Fascism and Settler Colonialism in Canada

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Authors

Jokic, Dallas

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thesis

Language

eng

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Fascism , Settler Colonialism , Canada , Deleuze and Guattari , Whiteness , Property , Territory , Settler Whitespace , Biopolitics , Nationalism , Microfascisms , Desiring Fascism , Replacement

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This thesis aims to map out the relationship between fascism and settler colonialism in Canada. In the first chapter, I go through a number of theories of fascism, including by contemporary historians and 20th century Marxists. I draw on the work of Deleuze and Guattari and their distinction between molar and molecular (or micro) fascism. In the context in a country like Canada, in which fascism has not taken on a molar form on the state level, I argue that we need an account of fascism that is sensitive to its molecular expressions. I highlight three tendencies of fascism that we should keep an eye on if we are concerned about its emergence. In the second chapter, I explore the role of the settler state in cultivating and producing microfascist affects, feelings, and beliefs. I examine the deputization of settlers by the Canadian state in order to expand and protect territory and the way this cultivates racist affect and encourages (often fatal) acts of violence. Finally, I consider the way whiteness in Canada becomes a territorializing force, and sketch out a model of private property I call settler whitespace. In the third chapter, I consider the fascist rhetoric around “the great replacement” and “white genocide” in relation to the structure of settler colonialism. I consider the logic of replacement in Canada as not just a territorial project, but one that also creates a racially exclusionary idea of Canadian nationalism. Fascist rhetoric not only echoes the Canadian history of eugenics, it inverts the practices of replacement and genocide inherent to the settler state, and engages in what I will call a biopolitics of the nation. This inversion is not just a coincidence, it is part of what makes this rhetoric so affectively compelling. I will conclude by arguing that given the intimate relationship between fascism and settler colonialism in Canada, anti-fascist action must follow the lead of practices of Indigenous resurgence.

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