elections it’s
about the norms of behavior
the norms of political behavior are
being attacked
by fascists we have to stand firm
we have to reject that and we have to
remain vigilant
you