A US-based writer called Chris Armitage has noted in his Substack that:
Once fascists win power democratically, they have never been removed democratically. Not once. Ever.
That is a statement that is hard to ignore, most especially since, as he notes, it takes, on average, 30 to 50 years to be rid of them.
Armitage's research is blunt: fascism does not leave office by the ballot box once it has captured it.
In Armitage's opinion, Trump has already won the ballot in the USA.
There is a real risk of that happening here in the UK. This is the latest polling in the iPaper:
However, as Chris Armitage suggests, there are ways to fight back. I have adapted his suggestions for use in the UK.
First, stop them before they take power.
Armitage suggests that this is the only safe path, and I agree.
Fascists use elections to end elections. Once in office, they change the rules, intimidate opponents and hollow out institutions.
In the UK, this requires that we address the issues that are breeding fascist reactions. We have inequality, insecurity, broken services and hopeless politics. These are the breeding grounds for the dissatisfaction Farage is exploiting.
What must we do? First, we must reform our voting system so a minority cannot take unchecked power.
Second, the issues surrounding inequality, insecurity and broken services must be addressed: balancing the books will be inconsequential when we have a fascist state as a result of trying to balance the books.
Third, we must end media complicity in authoritarian rhetoric. Telling the truth about fascism is vital.
And fourth, we need to build civic coalitions between trade unions, councils, churches, and local organisations to resist before the rot sets in. Prevention is democracy's front line.
Second, resist through coalitions.
Armitage points to the idea of a “Blue-State” coalition in the US, effectively excluding the East and West Coast Democratic states from the USA.
Here, that means devolved governments, mayors and major cities standing together to defend rights, maintain public services and refuse authoritarian demands.
Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and our big cities have real institutional weight. Acting together they could form a firewall if Westminster drifts into authoritarianism. This is constitutional, practical, and urgent.
Third, the Irish solution — selective non-compliance.
This may be the most powerful option we have.
Prior to independence in 1922, Irish “everyday democracy” meant quiet, mass refusal to obey illegitimate laws. The UK is peculiarly vulnerable to this tactic because so much of our system runs on consent, discretion and convention.
Teachers, doctors, councils, civil servants, regulators, and broadcasters could all choose to uphold rights and professional duties rather than carry out unlawful orders. A thousand lawful refusals, each small in itself, can make authoritarianism unworkable. That is not a revolution; it is about integrity.
Fourth, secession and international oversight.
Scotland has an independence option.
Northern Ireland has the Good Friday framework for creating a new unity.
Wales is debating new constitutional arrangements.
The existence of real alternatives acts as a deterrent to abuse at the centre.
At the same time, international alliances, whether through the EU, ECHR, the UN, and with European and other democratic partners, including in the Commonwealth, can be called upon to assist scrutiny and resistance to what is happening. Authoritarianism hates external scrutiny. We must welcome it and call for it now.
The other options, whether they be war or waiting for authoritarians to die of old age, Armitage mentions, are not strategies. They are admissions of defeat. I am not embracing them here.
What I am suggesting is that.
-
Democracy is not self-sustaining. It requires active defence.
-
Economic justice is a form of democratic defence. Fascism feeds on despair. Reduce inequality and you reduce its fuel. This is the most urgent task of the Labour government. If it fails at this, we become a fascist state.
-
Political reform is not optional. Voting systems, media ownership, and civic education all determine whether democracy can withstand attack.
-
Civil society must be prepared for non-cooperation. Quiet refusal is often more powerful than noisy protest.
The conclusion is simple. If we let fascists into power in Britain, history says they will not leave by election. We cannot afford that complacency. The task, in that case, is prevention through tackling inequality, reforming politics, and defending our institutions before they are captured. And if prevention fails, then we must be ready to resist through devolved coalitions, Irish-style non-compliance, credible constitutional alternatives, and international solidarity.
Democracy is not defended by hoping for the best. It is defended by acting, here and now, to make sure fascism never gets the chance to destroy it.
We have a task on our hands.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
An FT post came up on Facebook about the anti-asylum seeker protests and one protestor moaned that the govt put the refugees ahead of the ‘the people’. It is like 1984 he complained.
