Antifascism

Anarchist antifascism: writings about fascism and the struggle against it.

Primary sources

A.M. (1933). “Luchas efectivas contra el fascismo.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 30: 23.

– – – (1933). “El país ante el fascismo. ¿Qué hacer?” [WWW] ”Nervio” 25: 36-38.

Ador Luch, Raúl (1935). “Contra el fascismo: la huelga general.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 41: 19-22.

– – – (1935). “El problema del frente Único.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 40: 19-22.

– – – (1935). “Lo que nos indica el último atentado fascista.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 37: 13-15.

Aguzzi, Aldo (1934). “Fascismo bifronte.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 34-35: 12-14.

– – – (1934). “Fascismo y capitalismo.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 32: 3-6.

– – – (1928). “Antifascismo y Anarquismo: Sus fuerzas intelectuales.” [WWW] ”Humanidad” 1.6: 16-18.

Anonymous (1935). “Diagnóstico del fascismo alemán.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 41: 29-33.

Anonymous (1922). [WWW] “Mouvement international: en italie.” La Revue Anarchiste 1.1.1: 41-42.

Anonymous (1933). “Anti-fascismo.” Nervio29: 1.

Arauco (1936). “En Chile el nazismo es resistido sangrientamente.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 46: 25-26.

Badaraco, Horacio (1934). “El instrumental ideológico y táctico del fascismo.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 32: 39-41.

Berneri, Camillo (1935). El Delirio Racista. Trans. Armando Panizza. Buenos Aires: IMAN.

– – – (1934). Mussolini, gran actor. Trans. M.F. y T. Barcelona: Costa.

  • <– Italian edition: (1983) Mussolini, grande attore. Pistoia, Archivio Famiglia Berneri-Comune di Pistoia.

– – – (1930). Lo spionaggio fascista all’estero. Marseille: “E.S.I.L.”

– – – (1927). [WWW] ”Mussolini “normalizzatore”.” Zurigo: Comitato di soccorso delle vittime del fascismo e del terrore bianco.

Bertolo, Amadeo (1975). “Lettera dall’ltalia . (‘Pericolo fascista’ e ‘compromesso storico.’)” Interrogations 3: 5-28.

  • <– Abstract: “For several years now, Italian political life has been marked by two factors — the ‘danger of fascism’ and the ‘historic compromise.’ The danger of fascism is emphasized by the growth and drive of the M.S.I.,the extreme right wing party in Italy, and by ‘golpist’ schemes which are assumed to be plausible or which have been rendered so, by the long succession of bombs exploded between 1969 and the present day. In the ‘letter’ [from Bertolo], this ‘danger’ boils down to a now improbable hypothesis which is kept alive by the most varied political forces. The second aspect concerns the participation by the Communist Party in the Government, in collaboration with the Christian Democrats — the biggest party in Italy and which has been in power without a break since the end of the last war. Very recently the I.C.P. has returned to the charge repeatedly on the subject of the proposal made by the Communists but it has been refused up to now by the Christian Democrats. The ‘compromise’ complies with the Communist strategy of acceding to power; it is seen as the only way out of a permanent frustrating opposition to the imperfect Italian-style two party politics; it complies also, in certain of its aspects, with an objective quasi-necessity in real life in Italy today where the Communist Party acts as a qualified ‘representative’ of the working class and is the most efficient expression of techno-bureaucratic reformism. In order to understand the formula ‘fascist danger’ and the character of the ‘historic compromise’ we must take a look at both within the complicated framework of Italian politics. This framework can only be explained by reference to socio-economic trends. For each of these two factors, the ‘letter’ supplies the essential elements. Further information is given about the extra-parliamentary left and about anarchists.”

Bertoni, L[uigi]. (1934). [WWW] “Fascisme. La doctrine fasciste.” Encyclopédie anarchiste. Ed. Sébastien Faure. Paris: Librairie internationale.

Besnard, Pierre (1934). [WWW] “Fascisme. Le fascisme économique.” Encyclopédie anarchiste. Ed. Sébastien Faure. Paris: Librairie internationale.

Biehl, Janet, and Peter Staudenmaier (1995). [WWW] ”Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience.” Edinburgh: AK Press.

Bonanno, Alfredo (1994). “Che ne facciamo dell’antifascismo?” Anarchismo 74: ??-??.

– – – (1976). “Mafia, Cia e fascisti in Sicilia. Le basi di una risposta proletaria.” [WWW] ”Anarchismo” 7: 1-14.

– – – Antoine Gimenez, Belgrado Pedrini, and Severino di Giovanni (2011). [WWW] ”L’Anarchisme contre l’antifascisme.” France: Non Fides.

Bonhomme, Jacques (1934). [WWW] “Fascisme.” Encyclopédie anarchiste. Ed. Sébastien Faure. Paris: Librairie internationale.

