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Title: Anti-Fascism Against Machismo
Author: Petronella Lee
Date: October 3, 2019
Language: en
Topics: anti-fascism, feminism
Source: https://north-shore.info/2019/10/03/anti-fascism-beyond-machismo/

Petronella Lee

Anti-Fascism Against Machismo

Introduction: The Rising Tide of Fascism

“It’s a naturalized, state-sanctioned, normalized and deepening fascism,

whose waves of violence seem to measure the strides of a giant… So here

this question is key: What do we mean when we speak of feminism?

Feminism cannot be defined at the surface level…It’s a struggle that is

only renewed by restoring the historical memory of our women fighters,

those who have been forgotten in the dustbins of revolutions… We cannot

think of a feminism, an anti-patriarchy, without anti-capitalism,

without anti-fascism, without anti-racism and without class

struggle….”[1]

In the spring of 2017, a video of an anti-fascist being beaten at a

counter demonstration in Berkley went viral. The video depicted counter

protestor Louise Rosealma being punched in the face and knocked to the

ground by white supremacist and founder of Identity Evropa, Nathan

Damigo. On social media, in major news articles, and within movement

circles, the video was the subject of extensive commentary. This

incident and the various reactions to it tell us much about our current

moment. It reveals that we are living through a time where alt-right,

white nationalist, and neo-nazi forces are gaining momentum and becoming

emboldened. As the video circulated, the response of the far-right laid

bare the depth of their misogyny and vividly illustrated the extent to

which patriarchal ideology is a key component of their politics. Louise

was doxed and viciously denigrated online – her personal information

including home address and phone number was widely distributed and her

career as a sex worker was publicised. She was called disgusting and a

whore, and was inundated with both rape and death threats. Photos of her

being punched, as well as photos taken from her work in porn became the

backdrop for a plethora of memes appearing on both the internet and the

streets. For example on the streets of Berkley, oversized posters

appeared showing Louise’s naked body beside Damigo’s smiling face with

the text “I’d hit that” written across.[2] Her attack and violence

against women in general, was promoted and celebrated. Others chimed in

on the video and their responses were equally revealing.

The reaction of liberal feminists was predictably disappointing and

highlighted the many shortcomings of their political project. Some

speculated about whether or not the attack would have happened under

Hilary. Others, framed Louise as a victim and in many cases as

non-violent. Narratives circulated claiming she was attacked while

attempting to deescalate and prevent the violence of others, or was

attacked unprovoked while peacefully protesting. A gendered pacifism was

implied, and violence was presented as something done to Louise (as a

woman), but not something that Louise (as a woman) could or would do.

Hand-in-hand with these claims, were calls for police involvement and

the arrest of Damigo. In the typical style of carceral feminism,

increased policing, criminalization, and incarceration were proposed as

the appropriate response to the incident. Reactions coming from the left

weren’t much better, and exposed the sexism ingrained in anti-fascist

politics. Posts, photos, and memes covering the incident were highly

patronizing and critiqued Damigo on the basis that he was a coward for

hitting a woman (assumed to weaker and less of a threat). Despite a long

history of women putting their bodies on the line to fight fascism,

physical confrontation was implicitly presented as the realm of men.

Even in supposedly progressive circles, the popular image of the

anti-fascist is a male body; often a white male body that borrows

heavily from the aesthetics of antifa movements in Europe. Based in a

tacit denial of women’s agency, conversations about Louise became a

matter of identity (of her being a woman), rather than a matter of

politics or activity. Last and certainly not least, this incident and

the fact that it got so much attention speaks to the deep-seated racism

that underlines both the left and the right. Women get attacked all the

time, white supremacists beat women all of the time, and women of colour

disproportionately face the brunt of it. Louise’s experience went viral

and garnered such broad interest undoubtedly because she is a white,

conventionally attractive cis-woman.

The far-right has been on the rise and over the course of the last

several years their ideas have been gaining traction. First at the level

of grassroots politics, and now more and more at the level of

institutional politics, far-right ideology has a notable foothold. It

isn’t only that far- right movements have grown, but further, that

far-right ideas from the margins have seeped into the mainstream. The

situation is bleak, but not hopeless. We have to know our enemy and we

have a lot of work to do; however, many of the options presented to us

can be found lacking. We’re given the choice between a pacifying liberal

feminism of “pussy hats” and “protective policing,” or a reductive

anti-fascism defined by machismo and sexism. Against such a backdrop,

this article seeks to examine the gendered dimensions of fascist

movements and anti-fascist struggle, as well as to consider the

possibilities for an anti-fascism rooted in revolutionary feminism. For

the purpose of this article, I use the term fascism/fascist broadly to

refer to a complicated and diverse phenomenon that includes a plethora

of far-right groups, ideologies, and movements, including white

nationalists, neo-Nazis, ultra-patriots, the alternative right,

identitarians, and traditionalists, amongst others.[3] The article is

divided into three distinct, yet interrelated parts, intended to cover

the politics, practices, and histories of fascism, gender, and militant

resistance. Part 1 explores the gender politics of fascism today, Part 2

examines the history of women’s participation in anti-fascist

resistance, and Part 3 concludes with a consideration of the challenges

and prospects for developing an explicitly feminist anti-fascism.

Part 1 – The Gender Politics of Fascism: Across the Spectrum of

Fascist Sexisms

“Fascism, then, is an exacerbation, a more militant extension, of the

patriarchal relationships between men and women that have persisted for

centuries. It is a worsening of the fantasies, the violence, the

misshapen desires that the whole system of gender relationships that

have long pertained in European societies and those in the new world

that are descended from them. Rather than a thing, which is

categorically distinct from other social and political systems, fascism

is a process, which can easily recur, and wherein we can see men, and

groups of men, who have commenced the journey.”[4]

Following the death of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, an organizer of

the Unite the Right event commented that Heather was a “fat, disgusting,

communist” and her death was “payback.”[5] In a similar vein, comments

were posted online celebrating her murder and calling her a “useless

slut” on the grounds that “a 32-year old woman without children is a

burden on society and has no value.”[6] Beyond being attacked for her

anti-fascist politics, Heather was attacked for being a woman. At the

2018 Women’s March in Seattle, posters exclaiming “Make women property

again” made an appearance.[7] During this same time at a similar march

in Providence, members of the white nationalist group Vanguard America

showed up with a banner reading “Feminists Deserve The Rope.”[8] On

International Women’s Day, an article on a popular neo-nazi website

proposed that an “International Burn a Witch Day” and an “International

Shame a THOT Day” be celebrated as “it’s only fair that we reward AND

punish.”[9] Only a few years earlier at an International Women’s Day

celebration in Sweden, neo-Nazis attacked the crowd and seriously

injured five women.[10] More recently, in Santiago this past July a

feminist march in support of free and legal abortion in Chile was

attacked by the fascist group the Social Patriotic Movement. Several

hundred members of the group – infamous for describing feminists as

animals and arguing for their sterilization – attempted to block the

march and in the process covered the streets in animal blood, physically

attacked the demonstrators, and stabbed three women.[11] Such examples

are seemingly endless.

Incidents such as these are taking place with growing frequency, as

those on the far- right increasingly decry the role of feminism in

propagating “Cultural Marxism” and destroying “Western

Civilization.”[12] Echoing the idea promoted in Nazi Germany that

women’s emancipation “would destroy the German race and lead to the

introduction of Bolshevism,” feminism (and women) are still the

enemy.[13] Then, as in now, patriarchy is fundamental to fascism. Taking

this assertion as a starting point, this section focuses on where and

how the question of gender fits into fascism. To do so, I explore the

rise of the Alt-Right, examine the differing perspectives on gender and

sexuality found on the contemporary far-right and finally, consider the

role of the “white women victim” trope in propping up white supremacy.

MRA’s, “the Manosphere,” and the Rise of the Alt-Right

The current resurgence and proliferation of far-right movements in North

America has frequently been linked to the rise of the Alt-Right. Short

for the alternative right, the Alt-Right can be understood as a loosely

organized collection of ideological tendencies, groups, podcasts,

websites, think-tanks, and figureheads that have created a new breed of

white supremacy. It takes inspiration from the identarian ideas of the

European New Right and is tied together by “a contempt for both liberal

multiculturalism and mainstream conservatism”[14] and a “trenchant

opposition to all socio-economic, cultural, and political propositions

based on egalitarianism and collectivity.”[15] While it is best known

for its politics of white nationalism and antisemitism, politics of

misogyny are also formative. Patriarchal ideology fundamentally shapes

the Alt-Right and misogyny is undoubtedly one of its central

pillars.[16] The Alt-Right advocates not only for white supremacy, but

more specifically for white male supremacy.[17] Sexism rather racism, is

the gateway drug that has led many to join the Alt-Right.[18] Romano

explains: “The basic idea that ‘women are getting too out of hand’ is

the patriarchal common denominator. And it aligns perfectly with male

rage against ‘social justice’ activism, which in turn paves the way for

white nationalism and white supremacy to gain a foothold.”[19] To

understand this dynamic, it is useful to look at some of the precursors

to the Alt-Right movement.

Countless observers have linked the Alt-Right to the so-called “the

Manosphere,” arguing that the Alt-Right arose in part from and continues

to be closely intertwined.[20] Emerging in and around the 2010s, the

manosphere is most simply defined as “an online antifeminist male

subculture that has grown rapidly in recent years, largely outside of

traditional right-wing” circles.[21] It entails a disparate network of

websites, internet forums, blogs, and videos that focus on men’s issues,

share a chauvinistic orientation, and are united by an emphasis on male

victimhood. Those involved speak out against the tyranny of SJWs (social

justice warriors) and PC (politically correct) culture, and condemn

feminism, along with other equity seeking movements as instigators of

societal decline. The manosphere first entered the public limelight in

2014 with the “Gamergate” controversy, in which a large online campaign

was undertaken against a number of women who worked in the video game

industry and had spoken out against sexism. Supporters of Gamergate

claimed that the campaign was about defending free speech and fighting

for journalistic ethics, however, in practice the campaign marked a

blatant attack against women in the industry. In the words of one

researcher: “This campaign took the diffuse online harassment of women

and sharpened it into coordinated attacks against specific women, who

faced stream of misogynistic invective, rape, and death threats, and

doxing.”[22] This event was a harbinger of things to come, foreshadowing

the rise of the Alt-Right and offering a glimpse into the future.[23]

Indeed, the tactics forged by Gamergaters such as online harassment,

targeted abuse, and doxing, were picked up by the Alt-Right and have

become a common tool of the far- right.[24]

The manosphere universe is comprised of a variety of different and

overlapping circles, including MRAs, PUAs, MGTOWs, and INCELs. The first

of which, Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) assert that the legal system,

media, and society at large unfairly discriminate against men. They talk

of misandry, argue that men (and not women) are oppressed and otherwise

disadvantaged, and advocate on a number of different issues such as

suicide, domestic abuse, and child custody. The metaphor of “the red

pill” is central; evoked to describe one’s awakening to the dark truths

of our world such as “feminism is toxic, sexism is fake, men have it

harder than women, and everything the media teaches about relationships

is a lie.”[25] Paul Elam, founder of the influential MRA website A Voice

for Men has promoted beating women[26] and infamously commented “there

are a lot of women who get pummeled and pumped because they are stupid

(and often arrogant) enough to walk through life with the equivalent of

a I’M A STUPID, CONNIVING BITCH – PLEASE RAPE ME neon sign glowing above

their empty little narcissistic heads.”[27] Their vitriolic hatred of

women is undeniable.