I agree in a way having re read the book last year.
In the first couple of chapters Winston Smith writes in his diary
Went to the flicks last night. All war films. One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed. Audience much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away with a helicopter after him. First you saw him walloping along in the water like a propose then you saw him through the helicopter gunsights, then he was full of holes and the sea around him turned pink and he sank as suddenly as if the holes had let in the water, audience shouting with laughter when he sank. Then you saw a lifeboat full of children with a helicopter hovering over it. There was a middle aged woman… sitting up in the bow with a little boy about three years old in her arms, little boy screaming with fright and hiding his head between her breasts and the woman putting her arms around him and comforting him although she was blue with fright herself, all the time covering him up as much as possible as if she thought her arms could keep the bullets off him, then the helicopter planted a 20 kilo bomb in among them. Terrific blast and the boat all went to matchwood, then there was a wonderful shot of a child’s arm going up up up right into the air. A helicopter with a camera in its nose must have followed it up and there was a lot of applause from the party seats but a woman down in the prole part of the house suddenly started kicking up a fuss the shouting they didn’t ought to have showed it, not in front of the kids.. ”
in 1984 the other are dehumanised. Not saying all the protestors want to do that but a Reform candidate in the election did suggest using them as target practice. People will do things in mobs they wouldn’t do as individuals. It becomes more difficult to dissent when the majority are fiercely partisan. Barbarism is never far away.
I made the mistake of looking on Twitter the other day and came across a thread of posts supporting young children (pre-teen & upwards) carrying knives to “protect themselves from migrants”. It was not a case of one crazed individual, there were hundreds, if not thousands of posts in support, I don’t think I saw any responses questioning the basic notion. There were also quite a few created images glorifying the notion, portraying armed children as superhero types.
I reported it, but even if they did take it down, I suspect it’s just one of many such threads.
I have seen that.
The image looked AI generated.
Yep, I came across a video on YouTube the other day with the same thing. Telling people to carry weapons as self defence.
Utterly horrifying. There was a clip of a teenage girl with an axe and a machette shouting at a migrant and everyone was acting like this is something we should be celebrating and encouraging.
Right now our elected representatives have given the UK population plenty to despair about, hence the 35% for Reform. This is probably around the high water mark for Reform though – if anyone was going to be susceptible to their message they would likely already be declaring their allegiance. But what if hope started to come back in the picture? What if other political parties started to propose genuine solutions to the problems of ordinary people? The Lib Dems only exist to take a few parliamentary seats off the Tories and otherwise seem to have mysteriously little impact on the political scene. Labour is a busted flush and over the next 4 years will only serve to keep many voters coraled in the embrace of the far right. The real game changer is the potential impact of Your Party and a no-longer polite and timorous Zack-led Green Party. They will take votes from Labour but also, I believe, from Reform. Not all reform voters are died-in-the-wool racists, ideologically committed to the extreme right. Once current Reform supporters see there is another game in town – something positive to give them hope for a better life – Farage will see his grip on dissent with the status quo weakening. That way we may end up with a hung parliament in 2029 with a chance for a non-extreme right government.
Whatever comes out of the new “Your Party” by way of a new political party will be viciously attacked and lied about by the mainstream media. I predict that the media attack on Your Party will make the media attack on Corbyn when he was Labour leader look mild.
We certainly do.
All the fascists do is double down on what made them possible in the first place – I mean, it’s perfectly logical really, if it creates you, it can maintain you.
Something that 35% of the sample above apparently don’t get at all – blinded – I believe – by the narrative aligning with their own racism.
reply to Pilgrim Slight Return:
“…blinded by the narrative aligning with their own racism.” That is the key, I fear.
People who align their votes with fascism often totally agree with what the fascists are telling them about ‘the other.’ In fact—hey, it turns out—they’ve always ‘thought that.’ Fascist supporters aren’t always the poor and downtrodden either. I believe it’s a mistake to assume so.
There is an ugly sub-current of thought operating here in the UK as well as other factors—as it certainly is in the USA. Many people who were comfortably well off voted for Trump. The same sort will support Farage, here in the UK. They do not have the greater good in mind when they do. They just want to give ‘the other’ a bloody nose.
