Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Coffee is strong.
Nazis never really went away.
Yesterday morning I posted the lyrics to this Chumbawamba song and their live version at Düsseldorf, almost 15 years ago, 6 years after it was written. The day the Nazi died. Such a meta thing to do, posting an anarchist band. You should know me by now.
Last year I, and many others, said we were in the fight of our lives. As I recall, many a time I pointed out that fight would go on came November 6, no matter the outcome of the election. Here we are; the fight goes on as I predicted. It was an easy prediction, hardly the kind required of an oracle. The forces we are up against would not have disappeared had we won. Their victory just means one thing: the fight got harder.
You probably don’t remember but back in 2023, on his visit to Tel-Aviv, President Joe Biden used a line he attributed to his father while making a speech in solidarity with Israel after October 7. One he would reuse the following year, the day after his notorious presidential debate. “When we get knocked down, we get up again,” Biden said. Good revolutionaries everywhere immediately thought about “Tubthumping”.
On the Nazi platform previously known as Twitter, they went berserk. Comments ranged from “the speech writer is getting fired” to “it made me cringe”, although one thought it was actually a “sick Chumbawamba reference”. It wasn’t. It’s a common refrain Biden’s father used. No relation to underdog anarchist punk bands. I wish! That would have been truly sick. In a great way. “Action that music inspires”…
Fascism and Nazism are closely related. To me, Nazism has one characteristic that adds on to Aryan supremacy and distinguishes it from Fascism: antisemitism. Nazism is the preferred brand of Fascism for white supremacist antisemitic douchebags. But it is that specific kind of hate that brought together the Aryan wannabe Adolf Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini. Both had in common delusions of hegemony and, in particular, antisemitism.
The very things that went on existing “the day the Nazi died”, in 1945, remained very much alive in the sewers of Europe and on the sands of Arabia. Not only of Saudi Arabia but of the Pan-Arab empire still dreamed of by the fundamentalist Muslim world. An empire free from infidels. An empire without Jews. Albeit antisemitism is a core tenet of radical Islam, from Ankara to Riyadh, from Tehran to Jakarta, their most fervent acolytes remain the Arabs, geographically and historically.
One could rightfully argue the extreme Persian Shia belong to this group of fanatics. Their feud with the Sunni taking a back seat to their Jew hatred. Those who follow the tradition of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem I consider as Nazi as the most blonde Aryan German Nazi. The poisonous cherry on top of all the other hegemonic, authoritarian, inhumane and cruel characteristics they proudly share. A Nazi is a Nazi, regardless of the clothes, skin color or religion.
In effect, all other considerations are details; the one true common denominator remains the vicious hatred for the Jews. So vicious some will try to convince you antisemitism applies to others too. It does not. And this is why, in my opinion, shared by many punks and anarchists alike, splitting Nazi hairs is a pastime for Nazis. When anarchists say they won’t stop until every Nazi dies that’s exactly right. And they mean it.
I am not an anarchist and my punk phase didn’t last long at all, but I admire their pulse on things. Their need of defiance and challenge. In a way that keeps us honest, if we let them. Just don’t confuse either with the nihilistic dumbfucks: anarchists and punks are extremely real. For all this I was amused by those who consider invoking Chumbawamba in Tel-Aviv a “sacrilege” of sorts.
Along those lines I want to make clear to some of you, who may not know me for long, that I believe Tel-Aviv is one of the best places to sing “The Day the Nazi Died”. For many reasons, up to and including the fascist tendencies of the radical Israeli right wing, to which the term Nazi, by definition, does not apply, but especially because Israel is surrounded by Arab Nazis, following the footsteps of the Grand Mufti, the closest ones living in Gaza and the West Bank.
Having made that clear, the forces we face today in the United States are an amalgamation of all these despicable things, from the right wing fascists in power to the left wing extremists that do their bidding (from which the left that truly fights fascism stands apart). Those of us not on the extremes of the horse shoe need to put our differences aside and stand together if we are to defeat them.
But we have to learn from the anarchists if we are to succeed. If we are to be truly revolutionary in our struggle we need to recognize the limits of tolerance as early as the gathering of our ranks that is still ongoing. We have the amazing advantage of history to guide us in this XXI century revolution. All we have to do is put that knowledge to good use and stop lying to ourselves about who the underdog is.
We, the people, must come together against those who consider diversity and equality as enemies to be melted into a compliant single aberration that is neither. Those to whom the goal is totalitarianism, usually under a God but not necessarily so. The only purity we require is the one of purpose, found in our hearts. The purpose to never rest until every Nazi and Fascist dies. No matter their clothes.
Today is Wednesday. It’s a particularly hard hump to get over because of the news we know are coming this Thursday. I believe my words tomorrow needed this introduction, no matter what those news may be and the words are. I wish I didn’t feel this way but I can’t help it. Someone very dear to me told me sadness turns to strength and determination. This is true. May we also turn it into clarity of purpose.
May we find it in ourselves not only the resolve to resist and oppose the true evil standing against us but the power to let kindness keep us from becoming that which we fight. May we be like music that inspires, not entertains; that brings happiness, not contentment. May we become the threat the fascists fear the most. And crush them.
Resist & Oppose!
