Man at podium at large indoor rally; banner in front of speaker reads "Defend America First", portrait of George Washington is behind speaker.

On the roots of America First foreign policy

Matthew N Lyons

MAGA’s “America First” approach to foreign policy draws on antiwar sentiment but has promoted unilateralist military aggression. This essay explores the roots of the America First outlook in the “isolationist” nationalism of the early 1940s America First Committee, as analyzed by Franz Schurmann in his 1974 book The Logic of World Power.

American First Committee, anti-interventionism, Antifascist, Donald Trump, MAGA movement, militarism


Disaster Politics

This review first appeared in Socialism and Democracy (July 2010) and is republished with permission. An Editorial Comment follows the review below. *          *          * A Paradise …

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Threat or model?: U.S. rightists look at China

Three Way Fight

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The coronavirus crisis has spurred a sharp increase in scapegoating, harassment, and physical attacks against Chinese and other Asian people in the United States. This racist upsurge has been fomented not only by white nationalists, …

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No longer merely metaphor: Re-reading The Plague by Albert Camus

Three Way Fight

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Albert Camus, 1957 Albert Camus’ novel The Plague offers a portrait of a town under quarantine, ravaged by an epidemic. It tells us of life arbitrarily constrained and unjustly shortened, of human beings isolated by …

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Interview with Hilary Moore, co-author of No Fascist USA!

Three Way Fight

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I recently interviewed writer and anti-racist political educator Hilary Moore about the new book No Fascist USA! The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today’s Movements, which she co-authored with James Tracy. The book …

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Far rightists divided on coronavirus and Trump

Three Way Fight

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Julia DeCook has a good article outlining how right-wing media activists have been exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to spread xenophobia, conspiracy theories, and other forms of misinformation: The conspiracy theories about the virus range from …

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Comment on Foucault and the Iranian Revolution

Three Way Fight

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The Philosopher and the Ayatollah: “A Perplexing Affinity”  A comment on Foucault and the Iranian Revolution  by Kristian Williams If we want to defeat fascism, we need to understand its attraction. Sometimes an exceptional case …

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Notes on Trump/MAGA 2024

Matthew N Lyons

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Even more than in the past, Trump and the MAGA movement have brought key elements of fascist politics into the Republican Party, and a second Trump presidency is likely to be significantly more authoritarian than the first one.

Antifascist, Donald Trump, MAGA movement, US presidential elections

Chaos or Revolution? It Depends on Us

3WF

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The institutional far right is strong, while the far left is weak and disorganized. To develop the capacity to meaningfully intervene in the current crisis, far leftists need to engage with oppressed communities and work together with liberals in a united front.

Antifascist, Donald Trump, far right, radical left

Who’s Afraid of Luigi Mangione? A Response to Alexander Reid Ross

3WF

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Luigi Mangione’s recent alleged killing of an insurance CEO touched a wedge issue that cuts across class and across the political spectrum—the massive corruption of the health insurance industry—and created an opening for the left. A recent article by ex-leftist Alexander Reid Ross, which dismisses Mangione as expressing an American proclivity for violence, represents a counterinsurgency action in defense of the state.

Alexander Reid Ross, Anti-capitalism, counter insurgency, health care, health insurance industry, liberal antifascism, Luigi Mangione

Reading Adam Shatz on the war in Gaza

Three Way Fight

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by Matthew N. Lyons How do we forcefully make the case to defend the Palestinian people in Gaza against Israel’s increasingly genocidal assault, and also honor the conflict’s heartbreaking contradictions? This is a question I’ve …

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Burn the foundation and all that it upholds: an antifascist review of “Tell Me I’m Worthless” by Alison Rumfitt

Three Way Fight

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“The House spreads. Its arteries run throughout the country. Its lifeblood flows into Westminster, into Scotland Yard, into every village and every city. It flows into you, and into your mother. It keeps you alive. …

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Books

Scroll to see more and click on a book for more information about it and where to buy it.

Caution doesn’t make us safe: A review of PRA’s report on the MAGA movement

Million MAGA March Rally at Freedom Plaza, Washington DC, 14 November 2020 The January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol represented a watershed for the U.S. far right. For the first time in U.S.

North Shore’s “Trip Report” on the Freedom Convoy

The anarchist website North Shore Counter-Info recently posted an insightful eyewitness commentary on the Freedom Convoy truckers’ revolt in Canada. “Trip Report: Ottawa on Saturday, February 5” offers no illusions about the protest’s right-wing character but tries to present

On the Freedom Convoy, the Right and crisis of State legitimacy

Protests against laws: vaccine mandates; border restrictions; the general implementation of broader, potentially more and lasting forms of state governance and control of the populace (at times appearing as a “soft” repression if accepted, more

Action Planning/Discussion Worksheet for Antifascists

Editors’ note: The following worksheet outlines a process to help antifascist groups prepare for political actions. Three Way Fight is publishing it as an appendix to our discussion series on the events of August 22nd

Understanding A22 PDX: The Scraps

The following is part of a series of responses to the events of August 22, 2021 (A22) in Portland, Oregon. We support any and all genuine and honest discussion that is of use to our movements regardless

Where Do We Go Next? A Review of Shane Burley’s Why We Fight

In this review essay, Three Way Fight contributor Devin Zane Shaw examines a wide-ranging set of writings on current fascist movements and antifascist strategy. In the process, Shaw advances a distinctive argument about fascism’s class

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On the roots of America First foreign policy

MAGA’s “America First” approach to foreign policy draws on antiwar sentiment but has promoted unilateralist military aggression. This essay explores the roots of the America First outlook in the “isolationist” nationalism of the early 1940s America First Committee, as analyzed by Franz Schurmann in his 1974 book The Logic of World Power.

Remembering Chip Berlet

Three Way Fight mourns groundbreaking antifascist researcher Chip Berlet, who died on January 30th, and republishes Matthew N. Lyons’s essay, “Chip Berlet, Co-Author” from the 2021 book Exposing the Right and Fighting for Democracy: Celebrating Chip Berlet as Journalist and Scholar.

What the F**k Is to Be Done?

Dandy Andy attempts to answer the question, How do we craft an anti-capitalist strategy for our current period? His discussion touches on the relationship between class analysis and intersectionality, the dynamic tension between nonviolent civil disobedience and militant action, some guidelines for political coalitions, the importance of building community spaces and human connection, and the tension between the needs for public organizing and movement security.

Cracks in the Foundation: Heritage and Ruling Class Strategy

When more than a dozen Heritage Foundation staffers recently quit, it highlighted the Trump coalition’s growing internal debate over white nationalist antisemitism. But it also points to a crisis of strategic direction for the US ruling class.

What Charlie Kirk’s Life and Death Can Tell Us About the U.S. Right in the Age of Trump

Charlie Kirk’s life and death offer a microcosm of the MAGA movement’s shift to the right over the past decade—and of the dynamic factional interplay that has fueled that shift. Regardless of why Kirk was targeted, the right is using his killing as an opportunity to impose a climate of enforced loyalty and gear up for what could be a major political crackdown.