We became accustomed to turning bigotry (which has always existed) into fodder for comedians and sitcoms. Now that bigoted people feel the wind beneath their wings, they are on the verge of running the show—unless we can motivate the truly downtrodden and desperate to go to the polls and vote for something else.
I don’t think we’ll change bigots’ minds in the near future, but a new party like Sultana/Corbyn’s—if it can avoid getting mired in semantics and begin to sound practical and determined—can appeal to the truly desperate UK non-voter who doesn’t see any point in voting at all. This can perhaps turn the tide against UK fascism, before it’s all too late.
The writer says: “Doctors in blue states could ignore abortion restrictions. ”
I was thinking he would make a good case study, but there are so many people talking like this I’m wondering whether it could be done collectively to save time.
“Third, we must end media complicity in authoritarian rhetoric.” All you suggest is admirable, and I hope successful, but I believe the above will be the most difficult to achieve.
Agreed
The first 3 issues,voting reform,inequality and broken services,tackling media complicity,won’t be addressed by Labour.
We certainly need coalitions ,civic and political.
A collapse in Labour support ,of course will increase Reform’s vote,but should also increase the power of more left leaning and nationalist parties.This will give them more exposure on mainstream tv.
Hopefully,they will bring the debate back to the more important issues of climate change,public services ,inequality and Brexit.
The economic importance of immigration should be stated.The contribution made by the different ethnic groups to our society should be highlighted.
These political groups,like Ed Davey has done,have got to go after Farage and Trump.The gloves must come off,the “F” word has to be used.(fascism)
Even though polling now has majority intending to vote for right-leaning parties (which is almost unheard of in the UK), proportional representation is still the solution.
It might give Reform nominal leadership of a right leaning coalition government, but it would be held back from Fascist, authoritarian takeover.
More likely, even the Tories would reject such an arrangement, preferring instead leading a wider coalition between Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and Green they would all accept something better than giving Reform power.
Of course, there’s still plenty more time for Trump to demonstrate how bad far right authoritarianism is, so at some point you’d hope Reform’s popularity will decline before the next election.
What many of the would-be future Reform leaders also need to recognise us how often in history such an authoritarian cult of personality group wanes as soon as the mythologised dear leader is no longer in charge. Their hopes of future control are even more likely to wither.
I think you are ignoring the role of Jenrick who will invite a reverse takeover of the Tories.
Regular readers of comments on your blog will know that I’ve been saying that the 2026 mid terms in the US will not happen – or they will but will be rigged (Trump taking yet another leaf out of Putin’s book on “managed democracy” – i.e. just a facade) – since Trump took office. Indeed, as the months have past my view has shifted further. I now believe that the civil war scenario of Alex Garlands excellent 2023 film is more than likely, because I cannot see how solidly blue (Democrat) areas of the US can otherwise resist the inevitable force of Trump’s fascist inclinations and actions. Of course, they’ll try all legal means – as Governors Newsom, Pritzker, Hochul, and others – are trying at the moment. But as it becomes more and more obvious that the Supreme Court will not stand in the way of Trumps move to a fascism (i.e. creating what Putin has created in Russia); that the 2026 mid terms will simply be an exercise in cementing Trump’s control of the House and Senate; and the 2028 Presidential election will only take place with candidates vetted by Trumpists, the only two options for those who won’t are can’t leave the US, will be to bow down or fight.
In Garlands film it’s clear that a good portion of the US armed forces have chosen to stand with democracy and fight against the fascists. But will that happen? Given Trump and his minions have been purging every senior officer they think might not be loyal to Trump -rather than to the constitution (as they should be) – that might be an ask. Certainly, the actions Trump has taken turning ICE (Immigration Control and Enforcement) into a fairly obviously racist militia, gives him the upper hand in any armed confrontation (and Republicans voters typically own way more guns than Democrats).
Anyway, only time will tell. But if I were a betting man I wouldn’t fancy the odds on the US still being a functioning democracy (albeit with the warts it’s always displayed) by the end of 2026.
I have long shared this view.
