
The First International Antifascist Conference of Porto Alegre: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Antifascism or Anti-Westernism?
The First International Antifascist Conference, held in Porto Alegre in late March 2026, drew delegations from over forty countries in what was, by any measure, a significant act of left internationalist assembly. Italian trade union and political activist Sergio Bellavita attended and offers an assessment that is candid about both the conference’s achievement and its failure. The gathering, he argues, succeeded in mobilising — but failed in analysis, substituting rhetoric for critical self-examination. Most damning: the conference’s final document erased Russia’s war in Ukraine and the repression of Iranian protesters from its account of the world’s barbarism, revealing a political thread that is less antifascist than anti-Western. [AN]



The United States has grown wary of long term occupations. Abandoning the pretence of exporting democracy, the Trump administration has chosen to force existing powers to comply with its rule.





As Israel ticks off its list of Nazi-like atrocities against the Palestinians, including mass starvation, it prepares for yet another – the demolition of
Most of the recent electoral rounds in Western countries (lately in Norway and Germany) have yielded worrying results that confirm the rise of racist far-right forces. This buttresses the characterization of the era we live in as one comparable to the fascistic era between the two world wars of the past century, but in a new guise claiming to respect the democratic form of government, among other new features. Hence the labelling of these forces as neofascist (see “The Age of Neofascism and Its Distinctive Features”, 4 February 2025).


