American Fascism

chuck

From E-Day to Summit; PA to CA to OR to Cuba

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By way of update, the last six weeks have been exhilarating, inspiring, exhausting, grounding, settling, astonishing, and challenging. In service to anti-Fascism, pro-Democracy, and personal growth.

I participated with many others in seven 11/08 grassroots Election Day victories in Western Pennsylvania, completed the second (virtual) Intergenerational Justice Summit on 11/19, packed up and drove 2800 miles to celebrate Thanksgiving with family in Pacifica, California, motored 10 more hours to Corvallis, Oregon, unpacked a 5×8 U-Haul full of books and papers, flew to and toured Cuba from 1-11 December, lunched on a Denver return layover with my daughter and her mom, and then returned to Oregon to resume several ongoing political organizing and writing projects (including this blog).

I have much to fill in and catch up on. And so that’s where the creative work continues: https://americanfascists.us, https://justiceforall.global, https://onepayerstates.org, https:opednews.org, on Zoom, in person, via hybrid, social media, and more. Thanks for coming along on these many adventures. 2023 is going to be a great one for universal, transformational justice!

The “Wishing Tree”

A “wishing tree” native to the Congo, here on a former coffee slave plantation in Matanzas Province, Cuba. Legend says that if you circle the tree three times, then knock on it three times while making a wish (which I did), that wish will come truer. I’ll let you know when it comes to fruition! In the meantime, here’s wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season.

Billionaire-fueled Fascism is on the Nov. 8th Ballot

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Over and over, I hear people say, and read writers scribe: “democracy is on the ballot this year.” Meaning, in most cases: if GOP 2020 election deniers, 2022 election-results-refusers-unless-I-win, and racist-ageist voter suppression champions, prevail, in key state and federal elections, our republic is set up for final collapse with the 2024 presidential contest. It wouldn’t matter if Trump or a Trump-heir runs; they will either win the Electoral College outright or steal the contest through a combination of factors playing out in polling locations, the streets, the congress, and the courts.

What comes next? Think Germany 1919-1933, you know, the history playbook Steven Miller, Steve Bannon, and Roger Stone subscribe to. (For a longer treatment of the “stab-in-the-back myth and the fall of the Weimar Republic” and its parallel “stolen-election lie and 01-06-2021 perpetual coup” see https://americanfascists.us, with more to come.) So, on the day of, and in the days, weeks, and months following the January 20, 2025, inaugural, the Trumpist-Fascist dictator-in-chief will formally terminate what remains of our constitution, declaring, something along the lines of: ‘we must suspend our democracy in order to preserve our democracy.’

Of course, it doesn’t need to come to this. But the slide into Fascism will continue unless and until we finally recognize the dominant role of the Billionaire puppeteers at the top of the food chain — using and manipulating every ideological instrument in the Fascist toolkit https://americanfascists.us/the-three-cornerstones-of-american-fascism/ — and bring them to heel. The first step must be to reject, up and down the ballot, the Billionaire-funded Fascist party that the GOP has become. (I, for one, am deeply grateful to be able to vote for very good-to-excellent Democrats from my present home in Pittsburgh/Sharpsburg. But right now, in this moment of existential crisis, I would hold my nose to vote for a center-right Democrat.) I recently outlined additional, immediate, personal steps you can take in “10+ Things YOU Can Do to Fight Fascism”: https://americanfascists.us/10-things-you-can-do-to-fight-fascism/

Ultimately, however, we need to launch a local, statewide, national, and international grassroots movement to abolish the Billionaire class. The alternative is to continue with the Billionaire class abolishing us: making our planet increasingly uninhabitable, off-shoring one-third of the world’s wealth, amplifying the worst refugee crisis (65+ million people) since the Second World War, grotesquely profiting from preventable diseases and wars, and turning people against one another through scapegoating and fear-mongering, and dark-money-funding white nationalism, religious nationalism, and culture wars.

Whether we are talking about the reckless, destructive, and megalomaniacal behavior of Elon Musk (Twitter), Barre Seid (Marble Freedom Trust), Kanye West (anti-Black Black man), Phil Knight (Nike), or simply the radical accumulation of $12.7 trillion by 2,668 Billionaires — of whom 735 are Americans worth $4.7 trillion — this wealth consolidation creates catastrophic human (and animal and planetary) suffering for the 99.99999771% non-Billionaires, or 7.837 billion homo sapiens.

So when you go to the polls or drop boxes on Tuesday, remember you are casting your ballot not simply for or against candidates and referenda, you are deciding whether or not to support or oppose Billionaire-fueled Fascism. This is the first in a series of opportunities to halt the destructive force of the 0.00000339% Billionaire class. Choose wisely. We’ll discuss next steps and strategy after the 2022 election.

