I no longer blog thanks to Twitter, teaching and other commitments. However, I will dedicate--and hopefully continue to update--this post as a resource guide to my writings on antifascism around and related to the core contribution to the project, The Philosophy of Antifascism: Punching Nazis and Fighting White Supremacy (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020).
Last update: May 6, 2023
Through the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir, with some reference to Fanon and Sartre, this book identifies the philosophical reasons for the political action being enacted by contemporary antifascists. In addition, using the work of Jacques Rancière, it argues that the alt-right and the far right aren’t a kind of politics at all, but rather forms of parapolitical and paramilitary mobilization aimed at re-entrenching the power of the state and capital.
Devin Shaw argues that in order to resist fascist mobilization, contemporary movements find a diversity of tactics more useful than principled nonviolence. Antifascism must focus on the systemic causes of the re-emergence of fascism, and thus must fight capital accumulation and the underlying white supremacism. Providing new, incisive interpretations of Beauvoir, existentialism, and Rancière, he makes the case for organizing a broader militant movement against fascism.
Purchase Philosophy of Antifascism at leftwingbooks.net (here) and receive a free copy of the pamphlet The Politics of the Blockade (Kersplebedeb, 2020) (see here and here).
Reviews (open-access) or Discussions:
- Donovan Irven, "The Three-Way Fight and Antifascist Philosophy," Erraticus, January 18, 2021 (link).
- Shane Burley, "Antifa Academics," Full Stop, April 5, 2021 (link).
- Robert Luzecky, Symposium, June 17, 2021 (link)
- Craig Fowlie, "American Antifascism Comes of Age," May 13, 2022 (link).
- Red Menace: Neither Liberalism nor Reaction: Centering the Three-Way Fight, August 31, 2022 (Podcast link)
Related Writings:
- With Stanislav Vysotsky, "Conference Report: Antifascism in the 21st Century," Three Way Fight, February 7, 2023 (link).
- "Where Do We Go Next? A Review of Shane Burley's Why We Fight," Three Way Fight, November 3, 2021 (link).
- "Seven Theses on the Three-Way Fight," Three Way Fight, August 1, 2021 (link); in pamphlet form from 1312 Press (link).
- "From German Communist Antifascism to a Contemporary United Front," Preface to T. Derbent, German Communist Resistance 1933–1945 (Paris: FLP, 2021), 1–17 (link).
- "'Command that Does Not Command': Reconsidering Rancière's Opposition of Politics and Policing,"Parrhesia 33 (2020), 83–112 (link: it's an early version of chapter 3 of Philosophy of Antifascism)
- "On Toscano's Critique of 'Racial Fascism,'" Three Way Fight, December 30, 2020 (link).
- Review of Ajith (K. Murali), Critiquing Brahmanism, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, December 9, 2020 (link).
- "Between System-Loyal Vigilantism and System-Oppositional Violence, Three Way Fight, October 25, 2020 (link).
- Review of Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, May 13, 2020 (link).
- "Fighting Fascism with Feminism: A Review of Petronella Lee's Anti-Fascism against Machismo," Social Justice Centre, January 5, 2020 (link).
Interviews and Book Events
- With Revolutionary Left Radio, August 16, 2020: "A Philosophy of Antifascism: Existentialism, Decolonization, and the Three-Way Fight" (link).
- With The Howard Zinn Book Fair's podcast Books to the Barricades, August 2020 (link).
- Join Book Launch with J. Moufawad-Paul, December 10, 2020 (link)
- Rad Reads, "End Table Book Chat" January 8, 2021 (YouTube)
- With Revolutionary Voices, "Antifascism and Philosophy," January 22, 2021 (link).
- With Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, "Philosophy of Antifascism in a Settler-Colonial Society," January 31, 2021 (link).
- Brotherwise Dispatch vs. Devin Zane Shaw, Brotherwise Dispatch, vol. 3, issue 13, June-August 2022 (link).
- With What's Left of Philosophy, "Antifascism and Emancipatory Violence," March 6, 2023 (link)