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No Pasarán: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis
A collection written by a who's who of antifascist researchers and theorists in the US, including Talia Lavin (Culture Warlords); Kim Kelly (Fight Like Hell), Hilary Moore (No Fascist USA!), and Daryle Lamont Jenkins (One People's Project).
¡No Pasarán! is an anthology of antifascist writing that takes up the fight against white supremacy and the far-right from every conceivable angle. From the history of antifascism to today's movement to deplatform the right to the underlying contradictions of capitalism that give rise to fascism and white nationalism, a myriad of voices come together to shape the new face of antifascism in a moment of social and political flux. At a time when attacks on democracy are at an all-time high and far-right ideology has diffused itself throughout society, this book is a sorely needed antidote.
¡No Pasarán! is an anthology of antifascist writing that takes up the fight against white supremacy and the far-right from every conceivable angle. From the history of antifascism to today's movement to deplatform the right to the underlying contradictions of capitalism that give rise to fascism and white nationalism, a myriad of voices come together to shape the new face of antifascism in a moment of social and political flux. At a time when attacks on democracy are at an all-time high and far-right ideology has diffused itself throughout society, this book is a sorely needed antidote.
480 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2022
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530 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 6, 2022
¡No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis, edited by Shane Burley, is a brick of a book, and for good reason- it collects a wide variety of anti-fascist voices from various backgrounds and locations around the world. I have always really enjoyed Shane Burley's work. I like his writing style and find his books and pieces engaging, but also have learned a ton about the diversity of far right and other movements therein. This book offers that same diversity for anti-fascist movements while also having the meticulous editing found in Burley's other works. Burley's own pieces in the book are also fantastic (without dominating it or taking up too much space.) He and those who worked on this with him also reached far in their calls for contributions. While there are generally going to be a lot of entries from the USA when one works and lives in the USA, there are also contributions from and/or about various European countries including Greece, South Asian countries, Syria, and Brazil (pardon me if I have left anyone out.)
One thing that stands out to me in this book is how diverse the writing styles are. There are interviews, historical essays, philosophical essays, manifestos, story telling, and more formats, each with their own voice. There are entries that feel like anyone from any background or education level could grasp them, including children. There was only one academic entry that I found to be so painfully jargony that I didn't want to finish it. The other academic essays are far more accessible. The interview questions were well considered and had engaging answers from a variety of organizers. There is decent LGBTQ representation and an important focus on transgender folks who are a current target of fascists in even more extreme ways than usual.
Some of my favorite entries involved discussions of niche subcultures that fascists attempt to co-opt (and why we shouldn't let them.) "Subcultural antifascism: Confronting the far right in heathenry and heavy metal," by Ryan Smith was one of my favorite entries in the book and I also enjoyed "Nazis don't get nice things," by Margaret Killjoy about the importance of generally combatting fascism in all (sub)cultural areas of life, rather than handing things over and moving on. "The meme alibi," by Margaret Rex was a painful case study of a specific person's descent from edgelord online to real life fash really made the whole book feel more intimate. There are others referencing subculture that are also excellent, but these were my favorites. I straddle multiple subcultural worlds, some of which have been used- successfully and not- by fascists for rebranding and recruitment. (I was also a complicated teenage edgelord, luckily before the internet immortalized my embarrassing mistakes, which I thankfully grew out of.) I have a tattoo of the overlapping pentagrams intentionally resembling a certain body orifice symbol for the very gay avant garde, industrial band Coil- who actually collaborated with fascist Boyd Rice before he revealed himself to be a trash fire racist. I no longer call that symbol "the black sun," because that term is synonymous these days with the sunwheel/sonnenrad (a completely different symbol/meaning favored by nazis, that thankfully looks very different.) Industrial music has also been a contentious ground with a vast array of people from the furthest left you can get to pieces of fashy, misogynistic garbage that like playing militaristic dress up. It's also a subculture that I will forever feel a part of. So, of course I feel resentful if someone paints any of these things with a fascist brush as I am sure plenty of people from other subcultures do as well. The idea that all occult, esoteric, dark music, religions/atheism, even veganism, and more just need to be handed over every time a nazi grabs for one bothers me quite a bit, especially due to how many people within those cultures are either targets of fascism or vulnerable to recruitment due to their marginalization by society. I of course concede that there are some things nazis and other fascists will have forever like the backwards swastika. But, I appreciate that there are more people than I realized defending their various subcultures, music scenes, and belief systems from fascist co-optation.
This review feels like it should be longer for such a long book full of great contributions. Rather than writing a lengthy book report on each entry, I will encourage readers to seek them out for themselves. I can't think of a single bad essay in this book. It's definitely an effective balm for the wound that is the false public perception of "antifa" unfortunately crafted by many liberals and the far right. Also, it's another great cover design from AK press.