Fascism in America: Can It Happen Here?

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The following video captures the 10/20/22 Battle of Homestead Foundation webinar discussion on American Fascism — its definition, psychology, history, renewed threat, and neoliberal manifestations in the workplace. My colleagues Joe White (retired labor history professor, U. of Pittsburgh) and Michele Hamilton (Asst. Dir. of Shelter Services, Centre County, PA, Women’s Resource Center) did a fabulous job after I laid out how the core characteristics of American Fascism are exploited, funded and fueled by a small group of self-serving Billionaires.

Starting with a brief history of world fascism in the 20th century, the speakers discussed current U.S. fascist movements and leaders and their threat to democracy in our time … and the means by which homegrown American fascism can be defeated. The video was Zoom-broadcast October 20, 2022. https://battleofhomestead.org/

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10+ Things YOU Can Do to Fight Fascism

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As a five-decade social justice organizer, college educator of 32 years, and parent to two activist adult children, I was and am repeatedly asked, okay so you’ve defined a serious problem – in this case, the rising threat of American Fascism (Click Here) – ‘now what?’ ‘What can I do as a single person?’ Plenty!

  1. Vote, and help get out the vote via canvassing and phone banking
  2. Educate yourself and others about Fascism
  3. Shop for Social Justice (Click Here)
  4. Join and support Labor Unions: e.g., Starbucks and Amazon workers (https://sbworkersunited.org) (https://amazonlaborunion.org)
  5. Switch to a Credit Union and away from Big Banks (https://cuna.org)
  6. Promote and demand peace here and around the world (https://www.codepink.org) 
  7. Join, support, and/or start local Cooperatives: markets, farms, housing, day care, etc. (Click Here)
  8. Patronize independent bookstores (https://powells.com) 
  9. Embrace the transformational ‘Justice for All’ agenda (https://justiceforall.global)
  10. Avoid plastics, reuse bags and containers (Click Here)

Below is an expanded list of ideas that seek to undermine the Billionaire oligarchs’ class war on us, the 99%, and then turn the tide in restoring and amplifying key democratic institutions.

1. I know that some of you reject or question the point of voting; and that’s exactly what the Billionaire ruling class wants us to think. Here in 2022, the midterm election will go a long way in advancing or forestalling the 2024 presidential contest that, if it goes badly, Fascism, and the low-level Civil War, already underway against BIPOC, AAPI, indigenous, and immigrant folks, could be worse than our 19th century Civil War.

2. Educate, educate, educate.

3. Every dollar you spend is a political decision, denying or enabling the power of the Billionaire class. Spend conscience first, not convenience first.

4. Workplace democracy through the union movement is a potent instrument for rebalancing worker-management and economic control. You can join many unions as an associate member and support others with your activism and spending decisions.

5. We ultimately need to get to public banking, where the Bank of North Dakota (https://bnd.nd.gov/public) allowed that state to weather the Great Recession better than any other in the union. But in the meantime, switch your primary (if not all) banking practices to a credit union, where there is greater transparency, accountability, and socially responsible investment practices.

6. Other than the decontextualized, one-sided Russia-Ukraine war coverage – which makes nuclear conflagration more likely, not less – the American media pays scant attention to other ongoing international and civil war conflicts such as Myanmar, Afghanistan, Yemen-Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia-Eritrea-Sudan, Colombia-Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, Somalia-Kenya, Congo-Uganda, India-Pakistan, Israel-Palestine, and at least 18 other war zones.

The U.S. is involved directly in at least five – Afghanistan (yes, still), Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen – and indirectly in dozens more via “advisors,” arms supplies, weapons sales, and intelligence support. So, if we don’t insist on diplomatic paths to peace, while the U.S.-based military-industrial complex continues to make astronomical profits (Click Here) the rise of global – not just American – Fascism will continue unabated.

7. The Cooperative Movement is a powerful pro-democracy, counter punch to the Billionaire’s State-Corporatist/Neo-Liberal economy that accelerates global warming, economic inequality, civil wars, mass privatization, anti-unionism, and the worst migratory population shift since the end of the Second World War.

8. Convenient as it may be, dump Amazon and patronize independent bookstores and businesses.

9. There is no getting around it: only an all-inclusive connection of social justice campaigns – connecting our people, politics, and policies – will create the transformational society and world we all want and need. (More on this theory of change in a future post.)

10. We make a decision every time we go shopping, right? Bring cloth bags, reject non-biodegradable plastic bags and containers wherever possible.

Thank you!

