Other People’s Fascisms?

Conference
Conception: Debojit Thakur (Calcutta) and Benjamin Zachariah (Potsdam)

It will also be broadcast live on Zoom. To watch online, please register here:
Thursday, October 9
Friday, October 10

With: Martina Bitunjac (Potsdam), Sebastiaan Faber (Oberlin), Federico Finchelstein (New York), Roger Griffin (Oxford), Irina Nastasă-Matei (Bucharest), Luisa Passerini (Florence), Antonio Costa Pinto (Lisbon), Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (Berlin), Jason Stanley (Toronto), Richard Wolin (New York).

Tolerance towards other people’s fascisms has been a feature of political life. This is complicated by the ability of right-wing movements and states to work together. Internationalism is not often a concept associated with the right. It is undeniable, however, that both historically and in contemporary times, völkisch nationalists and fascist organisations have been more flexible in their ability to mobilise in cooperation with one another than a self-proclaimed left, who share, theoretically, similar internationalist concerns with one another. From the so-called ‘Fascist International’ in the 1920s to contemporary völkisch nationalists, dictatorial governments, and authoritarian movements, it appears that both pragmatic approaches to alliance-building and shared ideological propensities have enabled internationalist solidarities on the right. From the Axis itself to the admiration for Ataturk in some Nazi circles, to imagined pan-Aryan solidarities among Indian, Iranian, Irish, and Germanic nationalists, to contemporary alliances of right-wing, proto- or neo-fascist groups across continents, in Argentina, Brazil, India, Russia, or the United States, we can see a shared vocabulary, a style of politics, and cross-border organisation that transcends the apparent narrowness of specific völkisch or (proto-)fascist movements. How, then, do we make sense of this phenomenon?

 
Program
 

9th October 2025

11:00
Susan Neiman and Benjamin Zachariah (Potsdam)
Welcome Address and Introduction

11:15
Roger Griffin (Oxford)
The Relevance and Irrelevance of International Fascism as a Contemporary Phenomenon

12:15
Benjamin Zachariah (Potsdam)
Fascist Repertoires, Fascist Vocabularies

14:30
Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (Berlin)
Transnational Fascism in Western Ukraine: From Bandera to Putin

15:30
Jason Stanley (Toronto)
Racism and Fascism Redux

16:45
Martina Bitunjac (Potsdam)
Origins, Development, and Legacy of the Ustaša Movement in a Geopolitical Context

17:45
Luisa Passerini (Florence)
‘Married to the Country’: Lines for a Research Project

19:00
A walk through the John Heartfield exhibition (with Benjamin Zachariah, Potsdam)

 
10th October 2025

10:00
Irina Nastasă-Matei (Bucharest)
Nazi Soft Power in Eastern Europe: The Role of the Humboldt Fellowships in Romanian Far-Right Networks

11:00
Sebastiaan Faber (Oberlin)
‘Spiritual Guide of the World’: Spain as a Transatlantic Fascist Hub, Then and Now

14:00
Richard Wolin (New York)
Neofascist Männerphantasien

15:00
Federico Finchelstein (New York)
Wannabe Fascists

16:30
António Costa Pinto (Lisbon)
Latin America in the Era of Fascism

17:30
Debojit Thakur (Calcutta/ Trier)
Fascists before Fascism: A History of Hindu Nationalism and Its War on History

18:45
Susan Neiman (Potsdam) and Benjamin Zachariah (Potsdam)
In Memoriam: Tom Lehrer

Veranstaltung in englischer Sprache