I gave a talk on “Anti-State Politics on the Far Right” at the A-Space Anarchist Community Center in Philadelphia, 9 June 2014. An audio recording of the talk is available here. (Thanks to Suzy S. for recording it!)
This is the description of the talk from the A-Space calendar:
“In the era of Hitler and Mussolini, fascists glorified strong nation-states and highly disciplined, top-down organizations. But today, many far rightists advocate political decentralization. Some neo-nazis argue that any law enforcement above the county level is illegitimate, while others promote a strategy of “leaderless resistance” to establish an all-white society. Some far rightists even call themselves anarchists, notably the National-Anarchists, who call for a decentralized system of separate ethnic groups. Meanwhile, one of the most hardline branches of the Christian Right, known as Christian Reconstructionists, wants to impose a theocracy based on biblical law, which would be enforced mainly through local institutions, especially the church and the patriarchal family.
”Matthew Lyons will discuss how anti-state politics became so popular on the far right, what the main versions of it look like, and how it relates to the far right’s commitment to social hierarchy and exclusion. He will also address efforts by some far rightists to build alliances with anarchists and other leftists, and how leftists have responded.”
Here is a short list of readings that I used in preparing the talk:
Leaderless Resistance
“Selected Timeline: Amoss’s ‘Leaderless Resistance,’ Beam’s Revised Version, & White Supemacist Insurgency in the U.S.“
Louis Beam, “Leaderless Resistance“
Posse Comitatus
Chip Berlet, “Christian Identity, Survivalism & the Posse Comitatus“
Southern Poverty Law Center, “Sovereign Citizens Movement“
Christian Reconstructionism
Fred Clarkson, “Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence”
Kathryn Joyce, “Arrows for the War“
Michael J. McVicar, “The Libertarian Theocrats: The Long, Strange History of R.J. Rushdoony and Christian Reconstructionism“
Rachel Tabachnick, “Rushdoony and Theocratic Libertarians on Slavery“
National-Anarchists
Graham D. Macklin, “Coopting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction“
Sasha, “The New Face of the Radical Right?“
Spencer Sunshine, “Rebranding Fascism: National-Anarchists“
National-Anarchist Movement, “N-AM Manifesto“
Troy Southgate, “The Case for National-Anarchist Entryism“
Attack the System
Matthew N. Lyons, “Rising Above the Herd: Keith Preston’s Authoritarian Anti-Statism“
Far right overtures to leftists
Matthew N. Lyons, “Rightists woo the Occupy Wall Street movement”
NYC Antifa, “NATA Unwanted at Anarchist Bookfair, 4/20 Conference, or seemingly anywhere else”
Spencer Sunshine, “The Right Hand of Occupy Wall Street: From Libertarians to Nazis, the Fact and Fiction of Right-Wing Involvement“
Spencer Sunshine's article "Rebranding Fascism" is now available in an updated, corrected version. I just updated the link above to go to this new version.
The post refers to fascism using a set of outdated clichés. If you want to understand fascism, read this: http://reasonpublic.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-logic-and-fascism-and-communism.html
Needless to say, all countercomments are welcome.