What organization is antifa?

As the protests triggered by the death of George Freud swept across the United States, Trump and some government officials blamed the violent nature of the demonstrations on an organization called Antifa. Subsequently, Trump tweeted that Antifa would be included in the list of terrorist organizations.

Antifa, the full name of "anti-fascism", was born in Europe in 1930s, aiming at opposing Nazi, fascist and racist ideas prevailing at that time, and has been active ever since.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, German neo-Nazi organizations rose, and Antifa rose again in line with the situation. Every spring, on Hitler's birthday, German neo-Nazis organize a parade. As a counter-measure, German anti-Nazi groups launched anti-Nazi, accepting immigrants and refugees every May 1 day.

Most anti-FA organizations in the United States were born in the 1980s, with the main purpose of opposing racism. 2 1 century, Antifa almost disappeared in the United States, but after Trump came to power, this organization began to rejuvenate.

From August 2065438 to August 2007, in Charlottesville, Virginia, the local council intended to demolish the statue of robert lee, a Confederate general who supported slavery in the Civil War, which caused dissatisfaction among right-wing groups, and then launched the "Unite the Right" movement, including many white supremacy elements, neo-Nazis and Ku Klan supporters. Antifa took immediate action against them. In the process, a car crashed into the crowd at high speed, killing 1 person and injuring at least 19 person.

What is the origin of Trump's "Antifa" as a terrorist organization?

The Charlottesville Incident, 20 17, image source: CNN.

James anderson, the stationmaster of the news website "It's Going Down" organized by Antifa in the United States, once said that when the website was established in 20 15, the daily hits were only about 300 times. By mid-August of 20 17, after Trump took office, it had risen to 100000 to 20000 times a day.

Unlike the "organization" we usually understand, Antifa has no formal leadership and headquarters. As Mark Bray, the author of Antifa: A Handbook of Anti-Fascist Movement, said: Antifa can be an ideology, an identity, a tendency or a social environment, and it can also be a self-defense activity. Its organizational structure is very flat, developed by members of various left-wing groups-productism, anarchism, socialism, anti-racism and so on.

What is the origin of Trump's "Antifa" as a terrorist organization?

In 2020, a demonstrator wore the Antifa flag. Image source: The Nation.

The New Yorker introduced the book in the book review on 20 17, and some unknown details about the organization and movement of Antifa. The following is a translation, with some deletions:

The Secret History of "Anti-Fascist Movement"

(Antifa's intimate history)

Daniel Penny, born in new york, 2065438+August 22, 2007.

1October 4th, 1936, 10, thousands of zionists, socialists, Irish dockers, * * * party member-born, anarchists and many angry local residents gathered in the streets of east London to prevent Sir oswald mosley and his British fascist alliance from approaching the block.

This conflict was finally called the "Battle of Cable Street": anti-fascist demonstrators built roadblocks to stop more than 3,000 fascist "men in black" and 6,000 police officers from marching. Demonstrators detonated homemade bombs, threw glass marbles at the feet of mounted police horses, and even knocked down a burning truck to stop the parade.

Then, they kept throwing all kinds of things at the demonstrators and the police who protected them: stones, bricks, glass bottles and even urinals. Mosley and his men were forced to retreat as a last resort.

What is the origin of Trump's "Antifa" as a terrorist organization?

Battle of Kabul Street, 1936, image source: SHELDON KIRSHNER JOURNAL.

Mark Bray, a historian, regarded the Battle of Cabral Street as a powerful symbol to stop fascism in his book Antifa: A Handbook of Anti-Fashion Movement published by Melville House last week: a powerful and unified alliance surpassed fascists in number, which made their movement fail.

For many modern anti-fascist organizations, this incident is still a great story they relish, just like a Polaris in the struggle against fascism in white supremacy in Europe and even the United States. According to Bray, the "anti-fascist movement" can be an ideology, an identity, a tendency or a social environment, and it can also be a self-defense activity. "

This is a horizontal movement without leaders, rooted in various leftist reasons, such as materialism, anarchism and socialism.

During the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump as the new president of the United States (20 17), anti-fascist Antifa people set off a wave of activities to destroy other people's property. Since then, Antifa has appeared in the public eye more and more frequently-at that time, a masked man even attacked Richard Spencer of white supremacy.

