Antifa (United States)

Antifa () is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It consists of a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups that use both nonviolent direct action and violence to achieve their aims. Most antifa political activism is nonviolent, involving poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also combat far-right extremists (such as neo-Nazis and white supremacists) and, at times, law enforcement, with tactics including digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage.

Individuals involved in the movement subscribe to a range of left-wing ideologies, and tend to hold anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-state views. A majority of individuals involved are anarchists, communists, and socialists who describe themselves as revolutionaries, and have little allegiance to liberal democracy, although some social democrats also participate in the antifa movement. The name ''antifa'' and the logo with two flags representing anarchism and communism are derived from the German antifa movement. Dartmouth College historian Mark Bray, author of '' Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook'', credits Anti-Racist Action (ARA) as the precursor of modern antifa groups in the United States.

The American antifa movement grew after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016. Antifa activists' actions have since received support and criticism from various organizations and pundits. Some on the political left and some civil rights organizations criticize antifa's willingness to adopt violent tactics, which they describe as counterproductive and dangerous, arguing that these tactics embolden the political right and their allies. Both Democratic and Republican politicians have condemned violence from antifa. Many right-wing politicians and groups have characterized antifa as a domestic terrorist organization or use ''antifa'' as a catch-all term for any left-leaning or liberal protest actions. Some scholars claim that antifa is a legitimate response to the rise of the far-right. Scholars tend to reject the equivalence between antifa and right-wing extremism.Kivland, Chelsey (2017)
"A Defense of the Charlottesville Counter‐Protesters"
. ''Anthropology News''. 58 (5): 94–99.

There have been numerous efforts to discredit antifa by various right-wing groups and individuals. Some have been done via hoaxes on social media, many of them false flag operations originating from alt-right and 4chan users posing as antifa backers on Twitter; some hoaxes have been picked up and portrayed as fact by right-leaning media and politicians. There were repeated calls by Donald Trump and William Barr to designate antifa as a terrorist organization despite the fact that it is not an organization. Academics, legal experts, and others have argued such an action would exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the First Amendment. Several analyses, reports, and studies have concluded that antifa is not a major domestic terrorism risk.

Definition

The English word ''antifa'' is a loanword from the German ''Antifa'', where it is a shortened form of the word ''antifaschistisch'' ("anti-fascist") and a nickname of ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' (1932–1933), a short-lived group which inspired the wider antifa movement in Germany. The German word ''Antifa'' itself first appeared in 1930 and the long form ''antifaschistisch'' was borrowed from the original Italian ''anti-Fascisti'' ("anti-fascists"). Oxford Dictionaries placed ''antifa'' on its shortlist for word of the year in 2017 and stated the word "emerged from relative obscurity to become an established part of the English lexicon over the course of 2017."

The pronunciation of the word in English is not settled as it may be stressed on either the first or the second syllable.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recommends that the label ''antifa'' should be limited to "those who proactively seek physical confrontations with their perceived fascist adversaries" and not be misapplied to include all anti-fascist counter-protesters. Journalist Conor Friedersdorf makes a distinction between "self-described members of the group" and "anyone who shows up in the streets to protest against fascists", arguing that "Antifa and antifascism are no more synonymous than being a member of Black Lives Matter and believing that black lives matter."

During the Trump administration, the term ''antifa'' became "a conservative catch-all" term as Donald Trump, administration officials, Trump base supporters, and right-wing commentators applied the label to all sorts of left-leaning or liberal protest actions. Conservative writers such as L. Brent Bozell III labeled Black Lives Matter as "antifa". ''Politico'' reported that "the term 'antifa''is a potent one for conservatives" because " 's the violent distillation of everything they fear could come to pass in an all-out culture war. And it's a quick way to brand part of the opposition." Alexander Reid Ross, who teaches at Portland State University, argues that the popularization of the term ''antifa'' was a reaction to the popularization of the term '' alt-right'', "to the point where 'antifa''simply describes people who are anti-fascist or people who are against racism and are willing to protest against it."

