💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › julia-tanenbaum-from-pittsburgh-to-brazil.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 11:36:11. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-06-20)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: From Pittsburgh to Brazil Author: Julia Tanenbaum Date: 29th October 2018 Language: en Topics: antisemitism, Fascism, violence, Black Rose Anarchist Federation Source: Retrieved on 2020-04-11 from https://blackrosefed.org/pittsburgh-brazil-antisemitism-fascist-violence/
Antisemitic violence has spiked dramatically in the United States with
2018 being the largest single year increase on record since 1994. From
desecrations of graveyards to the massacre of eleven worshipers at the
Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, this confluence of bigotry and
white supremacist fervor exemplifies a growing global wave of fascist
violence which endangers us all.
When the Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers screamed “All Jews must die!”
as he opened fire Saturday morning, he chose his targets not only out of
antisemitism – a theoretical core of white nationalist ideology – but
also for the reason that the synagogue worked with the Hebrew Immigrant
Aid Society, an organization which honors our people’s history as
refugees by helping displaced people all over the world. This tradition
of solidarity, often called “tikkun olum” or “repairing the world,” is
part of the reason Jews have historically played important roles in
revolutionary struggles against capitalism and fascism around the world.
Often though fascism and antisemitism are both terms widely
misunderstood on the Left; in order to offer a liberatory alternative to
the barbarism of capitalism and white supremacy, we must first define
these threats. In its most essential form, fascism is organized
reactionary political violence, with defining features such as extreme
nationalism, misogyny, authoritarianism, anti-communism, and racism.
Yet, fascism is not simply state repression or a fixed ideology, but
rather a dynamic process which requires popular violence from below to
seize power.
Antisemitism is at the heart of fascist ideology in its contemporary
form, which is often called white nationalism. As anti-fascist
researcher Eric Ward emphasizes, without coming to terms with “the
centrality of antisemitism to White nationalist ideology,” the Left will
fail to understand how white supremacists fuel their virulent racism and
xenophobia. Antisemitism operates differently from other forms of
oppression, which disempower their victims based on poverty,
racialization, or colonized status. Antisemitism instead thrives on an
illusion of power and privilege, which deflects blame from the system of
capitalism itself onto individuals. Jews have historically acted as
middlemen for capitalists, as landlords or bankers when denied the right
to other employment, farming or ownership of land. It is no coincidence
that feudal and early capitalist societies chose Jews to embody the most
obvious symbols of capitalist oppression. As April Rosenblum defines it,
“Antisemitism’s job is to make ruling classes invisible. It protects
ruling class power structures, diverting anger at injustice toward Jews
instead.” Jews have always provided a convenient scapegoat for
capitalists, as a presumably all powerful and wealthy group whose
privilege can be discarded at any time. Sephardic and Mizrahi
communities have a more complex relationship to white supremacy, as they
face both antisemitism and overt racism and colonialism. Not all Jews
are white, but even white Jews can lose their whiteness.
To envision the relationship between fascism and antisemitism from a
different angle, we should remember the words of Jewish Marxist
philosopher Walter Benjamin that “every resurgence of fascism bears
witness to a failed revolution.” In other words, when institutions of
the left like political parties and movements fail to mobilize the
revolutionary potential of the moment and to provide a real alternative
to the constant crises of capitalism this paves the way for reaction.
This was true regarding the Social Democratic Party in Weimar Germany
and applies to many other Left parties today. In these situations,
reactionaries shift the blame towards Jews, immigrant populations and
other marginalized communities.
Benjamin’s insight is prescient and incisive in understanding the rapid
ascendance of Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency of Brazil. After 14 years
in power from 2002 to 2016, the commodity boom which gave the class
conciliation approach of the Workers’ Party (PT) breathing room had come
to an end. As waves of austerity measures, worker strikes, street
rebellions and subsequent repression ensued, the alienation of the PT’s
base set the stage for the right-wing to use a corruption scandal to
engineer a parliamentary coupand remove PT President Dilma Rousseff from
power and jail the popular former PT President Lula de Silva. With
disillusionment in the political system becoming widespread Bolsonaro,
formerly an isolated and minor figure, was able to rise in popularity by
presenting himself as a savior. Conveniently Bolsonaro also received
support from figures such as former Trump operative Steve Bannon and the
Koch brothers.
Bolsanaro is not only a bigot, homophobe, misogynist, and militarist,
but is a true adherent to fascist ideology. Marginalized Brazilians
realize they are in grave danger; as the founder of São Paulo’s annual
gay pride parade put it, “It’s as if the gates of hell have been opened
– as if hunting season had been declared.” This comment is not
hyperbolic in a year of constant political violence targeting
socialists, feminists, LGBT community members, and Afro-Brazilians. Many
fear Bolsonaro’s brazen bigotry and public support for extrajudicial
killings will launch a new era of brutality and genocidal violence, a
prescient fear in a fledgling republic only 30 years from its last
dictatorship. Indeed, the new President promises a “cleansing never seen
before in Brazilian history” and torture and civil war on an
unprecedented scale. Unlike Trump, whose lacks a cogent fascist
ideology, Bolsonaro draws on a historic tradition that lost power but
never truly disappeared.
As humanity faces the seemingly insurmountable threat of looming
fascism, we must celebrate the survival of our peoples and those who
gave their lives to struggle against it. We honor our ancestors when we
stand in solidarity with racial, religious, sexual, and gender
minorities around the world, but not when we sacrifice the safety of
others for our own. Fascism is an ancient foe, one that Jews have
attempted to escape through nationalism and militarism. The Israeli
state’s disregard for victims of antisemitism is incredibly clear as
members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra nationalist
Likud party blame the victims in Pittsburgh for their own deaths because
they dared to welcome Muslim refugees. Instead, those who immediately
stood in solidarity with the massacred congregants were the Muslim
community of Pittsburgh.
Racism and apartheid will never keep us safe and the policies of the
Israeli state have created unlikely alliances between real antisemites
and Jews. The anti-Muslim bigotry of Netanyahu and his allies is so
extreme that they actively “inspire” white supremacists like Richard
Spencer with their anti-refugee and apartheid policies, such as the
recent “Jewish Nation State Law” which officially legalized racial
apartheid. Their reaction to antisemitism truly pales in comparison to
the violence they inflict in our name on innocent Palestinians.
To build a future without fascism, we must honor the tradition of our
socialist and internationalist ancestors, and fight where we stand, to
defend all our communities from those who would prefer to see us burn.
As the old Yiddish song that Polish Jews sang as they stared down their
executioners goes, “We will outlive them.” We must fuel revolutionary
anti-fascist movements with this spirit of collective memory to honor
the sacrifice and resilience of all victims of fascist violence around
the world.