The recent revival of political parties that seem to be embracing fascism across a number of Western countries is startling many political commentators. What does this resurgence mean for representation and democracy? Has fascism returned to threaten Western democracies again? Join special guest Dr. Robbie Shilliam, Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, as he discusses this question by recalling an internationalist tradition of thought that, during the 20th century, linked anti-fascism to anti-colonialism.

While this tradition is in good part forgotten, it remains active in Rastafari, a movement of faith most commonly associated with Bob Marley. Most people are familiar with the term “Babylon”, which in Rastafari pertains to an iniquitous system under which humanity suffers and which must be replaced by making heaven (Zion) on earth. Fewer people might know that, for Rastafari, Babylon is synonymous with Rome. Asking “why Rome?” takes us on a journey through the inter-war period of the 20th century and the struggle against Italian fascism which pivoted around Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of sovereign Ethiopia. Commitment to the struggle spanned Caribbean and African colonies, North America and Europe, and included Black and white activists, community leaders, establishment figures and rebels. What bound them all together was an understanding that to be anti-fascist one had to - at the same time - be anti-colonial. Rastafari as a movement of faith was tempered in this crucible. Retrieving this history compels us to think differently about how we imagine the threat that fascism poses to Western democracy in the 21st century.

Professor Robbie Shilliam

Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University