Chapter 90: Fascist-Antifascist

342     direct line of descent from Mussolini’s fascism Nicole Winfield, “How a Party of Neo-Fascist Roots Won Big in Italy,” Associated Press (AP) News, September 26, 2022, apnews.com/article/elections-rome-italy-6aa9fcb003071c307190a4053f199d98.

342     deleted . . . celebrated each year  Historian Amy King writes of a letter by Meloni published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Liberation Day in 2023, “Meloni’s letter, published on a day intended to mark freedom from fascism, was remarkable for its failure to mention ‘antifascism’ once.” Amy King, “Contested Memory in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy: How Her Far-Right Party Is Waging a Subtle Campaign to Commemorate Fascist Figures,” The Conversation, August 14, 2023, theconversation.com/contested-memory-in-giorgia-melonis-italy-how-her-far-right-party-is-waging-a-subtle-campaign-to-commemorate-fascist-figures-211465.

342     “the fascist-antifascist binary . . .” King, “Contested Memory in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy,” theconversation.com/contested-memory-in-giorgia-melonis-italy-how-her-far-right-party-is-waging-a-subtle-campaign-to-commemorate-fascist-figures-211465.

342     as victims of fascism and contributors . . .  King, “Contested Memory in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy,” theconversation.com/contested-memory-in-giorgia-melonis-italy-how-her-far-right-party-is-waging-a-subtle-campaign-to-commemorate-fascist-figures-211465.

342     the “divisive” fascist-antifascist binary “‘April 25 Is Divisive’ Meloni Calls for National Holiday to Be November 4,” Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (AGI), October 31, 2018, www.agi.it/politica/news/2018-10-31/meloni_festa_nazionale_4_novembre_25_aprile-4554680/, via Google Translate; and “President Meloni’s Letter to the Corriere della Sera Newspaper on Liberation Day,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, April 25, 2023, www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

342     the international bestseller “M: Son of the Century,” HarperCollins Publishers, accessed March 14, 2025, www.harpercollins.com/products/m-son-of-the-century-antonio-scurati. To find Antonio Scurati, M: Son of the Century, trans. Anne Milano Appel (New York: Harper, 2021) at a library, visit search.worldcat.org/title/1306239633.

342     won Italy’s most prestigious literary prize “Strega Prize 2019, Antonio Scurati Wins with 228 Votes: ‘I Dedicate the Victory to Those Who Fought Fascism,’” la Repubblica, July 5, 2019, www.repubblica.it/robinson/2019/07/05/news/premio_strega_2019_vince_antonio_scurati_con_228_voti-230388207/,via Google Translate; and “Italian Premio Strega Collection in the Library of Congress,” Library of Congress Research Guides, accessed March 14, 2025, guides.loc.gov/premio-strega.

342     “Will the heirs to that history recognize it once and for all?”  Antonio Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” CounterPunch, April 23, 2024, www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

342–343     “could have gone down one of these two paths . . .”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343     “It has undoubtedly taken the second path”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343     “historical anniversaries”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343     “blamed the massacres . . . on the Nazis alone”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343     “the word ‘anti-fascism’”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343     “Until that word . . . to haunt the house of Italian democracy”  Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343     One of the spring 1944 massacres . . . the Ardeatine Caves massacre “In this false spring of ours, however, we are not only commemorating Matteotti’s political murder. We are also commemorating the 1944 Nazi-fascist massacres perpetrated by the German SS, with the complicity and collaboration of the Italian fascists, those that were carried out at the Fosse Ardeatine, Sant’Anna di Stazzema and Marzabotto. These are just some of the places where Mussolini’s demonic allies massacred thousands of defenceless Italian civilians in cold blood.” Scurati, “Liberation Day Monologue,” www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/23/liberation-day-monologue/.

343     “335 innocent Italians” . . . “killed simply because they were Italian” “President Meloni’s Statement on Anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, March 24, 2023, www.governo.it/en/articolo/president-meloni-s-statement-anniversary-fosse-ardeatine-massacre/22190.

343     mostly political prisoners and Jews . . . antifascist (and anti-Nazi)  “The majority of the victims taken by the SD [Security Service of the SS] were Italians already serving prison sentences, many of them for their activities in the Resistance. After the Nazis finished rounding up the hostages, they held 335 men, five over the quota. 57 of them were Jews. Some were just grabbed randomly off the streets of Rome. The youngest was 15, the oldest over 70.” Jason Dawsey, “The Italian Resistance and the Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” National WWII Museum (New Orleans), July 23, 2019, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/italian-resistance-and-ardeatine-caves-massacre.