In February, Milo Yiannopoulos, a right-winger, was scheduled to give a speech at the University of California, Berkeley, which was cancelled due to riots caused by demonstrators. In Charlottesville, Virginia, the white supremacist organization was scheduled to hold a rally of "Uniting the Right" in Jiefang Park, but many Antifa members blocked the entrance of the park with sticks. The conflict broke out-it is reported that many anti-fascist members sprayed a lot of chemicals and threw balloons filled with paint at the crowd.

Fox News reported that the White House received a petition calling for Antifa to be designated as a terrorist organization, with more than100000 signatures.

This book is rich in content: it is the first history book written in English about how the anti-fascist movement developed in different countries, and it is also a guidebook on how to become an anti-fascist activist. It is also an archive that summarizes the suggestions made by several organizers of the anti-fascist movement from ancient times to the present-Bray called this a writing project of "history, politics and operational theory".

Anti-fascist activists don't often speak in the media, but Bray is the organizer of the previous Occupy Wall Street movement and an open leftist. Not to mention whether Bray himself is also involved in Antifa, he does have close ties with related people in Antifa. Especially in the last chapters of this book, he describes in great detail how members of Antifa conceptualize their destructive and sometimes even violent behavior, which even makes people feel a little unusual.

Many liberals generally agree with Antifa's action goal, but criticize its action strategy for not being "free". In the latest issue of Atlantic Monthly, Peter Bainat talked about a series of events in Portland, Oregon. He wrote: "Those who prevent * * * and Republicans from holding a safe rally on the streets of Portland may think that they are staunch supporters of the struggle against American right-wing authoritarianism, but in fact, they are the most unreliable" (Beinert's article entitled "The Rise of the Violent Left").

However, Bray wrote in his book that anti-fascists believe that fascists deprive others of their rights through violence and intimidation, and at the same time give up their rights of speech and assembly. For example, last week, a local media tribune in North Dakota published a letter from Pierce Ford. In the letter, he mentioned a terrible quarrel with his son Peter. Shortly before Peter went to the rally in Charlottesville, he said to his father, "It's not that we fascists don't believe in freedom of speech. Say whatever you want. It's just that in the end we'll throw you into the stove. "

For members of Bray and Antifa, they are afraid of history repeating itself, but the government has not taken any measures to curb the spread of fascism, so they can only take action on their own. Bray pointed out that in history, Italy and Germany failed to control fascism at the national government level-fascism eventually seized power through legal means rather than violent revolution-and now it is almost the same. The alternative right wing flaunts its activities as defending freedom of speech, and fascism is gradually expanding under the tolerance and protection of liberals.

Antifa disagrees with John Milton that "truth speaks for itself in a free and open debate". Bray wrote in the book: "After Auschwitz and treblinka, anti-fascists will fight organized Nazis to the end and completely stifle their right to express any opinions."

In his book, Bray pointed out that "in the past generations, whenever extreme right violence arose, collective self-defense measures would appear accordingly, and this relationship lasted for a hundred years." One of Antifa's missions is to "continue this history". In the first half of the book, Bray introduces a brief history of the development of anti-fascist groups. From this perspective, Antifa originated from the leftists in Germany and Italy, who joined forces to fight against the earliest fascist groups after World War I.. In Italy, these leftists gathered under the banner of Arditi del Popolo ("Brave Organization"). In Weimar Republic, groups such as anti-fascist action (the origin of the name anti-fascist action and anti-FA) originated from the paramilitary forces of political parties.

After a brief introduction, Bray turned to write about the defeat of anti-fascism during the Spanish Civil War, and then wrote about the historical events in the second half of the twentieth century. By the end of 1970s, the open conflict between leftists and neo-Nazis became more and more tense, and the social environment at that time also influenced the styles and strategies of many anti-fascist movements.

In the Netherlands and Germany, a group of ultra-leftists named Autonomen took the lead in adopting the "black group" marching strategy, that is, wearing all-black clothes and wearing black masks, so that the marchers would not be prosecuted or retaliated afterwards. For the modern anti-fascist movement, Bray started with a pinstriped fascist like Helter Wilders, leader of the Dutch Liberal Party. He also wrote about the rise of new far-right parties and groups in Europe and the United States. This book covers many countries for decades, but there is not much analysis. Generally speaking, this book conveys a message that no matter where fascism appears, Antifa will fight it by any means.

