Rusty Shackleford

October 27, 2025

How The Modern Antifascist Learned to Party Again — And Why That Matters

A photojournalistic primer to the history and resistance of fascism — a work in progress

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 In 2006, a vital resistance to opression pulsed through Germany’s leftist underground. Protesters gathered on trucks blasting distorted techno, waving banners that read, “Germany must die so that we can rave.” From that pointed slogan, Egotronic’s Raven Gegen Deutschland was born — and with it, a new political ritual: the rave as resistance.

 But this moment of resistance wasn’t happening in isolation. It echoed a much older lineage — one rooted in the antifascist networks that would later be called Antifa. To understand the movement that embraced Raven Gegen Deutschland, we need to understand antifascism itself: its origins, its principles, and its evolution.

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Antifascist Origins

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 Fascism as a term was first coined in Italy in the 1920s under Benito Mussolini, whose Blackshirts terrorized opponents and dismantled democratic institutions. By 1925, Mussolini had declared himself dictator.

Historian Stanislao Pugliese of Hofstra University explained,

“Italy has the distinction, unfortunately, of having the first fascist movement. But it also has the distinction of having the first antifascist movement,”, “In the 1920s, even before fascism came to power, there were antifascist groups in Italy who, similar to today, understood that fascism was a completely different phenomenon on the political spectrum.”

 Even before Mussolini seized power, Italian antifascists recognized fascism as uniquely dangerous — an ideology blending nationalism, violence, and control over culture. Through fascism, authoritarian leaders co-opt religion, education, technology, and even leisure to control citizens and punish dissent.

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Fascism Spreads

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 Adolf Hitler soon adapted this model in Germany. The Nazi Party used spectacle, propaganda, and terror to crush dissent, personal freedom, and the press — replacing democratic culture with orchestrated conformity.

 In 1932, the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) established Antifaschistische Aktion — “Antifascist Action” — to oppose the Nazis. The organization’s original logo, two flags in a circle, is still used by antifascists today.

 Simultaneously we began to see a new age of both fascist and antifascist art emerge from those who either worshipped or resisted these ideologies.

 As fascism spread across Europe, antifascists of all political backgrounds — socialists, communists, anarchists, and even liberals — formed coalitions to defend democracy.

 Historian Federico Finchelstein has noted how the opposition to fascism formed popular fronts that brought together leftist groups and, in some cases, liberal and conservative forces to resist fascist movements, especially in countries like Argentina. Finchelstein notes that such coalitions played an important role in contesting the spread of fascist ideology outside of Europe, highlighting the complexities of alliances and consensus-building among diverse political factions.

 Federico Finchelstein described antifascism In his book, From Fascism to Populism in History (University of California Press), as both national and transnational, emphasizing “global connections” that were critical for the development of both fascist and antifascist movements in the 1920s and 1930s.

Federico Finchelstein further noted that,

“As many antifascists noted at the time, fascism used democracy, and even democratic alliances, in order to destroy democracy.”

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Postwar Fascism & Neo-Nazism

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 But fascism didn’t die out in 1945. The ideology had already taken root worldwide.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History and Italian Studies at NYU said,

“There were fascist movements in America, in Switzerland, in France, in Spain, and then fascism spread in Argentina. It’s a transnational movement. That’s how it stayed alive after 1945,”

 Neo-Nazi and anti-immigrant groups re-emerged in the 1970s and 1980s across Great Britain, Eastern Europe, and the U.S. — and renewed antifascist activity followed in response. Participants often identified themselves as “antifa,” mobilizing through punk music scenes and squatter communities, Pugliese noted.

Syd Shelton, who documented the events in the book, The Battle of Lewisham, August 13th 1977 (Café Royal Books) said,

“It was about intimidating and frightening people just as the Nazis had done in the streets of Germany in the 1930s,”

 The link between antifascism and subculture had always been more than aesthetic: it was a way of reclaiming community through art. In occupied squats and smoky clubs, punk bands railed against surveillance and state repression, while krautrock’s hypnotic rhythms offered a vision of freedom through participation and trance. Together, they built the emotional and sonic vocabulary that would later feed directly into Germany’s electronic underground.

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Fascism’s Persistence Today

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 That persistence isn’t abstract — it’s visible today. As reported in 2022 thousands of fascist sympathizers once again filled the streets of Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace. The annual march — ostensibly held in memory of Mussolini — has become a pilgrimage for neo-fascists from across Europe.

