Hill CL 23 2019 Fish and Fascist Cultural Logic: Marxist Theory & Practice Volume 23 (2019), 98-100 Fish and Fascism Dave Hill If it looks like a rotten stinking fish, if it smells like a rotten stinking fish, if it acts like a rotten stinking fish, if it stinks like a rotten fish. Then it is a rotten stinking fish. If it looks like a fascist, If it sounds like a fascist if it acts like a fascist, if it smells like a fascist, Then it is a fascist. Even if the label on the box says democratic and it dresses in a pin-striped suit. Bolsonaro, Orban, Trump, Erdogan, Salvini the Law and Justice Party in Poland all say they are democrats. They stir hatred. They stir violence. They stir suppression of critical thought. in universities, schools, in minds. They intimidate those of us who protest. They threaten. They enact. They destroy civility. They peddle fear, and hatred They normalise dehumanisation they desensitise cruelty —they kill Pavlos Fyssas, Jo Cox, Heather Hayer … There is a road, travelled in the past, and being travelled now, 99 Cultural Logic through the beatings and the killings Of the subhuman, “The Other” the Outsider, the immigrant, the minority, the LGBT, the feminist the homeless, the impoverished, the `alien ideology’, the internationalist, the trade unionist, the communist It is that road we, we here, we elsewhere, we everywhere, must work to block, must work instead, in opposition, to build the road to social justice, to economic justice, to equality It is not easy. Many of us have the scars. We have to do it. We must do it! Like in the 1930s, the 1940s, the 1970s, In different places, in different times, like in past and recent history We have to do it With our words, our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our political and social organisations and parties, our solidarity, our compassion- our humanity! our hard political analysis and understanding Our leadership of experiences and analysis and action Our leaderships not ossified but open Hill 100 Fascists, pre Fascists, post Fascists, proto Fascists, quasi Fascist... Fascists No Pasaran Like stinking fish, they belong in the dustbin of history. Throw them there Author Dave Hill is a Marxist political and trade union activist, a working-class professor based in the UK. Email: dave.hill35@btopenworld.com Since 1997 ISSN 1097-3087 https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/clogic/index Editors Rich Gibson San Diego State University Martha Gimenez University of Colorado (retired) Gregory Meyerson North Carolina A&T State University James Neilson North Carolina A&T State University Joseph G. Ramsey University of Massachusetts Boston E. Wayne Ross University of British Columbia David Siar Winston-Salem State University Advisory Group Robert Albritton, York University, Canada Theodore W. Allen, Brooklyn Public Library (1919-2005) Crystal Bartolovich, Syracuse University Rosalyn Baxandall, State University of New York, Old Westbury Vladimir Bilenkin, North Carolina State University Jamie Owen Daniel, Director of Organizing, UPI Local 4100, IFT/AFT/AFL-CIO Anthony Dawahare, California State University, Northridge Greg Dawes, North Carolina State University Teresa L. Ebert, State University of New York, Albany Barbara Foley, Rutgers University Marcial González, University of California, Berkeley Rosemary Hennessy, State University of New York, Albany Mike Hill, State University of New York, Albany Peter Hitchcock, Graduate Center-City University of New York Amitava Kumar, Vassar College Neil Larsen, University of California, Davis John McClendon, Michigan State University Sophia A. McClennen, Pennsylvania State University Andrew Milner, Monash University, Melbourne Warren Montag, Occidental College Bill V. Mullen, University of Texas, San Antonio Richard Ohmann, Wesleyan University Bertell Ollman, New York University Vijay Prashad, Trinity College Russell Reissing, University of Toledo Modhumita Roy, Tufts University E. San Juan, Jr., Philippines Cultural Study Center Sean Sayers, University of Kent Helena Sheehan, Dublin City University David Slavin, Westfield State College & Emory University Paul Smith, George Mason University Alan Spector, Purdue University Calumet Michael Sprinker, State University of New York, Stony Brook (1950-1999) Carol A. Stabile, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Richard Stahler-Sholk, Eastern Michigan University Kenneth Surin, Duke University Jeffrey Williams, Carnegie Mellon University Richard Wolff, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Michael Yates, University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown