Daily Verse | Job 40:2
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”
Happy Wednesday, Broadsiders. I’ve caught you in the middle of something.
Last year I had the opportunity to write an essay about Antifa for Salvo magazine that was subsequently published in the Winter 2020 issue. I’m pleased to present it here in two parts.
Part I explores the history of Antifa. Where did it come from and what is it? Tomorrow in Part II I’ll explain why it’s important to understand this movement and showcase their most recent offense at the time of writing.
This article first appeared in Salvo #55.
Background:
Shortly after Donald J. Trump became president in 2017, the term “Antifa” entered the United States’ consciousness and lexicon. While most of us have heard of Antifa, many of us don’t understand what it is, where it came from, or why it’s here.
The word “Antifa” is short for “anti-fascist” or “anti-fascism.” Fascism is “a political philosophy, movement, or regime . . . that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”1 The word “fascism” comes from the Latin fasces, which means “bundles.” In ancient Rome, fasces of sticks or rods bound together with an ax became the symbol of a magistrate’s power and authority, and Benito Mussolini, the founder of Italian fascism, adopted this emblem when he became dictator of Italy in 1925.
Antifa then sprang up as a far-left, militant reaction to Mussolini, and later, to Germany’s Adolph Hitler. The Antifaschistische Aktion was the paramilitary arm of the German Communist Party, which opposed Hitler’s National Socialist Party, i.e., the Nazis.
Following World War II and the defeat of the Axis powers, fascist governments collapsed across Europe, but ideologically related movements lived on. It wasn’t until the 1980s, however, that militant anti-fascism re-emerged. It came to the U.S. in the late 1980s and 1990s, using the original abbreviated name of Antifa, and over time evolved into its modern incarnation.
Ideologically, today’s Antifa defines itself as allowing “no platform for fascism,” meaning that it aims to keep its opponents from having a public voice. So it shows up at public rallies, college campus lectures, and similar gatherings to confront and squelch the fascism it purports to find there. Populated by a variety of revolutionaries (e.g., Marxists, anarchists, and social democrats) who “don’t feel constrained by conventional norms,”2 Antifa embraces direct action, using violent tactics to force change, rather than working peacefully for policy reform.
Antifa is not, however, a national organization with a recognized formal leadership (unlike Black Lives Matter, for instance). This has led some politicians and opinion leaders, seizing FBI Director Christopher Wray’s statement that Antifa is “not a group or an organization,” but “a movement or an ideology,”3 to minimize it as no more than an “idea.” But Wray also said that the FBI has observed Antifa individuals “coalescing regionally into what you might describe as small groups, or nodes,” which the agency has been “actively investigating.”4
So Antifa is an ideology, yes, but an ideology expressing itself through a loose affiliation of individuals and groups that engage in “militant street activism.”5 And although there is no national structure, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any organization. Indeed, it has not gone unnoticed that “in city after city, the tactics, banners, clothing, weaponry, etc. [of Antifa activists] have been virtually identical.” Moreover, the “lasers, explosives, military helmets, protective gloves, body armor, and other deadly weaponry” used by “local protesters” don’t pop up out of nowhere. “Someone selects them, orders them, pays for them, and delivers them.”6
Journalist Andy Ngô, himself a victim of Antifa violence, is aware of several Antifa groups, among them: Rose City Antifa (Portland, Oregon); Antifa Seven Hills (Richmond, Virginia); Antifa Sacramento (California); Atlanta (Georgia) Antifascists; and the Youth Liberation Front (mainly on the West Coast, but also with chapters in the Midwest and the Carolinas). “There are many, many antifa groups,” Ngô writes. “And they are violent.”7 They also often network together at the regional or national level, and use social media to coordinate their actions. That’s why we hear individuals describe themselves as members of Antifa.
Notes: Part I
1. Merriam-Webster (as of Oct. 16, 2020).
2. Vox (June 1, 2020):msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/antifa-explained/ar-BB14T80j.
3. Quoted in National Review (Oct. 1, 2020): nationalreview.com/corner/fbi-director-wray-didnt-call-antifa-an-idea-he-called-it-a-movement-or-ideology.
4. Ibid.
5. Loren Balhorn, “The Lost History of Antifa,” Jacobin (May 8, 2017): jacobinmag.com/2017/05/antifascist-movements-hitler-nazis-kpd-spd-germany-cold-war.
6. Brian Camenker, “The Riots: More Questions than Answers,” American Thinker (Sept. 17, 2020): americanthinker.com/articles/2020/09/the_riotsd_more_questions_than_answers_on_the_riots_.html.
7. Andy Ngô (Sept. 29, 2020): https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1311128023085625344.