Who are the Anti-Fascists?
What is AntiFa and What do they Want?
The Anti-Fascists are a group of individuals that share a similar opposition to fascism in any shape or form including, but not restricted to, Nazism. They are often referred to as AntiFa.
What do the Anti-Fascists Believe?
AntiFa stand against all forms of fascism. Aside from this central opposition, there is no primary or central philosophic or ideological theory that AntiFa maintains as a whole. Some members of AntiFa are anarchists; others are communists. There are also socialists, social democrats, libertarians, republicans, democrats, Marxists, and many others. Anyone can be AntiFa so long as they oppose fascism.
Philosophically, AntiFa is a “negative” philosophy while fascism is a “positive” philosophy. A negative philosophy stands in opposition, or seeks to negate, another philosophy, movement, or ideology while a positive philosophy seeks to create, build, or expand an ideology or movement. AntiFa is opposed to fascist philosophies, movements, and ideologies. Fascist philosophies seek to expand fascist ideology amongst a populus in order to seize political power over that populus.
Each individual is responsible for choosing their own praxis and holds true to their own personal theoretical principles. There is no metanarrative or doctrine that all members must believe. All are free to believe and act as they see fit either alone or with groups of others.
(Image Source - Michael Nigro / Pacific Press)
How do the Anti-Fascists Organize?
There is no central organization, leadership, or hierarchy within AntiFa, except as groups organized under the banner determine for themselves. As such, many AntiFa groups can exist simultaneously with each possessing different manners of organization. AntiFa “Leaders” are determined by those who choose to be led and do not possess any titles, positions, or power status above others. They are typically temporary and appear organically rather than through determined structures.
There are no rules, regulations, or laws governing the activity of AntiFa except those determined by individuals acting together in ways and for purposes defined for that group. AntiFa groups may form and disband over periods of hours, days, weeks, months, or years. At the completion of an action, AntiFa may disband temporarily or permanently; they may also determine a new action and maintain their activity for as long as is necessary to accomplish the primary objective.
Each AntiFa group determines that primary objective. Objectives may be local or global, confined to a determined time and space or unrestricted temporally and spatially. There is nearly no restriction on what AntiFa can be or what they might do; the only truism of Anti-Fascist ideology and activity is that each member identifying as such is opposed to fascism.
Is AntiFa a Peaceful or Violent Movement?
AntiFa uses various tactics in their battle against fascism including black bloc operations, acts of peaceful civil disobedience, vandalism, public assembly, and militant violence among others. Individuals or groups may choose to use violence as a tactic or to remain peaceful throughout the action. They may also use both depending on circumstance and situation.
Though AntiFa does not include a specified hierarchy or define positions for groups, many choose to include a medic among its members. These medics are typically instructed to serve the injured AntiFa members and others who are not allied with AntiFa as well.
Violence is often a tactic of fascists. In Nazi ideology, acts of violence are seen as the primary means to gaining political power. To counter their uses of violence, AntiFa has assembled and continues to assemble a militant membership that advocates for violence as a last solution to be used only when the fascist enemy has first engaged violence against a populous.
(Street Medics are a key component of keeping people safe and treating those in immediate need.)
(Image Source - ItsGoingDown.org)
What is Fascism?
There is no single form of fascism or definition that encompasses all forms of fascism; however, there are several elements that are common to most fascist ideologies and movements. These include:
A governmental authoritarianism in which a leader or group of leaders assumes absolute or near-absolute control over a nation or group of nations and their economies
An ideology that advocates for the supremacy of a determined group of people (e.g. the Aryan Race in Nazi ideology)
Explicit expressions and actions directed toward the eradication of a group of people based on their racial, religious, ethnic, national, or other demographic characteristics (e.g. genocidal war, the Nazi’s attempts to exterminate the Jewish people based on their ethno-religious heritage)
General uses of violence against those defined as enemies
Terrorist tactics meant to invoke panic and fear
Mythologies and histories created to promote the ideological principles and desired actions of a group of fascists or those ruled underneath a fascist regime
Sophisticated uses of propaganda and spreading of misinformation against their defined enemies
Explicit definitions of who their enemies are and the use of these peoples or groups of peoples as scapegoats for economic, political, or social problems facing a nation (e.g. the Nazis using the Jews as a scapegoat for the economic depression following World War I in Germany when the real problem was caused by the Treaty of Versailles)
(A scene from a 1932 Antifaschistische Aktion conference.)
(Image Source - Jacobinmag.com)
Wherever you may fall on the political spectrum, you should be against dangerous, fascist rhetoric. We have seen what this can lead to. Never again means never again for anyone anywhere.
(Article by Alexander Fred, TRBT Editorial Staff)