Subject: A history lesson of walking out against fascists
https://lucid.substack.com/p/t...

As readers of Lucid know, I follow events in the United States with an eye to their resonance with the past and present of global authoritarianism. So it has been with the temporary out-of-state relocation by Texas Democrats to stall the passage of a Texas GOP redistricting plan.

Texas is a testing ground for an authoritarian future in which being part of the political opposition becomes a criminal act. But it is also a laboratory for resistance, as the actions of Texas Democrats show.

It that brings to mind an episode of unprecedented collective action to rid Italy of tyrant Benito Mussolini as he accelerated his lawless actions.

This was the Aventine Secession (named after an ancient Roman revolt). In the summer of 1924, over 120 opposition politicians abandoned Parliament to protest Fascist election rigging and Prime Minister Mussolini’s coverup of his role in the murder of Socialist party leader and member of parliament Giacomo Matteotti. They met instead on the Aventine Hill in Rome.