In the second half of this book, the object of description is more focused and the content is more convincing, such as "Five historical lessons of anti-fascism" and "We've had enough of left-wing conservatives! There is no platform and freedom of speech. Here, Bray clearly analyzes the ideological and practical problems of Antifa: violence or nonviolence; People's activities or military activities; Target selection and strategy change. Bray admitted that sabotaging fascist assemblies and activities may be interpreted as infringing on others' freedom of speech and assembly rights. However, he argued that these protections for the rights to freedom of speech and assembly were originally designed to prevent the government from arresting ordinary people without reason, rather than preventing citizens from obstructing each other's freedom of speech.

Bray pointed out that in the United States, laws on "obscenity, incitement to violence, copyright infringement, censorship during war" and "restriction of prisoners" have restricted people's freedom of speech. Why not add another restriction like many European democracies, that is, to restrict hate speech? Those who have made the fallacy of landslide logically worry that Antifa will eventually attack anyone who opposes them just as it attacked fascism.

Bray said that historically, this fear will not come true: in Denmark, for example, anti-fascists either gradually withdrew from the historical stage after eradicating local hate groups, or turned their attention to other political goals instead of looking for new enemies. (Beinert also mentioned in an article published in Atlantic Monthly that "fascism gradually withered after World War II, and so did the anti-fascist movement." )

Bray insists that violence was not and is not Antifa's first choice-but it does not rule out the possibility of using violence. He quoted a Baltimore activist whose pen name was Murray to explain the prospect of the anti-fascist movement:

"Because you can write or call them, you don't need to use your fist; Because you can use fists, you don't need knives; You don't need a gun because you can use a knife; Because guns can be used, there is no need to use tanks. "

This idea of expected self-defense has its moral logic, but in any case, the evolution from writing letters to fighting with guns is still worrying. Charlottesville's right-wing militia declared that it would show its armed forces to the opposition, and this statement, according to reports, "made the law enforcement officers on the scene panic." Should the anti-fascists pick up the AR- 15 assault rifle when the right-wing forces are tense? In the current American environment, this statement is somewhat naive. After all, in reality, only white people hold guns in public places without worrying about police intervention.

In the book, Bailey mentions some anti-FA organizations that support guns, including the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, and another organization with an ironic name, which triggered the warning. Bailey disagreed with liberal scholars, including Erica Chenoweth and Maria J Stephen, who believed that violent activities could not win public support. But as far as this book is concerned, it is impossible to judge whether Bailey himself agrees with this emphasis on armed forces. This is not only a tactical and strategic issue, but also a moral issue, and it is impossible to judge whether he is worried about the escalation of violence.

As detailed in the previous chapters, the anti-fascist movement after the war mainly occurred in Europe, and both sides of the struggle often broke out and even stabbed each other to death. But there is no gun problem in the European battlefield. There are no assault rifles here, and the fighting in Kabul Street is just throwing stones.

What's the impact of the Battle of Cable Street? Scholars from all sides argue endlessly about this. After the battle, Sir Mosley, like other fascists of his time, was completely a law-abiding victim attacked by an immigrant army. In the following months, fascists attacked Jewish residents and shops in London, which was later called "Mile End genocide". And not long after, the results of the fascist British Federation in the 1937 poll were better than in previous years.

However, Bray believes that even if these events happened later, it will not affect the significance of the Battle of Cabral Street to future generations-it was because of the Battle of Cabral Street that an anti-fascist group was born. Whether in wartime or after the war, they are constantly fighting fascism, and their efforts have achieved great success.

After the Charlottesville incident, the public began to discuss what you should do when right-wing extremists come to your community. At least the British media will mention the Battle of Cable Street when reporting the protests and terrorism in this incident.

Personally, Bray thinks that we can take some "daily anti-fascist actions" to confront the diehards in a non-violent way, such as criticizing them, not patronizing their business, criticizing their oppressive ideas and not being friends with them. He believes that this can not only prevent fascists from marching in the streets, but also completely resist the spread of fascism from all aspects of daily communication. He wrote, "The future of the anti-fascist movement is-no disagreement with fascism is allowed, and no disagreement with fascism is allowed."