Host and "Movement Meteorologist", Ejeris Dixon, sits down with the legendary activist and strategist, Linda Burnham.
In this season three premiere of The Fascism Barometer, Ejeris Dixon sits down with legendary activist, writer, and strategist Linda Burnham for a clear-eyed conversation about what it will take to fight fascism in this moment and for the long haul. Drawing on more than six decades of movement work, Linda names the dangers of fascist targeting, the need to broaden anti-fascist alliances, and the importance of building real power across elections, culture, economics, and the streets. Together, Ejeris and Linda explore why movements must learn to collaborate beyond political comfort zones, think generationally, and bring each person’s unique gifts into the anti-fascist fight.
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Linda: If people think they're in politics, but they're not assessing and talking about power, then they're not actually in politics, because that's what politics is. It's about gaining sufficient power to shape the society that you're in.
Ejeris: Hi, friends. Welcome to season three of The Fascism Barometer. I'm Ejeris Dixon, your movement meteorologist.
And The Barometer is an educational project where we learn together what fascism is, how to stay safe, and how to create democracy and liberation for us all. As a Black Queer feminist, I exist at the intersections of communities that fascists see as the enemy. And for years, I have deeply desired a way for us to understand and measure the threat of fascism and how it impacts all of us.
So when we talk about fascism here, we often talk about a far right, radically conservative mass movement of people who've taken over the Republican Party. Fascists tend to believe that they should rule society, and that their rightful place in society has been taken from them. So this is a movement that is based on revenge, where they see themselves as victims who are being persecuted by oppressed communities.
Fascist movements can exist everywhere, and where they exist, they are led by people who are actually in the majority, but they see themselves as either a current or soon to be minority. And therefore, they are fighting for their survival, and they seek to eliminate marginalized communities, opponents of fascist regimes, and democratic systems and practices to return to a fictional past where they had the ultimate power they believe that they deserve. So there is a lot to unpack here, and we'll keep working on this definition throughout the season.
So now, here on The Fascism Barometer, within each episode, we work to learn what fascism is and what we can do about it. And as barometers measure pressure, we unpack the pressure that fascism puts on all of us. This season, we'll be deeply focused on a couple of key questions.
How is fascism operating in the United States? Who are the people that make up fascist movements and how are they recruited? And what are the tools to stop it from building bigger movements to creating broad alliances against fascism, to winning elections, and to defending the communities who have the most to lose?
So as I'm looking at the barometer today, its reading continues to be very high. There are escalating attacks on organizations and activists challenging the regime. There's this continued war on Iran.
There is a genocide still unfolding in Palestine despite the supposed ceasefire. Prices keep rising. People have lost so many of their benefits and many people are living in dire economic circumstances.
And there are attacks on immigrant communities, communities of color, and trans and queer communities that also continue. But in all of these challenges, we're still seeing patterns in how the resistance can win. So yes, the fascism barometer is rising, but don't despair.
We are building the power we need. But our big question that we'll be talking about all season is timing. Can we build what we need in time?
I know we can navigate the storm and I believe we will come out the other side, but we're going to need all of us. And as we've said before, fascism is best fought with massive amounts of people power. And that's what we're doing together.
Thank you for listening and joining our movements. So before we get to today's conversation with Linda Burnham on movement strategy, here are the latest updates on fascism.
Ejeris: Welcome to The Fascism Roundup. In this segment, we talk about current trends in fascism in the United States. There's so much happening that this is just a snapshot.
We have left even more articles and information for you all in the resource hub on our website. So following almost two months of ceasefire talks during the war on Iran, the Trump administration and Iran have come to an agreement. According to CNN, while the details remain uncertain, proposed agreements include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, financial relief for Iran, and renewed commitments around nuclear weapons development.
So there's this article in Forbes that's titled, The Worst Foreign Policy Blender in Decades, Trump's Iran Deal Blasted by All Sides. And in this article, Democrats and Republicans are calling the war a disaster, a loss, and that actually makes Iran more powerful than before the war, which I doubt was Trump's intent. In this article, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut says, and I quote, “We are paying Iran billions to reopen the strait, period.”
So that's actually worse than how things were, but okay. At the time of this recording, there's a lot we aren't clear about around how this ceasefire impacts Lebanon, as Israel has continued to launch more strikes despite the ceasefire. And according to the BBC, Trump has said, “If they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head.”