Moving to the next category, Pickup Artists (PUAs) focus on helping men

learn how to pick-up women and manipulate them into having sex. They

talk about “the game,” are obsessed with the notion of an alpha/beta

male hierarchy, and advocate a predatory sexuality based on asserting

dominance.[28] One of their best known figures, Daryush Valizadeh who

writes under the name Roosh V on the PUA website Return of Kings has

argued for the legalization of rape on private property.[29] In May

2014, Elliot Rodger injured 14 and killed 6 at the University of

California where he hoped to “slaughter every single spoiled, stuck-up

blond slut.”[30] His manifesto stated amongst other things that PUA

forums had confirmed his theories “about how wicked and degenerate women

really are.”[31] The garbage continues and next we have Men Going Their

Own Way (MGTOWs). MGTOWs are basically male separatists – they choose to

avoid relationships with women altogether as a “protest against a

culture destroyed by feminism.”[32] Websites like MGTOW.com, advocate

men’s independence from women, argue for the importance of male

preservation, and discuss the fight of modern man to protect his

sovereignty. Their writings are “peppered with references to a ‘bitch’

who will cheat, leave, use you for your money” and discussions of how

“women will either trick them into raising children that aren’t theirs,

get pregnant intentionally in order to trap them, or falsely accuse them

of rape.”[33] Essentially, women are viewed as degenerate and

untrustworthy sluts programmed to ruin men’s lives.

Finally, Involuntary Celibates (INCELs) are a subculture of primarily

young men who identify as involuntarily celibate. Influenced by a sense

of unfulfilled sexual entitlement, they speak of swallowing the “black

pill”[34] and conceptualize their condition – defined by the absence of

romantic or sexual relationships – as immutable. Sparrow explains:

“Incels understand biology as destiny. They regard themselves as losers

in life’s genetic lottery. They’re self-described betas, condemned by

their faces and physiques to perpetual isolation while women (whom they

deride as ‘Stacys’) seek out the muscular, handsome males (known in the

incel lexicon as ‘Chads’).”[35] While some amount of blame is placed on

other men, incels primarily hold women responsible for their misery. As

a result, they denigrate women online, discuss the best ways to punish

them, and in some cases advocate mass rape, maiming, and murder.[36] In

Spring 2018, Alek Minassian drove a van into a crowd of pedestrians in

Toronto killing 10 people, 8 of whom were women.[37] Hours before the

attack, he made a post on Facebook celebrating the “Incel Rebellion.” In

the after math of the incident, Jordan Peterson (psychology professor

and darling of the Right) insisted that such acts of violence are what

happens when men do not have partners. To address this issue, Peterson

and his followers suggest enforced monogamy as the rational solution to

redistribute sex and prevent single men from committing mass

violence.[38]

These various online communities and the different patriarchal

orientations they represent, have led many insecure, marginalized, and

otherwise struggling men to broader fascistic politics. They function to

create a culture united in the belief that white male masculinity is

under attack and the status of men must be protected at all costs. In

the context of changes in capitalism and the organization of labour,

coupled with various cultural-political changes said to favour women and

“minorities,” more and more men are embracing the far- right. Reflecting

on this reality, Bromma attests:

“Millions of men are losing ‘their’ women, and ‘their’ jobs, and it’s

driving them crazy… The anger of male dispossession fuels reactionary

populist, fundamentalist and fascist trends in every part of the world.

These right-wing movements are typically led by men of the middle

classes, furious at losing the privileges they held under the previous

male capitalist order. But millions of poor and de-classed men are

joining in, forming a kind of united front of misogyny.”[39]

In what has been referred to as the “MRA-to-white-nationalist-pipeline”

men concerned with the demise of patriarchal culture and their declining

material conditions in general, are seduced by white supremacist thought

and xenophobic ideas. As a result, they come to embrace white

nationalism and advocate the vision of “an ethnically cleansed future”

that is “hostile to female power.”[40] Misogyny plants the seeds of

fascism and operates as a stepping stone to the larger movement.

Across the Spectrum of Fascist Sexisms

They have learned the dark truths of the world, but unlike other groups

belonging to the manosphere who set out to challenge and change that

reality, incels see their situation as fundamentally unchangeable. Their

situation and more broadly their life, is hopeless.

White supremacist movements have always been entangled with misogyny. As

Spencer notes, their understanding of “racial hierarchy is intimately

tied up with other social hierarchies.”[41] That said, although

virtually all fascists are anti-feminist, their views on gender and

sexuality are not monolithic. In the words of one researcher: “All far

rightists promote male dominance, but the kinds of male dominance they

promote differ enormously.”[42] There is much disagreement and frequent

debate on the topic within the far-right. Speaking to the place of

women, some argue for the complete banishment of women from the public

sphere, while others argue that (white) women have a role to play in the

white nationalist movement. On the topic of homosexuality, some argue

for the extermination of all queers, while others argue for (and even

celebrate) the inclusion of openly gay men. There is no consensus and

substantial tensions exist. Before mapping out some of these tensions,

it is useful to note the points of agreement that unite the far-right in

regards to the question of gender.

Despite extensive disagreement, there a number of general ideas on which

almost all agree. Some of the most common include: 1) gender

essentialism; 2) gender difference; and 3) gender hierarchy. First and

foremost is the idea of essentialism, understood as “the view that

anything, creature, or person has an essential nature that categorically

defines it, materially and/or spiritually.”[43] Gender, like race, is

essential – it is a biologically determined fact that defines the

essence of a person and shapes everything from ability to intelligence

to motivations to vices to human worth. It is an universal category that

is not socially constructed, but the unchangeable product of nature.[44]

Based on this understanding, the second shared idea is that of binary

gender and specific gender roles. Gender is conceptualized as binary and

rigid. One is born either a man or a woman, and this inescapably

dictates one’s place in the world. Each gender comes with a unique set

of innate traits and predetermined characteristics, and as such, men are

suited to specific roles and women to others. It is worth highlighting

that this position translates to agreement on opposing the notion of

gender as non-binary, and thus, agreement on opposing (and frequently

enacting violence against) genderqueer and trans people. In general, the

far-right shares revulsion for trans people, and a particular hostility

for transwomen who “are seen as men who reject their natural roles and

privileges and ‘voluntarily’ become the hated other.”[45] Lastly, the

third shared idea concerns gender hierarchy and inequality. Gender is

necessarily viewed as a hierarchy. It is not only that men and women are

fundamentally different, but that men are fundamentally superior to

women. Inequality between men and women is the product of biology and a

fact of nature – some genders, some races, some abilities, and some

sexualities are simply inferior. In sum, gender is determined by nature,

gender differences are immutable, and a clear gender hierarchy where men

dominate and rule exists (and is desirable). These ideas are the basis

upon which the gender ideology of the far-right is built.

Drawing on these guiding threads, a number of different orientations

emerge. In his study of misogyny and right-wing movements, Lyon suggests

that all far-right positions on gender draw on four ideological themes –

patriarchal traditionalism, demographic nationalism, male bonding

through warfare, and quasi feminism.[46] As part of this framework,

patriarchal traditionalism is most frequently formulated in religious

terms, promotes rigid traditional gender roles, and emphasizes the

nuclear family as the mechanism for male control over women.[47]

Demographic nationalism is primarily concerned with reproduction. It is

often connected to the fear that a nation or race isn’t reproducing fast

enough and/or that the stock is declining in quality (e.g. through

racial mixing), and declares that women’s main duty to the nation or

race “is to have lots of babies.”[48] Male bonding through warfare is

also referred to as the cult of male comradeship, and it “emphasizes

warfare (hardship, risk of death, shared acts of violence and killing)

as the basis for deep emotional and spiritual ties between men.”[49]

Historically associated with war in the trenches, it is today more

commonly associated with street-fighting and militias. It sees physical

confrontation as the most important aspect of life – the foundation upon

which everything is built. Activities related to physicality are thus

prioritized and celebrated above all others. Since women are and will

always be non-combatants, they have little to no value. Lastly,

quasi-feminism advocates specific rights for women, although not

equality, and promotes “an expanded political role for women while

accepting men’s overall dominance.”[50] Movements may draw heavily on a

single theme or a mixture of several, and this may or may not change

over time.

As part of this “warring visions of patriarchy” [51], the approaches

taken by far-right groups can be conceptualized as falling into one of

two distinct categories – what I am going to refer to as patriarchal

fascism and misogynistic fascism. In the category of patriarchal fascism

women are considered inferior, but useful, and they have a role or

particular roles to play in the white supremacist movement. This

approach is exemplified by the infamous “Fourteen Words.” Described as

the most popular white supremacist slogan in world, “Fourteen Words” is

typically written in one of two variations: “We must secure the

existence of our people and a future for white children” or “Because the

beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the earth.”[52] In

both versions women are valued, as mothers, as symbols of beauty, and as

protectors of the future. This orientation has a long legacy. Throughout

the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan actively recruited women and combined white

supremacy with a “specific, gendered notion of the preservation of

family life and women’s rights.”[53] They criticized inequality amongst

whites, and promoted the “special mission of Klanswomen” to protect

“pure womanhood” and the home.[54] In Germany, the Nazi Party had a

women’s wing – The National Socialist Women’s League. According to Nazis

ideology, women belonged to three areas of activity “Kinder, Küche,

Kirche” (children, kitchen, and church).[55] Women’s roles were highly

restricted, however, they were also highly regarded. Mothers were seen

as fighting a battle for the nation and “accorded with the same

honourable status as the soldier.”[56]

Turning to our contemporary moment, this legacy continues. Coming to

prominence in the 1980s, the neo-nazi group White Aryan Resistance (WAR)

created the affiliate group Aryan Women’s League (AWL). It denounced the

feminist movement as a Jewish conspiracy, while arguing that women had

subordinate, but complimentary roles to play in the race war.[57] The

largest neo-nazi organization in the United States, The National

Socialist Movement has a specific Women’s Division.[58] Another example,

Women for Aryan Unity was founded in the 1990s and has chapters in

several continents. They call for the reinvention of feminism “with the

parameters of Race and Revolution,” and urge women to develop both

domestic and survivalist skills in order to take care of home life and

be ready to take up arms if their men require it.[59] Self-proclaimed

western chauvinists, The Proud Boys have as one of their central tenets

“venerate the housewife.” They argue that “women are equal but

different,” interpreted to mean men go to work and women stay at

home.[60] Women cannot join The Proud Boys, however, they can join The

Proud Boys Girls – a supporting group comprised of “the wives,

girlfriends, and cheerleaders” of The Proud Boys.[61]

While the above examples are far from progressive, they are also far

from being the worst. Over the course of the last decade, the

far-right’s engagement with “the woman question” has taken an even

darker turn. Well-known commentator on the manosphere David Futrelle,

elaborates:

“…like many traditionalists, Hitler and his fellow Nazis tempered their

misogyny – or at least tried to make it seem more palatable – with

praise for the supposed purity and womanly honor of Aryan women who fit

themselves neatly into their restricted roles. Today’s neo- Nazis, or at

least those who’ve come to Nazism through 4chan and the meme wars of the

alt-right, have a much darker view of women, one influenced more by

bitter misogyny of ‘Red Pill’ pickup artists and Men Going Their Own Way

than by sentimental fantasies of ‘Kinder, Küche, Kirche’.”[62]

Going beyond traditional claims about the sanctity of the family and

natural gender roles, many contemporary groups influenced by the

Alt-Right promote an intensely misogynistic ideology that straight-up

hates women. They have largely abandoned the idea that “women have

important, dignified roles to play as mothers and homemakers” to promote

the message “that women as a group are contemptible, pathetic creatures

not worthy of respect.”[63] For instance, men’s rights activist and

white nationalist F. Roger Devlin refers to women as the new “white

man’s burden,” arguing that traditional visions of marriage and the

family “did not oppress women enough” and should be replaced with “a

vision of absolute servility.”[64] This is the realm of misogynistic

fascism – women are not only inferior, but useless, and they have little

to no role to play in the white nationalist movement. Examples of this

orientation are terrifyingly ample.

Renown white supremacist website The Daily Stormer[65] has banned women

from contributing to site, virulently argues against their inclusion in

anything, and has come into conflict with women associated with the

older white supremacist website Stormfront.[66] At several rallies in

the last year, crowds of white nationalists could be found chanting

“white sharia now.”[67] Promoted by some on the far-right, the idea of

“white sharia” proposes that in a future white ethnostate “the

sexuality, reproduction, daily life, and right to consent of White women

should be controlled by White men.”[68] In a video promoting the idea,

one proponent asserts: “Under ‘white sharia’ our women will no longer be

permitted to live their lives as sluts…And you won’t have any career

women invading your workplace either. Nope. Under ‘white sharia’ our

women won’t even be able to leave the home without being escorted by a

male family member.”[69] Many defenders of the concept also advocate

making abortions forbidden for white women, and mandatory for women of

colour.[70] Equally vile, members of the militant Atomwaffen Division

encourage the rape of white women as a tool to force the birth of more

white babies[71], and promote the rape of non-white women as a tool to

terrorise by forcing “them to carry around the spawn of their master and

enemy.”[72] Beyond such obvious suspects, this particular orientation to

women in far-right politics takes some less expected turns.

