12 Rules For What

Samir sits down with author and academic Samir Gandesha for a wide ranging interview about Indigenous struggles against pipelines, the theory of endocolonialism, fascist resentment and more! Samir Gandesha is an Associate Professor in the Department of the Humanities and the Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University. He is also the editor of a new collection of essays on 'Spectres of Fascism', which is available from Pluto: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745340647/spectres-of-fascism/ In this show we start from a discussion of his essay Posthuman Fascism, available here: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/posthuman-fascism BELLA CIAO REMIX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOt1DRWSo4 For an anti-fascist music playlist, see here: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeH-_CKmhIEqmgewpFGqJcL9dsZckJVa_ You can also get information on how to see Samir in discussion with Jodi Dean, Dominiek Hoens, and Klaas Tindemans here: https://www.ritcs.be/sites/ritcs/files/inline-files/Pro

This week we witnessed unprecedented scenes when thousands of of far right Trump supporters, boogoloos and believers in the Qanon conspiracy stormed the US Capitol, supposedly one of the most secure location in the world, in order to halt the certificaiton of electoral college ballots and stop a Biden presidency. We discuss what happened, how we got to this point, where Qanon goes next as a movement, the deplatforming of Trump, and the contraditions that are developing within the right. Other podcasts worth listening to: Our buddies at the Channel Zero Network recorded an excellent roundtable about what happened https://t.co/e87DFsYjSP?amp=1 Marooncast (also part of CZN)has an excellent episode which you can find here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1414102/7207861 RIP DOOM.

Sam sits down with historian Professor Alexandra Minna Stern to discuss her 2019 book Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate, an intellectual history of the core ideas of the alt right. The interview covers a lot of ground and includes a periodisation of the far right, the idea of a white ethnostate, changes and continuities in the category of whiteness and the prospects of the far right in a post Trump world. You can find out more about the book here: http://www.beacon.org/Proud-Boys-and-the-White-Ethnostate-P1470.aspx Professor Stern is the Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan. She is also the author of the award winning Eugenics Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America.

For a Christmas episode we sit down with an expert guest for a wide ranging discusion on the far right and the environment. We talk about the long standing far right meme of the invasive specises, the need to be careful with the term 'ecofascism' and the far right's relationship to total climate armageddon! This should be seen as a companion episode to our previous shows on ecofascism and green anti-fascism. See you in the new year and happy holidays! For an even more comprehensive introduction to the far right and the environment see here: https://www.routledge.com/The-Far-Right-and-the-Environment-Politics-Discourse-and-Communication/Forchtner/p/book/9781138477896

We are joined by Elif from Kurdish Assembly UK and Nik, an internationalist in the Kurdish freedom struggle to discuss the history and continued relevance of Turkish fascism. We talk about the origins of the Turkish state, the interactions of the Kemalist state with fascism and Nazism, the make up of the contemporary far right in Turkey and the 2019 invasion of Northern Syria. Links for further reading/ information: https://crimethinc.com/2019/11/12/the-roots-of-turkish-fascism-and-the-threat-it-poses https://rojavainformationcenter.com https://anfenglish.com/news https://www.nuceciwan54.com/en/author/ncenglish/ https://medyanews.net/

A special episode for the London Anarchist Bookfair 2020! We discuss our first book, coming out soon with Dog Section Press and talk about other stuff like anti-fascist research, far right influencers and more!

In which we take a break from our writing to talk about the topic on everyone's minds at the moment, the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic - and how fascists are responding to it. We discuss the coronavirus pandemic as a form of environmental crisis, assess the far right response in its authoritarian and conspiritoiral aspects and touch on how things are playing out in Hungary at the UK. We even have a bit of anti-fascism at the end. Coronavirus is with us for the long term, it will shape politics for years to come. We need to be prepared for that, and work out our strategies for the months to come. HOPE EVERYONE IS STAYING AS SAFE AS THEY CAN BE.

In mid January the latest of many US fascist paramilitary groups were thrust into the mainstream when a group of three men from the neo nazi organisation The Base, were arrested by the FBI on their way to a VIrginia gun rights rally on gun charges. We give a a run down about The Base and how they organise online in a manner typical of contemporary fascists, utilising multiple platforms to avoid censorship and control, but also how it organises real-world 'hate camps' where members meet up in person to learn combat skills. Have a listen to the episode and make sure to share it around! Go to patreon.com/12rulesforwhat to support the show and get access to our reading lists and our news round-ups, we are entirely support by you, no ads or anything so anything you can give really does help the show.

For this episode of 12 Rules for WHAT Alex headed to Reading to interview Reading Red Corner, a red gym, martial arts club and solidarity project. The right wing government of Boris Johnson gives space to new far right and fascist movements. To meet this potential threat the left needs to build a base that encompasses community self defence and solidarity. Notable about Reading Red Corner is their commitment to food solidarity and engagement with community projects across Reading. Listen to find out more about their project! If there is a red gym in your area consider supporting/ getting involved. If there isn't anything happening we've also got some tips for getting something started. Reading Red Corner organises WEEKLY sessions and is open to people of all experiences and non. Get in touch via their facebook page if you want to find out more.

The UK election has come and gone and left us with the Conservatives in power with a massive majority for at least the next five years. There are a lot of podcasts out there dissecting the election result, and we are not here to do that. Instead we will talk about how the far right did in the election, discussed how they will fare in the next five years, look at some of the more authoritarian policies in the Tory manifesto and consider the question of whether Boris Johnson is fascist (spoiler: he is not.) Support the show! Give us money on patreon! patreon.com/12rulesforwhat

It might be difficult to imagine fascists had any pull in post WW2 Britain. Yet, when Jewish ex-servicemen returned home they found fascist activity springing up all over London, and especially in the East End. Some of those ex servicemen decided to do something about it. Joining with other Londoners - Jews, gentiles, men and women - they built a street fighting organisation that physically disrupted fascist activity. They named their new organisation the 43 Group. We sit down with author and historian Dan Sonabend to discuss his new book about the group and their legacy.

