VIDEO: A Blueprint for Countering American Fascism

On July 22, supporters packed into a crowded event space at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., and hundreds more tuned in online, to watch a symposium on “Countering American Fascism: Lessons from Organizing in the U.S. Heartland.”

This First Annual Henry A. Wallace Symposium was presented by the Institute for Policy Studies, the Wallace Global Fund, and The Nation and co-sponsored by Busboys and Poets. It served as the capstone event for the Henry A. Wallace Fellowship Program at IPS, which is supported by the Wallace Global Fund and provides mentorship, training, and research opportunities for the next generation of progressive public scholars.

An inspiring array of speakers shared lessons from organizing, movement building, deep canvassing work, and Henry A. Wallace’s own life. Together, they highlighted how social movements are countering the dangerous force of American fascism by building an alternative vision: a multi-racial democracy and an economy that works for us all.

You can watch the full event here. A summary follows.

The panel featured John Nichols, National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation and the author of multiple books, including The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics; Sulma Arias, Executive Director of People’s Action, where she brings over 20 years of organizing experience on issues such as immigrant rights, voting rights, and economic justice; and Erica Smiley, longtime organizing and movement leader and Executive Director of Jobs With Justice.

IPS Executive Director Tope Folarin, who moderated the discussion, began the symposium by reminding the audience that just as they have for many decades, the far right and American fascists are currently “tapping into widespread discontent” and fanning the flames of fear and hatred in order to drum up support for their bigoted agenda.

He pointed to Henry A. Wallace’s definition a fascist as one whose “lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions, or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.”

Folarin reminded the audience that it’s critical to enact “concrete strategies to build solidarity” across movements and across class, race, and gender to grow a powerful coalition to counter American fascism and the far right in this pivotal moment.

Scott Wallace, grandson of Henry A. Wallace and Co-Chair of the Wallace Global Fund, drew several powerful parallels between his grandfather’s time and our own, reminding us that we are once again facing down a “struggle between the common man and American fascism.” We must bring to bear all the organizing lessons from the past and present to defeat the “unholy combination of corporate power and government” that his grandfather so boldly fought against 80 years ago.

John Nichols then gave rousing remarks about how Wallace was ahead of his time in bravely calling out U.S. imperialism at home and abroad in his 1944 op-ed in The New York Times, “The Danger of Fascism.” Nichols explained that Wallace was also ahead of his time in calling for a bold vision of mulitracial democracy, calling out Jim Crow segregation, racial discrimination, sexism, and corporate greed among other systemic injustices — even when such positions cost him politically.

Although Wallace was unsuccessful in his later run for president, Nichols said he offered a clear vision for how to fight back against American fascism and white supremacy — a blueprint from the New Deal era we can still apply to today’s political moment.

Sulma Arias spoke in depth about the deep canvassing work that People’s Action does, sharing her own personal story of how she was approached back in 1999. At the time, she was homeschooling her three children and highly engaged in the evangelical community in Kansas after emigrating to the U.S. from El Salvador. That got Arias involved with organizing work herself.

Since then she’s spent years witnessing the impact of meeting people where they are, especially in small towns and cities, where people will often break bread and share tables with people with whom they may not agree. She pointed to some major unexpected wins that came directly as a result from that kind of organizing: for example, Kansas was one of the first states to pass in-state tuition for undocumented students.

In 2020, People’s Action mobilized and trained tens of thousands of canvassers — and they’re doubling their goal for 2024.

Erica Smiley spoke about how Black workers in the South are the key to defeating the far right. As manufacturing industries shift more and more facilities to the South, that region needs to become a focus of organizing strategies. “We need to have democracy in places where industry is moving,” she pointed out.

She emphasized how Jobs with Justice’s “vision for industrial democracy” can offer a blueprint to build a truly multiracial democracy, one that we caught a glimpse of briefly during the fight for passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in the post-Civil War era. Once again, we’re at a similar crossroads, in a critical moment to transform our political economy into political momentum. “This is a moment for us to truly reconstruct democracy,” she said.

The panelists ended by urging us to craft a vision for a better future in which everyone can see themselves taking part — and to build democracy from the ground up, even in the smallest places like the workplace, to win a better future for all. Today, as in Wallace’s time, we are once again fighting for the soul of our nation — and it’s up to us all to work together to win a better, more democratic future for all.