Decolonising Anti-Fascism: Intertwining the Histories of Colonialism, Racism, and Fascism

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E Global History and Decoloniality

Decolonising Anti-Fascism: Intertwining the Histories of Colonialism, Racism and Fascism

Event Details

Date

IV. Thursday, 11th September, 14:30-16:30
Location
M1076
Theme
E Global History and Decoloniality

Convenor

Kasper Braskén (University of Helsinki)

Commentator

Stephen Ashe (University of Durham)

Panelists

Moshumee T. Dewoo (University of Helsinki)
Shane Little (University of Helsinki)
George Bishi (University of the Free State)
Kasper Braskén (University of Helsinki)

Papers

Moshumee T. Dewoo

Decolonising Global History: Integrating the Global Network of Optimism Against Fascism

Decolonising Global History: Integrating the Global Network of Optimism Against Fascism

As the historically colonising world promotes inclusivity and the diversification of narratives for a decolonial turn from a singular global history toward global histories instead, it becomes imperative to expand upon Spivak’s (1988) seminal question on voice and authority, “Can the subaltern speak?”, into authenticity and representation in historical narratives, asking: Can the historically colonising world call for the decolonisation of global history? Can it authentically articulate decolonisation? Can it truly (re)present the histories it once suppressed? This paper argues that such authenticity is possible, if it aligns with the principles of “convivial scholarship” (Nyamnjoh 2020) in the manner of a dialogic process between the colonising world and the colonised that considers that the decolonisation of global history demands that this be recognised as a universal call; that the call for the decolonisation of global history by the colonising world is understood as fundamentally the same as that of the colonised world, both emerging from what reads as broader resistance to oppressive systems or “a global network of optimism” against fascism (Dewoo 2024). This paper aims to demonstrate this network by foregrounding the works of various scholars and activists that transcend disparate geographies and historical boundaries in a singular call against fascism. These include the works of Chimamanda Adichie (Nigeria), Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya), Ai Weiwei (China), Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan), Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus), Greta Thunberg (Sweden), Eduardo Galeano (Uruguay), Luzmila Carpio (Bolivia), David Graeber (USA), Judith Butler (USA), Chandra Mohanty (India), Leila Ahmed (Egypt), Aileen Moreton-Robinson (Australia), and Benny Wenda (Indonesia).
Shane Little

Black antifascism and anarchism / antiauthoritarianism in the United States, 1930–1950

Black antifascism and anarchism / antiauthoritarianism in the United States, 1930–1950

Black anti-fascists have been at the forefront of anti-fascist activities in the United States since the early 1930s. Concurrently, black anti-fascist thought has helped shaped how American fascism is understood and how it operates. Strong historical links have been discovered between early black anti-fascism and the Marxist tradition, particularly through Trotskyism and the CPUSA. However, clearer early links between black anti-fascism and anarchism / antiauthoritarian tendencies have yet to emerge. Early anarchist and antiauthoritarian antifascist activity in the US has focused on European, principally Italian, migrants, with no clear connection to black anti-fascism being made. Current history suggests that the intersection of black anti-fascism and anarchism / antiauthoritarian tendencies occurs during the 1970s, particularly through figures such as Lorenzo Kom’Boa Ervin and Martin Sostree. This paper will challenge this historical narrative and explore earlier connections between black antifascism and anarchism / antiauthoritarian tendencies. In doing so, widening our understanding of multiracial antifascism in the US.
George Bishi

African Nationalist Anti-Fascist Discourse in the Decolonisation of Rhodesia (1957–1979)

African Nationalist Anti-Fascist Discourse in the Decolonisation of Rhodesia (1957–1979)

