Combat Safetyism

Abstract

In a context of rising global fascism, Aotearoa/New Zealand has seen an emboldened far-right, led by the anti-queer Destiny Church. Writing as a collective of queer and trans scholars and activists, this article explores two case studies of anti-fascist organising, in response to Destiny Church’s attacks on queer communities and symbols in 2024 and 2025. It proposes a theory of anti-fascism based on mass politics. It analyses a barrier to this mass politics: safetyism. Safetyism refers to a politics that prioritises the immediate safety of protesters over the struggle for liberation and against fascism. The first case study, an attempted National Day of Action in 2024, was ultimately undone by safetyist logics. The article draws the key lessons from these experiences, including how time, structure and attempts at consensus can facilitate safetyist arguments. In the second case study, the article analyses how a different approach was taken to organise ‘Defying Destiny’. This approach attempted to pre-empt safetyism by relying on strong pre-existing relationships and organisational forms. Ultimately, the article contends that we need to combat safetyism, to build the anti-fascist movement to meet our current moment.