Okay? Which is horrifyingly violent, impressively immature. This war has been devastating.
It's had devastating impacts internationally and on our communities here. Over 3,000 people have been killed. Over 26,000 people have been injured during this war.
And throughout the war, Trump has treated congressional oversight as optional, elevated the authority of the president over democratic processes, and keeps presenting himself as this indispensable leader standing between the country and supposed threats, which is classic fascism. It follows patterns from the Fascist Emergency Playbook, creating emergencies to justify expanding power, to weaken democratic oversight, to reduce institutional checks and balances. In other news, the administration continues to use violence, intimidation, arrests and investigations against its opponents.
The FBI recently raided the Cleveland Office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, which is an organization that has been increasing voter participation among working class communities and black voters. Agents showed up at the homes of staff and volunteers, followed some people to work in school and questioned them about supposed voter fraud. Representative Chantel Brown of Ohio has said, “Unfortunately, this appears to be part of a systemic effort by Trump and Cash Patel's FBI to attack our elections and perpetuate more myths of voter fraud. It's an attack on the people.”
These raids come after the Trump administration's attack on voting rights and election infrastructure, from the gutting of the Voting Rights Act to redistricting efforts across several states to increase the amount of Republican seats in Congress and executive orders that increase federal control over elections. But the Trump administration's war on dissent isn't just limited to voting.
Days later, Homeland Security rated 12 activist homes in Minnesota. Later that morning, Minnesota's federal prosecutors indicted 15 activists on charges related to allegedly conspiring to oppose immigration enforcement operations. So an indictment is a formal accusation of a crime.
It means that prosecutors have convinced a grand jury that there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges and proceed to trial. According to the AP, the administration claims that this so-called conspiracy began in January, shortly after the Trump administration launched Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and then communities in Minneapolis launched tremendous resistance at an incredible cost. So these activists, along with countless community members, bravely organized to resist ICE, to resist the National Guard, and increased repression.
These indictments are an attempt to target organizers for their success in defeating ICE, in ensuring that Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis ended. The administration is characterizing these activists as Antifa. Antifa is a name short for anti-fascist, which is a loose collection of people who have a variety of political stances and use a variety of tactics, but it's not an organization.
And these indictments come just months after the conviction of the Prairie Land defendants, which was a case where the Department of Justice pursued terrorism charges against anti-ICE protesters, also characterizing them as Antifa. But I'm going to keep saying this, being against fascism is a good thing. And when antifascists are seen as terrorists, the administration is admitting that it's fascist.
So we've seen this before, fascists rarely begin by eliminating elections outright. They begin by undermining trust in elections, spreading conspiracies about fraud, intimidating voters, targeting organizations and targeting marginalized communities. In Italy, under Mussolini, fascists attacked labor organizations, intimidated voters, disrupted political campaigns, and refused to accept electoral outcomes that threatened their power.
The goal wasn't simply to win elections, but to destroy the electoral process, ensuring that they could not be voted out, and therefore weakening the opposition. We know where this goes. We must stop it before it gets there.
And, amidst all this, resistance is continuing. Over the last several weeks, hundreds of immigrant detainees at the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in New Jersey have engaged in hunger strikes and labor strikes to protest medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse, poor food, and inhumane conditions. Unsurprisingly, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, claims that there are no reports of abuse, hunger strikes, or poor conditions inside this facility.
Trump recently even stated, “We run the finest facilities anywhere in the world of their type.” And we know this is a lie. Hunger strikers report that ICE responded with retaliation, including transferring hundreds of detainees to facilities around the country, in an attempt to break the strike.
But resistance has continued. Since the strikes began, community members have showed up outside of Delaney Hall to protest the conditions and prevent transfers. And we'll drop information in our resource hub for how you can support.
They've been met with violence and arrests from ICE, state police and local law enforcement. Yet despite those efforts, another 40 women joined the hunger strike this week, expanding the demands and continuing the fight. The resistance continues, and it shows us our way out of fascism.
Ejeris: I'm very excited to welcome Linda Burnham to The Fascism Barometer. And I couldn't think of a better person for us to kick off season three with. Linda's been an activist, writer and strategist focused on women's rights and racial justice since the 1960s.
