Thursday 25 January 2018

Of Blue Moons, fighting Fascism and a decision at a political crossroads......

Are you a communist?”
“No I am an anti-fascist”
“For a long time?”
“Since I have understood fascism.

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls



Spring is a time for reflection. It is getting lighter. we look for signs and portents in the political sky. For myself I think about my political life in its many incarnations . I think about how I can be more effective . There are my observations that I share with you each day, there are people I talk to and debate with. There are often important decisions and judgments to make. I have learnt that politics according to Max Weber is like boring hikes in hard wood and risks your soul.


Yet there are few you can count on politically when difficult decisions must be made when opposing prejudice, racism and ignorance. It's easier to appease, stay quiet and placate the oppressor. Yet I remember the old words " when they came for the Jews I said nothing because I was not Jewish, when they came for the Communists , I said nothing because I was not a communist, when they came for the Trade Unionists, I said nothing because I was not a trade unionists, I said nothing and when they came for me there was no one left!


Over the years there have been very few that I knew would stand with me against racism and fascism. There can be no compromise, no appeasement with views so frequently heard on social media and experienced by so many everyday in every way. The jackboot and the knock at the door may come in other foams and other ways yet its intentions are just as brutal it's approaches just intimidating and it's collaborators just as effective. There can be no compromise with the effects of racism and fascism and I am glad that the political friends I can count on can tell me what is said about me on pages I cannot see and on profiles that I am blocked on. I have amended my friends list accordingly. For those still there thank you and for those who are not....well I m sure you can guess.


Wherever Fascism and Racism arise I will oppose them. My loyalty to resistance to then goes way , way back and are greater than my loyalty to any other political membership I have. My Father taught me the value of resistance to prejudice and racism and Fascism and it is above all my major concern. I will expose it where ever I find it and witness it. In my political life this is the ultimate loyalty and exceeds any other political loyalty....I hope that's clear....



From now on I will continue the struggle against fascism and the far right without a political party I am always an Ecosocialist but I will not be silent when I come across it wherever it is or who ever states it. I feel a certain liberation at this point and wish many of my friends well for the future who choose to remain within the Green party. Sometimes you must chart your own path..and it is my time to do that politically........



The neo-nationalism of Brexit and the election of the nativist Donald Trump have rejuvenated far-right politics in a way that’s not been seen since the 1930s. Yet for the vast majority of people alive today the consequences and the methods of fascism are something learned rather than experienced. To help shed more light on this hateful, hate-mongering political philosophy, here are 14 quotes from academics, thinkers, authors and politicians who lived or studied the horrors of a fascist state. Read their words and remember forewarned is forearmed.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell

Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”

– Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”

– Benito Mussolini

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power…. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Nazis understand everything except humour.”

– Mary Berg, The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto

If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.”

-Henry A. Wallace

Fascism is capitalism plus murder.”

– Upton Sinclair
 

When Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak.”

– Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

Let fascism find not even a single passage to power or else that poisonous snake will infiltrate into the every vital corner of the country and kill the future of the nation!”

 Mehmet Murat ildan

The United States is extremely lucky that no honest, charismatic figure has arisen. Every charismatic figure is such an obvious crook that he destroys himself, like McCarthy or Nixon or the evangelist preachers. If somebody comes along who is charismatic and honest this country is in real trouble because of the frustration, disillusionment, the justified anger and the absence of any coherent response.

-Noam Chomsky

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

– Sinclair Lewis

Are you a communist?”
“No I am an anti-fascist”
“For a long time?”
“Since I have understood fascism.”

– Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

I do not fight fascists because I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists.”

-Chris Hedges, Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt

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