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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