Under the umbrella of misogynist fascism, there exists a strain

specifically defined by a queer misogyny. This subsection, referred to

by Kirchick as “homofascism” is comprised of aggressively sexist and

generally hypermasculine gay men who literally have no use for

women.[73] As mentioned earlier, the far-right’s position on sexuality

is somewhat complicated. On the one hand, LGBTQ rights are seen as a

sign of social degeneration, Jewish influence, and an attack on white

society.[74] In response, it is not uncommon to see “open calls for the

expulsion or violent eradication of LGBT+ people.”[75] On the other

hand, when speaking specifically of the “homosexual question” things are

much less clear cut. Nazi Germany rounded up and slaughtered homosexuals

by the tens of thousands, yet, it is also common knowledge that there

were gay Nazis. The most famous being Ernst Röhm, a high-ranking

official and head of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary force (the SA). Along

with Hitler, Röhm was a “founding father of Nazism”[76] and his

particular brand fascism “was identical to the Nazi’s Party’s ideology

in almost all respects, save on questions of male-male eroticism.”[77]

Under Röhm, homosexuality was highly regarded in the SA where “they

promoted an aggressive, hypermasculine form of homosexuality, condemning

‘hysterical women of both sexes’ in reference to feminine gay men.”[78]

They celebrated ancient warrior cults and frequently referenced the

Greek tradition of sending gay soldiers, who were believed to be the

most fierce fighters into battle.[79] In the 1980s, an explicitly gay

neo-nazi skinhead movement emerged in the UK.[80] In the late 1990s, the

American Resistance Corps (ARC) was founded in North America with the

goal of uniting gay and straight skinheads to create “a new era of

tolerance and compassion between racist heterosexuals and homosexuals in

their war against non-whites.”[81]

Looking to our current period, some on the far-right simply do not care

about male sexuality one way or another. For instance, editor-in-chief

of the influential Counter Currents Publishing Greg Johnson argues:

“White Nationalism is for the interests of whites and against the

interests of our racial enemies. Period. Anything else is beside the

point.”[82] Similarly, the infamous alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer

insists that homosexuality is a non-issue – something that has been part

of European societies for millennia and isn’t “something to get worked

up about.”[83] Against this backdrop, several openly gay figures and the

ideas they promote have gained some traction on the far-right. A

featured writer on several alt-right websites and author of a number of

books, James J. O’Meara is best known for his book The Homo and The

Negro.[84] In the book, O’Meara makes the argument “that gay white men

represent the best of what Western culture has to offer because of their

‘intelligence’ and ‘beauty’, and that ‘Negroes’ represent the worst,

being incapable of achievement.”[85] He insists that homosexuality is

quintessential to Western Civilization and promotes gay participation in

fascist movements.[86] O’Meara and others like him, advocate a future in

line with the classic Aryan fantasy of the Männerbund. Associated with

male warrior tribes and homoeroticism, the concept celebrates the unique

bonds between men and speaks to a social order where elite bands of men

rule.[87] Male dominance is central and the fundamental building block

of society isn’t the church or family, but close-knit groups of

organized men.

Arguably the most infamous of this camp, self-described

“anarcho-fascist” Jack Donovan promotes a blend of white nationalism,

gang masculinity, and androphilia (love or sex between masculine

men).[88] He calls for the establishment of a tribal order called “The

Brotherhood” – an order that is comprised of men who swear an oath to

each other and is based on “the way of the gang” understood as a life

centered “on fighting, hierarchy, and drawing the perimeter against

outsiders.”[89] Utilizing violence, gangs of white men are to create

decentralized “homelands/autonomous zones” marked by racially defined

borders and the exclusion of (white)women from public life.[90] Donovan

is a prominent member of the neo-fascist cadre organization The Wolves

of Vinland. Inspired by the theories of the late Italian philosopher

Julius Evola, the group promotes a particularly anti-populist and

anti-woman take on fascism.[91] They prioritize physical fitness and

fight training, and argue that the solution to western decline is “a

return of heroic masculine warrior-kings.”[92] All of these groups and

figures advocate a politics defined by extreme hyper-masculinity based

in an almost pathological veneration of “manliness” and a distain for

femininity. They reject gay culture for its association with decadence

and hate effeminate men as much as they hate women.

White Supremacy, Complicity, and the Legacy of Saviour Politics

Beyond understanding the contemporary far-right’s varying positions on

women, it is furthermore valuable to consider the ways in which women as

a generic symbol and white women in particular are used as a tool to

promote and further white supremacy. Hand-in-hand with the far-right’s

condemnation of feminism, comes the condemnation of immigration and a

particular disdain for black and indigenous women. Combined they

represent the core dangers threatening Western Civilization and white

nationhood. In a somewhat contradictory dynamic, as groups advocate

“putting women in their place” they simultaneously express concern for

women’s safety from supposedly dangerous black and brown men. For

example, it is common for anti-immigrant arguments to be framed in terms

of the threat migrant men – who are discussed as violent and/or as

rapists – pose to “their women.” Founded in Finland and now with

chapters across Europe and North America, the far-right vigilante group

Soldiers of Odin exists for the avowed purpose of conducting street

patrols to keep women safe from refugees with a propensity to rape.[93]

Since taking over the White House, Donald Trump has frequently invoked

the threat of “Mexico sending rapists” to justify increased border

security and stricter immigration policy.[94] Such claims are not unique

to discussion of migrant men alone, but pop up frequently in discussion

of homegrown non-white men as well. In 2017, when white supremacist

Dylann Roof opened fire and massacred nine black churchgoers at a prayer

service in Charleston, he reportedly exclaimed: “You rape our women, and

you’re taking over our country, and you have to go.”[95] Calls to defend

(white) women from the threat of the barbaric “other” play a critical

role in upholding the white supremacist project.

The image of the “white woman victim” who must be protected is

frequently employed by reactionary forces to whip up hysteria and

justify vehemently racist actions. This classic image “implicitly calls

out to white men to defend ‘their women’ and their nation, indeed,

whiteness itself.”[96] White woman’s bodies – understood as central to

the reproduction of race and nation – become symbols to be fought for

and these symbols become powerful tools of propaganda.

Discourses of safety and appeals to patriarchal ideals of womanhood are

invoked to construct the figure of the vulnerable (white) woman under

attack from the dangerous (racialized) other. This dynamic functions to

produce and reproduce particular race and gender formations, as well as

to establish and enforce a particular vision of white nationhood. As

Keskienen notes: “Gender and sexuality have not only been by-products of

colonial and racial encounters, but essential for their

(re)structuring.”[97] The trope of the “barbaric dark-skinned rapist” –

of black and brown men as sexual predators who target white women – has

been a key tool in upholding racial hierarchies and carrying out white

supremacist politics. From the colonization of North America to

lynchings in the United States to xenophobic attacks in Europe and much

else, calls to defend women have been used to incite racialized violence

and establish incredibly racist policy. A brief look into this history

is telling.

The stereotype of “the black brute” and the threat of “the black rapist”

are fundamental to the history of white supremacy in America. The idea

of the black brute was drawn on to contribute to justifications for

slavery, while the myth of the black rapist was “a political invention”

cultivated to promote a “strategy of racist terror” to keep “the Negro”

in check following emancipation.[98] The myth of the black rapist,

complimented by the continued rape of black women, helped to assure the

ongoing domination and exploitation of black people.[99] In the

aftermath of the Civil War, the claim that black men were sexual

predators was used as pretext for murder and mob violence. Lynching came

to be rationalized “as a method to avenge Black men’s assault’s on white

Southern womanhood.”[100] According to Angela Davis, the myth functioned

to both demonize black men and thus legitimize contempt for them, as

well as to exalt white men and excuse their brutality. She explains: “In

a society where male supremacy was all-pervasive, men who were motivated

by their duty to defend their women could be excused of any excesses

they might commit. That their motive was sublime was able justification

for the resulting barbarities.”[101] It is worth noting that as the myth

gained traction “former proponents of Black equality became increasingly

afraid to associate themselves with Black people’s struggle for

liberation” and by the end of the nineteenth century many white women,

including leading suffragists, “publicly vilified Black men for their

alleged attacks on white women.”[102] There is a long legacy of white

women’s complicity in propping up racist narratives that have very real

consequences, and this not just a matter of the distance past.

At first glance, calls for safety – things like calls for safe spaces or

safe neighbourhoods – sound harmless enough. Almost everyone desires to

feel safe. However, within the context of a society defined by racial

domination (institutional and interpersonal racism), calls for safety

often draw on and act to perpetuate racist tropes (e.g. “the black

thug,” “the dangerous black man” etc.) and frequently go hand in hand

with actions and/or policies that enact racialized violence. Wang

elaborates:

“When considering safety, we fail to ask the critical questions about

the co-constitutive relationship between safety and violence. We need to

consider the extent to which racial violence is the unspoken and

necessary underside of security, particularly white security. Safety

requires the removal and containment of people deemed to be threats.

White civil society has a psychic investment in the erasure and

abjection of bodies that they project hostile feels onto, which allows

them peace of mind amidst the state of perpetual violence.”[103]

Looking at the history of the feminist movement against sexual violence,

Wang observes that calls for the safety of women were answered with the

expansion of a racialized penal state. Drawing on the age-old trope of

the black male rapist, appeals to ensure women’s safety acted to

sanction the expansion of the police and the prison system as the state

came to be presented and positioned as the protector of women (almost

always conceptualized as white women).

Through the process of raising awareness about violence and fighting for

aggressive sex crime prosecution, feminists inadvertently aided in the

creation of a tough on crime model of policing and punishment that

reflects the racism of the society from which it came; a society in

which the black male is almost always conceived of as a threat.

Similarly to the function of the anti-black myths in North American

history, anti- indigenous tropes have played an equally influential

role. The convergence of racialized rape narratives and white-nation

building is also integral to history of colonialization and indigenous

genocide in North America. Ideas of “the savage indian” and “native

sexual perversion” were essential to the colonial imagination.[104]

These myths, combined with notions of European superiority and the

righteousness of “civilizing missions” were used to justify war against

indigenous nations, the theft of native land and resources, and the

decimation of native communities. Popular captivity narratives spread

stories about the abduction and barbaric treatment of white women by

violent, lust driven native men. These stories, along with other

writings, helped to solidify the image of Native men as wanton savages

and promote the idea that “ both Native and white women have to be

protected from Indian men.”[105] In addition to providing a rationale

for appropriation and assimilation, Nagel notes that stories of “Indian

depredations and savagery also became a means of justifying white

misbehaviour and atrocities and provided opportunities for white

self-aggrandizement.”[106]

More recently, the trope of “the immigrant rapist,” “the barbaric

refugee,” and “the Muslim extremist” have been central to cries to close

the borders and save the (white) nation. Examining the refugee crisis in

Europe, Carroll observes that those on the right have drawn on the myth

of the immigrant rapist “to call for the closing of the borders as a way

to protect white, European women against the dangerous, brown men who

are coming to Europe seeking asylum.”[107] In addition to impacting

state policy, such myths produce grassroots backlash. Last year, Italian

and Polish neo-nazi groups announced that they were joining forces to

launch patrols of European beaches in order to “protect women and

children from migrants” in the face of a “muslim invasion.”[108] The

Quebec based ultra-nationalist group La Meute, claims it “was founded

for the protection of our women from religious fundamentalism” and

routinely patrols sections of the Canada-US looking for “illegal

refugees.”[109] Calls to protect white women are used to justify

everything from border policy to vigilante violence to the formation of

white- nationalist paramilitary organizations.

