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On May 1, 1925, with Mussolini already in power, a group of Italian intellectuals publicly denounced Mussolini’s fascist regime in an open letter.

The signatories – scientists, philosophers, writers, and artists – took a stand in support of the essential tenets of a free society: the rule of law, personal liberty, and independent thinking, culture, art, and science. Their open defiance to the brutal imposition of the fascist ideology – at great personal risk – proved that opposition was not only possible, but necessary.

Today, a hundred years later, the threat of fascism is back – and so we must summon that courage and defy it again.

Fascism emerged in Italy a century ago, marking the advent of modern dictatorship. Within a few years, it spread across Europe and the world, taking different names but maintaining similar forms. Wherever it seized power, it undermined the separation of powers in the service of autocracy, silenced opposition through violence, took control of the press, halted the advancement of women’s rights, and crushed workers’ struggles for economic justice.

Inevitably, it permeated and distorted all institutions devoted to scientific, academic, and cultural activities. Its cult of death exalted imperial aggression and genocidal racism, triggering the Second World War, the Holocaust, the death...