The Young Person’s Illustrated Guide to American Fascism by Sue Coe and Stephen F. Eisenman

Author Interview

For more than 50 years, Sue Coe has been at the forefront of art and social justice. She is a visual journalist who forces us to confront cruelty, suffering, prejudice, and exploitation regardless of whether it is toward people, animals, or the environment. But her compassion is always visible, showing us the way forward to live uncompromisingly as vegans. Her work is collected by some of the world’s preeminent museums and galleries. Her latest book, The Young Person’s Illustrated Guide to American Fascism, written with Stephen F. Eisenman, is published by OR Books in the United States. It will be available in the UK and elsewhere in the Spring of 2025. Welcome to the twenty-third in my series of interviews with authors of books about veganism and animal rights.

You were born in England but lived in the United States since the early 1970s, becoming an American citizen in 2012. A key theme in your work is a warning against the abuse of power. Do you think the rise of fascism in the United States and the election of Donald Trump as its 47th President was inevitable?

Good question. Historians will debate this. Fascism always exists as a constant back beat within human society. It sleeps next to us in bed. It’s our nice neighbor. It’s us when we choose palate pleasure over the life of another. The expression of fascism, in blaming the victim, feeds voraciously within structures of prisons, factory farms, all animal agriculture, the military industrial complex, and the control of the female. It is an engine within capitalism itself. An economy in place by force. The failure of the courts to immediately hold Trump accountable for Treason and inciting a violent insurrection was a crime itself. The legal system nibbled around the edges. Arresting the oil rags not the oil baron enablers.

The failure of the former Republican Party to hold Trump accountable for their own craven and cowardly reasons is a new low for those amongst them who could still feel shame. Politicians are bought and paid for in the USA. Their masters are fossil fuel companies and weapons manufacturers. The Lords of the media and algorithms maintained a neutral stance in treating fascism as election business as usual. Then, for their own greed of continued tax breaks, making them even more pliable, they were willing to kiss the hem of his robe.

Was this inevitable? No. Trump did not win by a landslide. He won by exploiting the rot within the political system. This rot has gone on for far too long. He was familiar with how the Bush family waged illegal wars and were never held accountable. He knew Clinton and Biden supported those wars. He understood just how weak the political system is and how feeble the ‘opposition’ was. The Supreme Court and the Electoral college were ripe for the picking. The struggle will continue, as nature demands homeostasis for systems to survive and function. The voter knows the system is rigged. It’s a choice between hard right capitalism and center right capitalism.

Among all the injustices you have represented, do you see a common denominator, a common ground, or any links between them? Is there anything at their root?

Yes, the exploitation and murder of nonhuman animals is the root. Leonardo da Vinci was clear about this, as he meticulously explored the natural world. What is the most common cry of human victims of violence?

“We are being treated like animals.”

Or

“We are not animals.”

We are animals. We are the factory farmed. The overlords should expect resistance, as all animals will resist.

You are an artist whose prolific work could be said to be the stuff of nightmares. Where do these images come from? Are they alive in your imagination, waiting for you to give them life? Or is it a creative process of experimentation before your vision is revealed?

I always believed that ignoring the injustice of how the innocent are treated is more of a nightmare than depicting it. I cannot think of anything worse than pretending there is nothing wrong with the mechanization of death resulting in the torture of trillions of animals every year.

Animals are our family. They are beautiful. Whether of fur, fin or feather. It doesn’t have to be this insane system of extraction and consumption for us to survive. We don’t need much to be happy, to be in awe of and curious about the world. We don’t need to own others.

I believe art can help. It’s medicine to the practitioner as well as the viewer. It can allow the observer to see through their own eyes and bring their unique history into seeing. Art has no right or wrong answers. We love patterns whether it’s the paths of firefly’s, stars shining that have long since ceased to exist, or how leaves make shadows on the ground. These are the patterns of the mystery of nature. How does a moth ‘see’ the world? How does an elephant ‘see’ with their trunk? An octopus has brain cells in their tentacles. We have the eye genes of fruit flies in our skin.

Who inspires you? I wonder if it is your rescued dogs who feature in your work. What have they taught you? Which artists do you admire? And why?

You were with me when I planned on having my first dog in New York in the 1990s. When I met you the second time, you had a tiny dog, Honey, in your jacket. Many funny moments ensued with her and then Annabelle and Bambino.

Sue with Bambino

I didn’t know anything about dogs and training them. I did read many books on this subject. I can’t even train myself despite sharing my home with many dogs. The latest, Marmite, has shredded three mattresses, five remotes, books, sheets, clothes, shoes, walls, doors, and my gutters—the things that dangle from roofs to collect rain. One day, I looked up and they were gone! Marmite had taken the runoff pipe, pulled it, taking the entire system down. She made a fort with it in the woods with my other dog, Badger. I found inside the fort my stuff they had stolen. It’s lucky I only wear crocs not vegan birks!

While this was impressive, I had to sit down with Marmite and talk about what she had done. She’s a scallywag but she’s talented for finding me when one of us is lost. Badger and Marmite inspire me every day. They make me laugh. They give me joy. They share with me the secret worlds they see.

Marmite

I admire so many artists. This would be a long list. I’m thrilled when I go to a museum and discover a new artist. Currently, I’m in a woodblock phase. Finding medieval woodblocks of animals is a wonder.

Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) is my number one inspiration this year. In 2012, Gary drove us to Bewick’s tiny home and print studio in Northumberland. That was so great! Woodblocks are stronger than metal, so one can get sharp prints from them forever. We saw a block being printed. Then William Hogarth (1697-1764) is, of course, equal to Bewick. In 2014, we both went to Sir John Soane’s Museum in London to see his Hogarth collection, including ‘The Four Stages of Cruelty.’ What brilliant artists! Bewick and Hogarth told stories with so much movement and truth in small blocks.

You are an uncompromising vegan animal rights abolitionist. Why?

The abolition of all animal use is an elegant clear call for nonviolence. I am a vegan because I have gone into many slaughterhouses around the world and drawn what I saw. I live next door to dairy farms. And under no circumstances is this cruelty and exploitation acceptable. It is morally and ethically repugnant. Animals cry in slaughterhouses. They cry being hooked and electrocuted, having their throats slashed, and being shot in the brain.

It’s the face of fascism. The desire for death is the face of fascism. It’s fascism to imprison animals in steel sheds and murder them. Its fascism to sexually abuse animals, restrain the female and degrade her, then take her children. The mother will chase the truck with her stolen calf until she drops from exhaustion. She cries for days in the hope her calf will hear her. A pig will struggle to keep her dead piglets above water when she herself is drowning. It’s fascism to destroy the homes of wild animals in forests, rivers, and oceans just so we can consume them Our survival is not dependent upon killing animals. Even if it was, it would still be morally wrong, perhaps understandable, but never acceptable, particularly for profit.

A few corporations are destroying all life on earth in front of our eyes. Time is speeding up. Time is running out. Science reports animal agriculture is a leading cause of global heating. The consequences are already present and terrible.

One thing in our power to do today is to go Vegan.