In this week's show, hosted by Desiree Hellegers, we present the following segments:
Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It: We revisit a 2018 episode from the first Trump administration. Joe Clement talks with Shane Burley about fascist movements today and how they want to transform society into brutal hierarchies. They consider how different systems of oppression rooted in identity and ability ( e.g. sexism, racism, able-ism, cis-sexism, etc.) are mobilized by fascists. The internet has been a game-changer for fascist propaganda. Shane explains the contradictory populist and elitist tendencies of fascist ideology, and how we can end fascism today by building mass movements of working and oppressed people. Shane Burley is the author of "Fascism Today: What It Is And How to End It" (available at the Multnomah County Library & AK Press), a contributor to the Institute for Anarchist Studies, most recently "25 Theses On Fascism," and the editor of the forthcoming anthology ¡No pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis. His work is featured at places such as NBC News, The Daily Beast, The Independent, Jacobin, Al Jazeera, Haaretz, Tikkun, The Baffler, Bandcamp Daily, Truthout, and the Oregon Historical Quarterly.
Confronting Hitler: We revisit a 2017 interview in which Bill Resnick talks with Bill Smaldone about the history of Fascism in Germany and the degree to which current events may be similar. They discuss the Nazis' use of parliamentary power to enable authoritarian rule, the exploitation of the Reichstag fire to enact emergency powers, and the role of paramilitary, military, and police forces. Smaldone is E.J. Whipple Professor of History at Willamette University, and author of Confronting Hitler: German Social Democrats in Defense of the Weimar Republic, 1929-1933 (2009), among other works. This is the first of a two-part interview.
Left in the Law–Blocking Trump: In their Left & the Law segment, Jan Haaken and Mike Snedeker review the pattern of cases before the courts during Trump's second administration, focusing on where the courts have been effective in blocking his executive actions.