The Story Behind Woody Guthrie's This Machine Kills Fascists Guitar

May 2024 · 1 minute read

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In order to understand what compelled Guthrie to write "This machine kills fascists" on his guitar, it helps to understand fascists and fascism, and what was so upsetting about it to Guthrie in particular. As Live Science notes, fascism refers to an authoritarian government, often headed by a dictator, that promotes nationalism at all costs — for example, Benito Mussolini's Italy. However, the same site also notes that fascism is hard to define. It's entirely possible (and perhaps not unreasonable) to call a politician you don't like a "fascist," or a set of laws you don't like as "fascism." If you're a progressive who believes that capitalism makes the poor poorer and the rich richer, you might consider the capitalist system as fascist.

What does any of this have to do with Woody Guthrie? By the 1940s, he'd come to embrace progressive ideals, and in particular he was sympathetic to the poor and oppressed, as The Kennedy Center explains. With his lyrics and music opposing capitalism and oppression and supporting progressivism and the common man, Guthrie's guitar was "killing fascists."

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