 The report described participants dressed in period-style uniforms, carrying black flags and banners celebrating “Il Duce.” Chanting crowds offered the Roman salute in unison, while vendors sold Mussolini-themed souvenirs and nationalist memorabilia. Italian police maintained a distance, citing civic “order,” but the spectacle was unmistakably ideological: a revival of fascist nostalgia cast as local tradition.

 The event has grown over time — attracting both overt neo-fascist movements and populist sympathizers who frame Mussolini’s legacy as “patriotic rebirth.” Some attendees told reporters they viewed fascism as misunderstood rather than criminal, echoing rhetoric seen elsewhere in Europe and the United States.

 The march’s normalization — covered by Italian and international outlets but rarely challenged by local authorities — underscores what antifascists have long warned: fascism doesn’t return through coups. It seeps back into culture through spectacle, nostalgia, and moral fatigue.

 What was once history’s warning has become a recurring stage show — proof that authoritarian aesthetics retain mass appeal when societies forget their cost.

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The Song That Started a Movement

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 By the early 2000s, when Egotronic emerged from that lineage of persistent oppression and resistance, their blend of rave energy and antifascist defiance made perfect sense.

 As Torsun Burkhardt turned his street protest into song, he wasn’t just making electronic music — he was rewriting what opposition could feel like. Raven gegen Deutschland became one of the first tracks to fuse thumping electro beats with overt antifascist, anti-nationalist politics.

 Its message was simple and subversive: we will not let hate or despair dictate how our bodies move.

 At a time when many left-wing spaces frowned on club culture, the song carved out room for hedonism in activism. Burkhardt recalled that in the early 1990s, electronic music was unpopular in radical circles; only “drunken parties” were tolerated in social centers. But by the time Raven gegen Deutschland dropped, the floorboards of those same centers were shaking with bass.

 Egotronic’s approach proved you could fight fascism and dance — not in contradiction, but in concert.

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Turning Protest Into Joy

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 The song’s true revolution wasn’t lyrical — it was bodily. To rave against Germany meant rejecting rigidity, nationalism, and shame through collective pleasure. It redefined joy as defiance — a refusal to let austerity or fascism steal communal euphoria.

 As Burkhardt told THUMP:

“Yes, we’re partying. Yes, we’re going over the top with it. And no, we’re still not ready to accept conditions as they are.”

 This ethos taught modern antifascists that resilience isn’t just endurance — it’s celebration. Dissent doesn’t have to be dour; it can be ecstatic, sweaty, and loud. The track became the heartbeat of a new generation that balanced resistance with release.

Photographer Grzegorz Żukowski wrote of the 2022 march:

The Antifascist Street Party under the slogan: “For our freedom and yours” is yearly organized by left wing movements and social organizations. The march is also opposing the so called “Independance March” organized by nationalistic organizations and attended among many by fascist movements. During the antifascist march there are music platforms and many people dancing, a large number of police is visible even though the atmosphere is peaceful with people just having a good time.

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The Politics of Ecstasy

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 Critics argued that such “partying” weakened the left — that it dulled antifascism into lifestyle activism. But that critique misses the point.

 To dance together in defiance of fascist violence is itself a political act — bodies moving freely where others would confine them. Collective joy is solidarity, denying fascism’s aesthetic of control.

 Burkhardt’s later tracks, such as Tolerante Nazis (2011), extended this contradiction — mocking fascists’ attempts to appear modern or tolerant while celebrating the liberatory chaos of youth and sound.

 Raven gegen Deutschland became the template for cultural resistance in the 21st century: showing that pleasure and politics, rhythm and rebellion, can share the same beat.

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Why It Still Matters

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 Today’s antifascists face familiar enemies: nationalism, isolationism, and the far right’s rebranding of control as pride.

 Fascism thrives on fear and conformity. Sometimes, the most radical thing you can do is turn up the music, take the street, and rave like there’s no Reich tomorrow.

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Vigilant, Rebellious, Revolutionary

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“We just want to stop people from being murdered,” Kneecap members told The Guardian before the festival. “There’s people starving to death, people being bombed every day. That’s the stuff we need to talk about, not fucking artists.”

 Two decades on, the spirit of Raven Gegen Deutschland echoes beyond Germany. From river to sea, Belfast to Glastonbury, Ireland to Palestine, artists are channeling the same defiance against fascism and colonial violence.

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Antifascist.Antihero686@passinbox.com