#Christi-Fascism

[gwydionmisha]

"As governor, he signed laws restricting abortions and allowing guns in parking lots of schools, dragged his feet during an HIV outbreak in the rural part of the state, deleted comments from his official Facebook page disagreeing with his views on gay marriage (and then apologized for it) and put together plans for a state-run news service he was going to call “Just IN” (which he scrapped due to criticism, including the Atlantic dubbing the idea “Pravda on the Plains”). But more than anything else, his tenure was marked by the furor surrounding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a bill that made it essentially legal for businesses in the state to discriminate against gay people. Battered by backlash from corporations, the NCAA and even the GOP establishment, then mocked for a disastrous appearance on TV, he backed off and signed into law a watered-down version of the bill. Liberals saw him as a bigot. Conservatives thought he had caved. His polling plunged. People thought he was done. “I bet he’d never get elected again in Indiana,” the owner of the Indianapolis Business Journal said in 2017. “But he went from being a likely loser as an incumbent governor to vice president of the United States.”"

An entire life spent failing upward.

[living400lbs]

"A future being prepared to be controlled and run by one particular political figure in this country. A man with a certain reputation and making more converts and followers every day. The Confidence Trick in action once again. Man of Great Integrity—Lover of Peace. Not Fascism—oh no! Just something that looks like Fascism."

From Postern Of Fate by Agatha Christie

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Swastika Feud Battles in Toronto Injure 4, Fists, Boots, Piping Used in Bloor Street War," Toronto Globe. August 17, 1933. Page 1 & 2. ---- "Hail Hitler" Is Youth's Cry; City in Turmoil ---- Trucks Loaded With Jews and Italians Rush to Scene ---- POLICE ARE CALLED --- Willowvale Park Fracas Spreads to Bloor and Clinton ---- "Hail Hitler" - the taunt shouted by an unknown youth, waving a Swastika flag, on the banks of Willow-vale Park about 10.30 o'clock last evening precipitated Toronto's first Swastika riots, and sent four youths, three Jews and one Gentile lad, to the Western Hospital.While there are known to have been more injured in the pitched battle, fought with fists, boots, piping, and other weapons, and surging along Bloor Street from Willowvale Park (Christie Street) to Clinton Street, these are the youths who were taken to hospital:

DAVID FISCHER, AGED 21, 46 SPADINA AVENUE, abrasions about the head and face, struck by a piece of pipe at Christie and Bloor Streets.

AL ECKLER, AGED 23, 112 BRUNSWICK AVENUE, lacerations of the back and cut on head, struck by a baseball bat near the Park.

JOE BROWN, AGED 22, 118 EUCLID AVENUE, knocked down at Clinton and Bloor Streets, kicked in the face, and taken to hospital with badly cut face and lips.

JOE GOLDSTEIN, AGED 17, BELLWOODS AVENUE, struck with a baseball bat at Willowvale Park, sustained two cuts on the head which required several stitches.

Battle in Park. The Bloor Street battle followed earlier, but less serious trouble at Willowvale Park, and occurred after police believed they had squelched all the incipient fireworks. Who the youth was who waved the Swastika and shouted the "Hail, Hitler" challenge no one knows, but he was immediately rushed by a group of Jewish youths and reputedly knocked cold.

The assault upon the swastika wielder was the signal for a general inrush of Christian youths. who piled baseball bats and fists in a wild riot. By the time.police reserves arrived the battle had gradually moved over to Bloor and Clinton Streets, where some serious casualties occurred, and where, it is alleged, bottles for the first time became legitimate weapons. From this battlefront, it is said, many injured limped away or were assisted to their various homes.

Boys on a bicycle carried the news of the Christian-Jewish pitched battle down into the Brunswick-Spadina Avenue district, largely populated by Jews, and where there was a large gathering of Jewish people. The rumor was spread that a Jewish boy had been killed. Immediately. it is said, the Jews began to assemble motor trucks and passenger cars for assault upon the, Bloor Street sector, and, it is reported, they were joined by a carload of Italians.

Truckloads Assembled. These truckloads of Jews and Italians raced up to Bloor Street to participate in the fights, but were halted or sidetracked by police. who had arrived in the interval. Jewish lads hanging on the running-boards of the vehicles, however, were pulled off by Christian lads, and some of them reputedly injured.

The police seized two of the trucks and one passenger car and took them with their drivers to Ossington Avenue Police Station. They were soon released, however, after the drivers had given their names and addresses In one of the trucks was found a piece of two by four inch scantling, seven feet long, with a long spike driven in one end of it - - a potent weapon for any argument.

College Street, from Brunswick to Spadina Avenue, was thronged. by Jews late last evening, awaiting to hear the news, and exchanging what seemed to be wildly exaggerated rumors of the seriousness of the affair. Police estimated that 5,000 Jews surged College Street in this section.

Threats of impending reprisals were said to be plentiful among the College Street throngs of Jews.

Sequel to Ball Game. Swazis and Jews tangled in a more or less anticipated free-for-all, which climaxed the second game of the St. Peter-Harbord series at Willowvale Park. Precautionary measures and prompt action on the part of the police cut short active hostilities, und the large crowd of onlookers and luke-warm partisans was easily dispersed by a half dozen mounted men and a few motorcycle police. But two people received injuries before the brawl was stopped.

Last night's activities were apparently linked up with minor disturbances said to have taken place at the first game of the series, which was played on Monday evening. The two teams which are fighting in the junior semi-finals for the city softball championship are made up almost entirely of Jews in the case of the Harbord team, and ot non-Semetics in the St. Peter's line-up. Although both teams have officially disassociated themselves from any Swazi-Semitic controversy. partisans and onlookers have made the games an occasion for demonstrations.

