Fascism Today

Fascism Today

This course will guide participants in developing a comprehensive understanding of contemporary fascist political formations in so-called Australia and elsewhere. Drawing on anticolonial, Marxist, anarchist and sociological approaches, it engages with cutting edge analysis and revisits time-worn theories to build a picture of fascism not as it was 80 years ago, but as it appears today. Importantly this course bridges scholarly analysis with discourse and practice generated within contemporary antifascist movements. It is an attempt to grasp the contemporary conjuncture from our settler-colonial location, with an antifascist perspective.

This course will be of interest to activists, scholars and anybody interested in how to make sense of, and challenge the current political ascendency of the far right in so-called Australia and globally.

Week 1- What is fascism?

This week looks at the definitions, features and social imaginaries of fascism. Far-right relationships to concepts such as race, gender and class are considered. We look at current influences on fascist thinking and ask: what kinds of worlds are they trying to build? What is at stake?

Week 2- Todays fascism in context

Here we address some of the strengths and deficiencies of common understandings of fascism. We then draw upon a range of sources that help us contextualise the emergence of current fascist movements within specific trajectories of capitalism, and in particular, (settler) colonialism.

Week 3- Trumpism and technofascism

This week we will look to political developments in the United States including ideologies and imaginaries of Empire and technologies of ‘progress’. How are emergent technologies used to create, mould, and sustains a fascist order?

Week 4- Fascism and nature: The national landscape and the environmental crisis.

This week looks at the key role that ‘nature’ and the ‘national landscape’ play in fascist political imaginaries. We ask: how do fascist movements attempt to construct seemingly meaningful and durable connections to land and place? How do (and importantly will) they relate to unfolding environmental and climate crises?

Week 5 - The Australian far right: fringe or mainstream?

Now we look at the current state of fascist politics in so-called Australia. We investigate developments on the Australian far right across the last two decades and unpick the parochial oddities from the international influences. Is fascism a fringe phenomenon or is it baked into Australianness?

Week 6- Antifascist strategy: the far-right, the liberal settler state and the three-way-fight.

So what is to be done? Drawing on some thinking tools developed by antifascist activists and our discussions from the previous 5 weeks, we sketch out some frameworks for understanding and guiding antifascist struggle. We then work together to develop theory into action.

Delivery mode: In person at IPCS, 78-80 Curzon Street, North Melbourne, 3051, Wurundjeri Country

Days/times: Mondays 6PM-8PM AEST.

• Week 1: Tuesday 7 July
• Week 2: Tuesday 14 July 
• Week 3: Tuesday 21 July 
• Week 4: Tuesday 28 July 
• Week 5: Tuesday 4 August
• Week 6: Tuesday 11 August

Scholarship places: full fee scholarship places are available for First Nations or unwaged participants. Please email info@ipcs.org.au with a brief EOI to apply.

Accessibility: Please note that IPCS is not wheelchair accessible. There are several steps to the room from the front door of the building (78-80 Curzon St). Masks and hand sanitizer will be available. If you have any accessibility queries and/or requirements, please reach out to us at info@ipcs.org.au.

Educators:

Benjamin Gready is a Naarm-based writer and scholar-activist whose focus is on the messy intersections of the social and the ecological. He has worked as a researcher and over the years been involved in environmental, antifascist, anticolonial and worker solidarity activism. He likes football and birdwatching and is currently working on a number of projects both inside and outside the university.

Scheherazade Bloul is a research fellow at Deakin University, where she works on the intersection of digital technologies, power, and imperialism. Beyond academia, she is part of various campaigns and works in community radio, building spaces that speak back. She is a daughter of North Africa living in diaspora on Wurundjeri lands, moving in between worlds with cats always close by.

IPCS is located on Wurundjeri Country. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri peoples of the Eastern Kulin nation as the sovereign owners and custodians of the land; sovereignty was never ceded and connection to Country is ongoing. IPCS stands with Indigenous struggles for liberation from settler colonialism and imperialism on this land and globally.