She's the co-creator of the 2023 and 2024 online series Fascism 101 that I got to collaborate with her on, and the lead author of Project 2050, a 2023 report that explores long-term strategic thinking and goals of the US left. She also co-edited and contributed to the 2022 book, Power Concedes Nothing, How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections. For the past few decades, Linda has been a mentor to leading social justice organizers and advocates.
Now, I've been lucky to consider Linda a friend, a collaborator, a mentor, and a confidant. I'm really excited to bring a piece of our kind of closed-door, ranting conversations to a more public space. Linda was born into a movement family with generations of organizers and activists, and it's from this place that you couldn't find a harder working, more committed, more passionate, and sharper leader than Linda.
She keeps us on our toes and ensures that we stay grounded, focused, and impactful. Thank you for joining us, Linda.
Linda: Thank you so much, Ejeris. I can get with a good rant, so I'm looking forward to our conversation, and I really, really deeply appreciate the work that you've been doing.
Ejeris: Thank you, friend. We really like to locate this in the fact that the fight against fascism is a fight for everyone. And one of the questions we've been thinking on is, why is it important for the communities that you're from to understand what fascism is and how we fight it?
Linda: Well, I'll say first of all that I'm from many communities. I'm from the community of the left. I'm from the community of old folks.
From the community of people who grew up black in this country. I'm a woman. And I'm also the grandchild of immigrants.
So I have the grandchild of folk who immigrated from Barbados in the early part of this century. And so I'm from many communities, and each one of those communities needs to be alert to the dangers of fascism for a variety of different reasons, and to understand what fascism means for us in a deep way. And that understanding takes us to the need to resist.
So, I'll say, as the grandchild of immigrants, watching immigrants become othered in such a profound way, and watching as immigrants become the cause of all that's wrong with this country, and watching them be demonized from the very start of the first Trump administration, has been really profoundly, profoundly disappointing and frightening. And it was kind of the first signs, I think, in this country of the turn toward fascism. The ways in which immigrants were criminalized, and the show that was put on of putting people in chains, and chains around the ankles, and chains around the wrists, and chains around the neck.
And it brought me back to, this is the very same way in which enslaved people were chained.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Linda: Ankles, wrists, neck. So just to say that that opening of how fascism begins to take hold, that demonization, as somebody from a community of immigrants, put me on alert, high alert. As a woman, and as a black woman, I'll just say, the news turns really fast, obviously.
So this may be irrelevant by the time we air. But I'll say, just recently, you know, the spectacle at the White House, the fighting championships that just took place.
Ejeris: The UFC, yes.
Linda: And then the fighter that comes up with Michelle Obama is a man. So what the hell is that about, really? What the hell is that about?
Beyond targeting Black women and identifying Black women as, you know, worthy of insult, as less than. And we have to understand that that kind of targeting of immigrants of Black women is integral to the process of rising fascism.
Ejeris: I think there's this other piece around when you're calling Michelle Obama a man, there's this whole piece around gender and the kind of fascist project of demonizing, of othering trans people and non-binary people, and connecting that with Black women can't be seen as women. There's this whole piece around the targeted communities of fascism, as Black communities, immigrant communities, trans communities, disabled people, all of these people, and the strategic othering that happens underneath fascism. And you're right, with those images, it's saying these people do not belong here, they do not belong in this country, they should be locked up.
Criminalization, right, is just the process of making people's identities or actions criminal, right, arrestable. And then that these people should be removed and destroyed, and these people are the bad people versus these people as the good people.
Linda: Yeah.
Ejeris: One of the things I'm really struck with, with you is that I think you were born in movement, and you've been, and you're still in it, right? You are not relaxing and retired, but you are, like, I think you're at more meetings than I am. And I know that that's a part of a profound commitment.
And I'm wondering, because you've been in movement spaces for quite a while, 2026 is a pretty critical year for us. And I would love your sense of, with so many attacks happening, what do you think the goals of our movements, of everybody who's committed to end fascism, what should our goals be this year?
Linda: Yeah. Ejeris, I'll say, we could have stayed on that first topic, that first question.
Ejeris: Oh, that was a whole episode.
Linda: So that's a thing. There's more to go there. So this year, you know, there's one piece of this, which is the focus of the elections.
And I think that's extraordinarily important, the upcoming elections. And it's particularly important given the rollback on voting rights that we have in front of us. And given how critical it is for all of us to start to sort through how the electoral process and our elected officials can serve us in this set of political circumstances.