Alas, I think you are right. As is Chris Armitage. The novel that best helped me to understand how impossibly difficult it is for the ordinary citizen to resist a fascist government once they have taken power is Hans Fallada ” Alone in Berlin.” That is why it is really important to stop them here before they get that far. I fear that things have gone so far in the US that they are looking at secession by some democratic states and potential civil war and violence as a consequence. The consequences for the world are incalculable. I too am an
d angry old git wanting to do something so have settled on a campaign of letter writing. The first to the BBC complaints department about its biased coverage of Reform, the next to various institutions which have the ability to show case anti-fascist dramas. of which there are many. I will send letters to the BBC, the National theatre, my local theatre, the Stratford theatres. There just needs to be more publicity about the danger we are in. The German people can be forgiven for not understanding what was facing them in 1933. We have none. It has happened before, is happening now in America and can happen here.
On forgiveness, I think you are absolutely right. The fact that we are allowing this country to walk into fascism is unforgivable.
Reform have said they want PR, and Starmer should now look into replacing the first past the post system with PR, playing Reform at their own game.
Should Reform win in the next election [I hope they don’t] they will drop PR no doubt.
If we have a PR system Labour will get a reasonable share of power and hopefully with other parties be able to out vote Reform.I doubt Starmer will do this as he is drunk on his ‘Majority’ and is incapable of looking further ahead than the next election.
Hearing a Reform speaker on LBC today it worries me what they would do in power.All good people inspite of differences of opinion need to work together to ‘Dilute’ the right
Am I making sense ?
Yes
I read Armitage’s blogpiece at the time, but what struck me was the mistake in the subheadline (‘once they win elections, it’s already too late’) – but in fact in hardly any of the cases he mentions were the fascists actually elected. Mussolini, Hitler, Salazar, Dollfuss, Franco, Pétain, Pinochet, etc, etc never had majority support – they never legitimately formed governments. In some cases, it is true that they were elected members of various parliaments, in others not. What they actually have in common though is the way fascists do indeed generally win power: they were invited to take it, generally because they had caused or contributed to so much political and economic instability that other parts of governments – king, president, judiciary, military – wanted a ‘strong man’ to take control. And if you read the history, the reasons for this in turn are clear: when the political centre (the politics of the status-quo) collapses, the ‘Establishment’ is forced into a choice between left or right – and it always goes for the extreme right.
That fascists can’t then be removed democratically is a truism: fascism is, precisely, the continuation of capitalism by undemocratic means.
I think you’re making a mistake, Geof. The reality is that almost no government has major majority support, so why were you expecting fascist to be in that position?
But the point is they never had majorities even in parliaments – they were never elected to government. The crucial lesson of history is precisely that they didn’t need to win elections – what they needed, as a matter of historical fact, was the support of powerful individuals at the heart of established state power structures.
I thought everyone should see the latest meme from Trump (hat tip to Anton Gerashchenko).
The text reads ‘The World Will Soon Understand’ And below the image of Trump – clearly posing as God/Jesus – ‘Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming’.
See for yourself: https://bsky.app/profile/antongerashchenko.bsky.social/post/3lxondhikac2i
I am struggling to verify that as real.
I did wonder.
But this one is absolutely real. And it shows on exactly what level Trump functions. Can’t bring himself to say a bad word about Putin but mess with his garden slabs and you’re well and truly stuffed. https://x.com/meiselasb/status/1961864470000726060
Great article. Thanks.
“ Scotland has an independence option”.
If achieved who would be eligible for Scottish citizenship?
See my article in The National in the morning.
Me I hope.
Born in Scotland of Scots mum. Dad born N Wales.
Two scots g/parents, one welsh g/parent one Oz g/parent.
No English blood at all. I’m ripe for deportation.
I firmly believe that fascism can be beaten off in the UK, by the British sense of humour, as much as anything else. Farage, Tice et al are not serious people, just comic caricatures of people, like in the Carry on films. People are not stupid enough to swallow the guff that many Americans do. We endanger democracy by giving any credence to fascists. Other countries seem to have fallen for it, but surely not here. The villain in the play always gets his comeuppance. The likes of Farage will soon find audiences laughing at them and they cannot cope with that.
I have to face the possibility that I’m blasé about the whole thing and I may be completely wrong. That is, fascism is a real threat to the UK. If it were, I’d fight it all the way and so would millions of us,but honestly I don’t think it is.