Trouble began in a group seated on the rising ground above the north-west diamond, on which the game was being played. According to bystanders. there as an interchange of abusive remarks, followed by fisticuffs and a show of bats and sticks. The approach of a constable cut the fracas short, and the participants took night over the hill and out of the park by way of Barton Avenue.

Trouble During Game. Although the game was only in the second inning, the managers agreed to call off the contest in case of any further trouble. No disturbances developed, but the crowd of spectators increased as the other games in the park were finished, until a complete square of onlookers, in some places two and three deep, surrounded the outfield. In this group, and in the crowd seated on the hillside, were stationed a detail of constables from the Ossington Avenue Station and a sprinkling of plainclothesmen.

The game continued its regular routine, and, although no trouble appear-ed. there was a general quiet comment on the first fight, and the possibilities of further trouble. It was almost dark when the St. Peter's team ensured its 6-5 victory by catching a fly from the last Harbord batsman.

And at the same time some one could be distinguished laying a huge banner, apparently bearing a swastika,on a little mound just north of the park limits on Bloor Street. A group of 100 boys and young men streamed across the length of the park as fast as they could run. Some one hurriedly picked up the banner and ran south just as the van of the attackers reach-ed the mound. This group, now swell-ed to several hundred, chased the bearer of the Hitlerite insignia across Bloor Street and down Montrose Avenue, apparently cornering him in anextension of Bickford Ravine.

Traffic Is Stopped. A few minutes later several hundred surged back Montrose headed by a group of young Jews carrying what was left of the Swastika. As they reached Bloor Street, the police marched into the centre of the mix-up, laid hands on the banner and the 21-year-old Jew, who was carrying it. and began to disperse the crowd of several thousand which had practically stopped all Bloor Street traffic.

With the assistance of six mounted police, who were greeted with a slight burst of booing, the constables soon re-established traffic on Bloor Street, and by this means divided the crowd. The latter, made up for the most part of neutral spectators, dispersed into the park and neighborhood in short order. Two motorcycle police drove down into the playing fields and patrolled these for some time occasionally letting the fumes fly from their exhaust but apparently without serious purpose.

Reserves Called Out. Police arrangements were in charge of Patrol Sergeant Robert Reid of the Ossington Avenue Station. After traffic was stopped on Bloor Street, reserves were called in from the Dundas West, the North Toronto and the Davenport Road Stations, under Inspector Robert Anderson and Acting Inspectors Fenwick and Evans.

In a statement to the press last night the managers of both teams united with S. A. Sansone in declaring that the members of their teams were in no way connected with the disturbance. Some of the opposing players, according to the managers had played together on other teams and there has been, and there is no hard feeling between them. They expressed the hope that the Toronto Amateur Softball Association would see fit to schedule the remaining games of the series in a closed park where admission could be in some way restricted.

[immaculatasknight]

Weasels and their way with words

[nando161mando]

"In #Toronto, come out on Sunday to commemorate the Christie Pits riots, where youth across ethnic and racial lines came together to fight against Nazi sympathizers who unfurled a swastika banner at a sporting event 90 years ago.

Bring your friends and fellow anti-fascists for a day of food, music, and fun. Vegan, Kosher, and Halal food will be available at the BBQ. Food. T-shirts. Antifascist Arts & Crafts."

https://www.facebook.com/events/814980983627607

https://kolektiva.social/@igd_news/110917724115452410

[trilobiter]

I remember in 2016 that the first time I began to fear that Donald Trump might actually win the election was when he was endorsed by Chris Christie, a former rival for the Republican nomination who had recently been insulted and demeaned in very personal terms by Trump. If that's how the Republican party is going to act, I thought, anything is possible. To this day, I still think Christie could have changed history by endorsing a different candidate. But he set the standard for others to follow: roll over for Trump, and cross your fingers that he'll rub your belly instead of kicking you in the ribs.

Now Chris Christie is running for president again. After endorsing Trump in 2016, he found himself once again demeaned and humiliated by a fascist president who treated loyalty as a one way street. Christie is explicitly making his candidacy about opposing Trump. We'll see how that works out for him. Anything is possible.

[uniteds]

stuff that happened in the 2022/2023 football season that should send us into a coma but we’re too desensitized:

1. the whole ass world cup in the middle of the season. what was that

2. manchester united sacking ronaldo and announcing a sale of the club in the middle of the world cup

3. ronaldo getting dropped at the world cup and his replacement scoring a hattrick immediately after

4. keeping up with the belgians (world cup edition)

5. keeping up with the belgians (courtois saying he doesn’t respect kdb after stealing his missus)

6. ronaldo stans beefing with a little moroccan girl

7. the kingdom of saudi arabia buying newcastle united and then telling the premier league that they didn’t and the premier league going “oh okay if you say so”

8. megan thee stallion being romelu lukaku’s date to lautaro martinez’s wedding

9. pique cheating on shakira and then shakira releasing a diss track about it

10. shakira figuring out pique cheated on her because someone ate her strawberry jam and pique doesn’t eat strawberry jam

11. apparently the girl pique cheated on shakira with (clara) cheating on pique with pep

12. wagatha christie libel case

13. real madrid dropping a video accusing barcelona of fascism and the government of cataluyna getting involved

14. the pope coming out as a manchester united fan

15. the one napoli fan that basically made zielinski strip on the pitch

16. mount vesuvius park shutting down because napoli fans wanted to fake an eruption as a celebration

17. frank lampard taking everton into a relegation battle, getting sacked, and then taking chelsea into a relegation battle

