This Machine Kills Fascists, Part 1

Woody Guthrie.

I don’t think there’s a need to explain that title to Troubadour readers, but just in case you wandered over to this online roots music publication after living under a rock, this was a phrase Woody Guthrie regularly displayed on his guitar as he and his contemporaries contributed to the great American Songbook with anti-racist, pro-union commie bangers such as “Tear the Fascists Down,” “All You Fascists Bound to Lose,” and many, many more ditties that raised a musical middle finger to the man.

I wanted to have a chat with y’all about that famous phrase, liberation-minded music, and the people who make it. Lately I’ve been mulling over this question: How much of what we are experiencing in this administration—despite the chaotic flurry of fuckery delivered with the energy of a cocaine-addled used car salesman—is actually new, and how much of it is the same as it ever was, only increasingly impossible for a larger demographic of white conservatives and liberals (or otherwise privileged folks) to ignore?

If we utilize history as the wonderful resource it is, all logic and reasoning points to the latter. In fact, all the dictatory, greed-fueled, power-obsessed, delusional race and religious supremacy bullshit that’s happening now is pretty much a carbon copy performance of what’s come before, not just globally, but here in the states—land of genocide, home of enslavement, of residential schools, of internment camps, of Jim Crow policies, of trickle-down economics. You get the idea.

Don’t want to crack open a textbook? (Better hurry, before they burn them all!) Here, I’m making you a playlist to prove that while yes, we are in the throes of something quite sinister, we’ve been “throed” around by the powers that be since this country’s racist, genocidal inception, and we will continue to be until we collectively decide to do something drastically different about it.

Let’s just start in the ’30s since sound recordings are a little bit easier to come by (for now!).

1939: “Strange Fruit,” recorded by Billie Holiday, written by Abel Meeropol

Lyric Excerpt:
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Billie Holiday’s rendition of “Strange Fruit” told a creepy-ass tale of evil-ass white folks who took joy in lynching Black folks. Have lynchings stopped? No, they have not. To quote Jill Collen Jefferson “The evil bastards just stopped taking photographs and passing them around like baseball cards.” And while I’m overjoyed to see a growing number of pissed off white people at the Tesla dealerships and town halls, I’m thinking we maybe wouldn’t be where we are now if more of them would have unleashed that righteous anger to stop this tragically popular American pastime in its tracks. Moral of the story? Get your neck on the line even when you don’t know what the noose feels like.

1941: “Which Side Are You On,” recorded by the Almanac Singers, written by Florence Reece

Lyric Excerpt:
Don’t scab for the bosses
Don’t listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven’t got a chance
Unless we organize

American workers have long fought for dignity on the job. Even though we finally “agreed,” (through a bloody civil war), to stop enslaving people, many companies continued—and still continue—the practice of exploiting their employees. Have we improved general working conditions by leaps and bounds thanks to the badass organization of everyday workers? You betcha. Has there been a relentless effort on the part of politicians and corporations to squash collective bargaining and erode employee benefits (pensions, healthcare, retirement, etc.) at every turn? You betcha. You can find a trove of Depression-era-and-beyond tunes touting the necessity of working class solidarity. Maybe in addition to checking out some of the greatest proletariat hits of our time, we should all do a deeper dive into economic strategies like striking, boycotting, divesting, policy advocacy, mutual aid networks, and the like. The silver lining of the fascist opposition using a crusty ass playbook is that our ancestors gave us a near-perfect scouting report on how to ensure defeat. All we gotta do is get on the right side of history and follow it.

1959: “Fables of Faubus,” written/recorded by Charles Mingus

Lyric Excerpt:
Boo! Nazi Fascist supremacists!
Boo! Ku Klux Klan (With your Jim Crow plan)
Name me a handful that’s ridiculous
Faubus, Rockefeller, Eisenhower
Why are they so sick and ridiculous?
Two, four, six, eight: They brainwash and teach you hate.

