Category Archives: Commentary

Umberto Eco: Ur-Fascism

… the fascist game can be played in many forms, and the name of the game does not change. Umberto Eco Umberto Eco’s essay, “Ur-Fascism” (The New York Review of Books, 22/06/1995) remains a significant text in the cartography of … Continue reading

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Gastón Gordillo: The Fascist Disposition

From the Verso Books Blog, 18/07/2024. This essay is the third in a roundtable discussion of Alberto Toscano’s Late Fascism. The others, from Jordy Rosenberg and Lisa Lowe, can be found here and here.  What does the word “fascism” mean today, when fossil capitalism continues its accelerated … Continue reading

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Georges Bataille: The Psychological Structure of Fascism

Fascism attempts to organise the newly proletarianised masses while leaving intact the property relations which the masses strive to abolish. Fascism sees its salvation in granting these masses not their rights, but instead a chance to express themselves. The masses … Continue reading

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Georges Bataille: Popular Front in the Street

The opium of the people in the present world is perhaps not so much religion as it is accepted boredom. Such a world is at the mercy, it must be known, of those who provide at least the semblance of … Continue reading

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Giorgio Agamben: Pasiphae’s bull and technique

In the myth of Pasiphae, the woman who has an artificial cow built by Daedalus in order to mate with a bull, it is legitimate to see a paradigm of technology. In this perspective, technology appears as the device through … Continue reading

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Why Stop at Removing Biden?

From the CrimethInc. Collective (07/11/2024). The Center Cannot Hold It would seem like a heavy-handed metaphor if it weren’t our actual reality. A doddering patriarch, representing the collapsing centrist political project, refuses to step aside even as it becomes certain … Continue reading

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What Does Putin Want?

From Freedom News (11/07/2024) and Avtonom.org (11/07/2024). The Russian autocrat is not crazy, war is simply a necessity for his power and economic system Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin outlined five goals for his war: Ukraine’s … Continue reading

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“Let the dead rest – and fulfill their hopes”: Remembering Erich Mühsam

Anarchy is a matter of the heart … Erich Mühsam, Anarchy From Freedom News (10/07/2024), we share a memorial piece by Maurice Schuhmann dedicated to the life and work of the anarchist Erich Mühsam. We follow this with what is … Continue reading

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France’s elections and the evolution of the National Rally party

From monde nouveau (03/07/2024) and Freedom News (08/07/2024). René Berthier: Answer to an Australian Comrade Question : One thing I’m interested in is the evolution of Rassemblement National itself. There are parts of the “catastrophist” left that want to depict it … Continue reading

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Mark Bray: Five Historical Lessons for Anti-Fascists

Over the years – and long before us and no doubt after us – we have written about and against fascism and its many incarnations and have shared the words of many authors better than us who have written about … Continue reading

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