THE HISTORY OF ANTIFA-PRIMER OF ANARCHY

[carol ann parisi]

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE:

https://asunow.asu.edu/20200611-discoveries-antifa-101-primer-anarchy

ASU criminology instructor examines history, ideologies and demographics of complex and mostly unknown political group

Antifa just got promoted to the big leagues, courtesy of President Donald Trump.

Last week Trump tweeted his intention to designate the anti-fascist protest movement as a terrorist organiza... for its role in widespread riots, looting and vandalism across the country. Attorney General William Barr recently stated that Antifa and a few other bad actors “hijacked" the George Floyd protests and were widely responsible for the mayhem, hinting that arrests were forthcoming.

The shadowy group rose to prominence in 2017’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Its clash with white nationalists and neo-Nazis resulted in the vehicular murder of Heather Heyer. Since then, Antifa has generated an increasing amount of attention, but not much is known about the movement.

ASU Now consulted Charles Loftus, an instructor with Arizona State University’s School of Criminology who has more than three decades of law enforcement and counterterrorism experience, to dissect the group's roots and ideology and examine why it is now under the microscope of the federal law enforcement community.

Charles Loftus 

Question: Who is Antifa and when did they form?

Answer: The most recent resurrection of a group known as Antifa was during the WWII era. The group was formed to fight and overthrow fascist regimes such as Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany with communist forms of government. The term “antifa” is derived from “anti-fascist,” which some label as a misnomer because it seems like the label is deceptive in that a communist government is fascist as well. Italy completely annihilated the anti-fascists, and there was a lull after WWII until the past 20 to 30 years or so.

Q: What organization or group is the closest resemblance to Antifa and when did its current incarnation take hold in America?

A: The closest resemblance to Antifa America has seen is a group from the 1960s-‘70s known as the Weathermen. This particular group claimed to be anti-war and led many protests; they were connected to dozens of bombings in the United States. Even after the Vietnam War ended, the Weathermen continued bombings and admitted the war protest was not their true reason for the bombings; rather, they wanted to overthrow the American government. In the past 10 years, Antifa started to surface, resurrecting clip art and symbols from Antifa of 70 years ago — images such as the fist, red/white/black flags, etc. The Anti-Defamation League cites the 2017 Charlotte Unite the Right rally, where Antifa clashed with white supremacists as the birth of its most recent incarnation. 

Q: What are the demographics and ideology of Antifa?

A: Antifa seems to consist of young, college-age supporters of Marxism. There seems to be an Antifa chapter with most major colleges and universities, especially those with Young Democratic Socialists of America clubs. In my opinion, Antifa is attractive to individuals who are aspiring for a different form of government and an abolishment of free market society and capitalism. Their goal is to implement global communism. 

The Antifa groups consist of tech-savvy youth who can utilize instant, secure, global communications to their advantage, something about which the Weathermen could not even dream. The available tools of today provide any anarchist group a robust infrastructure that makes them agile and able to quickly respond; their sting can be very powerful, as we’ve seen in the past week. They have a decentralized structure and have seemed to copy the Al Qaeda-style of management where individual cells operate without direct links to leadership. 

Q: Donald Trump recently tweeted about potentially designating it as terrorist group. If that happened, what would that mean in terms of what the government can do to surveil and investigate them?

A: For the past 30 years, every agency within the American government has attempted to define terrorism and domestic terrorist groups, and every organization has a different definition. This is part of the challenge. In my opinion, Trump’s label is more for political posturing; however, there are some very potent tools the federal government can use against Antifa. These include racketeering and forfeiture statutes. The Ku Klux Klan was dealt a significant blow after the U.S. Department of Justice brought RICO complaints against several Klansmen, seized their assets and gave them to the mother of one of their victims.

In terms of the terrorism designation, the USA Patriot Act (would apply to the group). So, the government can start following the money and exploring communications. Who funds this group? Who pays for members to attend rallies and counter-protests across the country?  The government can now start tracking where the money comes from. Additionally, the U.S. attorney general has stated he intends to start releasing this information in the near future. If he does this, those of us outside the investigative circle will have a better idea of the financial backers and their agenda, which at this point has been mostly speculation.

Q: How did we get to this point, and what do we do about it?

A: Antifa as a group, even if it was an organized group, has the right to share their views and solicit supporters for global communism. Communism is not a new phenomenon in America; there were many communist organizations operating in the U.S. in the early 1900s. Providing Antifa a safe free-speech arena is part of the United States Constitution; however, the problem comes in if there is significant evidence that they are in fact an anarchist group rather than advocates. The difference here is that anarchists throw fire bombs while advocates shake fists and hold signs.