Following a related logic, in their fight against migrants (particularly

Muslims) some on the right have begun to publicly advocate for the

safety of LGBTQ people. Calls to protect queers from the threat of

Islamic extremists/gay-hating Muslims have been employed in an attempt

to spread anti-immigrant sentiment and appeal to a different

demographic. Shortly after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando,

white-nationalist and explicit homophobe Butch Leghorn called on right

movements to take advantage of the event. Writing on the alt-right

website The Right Stuff, Leghorn argued: “This shooting is a very

valuable wedge issue…We simply need to hammer this issue…Drive this

wedge. Smash their coalition. Make it cool to be anti-Muslim because

Liberalism.”[110] Over the past year, “gay pride” marches that go almost

exclusively through Muslim neighbourhoods have been organized by

fascists in France, Sweden, and the UK.[111] Their calls to protect

women, just like their calls to protect LGBTQ people, is of course

disingenuous.They hate women and queers, but calls for their protection

are a politically useful mechanism. Under these circumstances, Faye

aptly notes that the task of feminist and queer liberation “cannot be

merely sexual or gendered, but it must also be sharply critical of its

alignment with whiteness as a system of persecution.”[112] This is not

just a matter of being aware of opportunistic white-nationalists

duplicity using calls for LGTBQ safety to further their vile agenda, but

also of critically evaluating the ways in which queer movements

themselves buttress and reinforce white supremacy.

In regards to this responsibility, it is worthwhile to keep in mind that

the LGBTQ movement like the feminist movement, has a history of pushing

for safety in a manner than has had violent consequences for others.

Examining the history of the LGBTQ movement in the United States,

Hanhardt observes that appeals to safety have had racialized

consequences. Since the 1970s, activist responses to anti-LGBTQ violence

have taken one of two forms: the establishment of protected gay

territories and the identification of anti-LGBTQ violence as a criminal

category. Rooted in the implicit assumption that white gays need to be

protected from violent (often read as black) criminals, these two

approaches have led to gentrification and mass incarceration – both of

which disproportionally impact and devastate black communities. Hanhardt

explains:

“Messy distinctions between crime and violence, safety and justice,

underscore the flexibility of concepts such as risk and their centrality

to the politics of development. Here risk is simultaneously the value of

speculative capital (real estate) and the justification for crime

control (bad neighbourhoods), the ever-present threat to gay autonomy

(violence), and symptom of irresponsibility (the designation ‘at

risk’).”[113]

Calls for the creation of safe spaces came to be interpreted as calls

for state violence in the form of criminalization and privatization, and

through this process, became inextricably linked to spatial development

and crime control strategies that play out along race and class lines.

There’s a lot that needs to be challenged and much organizing to be

done, and knowing the nuanced ins and outs of the forces we face is

advantageous. Given that misogyny is a foundational element of

contemporary far-right politics, it is valuable to know its specific

role and function. This, however, is only one piece of the puzzle and it

is useful to consider other things. As we strive to challenge the rise

of the fascism, it is worth looking back to the anti-fascist resistance

that came before us.

Part 2 – Against Heroes: An Incomplete History of Women’s

Anti-Fascist Resistance

“The past does not pass; the dead are not dead, for they continue to

move us today…These ghosts have not risen simply to be put to rest, but

to speak in the manner for which they were killed; some of them must be

battled anew in our hearts.”[114]

For as long as there has been fascism, there has been anti-fascist

resistance, and from its origins onwards to our present moment, women

and queers have been active participants. However, these histories are

routinely glossed over and while there has been much talk of our

“grandfather’s anti-fascism” there is much less said about the

anti-fascism of our grandmothers. Speaking to the politics of

anti-fascist history, Richet notes: “Most of the sources of the history

of antifascism deal with the political space occupied by men. This is

the case of the fascist sources built on the assumption that women could

not be autonomous political subjects. It is also the case of the sources

collected by the antifascist groups whose male leadership shared similar

assumptions.”[115] This has an impact on anti-fascism in our present

moment. When people think about or hear the term anti-fascist, the image

most likely to pop into their head is not CeCe McDonald[116] or an armed

partisan women, but a generic anti-racist skinhead dude or perhaps the

anti-fascist man as depicted in classic propaganda posters with rifle,

sickle, and hammer in hand. Against such trends, this section considers

the gendering of history and explores women’s participation in

antifascist resistance during the first half of the twentieth century.

The intention is not to provide an exhaustive account, but to provide a

snapshot of a history too frequently forgotten and in the process,

challenge the dominant image of the anti-fascist hero. To the extent to

which such an image holds a certain pervasiveness, it acts only to

hinder actions and limit possibilities.

Gender, Memory, and the Stories We Tell

The stories and more importantly, the histories we tell matter – they

frame events, contextualize theory, and situate agential subjects.

Anti-fascism and anti-fascist history is not gender neutral, or race or

class neutral for that matter. Gender plays a huge role in how we think

about anti- fascism and how its history is commonly told. The history of

anti-fascist struggle is depicted as the history of great moments and

even greater men. It is a history of the heroic and necessarily male

subjects who dared to back fight against the behemoth of fascism. If

women or queers do appear in these histories, they are predominantly

presented as secondary characters – as minor participants, romantic

partners, or bystanders. In the realm of revolutionary history, there is

a long legacy of women’s activities being dismissed as: a)

personal/private/ home matters (e.g. breads riots, various feminist

campaigns, and even the march that sparked the Russian Revolution etc.

framed as home issues, but not disciplined politics); or b) an

irrational/ emotional matter (e.g. they act from eruptions of emotions,

and thus are inclined to spontaneity, but not organized politics).

Women’s involvement in explicitly political movements in the public

sphere, as well as the day-to-day support, reproductive, and behind the

scenes work they perform in the private sphere, is simply

disregarded.[117] Specific figures and activities are glorified and

romanticized, while others are neglected and downplayed.

This common approach to history leads to the erasure of particular

experiences, the loss of whole histories, and beyond that, a skewed and

inaccurate picture. The creation and dissemination of accounts of

radical history shape our collective political imagination, and

influences the events and actions thought to be desirable (and even

possible). They convey specific ideas about who counts as history, what

counts as history, and by default, what counts as political work and who

can be a political actor. In sum, histories frequently present a

hierarchy of who and what matters, and when the accounts are

particularly gendered (and thus exclusionary) they stand in the way of

challenging a fascist threat steeped in misogyny. As a result, it is

important to look to the margins of history and seek out alternative

accounts.

Women Against Fascism

As already mentioned, women, femmes, and queers have been active

participants in anti-fascist struggles for as long as there has been

fascism. Their involvement is as diverse as it is extensive, and any

attempt at a comprehensive telling is beyond the scope of this piece of

writing. With this in mind, I take a narrow and inevitably limited

approach to presenting anti-fascist history. While the histories of

anti-fascist women and queers frequently dovetail, they are also

different things and it would be impossible to cover both. The vibrant

legacy of queers against fascism is a history in its own right.[118]

Thus, this section focuses exclusively on women. It draws on a small

sampling of case studies from Europe, Africa, and North America to

examine women’s resistance to the rise of fascism following the First

World War. [119] Contrary to popular notions, women were involved in all

aspects of the historical fight against fascism. Feminist historian

Ingrid Strobl elaborates: “They were activists in urban brigades, the

ghetto underground, and partisan units. They printed and distributed the

illegal press; they forged papers; they transported weapons and

themselves participated in arm actions. They organized underground

movements and ghetto uprisings; they were political cadres and military

commanders of groups.”[120] To explore this further, it is instructive

to look at resistance in Ethiopia, Spain, and Yugoslavia. As of 1934,

Ethiopia was one of just two African countries that had not been

colonized by Europe.[121] Unfortunately, this was not to last and in

October of 1935 Mussolini’s forces invaded Ethiopia. After capturing the

capital the following year, Mussolini declared Ethiopia part of the

Italian Empire and ushered in a period of fascist occupation. Resistance

to the occupation, to fascism and to colonialism, commenced immediately

and lasted until Italy was expelled in 1941. From the beginning, women

participated in the struggle in large numbers and fulfilled many

critical roles. Reflecting on this period, historian Aregawi Berhe

contends that women’s participation was crucial, arguing that while it

is difficult to assess their military contribution “their supplementary

support activities, spying and sabotage actions in some instances were

decisive.”[122] During the occupation, the Ethiopian Women’s Volunteer

Service Association (EWVSA) was turned into “a clandestine movement of

resistance.”[123] Women who were part of the association engaged in a

diversity of activities, ranging from supplying those fighting in the

field with clothes, food, bandages, and ammunition, to providing

shelter, forging important documents, producing propaganda, and

gathering intelligence.[124] Some women became camp- followers, women

who travelled to the front and took care of maintaining weapons, as well

as feeding and providing medical care to those engaged in fighting.[125]

Other women fraternized with Italian soldiers, and artfully engaged in

deception to further the struggle. Women took Italian soldiers,

including high-ranking officers, as lovers to build a false sense of

trust and gain access to information and materials. With a relationship

established, women took the opportunity to steal arms and it was not

uncommon for these women to kill their lovers in order to do so.[126]

Such relationships were used as a tool of sabotage as well, after

pretending be a defector and declaring their allegiance to fascism,

women would supply their lover with false information and point the

Italians in the wrong direction.[127] Women took Italian lovers, found

employment as domestic servants, or ran drinking houses to gather

intelligence and collective sensitive information, such as the location

of arms and munition depots or plans for upcoming offensives.[128] In

addition to these roles, women were also actively involved in the

military aspect of the struggle. Some women became guerilla fighters and

fought on the battlefield, and some even led fighters and planned

military operations. Although wars in Ethiopia were predominantly fought

by men, women were not entirely excluded from warfare.[129] For

instance, in circumstances where a wife or daughter – in the absence of

a male successor – inherited a family’s land and weapons “they were

expected to perform the duties attached to the land and weapons, whether

or not the duty was military or administrative.”[130] Thus, it was not

unheard of for women to play leading military roles. In this context, a

handful of women from prominent families led their own armies, and many

more from all rungs of society, took up arms and joined the guerilla

war.[131]

The anti-fascist/anti-colonial struggle in Ethiopia caused ripples far

beyond its borders. In the United States, Mussolini’s invasion sparked

protests, riots, and solidarity campaigns throughout the country.

Massive demonstrations took place in New York and Chicago, street fights

broke out between black anti-fascists and Italian pro-fascists, pickets

were held outside of the Italian consulate, leaflets were distributed,

dock workers refused to load Italian ships, and fundraising drives were

organized.[132] Black Communists set up the Joint Committee for the

Defence of Ethiopia and along with other Pan-African groups spearheaded

the activities.[133] Crabapple notes, “black Americans recognized the

dangers of Fascism abroad early…They saw Mussolini’s Blackshirts

reflected in the white hoods of the Klan, and Hitler’s Jew-baiting

mirrored by the systemic violence of Jim Crow.”[134] Women in the

American Communist Party spoke out against the threat fascism posed to

women’s rights and with the invasion of Ethiopia sought to develop a

cross-racial alliance to build class-solidarity against fascism, and

with varying degrees of success, worked with black organizations to

build support for Ethiopia.[135] In Britain, black rights and

anti-colonial activists formed the International African Friends of

Abyssinia (IAFA) to promote resistance to fascism in Ethiopia.[136]

Black radicals in America, Britain, and elsewhere, drew connections

between the fight for Ethiopia and their experiences, as well as put

fourth analysis of anti-fascism rooted in black internationalism,

anti-colonialism, and anti-imperialism.[137] Several members of the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade6 came to Spain as a result of their activism in

support of Ethiopia. For example, Salaria Kea – the only black women in

the Brigade – fundraised for Ethiopian hospitals and when her

application to join the Ethiopian army was rejected, she sailed for

Spain.[138]

In July of 1936, General Francisco Franco initiated a military rebellion

against Spain’s republican government. The instigators anticipated a

swift victory. However, the coup d’etat was met with a spontaneous

uprising and Spain was thrown into civil war. In many of the besieged

cities, everyday civilians raided local armories, requisitioned weapons,

and took up arms to fight against the fascists. During these early days

of popular resistance, women took part in the storming of barracks to

obtain weapons, built barricades, and participated in armed street

fighting.[139] Beyond a fight against fascism, the Spanish Civil War was

also a highly contested fight for revolution. Anarchists and dissident

Marxists sought to combine the anti-fascist fight with the fight for

broader revolutionary change, while communists and socialists rejected

such positions, arguing for the necessity of engaging in the war

exclusively in terms of anti-fascism. This conflict led to what Nash

refers to as “civil war within the civil war.”[134] In this context,

women essentially found themselves in a struggle on three fronts –

fighting against fascism, fighting to push antifascist forces towards a

revolutionary orientation, and then finally, fighting to make

revolutionary forces take seriously gender liberation. In response,

women’s organizations were founded to aid the anti-fascist cause, while

promoting ideas of revolutionary change that included women’s

emancipation.