18. on that note: chelsea were in a relegation scrap and finished 12th

19. mourinho lost his first ever european final to sevilla europa league black magic

20. whatever the fuck borussia dortmund did on the last day of the bundesliga season

21. anthony martial’s ex wife chasing his first wife down a french motorway with a baby in the passenger seat

22. psg suspending messi because he took an unsanctioned trip to saudi arabia and then unsuspending him two days later because they didn’t want people talking about geopolitics

23. the absolutely bizarre messi apology video released by psg

24. spurs refunding their fans’ tickets after being embarrassing

25. pep’s heartbreak over the fact julia roberts is a manchester united fan

26. chelsea scored one goal in the month of april

27. chelsea and spurs had six managers between them and won one match combined between march and april

28. mourinho fighting anthony taylor after the europa league final

29. milan derby in the ucl for the first time since 2005

30. luis enrique saying he’s cool with the spanish players having sex during the world cup as long as they’re not having orgies

31. luis enrique saying he doesn’t have sex anymore unless his wife wants to

32. man city charged with 115 counts of financial doping and trying to get the barrister in charge disqualified because he’s an arsenal fan

33. mourinho wire-taping himself to catch referees being corrupt

34. ryan reynolds and mac from it’s always sunny in philadelphia buying a football club and that football club getting promoted

35. pele died rip

36. women football awards sponsored by shein and klarna having a category for “male football ally of the year” and it’s just random men that went to one (1) women’s game

37. barcelona negreia case (how do you say calciopoli in catalan?)

38. infantino saying he feels gay, african, like a migrant worker, disabled, arab, and qatari

39. infantino saying he was oppressed as a child because he was ginger and italy is not safe for gingers

40. david alaba’s father in law getting arrested for being one the leaders of a far right group plotting to overthrow the german government

41. richarlison being tumblr’s it girl for a month and then not scoring a goal for the next four

42. juventus being in the middle of another corruption scandal and being docked points because of it

43. two teams getting investigated by the british government for playing football the weekend the queen died

44. gavi getting a yellow card in the first minute of a football match

45. pogba’s brother was arrested by french authorities for being part of a group-organized extortion attempt against pogba

46. richarlison getting a tattoo of neymar’s face and neymar paying him 30k to get it removed

47. iker casillas coming out, puyol implying they had a thing, and both of them retracting it in the most misha collins way possible.

48. sane and mane fight

49. zlatan retired from football

50. barca withholding about 50 million in wages from their players and somehow frenkie still didn’t want to join manchester united

[lenbryant]

Christi fascism is on the march.

[bambamramfan]

What If They Win

Too much has been written about the horse race of this election, but not nearly enough analysis about how either administration will govern. There's some fearmongering about Project 2025 or courtpacking, but that's propaganda not actual predictions.

(FWIW, I think Trump has this race in the bag, but can understand people who still hope think this is a coin flip.)

If Harris Wins...

Harris has held together a remarkable coalition of people against Trump. Mainstream Democratic politicians, YIMBY pundit technocrats, far lefters holding their nose, and Republican neoconservatives. This is no criticism, it's pretty impressive how they are coming together to defeat a common enemy, and I really really would like them to win.

But what happens to a coalition defined by a common enemy, after they win? Let's assume the best case scenario and she gets a Democratic Senate who confirms her cabinet and some SCOTUS judges.

Who supports Harris in the press, or is vote-corraling for her in Congress? Not those Republicans who hope to turn a page on the Trump era. Not a far left who has decided to hate her as a centrist sell out. Not moderate dems who will run away from any hint of weakness. Maybe a few of those YIMBY pundits who hope she's actually committed to more houses and nuclear power. But that's no political hyperpower.

What would her first major bill be? Who would support it? It will be just one scandal plagued administration with little support from any quarter that makes its ground breaking "first" for subaltern identities a disappointing token. The David Dinkens of the White House.

I predict that President Harris would have the lowest approval rating in her first year of any President we have polling for. It's gonna be brutal, and an easy 2028 win for Republicans (who hopefully won't be running 82 year old Trump.)

If Trump Wins...

This is the interesting one. I've heard a lot of people say that a second Trump term will be even worse than the first because he's fully unleased now and no one can stop him from doing what he really wants. And I think this is partly true.

I just don't think what he wants is "Republican authoritarian rule." Sure, he will probably let the Fed Society still pick the judges (which he never cared about besides thinking they should be loyal to him) and there will almost certainly be a tax cut/extension. But besides that?

In the first Trump term, he had VP Pence, Jeff Sessions as AG, governors like Chris Christie, and three establishment figures at State, Defense, and Treasury making a pact that if Trump fires one they all resign. It was an actual coalition of Republicans and Trumpists who need each other. Even Jared Kushner was pretty establishment friendly (he's the one who approved Pence.)

Jared and Ivanka are gone now, replaced by Eric and Donjr. The VP is a Thiel-acolyte who isn't anti-Republican but sure is "from the blogs." And the endorsers Trump touts are RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk (while more and more mod Republicans endorse Harris.)

This isn't a Trump face over a body of Republicans - this is a Trump leader over all the fringe outsiders of American weirdo culture. I think Trump *actually does* want to appoint RFK to Secretary of Health, and indulge in every conspiracy, organic hippie, crunchy nonsense - which actually has a lot of believers across the country, but extremely little following in DC itself.

I think this will be hilarious beyond our wildest dreams of entertainment. It will not be a functional fascism - it will be closer to Jill Stein and Richard Branson and Andrew Tate. He'll try to pass laws that every kid in America needs to eat healthy and also work in a McDonalds.

