Trip 42: Fascism

A lot of people are saying that fascism is on the rise. But what are we pointing to when we call a system, or a person, fascist? On this Trip, Nadia, Keir and Jem map out a complicated ideology, from its roots in 19th century industrialisation to its resurgence in ethnonationalism and eco-apartheid.

Exploring how different political traditions try to explain fascism, they look for signs of the F-word in contemporary politics and play music from Woody Guthrie, Heaven 17 and Black Sabbath.

ACFM will be recording a live episode at How The Light Gets In festival in Hay-On-Wye, Wales, on 27 May. Listeners can get 20% off festival passes from How The Light Gets In by applying the discount code NOVARA20.

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Books & films: Benedict Anderson – Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism / Dan Evans – A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie / Karl Marx – The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte / Antonio Gramsci – Prison Notebooks / Klaus Theweleit – Male Fantasies / Freud – Group Psychology in the Analysis of the Ego / Jeremy Gilbert – Common Ground / Jeremy Gilbert & Alex Williams – Hegemony Now / Theodor Adorno et al – The Authoritarian Personality / Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism /Wilhelm Reich – The Mass Psychology of Fascism / Born In Flames (1983) / Alberto Toscano – Late Fascism / Walter Benjamin – The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Music: Soccer96 – ‘I Was Gonna Fight Fascism’ / Heaven 17 – ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’ / John McCutcheon – ‘The Abraham Lincoln Brigade’ / Black Sabbath – ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ / Underground System – ‘Bella Ciao’ / Dead Kennedys – ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’ / Woody Guthrie – ‘All You Fascists Bound to Lose’

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley and Chal Ravens. PRS licence number: LE-0016481