Founded a few short months before the official outbreak of the civil

war, Mujeres Libres (Free Women) was an anarchist organization that

sought to contest women’s subordination and mobilize women to take part

in the struggle against fascism. Beginning with just a few hundred

members, its numbers soared during the war reaching a membership ranging

from 20,000 to 60,000 women.[135] Members of the organization were

active in all aspects of the Civil War, from fighting on the front

lines, as well as aiding the wounded, to maintaining collective kitchens

and organizing schools for refugees and engaging in political debate.

Central to Mujeres Libres and what made them unique, was an emphasis on

organizational autonomy. The foundering members of Mujeres Libres were

all militants in the broader anarcho-syndicalist movement who “found the

existing organizations of that movement inadequate to address the

specific problems confronting them as women, whether in the movement

itself or in the larger society.”[140] The organization was built on the

belief that women needed separate organizations to address their

specific needs and ultimately, to build their capacities to intervene

and shape the political landscape. To this end, the organization took on

a variety of initiatives, including: the publication of a regular

journal aimed at political consciousness-raising; the running of classes

to overcome illiteracy; the facilitation of discussion groups to

challenge ignorance; the opening of women’s health clinics; and the

offering of industrial and commercial apprenticeships.[141] Political

instruction and basic education sought to help in addressing women’s

cultural and sexual subordination, and professional training aimed to

aid women in their economic subordination by increasing employment

opportunities.

In addition to challenging women’s subordination, the organization’s

initiatives were aimed at recruiting women into the anti-fascist

movement and creating a conscious force of women who were prepared for

the “social revolution.” To build this force, the organization

emphasized two-interrelated goals and corresponding programs:

capacitación and captación. The first, capacitación was concerned with

“preparing women for revolutionary engagement.”[142] Related to the

educational and consciousness-raising activities outlined above,

capacitación focused on the empowerment of women such that they would

feel confident in their abilities, recognize their potential, and

ultimately conceptualize “themselves as competent historical

actors.”[143] This emphasis on personal development, individual growth,

and building capacity was the result of conceptualizing struggle not

only in quantitative terms, but also in qualitative ones. Moving to the

second, captación was concerned with “actively incorporating them

[women] into the libertarian movement.”[144] In practice this entailed

working to increase women’s participation in other, larger revolutionary

organizations. As Mujeres Libres worked with women to address their

everyday material needs, they created the conditions necessary to bring

more of them into the fold of revolutionary politics.

By the spring of 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was occupied and

partitioned off by Axis forces. A portion of the country was occupied by

German troops, while other areas were occupied by Bulgarian, Hungarian,

and Italian troops, and Croatia was established as a Nazi puppet-state

ruled by a local fascist militia.[145] In response, a Communist led

resistance movement emerged and the National Liberation Army (NLA) was

formed.[146] From the onset and continuing for the duration of the

conflict, women played a huge part in the partisan resistance movement.

In the words of one scholar: “The mass participation of women in the

communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance is one of the most remarkable

phenomena of the Second World War.”[147] Similarly, Bonfiglioli

describes women’s contribution as “unprecedented in Europe,” explaining

that “out of a population of sixteen million…[official records] report

one hundred thousand women fighting as partisans, and two million

participating in various ways to support the National Liberation

Movement. It was been calculated that approximately twenty-five thousand

women died in battle, and some two thousand women attained officer’s

rank.”[148] While noteworthy, women’s contribution as fighters is only

one part of a much bigger picture. Women participated in the

anti-fascist struggle in a variety of different ways. Acting

autonomously, women led food riots in face of widespread hunger caused

by the country’s food stock being exported to the Third Reich.[149]

Otherwise disconnected, peasant women passed information to partisans on

enemy troop movements and spies, as well as harvested crops for

neighbours who were at the front or in prison.[150] In addition to

taking care of important agricultural work, many of these women also

tended to wounded partisan soldiers, took care of orphans, and housed

those on the run.[151] As part of organizations and collectives

officially connected to the resistance movement, women took on many more

roles still.

Shortly after the formation of the National Liberation Army, the

Antifascist Front of Women (AFZ) was established. A specific women’s

organization, the AFZ was founded as an organ of Yugoslav Communist

Party and was charged with the two-fold mission of mobilizing “larges

masses of women in the struggle against the German occupation and in

support of the combat and noncombat activities of the Liberation

Movement.”[152] Anti-fascist women’s committees were formed in towns,

villages, and cities across the country, and members canvassed both

liberated and non-liberated territories to recruit new women into the

organization.[153] Once members, the work taken on by the women was

all-encompassing and ranged from typical gendered tasks such as sewing

and laundry, to espionage and sabotage. The women knitted socks and

sweaters, sewed uniforms, and made shoes for the troops, as well as

mended and laundered their clothes.[154] They collected food, clothing,

medical supplies, money, arms and ammunition.[155] They prepared

hideouts for partisans on the run, “looked after the families of the

arrested and organized prison escapes.”[156] Women acted as couriers,

transporting important messages, outlawed literature, attack orders,

weapons and explosives through the country.[157] They printed

underground newspapers, published and distributed clandestine anti-

fascist journals, and ran illegal radio stations.[158] They dug up

streets to inhibit the movement of fascist tanks and served as guards in

liberated villages.[159] Women destroyed roads and rail lines, cut

telephone lines, blew up power stations and other strategic targets, and

burned enemy crops.[160] They also engaged directly at the front as

nurses, cooks, and armed fighters.[161]

Local AFZ councils ran hospitals and orphanages, set-up public kitchens,

and organized accommodations for refugees.[162] They engaged in

constructive, socially useful projects to provide much needed services

and care. In addition to building women’s involvement in the resistance

movement, the organization operated to agitate for women’s right and

facilitate political education.[163] The AFZ had the “revolutionary

mission” to help transform women into equal and deserving citizens of

the future socialist state.”[164] Specifically, this meant working to

“eliminate illiteracy among women, ‘raise’ their political

consciousness, and train them professionally” so that they could

effectively participate in the process of building socialism.[165] To

this end, the organization carried out a comprehensive literacy campaign

offering courses that taught reading and writing in urban, as well as

rural areas.[166] Along with literacy course, the AFZ held general

education classes on topics such as hygiene and health, first-aid, and

other practical skills.[167] Special political courses were offered for

more “advanced” members, and covered discussions of politics, economics,

history, and culture.[168] Working in tandem with the courses, the AFZ

released publications “which, besides being tools for the dissemination

of propaganda, featured educational pieces and political texts in a

simple, accessible language.”[169] This is a limited account – a small

handful of examples from a much larger history. Nonetheless, these

examples are powerful and offer lessons, inspiration, and other

takeaways for anti-fascist resistance in our present moment. To explore

this further, the next section considers some of the key insights that

can be garnered from these histories.

Part 3 – Learning from Our Predecessors: Towards a Feminist Antifa

“ We conspire; we breathe together. We share what we have been gifted to

us by those who came before us. We attempt to walk beside each other.

But what will we carry over with us past the emancipatory horizons we’ll

approach together? What histories will inform our collective actions?

What energies of solidarity and creativity will animate these

movements.”[170]

Invoking the history of women’s participation in anti-fascism, a number

of lessons can be drawn and carried into our current moment. While the

uncritical introduction of organizing models and ideas from other places

and times is problematic, it can be useful to draw inspiration and take

insights from elsewhere. History certainly does not hold all of the

answers, but it can be a place (one amongst many) to start. Akemo and

Busk discussing anarchism, insist that building “an anarchist feminist

historical tradition will give us a platform to advance our own

politics, understand our work in the context of what has already been

done, and then forge ahead…We have always existed, but we have not

always been seen.”[171] The same can be said for an anti- fascist

feminist historical tradition. With this in mind, I propose seven

general insights that can be teased out from the history of women’s

anti-fascist resistance and applied to contemporary anti-fascist

struggles. These are not intended to be universal or prescriptive, but

merely contextual and suggestive.

First, conceptualize anti-fascist resistance broadly and engage in

multi-layered struggle. Embrace a variety of organizing strategies and

tactics, and move away from the tendency to look at anti-fascist

struggle in terms of a hierarchical ranking in which certain forms of

activity (e.g. combat/fighting, involvement in formal political

organizations etc.) are placed at the top, and all other forms of

activity are seen as secondary and less important. Anti-fascist

resistance isn’t just one thing. It involves a lot of different types of

activities, and requires a diversity of things. Describing the range of

activities that anti-fascists historically engaged in, Bravo notes that

while armed resistance and the ideal of a “young, healthy, tough, and

preferably male” body were disproportionality glorified, there was also

space for unarmed resistance where “the human frame was far less

strictly defined” and “one could be old, weak, physically inept, sickly,

and still useful and not excluded.”[172] Resistance was lived everyday

by many different bodies, from those who took up arms and fought Nazis

to those who engaged in sabotage, to those who aided clandestine

activities to those who fed and clothed those resisting. It involved

both formal and informal involvement, as well as individual and

collective actions. It took place in both the public and the private

sphere, included physical confrontation, public education, labour and

community organizing, surveillance and information gathering, the

building of infrastructure, and so much more. Building on the first, the

second insight is related to the task of building anti-fascist political

culture. Calls to develop a “physical culture of class combat”[173] or

to form “ultras” football supporter clubs[174] are fine, but

limited.[175] If we want to develop a strong resistance movement, we

cannot focus almost exclusively on physical activities and/or

traditionally male- dominated spaces.[176] It’s important to have

spaces, roles, and activities that account for the variety and diversity

of social life – for example considering things like ability and age.

Historically, there existed a wide range of anti-fascist cultural

spaces. These included things like reading groups, social clubs,

collective kitchens, daycare centres, workplace organizations, and

sports associations.

Thirdly, the next insight concerns the propensity to associate

particular types of activity with particular types of bodies. Against

the tendency to associate women with passivity and non-violence, it is

crucial to recognize that combative politics is not exclusively the

domain of men. Throughout the history of anti-fascist resistance and

continuing today, women, queers, and trans folks have been involved in

armed uprisings, self-defence initiatives, physical confrontations,

coordinated attacks, and various other forms of violent activity.

Critiquing such actions as inherently male and exclusionary to all

others, marginalizes the diverse voices of those engaged in

confrontational tactics, and furthermore, perpetuates restrictive gender

stereotypes. That said, it is also true that anti-fascism has issues

with sexism and patriarchal behaviour, and “that whenever confrontation

is part of the repertoire, it is an extra concern.”[177] Which leads to

the fourth insight, couple anti-fascist politics with feminism and

conceptualize gender liberation as a non-negotiable component of

anti-fascism. This means centering gender considerations, taking trans

politics and queer struggle seriously, and not treating these things as

peripheral concerns. Relatedly, the fifth insight concerns the value of

autonomy and autonomous organizing. Creating autonomous spaces and/or

pushing for organizational autonomy was crucial to many historical

anti-fascist groups. Many women found themselves in a situation where

they were fighting against fascism and fighting for revolutionary

change, all the while pushing their movements to take gender oppression

seriously. To address this layered struggle, women founded separate

organizations to undertake the work that was otherwise brushed off.

Sixth, look to and draw on other anti-racist and anti-colonial

resistance traditions and not just those most commonly associated with

anti-fascism. Popular accounts of anti-fascist history privilege Europe

and disproportionately focus on white actors. The proto-typical

anti-fascist hero is presented not only as male, but as white, ignoring

all other histories. There is an incredibly long legacy of black and

indigenous struggle, however, it is often overlooked and goes

unrecognized. Jegroo notes: “While many people think of white

anarchists…punching Nazis when they talk about antifa, Black folks in

the Western hemisphere have essentially been doing antifascist work for

centuries. It just hasn’t been recognized as such.”[178] Particularly in

North America – a continent defined by settler colonialism, indigenous

genocide, and antiblackness – black liberation and decolonial movements

have either explicitly or implicitly been engaged in fighting against

fascism for hundreds of years.[179] Even though much of this work wasn’t

done under the label of anti-fascist, that doesn’t make it any less

relevant. These histories and their continuation today are crucial to

conceptualizing and engaging in anti-fascist struggle.

Moving to the final point, the last insight is to connect anti-fascism

with more ambitious revolutionary goals. Anti-fascism in and of itself

is a necessarily limited struggle. It is a reactive and defensive

movement that while incredibly important, is much more of a jumping off

point than a desired end-destination. In the past, many groups rooted

their anti-fascist work in a commitment to revolution and pushed for a

broader vision of collective liberation and societal transformation.

Anti-fascism wasn’t a single struggle, but an overlapping set of

struggles taking place simultaneously. It was an anti-fascist war, but

also a civil war and class war fighting for sweeping social, political,

and economic change.

Conclusion: Against Machismo, For Militancy

“Part of making anti-fascist politics stronger means contending with the

hyper-masculinity and predominant whiteness of antifa spaces…Rather than

be dismissed as secondary issues that fall behind the primary goal of

confronting fascists, disability justice, anti-racism, and feminism

should be at the forefront of any revolutionary analysis… This also

means recognizing that anti-fascism is a necessary but insufficient

political solution to the problems of our time .”[180]

Misogyny is a fundamental pillar of contemporary far-right politics; it

is not just an aside. With the proliferation of far-right movements over

the last few years, and more recently with the recuperation of those

movements and their abhorrent ideas into political parties and ruling

institutions, it is crucial to understand all that we are up against.

Part of what we face is the growth of political forces shaped by

variations of intensively patriarchal ideology, and as such, forces that

aspire to establish (or rather further establish, more accurately) not

just white supremacy, but white male supremacy. This reality desperately

calls for a response – it is a growing nightmare that is all too quickly

becoming normalized and the only response is struggle. Unfortunately,

the ready-made options presented to us leave much to be desired. On one

hand, liberal feminism fundamentally lacks the teeth to address our

current political climate, leading to a dead end of permitted marches,

electoral campaigns, and “pussy hat” politics. On the other hand,

anti-fascism is plagued by machismo, leading to a highly reductionist

understanding of struggle and the glorification hyper-masculine

activities above all else. Anti-fascism doesn’t have to be that way – we

can do better.

Looking to histories of women’s participation in anti-fascist movements,

we can see glimpses of a different anti-fascism. Contrary to the common

conception, women were involved in all forms and formations of the

historical fight against fascism. Feminist historian Ingrid Strobl

paints a vibrant picture, referencing women’s involvement in

anti-fascist activities, she explains:

“They were activists in urban brigades, the ghetto underground, and

partisan units. They printed and distributed the illegal press; they

forged papers; they transported weapons and themselves participated in

arm actions. They organized underground movements and ghetto uprisings;

they were political cadres and military commanders of groups. [They

engaged in sabotage].They found hiding places for Jewish children and

youth, brought them to these hiding places, provided them with clothing,

money, food, and with forged documents and encouragement over months and

sometimes years.”[181]

There is a lot of inspiration and many lessons that can be taken from

this history. This is not to say that all aspects of those histories are

applicable to our current situation – we are struggling in a vastly

different context. However, there are valuable takeaways, as were

explored above, and these takeaways offer a solid ground on which to

build an anti-fascism rooted in revolutionary feminism. Against an

anti-fascism shaped by machismo, a revolutionary feminist anti-fascism

is shaped by the concept of militancy. Before discussing the latter, it

is useful to look at the former.

There is a thread that flows through anti-fascist movements, and while

it does not exclusively define contemporary anti-fascism, it is

influential and worth noting. The thread is an orientation/attitude that

tends towards machismo. This inclination is one of bravado and dogmatic

combativity, and leads to a political position that prioritizes

confrontation while it more or less ignores (or at least downplays)

other aspects of struggle. It reproduces some of the worst

characteristics of hegemonic masculinity with a self-righteous zeal, and

considers discussion of things like sexism to be needlessly divisive and

a distraction from the “important things.” This strain is almost

exclusively concerned with physical conflict with fascists, where if you

aren’t willing or able to “throw down,” you aren’t an anti-fascist. It

is individualistic and leans towards an orientation of doing what one

wants, regardless of the consequences. It is concerned more with the act

of the fight itself than it is with the outcome. There is no room for

nuance or any consideration of context, and strategy largely falls by

the wayside.[182] These characteristics can be described as machismo,

and an anti-fascism rooted in machismo is the political equivalent of a

bar fight – as haphazard and chaotic as it is incoherent, and often

sloppy.[183]

In contrast, an anti-fascism oriented towards militancy instead machismo

is concerned with commitment, collectivity, and effectiveness. It isn’t

about image or ego; rather, it is about doing what needs to be done,

choosing the methods/tactics best suited for a situation, and looking at

the bigger liberatory picture. This approach couples anti-fascist

politics with feminism, and conceptualizes gender liberation as a

non-negotiable component of anti-fascism. Such politics starts from the

understanding that anti-fascist resistance isn’t just one thing – it

involves a lot of different types of activities and a large diversity to

roles. A vibrant movement would have a place for two year old child up

to their eighty-two year old grandparent. This does not mean a move away

from street politics, confrontational tactics, or the use of violence;

it acknowledges that antagonism and conflict are inherent to

anti-fascist politics and that confrontation/violence is both necessary

and justifiable in certain circumstances. It also acknowledges that

women, queers, and trans folks often “throw down” and are involved in

physical alterations and other confrontational activities. Thus, there

is an emphasis on dispelling the gendered myth that only men engage in

such activities.

Beyond recognizing the role of combative politics, there is also an

emphasis on expanding the number of people who participate in

confrontational moments, and thus it puts effort into building the

comfort and capacity for more women and queers to take part in those

activities that are usually coded as hyper-masculine. While it values

these activities, an anti-fascism that is rooted in militancy rather

than machismo knows that violence is not appropriate in all situations,

and the habit of narrowly focusing on physical confrontations is

detrimental to our movements. Fighting isn’t winning; there’s a lot more

to it than that. Even in the example of street violence, there’s more to

it than just fighting. There’s a lot of background work involved,

including intelligence gathering, neighbourhood organizing, logistical

planning, and legal/prison support. This work, which is usually

feminized, is as valuable as the confrontational activities it supports.

It’s just that one type of work isn’t particularly sexy and is

perpetually undervalued, while the other one is exciting and easily

glorified. A feminist anti-fascism does it all and values it all; it

knows that the unglamorous and boring work plays a quintessential part

in struggle. Of related importance, an anti-fascism rooted in militancy

considers both the qualitative and quantitative sides of struggle. This

means it isn’t just concerned with how many fascist rallies it shuts

down, but also with the subjective experience and the personal

development of those involved. Ideally, people are learning skills,

developing confidence, and becoming a more capable revolutionary. Beyond

the immediate benefits, these developments will be helpful for the other

struggles moving forward. The infrastructure and abilities we build, and

the resources we develop, should be part of and put to use by broader

struggles. Our anti-fascist organizing should be grounded in

revolutionary politics, in pushing for a vision of collective

liberation, meaningful autonomy, and endless possibility. The problems

we face are so much bigger than the question of fascism, and our

aspirations should be so much more than this limited struggle.

Footnotes

[1] Tijoux, Ana Maria. (2017). We can’t think of a feminism, an

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[2] CrimethInc. (2018). How Anti-Fascists Won the Battles of Berkeley –

2017 in the Bay and Beyond: A Play-by-Play Analysis. CrimethInc.

Retrieved from

https://crimethinc.com/2018/01/03/how-anti-fascists-won-the-battles-of-

berkeley-2017-in-the-bay-and-beyond-a-play-by-play-analysis.

[3] Fekete, Liz. (2014). Anti-fascism or anti-extremism?. Race & Class,

55 (4):29–39.

[4] Wilson, Jason. (2018). What do incels, fascists and terrorists have

in common? Violent misogyny. The Guardian. Retrieved from

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have-in-common-violent-misogyny.

[5] Wilford, Greg. (2017). Heather Heyer: Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally

organizer describes protester’s death as ‘payback’. The Independent.

Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jason-

kessler-

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[6] Oppenheim, Maya. (2017). GoDaddy Bans Neo-Nazi Site Daily Stormer

for Defaming Charlottesville Victim Heather Heyer. The Independent.

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[7] Cooper, Cloee. (2018). White Nationalist Groups Turn Up At 2018

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[8] Ibid.

[9] Batty, Roy. (2018). Womyn Throw Protest on International Womyn’s

Day. Daily Stormer. Retrieved from

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[10] Sager, Maja & Mulinari, Diana. (2018). Safety for whom? Exploring

femonationalism and care-racism in Sweden.

Women’s Studies International Forum, 68: 149–156.

[11] Black Rose/Rosa Negra. (2018). We Are Not Afraid: Chilean Feminism

Rises in the Face of Fascist Attacks – Black Rose/Rosa Negra Statement

on Opposing the Fascist Attacks and Stabbing of Three Feminist Activists

in Chile. Black Rose Anarchist Federation. Retrieved from

http://blackrosefed.org/we-are-not-afraid-chilean-feminism/.

[12] Luger, Joseph. (2017). Cultural Marxism is the #1 Enemy of Western

Civilization. Western Mastery. Retrieved from

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[13] Loroff, Nicole. (2011). Gender and Sexuality in Nazi Germany.

Constellations, 3 (1): 49–61.

[14] Lyons, Matthew N. (2017). CTRL-ALT-DELETE: The origins and ideology

of the Alternative Right. Political Research Associates. Retrieved from

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[15] Koulouris, Theodore. (2018). Online misogyny and the alternative

right: debating the undebatable. Feminist Media Studies, 18 (4):

750–761. P.755.

[16] Sunshine, Spencer. (2017). Three Pillars of the Alt-Right: White

Nationalism, Antisemitism, and Misogyny. Political Research Associates.

Retrieved from

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white-nationalism-antisemitism-and-misogyny/.

[17] Lyons, Matthew N. (2017). The alt-right hates women as much as it

hates people of colour. The Guardian. Retrieved from

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trump-christian-right-abortion.

[18] Romano, Aja. (2018). How the alt-right’s sexism lures men into

white supremacy. Vox. Retrieved from

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[19] Ibid.

[20] Nagle, Angela. (2017). Kill All Normies: Online culture wars from

4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right. Alresford: Zero Books.

[21] Lyons, Matthew N. (2017). CTRL-ALT-DELETE: The origins and ideology

of the Alternative Right. Political Research Associates. Retrieved from

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/01/20/ctrl-alt-delete-report-on-the-alternative-

right/

[22] Lyons, Matthew N. (2016). Alt-right: more misogynistic than many

neo-Nazis. Threewayfight. Retrieved from:

http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2016/12/alt-right-more-misogynistic-than-many.html.

[23] Romano, Aja. (2018). How the alt-right’s sexism lures men into

white supremacy. Vox. Retrieved from

https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/14/13576192/alt-right-sexism-recruitment.

[24] Lees, Matt. (2016). What Gamergate should have taught us about the

‘alt-right’. The Guardian. Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/01/gamergate-alt-right-hate-trump.

[25] Tait, Amelia. (2017). Spitting out the Red Pill: Former misogynists

reveal how they were radicalized online. NewStateman. Retrieved from

https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/internet/2017/02/reddit-the-red-pill-

interview-how-misogyny-spreads-online.

[26] Lyons, Matthew N. (2017). CTRL-ALT-DELETE: The origins and ideology

of the Alternative Right. Political Research Associates. Retrieved from

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/01/20/ctrl-alt-delete-report-on-the-alternative-

right/

[27] Nagle, Angela. (2017). Kill All Normies: Online culture wars from

4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right. Alresford: Zero Books. P.

91.

[28] Ibid, P. 88–89.

[29] Anonymous. (2016).The Rich Kids of Fascism: Why the Alt-Right

Didn’t Start with Trump, and Won’t End With Him Either. It’s Going Down.

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end-either/.

[30] DiBranco, Alex. (2017). Mobilizing Misogyny. Political Research

Associates. Retrieved from

https://www.politicalresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PE_Winter2017_DiBranco.pdf.

[31] Ibid.

[32] Nagle, Angela. (2017). Kill All Normies: Online culture wars from

4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right. Alresford: Zero Books. P.

92.

[33] Ibid, P.92–93.

[34] Basically a more nihilistic version of the “red pill.”

[35] Sparrow, Jeff. (2018). From misery to misogyny: incels and the far

right. Overland. Retrieved from

https://overland.org.au/2018/04/from-misery-to-misogyny-incels-and-the-far-right/.

[36] Williams, Zoe. (2018). ‘Raw hatred’: why the ‘incel’ movement

targets and terrorises women. The Guardian. Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/25/raw-hatred-why-incel-movement-targets-

terrorises-women.

[37] Beauchamp, Zack. (2018). Incel, the misogynist ideology that

inspired the deadly Toronto attack, explained. Vox.

Retrieved from

https://www.vox.com/world/2018/4/25/17277496/incel-toronto-attack-alek-minassian.

[38] Bowles, Nellie. (2018). Jordan Peterson, Custodian of the

Patriarchy. The New York Times. Retrieved from

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[39] Bromma. (2012). Exodus and Reconstruction: Working Class Women at

the Heart of Globalization. Kersplebedeb. Retrieved from

http://kersplebedeb.com/posts/exodus/.

[40] Gais, Hannah. (2017). The Alt-Right Doesn’t Know What to Do With

White Women. The New Republic. Retrieved from

https://newrepublic.com/article/145325/alt-right-doesnt-know-white-women.

[41] Sunshine, Spencer. (2017). Three Pillars of the Alt Right: White

Nationalism, Antisemitism, and Misogyny. Political Research Associates.

Retrieved from

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/12/04/three-pillars-of-the-alt-right-

white-nationalism-antisemitism-and-misogyny/.

[42] Lyons, Matthew N. (2015). Jack Donovan on men: a masculine

tribalism far the far right. Three Way Fight. Retrieved from

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[43] Anonymous. (2017). The Unquiet Dead: Anarchism, Fascism, and

Mythology. P.11.

[44] Burley, Shane. (2017). Fascism Today: What It Is And How To End It.

Chico: AK Press. P. 51.

[45] Ibid, P.91.

[46] Lyons, Matthew N. (2005). Notes on Women and Right-Wing Movements.

Three Way Fight. Retrieved from

http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2005/09/notes-on-women-and-right-w_112787003380492443.html.

[47] Ibid.

[48] Ibid.

[49] Ibid.

[50] Lyons, Matthew N. (2015). Jack Donovan on men: a masculine

tribalism far the far right. Three Way Fight. Retrieved from

http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2015/11/jack-donovan-on-men-masculine-tribalism.html.

[51] Smith, Jack. (2017). The women of the “alt-right” are speaking out

against misogyny. They’d prefer absolute patriarchy. Mic. Retrieved from

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against-misogyny-theyd-prefer-absolute-patriarchy#.wPFrIUkwL.

[52] Michael, George. (2011). David Lane and the Fourteen Words.

Politics, Religion & Ideology, 10 (1): 43–61.

[53] Blee, Kathleen M. (1991). Women in the 1920s’ Ku Klux Klan

Movement. Feminist Studies, 17 (1): 57–77.

[54] Ibid.

[55] Loroff, Nicole. (2011). Gender and Sexuality in Nazi Germany.

Constellations, 3 (1): 49–61.P.50.

[56] Ibid.

[57] Zia, Helen. (1991). White Power Women. The Washington Post.

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[58] Southern Poverty Law Center. National Socialist Movement. Retrieved

from https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-

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[59] WAU. Mission Statement. Retrieved from

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[60] Cornish, Dean. (2018). Whining Men: ‘We’re Blamed for Everything’.

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[61] Proud Boys’ Girls. Twitter. Retrieved from

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[62] Futrelle, David. “Gina tingles” and the Elders of Zion: Do

Alt-Rightists hate women as much as they hate Jews?. We Hunted The

Mammoth. Retrieved from

www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2017/06/14/gina-tingles-and-the-elders-

of-zion-do-alt-rightists-hate-women-as-much-as-they-hate-jews/.

[63] Lyons, Matthew N. (2016). Alt-right: more misogynistic than many

neo-Nazis. Threewayfight. Retrieved from:

http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2016/12/alt-right-more-misogynistic-than-many.html.

[64] Gais, Hannah. (2017). The Alt-Right Doesn’t Know What to Do With

White Women. The New Republic. Retrieved from

https://newrepublic.com/article/145325/alt-right-doesnt-know-white-women.

[65] Posts on the website argue things such as: women who have sex with

black men deserve “swift and rapid extermination” via death squads;

brown men are “deranged savages” who are indefensible except in cases

where they “beat the shit out of” their “bitch” girlfriends; men need

the right to beat their daughters so they don’t become “dumb sluts”; and

“women have become complete sociopaths that collectively deserve to be

punished and punished severely.”

[66] Lyons, Matthew N. (2017). CTRL-ALT-DELETE: The origins and ideology

of the Alternative Right. Political Research Associates. Retrieved from

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/01/20/ctrl-alt-delete-report-on-the-alternative-

right/. P.8.

[67] Ibid.

[68] Minkowitz, Donna. (2017). Hiding in Plain Sight: An American

Renaissance of White Nationalism. Political Research Associates.

Retrieved from

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/10/26/hiding-in-plain-sight-an-american-

renaissance-of-white-nationalism/.

[69] Sunshine, Spencer. (2017). Three Pillars of the Alt-Right: White

Nationalism, Antisemitism, and Misogyny. Political Research Associates.

Retrieved from

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/12/04/three-pillars-of-the-alt-right-

white-nationalism-antisemitism-and-misogyny/.

[70] Minkowitz, Donna. (2017). Hiding in Plain Sight: An American

Renaissance of White Nationalism. Political Research Associates.

Retrieved from

https://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/10/26/hiding-in-plain-sight-an-american-

renaissance-of-white-nationalism/.

[71] Anonymous. (2018). Leaked: A Year Inside the Failed Neo-Nazi

Traditionalist Worker Party. Unicorn Riot. Retrieved from

https://www.unicornriot.ninja/2018/leaked-a-year-inside-the-failed-neo-nazi-traditionalist-worker-party/.

[72] Thompson, A.C. (2018). Inside Atomwaffen As It Celebrates a Member

for Allegedly Killing a Gay Jewish College Student. ProPublica.

Retrieved from

https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-inside-white-hate-

group.

[73] Kirchick, James. (2018). A Thing for Men in Uniforms. The New York

Review of Books. Retrieved from

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/05/14/a-thing-for-men-in-uniforms/.

[74] Bodnar, Clay. (2018). Gay men and the Alternative Right: an

overview. Hope Not Hate. Retrieved from

https://hopenothate.com/2018/04/08/gay-men-alternative-right-overview/.

[75] Ibid.

[76] Hari, Johann. (2011). The Strange, Strange Story of the Gay

Fascists. Huffington Post. Retrieved from

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-strange-strange-story_b_136697.html.

[77] Marhoefer, Laurie. (2018). Queer Fascism and the End of Gay

History. Notches. Retrieved from

http://notchesblog.com/2018/06/19/queer-fascism-and-the-end-of-gay-history/.

[78] Ibid.

[79] Ibid.

[80] Hari, Johann. (2011). The Strange, Strange Story of the Gay

Fascists. Huffington Post. Retrieved from

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-strange-strange-story_b_136697.html.

[81] Abernethy, Micheal. (2009). Oxymorons: Gay Nazi, Gay Aryan, Gay

Supremacist. Pop Matters. Retrieved from

https://www.popmatters.com/72054-oxymorons-gay-nazi-gay-aryan-gay-supremacist-2496038330.html.

[82] Bodnar, Clay. (2018). Gay men and the Alternative Right: an

overview. Hope Not Hate. Retrieved from

https://hopenothate.com/2018/04/08/gay-men-alternative-right-overview/.

[83] Ibid.

[84] NYC Antifa. (2016). New York’s Alt Right (Part II). It’s Going

Down. Retrieved from https://itsgoingdown.org/new-

yorks-alt-right-part-ii/.

[85] Minkowitz, Donna. (2017). How the Alt-Right Is Using Sex and Camp

to Attract Gay Men to Fascism. Slate. Retrieved from

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/06/05/how_alt_right_leaders_jack_donovan_and_james_o_meara_attr

act_gay_men_to.html.

[86] Kirchick, James. (2018). A Thing for Men in Uniforms. The New York

Review of Books. Retrieved from

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/05/14/a-thing-for-men-in-uniforms/.

[87] O’Meara, James J. (2012). The Rebirth of the Männerbund in Brian De

Palma’s The Untouchables. Counter Currents Publishing. Retrieved from

https://www.counter-currents.com/2012/04/brian-de-palmas-the-

untouchables/.

[88] Lyons, Matthew N. (2015). Jack Donovan on men: a masculine

tribalism for the far right. Three Way Fight.

Retrieved Usfrom

http://threewayfight.blogspot.com/2015/11/jack-donovan-on-men-masculine-tribalism.html.

[89] Ibid.

[90] Minkowitz, Donna. (2017). How the Alt-Right Is Using Sex and Camp

to Attract Gay Men to Fascism. Slate. Retrieved from

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/06/05/how_alt_right_leaders_jack_donovan_and_james_o_meara_attr

act_gay_men_to.html.

[91] Rose City Antifa. (2016). The Wolves of Vinland: a Fascist

Countercultural “Tribe” in the Pacific Northwest. Rose City Antifa.

Retrieved from

https://rosecityantifa.org/articles/the-wolves-of-vinland-a-fascist-countercultural-tribe-

in-the-pacific-northwest/.

[92] Ibid.

[93] Caplan-Bricker, Nora. (2016). How a Bunch of Clowns Shut Down

Anti-Migrant Vigilantes in Finland. Slate. Retrieved from

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/02/01/a_bunch_of_clowns_shut_down_anti_migrant_vigilantes_in_fin

land.html.

[94] Casares, Cindy. (2018). Trump’s repeated use of the Mexican rapist

trope is as old (and as racist) as colonialism. NBC News. Retrieved from

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-repeated-use-mexican-rapist-trope-

old-racist-colonialism-ncna863451.

[95] Bouie, Jamelle. (2015). The Deadly History of “They’re Raping Our

Women.” Slate. Retrieved from

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2015/06/the_deadly_history_of_they_re_raping_our_wo

men_racists_have_long_defended.html.

[96] Johannah May, Black. (2017). When Women Bear the Nation’s Honour:

Fascism and the Woman-as-Symbol Under Trump. Revolutionary Anamnesis.

Retrieved from https://johannahmayblack.com/2017/02/03/when-women-bear-

the-nations-honour-fascism-and-the-woman-as-symbol-under-trump/.

[97] Keskinen, Suvi. (2018). The ‘crisis’ of white hegemony,

neonationalist feminities and antiracist feminism. Women’s Studies

International Forum, 69: 152–163.

[98] Davis, Angela. (1983). Women, Race & Class. New York: Random House.

P. 107–108.

[99] Ibid.

[100] Ibid.

[101] Ibid. P.109.

[102] Ibid.

[103] Wang, Jackie. (2012). Against Innocence: Race, Gender, and the

Politics of Safety. LIES: A Journal of Materialist Feminism,(1):

145–172. P.164.

[104] Smith, Andrea. (2005). Conquest: Sexual Violence and American

Indian Genocide. Durham: Duke University Press. P. 10.

[105] Ibid. P.23.

[106] Nagel, Joane. (2000). Ethnicity and Sexuality. Annual Review of

Sociology, 26: 107–133. P. 122.

[107] Carroll, Caitlin. (2017). The European Refugee Crisis and the Myth

of the Immigrant Rapist. Europe Now Journal. Retrieved from

https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/wmsRa6.

