Three Way Fight is a project that promotes revolutionary anti-fascist analysis, strategy, and activism. Unlike liberal anti-fascists, we believe that “defending democracy” is an illusion, as long as that “democracy” is based on a socio-economic order that exploits and oppresses human beings. Global capitalism and the related structures of patriarchy, heterosexism, racial and national oppression represent the main source of violence and human suffering in the world today. Far right supremacism and terrorism grow out of this system and cannot be eradicated as long as it remains in place.

At the same time, unlike many on the revolutionary left, we believe that fascists and other far rightists aren’t simply tools of the ruling class. They can also form an autonomous political force that clashes with the established order in real ways, or even seeks to overthrow global capitalism and replace it with a radically different oppressive system. We believe that in this period fascism poses several different kinds of threats: fomenting physical attacks on oppressed communities, bolstering supremacist and authoritarian tendencies among mainstream conservatives and liberals, and—a threat often overlooked—exploiting popular grievances and mis-directing anti-elite, anti-system anger away from liberatory politics.

Leftists need to confront both the established capitalist order and an insurgent or even revolutionary right, while recognizing that these opponents are also in conflict with each other. The phrase “three way fight” is short hand for this idea (although in concrete terms there are more than three contending forces). Our work confronts complexities in the dynamics between these three poles that are often glossed over. We point out, for example, that repression isn’t necessarily fascist — anti-fascism itself can be a tool of ruling-class repression (as was the case during World War II, when anti-fascism was used to justify strike-breaking and the mass imprisonment of Japanese Americans, among other measures). And we warn against far-right efforts to build alliances with leftists as well as fascistic tendencies within the left (as when leftists promote conspiracy theories rooted in anti-Jewish scapegoating).

“Leftists need to confront both the established capitalist order and an insurgent or even revolutionary right, while recognizing that these opponents are also in conflict with each other. “

Three Way Fight was initiated in 2004 by leftists and anti-system radicals active in anti-fascist organizing and other kinds of political work. As a political project, Three Way Fight built on earlier efforts such as the collaborative publications Confronting Fascism: Discussion Documents for a Militant Movement (2002) and My Enemy’s Enemy: essays on globalization, fascism and the struggle against capitalism (2001). From the beginning, Three Way Fight brought together anarchist and independent Marxist perspectives, and sought to promote inclusive discussion and debate among revolutionary leftists. Over the years, Three Way Fight has addressed a wide range of topics, from confrontations between neo-nazis and anti-nazi activists to geostrategic debates within the ruling class, and ranging from Latin America to the Middle East and from Europe to South Asia.

Through the 2010s and into the early 2020s Three Way Fight continued to address the growth of new fascist and popular far-right politics, these currents’ relationships with the state, and, importantly, the organizing of radical antifascist forces. This ongoing work of Three Way Fight was further inspired—and informed—by waves of resistance ranging from anti-patriarchal, queer, and trans action to Indigenous/First Nations peoples to the Black Lives Matter movement. The George Floyd rebellion of 2020 affirmed that revolutionary possibility was very much alive, and in the process it highlighted tensions between the far right’s repressive and insurgent tendencies.

Three Way Fight has explored contradictions both in movements for social change and the contexts in which they operate, the tension between struggling for meaningful reforms and getting coopted into dead-end reformism, and the need for new forms of radical organizing that address people’s actual struggles in the real world.

Some topic areas we are particularly interested in addressing:

• recent developments in far-right politics, such as major upsurges, ideological changes, and internal conflicts
• insurgent and populist tendencies within more “moderate” right-wing movements
• anti-rightist strategy and analysis by leftist and liberal groups
• ruling class relations with the far right (collaboration and conflict)
• state repression against the left and the far right
• left-right alliance-building and leftists promoting rightist politics
• histories of fascism and related movements.

Please feel free to comment on the writings on this site. Substantive criticisms and debate are welcome, but comments that are irrelevant, abusive, excessively long, or don’t contribute to the discussion will not be published.

You are also welcome to contact us at threewayfight@gmail.com.

15 July 2013 (updated 1st May 2024)