It’s well-documented that Nazi Germany studied, admired, and integrated some of America’s exceptionally fucked up Jim Crow policies into their own exceptionally fucked up Nuremburg Laws. As is evident in “Fables of Faubus,” Charles Mingus didn’t have any trouble connecting the dots of white supremacist delusion from the Nazis and the KKK, to Orval Faubus (the Arkansas governor who got his panties in a twist over school desegregation), to Rockefeller (ultra-rich dude who bankrolled eugenics at home and abroad), to Eisenhower (POTUS who tap-danced around Brown vs. Board of Education like Fred Astair on a minefield). Whether in a white hood or the White House, Mingus knew these folks were afflicted with a “sick and ridiculous” compulsion to “brainwash and teach you hate.” Fast-forward to 2025, and that same sick and ridiculous compulsion has not only persisted, but seems to have metastasized into a blatant disregard for and disappearance of policies, public records, personal freedoms, and people. Good(ish?) news is no one is tap dancing around anything anymore, which makes it a helluva lot easier to spot a fuckface fascist in the wild. What’s that saying when it comes to curing what ails you? Oh yeah: Feed a cold, starve a fever, and fight a fascist. We have to stand up to them or they’re not going to go away.

1969: “Custer Died for Your Sins,” written/recorded by Floyd Red Crow Westerman

Lyric Excerpt:
For the tribes you terminated
For the myth you keep alive
For the land you confiscated
For our freedom you deprived
Custer died for your sin
Custer died for your sin
Now a nеw day must begin
Custer died for your sin

I went down many musical and historical rabbit holes while writing this month’s column, and I find a baffling degree of compassion in the words and actions of so many artists and activists on behalf of their oppressed communities. Even when subjected to violence, theft, lies, and profound harm, marginalized people consistently demonstrate an incredible ability that colonizer/dictator types can’t even begin to fathom: They demand genuine accountability, yet refuse to replicate systems of exclusion, choosing instead to envision a future built on belonging for everyone—even those who’ve done harm. If we take one thing away from this observation, I hope it is an understanding that we cannot skip the step of accountability if we want to begin that “new day” Westerman speaks of. No one sweeps uncomfortable truths under the rug quite like Americans, and we will continue to deal with the toxic repercussions of that until we’re ready to shed a bright-ass flood light on all the shitty shit we all do (personally and politically) to enrich white wealthy dudes to the detriment of pretty much everyone else, including ourselves.

1971: “What’s Going On,” written/recorded by Marvin Gaye

Lyric Excerpt:
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
Oh, what’s going on

Whether you see the ’60s and ’70s as an era full of LSD-dropping dummies (Hi, Dad) or as a refreshing counterculture that truly wanted to give peace a chance, there’s no question that entertaining the idea of imagining all the people sharing all the world was…well, entertaining AF. I can’t help but wonder what could have been if more folks took seriously this notion of one love? Like, what if all the COINTELPRO officers decided to “turn on, tune in, and drop out,” blowing sick smoke rings in Hoover’s face as they vacated FBI headquarters? What if all the ICE officers did everyone a favor and abolished themselves? Moreover, what loving gestures can each of us take to conquer hate and bring some lovin’ here today? This is the question we need to be asking ourselves on a daily basis.

It’s becoming clear to me this is going to be a two-parter. Join me next month as we continue the timeline and highlight some local artists who aren’t afraid to speak truth to power through music. In the meantime, check out What’s Going On at Songwriter Sanctuary.

On Deck at Songwriter Sanctuary
Incredible artists on this month’s lineup – peep the links and don’t forget to RSVP!

April 25
Mandi Miller
Kaylee Daugherty
Brittany Taylor

All events hosted in partnership with/at Normal Heights United (4650 Mansfield Street San Diego, CA 92116). Special thanks to Duck Foot Brewing and our sister series Writers Round San Diego! More info/RSVP at tinyurl.com/songwriter-sanctuary-sd.

Thanks for Talkin’ Craft with me!