How The Far Right Went Global
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Fascism has never really gone away—but it has changed shape. From the street-level racism and open organising of the British National Party in 1990s East London to today’s globalised far right, this episode traces how authoritarian politics have moved from the margins to the mainstream.
Host Nick Dearden draws on personal experience of anti-fascist organising, and is joined by Seema Syeda from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and co-author of Creeping Fascism, and Luke Cooper, author of Authoritarian Contagion and academic at the London School of Economics. Their conversation explores how the far right has built international networks, institutions, and narratives that now feel disturbingly normal. They dig into why “fascism” remains a contested term on the left, what’s genuinely new about the current moment, and what can still be done to resist it.
In This Episode
- The rise and fall of the BNP, street fascism, and the mass anti-racist movements that defeated it
- Debates about whether “fascism” is the right label for today’s authoritarian politics
- Key similarities and differences between past and present far-right movements
- What a Reform government might actually look like in power, and whether figures like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson represent fundamentally different threats
The “Unite the Kingdom” rally and what it reveals about the current far right
Featured Organisation: No to Hassockfield
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Links to things we discussed
Creeping Fascism by Neil Faulkner with Samir Dathi, Phil Hearse and Seema Syeda.
Authoritarian Contagion by Luke Cooper
A Town Within: Visiting Baqa’a Refugee Camp by Madihah Karim
What happened when I met my Islamophobic troll by Hussein Kesvani
The law of the jungle by Nick Dearden
Praxis: The essential guide for changing minds on migration
UNRWA: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees
Time For Change: The evidence-based policies that can actually fix the immigration system
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Music(cc): Intro R&B instrumental loop, Mcgrogo (Freesound.org)