Anti-fascism: Difference between revisions

[[Dartmouth College]] historian Mark Bray, author of ''[[Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook]]'', credits the ARA as the precursor of modern antifa groups in the United States. In the late 1980s and 1990s, ARA activists toured with popular punk rock and skinhead bands in order to prevent [[Klansmen]], neo-Nazis and other assorted white supremacists from recruiting.<ref>{{cite news|last=Stein|first=Perry|date=August 16, 2017|title=Anarchists and the antifa: The history of activists Trump condemns as the 'alt-left'|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-antifa-history-20170816-story.html|access-date=November 10, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Snyders|first=Matt|date=February 20, 2008|title=Skinheads at Forty|url=http://www.citypages.com/2008-02-20/feature/skinheads-at-forty/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120803021740/http://www.citypages.com/2008-02-20/feature/skinheads-at-forty/|archive-date=August 3, 2012|access-date=July 29, 2012|newspaper=City Pages}}</ref> Their motto was "We go where they go" by which they meant that they would confront [[far-right]] activists in concerts and actively remove their materials from public places.<ref name="bray-wapo">{{cite news|last=Bray|first=Mark|date=August 16, 2017|title=Who are the antifa?|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/08/16/who-are-the-antifa/|access-date=November 10, 2017|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> In 2002, the ARA disrupted a speech in Pennsylvania by [[Matthew F. Hale]], the head of the white supremacist group [[World Church of the Creator]], resulting in a fight and twenty-five arrests. In 2007, [[Rose City Antifa]], likely the first group to utilize the name antifa, was formed in [[Portland, Oregon]].<ref name="bogelburroughs2">{{cite news|last=Bogel-Burroughs|first=Nicholas|date=July 2, 2019|title=What Is Antifa? Explaining the Movement to Confront the Far Right|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/us/what-is-antifa.html|access-date=July 13, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Sacco 20202">{{cite web|last=Sacco|first=Lisa N.|date=June 9, 2020|title=Are Antifa Members Domestic Terrorists? Background on Antifa and Federal Classification of Their Actions InFocus IF10839|url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10839|access-date=September 9, 2020|publisher=Congressional Research Service}} Updated June 9, 2020.</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Bogel-Burroughs|first1=Nicholas|last2=Garcia|first2=Sandra E.|date=September 28, 2020|title=What Is Antifa, the Movement Trump Wants to Declare a Terror Group?|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-antifa-trump.html|access-date=October 1, 2020|quote=One of the first groups in the United States to use the name was Rose City Antifa, which says it was founded in 2007 in Portland.}}</ref> Other antifa groups in the United States have other genealogies. In 1987 in [[Boise, Idaho]], Thethe Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment (NWCAMH) was created in response to the Aryan Nation's annual meeting near [[Hayden Lake, Idaho]]. The NWCAMH brought together over 200 affiliated public and private organizations, and helped people, across six states--Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.<ref>{{cite web |title=One America - Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment |url=https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/Initiatives/OneAmerica/Practices/pp_19980803.17134.html |website=The White House |access-date=27 February 2024}}</ref> In [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]], a group called the Baldies was formed in 1987 with the intent to fight neo-Nazi groups directly. In 2013, the "most radical" chapters of the ARA formed the [[Torch Antifa Network]]<ref>{{cite news|last=Enzinna|first=Wes|date=April 27, 2017|title=Inside the Underground Anti-Racist Movement That Brings the Fight to White Supremacists|newspaper=Mother Jones|url=http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/anti-racist-antifa-tinley-park-five/|access-date=September 9, 2020}}</ref> which has chapters throughout the United States.<ref>{{cite news|last=Strickland|first=Patrick|date=February 21, 2017|title=US anti-fascists: 'We can make racists afraid again'|agency=Al-Jazeera|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/anti-fascists-racists-afraid-170221100950730.html|access-date=September 9, 2020}}</ref> Other antifa groups are a part of different associations such as NYC Antifa or operate independently.<ref>{{cite news|last=Lennard|first=Natasha|date=January 19, 2017|title=Anti-Fascists Will Fight Trump's Fascism in the Streets|newspaper=The Nation|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/anti-fascist-activists-are-fighting-the-alt-right-in-the-streets/|access-date=September 9, 2020|archive-date=15 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815183536/https://www.thenation.com/article/anti-fascist-activists-are-fighting-the-alt-right-in-the-streets/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Modern antifa in the United States is a highly [[decentralized]] movement. Antifa [[political activists]] are [[anti-racists]] who engage in [[protest]] tactics, seeking to combat [[fascists]] and [[racists]] such as [[neo-Nazis]], [[white supremacists]], and other [[far-right]] [[extremists]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Clarke|first1=Colin|last2=Kenney|first2=Michael|date=23 June 2020|title=What Antifa Is, What It Isn't, and Why It Matters|url=https://warontherocks.com/2020/06/what-antifa-is-what-it-isnt-and-why-it-matters/|access-date=June 26, 2020|website=War on the Rocks|quote=[...] Antifa, a highly decentralized movement of anti-racists who seek to combat neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and far-right extremists whom Antifa's followers consider 'fascist' [...].}}</ref> This may involve [[digital activism]], [[harassment]], [[physical violence]], and [[property damage]]<ref name="SLPC June 2020">{{cite web|date=June 2, 2020|title=Designating Antifa as Domestic Terrorist Organization Is Dangerous, Threatens Civil Liberties|url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/06/02/designating-antifa-domestic-terrorist-organization-dangerous-threatens-civil-liberties|access-date=September 8, 2020|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center}}</ref> against those whom they identify as belonging to the far-right.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kaste|first1=Martin|last2=Siegler|first2=Kirk|date=June 16, 2017|title=Fact Check: Is Left-Wing Violence Rising?|newspaper=NPR.org|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/06/16/533255619/fact-check-is-left-wing-violence-rising|access-date=August 15, 2017|agency=NPR}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Maida|first=Adam|date=January 16, 2018|title=Meet Antifa's Secret Weapon Against Far-Right Extremists|newspaper=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/story/free-speech-issue-antifa-data-mining/|access-date=November 13, 2018}}</ref> MuchSome antifa activity is nonviolent, involving poster and flyer campaigns, delivering speeches, marching in protest, and community organizing on behalf of anti-racist and anti-[[white nationalist]] causes.<ref name="Beauchamp 2020">{{cite news|last=Beauchamp|first=Zack|date=June 8, 2020|title=Antifa, explained|website=Vox|url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/6/8/21277320/antifa-anti-fascist-explained|access-date=June 12, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Sacco 20202"/>