So we need to, you know, bottom line, we need to get as many progressive candidates elected to office as we possibly can at every level of government. I'll say we need to get elected to office every anti-fascist, never mind progressive. So every anti-fascist candidate elected to office that we possibly can.
2026 and 2028 are critical, and the electoral process is a critical part of anti-fascist organizing. I think our progressive movement has made a lot of gains in the past 10 years in understanding the relationship between organizing in the electoral realm and organizing in other kinds of ways in our community. And we have to build on the infrastructures that we've created to make those interventions possible.
And we need to both work on the turnout side and obviously work on the election protection side. We have to defend our right to vote. We have to be at the polls monitoring and ensuring that people feel like they can get in and do what they have every right to do, which is to participate in the electoral process.
So that's one piece of work that I feel like is really critical. And each of us, there are many opportunities in most of our communities to hook up with somebody who's doing “get out the vote” work. And so that I feel like that's a really critical part of the work.
I feel like we're also in a place where, or a time when we have to think about what does it mean to broaden the anti-fascist alliance? And how do we both work with people who are very close in, where we have tight ties, where we know everybody's politics, where we agree with more or less everything. And we have to sort through how do we work with people who are to our right and to our left?
And to understand that those linkages, those relationships and figuring out how to move in sync with people with whom we do not agree on everything, that that piece of work is also really, really critical. And that there's learning in that. We have to learn how to do that.
We have to learn how to tolerate difference in ways that we may not have felt was necessary in the past. That's really critical to our work. I think the other thing is really learning the lessons from where we've had successes.
So, I'm hoping that we're in a position to really learn from Minneapolis. Our good folk in Minneapolis did incredible work.
Ejeris: Incredible. Incredible.
Linda: At incredible cost, at the cost of lives, to getting ICE to back down. I mean, they got ICE to back down, and they got ICE to back down because they already had important infrastructure in town because they had faith leaders and labor leaders and community leaders, and all kinds of different demographics coming out into the streets and saying, you know, “hell no, this is not how it's going down.” And we need to learn the particulars in all different locations.
We need to learn the particulars of what happened to make that when possible. I'd say those are some of the things we need to be doing this year.
Ejeris: I love that. Linda, you've been mentoring various organizers and activists for a while, and it feels like a critical yet challenging lesson that we have in this moment is around collaborations. You specifically spoke to we need to collaborate with people to the left of us and to the right of us.
And I still see that as something that's been really challenging for many people in the movement. And when people either, there's a mix of not having the skill set, not having the desire. I'm wondering what you say to folks when they're like, “actually I'd just like to stay in my lane, that's the work I want to do. That's the work that I see as critical.”
Because I feel like that, I've had more tolerance and more generosity for that mindset in different times than I do for this year. So I'm curious around for folks who are anti-collaborating with people either with different identities, different politics, what do you say to them?
Linda: I think it's basically a matter of what's at stake. And really understanding what's at stake. And I will say, Ejeris, that I was in a room just a few days ago where people just two steps to the right of the set in the room, were spoken about with kind of deep shade and a little bit of contempt.
And it was disturbing to me because I felt like, wow, if you can't tolerate the politic of somebody two steps to the right, how are we going to build the breadth that we absolutely need to get us past this point? If our ultimate goal is to drive the fascists back to the margins, I mean, that's a minimal. Let's just say what is a minimalist goal at the moment.
Minimalist goal. Let's get the fascists back to the margins of society. So maybe that tendency is likely in this country never to go away, or at least not to go, I'll never say never, but it won't go away for many, many, many generations.
So if that's a bottom line, that tendency is deeply rooted in the US, and will continue to try to reemerge. Now it's got a lot of momentum.
Ejeris: Yeah, and power.
Linda: So if our low bar, low bar is to figure out how to drive the fascists back to the margins, that's gonna take a lot, and that's the low bar. That's gonna take a lot. So what kind of power are we gonna need to be able to do that?
A lot of power to be able to do that, given the momentum that they've accumulated. So then to me, we have to ratchet down our feelings about people who don't have the set of politics that we do, who don't occupy the same space that we do. Get analytical, get cold about what the politic is.
Get cold, let go of your feelings. Ugh, yuck, they don't support whatever the hell. Let that go.
