Coalition forming in Detroit to resist rising fascist threat 

DETROIT—”The MAGA movement wants to return to the days of legalized segregation, gender discrimination, the elimination of trade unions, civil rights organizations, and anyone in opposition to the fascist trajectory of the state.”

That was the urgent warning from political analyst and longtime Detroit activist Abayomi Azikiwe, delivered to a crowd of 60 residents, union members, and community leaders gathered at the Detroit Public Library on Saturday. The event, organized by the Detroit Anti-Fascist Organizing Committee, served as both a rallying cry and a dire alert about the growing threat of fascism in the U.S.

“The January 6 insurrection was not an aberration—it was a preview,” Azikiwe said.

Azikiwe connected today’s political climate—marked by Elon Musk’s fascistic flirtations, Trump’s attacks on immigrants and organized labor, and the erosion of federal workers’ rights—to the corporate-state mergers of fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini.

Azikiwe reminded the audience that between the 1880s and the 1930s, more than 5,000 Black Americans were lynched without federal intervention.

“There was never an anti-lynching law passed during this period in the U.S.,” Azikiwe noted, arguing that today’s scapegoating of oppressed communities follows the same reactionary logic.

“Since April 2, draconian sanctions have accelerated capitalist instability—mass stock losses, federal worker firings, and devastation for universities, service employees, and industrial workers,” Azikiwe said. “Millions of immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian communities are being targeted.”

Gus Hall, the former general secretary of the Communist Party USA, once warned that when capitalism faces a crisis and profits decline, corporations seek to dismantle democracy.

“Fascism emerges as big business’s most brutal dictatorship, replacing democratic institutions with reactionary, militarized rule,” Hall said in 1975.

Russ Bellant of Detroiters for Tax Justice echoed the alarm and said recent Trump policies are “steps toward an open dictatorship of the far-right capitalist class.” He discussed how U.S. fascism today serves the most chauvinistic and reactionary sections of big business and how they viciously want to suppress the popular movements for democracy and workers’ rights.

Bellant condemned the rising normalization of extremist rhetoric, citing the recently published fascist manifesto Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions, which calls for the crushing and elimination of social justice movements.

The book was written by Jack Posobiec, a far-right conspiracy theorist with ties to prominent neo-Nazis like Richard Spencer, and Joshua Lisec, a ghostwriter from Dayton, Ohio.

“This book, endorsed by Trump, Jr., Steve Bannon, and J.D. Vance, glorifies figures like Franco and Pinochet as models,” Bellant said. “They’re not hiding their agenda anymore.”

Jim Sutton, a progressive Christian activist, dissected how fascism disguises itself as theology.

“It’s not about faith—it’s about identity and power,” Sutton said. “They want to replace democracy with a theocracy.”

“Christian nationalists are bringing the ideology of fascism to everyday life,” he said.

Meanwhile, Detroit Palestinian activist and Nakba survivor Ismail Noor tied domestic repression to global imperialism.

“Fascism is imperialism’s twin—and both are backed by the same monopoly forces,” Noor said.

The forum pointed to the fascist Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s upcoming U.S. visit as proof of deepening ties between American and international fascists.

“The fight for freedom here in the U.S. must be linked to the fight for freedom in Palestine,” Noor said. “They are the same fight.”

Em Barnes, chair of the Detroit Club of the Communist Party USA, brought the discussion to grassroots, political action. “I don’t care if I’m at the nail salon or the grocery store—I talk to everyone about this fight,” Barnes said.

Barnes stressed that our labor power and collective action as working people, such as general strikes and economic boycotts, are key to working-class resistance.

“Our power rests in our ability to withhold our work. But these tactics require mass mobilization—and mass mobilization requires mass organization,” Barnes said.

Pointing to local efforts like the Detroit People’s Assembly, which provides mutual aid and legal support to immigrant communities, Barnes issued a final warning: “If they come for one of us in the morning, they’ll come for all of us by night.”

As for what people can do about the rising threat of fascism, the key takeaway was clear: Start organizing where you’re at and become a part of local community efforts and coalitions.

“What will save us is unity and unified action—uniting all people opposed to fascism bound together, struggling side by side, and at times across lines of contention,” Barnes said.

Community leaders called on the attendees to make plans to mobilize for the May Day Detroit demonstration at Roosevelt Park this year—which was characterized as another link in the chain of working-class resistance.

“There is a real threat in this country, and there is no time to waste,” Barnes said.

Danielle Francisca and John Crutchfield contributed material for this story.