There have been multiple efforts to discredit antifa groups via hoaxes on social media, many of them [[false flag]] attacks originating from [[alt-right]] and [[4chan]] users posing as antifa backers on [[Twitter]].<ref name="vice">{{cite news|date=September 28, 2017|title=A Fake Antifa Account Was 'Busted' for Tweeting from Russia|agency=Vice News|url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59dwed/a-fake-antifa-account-was-busted-for-tweeting-from-russia-vgtrn|access-date=September 11, 2018}}</ref><ref name="bbc">{{cite news|date=August 24, 2017|title=Far-right smear campaign against Antifa exposed by Bellingcat|agency=BBC|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41036631|access-date=July 20, 2022}}</ref> Some hoaxes have been picked up and reported as fact by right-leaning media.<ref>{{cite news|last=Feldman|first=Brian|date=August 21, 2017|title=How to Spot a Fake Antifa Account|newspaper=New York|url=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/08/how-to-spot-a-fake-antifa-account.html|access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref><ref name="masslive">{{cite news|last=Glaun|first=Dan|date=September 14, 2017|title=Fake Boston Antifa group, which claimed credit for anti-racism banner at Red Sox game, is actually run by right wing trolls|newspaper=The Republican|url=https://www.masslive.com/news/2017/09/fake_boston_antifa_group_who_c.html|access-date=August 14, 2019}}</ref>

During the [[George Floyd protests]] in May and June 2020, the [[Trump administration]] blamed antifa for orchestrating the mass protests. Analysis of federal arrests did not find links to antifa.<ref name="nytimes_antifa">{{cite news|last1=Feuer|first1=Alan|last2=Goldman|first2=Adam|last3=MacFarquhar|first3=Neil|date=June 11, 2020|title=Federal Arrests Show No Sign That Antifa Plotted Protests|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/us/antifa-protests-george-floyd.html|access-date=June 11, 2020|quote=Despite claims by President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr, there is scant evidence that loosely organized anti-fascists are a significant player in protests. [...] A review of the arrests of dozens of people on federal charges reveals no known effort by antifa to perpetrate a coordinated campaign of violence. Some criminal complaints described vague, anti-government political leanings among suspects, but a majority of the violent acts that have taken place at protests have been attributed by federal prosecutors to individuals with no affiliation to any particular group.}}</ref> There had been repeated calls by the Trump administration to designate antifa as a terrorist organization,<ref>{{cite news|last=Peiser|first=Jaclyn|date=August 10, 2020|title='Their tactics are fascistic': Barr slams Black Lives Matter, accuses the left of 'tearing down the system'|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/10/barr-fox-antifa-blm/|access-date=August 10, 2020}}</ref> a move that academics, legal experts and others argued would both exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the [[First Amendment]].<ref name="HabermanSavage">{{cite news|last1=Haberman|first1=Maggie|last2=Savage|first2=Charlie|date=May 31, 2020|title=Trump, Lacking Clear Authority, Says U.S. Will Declare Antifa a Terrorist Group|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/politics/trump-antifa-terrorist-group.html|access-date=June 13, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Perez">{{cite web|last1=Perez|first1=Evan|last2=Hoffman|first2=Jason|date=May 31, 2020|title=Trump tweets Antifa will be labeled a terrorist organization but experts believe that's unconstitutional|website=[[CNN]]|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/trump-antifa-protests/index.html|access-date=June 13, 2020|agency=CNN}}</ref><ref name="Bray 2020">{{cite news|last=Bray|first=Mark|date=June 1, 2020|title=Antifa isn't the problem. Trump's bluster is a distraction from police violence|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/01/trump-antifa-terrorist-organization/|access-date=June 8, 2020}}</ref>