SHOUT OUT: Photo by “My Life Through A Lens” on Unsplash, Photo by David Suarez on Unsplash

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The Three Cornerstones of American Fascism

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crowd photo

Know thine enemy. The ongoing threat of full-blown Fascism triumphing here on, or shortly after, January 20, 2025, Presidential Inaugural Day, should deeply, deeply concern every pro-democratic, patriotic, thinking American.

The parallels to January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler received appointment as Chancellor in a newly-formed Conservative-Fascist governing coalition, only to see the Weimar Republic dismantled in favor of Nazi dictatorship in a matter of weeks, is eerily similar to recent developments in the United States (not to mention Italy, Hungary, Poland, Russia, China, Brazil, Nicaragua, etc.).

The persistent attacks on fair elections and the peaceful transition of power, immigrants, BIPOC communities, Muslims, facts, science, separation of church and state, media and journalists, public institutions, teachers, unionists, women, LGBTQ+ folks, privacy, cultural diversity, intellectuals, artists, and Constitutional rights (by SCOTUS) are no accident. They are intentional, systematic, funded, and coordinated.

Connect the dots of our White Supremacist past and present, the capture of religious fundamentalists by the Billionaire class, and the power and wealth concentration in the hands of an ever-shrinking, insatiable ruling class (as well as the cynical, violent, and bigoted tools at their disposal) and you will know thine enemy. And to know thine enemy is a critical step in developing the strategy to destroy Fascism, and to restore and enhance Democracy.

1. State-Corporatism

The marriage of governmental and finance-industrial power, with historic roots in the birth of this nation.

Adam Smith’s Wealth of the Nations, published in 1776, fused with the Declaration’s 1776 promise of republic-style democracy in the hands of the founders. Our pro-capitalism and pro-slavery Constitution of 1787 (ratified in 1788, with the Bill of Rights added in 1791) morphed somewhat with “Civil War amendments” :

  • 13th Amendment (abolition)
  • 14th Amendment (due process and equality)
  • 15th Amendment (voting rights for all adult males)

Fuller delivery of these promises for freed slaves would not come until the 1954-1965 Civil Rights revolution. (More on the rollback of civil and voting rights via Jim Crow 2.0, below.)

While the labor movement was bloodied by capital-financed militias and government troops from the 1850s through the 1930s, the Wagner Act of 1935 gave legal recognition to collective bargaining rights of labor unionists via the National Labor Relations Board. The high point for union membership was in 1965, when nearly one (1) in three (3) workers belonged labor union. Today that number is less than one (1) in ten (10), despite 71% public approval for organized labor (the biggest number since 1965).

Finally, the growth and expansion of neoliberalism since World War II, with the rise of the Cold War National Security State/Military-Industrial Complex, and the Political-Industrial/Finance-Industrial Complex of Wall Street/Silicon billionaires, bought politicians, enabling technocrats, and SCOTUS-majority corporatists, the fusion of state and corporate power, at the behest of the “captains of industry” billionaires, has created conditions of economic and political inequality that inspire many academics and researchers to call our time the Second Gilded Age.

2. White Supremacy

Dating back to 1492, including 90%-effective genocide for Native peoples, slavery for 11 million+ Black Africans and African-Americans, reservations, Jim Crow, lynchings, red-lining, profile-policing, drug wars, environmental degradation, school-to-prison pipeline — profiting the same billionaire class that dominates Washington, D.C., Wall Street, Silicon Valley, state houses, mainstream media, cultural, and academic institutions.

Slavery formally ended with the 13th amendment (1865), but replacing it were racist Black Codes, economic peonage via sharecropping, incarcerated laborers made of freed slaves found guilty of “crimes,” and post-Reconstruction Jim Crow racial apartheid (which Hitler, of course, adopted to subjugate and segregate Jews). The Constitutional farce of “separate but equal” (Plessy, 1896) ended with the Brown decision of 1954, which helped ignite the Civil Rights revolution further emancipating Black, Brown, female, and 18 yo citizens.

Unfortunately, rollbacks of civil and voting rights gains — sometimes called Jim Crow 2.0 — have prevailed in recent SCOTUS decisions, extending to reproductive and privacy rights, environmental protection, and state gun control laws, with further rights rollbacks promised from a majority Federalist Society-trained, corporatist, 5-member majority. For Native Americans, immigrants, and Queer folks, in particular, at-risk conditions for health, housing, paths to citizenship, and same-sex marriage rights appear to be getting worse, not better.

3. Religious Nationalism

Funded, once again, by the billionaires who lavish mega-preachers with millions (a good investment) to espouse the gospel of prosperity-capitalism for the flock, iconic worship of plutocrats, and advocacy for the oligarchs anti-tax/deregulation agenda, condemnation of “unbiblical” social safety net programs (read: for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people), and the unconditional “evil” of abortion.

