antifa is not just one group it is several. take alook
Antifa (United States)
Antifa (/ænˈtiːfə, ˈæntifɑː/)[1] is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It is highly decentralized and comprises an array of autonomous groups that aim to achieve their objectives through the use of both nonviolent and violent direct action rather than through policy reform.[2][3][4] Much of antifa political activism is nonviolent, involving poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, delivering speeches, marching in protest, and community organizing.[5][6][7] They also engage in protest tactics, seeking to combat fascists and racists such as neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other far-right extremists, and differing from other leftist opposition movements by their willingness to directly confront far-right activists, and in some cases law enforcement.[3] This may involve digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage against those whom they identify as belonging to the far right.[8]
Individuals involved in the movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-state views, subscribing to a range of left-wing ideologies such as anarchism, communism, Marxism, social democracy, and socialism.[9] The name antifa and the logo with two flags representing anarchism and communism are derived from the German antifa movement.[10] Antifa activists actions have received support and criticism from various organizations and pundits, with some on the American Left criticizing antifa for its willingness to adopt violent direct actions and for being counterproductive or backfiring by emboldening the right and their allies.[11] Part of the right characterizes it as a domestic terrorist organization or uses antifa as a catch-all term[12] for any left-leaning or liberal protest actions.[13] Some scholars argue that antifa is a legitimate response to the rise of the far right[14] and that antifa's violence such as milkshaking is not equivalent to right-wing violence.[4] Scholars tend to reject the equivalence between antifa and white supremacism.[3][15][16]
There have been multiple efforts to discredit antifa groups via hoaxes on social media, many of them false flag attacks originating from alt-right and 4chan users posing as antifa backers on Twitter.[17][18][19] Some hoaxes have been picked up and reported as fact by right-leaning media.[17][20][21] During the George Floyd protests in May and June 2020, the Trump administration blamed antifa for orchestrating the mass protests; analysis of federal arrests did not find links to antifa.[22] There have been repeated calls by Donald Trump and William Barr to designate antifa as a terrorist organization[23] despite the fact that it is not an organization, a move that academics, legal experts, and others argue would exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the First Amendment.[24][25][26] Several analyses, reports, and studies concluded that antifa is not a major domestic terrorism risk and ranked far-right extremism and white supremacy as the top domestic risk.[16][27][28]
Overview
Etymology and use
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.[29][30][31] The German word Antifa itself first appeared in 1930 and the long form antifaschistisch was borrowed from the original Italian anti-Fascisti ("anti-fascists" .[29] 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."[30]
The Anti-Defamation League states 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.[32] 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."[33]
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.[12] Conservative writers such as L. Brent Bozell III labeled Black Lives Matter as "antifa" .[12] Politico reported that "the term [antifa] is a potent one for conservatives" because " t'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."[12] 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."[12]
Ideology
Individuals involved in the antifa movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian,[34] anti-capitalist,[35][36] anti-fascist,[37] and anti-state views,[38] subscribing to a varied range of left-wing ideologies.[39] A majority of adherents are anarchists, communists, and other socialists who describe themselves as revolutionaries,[40] although some social democrats and others on the American Left,[38] among them environmentalists, LGBT and indigenous rights advocates,[7] also adhere to the antifa movement.[40] According to 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."[38] Antifa 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[3][41] and militant.[37][42][43] 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."[38]
According to historian Mark Bray, an expert on the movement,[44] 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."[45] Described as a pan-leftist and non-hierarchical movement,[40] antifa is united by opposition to right-wing extremism and white supremacy.[37][46] Antifa activists reject both conservative and liberal anti-fascism.[46][47][48] The antifa movement generally eschews mainstream liberal democracy,[40] having "an illiberal disdain for the confines of mainstream politics",[49] and favoring direct action over electoral politics.[37][46] Bray states that " he 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.[49] Despite antifa's opposition to the Democratic Party and liberalism, some right-wing commentators have accused their adherents of being aided by "liberal sympathizers"[50] and "affiliated with the Democratic Party"[49] as well as being "a single organization", "funded by liberal financiers like George Soros", "mastermind[ing] violence at Black Lives Matter protests", and that "Antifascists are the 'real fascists'", with Bray citing these as examples of five myths about antifa.[49]
The Anti-Defamation League states that "[m]ost 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."[32] Similarly, Bray argues that " t'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."[40] ABC News notes that "[w]hile antifa's political leanings are often described as 'far-left,' experts say members' radical views vary and can intersect with communism, socialism and anarchism."[51] 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."[52] The BBC notes that, "as their name indicates, Antifa focuses more on fighting far-right ideology than encouraging pro-left policy."[37] Beinart argues that the election of Donald Trump vitalized the antifa movement and some on the mainstream left were more willing to support them as a tactical opposition.[38]
Movement structure
ovement structureAntifa is not a unified organization but rather a movement without a hierarchical leadership structure, comprising multiple autonomous groups and individuals.[32][40][45][53] The movement is loosely affiliated[37] 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."[26] 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."[26] Bray adds that " t'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."[54] For Bray, " he 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."[54] 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."[54]
Activists typically organize protests via social media and through websites.[55] Some activists have built peer-to-peer networks, or use encrypted-texting services like Signal.[56] Chauncey Devega of Salon described antifa as an organizing strategy, not a group of people.[57] 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."[58] 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."[59]
The antifa movement has grown since the 2016 United States presidential election. As of August 2017, approximately 200 groups existed, of varying sizes and levels of activity.[60] It is particularly present in the Pacific Northwest,[61] such as in Portland, Oregon.[62]
read in full a lot of information here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_(United_States)
