Liberal anti-fascism

Liberal anti-fascism is a form of anti-fascism that is distinguished by its use of non-violent, legal and democratic methods in fighting fascism, which it sees primarily as a moral evil and as a threat to liberal democracy. Liberal anti-fascism can be contrasted with militant anti-fascism.

"Peaceful means": Liberal anti-fascism is liberal in its methods in that it works within the legal and constitutional framework of liberal democracy. Typically, for example, its methods will include: raising awareness of racial prejudice as a moral wrong, calling upon the state to censor fascist expression and other forms of hate speech,Dubious|date=March 2008 calling upon the police to take action against fascist organisation.

"Fascism as a moral wrong": Liberal anti-fascism sees fascism as an extreme form of racism or prejudice which must be denounced as morally wrong. This contrasts with a more "political" analysis of fascism as, for example, primarily anti-working class (the Trotskyist view of fascism) or as connected with structures fundamental to Western modernity, including imperialism (the view of fascism from intellectuals like Hannah Arendt, Paul Gilroy, Zygmunt Bauman and A Sivanandan).

"Defending democracy from fascism": The third feature of liberal anti-fascism is that it sees fascism as a threat to democracy or liberal democracy. Thus, its opposition to fascism can be seen as essentially a defence of the status quo. In this perspective, fascism is seen as a form of extremism, with no place in a liberal democracy, alongside other forms of extremism, including that of the far left. This position is criticised by militant anti-fascists (e.g. Anti-Fascist Action), who call for a radical transformation of society as an alternative to fascism, and ultra-leftists (e.g. Jean Barrot), who see fascism and democracy as both forms of capitalism and therefore equally evil.

History

During the 1920s and 1930s, many liberal intellectuals opposed the rise of fascism in Europe. In Italy, for example, Benedetto Croce organised a Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals [David Ward "Antifascisms: Cultural Politics in Italy, 1943-1946"] . Other key liberal anti-fascists in this period included Piero Gobetti in Italy [James Martin, 'Piero Gobetti's Agonistic Liberalism', "History of European Ideas", vol. 32, (2006), 205-222.] and Englishman Sir Ernest Barker [Andrezj Olechnowicz, 'Liberal anti-fascism in the 1930s the case of Sir Ernest Barker', "Albion" 36, 2005, pp. 636-660] . More recently, the [http://www.telospress.com/main/index.php?main_page=page&id=44&chapter=0 American version] of the Euston Manifesto claims to stand in this tradition.

In the recent period, the term has been used as a pejorative by those who identify as militant anti-fascists or as radical anti-racists.

Criticisms of liberal anti-fascism

Liberal anti-fascism’s dependence on the state is criticised by militant anti-fascists who argue that fascism needs to be challenged through direct action by the citizenry. Liberal anti-fascism’s defence of the liberal state and of the status quo is criticised by left-wing and anti-racist radicals who see the liberal state as responsible for or complicit with pernicious forms of racism (e.g. immigration controls, institutionalised racism, police racism and other forms of state racism).

Liberal anti-fascism tends to appeal to a general public or public opinion not marked by race or class. This view is criticised by militant anti-fascists, who tend to orientate to the white working class, as the force within society both most likely to be recruited to fascism and most able to stop fascism. It is also criticised by many radical anti-racists, who argue that an anti-racist movement should be black-led or who see liberal anti-fascism as letting less spectacular forms of racism off the hook.

Those liberal anti-fascists who advocate some form of government regulation of hate speech, e.g. banning publications that incite racial hatred or deny the Holocaust are criticised by libertarians and other liberals who see this as a form of censorship or denial of the right to free speech.

References

Footnotes

Other sources

* Enzo Traverso [http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue36/Traverso36.htm "Intellectuals and Anti-Fascism: For a Critical Historization"] "New Politics", vol. 9, no. 4 (new series), whole no. 36, Winter 2004]

External links

* [http://www.redaction.org/anti-fascism/liberal.html Liberal anti-fascism page at Red Action]
* [http://libcom.org/library/fascism-anti-fascism-gilles-dauve Gilles Dauve/Jean Barrot on liberal anti-fascism]

ee also

*anti-fascism
*popular front