“An incredibly practical guide to what you need to do”. Reflecting the spreading sentiment that ‘we’re on our own now’, Shenker-Osorio encourages people to get beyond “writing to their congressman” and instead, focus on “creating social proof locally” with various practical ways of demonstrating “that lots of people in your community feel the way you feel”, for example with signs, hats, t-shirts, or “painting of a barn.” She also notes that the fundamental rupture has not happened for most people yet, and when it does, there will be “extraordinary possibility”, but “we have to stop thinking that tinkering at the edges of the old ways that we have done things is going to yield a new result.” The journey beyond autocracy is one of “resistance, refusal and ridicule”, and means building a “strong, active in-yer-face labour community”, because ultimately “the future is made out of the decisions we take collectively.” Also see.

An outline proposal for “a movement ecology, in the time of collapse and rising fascism,” which includes a detailed and compassionate reflection of the current context and its roots. We are encouraged to look “beyond frenetic action, which often targets, ineffectively, a multitude of symptoms, towards the possibility of enough collaboration and enough shared direction, focussed on addressing causes,” so that we might “sow seeds to support a profound transformation, over time.” This will involve developing community agency through preparation, recognising that “no one is going to save us, we need to prepare together”, and orienting toward a ‘third attractor’ – “a different and better way of being together”. Bradbrook offers ten suggestions of “what needs figuring out together” to build a “collective immune response”, and three opportunities to connect.

An encouragement to pay attention to root causes. “The political problem we face is not just about ‘capitalism,’ for this is only a politico-economic system that lies within the ontology. It is also the ontology itself – the broader environment or eco-system within which all other elements of the system exist, down to the microcosmic behaviour of the individual within that system – or the emission of a molecule of carbon… This ontological deficiency is one factor behind the rise of fascism: the failure to recognise and allow expression of fundamental aspects of what it is to be human, fostering a political system for instance that denies our basic need for autonomy and agency, which in turn provokes the intense anger which the Far-right is now busy exploiting.” The good news is that this “ontology can be altered, enriched, transformed both within ourselves and society. Merely changing our understanding, or indeed realising the importance of ontology, becomes a profound political act. This offers some grounds for hope for the possibility of fundamental change.”

A reflection on the snap election this summer in France, when the left-leaning alliance rallied to resist the far right with a surprise “come-back” in the second vote. This offers specific lessons for resisting fascism, e.g. “we have to cast elections against authoritarian leaders as elections that are a fork in the road for two futures – not a competition between two existing agendas.” It also describes how its success was due to a rapid coordination that centred organisers – “people who wanted to do things” – and that by working from shared goals and messaging, this coordination across movements was able to reach a lot of people quickly, inviting them in to choose “care” instead of “hatred”, with the emphasis on what they were ‘for’, rather than just ‘against’.

As part of Arika’s recent Episode 11 in Glasgow, ‘To End The World As We Know It’, a recording of a conversation on “the notion of pluriverses, and plural worldviews and life ways (unpicking) the colonial imposition of linear time or teleology and the fixation on historical continuity.” In which the artists discuss “Western society as being obsessed with merchandise, and the extent to which this has collapsed into the subject and the body, and what it means to invent a poetics capable of freeing us from the desire for merchandise,” exploring ways that “organisms, human and non-human, recognize their distinct poetics of life” and “how these work against capitalism and fascism, as a denunciation of political alliances, and maybe even of ‘politics’.”

“People are tired of being asked to settle for the same broken promises and status quo. How many times do we have to say it?… This is a pivotal time to consider a new economic order that prioritises economic equality, social programs, and taxing the damn rich… Our call to action is considering how we tell a salient story about a new economic order prioritising a working-class politic… Organising against the systems that oppress us every day, electing revolutionary leaders from within our communities, and tearing down the structures of capitalism, fascism, and colonialism… Our strength lies in our recognition of the interconnectedness of our struggles. The narrative we build must advance revolutionary values, dismantle hegemonic power, and disrupt the systems... This is the moment to reimagine a future beyond the oppressive systems that have held us captive.”

How do you reach the men who are supporting a fascist presidential candidate, to avoid “dude-bro-ing our way into democratic death“ and curtail a wider eugenics revival? Focus on the “affective dimension” of the problem because, as has been stated clearly elsewhere, policy alone isn’t moving people. “A lot of what a lot of men are going through right now is simply the inner experience of the old line, ‘When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression’… one of the great sweeping mistakes of our era has been assuming that, because certain kinds of change are morally correct, they go down easy… (men) need to feel seen and heard and recognized in their stress and anxiety and sense of dislocation in the future that is coming… Saving the country from tyranny needs to become aspirational for men. Not a lecture.”

On the Harris campaign’s recent ‘vibe-shift’, which has “embraced the politics of joy. Not in ignorance of the foe she faces, who is hell bent on taking our freedoms, harming our families, and imperiling our futures. But in full awareness of what it takes to defeat him”, recognising that “elections are made out of grand narratives — storylines that make clear precisely what harms the antagonists have in store and imbue the protagonists — by which I mean the voters — with the agency to select the future they would like. And while this does not come up in issue polling, most people would like that future to be a good time.” Also see.

One of three reflections (also see, and) on Alberto Toscano’s Late Fascism, which offers ”the historical and political philosophical means” to understand fascism today, by coming to terms with its long-term presence. “Since available political languages are so saturated by liberal political claims and logics, they often veil and obstruct understanding of the ‘political present.’ They contribute to the misrecognition of ‘fascism’ as spectacular and exceptional, rather than as integral to the modern marriage of liberal democracy with capitalism…this misrecognition is a primary obstacle to effectively understanding, organizing, and struggling against the multiple contradictions of our political present.”

“When we look at the rise of the global far-right through a systems lens, we can recognise it as a symptom of crisis and collapse - as well as the potential for renewal. Today, humanity stands at a political inflection point in which the only viable path forward involves total transformation… The rising state of popular disillusionment is growing not simply because of ‘dissatisfaction’ with the status quo, but more profoundly because of the escalating crisis of civilisation that is afflicting our civilisation’s material-technological infrastructure whose symptoms mainstream politics is unable to address… because the heart of this crisis is our relationship with the natural world, as mediated via our consumption of energy.” Also see.

“Though this shift might alienate some, at least at first, it could win over many more in the medium- to long-term by speaking to the evermore precarious and genuinely life-threatening conditions of their existence under the increasingly crisis-ridden capitalist system. Anti-fascism demands an even broader (albeit well-coordinated) diversity of tactics to cultivate post-capitalist futures, especially as it pertains to ensuring the safety of multiple marginalized populations fighting for these futures.”

“A different Poland is possible, and that is what we will vote for on October 15. We don't want to passively watch older men decide for us. We are fighting for the voice of women and girls to finally be heard, because we are the 52% of society. This fall we are going to the polls. We have already been quiet.” Powerful comms that played a role in holding back a tide of authoritarian fascism in Poland, as, against the odds, young people and women helped to vote in a 54% coalition. (‘Wschód’ translates as ‘Sunrise’).