Antifa (United States)
Antifa (/ænˈtiːfə, ˈæntifɑː/)[1] is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It is highly decentralized and comprises an array of autonomous groups that aim to achieve their objectives through the use of both nonviolent and violent direct action rather than through policy reform.[2][3][4] Much of antifa political activism is nonviolent, involving poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, delivering speeches, marching in protest, and community organizing.[5][6][7] They also engage in protest tactics, seeking to combat fascists and racists such as neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other far-right extremists, and differing from other leftist opposition movements by their willingness to directly confront far-right activists, and in some cases law enforcement.[3] This may involve digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage against those whom they identify as belonging to the far right.[8]
Individuals involved in the movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-state views, subscribing to a range of left-wing ideologies such as anarchism, communism, Marxism, social democracy, and socialism.[9] The name antifa and the logo with two flags representing anarchism and communism are derived from the German antifa movement.[10] Antifa activists actions have received support and criticism from various organizations and pundits, with some on the American Left criticizing antifa for its willingness to adopt violent direct actions and for being counterproductive or backfiring by emboldening the right and their allies.[11] Part of the right characterizes it as a domestic terrorist organization or uses antifa as a catch-all term[12] for any left-leaning or liberal protest actions.[13] Some scholars argue that antifa is a legitimate response to the rise of the far right[14] and that antifa's violence such as milkshaking is not equivalent to right-wing violence.[4] Scholars tend to reject the equivalence between antifa and white supremacism.[3][15][16]
There have been multiple efforts to discredit antifa groups via hoaxes on social media, many of them false flag attacks originating from alt-right and 4chan users posing as antifa backers on Twitter.[17][18][19] Some hoaxes have been picked up and reported as fact by right-leaning media.[17][20][21] During the George Floyd protests in May and June 2020, the Trump administration blamed antifa for orchestrating the mass protests; analysis of federal arrests did not find links to antifa.[22] There have been repeated calls by Donald Trump and William Barr to designate antifa as a terrorist organization[23] despite the fact that it is not an organization, a move that academics, legal experts, and others argue would exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the First Amendment.[24][25][26] Several analyses, reports, and studies concluded that antifa is not a major domestic terrorism risk and ranked far-right extremism and white supremacy as the top domestic risk.[16][27][28]
Overview
Etymology and use
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.[29][30][31] The German word Antifa itself first appeared in 1930 and the long form antifaschistisch was borrowed from the original Italian anti-Fascisti ("anti-fascists" .[29] 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."[30] The Anti-Defamation League states 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.[32] 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."[33]
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.[12] Conservative writers such as L. Brent Bozell III labeled Black Lives Matter as "antifa" .[12] Politico reported that "the term [antifa] is a potent one for conservatives" because " t'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."[12] 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."[12]
Ideology
Individuals involved in the antifa movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian,[34] anti-capitalist,[35][36] anti-fascist,[37] and anti-state views,[38] subscribing to a varied range of left-wing ideologies.[39] A majority of adherents are anarchists, communists, and other socialists who describe themselves as revolutionaries,[40] although some social democrats and others on the American Left,[38] among them environmentalists, LGBT and indigenous rights advocates,[7] also adhere to the antifa movement.[40] According to 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."[38] Antifa 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[3][41] and militant.[37][42][43] 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."[38]
According to historian Mark Bray, an expert on the movement,[44] 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."[45] Described as a pan-leftist and non-hierarchical movement,[40] antifa is united by opposition to right-wing extremism and white supremacy.[37][46] Antifa activists reject both conservative and liberal anti-fascism.[46][47][48] The antifa movement generally eschews mainstream liberal democracy,[40] having "an illiberal disdain for the confines of mainstream politics",[49] and favoring direct action over electoral politics.[37][46] Bray states that " he 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.[49] Despite antifa's opposition to the Democratic Party and liberalism, some right-wing commentators have accused their adherents of being aided by "liberal sympathizers"[50] and "affiliated with the Democratic Party"[49] as well as being "a single organization", "funded by liberal financiers like George Soros", "mastermind[ing] violence at Black Lives Matter protests", and that "Antifascists are the 'real fascists'", with Bray citing these as examples of five myths about antifa.[49]
The Anti-Defamation League states that "[m]ost 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."[32] Similarly, Bray argues that " t'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."[40] ABC News notes that "[w]hile antifa's political leanings are often described as 'far-left,' experts say members' radical views vary and can intersect with communism, socialism and anarchism."[51] 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."[52] The BBC notes that, "as their name indicates, Antifa focuses more on fighting far-right ideology than encouraging pro-left policy."[37] Beinart argues that the election of Donald Trump vitalized the antifa movement and some on the mainstream left were more willing to support them as a tactical opposition.[38]
Movement structure
ovement structureAntifa is not a unified organization but rather a movement without a hierarchical leadership structure, comprising multiple autonomous groups and individuals.[32][40][45][53] The movement is loosely affiliated[37] 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."[26] 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."[26] Bray adds that " t'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."[54] For Bray, " he 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."[54] 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."[54]
Activists typically organize protests via social media and through websites.[55] Some activists have built peer-to-peer networks, or use encrypted-texting services like Signal.[56] Chauncey Devega of Salon described antifa as an organizing strategy, not a group of people.[57] 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."[58] 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."[59]
The antifa movement has grown since the 2016 United States presidential election. As of August 2017, approximately 200 groups existed, of varying sizes and levels of activity.[60] It is particularly present in the Pacific Northwest,[61] such as in Portland, Oregon.[62]
read in full a lot of information here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_(United_States)
1