[ziskeyt]

Christie Pits

Today is the 90th anniversary of the Christie Pits Riot. The largest race riot in Canada. Christie Pits is a park in Toronto, Ontario. It's pretty large, and these days is a very active park in the summer and a place for sledding and ice skating in the winter. On this day in 1933 the tensions between the Jews who lived in the neighbourhood around the Christie Pits park and the white Canadians who wished to ally with the nazis, who made up what they called Swasitka Clubs, came to a head during a baseball game. The Jews were joined in the fight by their immigrant neighbours, primarily Italians, who also had come head to head with the white nazis before. These hate-filled Canadians wished to restrict Jews from jobs, education, going to the beaches, owning property, and really, given their alignment with the nazis and proudly waving the swastika flag, we can be pretty sure they wanted us dead as well.

The Toronto Star paper noted that there were ten thousand people who ended up joining the fight.

This is the only photo that exists:

(ID in alt) Christie Pits resulted in one of the first prohibitions against hate speech with the Mayor of the time saying that he would prosecute any future displays of the swastika. If you'd like to read more, Jamie Michaels, who wrote the graphic novel Christie Pits published an article today about the riots:

There was an event today in the park to commemorate the anniversary. As well as a few in May and June, Jewish and Italian heritage months respectively. While I don't know the best way to commemorate a fight like this, remembering that it happened, and why it happened is incredibly important. We're in a time that is very reminiscent to what people were dealing with then; from money seemingly meaning less while everything costs more, to the wealthy flaunting their great discrepancy from the majority, to people walking off work to strike for better conditions. Times of turmoil are times when people will often turn to trying to find a reason for their uncertainty, and as history has taught us, this often leads people to explaining their misfortune by finding a scapegoat -- and that scapegoat is usually Jews. In today's world, there are those who are virulently antisemitic with their whole chests, and those people are easy to point to and say they are what they are. But, we're also in a time where there is a lot of coded antisemitism around, from age-old conspiracy theories, to various racist tropes finding rebirths in memes and "jokes", to character types and appropriation of Jewish culture to make something seem exotic and mystical. You as an individual have the responsibility to educate yourself about racist dogwhistles and coding so you don't go around parroting things you don't believe, and eventually find yourself falling down the rabbit hole of white supremacist rhetoric. They say those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it, but doom makes it sound like something that people aren't able to do anything about it. Learn history. Learn what hatred has looked like in the past and morphed into today. Learn history. You are not doomed and you are not helpless. You too can take part in stopping rising fascism by learning what it looks and sounds like. You have a responsibility to yourself and to the future to learn about where we came from to get to where we are today.

[remnantspod]

Remnants Official Relisten: Episode 14. Smoking Pipe

If you're relistening today, remember to tag it 'remnants or' so people who don't want to see it can block the tag!!

The Apprentice questiOns Sir’s motivations, anD his own, bUt his questioning is cut short when Sir insiSts on him reading yet another remnant.

Transcript.

Fanfiction plays such an important role in my life, and it's so often laughed at as a hobby. It's been a crucial outlet for many writers. It can also represent the start of a thriving passion for a lot of people! It was nice to write something which celebrates writing, and specifically writing fanfiction, and the role it can play in someone's life.

I'm a great lover of mystery stories, so it was also nice to honour those stories here. Remnants as a story overall owes a lot to my early reading of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. It's a good-faith mystery, meaning you may be able to work out some of the twists a little ahead of time if you're a canny listener. It's also a rewarding listen if you prefer to strap in and go with the flow without getting out your red string, though!

If you liked this episode, consider signing up on Patreon to support the show! If I get 20 new supporters by the end of November, I'm going to make a fluff episode of Remnants to release after the end of S1.

Content warnings under the cut

Please bear in mind that this work has content some listeners may find distressing, including themes of war, violence, and grief. This episode contains:

Ableism and specifically discrimination against d/Deaf and HoH people, and people with epilepsy

Mid-century medical and and religious interventions for people with epilepsy

Mentions of fascism

Implications of sex Descriptions of life at the edge of an active warzone, including lack of resources, displacement, and distant observations of bombings

Depiction of a secondary character with PTSD

Medical neglect resulting in death

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Police Warned of Ball Riot But All Watching Meetings," Toronto Star. August 17, 1933. Page 21 & 23. ---- Police of Ossington Ave. station, were warned in plenty of time of the trouble which might occur at last night's softball game between the Harbord and St. Peter's teams, Jack Turner, president of the Toronto Amateur Softball Association told The Star to-day.

"James Brinsmad, acting playground head of athletics told me he had been over to the station yesterday afternoon and had made them acquainted with the situation which might develop." Mr. Turner said. "In spite of this only one policeman was on hand at the start of the game and it was the third inning before reinforcements came."

Mr. Turner was commenting on a statement of Inspector Little of No. 7 division that he had received no request for additional protection.

Mr. Turner further stated that police were at his home to-day and one of them had told him that the majority of the reserves were at Earlscourt park where it was understood a meeting was to be held.

Others of the reserves were at Trinitty Park where an advocate of 'free speech' was slated to appear. Here, at the first sign of speaking, motorcycles, belching heavy smoke from their exhausts, were on hand in sufficient force to clear the park.

Whether or not a request for additional police was received police, through the press, had ample warning of the trouble.

Tuesday morning, The Mail and Empire, after describing the fracas which concluded Monday night's game between the two teams, concluded its account with the following two paragraphs: "Next Wednesday the same teams meet again.Just wait!, the Jewish boys said last night."