343     authorized the mass killing in retaliation for  . . .   Dawsey, “The Italian Resistance and the Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/italian-resistance-and-ardeatine-caves-massacre; and “Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, accessed March 25, 2025, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ardeatine-caves-massacre.

343     largely hailed from Italy’s South Tyrol . . .  “Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ardeatine-caves-massacre.

343     forty-two officers dead  Dawsey, “The Italian Resistance and the Ardeatine Caves Massacre,” www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/italian-resistance-and-ardeatine-caves-massacre.

343     arrested 13,000 Jewish people . . . primarily Auschwitz Every two or three days for the next two months, Nazis bring roughly 1,000 Jewish people to Auschwitz. “The Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup,” Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, accessed March 25, 2025, www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/france/vel-dhiv-roundup.html.

343     “It’s not France” Marine Le Pen stated, “I don’t think France is responsible for the Vel d’Hiv . . . I think that generally speaking if there are people responsible, it’s those who were in power at the time. It’s not France.” Marine Le Pen quoted in “Le Pen Denies French Responsibility in WWII Round-Up of Paris Jews,” France 24, October 4, 2017, www.france24.com/en/20170410-le-pen-denies-french-responsability-wwii-round-paris-jews-vel-hiv.

344     faced “No Kings” protests  “‘No Kings’ Protests Across the United States,” New York Times, June 14, 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/us/protests-cities-no-kings.html; and Alaina Demopoulos, “Were the No Kings Protests the Largest Single-Day Demonstration in American History?” The Guardian, June 19, 2025, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/no-kings-how-many-protesters-attended; Steve Gorman and Brad Brooks, “‘No Kings’ Protests Draw Large Crowds in US Cities to Decry Trump,” Reuters, October 18, 2025, www.reuters.com/world/us/no-kings-rallies-expected-draw-millions-across-us-protest-against-trump-2025-10-18/.

344     celebrated pro-slavery Confederates For examples, see Time, “President Trump Praises Robert E. Lee as a Great General During a Rally in Ohio | TIME,” YouTube, October 15, 2018, youtu.be/oeMwKD93B2g?si=UVk_jBrpVnzT87PM; and Associated Press, “Restoration of Torn-Down Confederate Monument Will Cost $10 Million Over 2 Years, Military Says,” NBC News, August 7, 2025, www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/restoration-torn-confederate-monument-will-cost-10-million-2-years-mil-rcna223633.

344     opposed women’s reproductive rights  For examples, see Nina Totenberg and Sarah McCammon, “Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Ending Right to Abortion Upheld for Decades,” All Things Considered, NPR, June 24, 2022, www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn; Mary Clare Jalonick, “Republicans Block Bill to Protect Contraception Access as Democrats Make Election-Year Push,” Associated Press (AP) News, June 5, 2024, apnews.com/article/contraception-senate-abortion-biden-trump-reproductive-rights-3f9e8546624a3acf8e64d1138fcb84b1; Julie Rovner, “Trump’s Already Gone Back on His Promise to Leave Abortion to States,” KFF Health News, February 5, 2025, kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-executive-order-hyde-amendment-abortion-pentagon/; Brittni Frederiksen et al., “Title X Grantees and Clinics Affected by the Trump Administration’s Funding Freeze,” KFF, April 15, 2025, www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/title-x-grantees-and-clinics-affected-by-the-trump-administrations-funding-freeze/; and Aaron Glantz, “New Trump Rule to Ban VA Abortions for Veterans Even in Cases of Rape and Incest,” The Guardian, August 29, 2025, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/29/trump-veterans-affairs-abortion-ban.

344     advocated the colonization of Canada and Greenland Jessie Yeung and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, “Trump Renews Threat of Military Force to Annex Greenland,” CNN, May 4, 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/05/04/world/greenland-annexation-threat-trump-nbc-interview-intl-hnk.

344     called fascist  See Emma Bowman, “Harris Called Trump a ‘Fascist.’ Experts Debate What Fascism Is—and Isn’t,” NPR, October 29, 2024, www.npr.org/2024/10/29/nx-s1-5164488/harris-trump-fascist-explained.

344     “European monarchy” . . . as well as “slavery . . . and (today) wokeism”  Kevin D. Roberts, “Foreword: A Promise to America,” in Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, eds. Paul Dans and Steven Groves (Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation, 2023), static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf, 14.

344     attends the wreath-laying ceremony  “Mattarella Lays Wreath in Rome for Liberation Day,” ANSA English, April 25, 2023, www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2023/04/25/mattarella-lays-wreath-in-rome-for-liberation-day_6ce96ead-b7da-4890-8eaa-ca77142fefb1.html.