Spectre of Fascism Free School II

These events will take place on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

The events are FREE and open to the public. If you would like to donate to the Institute to help fund future events like this one, please visit http://www.sfu.ca/humanities-institute/donate.html.

ASL requests must be submitted at least 3 weeks prior to the specific session to insthum@sfu.ca.

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

Image credit: John Heartfield (http://www.johnheartfield.com/John-Heartfield-Exhibition/)

SCHEDULE:

“SPECTRE OF FASCISM” FREE SCHOOL II

**The following are held at UNIT/PITT Projects**

– Sep 21: Hilda Fernandez, “So, Do You Want a Master?”
– Sep 28: Gurpreet Singh, “The Fascist Roots of Hindutva”
– Oct 5: Adel Iskandar, “Fascism in the Muslim World: Refracting The Contrapuntal Tunes of Islamophobia”
– Oct 26: Laura Marks, “Which Came First, Fascism or Misogyny? Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies”

**The following are held at Selectors Records (8 E. Pender St.)**

– Nov 9: Alec Balasescu, “The Aesthetics of Totalitarian Salvation”
– Nov 16: Jerry Zaslove in dialogue with Samir Gandesha and Bob Hackett, “Critique of Violence and the Fascism of Everyday Life”
– Nov 23: -CANCELLED-

– Nov 30th: Closing Roundtable on Fascism: What have we learned? What is to be done? Speakers TBA.

SPECTRE OF FASCISM FREE SCHOOL

With the recent election of Donald J. Trump as 45th President of the United States, there has been a dramatic return of the word “fascism” to contemporary analyses of politics. For example, on December 9th, 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 20th century fascism and authoritarianism, and the second session will look to more contemporary 21st century examples. An important underlying concern will be to think about the practical responses to the global spread of authoritarianism.