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A review by pink_distro
No Fascist Usa!: The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today's Movements by James Tracy, Hilary Moore
4.0
this book was pretty interesting! i don't know much about radical organizing in the 80s period (other than a little bit about ACT-UP), and hadn't heard anything about the john brown anti-klan committee, so im grateful for this very manageable history.
i also didn't know about the flare-up of the kkk and klan-like groups that went down in the 80s. it makes historical sense that white nationalist vigilante groups would see more success during the time — given the Black, native, Puerto Rican, feminist, queer, socialist, environmental, etc liberation movements & advancements of the 60s + 70s that they were responding to,,, and the right-wing presence/climate of the reagan government — i'd just never heard about it in history classes or elsewhere. this book gives good coverage of that, and the broader political landscape of the 80s from the perspectives of leftist organizers at the time. this was interesting and is relevant today since many current movements & people have clear ties to formations of that time.
for most of the book they cover the various organizing efforts of local JBAKC chapters and the evolution of the organization as a whole. you get to see each chapter's local conditions and see how they adapt to them, and i thought the authors did all the segments justice without dwelling on any one for too long. the parts about chicago and the SF bay area were my favorite, because the cultural dimension to their organizing (graffiti wars in chicago and building leftist punk scenes to counter fascist punk in SF) was really compelling to me ... also bc im most familiar with those places in my life lol. they also include lots of images of posters, newspaper, literature, art etc of the JBAKC which is always fun and great for sparking new ideas and inspirations.
overall it has some good lessons and is helpful context for anti-fascist (and anti-prison / anti-repression,, which is also anti-fascist) organizing today. sometimes i disagreed with the authors' takeaways as one does, but they (appropriately) don't center their opinions, and more often than not i found their conclusions insightful and thoughtful. not a must-read for everyone, but i loved this movement history!
i also didn't know about the flare-up of the kkk and klan-like groups that went down in the 80s. it makes historical sense that white nationalist vigilante groups would see more success during the time — given the Black, native, Puerto Rican, feminist, queer, socialist, environmental, etc liberation movements & advancements of the 60s + 70s that they were responding to,,, and the right-wing presence/climate of the reagan government — i'd just never heard about it in history classes or elsewhere. this book gives good coverage of that, and the broader political landscape of the 80s from the perspectives of leftist organizers at the time. this was interesting and is relevant today since many current movements & people have clear ties to formations of that time.
for most of the book they cover the various organizing efforts of local JBAKC chapters and the evolution of the organization as a whole. you get to see each chapter's local conditions and see how they adapt to them, and i thought the authors did all the segments justice without dwelling on any one for too long. the parts about chicago and the SF bay area were my favorite, because the cultural dimension to their organizing (graffiti wars in chicago and building leftist punk scenes to counter fascist punk in SF) was really compelling to me ... also bc im most familiar with those places in my life lol. they also include lots of images of posters, newspaper, literature, art etc of the JBAKC which is always fun and great for sparking new ideas and inspirations.
overall it has some good lessons and is helpful context for anti-fascist (and anti-prison / anti-repression,, which is also anti-fascist) organizing today. sometimes i disagreed with the authors' takeaways as one does, but they (appropriately) don't center their opinions, and more often than not i found their conclusions insightful and thoughtful. not a must-read for everyone, but i loved this movement history!