For over 20 years ARA has been able to popularize the ideas of direct action in the fight against #fascism and #oppression. It has also been an arena for debate and action around the various forms of oppression and their interconnection.

(Copied from the Anti-Racist Action Network website), with list formatting for readability & referencing.)

Fascism is an ultra-nationalist ideology that mobilizes around and glorifies a national or perceived racial identity, valuing this identity above all other interests (for example gender or class).

Fascism is marked by:

1. its hostility towards reason and human solidarity,
2. its dehumanization and scapegoating of marginalized or oppressed groups,
3. its use of violence or threats of violence to impose its views on others, and
4. its rejection of supposedly “effeminate” or “soft” values in favor of “manliness”.

(In particular:)

1. Anti-Semitism and racism are primary facets of National Socialism and most other varieties of fascism.
2. Fascism aims at a militarized society, and organizes along military or quasi-military lines,
3. usually with an authoritarian structure revolving around a single, charismatic leader.
4. Fascist groups may have the facade of an efficient and dynamic organization, but in reality, power structures are arbitrary and ruthless.
5. Fascists use anti-elitist rhetoric to appeal to the “common man”,
6. coupled with internal elitism and willingness to accept support from existing elites.
7. Fascism glorifies a mythologized past as justification for its present ideological stances, and as a basis for future organization of society.