Trouble Promised Tuesday's Star concluded its report of the trouble with the paragraph. "The Jewish boys promise there will be trouble when they play there on Wednesday evening."

To-day a spectator of the incidents at Allan Gardens on Tuesday night and at Willowvale Park on Wednesday night described what he had Trinity Park seen in the way of police preparation to The Star.

"My observations certainly tend to support the theory that when there is the faintest hint that someone with even a faint tint of pink is likely to speak the police call out a riot squad. Last night, when everyone in the district knew bloodshed was possible, they had apparently done nothing.

Plenty of Police on Hand "When I arrived at Allan Gardens on Tuesday evening all entrances to the park were guarded by two constables. At least four mounted police were on hand to ride down the crowd. I counted eight motorcycle officers in the park and there were anywhere from a dozen to twenty ordinary constables. Besides this plainclothes- men were scattered all through the crowd.

"When I arrived at Willowvale Park last night I could see only three constables, one at each of the games and one stationed in the middle of the park. Mounted police and motorcycle officers did not arrive until some time after the trouble was underway.

"It seems strange that they can know of a soap-box orator's intentions in plenty of time to have an adequate force on hand to break up the meeting and yet they could not heed the rumblings of trouble in time to have a force on hand to cope with what developed into a nasty six-hour riot. Had the trouble been nipped at its inception there would have been none of the disgraceful scenes witnessed last night."

[dailyanarchistposts]

I.8.13 What political lessons were learned from the revolution?

The most important political lesson learned from the Spanish Revolution is that a revolution cannot compromise with existing power structures. In this, it just confirmed anarchist theory and the basic libertarian position that a social revolution will only succeed if it follows an anarchist path and does not seek to compromise in the name of fighting a “greater evil.” As Kropotkin put it, a “revolution that stops half-way is sure to be soon defeated.” [The Great French Revolution, vol. 2, p. 553]

On the 20th of July, after the fascist coup had been defeated in Barcelona, the CNT sent a delegation of its members to meet the leader of the Catalan Government. A plenum of CNT union shop stewards, in the light of the fascist coup, agreed that libertarian communism would be postpone until Franco had been defeated (the rank and file ignored them and collectivised their workplaces). They organised a delegation to visit the Catalan president to discuss the situation:

“The delegation … was intransigent … Either Companys [the Catalan president] must accept the creation of a Central Committee [of Anti-Fascist Militias] as the ruling organisation or the CNT would consult the rank and file and expose the real situation to the workers. Companys backed down.” [our emphasis, Abel Paz, Durruti: The People Armed, p. 216]

The CNT committee members used their new-found influence in the eyes of Spain to unite with the leaders of other organisations/parties but not the rank and file. This process lead to the creation of the Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias, in which political parties as well as labour unions were represented. This committee was not made up of mandated delegates from workplaces, communities or barricades, but of representatives of existing organisations, nominated by committees. Instead of a genuine confederal body (made up of mandated delegates from workplace, militia and neighbourhood assemblies) the CNT created a body which was not accountable to, nor could reflect the ideas of, working class people expressed in their assemblies. The state and government was not abolished by self-management, only ignored. This was a mistake and many soon came “to realise that once they went into the so-called united-front, they could do nothing else but go further. In other words, the one mistake, the one wrong step inevitably led to others as it always does. I am more than ever convinced that if the comrades had remained firm on their own grounds they would have remained stronger than they are now. But I repeat, once they had made common cause for the period of the anti-Fascist war, they were driven by the logic of events to go further.” [Emma Goldman, Vision on Fire, pp. 100–1]

The most obvious problem, of course, was that collaboration with the state ensured that a federation of workers’ associations could not be created to co-ordinate the struggle against fascism and the social revolution. As Stuart Christie argues: “By imposing their leadership from above, these partisan committees suffocated the mushrooming popular autonomous revolutionary centres — the grass-roots factory and local revolutionary committees — and prevented them from proving themselves as an efficient and viable means of co-ordinating communications, defence and provisioning. They also prevented the Local Revolutionary committees from integrating with each other to form a regional, provincial and national federal network which would facilitate the revolutionary task of social and economic reconstruction.” [We, the Anarchists!, pp. 99–100] Without such a federation, it was only a matter of time before the CNT joined the bourgeois government.

Rather than being “a regime of dual power” and the “most important” of the “new organs of power” as many Trotskyists, following Felix Morrow, maintain, the Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias created on July 20th, 1936, was, in fact, an organ of class collaboration and a handicap to the revolution. [Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain, p. 85 and p. 83] Stuart Christie was correct to call it an “artificial and hybrid creation,” a “compromise, an artificial political solution, an officially sanctioned appendage of the Generalidad government” which “drew the CNT-FAI leadership inexorably into the State apparatus, until then its principal enemy.” [Op. Cit., p. 105] Only a true federation of delegates from the fields, factories and workplaces could have been the framework of a true organisation of (to use Bakunin’s expression) “the social (and, by consequence, anti-political) power of the working masses.” [Michael Bakunin: Selected Writings, pp. 197–8]

Therefore, the CNT forgot a basic principle of anarchism, namely “the destruction … of the States.” Instead, like the Paris Commune, the CNT thought that “in order to combat … reaction, they had to organise themselves in reactionary Jacobin fashion, forgetting or sacrificing what they themselves knew were the first conditions of revolutionary socialism.” The real basis of the revolution, the basic principle of anarchism, was that the “future social organisation must be made solely from the bottom upwards, by the free association or federation of workers, firstly in their unions, then in communes, regions, nations and finally in a great federation, international and universal.” [Bakunin, Op. Cit., p. 198, p. 202 and p. 204] By not doing this, by working in a top-down compromise body rather than creating a federation of workers’ councils, the CNT leadership could not help eventually sacrificing the revolution in favour of the war.

