Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2025 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 77, printed December 11. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Summer/Fall 2025 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

This Nov. 20th will mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg Trials, in which leading members of the Nazi Party were held accountable for their war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. The trials lasted nearly a year and established the principle that individuals could be prosecuted for such crimes.

Now, eight decades after the defeat of fascism, that horrific political phenomenon, along with other forms of right-wing authoritarianism, is again emerging in countries around the globe.

While many governments are guilty of moving their countries in this direction, those with the most power to inflict pain and suffering must bear the greatest responsibility – starting with the most powerful country, the United States.

While we don’t have a true fascist movement in the U.S. – the massive marches and rallies that have taken place throughout this year have been in opposition to the Trump administration, not in support of it – the present administration is systematically dismantling what has passed as democracy here.

In pursuit of his anti-worker, pro- billionaire agenda, Trump has ignored the law, even the foundational Constitution. He has pardoned the people who on Jan. 6, 2021, carried out a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has deployed National Guard members and Border Patrol agents to major cities under the pretext of fighting crime.

And, like all fascist regimes, he has sought to whip up hatred against people of color, particularly those who have come to the U.S to seek a better life after their own countries have been devastated by U.S. foreign policy.

Very few people who lived through the fascist period of the 1930s and ‘40s are still alive today. The collective memory has faded, and the right wing has attempted to present fascist ideas as a legitimate political view like any other.

The 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials can be one way to remind people of the horrors of fascism, as well as the fact that those who commit war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, can one day find themselves the object of universal justice, with the resulting consequences.

Hopefully, people of good faith will usethis opportunity to rekindle an understanding of the severe dangers of fascism and authoritarianism and organize against it. Good will is important, but effective actions must follow.