By Allen Ruff
A Public Affair, WORT
September 17th, 2020
The far-right movement isn’t monolithic—it’s a complex spectrum of organizations and ideologies. To help us break it down, today Allen is joined by Matthew N. Lyons, co-author of the landmark book Right-Wing Populism in America, to discuss the evolution of rightist trends and the rise of fascism in the U.S.
With the help of listener callers, they discuss white nationalism, the far right’s relationship to the Constitution, the politics that paved the way for Trump, the meaning of fascism, and the interplay between right-wing movements and systems of oppression.
Matthew N. Lyons is a writer and longtime observer of right-wing politics. He is the author of Insurgent Supremacists: The U.S. Far Right’s Challenge to State and Empire (PM Press, 2018) and co-author with Chip Berlet of Right-Wing Populism in America (Guilford Press, 2000). He writes regularly for the radical antifascist blog Three Way Fight.
Cover photo: Charlottesville “Unite the Right” Rally by Anthony Crider, shared under CC BY 2.0
Allen Ruff received his Ph.D. in US History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently is an independent investigative historian with a primary focus on US foreign policy concerns. He also hosts “A Public Affair,” a weekly news and analysis program on WORT, 89.9fm, Madison. He posts occasional pieces to his blog, “Ruff Talk.” He is the author of the recently published, “We Called Each Other Comrade”: Charles H. Kerr & Company, Radical Publishers.
Matthew N. Lyons has been writing about right-wing politics for over 25 years. His work focuses on the interplay between right-wing movements and systems of oppression, and responses to these movements by leftists, liberals, and the state. He writes regularly for Three Way Fight, a radical antifascist blog, and his work has also appeared in the Guardian, New Politics, Socialism and Democracy, teleSUR, Upping the Anti, and other publications.
Lyons contributed the title essay to the book Ctrl-Alt-Delete: An Antifascist Report on the Alternative Right (Kersplebedeb Publishing, 2017). He is coauthor with Chip Berlet of Right-Wing Populism in America (Guilford Press, 2000) and author of Arier, Patriarchen, Übermenschen: die extreme Rechte in den USA (Aryans, Patriarchs, Supermen: The Far Right in the USA [Unrast Verlag, 2015]).
Lyons is cotrustee of the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust, which stewards the literary legacy of the late playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry.
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