[108] Freedom Collective. (2018). Italian and Polish neo-nazis join

forces to patrol beaches to “protect women from migrants.” Freedom News

and Publishing. Retrieved from

https://freedomnews.org.uk/italian-and-polish-neo-nazis-

join-forces-to-patrol-beaches-to-protect-women-from-migrants/.

[109] Lafontaine, Miriam. (2017). La Meute Cancels Protest at Montreal

Mosque Friday. The Link. Retrieved from

https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/la-meute-cancels-protest-at-montreal-mosque-friday.

[110] Minkowitz, Donna. (2017). How the Alt-Right Is Using Sex and Camp

to Attract Gay Men to Fascism. Slate. Retrieved from

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/06/05/how_alt_right_leaders_jack_donovan_and_james_o_meara_attr

act_gay_men_to.html.

[111] Munt, Sally R. (2018). Gay shame in geopolitical context. Cultural

Studies: 1–26.

[112] Faye, Shon. (2017). We’re Here, We’re Queer, We’re Racists. Zed

Books. Retrieved from

https://www.zedbooks.net/blog/posts/were-here-were-queer-were-racists/.

[113] Hanhardt, Christine. (2013). Safe Space: Gay Neighbourhood and The

Politics of Violence. Durham: Duke University Press. P.223.

[114] Anonymous. (2017). The Unquiet Dead: Anarchism, Fascism, and

Mythology. P.7.

[115] Richet, Isabelle. (2016). Women and Antifascism: Historiographical

and Methodological Approaches. In Huge Garcia, Mercedes Yusta, Xavier

Tabet & Cristiba Climaco (Eds.), Rethinking Antifascism: History, Memory

and Politics, 1922 to Present (152–166). New York: Berghahn Books.

[116] A Black transwoman attacked by a Nazi in June 2011. McDonald and a

group of friends were confronted by another group of people spewing

racist and transphobic remarks at them. One of the women in the other

group smashed a glass in McDonald’s face and punched her. After a fight

between the two groups broke out, the woman’s ex-boyfriend assaulted

McDonald, whose face was already bleeding from the glass, and threw her

into the street. The man, with fists clenched, began pursuing McDonald.

She quickly pulled a pair of scissors from her purse and stabbed the man

in the chest as he lunged towards her. The man died. He was later found

to have a swastika tattooed on his chest. She went to prison for 19

months of her 41-month sentence, despite having obviously defended

herself against a racist, transphobic Nazi who was threatening her life.

[117] This dynamic is made worse by the fact that there is generally

less documentation of women’s involvement. Women were more likely to be

illiterate and thus unable to write down their ideas and experiences.

And even if they were literate, they were less likely to have the

opportunity or time to record their thoughts. Furthermore, so much of

antifascist history (at least in the period around the Second World War)

was recorded by traditional political organizations and their

leaderships, from which women were most often excluded.

[118] There are so many amazing stories. While outside of the scope of

this article, I wanted to include at least one demonstrative example.

Raad van Verzt (Resistance Council) was a group in the Dutch

anti-fascist resistance. The group was founded by the gay artist Willem

Arondeus and was comprised of many openly queer members, including the

well-known lesbian cellist Frieda Belinfante. The group engaged in a

variety of activities, but focused primarily on forging documents for

the Jewish community in Amsterdam to help them escape Nazi persecution.

While they had initial success with forging records, they eventually

encountered a problem – the forged documents could be discovered as

fakes by cross-referencing their information with the records kept in

the Amsterdam Public Records Office. In response, late one evening the

group burned the Public Records Office to the ground and in the process,

destroyed a key resource used by the Nazis to hunt Jews and other

“degenerates.” Following this sensationalist act, the group was hotly

pursued by Nazis forces and tragically, were quickly arrested and

executed. Right before his execution, Willem Arondeus passed these final

words to his lawyer: “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”

[119] The battalion of African American volunteers who traveled to Spain

to resist fascism, and fought in the Spanish Civil War.

[120] Strobl, Ingrid. (2008). Partisanas: Women in the Armed Resistance

to Fascism and German Occupation (1936- 1945). Oakland: AK Press. P.XV.

[121] Crabapple, Molly. (2017). Hidden Fighters: Remembering America’s

black antifascist vanguard. The Baffler. Retried from

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/hidden-fighters-crabapple.

[122] Berhe, Aregawi. (2003). Revisiting resistance in Italian-occupied

Ethiopia: The Patriots’ Movement (1936–1941) and the redefinition of

post-war Ethiopia. In Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in

African History. Boston: Brill. P.87–115.P.100.

[123] Ibid.

[124] Ibid.

[125] Adugna, Minale. (2001). Women and Warfare in Ethiopia.

Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Gender Issues Research Report Series – no.13.P.24.

[126] Ibid, P.31.

[127] Ibid, P.32.

[128] Ibid.

[129] Ibid, P.2.

[130] Ibid, P.4.

[131] Ibid, P.26.

[132] Ibid.

[133] Ibid.

[134] Ibid.

[135] Lynn, Denise. (2016). Fascism and the Family: American Communist

Women’s Anti-fascism During the Ethiopian Invasion and Spanish Civil

War. American Communist History, 15 (2): 177–190. P.179.

[136] Srivastava, Neelam. (2006). Anti-Colonialism and the Italian Left:

Resistances to the Fascist Invasion of Ethiopia.

interventions, 8 (3): 413–429. P.427.

[137] Featherstone, David. (2013). Black Internationalism, Subaltern

Cosmopolitanism, and the Spatial Politics of Antifascism. Annals of the

Association of American Geographers, 103 (6): 1406–1420.

[138] Crabapple, Molly. (2017). Hidden Fighters: Remembering America’s

black antifascist vanguard. The Baffler. Retried from

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/hidden-fighters-crabapple.

[139] Lines, Lisa. (2015). Milicianas: Women in Combat in the Spanish

Civil War. Lanham: Lexington Books. P.49. 134 Nash, Mary. (1995).

Defying Male Civilization: Women in the Spanish Civil War. Denver: Arden

Press. P.63. 135 Ibid, P.78.

[140] Ackelsberg, Martha. (1991). Free women of Spain: Anarchism and the

struggle for the emancipation of women. Bloomington: Indiana University

Press. P.115.

[141] Ibid, P.135.

[142] Ibid, P.147.

[143] Ibid.

[144] Ibid.

[145] Bonfiglioli, Chiara. (2014). Women’s Political and Social Activism

in the Early Cold War Era. Aspasia, 8:1–25.

[146] Ibid.

[147] Batinic, Jelena. (2009). Gender, Revolution, and War: The

Mobilization of Women in the Yugoslav Partisan Resistance During World

War II. Unpublished Dissertation. Submitted to the Department of

History, Stanford University. P.2.

[148] Bonfiglioli, Chiara. (2014). Women’s Political and Social Activism

in the Early Cold War Era. Aspasia, 8:1–25. P.5.

[149] Strobl, Ingrid. (2008). Partisanas: Women in the Armed Resistance

to Fascism and German Occupation (1936- 1945). Oakland: AK Press. P. 53.

[150] Ibid. P.53–54.

[151] Ibid.

[152] Bonfiglioli, Chiara. (2014). Women’s Political and Social Activism

in the Early Cold War Era. Aspasia, 8:1–25. P.5.

[153] Strobl, Ingrid. (2008). Partisanas: Women in the Armed Resistance

to Fascism and German Occupation (1936- 1945). Oakland: AK Press. P. 54.

[154] Batinic, Jelena. (2009). Gender, Revolution, and War: The

Mobilization of Women in the Yugoslav Partisan Resistance During World

War II. Unpublished Dissertation. Submitted to the Department of

History, Stanford University. P.126.

[155] Ibid.

[156] Strobl, Ingrid. (2008). Partisanas: Women in the Armed Resistance

to Fascism and German Occupation (1936- 1945). Oakland: AK Press. P. 54

[157] Ibid.

[158] Ibid.

[159] Ibid.

[160] Batinic, Jelena. (2009). Gender, Revolution, and War: The

Mobilization of Women in the Yugoslav Partisan Resistance During World

War II. Unpublished Dissertation. Submitted to the Department of

History, Stanford University. P.127.

[161] Ibid.

[162] Ibid, P.126.

[163] Ibid, P.128.

[164] Ibid, P.97.

[165] Ibid, P.126.

[166] Strobl, Ingrid. (2008). Partisanas: Women in the Armed Resistance

to Fascism and German Occupation (1936- 1945). Oakland: AK Press. P. 55.

[167] Ibid.

[168] Batinic, Jelena. (2009). Gender, Revolution, and War: The

Mobilization of Women in the Yugoslav Partisan Resistance During World

War II. Unpublished Dissertation. Submitted to the Department of

History, Stanford University. P.130.

[169] Ibid.

[170] Jackson, Rob. (2019). There is No Such Thing as Revolutionary

Inheritance. Louise Michel Library Project. Retrieved from

https://louisemichellibraryproject.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/there-is-no-such-thing-as-

revolutionary-inheritance/.

[171] Akemi, Romina & Busk, Bree. (2016). Breaking the Waves:

Challenging the Liberal Tendency within Anarchism.

Perspectives in Anarchist Theory. Retrieved from

https://anarchiststudies.org/perspectives/.

[172] Bravo, Anna. (2005). Armed and unarmed: struggle without weapons

in Europe and in Italy. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 10 (4):

468–484.

[173] Seattle Ultras. (2017). Class Combat. Ultra. Retrieved from

http://www.ultra-com.org/project/class-combat/.

[174] Anonymous. (2017). On Ultras and Militant Structures. It’s Going

Down. Retrieved from

https://itsgoingdown.org/on-ultras-and-militant-structures/.

[175] As part of this, I would also include the aggrandizement of

particular aesthetics. It’s fine to be into a certain style or

subculture, but they can present limits. A sleek Adidas sports jacket; a

crisp Fred Perry polo shirt etc. at least in some spaces anti-fascism

has a particular European influenced aesthetic. Inherited from the white

dominated punk subcultures from which modern antifa emerged, this

aesthetic can function to hinder struggle if anti-fascism is exclusively

thought of or associated with a specific dress code. Aesthetics should

not be a stand in for, nor should it be prioritized over politics.

[176] Anti-fascist gyms are great, and anti-fascist football clubs can

be useful. But, what about an anti-fascist neighbourhood association? Or

anti-fascist story-telling time for children, or an anti-fascist food

program? Or maybe, anti-fascist day at the nail salon or an anti-fascist

roller derby league? The list could go on.

[177] Bray, Mark. (2017). The Long History of Antifa. Progressive.

Retrieved from

http://progressive.org/dispatches/the-long-history-of-antifa/.

[178] Jegroo, Ashoka. (2017). Fighting Cops and the Klan: The History

and Future of Black Antifascism. Truthout. Retrieved from

https://truthout.org/articles/fighting-cops-and-the-klan-the-history-and-future-of-black-

antifascism/.

[179] There are countless examples. Before the height of the civil

rights movement, black activists like Mabel and Robert Williams worked

to arm black people and taught them how to defend themselves against the

Ku Klux Klan. The Black Panthers held a national conference in 1969 on

anti-fascism (the National Revolutionary Conference for a United Front

Against Fascism). Many black intellectuals have theorized the role of

fascism in America, and also done much to highlight (and organize

against) police as key perpetrators of fascist violence.

[180] Editorial Committee. (2017). Building Everyday Antifascism. Upping

the Anti. Retrieved from

http://uppingtheanti.org/journal/article/19-building-everyday-anti-fascism/.

[181] Strobl, Ingrid. (2018). Partisanas: Women in the Armed Resistance

to Fascism and Germany Occupation 1936- 1945. AK Press: Oakland.

[182] For example there’s no distinctions made between different

tendencies on the right, everyone from a self-identified neo-nazi to

christian conservatives is a fascist and must be confronted in the same

manner.

[183] I mostly mean this figuratively, but I also know lots of examples

of dudes going out drinking to the bar and purposively looking for

fascists to fight. In this case, there literally is an “anti-fascist bar

fight.” This usually this looks like men who identify as anti-fascist

getting into a bar fight with those perceived to be fascists, though

this sometimes get muddled (e.g. is the guy wearing that t-shirt of a

fascist metal band actually a fascist, or does he just like the band and

not know anything of the politics?).