SPECTRE OF FASCISM FREE SCHOOL

Organized by Samir Gandesha and Stephen Collis, and sponsored by SFU's Institute for the Humanities. 

Note: unless otherwise noted, the sessions will take place on Thursdays at UNIT/PITT Projects from 7PM–10PM.

With the recent election of Donald J. Trump as 45^th President of the United States, there has been a dramatic return of the word “fascism” to contemporary analyses of politics. For example, on December 9^th, 2016, Michael Kinsley, writing for the Washington Post, openly declares that “Donald Trump is a fascist.” In one sense, this was justified by the fact that Trump’s administration includes Steven Bannon, former Wall Street Executive, Harvard MBA, and avid reader of Italian fascist philosopher Julius Evola. Indeed, Richard Spenser, one of the key neo-Nazi figures whom Bannon describes as the “intellectual leader of the alt-right movement,” infamously greeted Trump’s election with a version of Seig Heil (Hail Trump) and a Nazi salute. A hard core of Trump support is comprised of White Nationalists and White Supremacists such as David Duke. On the other hand, Trump does not lead a tightly disciplined mass-based party premised upon a philosophy of history entailing a social Darwinist struggle to the death between the races and the project of constructing an indomitable 1000-year Reich in eastern Europe. Indeed, there seems to be little if any thought given to the prospect of the future whatsoever, rather the vision has been consistently retrospective: “Make America Great Again.” Globally, we have witnessed a parallel rise of authoritarianism from the tragic denouement of the Egyptian Revolution to the consolidation of the so-called Gujarat Model in India under the leadership of Hindutva-backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has violently purged the Turkish state in the aftermath of the failed coup last summer.

Canada, itself, has not been immune. Far from it. The agenda of the previous Harper Government anticipated, in significant ways, the Trump Administration from the centralization of executive power in the PMO, the use of antidemocratic omnibus bills to push through controversial legislation favourable to the oil and gas sector, two attempts at voter-suppression by way of the Fair Elections Act, the silencing of scientists and librarians, the running battle with Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, and, of course, draconian Anti-Terrorism Act, Islamophobia, and the invocation of “Old Stock Canadians.”

Such developments have been understood in terms of a shift from a nominally “democratic” to a fully “authoritarian" phase of neo-liberalism. So, this Free School seeks to open a discussion on the question of the extent to which what we are witnessing today is a return to classic twentieth century “fascism” or some species of what Enzo Traverso, author of amongst other books, The Origins of Nazi Violence, calls “post-fascism.” The first session will look at theories and histories of 20^th century fascism and authoritarianism, and the second session will look to more contemporary 21^st century examples. An important underlying concern will be to think about the practical responses to the global spread of authoritarianism.

Schedule:

"SPECTRE OF FASCISM" FREE SCHOOL I

February 23: Samir Gandesha, “History as Repetition: The Uncanny Return of Fascism”
March 2: Populism Panel, "The Return of Right-Wing Populism and the Framing of the Migrant and Refugee" (location: room 1415, SFU Harbour Centre; time: 5:30–7:30pm)
March 2: Ingo Schmidt, “The Hope of the Hopeless: Contemporary Lessons from Marxist Struggles Against Hitler and Mussolini” (time: 8–10pm)
March 9: Steve Collis “Poetry Against Fascism: The Spanish Crucible”
March 16: Gary Genosko, “The Proliferation of Micropolitical Fascisms”
March 23: Jaleh Mansoor, "The Dialectics of Violence in Post War Europe: Fascism and Anti Fascism."
April 4: Roxanne Panchasi, "Everyone Hates Marineland: A History Of French Fascisms, 1789-2017" (location: Selector Records, 8 E Pender St, Vancouver) 

"SPECTACLE OF FASCISM" CONFERENCE

April 6–9 (more details soon)

"SPECTRE OF FASCISM" FREE SCHOOL II

May 4: Patricia Barkaskas in Dialogue with Samir Gandesha and Steve Collis, “The Violence of Settler Colonialism”
May 11: Jerry Zaslove in dialogue with Samir Gandesha, "Critique of Violence and the Fascism of Everyday Life"
May 18: Am Johal, “Friend and Enemy: On the Politics of Carl Schmitt”
May 25: Harjap Grewal, South Asian Antifascist organizing in BC
June 1: Adel Iskandar, "Fascism in the Muslim World: Refracting The Contrapuntal Tunes of Islamophobia"  
June 8: Ajay Bhardwaj/Gurpreet Singh, “The Fascist Roots of Hindutva”
June 15: Hilda Fernandez, “So, Do You Want a Master?”
June 22: Alec Balasescu, “The Aesthetics of Totalitarian Salvation”
June 29: Laura Marks, Male Fantasies
July 6: Tara Mahoney (Gen Why Media): Chantal Mouffe and Left Populism
July 13: Dan Adleman “Remediating Sovereignty in the Digital 21st Century”

Closing Roundtable on Fascism: What have we learned? What is to be done? Date TBA