Everything Is Possible

Antifascism and the Left in the Age of Fascism

By: Joseph Fronczak

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The fascinating history of how the antifascist movement of the 1930s created "the left" as we know it today

In the middle years of the Great Depression, the antifascist movement became a global political force, powerfully uniting people from across divisions of ideology, geography, race, language, and nationality. Joseph Fronczak shows how socialists, liberals, communists, anarchists, and others achieved a semblance of unity in the fight against fascism. Depression-era antifascists were populist, militant, and internationalist. They understood fascism in global terms, and they were determined to fight it on local terms. In the United States, antifascists fought against fascism on the streets of cities such as Chicago, and New York, and they connected their own fights to the ones raging in Germany, Italy, and Spain.

As he traces the global trajectory of the antifascist movement, Fronczak argues that its most significant legacy is its creation of "the left" as we know it today: an international conglomeration of people committed to a shared politics of solidarity.

©2023 Joseph Fronczak (P)2023 Tantor

Thorough history of a movement

The book details with razor sharp precision the various organizations and movements that would come be be known variously as antifascist or the left. It is enlightening to think that the phenomena we know as fascism and antifascism are merely a century or so old, at least semantically. Hearing how disparate interests coalesced (and dissolved, and perhaps coalesced again) was quite engrossing. It requires a bit of mental time travel to recognize the completely different world in which these ideas sprung forth, in a time without modern communication tools, and radio only in its infancy.

My only minor gripe would be the insistence on the semantic precision of fascism as being of purely Italian origin. Granted, as recognizable entities, fascism and antifa, this is true. But it is clear, and obliquely acknowledged in the book, that core ideas of fascism predate 1919 San Sepolcro. And similarly that antifascism (beside the pesky problem of the name "fascism" not yet being coined) suffered from the organizational nightmare of integrating disparate bands with their own particular 'leftist' perspectives. An issue not entirely resolved even to this day. But that is another book investigating the pre-history of fascism.

As it is, the book relates an intriguing history of the notions of left and right, from very literal origins, to the more opaque understanding of the terms later. I think I may cite this book when right wingers rail against lefties, by retorting, "You know who else hated the left? Lenin, that's who!". Should be good for a laugh, as they stare back perplexed. Very informative and entertaining overall.