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Fascism & Far-right – siamo tutti antifascisti

Published on 8 February 2024 in Vademecum - Lire en français

Since I stopped posting my ‘In my history’ articles, I've been thinking about what format would suit me best to replace them. As I said in the last one, I'm fed up with the format, and I want to write more, to give my opinion, rather than just relaying that of others.

And yet I've published almost nothing since January 2022: one article on my linocut debut, and three articles on my reading at the beginning and end of the year, as well as on Barbed wire heart by Tess Sharpe, my favourite novel of 2022. [Edit: it took me so long to finish this article that I've since resumed publishing ‘In my history’ articles. But the point about me being fed up still stands].

On the other hand, after a long period of being fed up with everything, I've started reading, listening and researching more. But instead of letting myself be carried away by current events and above all by the moral panics of the moment, i.e. by the media agenda of the right and the far right; I decided to turn to more in-depth, more theoretical reading, or at least readings that would still be of interest once the controversy of the moment had passed.

This gave me the idea for a new type of article, once again a collection of links, but with more comments from me, and above all: thematic. The idea is to be able to come back to them and add to them as I gather resources and references on a specific subject, in order to build up a militant knowledge base to refer to and share, like a vade mecum of sorts.

Let's start with a light and easy subject: fascism and the far right.

  1. Books
  2. Articles
  3. Podcasts
  4. Movies
  5. Videos

First thing first, a salutary reminder: Don't debate with the far right, ever. They have everything to gain and we have everything to lose. To quote Jean-Pierre Vernant, ‘You don't discuss recipes with an anthropophagus’. Edwy Plenel explained it very well on the set of BFM in September 2021:

« There is no such thing as neutrality. To do nothing, to say nothing, is already to be an accomplice.  »
Adolfo Kaminsky


Books

Published by Calmann-Lévy.

Adolfo Kaminsky, une vie de faussaire

(litt. Adolfo Kaminsky, a life of forgery)
by Sarah Kaminsky

I read this small book (264 pages) in one night, and I've been recommending it to everyone ever since.

The beginning of the book is not the easiest read in the world, as he starts by recounting his experience as a forger for the resistance during WWII, so he talks about the deportation of some of his relatives and fellow resistance fighters, but he doesn't go into too much detail.

I really like the tone of the book, you can tell he's happy to finally tell his daughter about this part of his life, and that he's proud to talk about all his chemical experiments and all the techniques he's found to make better forged papers more quickly. Above all, his book is full of hope and energy, it makes you want to believe that anything is possible, it's often very funny, and really, it's not a heavy read at all.

Adolfo Kaminsky had an absolutely amazing life, helping all the just causes from 1944 to 1971, sometimes producing false papers for more than 15 different countries at the same time (South America, former colonies in Africa, etc.) during the 1960s. He even produced a highly publicised forgery during May 68, which I'll let you discover!

He says on several occasions that he was lucky to have exactly the right skills to be able to help, but I can only admire his courage and determination to be part of every just cause. He has devoted most of his life to these various battles, and we owe him a great deal.


« Clandestine life has indelible consequences. It imprints itself deep inside you, and cannot be wiped away with a wave of the hand. When you've learnt to live with fear in your stomach, risking your life and your freedom, living out dangerous and romantic adventures to the point of dizziness, always in a hurry and giving all of yourself to a cause you consider pure, reintegration is a painful ordeal. »
« For many, [the Resistance] ended with the Liberation. Not for me. My life as a forger is a long, uninterrupted resistance because, after Nazism, I continued to resist inequality, segregation, racism, injustice, fascism and dictatorships. »

If you want to find out who Adolfo Kaminsky (1925 - 2023) was without having the time to read his autobiography, here are two very good articles and a France Culture programme devoted to him:

« On ne peut pas accueillir toute la misère du monde » – En finir avec une sentence de mort

(litt. We can't welcome all the misery in the world » - Putting an end to a death sentence)
by Pierre Tevanian & Jean-Charles Stevens

A quick (67 pages) and salutary read, this little manual of intellectual self-defence provides a word-by-word analysis of the deceptively simple phrase used to justify the crassest xenophobia.

A must-have for everyone.

Published by Anamosa.

« The mortal danger posed by the far right is being trivialised. A loss of this idea, not just in left-wing organisations, but in the people of the left. »

Recommended but not read (yet):

Focus on the police:


Articles

Press reviews

I subscribe to two press reviews on the subject, which I highly recommend:

Note: as far as possible, I quote freely available articles (when I quote articles reserved for subscribers, most of the time they are articles read in full in Usul's press reviews, and therefore accessible without subscription, even if indirectly), but this is not always possible. Subscriptions help to support the independent press, so I can only encourage you to subscribe as much as you can afford.