This paper explores the ways in which left-wing nationalist organizations, ZANU and ZAPU, in Rhodesia utilized anti-fascist narratives during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. It contends that these African nationalist groups employed anti-fascist and anti-Nazi rhetoric not only as propaganda but as a framework for re-examining the connections between colonialism, racism, and fascism in both colonial contexts and anti-colonial movements in Southern Africa. The analysis is grounded in theoretical perspectives on the reproduction of ideas across different historical contexts and the meanings they generate. Using qualitative analysis of left-wing African nationalist publications in exile, particularly Zimbabwe Review and Zimbabwe News, alongside other archival documents, this paper traces how African nationalists articulated philosophical links between colonialism, racism, and fascism in their anti-colonial struggle. In doing so, this study challenges the conventional view of anti-fascist discourse as confined to wartime Europe and the Global North. Instead, it highlights a distinct form of anti-fascism emerging from the anti-colonial context in Rhodesia. By examining these interconnections, the paper aims to deepen our understanding of how anti-colonial struggles were informed by, and contributed to, global anti-fascist movements across various temporal landscapes.
Kasper Braskén

The Winding Anti-Fascist Road: Exploring the Global Transformations of ‘White Labourism’ and ‘White Anti-Racism’ in the Mid Twentieth Century

The Winding Anti-Fascist Road: Exploring the Global Transformations of ‘White Labourism’ and ‘White Anti-Racism’ in the Mid Twentieth Century

When the Second World War came to its conclusion, black radicals called to the imperial white working class and white leaders to uphold the anti-fascist values established in the Atlantic Charter. The issue of race had been a marginal issue in the anti-fascist movements of the 1920s and early 1930s and thus imperial ‘white labourism’ (Hyslop 1999) could remain unchallenged in anti-fascist frameworks. With the global spread of Nazi race theories in the 1930s, combined with Italy’s imperial-fascist war in Ethiopia, and the left’s intensified focus on racial segregation within Britain, the USA and South Africa, race was made into a pivotal component of global anti-fascism. The aim of this paper is to analyse efforts to transform ‘white anti-fascism’ between the 1930s and the 1960s, by the left’s attempts to recast ‘white labourism’ to a ‘white anti-racism’. Despite impressive examples of international solidarity, the paper explores the internal dynamics within the ‘white left’. How could it challenge the traditions of white labourism in Britain, the USA and South Africa through means of education that emphasised the need to take a critical stance on racism and racial segregation in working class communities? In order to create transformative inter-racial or non-racial solidarities in local contexts, the ‘white’ working class needed to be purified from white supremacy, but still without pushing the white working class into the arms of fascism.

Abstract

This panel speaks to the congress theme “Global history and decoloniality” by exploring the ways in which anti-fascism has been decolonised during the 20th century. In the context of mid 20th century decolonisation processes and the formation of the postcolonial world, political concepts of European origin have by necessity been re-negotiated and re-conceptualised. What does decoloniality imply to the concept of anti-fascism, and how have demands of an undoing of the Western colonisers’ mindset affected the intellectual lineages of anti-fascism? In the first paper, Moshumee T. Dewoo (University of Helsinki) begins by demonstrating how “a global network of optimism” is formed against fascism by a dialogic process between the colonising world and the colonised. By discussing interventions by scholars and activists that transcend disparate geographies and historical boundaries, Dewoo argues that they form a singular call against fascism. George Bishi (University of the Free State in South Africa) contends in his paper that African nationalist groups in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle employed anti-fascist and anti-Nazi rhetoric as a framework for re-examining the connections between colonialism, racism, and fascism in both colonial contexts and anti-colonial movements in Southern Africa. Shane Little (University of Helsinki) shows how black anti-fascist thought has helped shape how American and global fascism is understood and how it operates. The paper will widen our understanding of multiracial anti-fascism as it reconnects black anti-fascism with anarchism and antiauthoritarian tendencies in the US. Kasper Braskén (University of Helsinki) explores the ‘white’ left’s attempts to challenge the traditions of ‘white labourism’ in Britain, the USA and South Africa in the mid 20th century. The paper explores the internal dynamics within the international ‘white left’ and asks how it through political education tried to persuade white working class communities to take a critical stance on racism and resist the colonisers mindset. Put together, the papers in the panel explore the intellectual trajectories of decoloniality and anti-fascism that engages in a critical discussion on the intertwined histories of colonialism, racism and fascism.