Just try to understand what their politic is, how they might have gotten there, and if they're anti-fascist. That's the main thing you need to know. And then, where are the places that we could collaborate?
If they are anti-fascist, where are the places that we can find common cause and that we can collaborate? The posture of content, no, I can't do it because whatever, whatever, whatever, they don't agree on whatever the hell. The set of folk who are going to agree with absolutely everything that you hold dear is small.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Linda: Yeah. And it is also true that folk have to have like a clear sense of what is the power dynamic right now and how do you expand the set that has and can exercise power. If you're doing a frank assessment of the power dynamic in the US right now, the left and progressives have influence and don't hold a majority of power.
That's just the facts. Deal with that fact as a starting point. And if you're trying to accumulate it, start thinking about how to accumulate it.
There's got to be some just baseline calculation in that and let go of the kind of contempt for folks who are somewhere else on the political spectrum. We can't afford it.
Ejeris: Yeah. Yeah. The stakes are life threatening stakes right now.
And I want to go deeper into this assessment of power that you're speaking of. So when you say progressives, the left does not have the power we need. Can you give some examples around how you're making that assessment to just make it very clear to people?
Linda: I mean, we got the basics. So, we celebrated Mamdani’s win in New York. How rare is that?
Ejeris: Yeah.
Linda: Okay. We got a lot of big cities in this country. How many of them are held by a Democratic Socialist?
Ejeris: Yes.
Linda: One. Uno. So if you want like the baseline on power, we can start there.
Ejeris: Yeah.
Linda: Okay. So we can both learn those lessons, which I should have raised that in the learning lessons part. We can learn the lessons from that campaign. We can celebrate the fact that that's possible.
Ejeris: Yes.
Linda: Celebrate his skills and the broad base of support that came behind him and the infrastructure that supported him, and all the New Yorkers that got to the polls, and learn the specifics of those lessons, while also understanding that's one town. It's a big town, but it's one town. So if we want to talk about power, we can start there.
Then we can go to, what does Congress look like? Then we can go to, what does the Senate look like? Then we can go to, what does the Supreme Court look like?
Yes. I'm just saying, if you're not about sorting out how to shift that power, then what are we talking about?
Ejeris: No, I think there's been a way that, I've been in spaces where people are talking, or say they're talking about politics, but they're not talking about power, right? About growing power and what that looks like and means. So I'm interested in you talking about, when you said the left and progressives, we have influence, but we don't have power.
Is it because I think people can say, well, so-and-so has a lot of followers on social media and they're a leftist. So there's confusion between influence or even like being able to have cultural influence. And so how do we grow our power, like Linda Burnham, teach us?
Linda: I guess the first thing I'd say is that if people think they're in politics, but they're not assessing and talking about power, then they're not actually in politics. So you could be doing something, but you're not doing politics. So there's that, because that's what politics is.
It's about having, gaining sufficient power to shape the society that you're in. That's what politics is. So if you're not understanding and calculating who holds power and how it's being held, and to what use, then you're not actually in politics, which is fine.
Everybody doesn't have to be doing this. And believe me, there are people doing other things that are fabulous and that make our lives possible. There are people doing fabulous music out there.
There are people doing fabulous art out there, among other things. There are people who are just raising their families and raising beautiful humans. So all of that is good and making it possible for us to survive and continue as humans.
But if you're claiming to do politics and you're not dealing with power, then, I don't know, you're doing something else. So, to the question of how do you accumulate power, that's the question in front of us, Ejeris, in front of every one of us. So one of the ways is through functioning in the electoral arena, and we're in the process of learning those lessons as we go and trying to get folk in office who can make sets of changes.
There's accumulating power in the realm of economics. So I keep trying to figure out who are the folk who got big resources, who can start to do the work of developing economic projects that speak to the basics, but that are not based on return on investment, that that's not the bottom line. Are there folk who, so this is total sidebar, just to say though, that economics is a form of power, and progressives and leftists have to start to think in that realm as well.
And what we're faced with in late stage capitalism is obviously out of control billionaire class. We won't go all the way there, but just to say that there's a piece of work to be done, which is, are there examples of how we meet human needs that are not based solely on return on investment or principally on return on investment? Can we get some examples of that?