Movement structure and ideology

Antifa is not a unified organization but rather a movement without a hierarchical leadership structure, comprising multiple autonomous groups and individuals. The movement is loosely affiliated and has no chain of command, with antifa groups instead sharing "resources and information about far-right activity across regional and national borders through loosely knit networks and informal relationships of trust and solidarity." According to Mark Bray, "members hide their political activities from law enforcement and the far right" and "concerns about infiltration and high expectations of commitment keep the sizes of groups rather small." Bray adds that " 's important to understand that antifa politics, and antifa's methods, are designed to stop white supremacists, fascists, and neo-Nazis as easily as possible." For Bray, " e vast majority of their activities are nonviolent. They function in some ways like private investigators; they track neo-Nazi organizing across multiple social-media platforms." In regard to doxing, Bray says that it is about "telling people that they have a Nazi living down the street, or telling employers that they're employing white supremacists", adding that "after Charlottesville, a lot of the repercussions that these khaki-wearing, tiki-torch white supremacists faced were their employers firing them and their families repudiating what they do."

Activists typically organize protests via social media and through websites. Some activists have built peer-to-peer networks, or use encrypted-texting services like Signal. Chauncey Devega of '' Salon'' described antifa as an organizing strategy, not a group of people. According to one group member, antifa's identification research on whether an individual or group is "fascist, Alt Right, White Nationalist, etc." is "based on which groups they are a part of and endorse." While noting that "Nazis, fascists, white nationalists, anti-Semites and Islamophobes" are specific overlapping categories, the main focus is "on groups and individuals which endorse, or work directly in alliance with, white supremacists and white separatists. We try to be very clear and precise with how we use these terms." According to Colin Clarke and Michael Kenney, direct actions such as anti-Trump protests, demonstrations against the alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and the clash with neo-Nazis and white supremacists at the Unite the Right rally "reflects many Antifa supporters' belief that Trump is a fascist demagogue who threatens the existence of America's pluralistic, multi-racial democracy. This factor helps explain why such Antifa supporters are so quick to label the president's 'Make America Great Again' supporters as fascists — and why Trump is so quick to label Antifa as a terrorist organization."

The antifa movement grew after the 2016 United States presidential election. As of August 2017, approximately 200 groups existed, of varying sizes and levels of activity. It is particularly present in the Pacific Northwest, such as in Portland, Oregon.

Individuals involved in the antifa movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, and anti-state views, subscribing to a varied range of left-wing ideologies. A majority of adherents are anarchists, communists, and other socialists who describe themselves as revolutionaries, although some social democrats and others on the American Left, among them environmentalists, LGBT and indigenous rights advocates, also adhere to the antifa movement. According to professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, Peter Beinart, "antifa is heavily composed of anarchists" and "its activists place little faith in the state, which they consider complicit in fascism and racism." Antifa activists' ideologies, as well as their involvement in violent actions against far-right opponents and the police has led some scholars and news media to characterize the movement as '' far-left'' and '' militant''.

In his article "The Rise of the Violent Left" for ''The Atlantic'', Beinart writes that antifa activists "prefer direct action: They pressure venues to deny white supremacists space to meet. They pressure employers to fire them and landlords to evict them. And when people they deem racists and fascists manage to assemble, antifa's partisans try to break up their gatherings, including by force." According to historian Mark Bray, an expert on the movement, the "vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent. But their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes them from liberal anti-racists."

Described as a pan-leftist and non-hierarchical movement, antifa is united by opposition to right-wing extremism and white supremacy. Antifa activists reject both conservative and liberal anti-fascism. The antifa movement generally eschews mainstream liberal democracy, having "an illiberal disdain for the confines of mainstream politics", and favoring direct action over electoral politics. Bray states that " e vast majority of antifa militants are radical anti-capitalists who oppose the Democratic Party" and that Democratic Party leaders, including Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, have condemned antifa and political violence more broadly. Despite antifa's opposition to the Democratic Party and liberalism, some right-wing commentators have accused their adherents of being aided by "liberal sympathizers" and "affiliated with the Democratic Party" as well as being "a single organization", "funded by liberal financiers like George Soros", "mastermind ngviolence at Black Lives Matter protests", and that "Antifascists are the 'real fascists'", with Bray citing these as examples of five myths about antifa.

The ADL states that " st antifa come from the anarchist movement or from the far left, though since the 2016 presidential election, some people with more mainstream political backgrounds have also joined their ranks." Similarly, Bray argues that " 's also important to remember that these are self-described revolutionaries. They're anarchists and communists who are way outside the traditional conservative-liberal spectrum." ABC News notes that " ile antifa's political leanings are often described as 'far-left,' experts say members' radical views vary and can intersect with communism, socialism and anarchism." According to CNN, "Antifa is short for anti-fascists. The term is used to define a broad group of people whose political beliefs lean toward the left -- often the far left -- but do not conform with the Democratic Party platform." The BBC
...