The ‘Christian nationalist movement,’ therefore, is a grass-tops, not a grassroots, campaign. While it is alluring to a broad swath of American voters who identify as Christian, it is directed by a handful of billionaire power-brokers who play on and manipulate the resentments and insecurities of this population to grow their own power and wealth. Or, as Katherine Stewart articulates in her newly-published The Power Worshippers, the cynical and self-serving billionaire class convert “citizens into congregants and congregants into voters.”

As is the case with the complementary Fascist phenomenons of State-Corporatism and White Supremacy, Religious Nationalism is a dagger aimed at the heart of our faltering and fragile republic. Add to this mix the following twenty-eight (28) sub-characteristics of Fascism, found also here (https://americanfascists.us/american-style-fascism/), and you will see American Fascism is all of its wicked dimensions, manifestations, and ideologies.

4. Imperialism: landed-cultural-financial-military global empire

5. Colonialism: the financial and political subjugation of vulnerable populations

6. Nationalism (not Patriotism): knee-jerk, unreflective obedience to the nation

7. Militarism: the idea that all social and political problems require a heavy-handed approach through militarized policing and incarceration

8. Racism

9. Sexism

10. Xenophobia: fear of foreigners or “foreign-looking” people

11. Cronyism/Nepotism: family-and-friend corruption

12. Media control/manipulation: the dispensation of pro-fascist/anti-democratic narratives, both subtle and blatant, by greedy and cynical corporate interests 

13. Scapegoating: projecting blame onto the “other,” and responsibility for alleged “crimes”

14. Anti-democracy: voter suppression, stolen elections, fraudulent

15. Victimology: claiming victim status for the leaders and followers, and criminal status for the victims

16. Othering: de-humanizing, devaluing, diminishing, demonizing the “foreigner,” “alien,” and “outsider” within the United States

17. Order above freedom, though claiming both are the same

18. Deep Cynicism: extreme negativity, propensity to embrace far-fetched conspiracy ideas

19. Contempt for human rights

20. Cult leader worship, savior figure, larger than life

21. Myth, distortion, false narratives, outright lies

22. Propaganda: play on people’s fears, anxieties, despair, grievances, sense of loss; longing for the glorious past (real or imagined), feelings of betrayal, institutional failures

23. Consumerism / materialism (e.g., Bread and Circuses): displaces critical thinking, instant gratification, medication for an assortment of pains

24. Toxic masculinity, patriarchy, warrior culture, churches (e.g., Bikers for Jesus)

25. Bullying: comes primarily out of insecurity

26. Anti-intellectualism: book banning/burning, anti-CRT, assault on school boards, educators

27. White privilege

28. Tokenizing People of Color as part of the ‘diversity-branding’ of the GOP

29. Outside enemies: perpetual cold/hot wars overseas

30. Inside enemies: Democrats, leftists, Marxists, Socialists, Communists, non-fascist Media

31. Use of targeted and expanded violence: tools of terror

Register to Vote Day: Vote Your Power, Vote Your Values

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voting registration

This being National Voter Registration Day, and 30 days from the registration deadline in most states, please push out the word that, if we get a turnout in the 2022 midterms similar to what we saw in 2020 — especially among younger voters, but generally, across the board — we are one significant step closer to passing the pro-Democracy Justice for All agenda, and we are one critical step away from going into Fascist governance. 

https://www.usa.gov/voter-registration

On the heels of a failed Wall Street-driven Fascist plot to overthrow FDR’s presidency in late 1933/early 1934 (documented in 1934 Congressional hearings, and researched and published in 2015, here: 

the plot to seize the white house book

Most people will be shocked to learn that in 1933 a cabal of wealthy industrialists—in league with groups like the K.K.K. and the American Liberty League—planned to overthrow the U.S. government in a fascist coup. Their plan was to turn discontented veterans into American “brown shirts,” deposeF.D.R., and stop the New Deal. They clandestinely asked Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to become the first American Caesar.


LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Plot-Seize-White-House-Conspiracy/dp/1602390363

Sinclair Lewis wrote his famous 1935 novel, ironically titled It Can’t Happen Here. Well, of course it can.

Fascism nearly prevailed in the U.S. in 1934, during the Great Depression. Now, a new and old blend of crisis conditions — some real (e.g., Climate, Personal Debt, Loss of Reproductive and Privacy Rights) and others manufactured (e.g., Culture Wars, Big Lies) and stoked on social media, certain cable networks and AM radio, threaten to topple the already-diminished democratic institutions that define our republic, including the voting franchise.

https://www.usa.gov/voter-registration

So, today and every day moving forward, the battle cry must be three-fold:

Vote Your Power, Vote Your Values, Vote Your Issues.

It starts with getting all of our justice-centered friends and family who are not registered to vote, to register to vote!

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