12 Rules for WHAT has written an afterword to The Trouble with National Action, a new book by Mark Hayes out from Freedom Press. National Action was proscribed by the UK government in December 2016. We discuss the meaning of proscription, its effects on the National Action and the extreme right in the UK, and put the proscription into the history of state anti-fascism. You can get Hayes' book now for only £4 https://freedompress.org.uk/product/the-trouble-with-national-action/ https://patreon.com/12rulesforwhat https://twitter.com/12rulesforwhat

We talk with Dave Renton, author of The New Authoritarians, about his theory of convergence on the right. Blurb for the book: All across the world, right-wing politics is shifting, with conservative and hard-right proponents allying. From Donald Trump to Marine Le Pen, these figureheads agree on issues that would have been considered extreme to previous generations, causing many to label them as fascists. But is this too simplistic? If they are not fascists, what are their politics? In The New Authoritarians, David Renton approaches the problem from a new perspective. He identifies an emergent and deeply troubling form of right-wing radicalism, at once more moderate than classical fascism in its political strategy, yet indulgent of the racism of its most extreme components. In country after country, under the clouds of economic austerity and post-9/11 Islamophobia, the right is converging and strengthening. To understand why is the first step to stopping them. http://www.dkrenton.co.uk/books/the-new-au

The 3rd and the 24th August 2019 saw the return of the Free Tommy movement to London - much bedraggled, smaller than before, and with anti-fascists turning out to stop them. In this episode, we sit down with organisers from the London Anti-fascist Assembly and Feminist Anti-fascist Assembly to discuss the two demonstrations, the antifascist response, and the complex and the prospects for anti-fascism in London.

We return for part 2 of our investigation into ecofascism. Ecofascism exists at the moment as a collection of memes and disperate thoughts, but it had the potential to be an important part of the future far right. We discuss how to fight it, and how we can build and ecoantifascism

As Tommy Robinson was sent to prison for the second time for commiting contempt of court he wore a shirt enblazoned with the words 'Convicted of Journalism'. His career as a fake journalist fits into a wider trend of far right and fascist propagandists taking on the mantle of journalist to provide cover for their hateful politics. We are joined by actual journalist James Poulter, who has extensively covered Tommy Robinson, to discuss how Robinson came to style himself a citizen journalist, the make up of the far right coalition that coalacesed around Robinson in 2017-18 and the prospects for the Free Tommy movement in 2019. Danny Tommo failed kidnapper: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/crime/bungling-armed-kidnappers-jailed-for-stupid-attempt-1-7501996 Rebel media meltdown: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/politicians-contributors-distance-themselves-as-rebel-medias-meltdown-continues

What are the basic emotions that the far right draws on? How does the internet produce Nazis? What happened to the cat memes? We talk to Emerican Johnson of the youtube channel Non-compete to find out. In this episode, we discuss online radicalisation, and the pewdiepipeline - Emerican Johnson's framework for thinking about the way people are drawn to the far right through edgy memes and joke. Also in this episode, we read from the deradicalisation stories we were sent by listeners. Video on the PewDiePipeline: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnmRYRRDbuw Video on Masculinity: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjQ2B5cQ_gs Data and Society report on the Alternative Influence Network datasociety.net/output/alternative-influence/ Politigram: joshuacitarella.com/_pdf/Politigram…_2018_short.pdf www.patreon.com/12rulesforwhat

At the end of June the 'western chauvinist' far right fraternity the Proud Boys, demonstrated in Portland and antifascists mobilised to oppse them. Andy Ngo, a 'journalist' who has consistently sided with the far right, was milkshaked by antifascists. We clear up some of the disinformation surrounding the events, talk about their wider significance, and chat about how antifascists can stop the spread of disinformation and false rumours. Further readings: https://itsgoingdown.org/police-push-misinfo-after-portland-shuts-down-proud-boys/ https://itsgoingdown.org/rose-city-antifa-on-6-29-antifascist-mobilization-in-portland/ https://www.cjr.org/analysis/quillette-antifa-journalist-smear-campaign.php https://twitter.com/IGD_News/status/1145623629448843264

Ecofascism is an essential part of how the far right is going to change over the next few decades. It's the cynical belief that the coming climate breakdown can be used by the far right to harden borders, further police migration, and blame non-white people. It rests on dodgy science, bad arguments, and racial hatred. It needs to be urgently confronted as a tendency, even though it doesn't yet have a group who express it explicitly. From Identity Evropa's (American Identity Movement)campaign for the deportation of migrants to defend the environment to Marine Le Pen's abandonment of climate science denial, Ecofascism is an increasingly important and prominent part of the far right, and will only become more so as the climate crisis deepens. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/janet-biehl-and-peter-staudenmaier-ecofascism-lessons-from-the-german-experience http://environment-ecology.com/deep-ecology/278-ecofascism-deep-ecology-and-right-wing-co-optation.html https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/so

The Brexit Party are the breakout party of the European elections. Unlike rival upstarts Change UK, Farage's ragtag grouping surged to first place and are set to agitate for Brexit within the European Parliament. We discuss the Brexit Party's prospects going forward, and examine how Farage's old party, UKIP, have fared after a dismal showing in the elections.