Alberto Toscano: Late Fascism

February 8, 2024

Alberto Toscano discusses his major new book Late Fascism: Race, Capitalism and the Politics of Crisis. This free event delved into Toscano’s latest book, highlighting the continued and necessary development of ongoing anti-fascist thought and organization.

Toscano was in dialogue with Gastón Gordillo, Lisa Lowe, and Jordy Rosenberg and the Q&A moderation by Am Johal. Presented by the SFU Vancity Office of Community Engagement and the SFU School of Communication.

In a world shaken by ecological, economic and political crises, the forces of authoritarianism and reaction seem to have the upper hand. How should we name, map and respond to this state of affairs?

The rich archive of twentieth-century debates on fascism can steer a path through an increasingly authoritarian present. Developing anti-fascist theory is an urgent and vital task. From the ‘Great Replacement’ to campaigns against critical race theory and ‘gender ideology’, today’s global far right is launching lethal panics about the threats to traditional political, sexual and racial hierarchies.

Drawing especially on Black radical and anti-colonial theories of fascism, Toscano makes clear the limits of associating fascism primarily with the kind of political violence experienced by past European regimes. Rather than looking for analogies from history, we should see fascism as a mutable process, one anchored in racial and colonial capitalism, which both predates and survives its crystallization in Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany. It is a threat that continues to evolve in the present day.