What is Antifa, a movement that President Trump wants to declare terrorist?

The United States was shocked by a video of how Flyd, unarmed, died last Monday during his arrest.

Police officer Derek Chauvin, who has already been charged with involuntary manslaughter, pressed the detained man’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Another video recently showed that up to three officials had pressed Flow’s neck.

This image has caused great outrage among Americans and fierce protests. It is true that in many places protests turned into riots and robberies: they burned buildings and cars, and deaths were inevitable in some cities.

General philosophy and tactics

And Trump, who initially described the protesters as “bandits,” soon brought ideologies to his tone and declared violence by ultra-leftists. He told Twitter that the United States plans to recognize Antifa as a terrorist.

“The violence perpetrated and incited by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the riots is internal terrorism. It will be assessed accordingly,” said United States Attorney General William Barr.

According to many commentators, Trump simply has to find something to blame for the protests in America’s cities, which are accompanied by a wave of violence.

However, critics point out that Antifa, a name that unites increasingly fragmented far-left and anti-fascist groups, is not even a well-structured organization that struggles to attribute terrorism to the lack of internal terrorism laws of the United States.

“Antifa”, an abbreviation of the word “antifascism”, is said to have no structure, no leader, no promises or membership fees. Experts are more inclined to talk about a movement whose supporters are united by common philosophy and tactics.

“Antifa” – short for “antifascism” – has no structure, no leader, no promises or membership fees.

In the United States, Antifa activists have only become more active in recent years, and the country paid more attention to them in 2017, when protests against the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville stormed.

Whose is Antifa?

As The New York Times points out, it is simply impossible to know how many people, at least approximately, consider themselves to belong to Antifa.

Activists themselves admit that the movement is relatively secretive, has no official leader or leaders, and operates on the basis of many different groups in different countries and cities.

Furthermore, in recent years, with the activation of the extreme right in the United States, there have been a large number of opposition movements throughout the United States and Western Europe. So much so that Antifa is not easy to distinguish from all of them.

Antifa speaks out against authoritarianism, homophobia, racism and xenophobia. Although the movement is not affiliated with other left-wing groups, which Antifa often criticizes, its members sometimes work with similar activists when protesting similar issues.

For example, Antifa members have participated in the Occupy movement, which is now seen in cities across the United States along with activists who repeat Black Lives Matter.

What are Antifa’s goals?

Activists of the movement say they want to prevent people who believe they are fascists, racists and extremists from having a platform from which to spread their hate speech.

The spread of such far-right ideas is said to marginalize racial minorities, women and members of the LGBT community.

“His argument is that militant anti-fascism is self-defense in its sense, because history shows that fascists pose a physical threat, especially to marginalized groups,” said Mark Bray, a history professor at Dartmouth College who Antifa wrote: The Anti-Fascit Handbook.

Antifa speaks out against authoritarianism, homophobia, racism and xenophobia.

Many Antifa organizers participate in community activities in complete peace. But, according to Bray, the violence is justified because “if racist or fascist groups are allowed to operate freely, there will be a physical danger to the selected communities.”

Antifa also often takes left-wing positions on economic issues, such as protesting against supposedly greedy corporations and the political elite.

“Antifa’s radical approach is being increasingly adopted by the moderate left.” They would not have considered such ideas before, because Antifa considered them the same enemies as the right, “said Scott Crow, a former activist for the movement.

How did the movement start?

The word “Antifa” was first used in English in 1946 and was borrowed from a German phrase to oppose Nazism.

However, the exact origins of the movement are unknown, although there are experts who speak of the Anti-Fascist Action group in the UK in the 1980s.

In the United States, Antifa has been vegetating or operating underground for a long time, and began penetrating after Trump’s victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when activists said right-wing extremists raised their heads too high.

Antifa activists are not easy to distinguish from other protesters, but they generally dress completely in black and hide their faces.

The name of the movement sounded even louder in 2017, during which protesters worked shoulder to shoulder against fascism. An event hit the famous activist named “alternative law” Richard Spencer.

At the University of California, Berkeley, activists have managed to cancel the performance of another well-known right-wing author, Milo Yiannopoulos. Eventually, a demonstration by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia turned into serious fighting.

Antifa activists are not easy to distinguish from other protesters, but they generally dress completely in black and hide their faces; Now that the coronavirus pandemic has ended, it is not difficult to do so, since wearing masks is highly recommended or mandatory.

Why does Antifa cause so much passion?

The group is seen with real controversy, as Antifa fights against extremist ideas not only through protests, but by destroying buildings. For example, in Berkeley in 2017, black-clad protesters threw Molotov cocktails, smashed windows, and similar images are not lacking yet.

According to Crow, who has been with Antifa for almost 30 years, activists call violence self-defense and do not consider destruction of property to be violence at all.

Moderate politicians and right-wing activists are outraged by this position. For example, Democratic President Nancy Pelosi condemned “the actions of people calling themselves Antifa” after the protests in California and called for her arrest.

Conservative media and politicians don’t like Antifa very much: the movement seeks to shut down the peaceful expression of right-wing views.

S. Crow: “We are going into conflict to silence those people, we do not believe that the Nazis or the fascists have the right to a platform.”

“The right will never be as dangerous as the extreme left. Those people talk about tolerance and love, but at the same time they threaten Americans with different points of view. We gather for our events and they chase and attack us. We ignore their events, ”complains white nationalist Peter Cvjetanovich, who saw the clashes in Charlottesville up close in 2017.

However, Crow does not back down and emphasizes that Antifa’s philosophy is based on the idea of ​​direct action: “The movement is based on Antifa going where the right goes. That hatred is not freedom of expression.

That if several people endanger their ideas and actions, they have no right to spread them. That is why we are going into conflict to silence those people: we do not believe that the Nazis or the fascists have a right to a platform. “

According to researchers at the University of Maryland, in 2010-2016, 53 percent. Terrorist attacks in the United States were carried out by religious extremists, 35 percent. the attacks were organized by right-wing extremists and 12 percent. left-wing extremists or environmentalists.