Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse

by Shane Burley, Natasha Lennard (Foreword)

These essays, many published here for the first time, cover the shifts in rhetoric and tactics of the Alt Right since their disastrous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, and the explosion of antifascist, antiracist, and revolutionary organizing that has risen to fight it. Burley unpacks the moment we live in, confronting the apocalyptic feelings brought on by nationalism, climate collapse, and the crisis of capitalism, but also delivering the clear message that a new world is possible through the struggles communities are leveraging today. Burley reminds us what we're fighting for not simply what we're fighting against.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Essays, Activism, History, Audiobook, Social Justice

340 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 2021

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great, here's why:

1. Shane Burley has been studying and writing about fascism for a little while now and he's amassed quite a well of knowledge. It's important, if we take the threat of white supremacy seriously (which we should), to know who our enemy is and try to figure out why they think like they do. Without this, there is no way to counter what they are doing. After finishing Why We Fight, I feel like I have a lot more knowledge than before.

2. Many intellectual writers tend to get wordy or annoyingly dense when trying to get their point across; other writers treat the reader like their an idiot. Burley write in a clear, concise way that allows him to get across a ton of digestible information in a minimal number of pages.

Read this book, read everything by Shane Burley, read every that AK Press has been coming out with!

[foxfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was gonna give this book a worse rating, but the last two essays were much better than the rest of the book. I sort of struggled to finish this because it's 300 pages of repetitive essays that were already dated by the time it was published. I really liked Burley's "Fascism Today" so I was expecting to enjoy this one as well. First off, the title is a little misleading, as "Why We Fight" led me to believe that some focus would be given to what we are fighting for in the anti-fascist struggle. A more appropriate title would be "What We Fight," as it appears this book is a collection of essays that never got picked up by publishing mediums, highlighting various strains of the alt-right and far-right. Richard Spencer is a hot topic throughout this book, wild because he has pretty much floated into irrelevance by the time this was published. The events of Charlottesville 2017 are rehashed more than once, an event many of Burley's readers are familiar with and benefit greatly from not having to re-read play-by-plays. The majority of this book could have used an editor to check for repetition and grammar to say the least.

There were three essays I was excited about reading when I got this book though, and two of them held up. In the essay "Contested Space," Burley writes about cultural/counter-cultural anti-fascist organizing, and excels when he discusses the neofolk scene and anti-fascist/radical currents within. However, he also talks about organizing within soccer and skinhead music scenes, and his apparent absence from either of those cultural spaces is blatantly clear as he gets facts and sequences wrong, leading to a lackluster analysis of their importance. This kind of presented an overall critique I have of Burley's work, that in this book he is attempting to walk in two worlds: radical anti-fascist researcher, and textbook/academic journalist. In the middle is where things fall apart, as he fails to commit fully to either one. As a textbook/academic journalist, he lacks presence and full immersion/participation in the street-level organizing he writes about. As an attempt to write a book "by/for activists" much of his writings misses the clarity and smooth process that comes from reading academic texts. Many of the essays start with strange personal stories that don't allude to where they're going or how they're related to what he's going to be analyzing at all.

Nonetheless, the last two essays were very good, although at times meandering. They are on antisemitism and the Wolves of Vinland, two topics Burley has studied a lot of and immersed himself in. It would be helpful to anti-fascist of all kinds if these last two essays were available outside of this book.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

The essay on masculinity is a must read and helps to understand these fascist gangs running around today.

Burley's prose is a bit thick at times but he offers insightful analysis on the ways in which fascism is creeping into every day American life.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a meticulously researched and clearly articulated commentary on the present moment in the U.S. Burley covers a range of topics concerning the threat of fascism and the anarchist response(s). He also addresses anti-semitism, including its existence among left-wing activists, and the notion of toxic masculine identity crisis (and its relationship to white supremacist groups), all with fresh insights and personal observations that add to the clarity of his arguments.

[Ernesto Moor · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of good information on neo fascism in this book, but be warned, the author is clearly an anarchist. The author's occasional allergy to discussing socialism as a solution to the problems addressed is probably more of a symptom of his background than it is any ideological anti-socialism, though his allergy to authority as a means to an end is consistently evident. The essay about the PKK was very informative and interesting, and probably the highlight of the collection for me.

[Kazen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I have a feeling I'll get more out of this book once I've done more reading on the subject, but overall it's a solid collection covering fascism and resistance in our current age.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting collection of essays, especially for people (like me) who don't know much about Judaism or just about anything spiritual.

My favoriye essays are How Racists Dream: Metapolitics and Fascist Publishing, Living Your Life in a State of War, and The Continuing Appeal of Antisemitism. These are full of info/concepts almost entirely new to me and some of the most interesting things I have read in a long time.

Among my other favorites are the Introduction: A Home at the End of the World, Contested Space, Introduction to Armageddon, Because of Their Violence, and Chase the Black Sun.

