Anti-Fascism as a Differentially Mobilizing Ideology: Anti-Imperialism and the Failed Globalization of the European Left, 1935-1979 | DEMOS21

The Center for Critical Democracy Studies invites you to join a presentation by Giuliana Chamedes, Mellon-Morgridge Professor of European International History at the University of Wisconsin, entitled "Anti-Fascism as a Differentially Mobilizing Ideology: Anti-Imperialism and the Failed Globalization of the European Left, 1935-1979," as part of its DEMOS 21 convocation. This is a virtual event and registration is required.

This talk investigates the endurance of antifascism as a mobilizing ideology from the 1930s through the 1970s. It will suggest that two distinctive varieties of antifascism took shape in the 1930s and endured, with minor changes, through the late 1970s; the two varieties of antifascism were in dialogue but in opposition to one another—and both were mobilizing ideologies: they existed not only in the realm of ideas, but counseled individuals to take action in particular and circumscribed ways. The talk's central contention is that these two strands of antifascism are central to understanding the course of modern European history and the enduring inability of the European Left to connect effectively with large numbers of activists of color on European soil. 

The first form of antifascism—Popular Front antifascism—was the child of Western European communist parties, and was adapted and endorsed by the Communist International in 1934. It saw fascism as the leading threat on the international stage; identified it as an anti-democratic movement pushed by reactionary ‘bourgeois’ interests; and argued for the creation of a broad coalition between far left and centrist political parties so as to bring down fascist governments. Popular Front antifascism picked up speed with the Spanish Civil War; had its day in the sun during the Grand Alliance politics of 1944 through 1947; and was dusted off again in the 1970s, this time conjoined with a defense of individual liberty and human rights, and an attack on the Soviet Union. Popular Front antifascism was not born in a vacuum: It was a response to a second antifascist mobilizing ideology, which also took shape in the 1930s. This second form of antifascism—anti-imperial antifascism--was brought to life by current and former imperial subjects, many of whom were living in continental Europe. While these figures agreed that fascism was anti-democratic and the child of the bourgeoisie, they emphasized that fascism was at its core an imperial vision based on a commitment to the existence of racial and civilizational hierarchies. For these activists and writers, fascism would only truly be destroyed when European imperialism came crashing down. This anti-imperial antifascism exploded on the global stage in 1935, with the Fascist Italian attack on Ethiopia; reappeared after 1945, when most European imperial powers failed to give up their colonies and embraced Popular Front antifascism instead; and emerged again in the 1970s, under the umbrella of a globalizing Black Power movement. 

In historiographic terms, the talk suggests that 1) European reconstruction was based on one antifascist myth, at the conscious suppression of another rival form of antifascism; 2) The transformation of the European Left in the 1970s was less radical than many imagined—though its inability to move beyond Popular Front antifascism alienated a new generation of Europeans in ways that would have long-standing consequences; and 3) Anti-imperial antifascism—and its relationship to Popular Front antifascism—has been unhelpfully obscured by the historiography, even though it played a shaping influence on the European Left and social movements for at least two thirds of the twentieth century.

Registration details will be sent via email to all registrants 24 hours prior to the event.