A Brief History of Antifa

Article author: 
Soeren Kern
Article publisher: 
Gatestone Institute
Article date: 
13 June 2020
Article category: 
Our American Future
Medium
Article Body: 
  • Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows that Antifa is, in fact, highly networked, well-funded and has a global presence. It has a flat organizational structure with dozens and possibly hundreds of local groups.
     
  • Antifa's stated long-term objective, both in America and abroad, is to establish a communist world order. In the United States, Antifa's immediate aim is to bring about the demise of the Trump administration.
     
  • A common tactic used by Antifa in the United States and Europe is to employ extreme violence and destruction of public and private property to goad the police into a reaction, which then "proves" Antifa's claim that the government is "fascist."...

U.S. Attorney General William Barr... said that the federal government has evidence that Antifa "hijacked" legitimate protests around the country to "engage in lawlessness, violent rioting, arson, looting of businesses, and public property assaults on law enforcement officers and innocent people, and even the murder of a federal agent."...

What is Antifa?

Antifa can be described as a transnational insurgency movement that endeavors, often with extreme violence, to subvert liberal democracy, with the aim of replacing global capitalism with communism. Antifa's stated long-term objective, both in America and abroad, is to establish a communist world order....

Antifa claims to oppose "fascism," a term it often uses as a broad-brush pejorative to discredit those who hold opposing political beliefs. The traditional meaning of "fascism" as defined by Webster's Dictionary is "a totalitarian governmental system led by a dictator and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism, militarism, and often racism."

Antifa holds the Marxist-Leninist definition of fascism which equates it with capitalism....

Matthew Knouff, author of An Outsider's Guide to Antifa: Volume II, explained Antifa's ideology this way:

"The basic philosophy of Antifa focuses on the battle between three basic forces: fascism, racism and capitalism — all three of which are interrelated according to Antifa.... with fascism being considered the final expression or stage of capitalism, capitalism being a means to oppress,

Antifa's Ideological Origins

The ideological origins of Antifa can be traced back to the Soviet Union roughly a century ago....

In Germany, the Communist Party of Germany established the paramilitary group Roter Frontkämpferbund (Red Front Fighters League) in July 1924.... In Spain, the Communist Party established the Milicias Antifascistas Obreras y Campesinas (Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias), which were active in the 1930s....

Related

"Antifa" - International Brownshirts and Soldiers of the European and American Left, by Collin McMahon in Germany, Gateway Pundit, June 6, 2020

The Real History of Antifa, by Kyle Shideler, American Mind, June 3, 2020:

Europe’s Antifa History Should Serve as a Warning to America, by Chris Tomlinson, Breitbart, June 4, 2020:

Fascism - a phenomenon of the left, CAIRCO research:

Democrats Embrace the Four Stages of Ideological Subversion, by John Hayward, Breitbart, June 6, 2020.

Seattle’s CHAZ Is Straight from the European Antifa Playbook, by Chris Tomlinson, Breitbart, June 15, 2020.