Online: Fighting Fascist Feelings (Autumn 2026)
A six-part course for organizers, culture workers, educators and others on fascist ideology and how to confront it, Sundays and Wednesdays, September 20-October 7
Back by popular demand for one last episode this year, Sense & Solidarity presents “Fighting Fascist Feelings,” a course on the psychological, ideological and material dimensions of 21st century fascism and the movements against it.
As we struggle against fascism and the systems that created it, we want to pause to ask:
What motivates the fascist imagination?
What attracts people to fascism, historically and today?
What actually works to change minds and how can we make the best use of limited resources?
These questions are key to understanding the enemy and strategizing for a better future.
Led by Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano (author of Don’t Talk about Politics) and Dr. Max Haiven (author of The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to Twenty-First Century Fascism and The Radical Imagination), this 6-part course welcomes people struggling against fascism, the far right, reactionary politics and the forms of racial capitailsm that produced them and who include…
Grassroots community organizers
People working in or for NGOs
Students, teachers, librarians and learners of all sorts
Artists and other culture workers
Over the past two years, we have offered this workshop in-person in Palermo, London, Brussels and Toronto and online. Most participants have found it to be illuminating, thought-provoking, and even transformative.
Schedule
This online course, which will take place on Wednesdays (6pm BST, 1pm EST) and Sundays (3pm BST, 10am EST), will cover the following modules
What is 21st century fascism? (Sunday, September 20)
How does ideology work and how can we confront it? (Wednesday, September 23)
Real crises, false solutions 1: Gender, sex and family (Sunday, September 27)
Real crises, false solutions 2: The afterlives of empire and the spectre of disposability (Wednesday, September 30)
Beyond reacting: Tools for collective strategy (Sunday, October 4)
Rebuilding the social web: Infrastructure, care and collective power (Wednesday, October 7)
Themes and approach
In this workshop, we’ll look at themes including fascist (and anti-fascist) worldbuilding, how fascists manipulate feelings and hijack “common sense,” and the rise of fascist influencers (and whether there can or should be an anti-fascist equivalent). We’ll consider texts from the long history of antifascist thinkers (including the Frankfurt School and the Black radical tradition) and fascist ideologues (from Mussolini to Palantir’s CEO). We’ll think about the role of alienation, gender, horror, technology, and games. And we’ll help each other develop our theories of change and radical strategies.
Please note, this course focuses on understanding fascistic ideology and its deeper roots in our world of capitalist crisis. It focuses on higher level questions of strategy and how to organize on the ideological ground (not street fighting or the specifics of community organizing).
It begins from the position that it is often fruitless to try and convince our opponents or defeat them in the “marketplace of ideas” and that we are better off dedicating energy to cultivating and organizing our allies. We are in many ways too late to prevent the current wave of fascist organizing from some measure of success, but there is still much we can and must do.
In this workshop, we won’t teach you what to do, but we will give you some frameworks for being more strategic and intentional. We offer a broad and schematic approach and create space for participants to fill in the blanks and figure out how it applies to your context and work.
About Sense & Solidarity
Sense & Solidarity is a platform where people who want to change the world come together to learn about ideology, strategy and the radical imagination. It is led by Sarah Stein Lubrano and Max Haiven, who specialize in making critical theory accessible to and useful for people engaged in struggles against racism, (cis)sexism, capitalism, imperialism and other systems of domination.
Since 2023 we have run many courses and workshops online and in cities around the world including London, Berlin, Brussels, Palermo, Toronto and beyond. We also produce online content including podcasts and short- and long-form video.
Sarah
Dr Sarah Stein Lubrano has a background in feminist, mutual aid, and other local organising as well as teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. Her thinking often reaches the public through the Sense & Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. She was previously the Head of Content at The School of Life and wrote obituaries. She regularly appears on public radio and a variety of podcasts. Her first book is, Don’t Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st Century Minds is out now with Bloomsbury.
Max
Dr. Max Haiven is a writer and teacher and Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination. He is the author of The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to Twenty-First Century Fascism and The Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research in the Age of Austerity and the creator of the agit-play board game, Billionaires and Guillotines. He led a team that recently published The World After Amazon: Stories from Amazon Workers (2024) and is editor of VAGABONDS, a series of short, radical books from Pluto Press. He teaches at Lakehead University, where he directs the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL).
Testimonials
Here’s what some participants said about the last time we offered this course in June 2026.
This workshop offers a comprehensive overview of fascism as we witness it today, starting from first principles to help organisers understand what we’re up against. The prompts between sessions and participatory options encourage attendees to think through how these insights are applicable in our respective contexts, offering a way in to use the theory explored.
I was feeling super stuck in one of the groups I'm politically active in. This course helped me breathe new life and perspective into my activism: starting with furious note taking of all the new insights I'm gaining on longer term strategy questions and fresh perspectives on age old debates since our very first session together. I also couldn't wait to bring back some of the excercises to my own community and the conversations this provoked surprised everyone involved in the most constructive way possible. I am now more equipped to discuss big questions like 'how do we change this world' with people around me, I know better how to go about those people I can only win arguments with in my own head, and I'm starting to hold my ground as an antifascist.
How you can participate
This course will take place on the Zoom platform and is open to two forms of participation:
Auditors will attend a 75-minute “lecture” session and be welcome to participate in the Q&A
Participators will attend the 75-minute lecture session and also stick around for another 75-minute facilitated discussion (mostly breakout rooms with other participants), following a short break.
Costs
Regardless of your format (auditor or participator), registration is typically £120 (or equivalent) for regular participants and £240 (or equivalent) for those who can access institutional supports (we can provide an invoice).
No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
A limited number of bursaries are available to waive some or all of the cost of registration, courtesy of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab. You can apply for them via the general application form below.
We prioritize bursaries for applicants who have a plan to make their learning relevant to their communities of struggle.
Registration
Please use the application form at https://forms.gle/pYBtSqt9DDLTSwBf7 by August 31. We will strive to confirm participation by the end of the following week. After difficult experience, we have returned to using Google Forms. If you are uncomfortable doing so, please copy the questions and answer them in an email to registration at senseandsolidarity dot org.
We particularly welcome applications from groups of people working on projects together. Each participant should complete their own application.