« In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist »
Angela Davis

Articles on the far right

L’ultradroite étend sa toile sur Internet, « super organe de propagande »

(litt. The ultra-right spreads its web on the Internet, a ‘super propaganda organ’.)

A good article on far-right recruitment and proselytising strategies on the Internet, discovered via Usul's press review.

Article reserved for Le Monde subscribers – Already quoted in #DMH53

Feu le quatrième pouvoir

(litt. The late fourth estate)

I hesitated for a long time about which extract I should quote to introduce this excellent article by Charles Le Roncier, because every word in this text is perfectly right.

« The poison of symmetry allows journalists to avoid questioning their position, or even their privileges, and reinforces the idea among viewers/readers that all positions/ideas are equal, valid, and deserve to be discussed, and why not under the guise, supposedly, of anti-political correctness. »

Article freely accessible – Le Roncier – Already quoted in #DMH41

Le sourire d’Auschwitz

(litt. The smile of Auschwitz)

This report traces the fate of Lisette Moru, deported at the age of 17.

Article freely accessible – Already quoted in #DMH53

La catastrophe est en marche

(litt. The disaster is on its way — please note that "en marche" is the name of Emmanuel Macron's political party) Excellent article by Edwy Plenel, discovered via Usul's press review for a change.

Article reserved to Mediapart subscribers – Already quoted in #DMH53

How memes, lulz and ironic bigotry won the Internet

A long but fascinating article that examines ‘meme culture’, and the very real impact that lulz and ‘ironically’ offensive comments have had and continue to have. An essential read

« Okay, the argument went, this outpouring of creativity had its darker elements, but that was part of its countercultural charm. The casual sadism of trolling was just “lulz,” which shouldn’t be taken seriously. Sexism, racism, and other hatreds were being invoked for nothing more than shock value. It was ironic, duh. »

« What seemed to be fun and funny ended up functioning as a Trojan horse for white-supremacist, violent ideologies to shuffle through the gates and not be recognized. »

Article freely accessible – The Atlantic – Already quoted in #DMH47

Assassinat d’Aramburu : derrière l’extrême droite respectable, ses militants armés

(litt. Aramburu murder: behind the respectable far right, its armed militants)

We mustn't forget that far-right militants don't just spread a nauseating ideology, they put it into practice. While some attacks are thwarted, this is unfortunately not always the case.

The minimisation of violence, the reluctance to qualify certain comments or acts correctly, media complacency, the clogging up of the judicial system (and sometimes questionable prioritisation, as mentioned in the article) all contribute to reinforcing the extreme right at its most violent.

Article freely accessible – Blast

My grandpa was a Nazi

« My class visited the KZ in Dachau as part of one of our field trips in school. A visit that I'm never going to forget. No facade is ever strong enough, no adventure story can gloss over the things that happened. His distored reality crumbled before my eyes with many consequences that would follow me for a long time. »

Article freely accessible – Bastian Allgeier


« Staying awake. For as long as possible. Fight sleep. The calculation is simple. In one hour, I make thirty blank identity paper. If I sleep for an hour, thirty people will die…  »
Adolfo Kaminsky

Focus on the police

What Exactly Does It Mean to Defund the Police?

A good first article on the subject, which explains the difference between those who want to abolish the police and those who ‘just’ want to defund them.

Article freely accessible – The Cut

Database of police-related deaths over the last 50 years

« Between 1977 and 2022, 861 people died as a result of police action, including 27 during anti-terrorist operations, and 80 as a result of an off-duty officer »

Freely accessible resource – Basta!


Podcasts

Minuit dans le siècle by Ugo Palheta

You can listen to it on the Spectre website and all the usual podcast apps.

This podcast is fascinating from the very first episode, which looks at the history of fascism, with the question of whether or not the extreme right we see in Europe today can be described as ‘fascist’. The guest historian is very interesting, particularly when he talks about the colonial ideology behind Nazism and Mussolini's Italy.

The episodes are long, but Ugo Palheta is both educational and precise, and knows how to surround himself with specialists to tackle his subjects in depth. I highly recommend listening to this.

Pagaille #5 - À Toul, "Bigeard une mémoire qui torture"

(litt. In Toul, Bigeard, a memory that tortures)

You can listen to it on the Blast website and all the usual podcast apps.

« In Toul, the left-wing municipality is preparing to erect a statue of General Bigeard, whose actions during the Algerian war are still linked to the practice of torture. It was in this former garrison town that Marcel Bigeard, former member of parliament for the Meurthe et Moselle département and Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, died on 18 June 2010. The ashes of the soldier, hero of Dien Ben Phu and architect of the system of institutionalised torture during the Algerian war, will not be transferred to Les Invalides, following a large-scale national protest movement, nor to Vietnam as he would have wished, but to Fréjus, at the Indochina war memorial.