Honorable mention to Wolf Age as well as:

Bellingcat article 'The Boogaloo Movement is Not What You Think' by Robert Evans and Jason Wilson

Behind the Bastards episode 'Elite Panic: Why the Rich and Powerful Can't be Trusted' by Robert Evans with Jamie Loftus

and just about anything else Bellingcat/Robert Evans/Behind the Bastards has done.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down. The book was well researched and you can really tell Burley has spent years on the topic in both a personal and an academic sense. He raised a lot of points I hadn’t really considered when looking at the way fascism operates in the modern context like it’s incorporation of pagan ideologies like heathenism and folkish identity. He really broadened the context of my understanding of white supremacy in the United States.
My main concerns with the book was the essays tended to wander quite a bit which often made it hard to focus on them. (Although reading this at staff training may not have been super conducive for paying attention anyway). The subcategories of the essays often seemed only tangentially related to the work’s title and overall it just seems like things could have been organized in a much more succinct manner that would’ve made for a more compelling piece.
However the main take aways of Burley are pretty clear. Fascism is here and is ingrained in many aspects of our culture - and the main force keeping this fascism at bay is the direct counter organizing by anti fascists and anti racists. Everyone get involved in a local mutual aid group.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shane Burley does an amazing job of exploring the facets of Fascism. While some similar works zero in on Richard Spencer, Milo Yiannopoulos and the rise of Trump Burley takes a look at some of the of the in the background facists operatives that built the recent facists movement.

His style is on point. He blends his own ideas with cited materials to synthesize a very approachable text.

I am going to make sure i pass my copy around my leftists spaces as this book has my "if i was a teacher this would be required reading list."

[Rubli Carran · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modern take on an ancient problem. There has always been demographic based hate when the real problems have always and always stem from capitalism. Elites hoarding wealth making the working class restless, and the easiest way people can think to incite change is to hate others, who have the same struggles as them, and not the 1% who should be hated and fought against for gatekeeping the resources put on this earth for the masses. We need a new system. But yes it is a repetitive collection of essays, to reinforce the point perhaps. Focuses alot on Judaism and not other religions which are facing a lot of discrimination as well.

[Michael Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent group of essays about the rise of the Alt-Right, anti-fascist musicians aiming to share their message in Black Metal & Folk Music and the history of antisemitism and how it’s persisted over the years.

[Curt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing work! Covering this sort of subject while still being a fun read is an amazing accomplishment. Really inspiring!

[Jacques · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting stuff, although the themes could be a bit hard to follow. definitely gotta read more AK press

[Corvus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shane Burley's new collection, Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse brings quite a lot to the table. I had always known that there was likely much diversity between far right movements just as there is on the left. Nonetheless, I still always assumed the right to be far more united than we are. Like most people, I receive constant messages that the other side is a monolithic enemy. Burley's collection makes it clear they are indeed the enemies, but it taught me so much about the variations and diversity among fascist and other far right groups. This attention to the diversity of tactics and goals of far right, white supremacist, and/or fascist groups is critical in knowing how to resist them. This is not just a manifesto of sorts. Burley is a journalist and a good one at that. He provides copious footnotes and citations for his claims adding even more to the book's credit.

In his introduction to the book, Burley admits that he had made incorrect predictions about the (lack of) future threat of fascism in the past. He has since come to learn over time that the threat is all too real. In this collection, he examines various far right groups, histories, tactics, belief systems, and popularity. He includes a lot of information about key players, past and present, as well as fair analyses of their strengths and weaknesses. Groups and individuals covered include the alt right, alt light, kekistan, turning point, Richard Spencer, Andy Ngo, Jason Kessler, Atomwaffen, Incels, and many others. These essays show a fascinating amount of diversity among far right groups and their many detestable ideologies. It turns out, contrary to my thinking, they are not as united as I assumed. It feels odd to call this information "fascinating" when it is so horrific. But, I found myself completely immersed and intrigued by these glimpses into worlds that were not my own- often times using information gathered from infiltration online or other forms of cover skillfully executed by Burley

Another thing that this book does quite well is that Burley manages to expose these far right individuals and groups and their abhorrent belief systems without platforming those beliefs. This can be difficult to do. Many more centrist journalists believe that we should allow Nazis plenty of air time to let us know what they believe, but this almost always backfires- especially with those who are skilled in word play and charisma. Burley details these groups and histories without giving them that sort of platform. This makes the book a good know-thy-enemy sort of resource as well as a resource that can be shared with someone who may not have their mind up or who simply lacked the information to know better.

My favorite essay in the entire book is "Contested Spaces." Much of my musical interest and focus since my early teens has been with industrial music and other dark and related genres. I can speak from experience that industrial has a very long far leftist political history, but has also attracted its share of fascists, misogynists, racists, and others. "Contested Spaces," begins as an examination of fascist forms of neofolk, then expands to highlight the anti-fascist neofolk artists who are reclaiming the genre. The essay continues to examine many other counterculture spaces in which a war between ideologies is waged. It is fascinating, well researched, and most of all offers a realistic depiction of the messy conflicted nature of the topic, rather than giving a watered down black and white description.

All in all, I learned a ton from this book. I left it feeling as if I had graduated to an entirely new understanding of the topics and groups discussed therein. I definitely recommend this book for pretty much anyone, but especially for those center-to-left who desire a better understanding of the wide variety of people we are fighting against and why.

This was also posted to my blog.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall fantastic. It's a collection of previously published essays, which in my experience can lack a sense of overall cohesion, and this one does at times feel a little disjointed or repetitive, as some essays might be covering similar ground as others. But it's so interesting, thought provoking, challenging, and just dang good. Extremely worth the read, especially right now.

[Sg · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some great info in here that is absolutely buried under repetition and a super disorganized structure, would love to read something like this with major editing and a clear through line