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Antifa (United States)

Antifa
CountryUnited States
Motives
IdeologyAnti-fascism
Anti-authoritarianism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-statism
Anti-Trumpism
Anarchism
Socialism
Communism
Political positionLeft-wing
Major actionsDirect action
Community organizing
Mutual aid
Harassment
Digital activism
Doxing
Picketing
Political violence
Protest marching
Rioting
Looting
StatusActive
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Antifa (/ænˈtiːfə, ˈæntifə/) 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 nonviolent direct action, incivility, or violence to achieve their aims.[1][2] Antifa political activism includes non-violent methods such as poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing.[3][4][5] Some who identify as antifa also use tactics involving digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage. Supporters of the movement aim to combat far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists.[6]

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,[7] although some social democrats also participate in the antifa movement.[5][8][9] The name antifa and the logo with two flags representing anarchism and communism are derived from the German antifa movement.[10] 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.[11][12]

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.[13] Both Democratic and Republican politicians have condemned violence from antifa.[14][15][16][17] Many right-wing politicians and groups have characterized antifa as a domestic terrorist organization or use antifa as a catch-all term[18] for any left-leaning or liberal protest actions.[19] Some scholars claim that antifa is a legitimate response to the rise of the far-right.[20][21] Scholars tend to reject an equivalence between antifa and right-wing extremism.[2][22][23][24] Research suggests that most antifa action is nonviolent.[25][26][27]

There have been numerous efforts to discredit antifa by various right-wing groups and individuals.[28][29] 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;[30][31][32] some hoaxes have been picked up and portrayed as fact by right-leaning media and politicians.[30][33][34][35] There were repeated calls by Donald Trump and William Barr to designate antifa as a terrorist organization.[36] Academics, legal experts, and others have argued such an action would exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the First Amendment.[37][38][39] Several analyses, reports, and studies have concluded that antifa is not a major domestic terrorism risk.[40][41][42]