I fear the humour is ugly now. Too many lies from neoliberals guarantee that.
I would really love you to be right, that we are somehow exceptional and it cannot happen here, but I think it would be prudent to assume that we are as much susceptible to economic shocks as any other nation and that laughter is no substitute for robust policies to prevent fascism. Contrary to popular belief the Germans have a sense of humour too. It’s just that when your savings have been destroyed, you have no secure job or secure home , and there is constant propaganda blaming foreigners there is not a lot to laugh at. A lot of people did not believe Trump could win a second term, treated him as a comic figure and his appointees as jokes. Who is laughing now?
“The Maginot line will hold. France is safe… it could never happen here. We are British after all…
I fear not, unless we resist now. They already have the Tory party and the Labour party is well on the way, into racist authoritarianism.
It won’t do, just to laugh at Fa***e. He has to be taken seriously at every level, and destroyed. His rhetoric and lies are very effective.
Is there a down side to destroying Fa***e and Reform UK Ltd?
The Democrats laughed at Trump and his Deplorables. He now has power.
What will defeat Fa***e is defeating poverty and injustice. There will always be hardcore racist thugs, but they have little appeal to people with warm homes, full bellies and decent jobs.
“Authoritarianism hates external scrutiny. We must welcome it and call for it now.” Amen to that.
Indeed, that is a central reason I have always supported the EU, as a check on the Thatcherite deregulation agenda. One of the reasons we have polluted beaches and rivers (apart from the scandal of the privatised water companies) is that having left the EU there is no power to heavily fine polluters, even though the EU related laws have been retained – the law is on paper but now without the heavy penalties (air pollution standards are the same – laws remain in place, but the penalty oversight and enforcement has gone).
Authoritarian Tory governments from Thatcher onwards nurtured and grew the Eurosceptic narrative of ‘foreign rules’ (even though British input was always central and much valued by many other EU states), to the end point of 2016 and ‘take back control’. (Which has all worked out so well!)
Reform is the natural continuation (and heirs to the Tories) of this deregulate and rip it all up – but they would want to rip up democracy itself in this country.
The notion of a U.S. civil war is laughable. It is a revenge fantasy concocted by the right-wing and Heritage Foundation mouthpieces. To hear it put forward here in the comments is surprising.
Secession would be used as a pretext to crush blue states, conduct mass arrests, and jail or execute political opposition. It would be the most one-sided and embarrassing “war” in history, with peace-loving citizens being rounded up by some combination of cosplay vigilantes and professionals trained to handle IEDs and snipers. Dear Leader would love it.
Professor Greenberg’s blog entry has some worthy (and more realistic) thoughts on resistance:
https://jamesbgreenberg.substack.com/p/resisting-rule-by-fea
Too many sources in the US discuss it to dismiss it as you do.
Rhe question is you are not recignising is, where is the army?
If the armed services are your hope, I would not bank on it. They have been through years and years of gross mismanagement and corruption themselves. Those who saw clearly left, either for higher paid corporate work or to raise children, whom they counseled not to join. The remainder are led by loyalists. (Quite frankly, some of those loyalists come across as stark raving mad.) The rank and file will not defect except in the most extreme circumstances, and I think by the time they wake up, it will be too late.
If not, Trump is prepared to set the different branches against one another.
Even if we do have some modest fraction of support from that direction, you will find no material support, and indeed a great deal of opposition from Silicon Valley and Wall Street, the pillars of California and New York.
Now ask yourself, where would the supplies come from? The logistical management and personnel? Are we prepared to ally with the cartels south of the border (already being targeted by Trump) — probably the most well funded and experienced bunch outside the armed services? Are we prepared to ally with China?
No, I’m sorry Robert, “many are saying” isn’t evidence of rational thought. Furthermore, encouraging this deranged line of thinking is only playing into Trump’s desire to be cast as the Redeemer Who Gave Us Order. He wants a showdown. We must deny it to him for the time being; choose where to stand our ground wisely; and let the consequences of fascism build the support for its opposition.
Sorry, I obviously meant Richard, not Robert. Too much going on lately.