Today, Pagaille tells you about the battle waged by the ‘Histoire et Mémoire dans le Respect des Droits Humains’ collective, founded in February 2023 to oppose the erection of a statue of France's most decorated officer in the public space of this town. »

This is an excellent podcast, which provides a better understanding of the figure of General Bigeard, and a more general reflection on the methods used by the far right and History deniers to exert their influence.

« They think pro black movements are anti white because pro white movements have always been anti black and that’s that on that »


Movies

LA 92 (2017)

This documentary looks back at the 30 years of police and racist violence that led to the 1992 riots in Los Angeles following the beating of Rodney King by police officers. From the Watts riots in 1965 to the murder of Latasha Harlins in 1991, via the election of Tom Bradley (black mayor of Los Angeles for 20 years, from 73 to 93) and the appointment of Daryl Gates, a white policeman with stinking ideas, as chief of the LA police (from 78 to 92), the film sets out the context that led to the explosion of violence in 1992. It's an indispensable piece of American history that sheds light on the Black Lives Matters movement in particular.

Please note that the film is made up entirely of archive footage, including images of police violence and violence during demonstrations.

We're straying a little from the subject, but I warmly recommend Ode to Latasha, a short film from 2019 that pays tribute to Latasha Harlins and humanises her: before being a victim of racism and a name chanted at demonstrations, she was a young girl with dreams and hopes.

The politics of hate (2017)

A one-hour documentary on the continuity between the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, post-war segregation in the USA and the rise of fascism today, based in particular on the testimony of Chris Picciolini, a former white supremacist. The links between fascism and capitalism are discussed, particularly in relation to Henry Ford.

Interesting, but not essential; one of Chris Picciolini's quotes stands out for me: Until we begin to classify this white extremism as terrorism, it will remain a lower focus than any other terrorism which is less of a threat to this country.

Please not that the film show several wounded or dead people, including children.

Recommended but not seen (yet):


Videos

The Alt-right playbook

The Alt-right playbook is a classic that explains one by one the methods used by the far right, the better to understand them and therefore combat them. I particularly recommend the one that looks at the fundamental difference in methods between Republicans and Democrats, based on Michelle Obama's quote: « When they go low, we go high ». All episodes are freely available on YouTube.

Ouvrez les guillemets

Usul and Ost's show about politics has come to an end, but some episodes are still very interesting months (or even years) after their publication. I'd particularly like to mention De Hitler à Trump, le logiciel de l’extrême droite décrypté (litt. From Hitler to Trump, deciphering the software of the far right), a very good summary, with a bonus reminder that the famous ‘Godwin Point’ is not an incentive to make fewer references to Hitler or Nazism.

These two episodes also complement each other well, presenting the difference in the way violence is treated depending on its origin.

Rhinocéros

This new format that informs us about those who inform us has been broadcast on the Blast channel since October 2023. With a mix of news items and looks at the people who have shaped the French media, Usul and Lumi take a critical look at the media, with a particular focus on the drift towards the far right, as the name might suggest. There are 3 shows a month, I highly recommend watching them.

My favourites:

Portraits on Blast

I recommend all of Usul & Ost's (then Modiie & Ost's) portraits for Blast, but the ones devoted to Jean-Marie Le Pen and Bruno Mégret are the most relevant to this article:

Ugo Palheta on the second round of the presidential elections: « We're caught between fascism and fascisation »

I came across this video in the run-up to the last presidential election, but the whole idea of fascisation seems interesting even now that the election is over, because Ugo Palheta doesn't just talk about the candidates and their campaigns, he also looks at French political life over a much longer period: « 20 years of neoliberal, authoritarian, Islamophobic policies, etc., have created the feeling that there is no longer any difference between the right and the far right »

Années 30, aux racines de l’antifascisme

(litt. The 1930s: the roots of anti-fascism)

Oui d'accord does a ‘time capsule’ that takes us back to 15 November 1935 to discover, through the press of the period, the response of workers and trade unions to the rise of fascism.

Is it really ok to punch nazis?

It's impossible for me to make a selection of videos on anti-fascism without including this sketch by Aamer Rahman, which is perfect from the first to the last second.

Following the viral video of a racist scumbag that get's punched out in the London tube, @kelechnekoff sets the record straight on the injunction to non-violence and peaceful protest for racialised people. (Already quoted in#DMH45)

In 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was already asking the question of what is called « terrorism » or not. (Already quoted in #DMH44)

As I said in the introduction, this article is intended to be expanded as and when I come across new articles, new videos or have time to read new books. Don't hesitate to recommend interesting sources in the comments!

Credits for the header photo: Hermann.Click

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