John Christensen shared this definition of fascism with me yesterday.
The subject has always been of concern to us. In January 2005, we had a meeting in the Pizza Express opposite the British Library to discuss how to develop the idea of tax justice, which by then clearly had the capability of becoming our full-time occupations if only we could find the funding to keep our families going (as in due course we did).
During that meeting, we conducted what was, in effect, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis. I clearly recall we agreed on the threat. It was fascism. Nothing has changed. This is the list John has always used to describe the characteristics of fascism when, as I noted the other day, the one thing a fascist will never do is describe themselves as such:
The list is helpful, and far too familiar now, given the behaviour of too many politicians both in the USA and here in the UK.
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The flag flyers struck our village last night and filmed their activities on the local web site.
I noted the ‘patriots’ don’t know which way up to fly the national flag!
Ian, has the wretched thing been taken down yet?
I’ll keep it short.
Mr Jenrick got rid of our District Councils leaving us with one for the whole county. There are local town councils but they are under resourced, so not yet.
On the local website today over 300 people have liked the post.
Last week I was abused on that site for pointing out the facts about refugees not being scroungers (the term being used).
Then today it was pointed out I and 12-15 or so other people attended the early raising of the flag on VE day and wondered if the patriots were there. You can guess the answer to that.
Philip Mirowski has done a lot to locate Neo-liberalism in authoritarianism/anti-democracy , as has Nancy MacLean’s work.
I see fascism as politically scientific method of grabbing power by creating/capitalising on chaos and then appealing to society’s more base instincts in order win control. It’s a very powerful and successful methodology unfortunately.
I would simply note that we have seen ample evidence recently of (a) threats to undermine the independence of the judiciary and (b) circumvention of the legislative process. We are, I fear, already some way down the road to fascism in the UK.
I agree, entirely. And the threats in question come from both the media and our politicians, and in both cases are designed to undermine this essential part of our democracy.
Christina Pagel on authoritarianism in USA:
‘ In February 2025, I started tracking any Trump administration action that fell into one of five broad authoritarian domains:
Undermining Democratic Institutions & Rule of Law; Dismantling federal government
Dismantling Social Protections & Rights; Enrichment & Corruption
Suppressing Dissent & Controlling Information
Attacking Science, Environment, Health, Arts & Education
Aggressive Foreign Policy & Global Destabilisation; Nationalism
I wrote my first substack post pulling together the actions just three weeks in, at 78 recorded actions. This week, exactly seven months into Trump’s second term, we’ve hit 1000 recorded authoritarian-like actions. The administration is speeding up – it took almost 3 months for the first 250 actions, but the last 250 have come in just one month. ‘
[ https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/grand-designs-the-loss-of-american ]
I had forgotten about the fact she was doing that. Thank you. A very good resoruce from a very reliable person.
By the time the public realise that fascism is taking over, it will be too late to stop it.
How many of us are prepared to challenge thugs in the street? These thugs may not be fascist, but if they recognise it as an excuse to bully people(or worse), they will soon grow in numbers and the intimidation will spread. The police do what they can, as do the courts, but there is a critical mass of lawless thugs which once reached is anarchic.
The politicians promoting fascism quietly acquiesce in this type of behaviour while denigrating any opposition with floods of false stories concerning immigrants, benefit cheats and alleged workers.
Sensible people recognise this nonsense, but are overwhelmed by a minority bent on mayhem.
A teacher in a class of 30 can keep order with a few misbehaving students, but will quickly lose control with more than 6 miscreants.
In society, we have only around 15% of fascists and their goons, but they can wreak havoc unless they are dealt with before they are joined by opportunists and hooligans looking for any trouble they can find.
The Stockport inspired riots were quickly snuffed out by police. I’m not sure the next riots will go the same way.
Christina did some incredibly impressive work during Covid.
This ia an equally impressive collation… she seems to have gathered a lot of support to do it.
All incredibly depressing though…
A definition of fascism from James Bolam’s character in 1970’s, When the Boat Comes In, “fascism isn’t politics it’s assault and battery”, as good any I’ve heard.
Oh, Please!,
What is your problem with the truth?
No sign of extra flags in S Bristol, yet, and my postie hasn’t seen anything. Certainly nothing unusual in my neighbourhood.
Let’s hope this does not spread. Certainly nothing around here.