Of course, if a full plenum of CNT unions and barrios defence committees, with delegates invited from UGT and unorganised workplaces, had taken place there is no guarantee that the decision reached would have been in line with anarchist theory. The feelings for antifascist unity were strong. However, the decision would have been fully discussed by the rank and file of the union, under the influence of the revolutionary anarchists who were later to join the militias and leave for the front. It is likely, given the wave of collectivisation and what happened in Aragón, that the decision would have been different and the first step would have made to turn this plenum into the basis of a free federation of workers associations — i.e. the framework of a self-managed society — which could have smashed the state and ensured no other appeared to take its place.

So the basic idea of anarchism, the need to create a federation of workers councils, was ignored. In the name of “antifascist” unity, the CNT worked with parties and classes which hated both them and the revolution. In the words of Sam Dolgoff “both before and after July 19th, an unwavering determination to crush the revolutionary movement was the leitmotif behind the policies of the Republican government; irrespective of the party in power.” [The Anarchist Collectives, p. 40] Without creating a means to organise the “social power” of the working class, the CNT was defenceless against these parties once the state had re-organised itself.

To justify their collaboration, the leaders of the CNT-FAI argued that not to do so would have lead to a civil war within the civil war, so allowing Franco easy victory. In practice, while paying lip service to the revolution, the Communists and republicans attacked the collectives, murdered anarchists, restricted supplies to collectivised industries (even war industries) and disbanded the anarchist militias after refusing to give them weapons and ammunition (preferring to arm the Civil Guard in the rearguard in order to crush the CNT and the revolution). By collaborating, a civil war was not avoided. One occurred anyway, with the working class as its victims, as soon as the state felt strong enough.

Garcia Oliver (the first ever, and hopefully last, “anarchist” minister of justice) stated in 1937 that collaboration was necessary and that the CNT had “renounc[ed] revolutionary totalitarianism, which would lead to the strangulation of the revolution by anarchist and Confederal [CNT] dictatorship. We had confidence in the word and in the person of a Catalan democrat” Companys (who had in the past jailed anarchists). [quoted by Vernon Richards, Lessons of the Spanish Revolution, p. 34] Which means that only by working with the state, politicians and capitalists can an anarchist revolution be truly libertarian! Furthermore:

“This argument contains … two fundamental mistakes, which many of the leaders of the CNT-FAI have since recognised, but for which there can be no excuse, since they were not mistakes of judgement but the deliberate abandonment of the principles of the CNT. Firstly, that an armed struggle against fascism or any other form of reaction could be waged more successfully within the framework of the State and subordinating all else, including the transformation of the economic and social structure of the country, to winning the war. Secondly, that it was essential, and possible, to collaborate with political parties — that is politicians — honestly and sincerely, and at a time when power was in the hands of the two workers organisations … “All the initiative … was in the hands of the workers. The politicians were like generals without armies floundering in a desert of futility. Collaboration with them could not, by any stretch of the imagination, strengthen resistance to Franco. On the contrary, it was clear that collaboration with political parties meant the recreation of governmental institutions and the transferring of initiative from the armed workers to a central body with executive powers. By removing the initiative from the workers, the responsibility for the conduct of the struggle and its objectives were also transferred to a governing hierarchy, and this could not have other than an adverse effect on the morale of the revolutionary fighters.” [Richards, Op. Cit., p. 42]

The dilemma of “anarchist dictatorship” or “collaboration” raised in 1937 was fundamentally wrong. It was never a case of banning parties, and other organisations under an anarchist system, far from it. Full rights of free speech, organisation and so on should have existed for all but the parties would only have as much influence as they exerted in union, workplace, community and militia assemblies, as should be the case! “Collaboration” yes, but within the rank and file and within organisations organised in an anarchist manner. Anarchism does not respect the “freedom” to be a boss or politician. In his history of the FAI, Juan Gomaz Casas (an active FAI member in 1936) made this clear:

“How else could libertarian communism be brought about? It would always signify dissolution of the old parties dedicated to the idea of power, or at least make it impossible for them to pursue their politics aimed at seizure of power. There will always be pockets of opposition to new experiences and therefore resistance to joining ‘the spontaneity of the unanimous masses.’ In addition, the masses would have complete freedom of expression in the unions and in the economic organisations of the revolution as well as their political organisations in the district and communities.” [Anarchist Organisation: the History of the FAI, p. 188f]

Instead of this “collaboration” from the bottom up, by means of a federation of workers’ associations, community assemblies and militia columns as argued for by anarchists from Bakunin onwards, the CNT and FAI committees favoured “collaboration” from the top down. The leaders ignored the state and co-operated with other trade unions officials as well as political parties in the Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias. In other words, they ignored their political ideas in favour of a united front against what they considered the greater evil, namely fascism. This inevitably lead the way to counter-revolution, the destruction of the militias and collectives, as they was no means by which these groups could co-ordinate their activities independently of the state. The continued existence of the state ensured that economic confederalism between collectives (i.e. extending the revolution under the direction of the syndicates) could not develop naturally nor be developed far enough in all places. Due to the political compromises of the CNT the tendencies to co-ordination and mutual aid could not develop freely (see next section).

It is clear that the defeat in Spain was due to a failure not of anarchist theory and tactics but a failure of anarchists to apply their theory and tactics. Instead of destroying the state, the CNT-FAI ignored it. For a revolution to be successful it needs to create organisations which can effectively replace the state and the market; that is, to create a widespread libertarian organisation for social and economic decision-making through which working class people can start to set their own agendas. Only by going down this route can the state and capitalism be effectively smashed.

