Who are ANTIFA?

If you are embarrassed to be asking this question, be reassured that prior to 2020 I myself had never heard of ANTIFA.

So, I’m about to take you on my journey of discovery.

What does ANTIFA stand for?

Wiki describes it as an ANTI-FAscist, left-wing political movement, that believes in achieving their objectives by direct action rather than political reform.

So, lets look at that. Left wing ideology is intrinsically linked to being ant-fascist and this in itself makes it difficult for me to understand the issue so many have with ANTIFA.

After all, wiki explains that fascism they’re against is represented by Nazism, white supremacy and far-right extremism.

Again, I fail to see the problem with this. All three of the ideologies preach annihilation of black people, gay people and the Jewish. What am I missing here?

Did the UK and US not wage war against the Nazis for these very reasons?

Well, as it turns out, ANTIFA actually started in Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s as a movement to fight fascism, which had grown under Mussolini’s rule. In those days ANTIFA was a white organisation.

The movement was big in Germany, but they faced opposition from both the left wing and the right wing.
Of course, we all know of what transpired in 1939. The Second World War and the Nazi party. Already you can start to links to our present day and what could potentially occur by demonising ANTIFA in the future.

So, why is there so much animosity towards them now?

Well, in the 1980’s ANTIFA re-emerges as a mixed organisation of blacks and whites in the UK, where they confronted skin-head white supremacists.

It also emerged in the US around the same time, where black people would confront Neo-Nazis.

What transpired in the US was the process of ANTIFA being demonised by the press and the politicians.

ANTIFA disappeared from the media, although there were still anti-racist meetings and education in both nations. That was, until the summer of 2020 when Donald Trump blamed ANTIFA for the the protests against police brutality towards African-Americans.

It wouldn’t be the only time that Trump has re-tweeted far right propaganda, which makes it difficult to believe,
This hopefully explains what ANTIFA stands for and who they are. I recently heard a white Southerner state over social media, that white supremacist organisations represent superiority and the hate of black people in
America, whilst all the black people are protesting for is equality.