Rise of militant anti-fascist movements that began in Europe in the 1920s and Current Anti-fascist movements
Recently, the US had witnessed anti-fascists demonstrations at the University of California, Berkeley. The anti-fascists held demonstrations to prevent the university from providing a platform for a far right speaker Gavin McInnes who is known for his anti-immigrant rhetoric. Eventually, the speaker was evicted from the campus before he could deliver his lecture.
What is Antifa?
The present day anti-fascist movements have their humble beginning from militant anti-fascist movements which sprang up in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. The anti-fascist movements are generally anti-capitalist, anti-racist and anti-authoritarian. They usually lack an official leader. The Antifa is comprised of loosely knit semi-autonomous individuals who work for the abolition of racism, capitalism and authoritarianism.
Functioning of Antifa
In 2016, the United States Department of Homeland Security has classified the actions of the Antifa activists as “domestic terrorist violence”. The Antifa activists deploy a set of tactics and practices that have been developed since the early 20th century. These activists have the habit of taking direct, physical action against all of those who disagree with their agenda. In the United States, the Antifa activists have become increasingly confrontational. The Antifa movement combines radical left-wing and anarchist politics, opposes racists, sexists, anti-Semites, and Islamophobes. The main essential feature of Antifa movements is they do not tolerate Fascism.
Further, the likelihood of violence between Antifa and white supremacists is ever increasing in the United States. The main tactics of Antifa activists is Black bloc tactics. Under this tactics, the protesters dress all in black try to hide their face with masks and usually come armed with baseball bats and rocks to initiate fights. In addition, they also set fires and smash windows in the neighbourhood.
The Antifa activists truly believe that their actions protect and save vulnerable people from harm. They are against those regimes that commit genocide, slavery etc.
What are the reasons behind current anti-fascist movements?
The present day Antifa movements in the US have their genesis in the policies of President Trump. The Antifa activists dislike Trump supporters who are mostly white supremacists or nationalists. Antifa activists are angry over President Trump’s overarching nationalistic and anti-minority agenda. According to an estimate of the Southern Poverty law Centre, around 900 separate incidents of bias and violence against immigrants, African Americans, women, LGBT, Muslims and Jews have been registered after the electoral victory of Trump in November 2016.
Background
Anti-fascist movements have their origin to the emergence of European fascism in the 1920s. From their inception, these movements included a broad range of left-wing individuals: anarchists, socialists, communists and others ideologically opposed to fascism. In 1924, Germany’s Red Front Fighters’ League was one among the first organization to engage in fights with Nazis. They have a long history that dates back to fighting Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts in the 1920s and then Adolf Hitler’s Brownshirts in Munich.
More or less after establishing full control over Germany, the Nazis arrested and executed many leaders of that organization. The rest of the leaders of the organization fled to some other countries like Spain to continue their fight against fascism. The Antifa’s believed in the logic of direct confrontation against the fascists. It was eminent in the writings of the prominent leftists. In 1934, Whither France in his book had argued for the creation of workers’ militias to confront the rise of fascism. In 1936, a group of communists, anarchists, Jewish and Irish groups confronted British fascist Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts who tried to march through Jewish and Irish communities in East London. That event is commemorated as the ‘Battle of Cable Street’. It is remembered as a symbol of people’s victory against fascism.
In the United States, anti-fascism dates back to the growth of racist groups in 1980s. The Anti-Racist Action (ARA) established in 1988 in Minneapolis was one of the first organised anti-fascist networks in the US. The main aim of ARA is to eliminate racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia and to create a free and cashless society.
The Antifa groups educate their own supporters, train them with self-defence and disrupt far-right recruitment drives. They try to publicly expose police officers and people in power having connection with white supremacists. They also work at the level of grassroots to provide support and spaces for undocumented people in homes, places of worship, and works for safeguarding the rights of prisoners.
Criticism
Criticizers argue that the anti-fascist movement is self-destructive and are wrong in principle. The Antifa activists are also accused of using black bloc tactics. They are also condemned for attacking ordinary Americans who are entitled to express their own views. Though in democracies everybody is entitled to express their opinion, violence in any form should be condemned.