In building the new world we must destroy the old one. Revolutions may be, as Engels suggested, “authoritarian” by their very nature, but only in respect to institutions, structures and social relations which promote injustice, hierarchy and inequality. As discussed in section H.7.4, it is not “authoritarian” to destroy authority and not tyrannical to dethrone tyrants! Revolutions, above all else, must be libertarian in respect to the oppressed. That is, they must develop structures that involve the great majority of the population, who have previously been excluded from decision-making on social and economic issues. In fact, a revolution is the most libertarian thing ever.

As the Friends of Durruti argued a “revolution requires the absolute domination of the workers’ organisations.” [“The Friends of Durruti accuse”, Class War on the Home Front, Wildcat Group (ed.), p. 34] Only this, the creation of viable anarchist social organisations, can ensure that the state and capitalism can be destroyed and replaced with a just system based on liberty, equality and solidarity. Just as Bakunin, Kropotkin and a host of other anarchist thinkers had argued decades previously (see section H.1.4). Thus the most important lesson gained from the Spanish Revolution is simply the correctness of anarchist theory on the need to organise the social and economic power of the working class by a free federation of workers associations to destroy the state. Without this, no revolution can be lasting. As Gomez Casas correctly argued, “if instead of condemning that experience [of collaboration], the movement continues to look for excuses for it, the same course will be repeated in the future … exceptional circumstances will again put … anarchism on [its] knees before the State.” [Op. Cit., p. 251]

The second important lesson is on the nature of anti-fascism. The CNT leadership, along with many (if not most) of the rank-and-file, were totally blinded by the question of anti-fascist unity, leading them to support a “democratic” state against a “fascist” one. While the basis of a new world was being created around them by the working class, inspiring the fight against fascism, the CNT leaders collaborated with the system that spawns fascism. While the anti-fascist feelings of the CNT leadership were sincere, the same cannot be said of their “allies” (who seemed happier attacking the gains of the semi-revolution than fighting fascism). As the Friends of Durruti make clear: “Democracy defeated the Spanish people, not Fascism.” [Op. Cit., p. 30] To be opposed to fascism is not enough, you also have to be anti-capitalist. As Durruti stressed, ”[n]o government in the world fights fascism to the death. When the bourgeoisie sees power slipping from its grasp, it has recourse to fascism to maintain itself.” [quoted by Vernon Richards, Op. Cit., p. 193f] In Spain, anti-fascism destroyed the revolution, not fascism. As the Scottish Anarchist Ethel McDonald argued at the time: “Fascism is not something new, some new force of evil opposed to society, but is only the old enemy, Capitalism, under a new and fearful sounding name … Anti-Fascism is the new slogan by which the working class is being betrayed.” [Workers Free Press, October 1937]

Thirdly, the argument of the CNT that Libertarian Communism had to wait until after the war was a false one. Fascism can only be defeated by ending the system that spawned it (i.e. capitalism). In addition, in terms of morale and inspiration, the struggle against fascism could only be effective if it were also a struggle for something better — namely a free society. To fight fascism for a capitalist democracy which had repressed the working class would hardly inspire those at the front. Similarly, the only hope for workers’ self-management was to push the revolution as far as possible, i.e. to introduce libertarian communism while fighting fascism. The idea of waiting for libertarian communism ultimately meant sacrificing it for the war effort. This would, by necessity, mean the end of the revolutionary spirit and hope which could inspire and sustain the war effort. Why would people fight for a return to the status quo? A status quo that they had rebelled against before the start of the civil war and which had provoked the fascist coup in the first place.

Fourthly, the role of anarchists in a social revolution is to always encourage organisation “from below” (to use one of Bakunin’s favourite expressions), revolutionary organisations which can effectively smash the state. Bakunin himself argued (see section I.8.11) in favour of workers’ councils, complemented by community assemblies (the federation of the barricades) and a self-managed militia. This model is still applicable today and was successfully applied in Aragón by the CNT.

Therefore, the political lessons gained from the experience of the CNT come as no surprise. They simply repeat long standing positions within anarchist theory. As anarchists have argued since Bakunin, no revolution is possible unless the state is smashed, capital expropriated and a free federation of workers’ associations created as the framework of libertarian socialism. Rather than refuting anarchism, the experience of the Spanish Revolution confirms it.

[sophia-sol]

books read in 2023

WHAT, how is it already the next year, I'm not ready to be done with my 2023 reading list! This year I read 73 books, which is my lowest total since 2016. I got so distracted by just thinking about Heaven Official's Blessing constantly that I did hardly any reading of anything else for the last several months of the year!

If you want to ask me anything about any of the books I read, please feel free! I'm always happy to talk books!!

Italics indicate a reread. Each book is rated from one to five stars according to my personal reaction to it, rather than my judgement of its objective worth.