Bray, Mark (2017). Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook. Melville House Publishing.

Bureau Internacional Antimilitarista (1933). “El congreso antifascista de París.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 27-28: 6-7.

Burley, Shane (2017). Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It. Oakland, CA: AK Press.

– – – (2017). [WWW] “Twenty-Five Theses on Fascism.” Institute for Anarchist Studies.

C.L.F. “La Réaction bourgeoise en Italie.” [WWW] ”La Revue Anarchiste” 1.1.8: 15-22.

CNT de Madrid (1933). “La barbarie fascista en Alemania.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 27-28: 20-22.

Cortés, Sebastián (2015). Antifascisme radical?: sur la nature industrielle du fascisme. Paris: CNT-RP.

Fabbri, Luce (1935). Camisas negras; estudio crítico histórico del origen y evolución del fascismo, sus hechos y sus ideas. Con nota final proyectada a la actualidad autoritaria. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Nervio.

Fabbri, Luigi (1922). La controrivoluzione preventiva. Riflessioni sul fascismo. Bologna: Licinio Cappelli.

  • <– English translation: “Fascism: The Preventive Counter-Revolution.” Excerpts [WWW] here and [WWW] here.

Femmes antifascistes (1975). “Lutte des femmes et lutte anti-fasciste.” [WWW] ”La Lanterne Noire” 2: 39-40.

Fortin, F[ernand]. (1935). [WWW] ”La Revue anarchiste” 2.22 : 3-8.

Gonzalo, Fernando (1934). “El fascismo representa el triunfo de la burocracia y la expropiación de la burguesía.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 31: 10-12.

Guérin, Daniel (1936). Fascisme et grand capital. Paris: Gallimard.

  • <– English translation: [WWW] ”Fascism and Big Business” (Monad Press, 1973). It should be noted that this dates from Guérin’s time in the Communist left, before he embraced anarchism.

– – – (1933). “De la cruz swástica al aguila azul. La N.R.A., prefacio del fascismo.” Nervio 30: 28-35.

– – – (1933). La Peste brune a passé par là. Paris: Libr. du Travail.

  • <– English translation: The Brown Plague: Travels in Late Weimar and Early Nazi Germany. ​Duke University Press, 1994.

Jacques (1935). “¿Debemos optar por fascismo y democracia? Peligroso oportunismo.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 40: 3-6.

Lacerda de Moura, Maria (1935). [WWW] ”Fascismo: Filho diléto da igreja e do capital.” São Paulo: Editorial Paulista.

Lanza, Luciano (1975). “Elementi tecnoburocratici dell’economia fascista.” Interrogations 5: 59-86.

  • <–Abstract: “Fascism (and nazism) are the subject of many writings but, so far, the interpretattons that have been given are unsatisfactory. When they are not simply confined to comments about its brutality or its myths («fascism is barbarian», «fascism is irrational»), judgments about fascism generally are varieties of the main theme: «a counter-revolutionary tool of the bourgeoisie». All that may be quite true and convincing, it is not conclusive: fascism is not all that, only.
    “An unprejudiced examination of fascist political economy, i.e. of the «structures» that system has adopted, invalidates those current interpretations. The author of the present essay endeavors to explain the true class nature of fascism. He analyses its fundamental patterns and drifts by referring to Italy but also to Nazi Germany and comes to the conclusion that between the two World Wars fascism was one of the political expressions of a rising new class: techno-bureaucracy. Beyond the violent and folklorist patterns which characterize fascism, one finds that it shares essential factors in common with other political forms of the same phenomenon (such as Social Democracy and the New Deal). These factors reveal it to be an ideology and a transitional stage in the historical phase of capitalistic decline and in the growth of a new form of domination and exploitation.
    “The author does not deny that large scale capital has allied with fascism, but he makes it plain that precisely it was an alliance — not a subordination. When the numerous and ever-growing forms of intervention of the fascist State in the economy are studied systematically, the conclusion forces itself that fascism embodied enough non-capitalist or even squarely anticapitalistic elements not to be identified with the bourgeoisie. Indeed, just as the statist system of participation starts with the rescue of capitalistic enterprises in trouble and ends wtth their expropriation, in a more general way the new technobureaucratic class (which manifests itself in certain periods and in certain geo-political conditions of fascism) started by being used as the counter-revolutionary tool for the rescue of capitalistic crisis, and then showed a more or less conscious tendency to become instrumental in the progressive expropriation of the bourgeoisie from its economic power in favor of new masters.
    “Besides this key interpretation, the author briefly deals with various aspects of fascist ideology, the relations between the regime and the middle classes and the manipulation of public opinion.”

Lehman (1934). [WWW] “Comment s’installa l’Hitlérisme. Notes d’un Réfugié politique.” La Revue Anarchiste 2.19: 8-11.