What could a society look like that was not solely about giving every advantage to the billionaire class, and standing on the backs of the poor, standing on the backs of the poor? So, I'm not even sure I remember what your question was, but it has something to do with power. So, oh, so, and then, of course, the mobilizing power, which, you know, bow down to No Kings for getting us out in the streets, and we need more of that.
We need the demonstration of, no, we actually are not for any of this.
Ejeris: Yes.
Linda: There are masses of people who are not for this. So we need the demonstrative power, being out in the streets repeatedly. Here we are, and we hate this.
So there's that kind of power. And there's cultural power, and which we have not had enough, and understandably so, because Trump comes after you, and his people come after you, but we have not had enough of our folk with high visibility, either in sports or in the cultural realm, to exercise the specific kinds of power they have, which is they're looked up to, they're beloved, and we need them to speak out.
Ejeris: Yeah. Yeah. No, I think there was a moment where I think Ariana Grande's, one of her songs was used for an ICE video, and she spoke out immediately, and then dropped that she's started a foundation that's supporting all of these different trans communities.
So not only, I'm anti this, but here's what I'm for, you know? And so I'm really thinking about all of these types of power, the cultural power that you're speaking to, the economic power, the political power, and the sense that if we keep clear-eyed this year on growing power, and one of the demonstrations of power is in the electoral arena, because I think people can start swimming in all of the different things to do, you know, but if we keep clear-eyed on like, is power growing? Am I helping us grow power?
You know, is my organization increasing in its power, and not only like power over, but power with, power with all of the people. So we've got some tests this year. And there are points where we've collaborated, where we were like, if you just do this thing, we can reduce the power of fascists.
And to some degree, fascist movements have been growing. So I think we have to reckon with, how hopeful are you that we can grow our power this year? And what hurdles do we have in place around that?
Linda: So ,you've got a lot in there, Ejeris. You've got a lot in that question.
Ejeris: Yes, it's a compound question. My apologies, my friend.
Linda: No worry. So I guess I want to address the question of hope and timeframe. So you're working on this year, which is great because this is the year we're in, so this is the time we have to work with.
And we need people to start to think generationally. And if you're not thinking generationally, then we're in a little bit of trouble. Because we just talked about power and we just talked about progressives having some governing power in one city.
So, if you were to imagine what it would take for progressives to have governing power in many cities across the US, you might imagine that that could take a minute, right? So just to say that one of our hurdles, is folks have to get used to the fact that this is a long haul struggle.
There's no version of this that's happening quickly. So, we're talking about a couple of different things. We're talking about what do we need to do this year. We're talking about breaking the momentum of the fascists. We're talking about getting them back to the margins. This will take some time. And we're talking about substantive progressive power.
So those are a lot of different timelines, right? So we have to work in the present to do everything we can to break momentum, to make progress in getting more progressive power in this year, while also understanding that we need to be strategically oriented midterm between now and soon and then out over the longer term, right?
And I feel like our capacity to move forward is related to our capacity to understand that we can be in a long stretch of reaction and understand that that can and will be turned around eventually. And we have to be able to hang in there for all of those stages. And I guess any study of even the history of this country, which went through long period of McCarthyism, which is what I was born into, that gets turned eventually through resistance and struggle and political shifts.
But that takes time. I want to go back to what you raise about hope. So I hold hope pretty lightly, which is to say, I'm not motivated by hope. That's not the thing. I'm motivated by the fact that I know humans can do better. I know humans could do a lot better than we're doing right now in this country.
Right? And I'm motivated by the fact that I know that we will be able to change the current alignment of forces to set the conditions to do better. So if you call that hope, possibly that's hope. But I'm holding hope in the sense of, we're going to turn this around quickly. I'm holding that really lightly.
Ejeris: Yeah. Yeah. I think it makes sense because you are born into a family of organizers and activists.
And so knowing that humans can do better and knowing how much commitment you've put into this movement and your family is put into, what lessons would you like to offer the Fascism Barometer listeners on how to keep moving forward in these times?
Linda: My family does a family Zoom on Sundays. And since we're in this period of rising fascism or deep contention over what this society is going to be, it's raised a bunch of stuff from deep in the past. So I'm learning as I go in my old age, in part from my older sisters and from my mom.
And so there's a couple of things I'd say. One is just to say, we were chased out of Alabama. My mom and dad were organizers in Birmingham, Alabama, the Southern Negro Youth Congress in the 40s.
