by Shane Burley
AK Press
4/20/2021, paperback
SKU: 9781849354066
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.
Shane 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.
With a foreword by Natasha Lennard.
Reviews:
"Shane Burley is one of our best chroniclers of the fascist resurgence today. More than simply why we fight, this book is essential for grasping what we are fighting and how. With a topographer's precision, Burley charts the contours of the motley fascisms of the present, showing us why they must be crushed and the best weapons we have for doing so." --George Ciccariello-Maher, author of Decolonizing Dialectics
"Shane Burley's work is invaluable to understanding fascism and the far-right in the U.S., as well as parsing the challenges facing the working class and political activists in our current moment. His reporting is thorough and imbued with critical nuance as well as deep compassion for the people whose stories he illuminates, and a principled commitment to the greater struggle for liberation. This collection of essays is a must for every radical bookshelf." --Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue
"No writer is more knowledgeable about the recent politics and culture of fascism and antifascism in the U.S. than Shane Burley. As a journalist, Burley has closely followed local and national struggles against white supremacy. As a theorist, he has helped us to situate the Alt Right and anti-fascism within broader conceptual dynamics. Finally the broad range of his work making sense out of this era of struggle has been gathered together in Why We Fight--an invaluable resource for fighting fascism and imagining a new world in the 21st century." --Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook
About the Contributors:
Shane Burley is a writer and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. His essays, criticism and journalism has been featured in places like Jacobin, Al Jazeera, NBC News, Truthout, In These Times, Bandcamp, Salvage, Commune, The Baffler, Upping the Anti, Full Stop, and the Oregon Historical Quarterly. He is the author of Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It (AK Press, 2017) and has contributed to a number of anthologies and journals. His commentary on the far-right has been featured in places such as The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, PBS, and many others.
Natasha Lennard is a Contributing Writer for the Intercept, and her work has appeared regularly in the New York Times, Nation, Esquire, Vice, Salon, and the New Inquiry, among others. She teaches Critical Journalism at the New School for Social Research and is most recently the author of Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life.