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The rise of the far right 80 years after fascism's defeat

TONY CONWAY assesses the lessons of the 1930s and looks at what is similar, and what is different, about the rise of the far right today

Far-right goons outside Liverpool Crown Court, January 20, 2025, where Axel Rudakubana, 18, is charged with three counts of murder, 10 attempted murders and possession of a knife, after a stabbing attack on a Taylor Swift-themed children's holiday club cl

MAY 8 2025 is a day when many people in Britain will be celebrating. Most, understandably, will celebrate their Britishness or Englishness without understanding the significance of Victory in Europe Day and its oft-forgotten sister Victory over Japan Day, officially commemorated in Britain on August 15.

For anti-fascists these are the days when fascism was defeated militarily and when the Soviet Union became a significant world power. It was a day when those countries which had seen the emergence of fascist power took stock and agreed to put a cordon around the far right.

If we look across nations now, that cordon sanitaire has been breached in a whole host of nations. The far right are in power in Italy and Hungary. Japan lifted its militarisation restrictions in December 2022. Milei in Argentina is clearly anti-communist and and anti-socialist. Within the EU the Prague Declaration equated communism and fascism, shifting the bloc on a more overtly right-wing path.

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