And we were chased out of Alabama, essentially on threat of death and moved to Brooklyn. And so I'd say a couple of things about that time. One is that my mom waited until she was 100 years old to tell me a secret about that period.
She waited till she was 100, about what they had had to do to make it through that period. So it taught me, yeah, there are times when you keep your mouth shut. I don't know, maybe keep your mouth shut for 50, 60 years.
It can happen, right? So everything doesn't have to be told. That's pretty basic, but it is true. You can keep some stuff to yourself if it needs to be kept to yourself. Yeah. So that's one lesson.
Another lesson is keep your people close. So, I asked on one of these family Zooms, I asked, oh, “so were we living in that neighborhood with all of those essentially black leftists for safety reasons?” And then of course my sisters looked at me like I was crazy.
“Uh, yes. Hello. Yes.”
So, yeah, so there's that. Keep your people close. I will also say that people who come through hard times, develop really tight, really close, really loving relationships. So that's on the positive side of things. What else from that period?
Be ready for change and just, um, yeah, sometimes you have to, like, up and do things that you didn't know that you would have to do. Uh, sometimes you have to up and change your life in ways that you didn't anticipate, and that's hard. And you have to, like, let go of the small stuff, let go of the small stuff, because, because the times are really demanding.
Ejeris: So let me see if I can remember it. It's keep your mouth shut, keep your people close, be ready to change, and let go of the, let go of the small stuff.
Linda: Yeah.
Ejeris: Yeah. So if you too want to be in the movement for, what are you going on now, Linda? Like, you've, you've been doing movement work for?
Linda: I'm 78, and I was trying to remember when I did my first independent political action. I was in my early teens.
Ejeris: Oh my goodness.
Linda: So it's been a minute.
Ejeris: So yes. So if you, it's been a minute. If you too are inspired by Linda's over 60 years of activism and organizing, we can remember what you're saying Linda around how this is a long struggle. That definitely has goals for each period. And finding a way to like almost make hope tactical in the way that we, we talk about a world where humans can definitely do better. Linda, you are always teaching us here.
And I'm so grateful for that and for you. And if you were to tell people one to two things that they can do to deepen their activism right now, what would you tell us to do?
Linda: Oh, I would say, you know, think hard about yourself and what your talents are. What are you good at? What do you love to do? Bring that to the movement. Bring that to the anti-fascist fight. Each one of us is really good at something.
So think hard about what that is. Talk to your friends about what that is. And bring that to this political moment.
It's a really tough time, and we need each and every one of you. And Ejeris, thank you so much for this piece of work. I can't even remember when I met you, but I feel like you're one of the people who was so alert so early on to what the hell we were moving into.So alert. And a lot of people were lagging on that. They've caught up.
There were a lot of people lagging on what period we were entering, and you were really early on that one, and I truly appreciate it.
Ejeris: Thank you so much, Linda. We're so happy to have you on The Fascism Barometer. We're also so happy to stay in connection with you. You've given us a lot of wisdom to chew on, and thank you for joining us.
Linda: Take care.
Ejeris: We've reached the end of today's episode. And while the pressure continues, I also feel hopeful to keep growing the movement against fascism. And I hope you do too.
In this episode, we got to hear from Linda Burnham about some of the critical 2026 goals for rising movements against fascism. We discussed the need to build power and what that really is and looks like. We discussed the role of elections and the urgent need to unite people across a whole host of communities and political belief systems to challenge fascism.
And we discussed some terms that may be new to you, including return on investment, which is really about how much profit a person gets from their investment. And it often leads to a system of privileging profit and making money over people's immediate needs. So as this is a learning space, we dropped some resources in the hub at fascismbarometer.org to support your learning and activism.
And also, if you're a fan of this work, please donate at our website to support us to keep creating educational resources. We appreciate you joining us and we're working hard monitoring the Fascism Barometer for you. And together, we can keep fascism at bay.
So watch the skies, subscribe to this feed as we have so many more amazing episodes coming up. And when you share this episode with a friend, you've got it. You help fight fascism.
Our producer is Phil Surkis. Our theme is by MeKLeet Hadero. This podcast is a project of Ejerie Labs.
I'm your movement meteorologist, Ejeris Dixon. See you next time on The Fascism Barometer.