January

***** A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf - nf

*** Wild Rain, by Beverly Jenkins

**** The Desert is Fertile, by Hélder Câmara, translated by Dinah Livingstone - nf

***** When the Angels Left the Old Country, by Sacha Lamb

*** Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, by Anna-Marie McLemore

*** Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski - nf

**** Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe - nf

**** Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your TIme, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating, by Christy Harrison - nf

***** How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, by Jason Stanley - nf

*** The Twelve Points of Caleb Canto, by Sam Starbuck

*** Spellcast, by Barbara Ashford

**** Defekt, by Nino Cipri 

February

***** Point of Hopes, by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett

*** Rabbit Chase, by Elizabeth LaPensée

*** Shelterbelts, by Jonathan Dyck

*** A Restless Truth, by Freya Marske

March

**** Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay, by Merilyn Simonds - nf

*** Volume 1 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Natsumi Kei

**** The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope

*** Spear, by Nicola Griffith.

**** How Long ‘til Black Future Month?, by N. K. Jemisin

*** Hello, Melancholic!, by Ohsawa Yayoi

**** The Monsters We Defy, by Leslye Penelope

April

**** The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, translated and edited by Jack Zipes

*** The Stand-In, by Lily Chu

*** A Half-Built Garden, by Ruthanna Emrys

**** Volume 2 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Natsumi Kei

**** A Garter as a Lesser Gift, by Aster Glenn Gray

**** Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher

**** Magical Boy, Volume 1, by The Kao

**** Trans Wizard Harriet Porber and the Bad Boy Parasaurolophus, by Chuck Tingle

*** Welcome to St Hell, by Lewis Hancox - nf

***** The Iron Children, by Rebecca Fraimow

**** A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World’s Most Misunderstood Bird, by Rosemary Mosco – nf

May

*** Volume 3 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Natsumi Kei

*** Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

**** We Ride Upon Sticks, by Quan Barry

**** Surviving Romance, Season 1, by Lee Yone

**** The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Volume 1, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

June

**** Volume 4 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Natsumi Kei

**** Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh

**** Enemies to Lovers, by Aster Glenn Gray

**** The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Volume 2, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

July

***** To Shape A Dragon’s Breath, by Moniquill Blackgoose

**** Volume 1 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Suzuki Jirou

**** Under Fortunate Stars, by Ren Hutchings

**** Honeytrap, by Aster Glenn Gray

***** Heaven Official’s Blessing, Volume 1, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

*** Bloodmarked, by Tracy Deonn

August

**** The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Volume 3, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

**** Volume 2 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Suzuki Jirou

**** The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Volume 4, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

***** The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Volume 5, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

** The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal

***** The Sleeping Soldier, by Aster Glenn Gray

**** The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, by Desmond Cole – nf

**** Thornhedge, by T. Kingfisher

September

*** The Lies of the Ajungo, by Moses Ose Utomi

***** Heaven Official's Blessing, volume 1, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

***** Heaven Official's Blessing, volume 2, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

***** Heaven Official's Blessing, volume 3, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

October

***** Heaven Official’s Blessing, volume 4, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

**** Volume 3 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Suzuki Jirou

**** Volume 4 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Suzuki Jirou

***** Heaven Official’s Blessing, volume 5, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

***** Heaven Official’s Blessing, volume 6, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

*** The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, volume 1, by Kazuki Irodori ; original story, Yatsuki Wak

November

**** Volume 5 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Suzuki Jirou

***** Heaven Official’s Blessing, volume 7, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

***** Heaven Official’s Blessing, volume 8, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

December

**** The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, volume 2, by Kazuki Irodori ; original story, Yatsuki Wak

**** Volume 1 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch, by Ryukishi07, art by Natsumi Kei

***** Heaven Official's Blessing, volume 2, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

[shu-of-the-wind]

you know what i've just realized that i came back to tumblr after like three or four years of radio silence and haven't updated folks on my fandoms, so, in case people were wondering:

fandoms i write for:

rogue one (always and forever, my one true love, eternal companion, i literally have two r1 tats right now and i'm planning a third and fourth)

mo dao zu shi (grandmaster of demonic cultivation) and to some extent ren zha fanpai zijiu xitong (scum villain's self-saving system) but i still haven't finished tian guan ci fu (heaven official's blessing) don't @ me

moon knight, which is like....the only fucking marvel property i am okay with right now (i'm kind of an active thor and loki hater for personal reasons ;;;;)

the hobbit and some parts of the silmarillion (i am not nearly as educated on this as i wanna be)

THE MUPPETS THE MUPPETS THE MUPPETS THE MUPPETS (no i'm probably not writing fanfiction for it but if you ask me about the muppets i will talk to you for ten hours)

i'm writing a fic for the series that shall not be named which is purely me being trans and processing my grief around jkr being a terf so i don't talk about it publicly! but i do write it and post semi-regularly

fullmetal alchemist even if i haven't updated sotb in literally years shhhhhHHHHHH

fandoms i don't write for (ever or anymore) but love to talk about + interests i have that are outside of fandom:

umineko when they cry/umineko no naku koro ni

anything by agatha christie though i will guarantee more awareness of poirot and marple than any of her other characters

ghost hunt

the twelve kingdoms

kuroshitsuji

history of any stripe but PARTICULARLY anything to do with imperialism/fascism

pharaonic egypt and, hand in hand with that, the history of egyptology

anything by rf kuang

the unbroken by c.l. clark

the history of mining rights in west virginia (i don't know how i got into this one either but)

treaty rights and the history of us govt abuses of indigenous peoples (currently work as a tribal law attorney)

witchcraft and asatro (antiracist and antifa only please if you aren't antifa and antiracist and you pretend to be a nordic polytheist i'm literally going to smash you with a hammer)

this is a very incomplete list but if i keep going it's going to be excessive

other projects i'm working on right now:

i also write original fiction and am currently drafting a historical fantasy novel, planning a historical mystery novel in the tradition of poirot and marple, and writing short stories/novellas for submission to publishers (fuck harper collins lmao)

video essays; i'm drafting scripts and starting voiceover work this month (1/2023) so i'm hoping to have something up by the end of february

planning a podcast series with a dear friend of mine that should also hopefully start posting this year, we've both had big work things in our way of late

if anyone wants to talk to me about any of these things please do!