This was also posted to my blog.
One thing that stands out to me in this book is how diverse the writing styles are. There are interviews, historical essays, philosophical essays, manifestos, story telling, and more formats, each with their own voice. There are entries that feel like anyone from any background or education level could grasp them, including children. There was only one academic entry that I found to be so painfully jargony that I didn't want to finish it. The other academic essays are far more accessible. The interview questions were well considered and had engaging answers from a variety of organizers. There is decent LGBTQ representation and an important focus on transgender folks who are a current target of fascists in even more extreme ways than usual.
Some of my favorite entries involved discussions of niche subcultures that fascists attempt to co-opt (and why we shouldn't let them.) "Subcultural antifascism: Confronting the far right in heathenry and heavy metal," by Ryan Smith was one of my favorite entries in the book and I also enjoyed "Nazis don't get nice things," by Margaret Killjoy about the importance of generally combatting fascism in all (sub)cultural areas of life, rather than handing things over and moving on. "The meme alibi," by Margaret Rex was a painful case study of a specific person's descent from edgelord online to real life fash really made the whole book feel more intimate. There are others referencing subculture that are also excellent, but these were my favorites. I straddle multiple subcultural worlds, some of which have been used- successfully and not- by fascists for rebranding and recruitment. (I was also a complicated teenage edgelord, luckily before the internet immortalized my embarrassing mistakes, which I thankfully grew out of.) I have a tattoo of the overlapping pentagrams intentionally resembling a certain body orifice symbol for the very gay avant garde, industrial band Coil- who actually collaborated with fascist Boyd Rice before he revealed himself to be a trash fire racist. I no longer call that symbol "the black sun," because that term is synonymous these days with the sunwheel/sonnenrad (a completely different symbol/meaning favored by nazis, that thankfully looks very different.) Industrial music has also been a contentious ground with a vast array of people from the furthest left you can get to pieces of fashy, misogynistic garbage that like playing militaristic dress up. It's also a subculture that I will forever feel a part of. So, of course I feel resentful if someone paints any of these things with a fascist brush as I am sure plenty of people from other subcultures do as well. The idea that all occult, esoteric, dark music, religions/atheism, even veganism, and more just need to be handed over every time a nazi grabs for one bothers me quite a bit, especially due to how many people within those cultures are either targets of fascism or vulnerable to recruitment due to their marginalization by society. I of course concede that there are some things nazis and other fascists will have forever like the backwards swastika. But, I appreciate that there are more people than I realized defending their various subcultures, music scenes, and belief systems from fascist co-optation.
This review feels like it should be longer for such a long book full of great contributions. Rather than writing a lengthy book report on each entry, I will encourage readers to seek them out for themselves. I can't think of a single bad essay in this book. It's definitely an effective balm for the wound that is the false public perception of "antifa" unfortunately crafted by many liberals and the far right. Also, it's another great cover design from AK press.
This was also posted to my blog.
April 6, 2023
I don't often give five stars, especially not for books of essays with wide variation. But this book is exemplary, especially in how to present informed, well researched, and useful information without descending into academic bs. Out of maybe a couple dozen essays there were only three that were a bit of a slog. Everyone should read this.
November 5, 2022
A hefty size book with 479 pages of essays before one gets to the pages of references and index. Was surprised by how many worthwhile reads that can be found here. Sometimes these Antifa books are too self-congratulatory rather than offering substance; however, this book offers a great deal of worthwhile analysis on the alt-right and how to think and organize against them.
December 5, 2025
Timely, wide-ranging, contemporary and near-history. I would say that Burley's interviews are most compelling, but even many of the historical context essays on Antisemitism or Empathy or TERFs or global colonial experiences are pointedly considered. Confidently closes in warning that "the insight that fascism is a recurring antagonist suggests that there can be no permanent victory over it except through the defeat of capitalism". This is a book about resisting, not defeating.
October 19, 2022
Burley has edited together (and contributed a fair number of his own pieces to) this impressive anthology on antifascism, the specter of the far-right, and the ways in which ordinary people stand against the fascist creep.
November 13, 2022
Four and a half stars. Mostly as good as I thought it would be. I like that there were essays about antifascism from all different angles by different kinds of people. A couple of them blew my mind, a couple of them were so boring I couldn't finish, and most of them were good. Shane Burley does a lot of good stuff.
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October 9, 2022Pre-Ordered. I don not believe this is out or available yet. Missed the boat on the crowd-fund option ,but at least that means it will see the light of day.
November 29, 2023
Excellent read. Great writing with a lot of subjects covered. Really informative, I'll be looking for more books from him.
June 30, 2025
A simple book to understand fascisms and how we can learn from the past experience on how to fight back
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews