Anti-fascism: Difference between revisions

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{{use American English|date=May 2020}}

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'''Anti-fascism''' is a [[political movement]] in opposition to [[fascist]] ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during [[World War II]], where the [[Axis powers]] were opposed by many countries forming the [[Allies of World War II]] and dozens of [[resistance movement]]s worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as [[anarchism]], [[communism]], [[pacifism]], [[republicanism]], [[social democracy]], [[socialism]] and [[syndicalism]] as well as [[centrist]], [[conservative]], [[Liberalism|liberal]] and [[nationalist]] viewpoints.

 

Michael Seidman argues that traditionally anti-fascism was seen as the purview of the [[political left]] but that in recent years this has been questioned. Seidman identifies two types of anti-fascism, namely revolutionary and counterrevolutionary:<ref name="Seidman 2017"/>

* Counterrevolutionary anti-fascism was much more conservative in nature, with Seidman arguing that Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill represented examples of it and that they tried to win the masses to their cause. Counterrevolutionary antifascists desired to ensure the restoration or continuation of the prewar old regime and conservative antifascists disliked fascism's erasure of the distinction between the public and private spheres. Like its revolutionary counterpart, it would outlast fascism once the Second World War ended.

 

 

=== United Kingdom: against Mosley's BUF ===

 

There were debates within the anti-fascist movement over tactics. While many East End ex-servicemen participated in violence against fascists,<ref>{{cite book |last=Jacobs |first=Joe |title=Out of the Ghetto |location= London |publisher=Phoenix Press |year=1991 |orig-year=1977 |url=http://libcom.org/tags/joe-jacobs}}</ref> Communist Party leader [[Phil Piratin]] denounced these tactics and instead called for large demonstrations.<ref>Phil Piratin ''Our Flag Stays Red''. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2006.</ref> In addition to the militant anti-fascist movement, there was a smaller current of liberal anti-fascism in Britain; Sir [[Ernest Barker]], for example, was a notable English liberal anti-fascist in the 1930s.<ref>Andrezj Olechnowicz, 'Liberal anti-fascism in the 1930s the case of Sir Ernest Barker', ''Albion'' 36, 2005, pp. 636–660</ref>

[[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]], the 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>

 

 

A June 2020 study by the [[Center for Strategic and International Studies]] of 893 terrorism incidents in the United States since 1994 found one attack staged by an anti-fascist that led to a fatality (the [[2019 Tacoma attack]], in which the attacker, who identified as an anti-fascist, was killed by police), while attacks by white supremacists or other right-wing extremists resulted in 329 deaths.<ref name="Beckett 2020">{{cite web |last1=Lois |first1=Beckett |title=Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/27/us-rightwing-extremists-attacks-deaths-database-leftwing-antifa |website=The Guardian|date=27 July 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Jones|first=Seth G.|date=June 4, 2020|title=Who Are Antifa, and Are They a Threat?|url=https://www.csis.org/analysis/who-are-antifa-and-are-they-threat|access-date=September 4, 2020|publisher=Center for Strategic and International Studies}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Pasley|first=James|title=Trump frequently accuses the far-left of inciting violence, yet right-wing extremists have killed 329 victims in the last 25 years, while antifa members haven't killed any, according to a new study|website=Business Insider|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/right-wing-extremists-kill-329-since-1994-antifa-killed-none-2020-7|access-date=October 6, 2020}}</ref> Since the study was published, one [[Killings of Aaron Danielson and Michael Reinoehl|homicide]] has been connected to anti-fascism.<ref name="Beckett 2020"/> A [[United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security|DHS]] draft report from August 2020 similarly did not include "antifa" as a considerable threat, while noting white supremacists as the top domestic terror threat.<ref name="Swan 2020">{{cite news|last=Swan|first=Betsy Woodruff|author-link=Betsy Woodruff Swan|date=September 4, 2020|title=DHS draft document: White supremacists are greatest terror threat|newspaper=Politico|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/04/white-supremacists-terror-threat-dhs-409236|access-date=September 5, 2020}}</ref>