Lunazzi, José M. (1933). “Fascismo. Del mitín del Luna Park a la marcha sobre Buenos Aires.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 27-28: 17-19.

Martínez, Amaro (1936). “La organización capitalista posibilita el fascismo, no la libertad.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 46: 27-30.

Maximilienne (1930). [WWW] “Côté des dames.” La Revue Anarchiste 2.4: 16-19.

  • <– on Mussolini.

Prince, Jacques (1933). “Un falso dilema: Fascismo o bolchevismo.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 27-28: 2-5.

Prudhommeaux, André (1957). [WWW] “Qu’est ce que fascisme?” Témoins 15-16: ??.

  • <– “‘Fascism shall not pass!’ This slogan, relaunched by the Kremlin with a powerful orchestration and resumed in chorus by the Communist Parties of all nations is all the more effective, it seems, in so far as it remains vague. The opponent is not specifically named, which allows each to situate it imaginarily, according to his interests, his prejudices, or his ideological conceptions. […] [F]ascism is pure democracy (in the etymological and absolute sense of the word: democracy without restraint and without moral or constitutional limits – the dictatorship of democracy or (if we prefer a negative definition) democracy WITHOUT TOLERANCE OR LIBERALISM, lynch law, populist [populaire] (and vulgar [populacière]) democracy.”

Rappoport, Charles (1934). [WWW] “Fascisme.” Encyclopédie anarchiste. Ed. Sébastien Faure. Paris: Librairie internationale.

Relgis, Eugen (1949). [WWW] ”Las Aberraciones Sexuales En La Alemania Nazi.” Toulouse: Ediciones Universo.

  • <– Included for historical interest. Relgis reproduces one of the more noxious interpretations of fascism here: the notion that fascism/Nazism is linked to, caused by, or even a form of “abnormal” sexuality, i.e., homosexuality. See Andrew Hewitt, Political Inversions: Homosexuality, Fascism, and the Modernist Imaginary (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996) for a history of this trope.

Rocker, Rudolf (1937) Nationalism and Culture. Trans. Ray E. Chase. New York, NY: Covici Friede Publ.

  • <–2nd American ed. 1946.

Ross, Alexander Reid (2017). Against the Fascist Creep. Edinburgh: AK Press.

Schapiro, A. (1933). “Inglaterra frente al fascismo.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 27-28: 19-20.

Secretario de la A.I.T. (1933). “La A.I.T. frente al fascismo.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 27-28: 22-24.

Souchy, Agustín (1935). “Fascismo y juventud.” [WWW] ”Nervio” 41: 7-8.

V.C. (1935). “El fascismo, máxima expresión del Estado.” Nervio 38: 23-26.

Voline (1934). [WWW] “Le fascisme rouge.” Ce qu’il faut dire 2: ??.

  • <– Spanish translation: “Fascismo rojo,” [WWW] ”Nervio” 36 (1935): 37-38. English translation: [WWW] “Red Fascism.” Offers a threefold explanation for the rise of various forms of fascism, attributing it to “economic,” “social,” and “psychological” or “ideological” factors.

– – – (1923). [WWW] “Choses vécues. Septième lettre: Le sens de la destruction (Suite).” La Revue Anarchiste 1.2.13: 4-9.

Secondary sources

Berry, David (1999). “‘Fascism or Revolution!’: Anarchism and Antifascism in France, 1933–39.” Contemporary European History 8.1: 51-71.

Cannistraro, Philip V. (1996). “Mussolini, Sacco-Vanzetti, and the Anarchists: The Transatlantic Context.” The Journal of Modern History 68.1: 31-6.

Centre International de Recherches sur l’Anarchisme, ed. (2017). [WWW] ”Anarchisme et antifascisme: choix de textes pour une discussion critique.” Lausanne: CIRA.

  • <–Includes: L’antifascisme comme forme d’adhésion au système, Anonymous (Spain, 1996) L’antifascisme est le pire produit du fascisme, Anonymous (Italy, 2005) Dictature et démocratie, Anonymous (Italy, n.d.)

Franks, Benjamin (2014). “Anti-fascism and the ethics of prefiguration.” Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory 8.1: 44-72.

Gansac, Ariane, and Octavio Alberola (2014). Anarchistes contre Franco: action révolutionnaire internationale, 1961-1975. Rueil-Malmaison: Albache.

Iacovetta, Franca, and Lorenza Stradiotti (2013). “Betrayal, Vengeance, and the Anarchist Ideal: Virgilia D’Andrea’s Radical Antifascism in (American) Exile, 1928–1933.” Journal of Women’s History 25.1: 85-110.

Vysotsky, Stanislav (2015). “The Anarchy Police: Militant Anti-Fascism as Alternative Policing Practice.” Critical Criminology 23.3: 235-253.