Fighting Fascism and Islamist Fundamentalism Together – Some Practical Ideas
26 January 2025
LLCO.org
Please watch this video first:
People living in the Global North have two main objectives in the face of a growing fascist movement. Number one is to disrupt the fascist-Islamist tension cycle as much as possible and to use it for spreading progressive ideas. Number two is to get ready to defend themselves in expectation of violence and abuse as social tensions arise. Here are some practical steps that can be taken to achieve this. Remember that if you need any help in organizing this, feel free to send us an e-mail to [email protected]. It doesn’t matter if you are an LLCO member or not.
1. Disrupting the cycle of fascist and Islamist fundamentalist tensions
In doing so, we suggest the establishment of progressive reading groups that become stable meeting grounds for people with different cultural backgrounds to meet. In Europe, such reading groups might primarily include native Europeans, refugees from Africa and the Middle East, as well as any people with an immigrant background. The objectives of these groups might include (but are not limited to):
- fostering solidarity among the working population to counter the intentional division by extremist demagogues,
- gaining a deeper understanding of fascism and the social developments that lead to it,
- gaining a deeper understanding of the fallacy of Islamist fundamentalism,
- offering practical help to its members, such as help with bureaucracy for refugees in the respective countries, language training etc.,
- learning about socialism as a societal alternative to the capitalist system,
- organizing practical aid to people currently suffering in the Global South, e. g. Palestine, Sudan.
In North America, such groups might be comprised of White Americans, refugees from Latin America, Native Americans, as well as a diverse group of other refugees and second-generation immigrants from all over the world. While their general objectives would be the same as in Europe, their focus of study and practical activity might be somewhat different, all in line with the actual needs of their members.
The long-term goal for these groups would be to counter the hostile demagogy of fascists and religious extremists with an actual experience of friendship and mutual respect among working people of diverse backgrounds. However, since this might not be enough to defend their members against physical threats that might arise out of these growing social tensions, there is another task to be worked on.
2. Establishing progressive self-defense training groups
The growth of fascist sentiments in the “First” World comes with increased threats to the lives of ordinary working class people. Refugees or any foreign-looking person living in the Global North are increasingly going to face discrimination, verbal abuse, and likely racially motivated physical threats, as seen recently in Magdeburg, Germany. Fascists on the street often pick out the most vulnerable people they can find, i. e. anyone traveling alone, women, children etc. Anyone can become a victim and should consider learning self-defense and de-escalation tactics. These threats are also real for White “First” Worlders with a publicly known or even only a suspected progressive mindset. Women are in an especially precarious situation because both fascists and Islamist fundamentalists cling to conservative and sexist values regarding women and family, and therefore they might become a target from both sides.
Like the reading groups, the self-defense groups should be a place of intercultural working-class solidarity. The only thing that should be confirmed before admitting a member to these is a progressive mindset. If a successful reading group has already been established and the members show interest in it, the group might simply expand their activities to self-defense training or vice versa. In any case, whether the self-defense groups exist as a separate entity or as part of a reading group, their activities might include (but are not limited to):
- basic security training and de-escalation tactics
- physical self-defense training
- general fitness training
- organizing escorts among members in high risk situations
The LLCO will try to help you establish such groups as best as we can, be it by offering practical guidance, reading or educational materials. It doesn’t matter whether you are currently a member of the organization or not. You may even choose not to read any of our materials and still ask for practical advice. Our goal is to properly prepare the working class for whatever developments in the political landscape of the “First” World might still take place. And if you have more practical ideas that we failed to mention in this article, make sure to write us an e-mail, too, so that we can include them in an update.