Dear Community,
As we find ourselves in what will be a long cycle of being called upon to “defeat fascism and save democracy” every four years, it would serve us well to understand what is meant by the rise of fascism, what is fueling it, how it relates to neoliberalism, and why we as prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionists must build broadly across anti-fascist forces.
As Rachel Herzing, Amelia Kirby and Jack Norton point to in the fall edition of Hammer & Hope in their article “The Punishment System and Fascism Go Hand in Hand,” many people associate the rise of fascism with the pre-World War II period in Europe, and particularly as a reactionary and counterrevolutionary response to communist gains. Indeed, the massacres of communists in Germany in 1919 served as foundational events for the formation and consolidation of the Nazi party the following year. While fascist forces today may draw direct lineages and inspiration from their wartime European predecessors, their rise today is taking place in completely different conditions. For instance, they are not growing as a reaction to a (potentially) hegemonic left revolutionary force as in the past, as we do not currently have such a leftist force, at least not in the US and much of Europe. So what’s different?
Neoliberalism has been the defining political and economic paradigm that has dominated our world. Driven by the ruling classes regardless of political party, neoliberalism was the vehicle that the West rode to expand capitalism and control across the globe. In doing so, they disinvested from social welfare and the public good while simultaneously opening the door for corporations to privatize vast swaths of social and economic life through the proliferation of free trade agreements. What neoliberals invested in instead was the PIC in order to contain the crises they were fostering. The focus on privatization, slashing public goods spending, free trade, and prioritizing military and PIC spending widely deepened and entrenched racialized economic inequality in the US and across the globe. The inability of the neoliberal order to meet people’s needs has only worsened over the last 50 years, evidenced by crises and people’s widespread and increased resistance in recent years.
Our longstanding and current conditions of people’s abandonment and their disillusionment with the ruling neoliberal classes is what has given rise to the iterations of fascism we’re seeing now. As Critical Resistance (CR) Co-Director Woods Ervin wrote in the winter 2021 Issue, #34, of The Abolitionist,
“The slashing of the social welfare net, as well as the rise in unemployment of the working class and the shrinking of the middle class, creates the conditions of powerlessness and inequality. This then produces desperation, division, and increased violence—by the state and within our communities. The state’s disavowal to take responsibility for the needs of the people feeds into the people’s disillusionment with government, creating a perfect storm for a populist, fascist leader, party, or forces to make things “great again,” to restore glory, and so on. Neoliberalism has created conditions of despair and disillusion. Through “organized abandonment,” as coined by Ruthie Gilmore, in this way, neoliberalism facilitated Trumpism and its fascistic tendencies to rise with political efficacy in the 21st century.”
The most prominent similarity with the fascism of then and now is that it comes as a response to the crises of capitalism, and the way whole communities are scapegoated for these crises. For instance, whereas Jewish communities in Europe were among the most demonized as the cause of the problem, today it is Black, Latinx, Asian and Pacific Islander, Arab, and Muslim immigrants from the Global South that are blamed and attacked in both the US and Europe as the threat to white supremacy.
Anti-Fascism and Prison Industrial Complex Abolition
If there is one common characteristic that can describe various forms of fascism, it is the use of force and violence (both state and extra-legal) for the sake of racial and gendered domination. Because of this, the prison industrial complex (PIC) provides the necessary infrastructure and technology for fascistic control. Before being assassinated by California prison guards in 1971, revolutionary prisoner George Jackson broadly described fascism where the PIC is a central component: “a police state wherein the political ascendancy is tied into and protects the interests of the upper class—characterized by militarism, racism, and imperialism.”
Put simply, the way that Trump and the fascistic forces supporting him will exercise power and repression is through the systems of policing, imprisonment, surveillance, criminalization, and border control. For this reason, abolition is necessary to defeat the onslaught of fascism.
We can see over the last few years a ramping up of criminalization and policing of poverty as an accompaniment to the austerity policies emerging from the beginning of the COVID epidemic and to counter some advances made in 2020. The unfortunate passage of Prop 36 in California is a clear example of this, which will have a definitive negative impact on gains made in prison population reduction, tightening fascism’s hold by undoing past anti-prison victories and hindering prison closure victory. Immigrant communities, scapegoated by the capitalist class for the results of austerity, are increasingly threatened by rampant expansion and increased militarization of ICE. As everyday people resisted oppression, proponents of the PIC pushed to criminalize dissent inside of cages and outside of them, especially in response to organizing in solidarity with Palestine. This move to escalate criminalization has resulted in both in targeting individual protestors and organizations doing significant work to combat genocide. Parallel to this we can see the ramping up of police infrastructure in the form of highly militarized Cop Cities emerging across the country – over 80 projects on the spectrum from announcement to completion.
The development and deployment of the PIC is central to the US neoliberal order as one of its most nakedly violent institutions. It follows then that PIC abolition must be central to the construction of anti-fascist analysis and organizing to be best positioned to make necessary advances. Around the US, there is work grounded by abolitionist practice that we must learn from and bring into our efforts. We know that the electeds will not save us. As the Democratic Party continues to yield to their corporate billionaire-class funders at the expense of the working class, many party actors courted conservative support during the 2024 election by doubling down on policing and imprisonment. However, there remains a growing common sense among larger sections of the working class that it is a necessity to move toward defunding war-making on communities in the US and internationally. The movement to resist genocide in Palestine – whether through mobilizations, student encampments, or impactful journalism – has shifted the broader common sense in its favor. Though there is still need for more coordination and integrated efforts, this has been an advance in the long struggle for Palestinian liberation – though we understand that these gains, like the many others, are tenuous and dependent on our fight given the shifting terrain.
In sites where organizing to defund policing was able to maintain gains, police forces have been weakened – in number of officers and in some cases losing community trust or investment. And the lessons abolitionists have gleaned from putting together and coordinating mutual aid networks are going to be invaluable as we work to support our communities in the times ahead. The projects and campaigns that CR wages are both in defense of communities targeted by fascism but also aim to take material chunks out of the PIC.
The next four years will be difficult but where there is repression, there must be resistance. And we know that the fight for PIC abolition is key to getting us through the rocky terrain ahead. CR aims to meet the moment in intentional and strategic ways, and we hope that you remain in this struggle with us. Collectivity and growing and fortifying broad coalitions are essential no matter the threat, but especially surviving and resisting authoritarianism. Whether you are a community organizer, movement partner, volunteer who sustains us with your time and effort, a general supporter of CR and PIC abolition or newly abolition curious, please continue be in relationship with us and other radical organizers and organizations wherever you may be.
A world without walls and cages is still possible. Together, let’s fight like hell to bring it into being.
Onward,
-Critical Resistance