  1. ^ LaFree, Gary (2018). "Is Antifa a Terrorist Group?". Society. 55 (3): 248–252. doi:10.1007/s12115-018-0246-x. ISSN 1936-4725. S2CID 149530376. In general, antifa falls on the less structured side of this continuum. It is not a highly organized entity. It has not persisted over time. There is little evidence of a chain of command or a stable leadership structure. To this point in time antifa seems to be more of a movement than a group.
  2. ^ a b Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas (July 2, 2019). "What Is Antifa? Explaining the Movement to Confront the Far Right". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 24, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
  3. ^ Gordon, Tim (October 1, 2020). "Here's what antifa is and its connection to Portland". KGW. NBC. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Beauchamp 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Sacco 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Antifa targets:
  7. ^ Ideology (academic sources):
    • Bray, Mark (2017). "Introduction". Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook. London: Melville House Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61219-703-6. In the United States, most [antifa groups] have been anarchist or antiauthoritarian since the emergence of modern antifa under the name Anti-Racist Action (ARA) in the late eighties.
    Ideology (news sources):
    • Cammeron, Brenna (August 14, 2017). "Antifa: Left-wing militants on the rise". BBC News. Archived from the original on May 21, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2017. Antifa is anti-government and anti-capitalist, and their methodologies are often perceived as more closely aligned with anarchists than the mainstream left.
    • Fuller, Thomas; Feuer, Alan; Kovaleski, Serge F. (August 17, 2017). "'Antifa' Grows as Left-Wing Faction Set to, Literally, Fight the Far Right". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 6, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2017. [...] the diverse collection of anarchists, communists and socialists has found common cause in opposing right-wing extremists and white supremacists.
    • Illing, Sean (August 25, 2017). "'They have no allegiance to liberal democracy': an expert on antifa explains the group". Vox. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2017. For the most part, these are pan-leftist groups composed of leftists of different stripes. They all seem to have different views of what they think the ideal social order looks like. Some of them are Marxists, some are Leninists, some are social democrats or anarchists.
    • Lozada, Carlos (September 1, 2017). "The history, theory and contradictions of antifa". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017. And its politics are not just negatory — they also aim to adapt "preexisting socialist, anarchist, and communist currents to a sudden need to react to the fascist menace.
    • Beinart, Peter (September 6, 2017). "The Rise of the Violent Left". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on August 13, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2017. Trump's rise has also bred a new sympathy for antifa among some on the mainstream left. 'Suddenly,' noted the antifa-aligned journal It's Going Down, 'anarchists and antifa, who have been demonized and sidelined by the wider Left have been hearing from liberals and Leftists, 'you've been right all along.' An article in The Nation argued that 'to call Trumpism fascist' is to realize that it is 'not well combated or contained by standard liberal appeals to reason.' The radical left, it said, offers 'practical and serious responses in this political moment.
    • "What is Antifa?". Al Jazeera. June 1, 2020. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2020. Anti-fascists of the movement tend to be grouped on the leftward fringes of the US political spectrum, many describing themselves as socialists, anarchists, communists or anti-capitalists.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Socialists, Anarchists, and Communists was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Beinart 2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Bray, Mark (2017). Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. New York: Melville House Publishing. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-61219-703-6. Archived from the original on October 7, 2022. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bray intro was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "Antifa violence is ethical? This author explains why". NBC News. Archived from the original on May 15, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  13. ^ Criticism:
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Pelosi Statement Condemning Antifa Violence in Berkeley was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fact check: Joe Biden has condemned Antifa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Relman 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wallace 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nguyen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Galofaro, Claire; Kunzelman, Michael (September 23, 2020). "Trump, social media, right-wing news stir up antifa scares". Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bray & Sycamore 2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Noam Chomsky was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Kivland, Chelsey (2017). "A Defense of the Charlottesville Counter-Protesters" (PDF). Anthropology News. Vol. 58, no. 5. pp. 94–99. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 7, 2021.
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference Beckett 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Vysotsky, Stanislav (2020). "2". American Antifa: The Tactics, Culture, and Practice of Militant Antifascism. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-21057-1. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved October 24, 2022 – via Google Books.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jaccoud was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference wsjLevy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference bray-wapo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ Haltiwanger, John. "Trump, Barr, and the GOP present antifa as a major threat in the US, but they're not killing people — unlike white supremacists". Business Insider. Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  29. ^ Wolfe, Jan (September 3, 2020). "U.S. Attorney General Barr says antifa 'flying around' U.S. to incite violence". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 10, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2020 – via www.reuters.com.
  30. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference GQ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  31. ^ Cite error: The named reference Far-right smear campaign against Antifa exposed by Bellingcat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference vice was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M.; Alba, Davey; Epstein, Reid J. (March 1, 2021). "How Pro-Trump Forces Pushed a Lie About Antifa at the Capitol Riot". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  34. ^ Feldman, Brian (August 21, 2017). "How to Spot a Fake Antifa Account". New York. Archived from the original on August 14, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  35. ^ Glaun, Dan (September 14, 2017). "Fake Boston Antifa group, which claimed credit for anti-racism banner at Red Sox game, is actually run by right wing trolls". The Republican. Archived from the original on August 14, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  36. ^ Peiser, Jaclyn (August 10, 2020). "'Their tactics are fascistic': Barr slams Black Lives Matter, accuses the left of 'tearing down the system'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  37. ^ Cite error: The named reference HabermanSavage was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  38. ^ Cite error: The named reference Perez was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  39. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bray 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  40. ^ Copsey, Nigel; Merrill, Samuel (2020). "Violence and Restraint within Antifa: A View from the United States". Perspectives on Terrorism. 14 (6): 122–138. ISSN 2334-3745. JSTOR 26964730.
  41. ^ Cite error: The named reference Swan 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  42. ^ Duran, Celinet (2021). "Far-Left versus Far-Right Fatal Violence: An Empirical Assessment of the Prevalence of Ideologically Motivated Homicides in the United States". Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society. 22: 1.

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