What is Fascism? Why should it matter to organizers and activists?

Show Description

Ejeris talks with Kelly Hayes, longtime activist, organizer, writer, and host of the podcast Movement Memos, to examine how the growth of fascist movements impacts organizers, activists, and the communities most likely to be targeted. Kelly and Ejeris discuss how to engage more people in anti-fascist activism and what actions we all can take.


About Kelly

Kelly Hayes is a Menominee author, organizer, movement educator and photographer. She is the host of Truthout‘s podcast Movement Memos and co-author of the book Let This Radicalize You, with Mariame Kaba. Kelly also is also the creator of Organizing My Thoughts, a weekly newsletter about politics and justice work. Kelly was a co-founder of the Lifted Voices collective and the Chicago Light Brigade. She has led countless workshops over the years, and has trained thousands of people around the country in direct action tactics. Kelly has also served as a grassroots strategist, offering advice and analysis to groups across Chicago and the United States.

Kelly’s written work can be found in TruthoutTeen VogueBustleThe Huffington PostYes! MagazinePacific Standard, her blog Transformative SpacesThe Appeal and numerous anthologies. Her movement photography is featured in the “Freedom and Resistance” exhibit of the DuSable Museum of African American History.

Kelly has co-organized major protests and campaigns during some of the most heated political moments of our times, including struggles for Native sovereignty, the fight to save the Affordable Care Act, the Mental Health Movement, the campaign to stop school closures under former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the successful effort to win reparations for survivors of police torture in the city of Chicago. Kelly has also co-organized and led trainings prior to some of the most significant protests in Chicago in recent history and has helped resistors around the country, from Boston College to the Pacific Northwest, hone their skills in the run-up to direct actions.

About Ejeris

Ejeris is a political strategist passionate about strengthening liberation movements and building community safety. Ejeris serves as the Fascism Barometer's "movement meteorologist," exploring the impact of fascist movements on communities of color, queer and trans communities, and all marginalized people. Having worked for the past twenty-five years at the intersections of racial justice, LGBTQ liberation, anti-violence, transformative justice, and economic justice movements, Ejeris focuses on creating political and strategic experiments to strengthen social justice movements through the organization Ejerie Labs.


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The Fascist Emergency Playbook and Electoral Fascism