Tag Archives: antifa

‘The abbreviation “antifa” was sometimes used in Germany between the wars. Later, revolutionary socialist “Antifa committees” sprung up amidst the carnage of the end of World War II … The term gained its modern connotation through its use by German autonomous anti-fascists in the 1980s (especially in the late eighties).  In the United States, most antifa groups in the eighties, nineties, and early 2000s were part of the Anti-Racist Action Network. Beginning in the late 2000s … more American groups started calling themselves antifa … It wasn’t really until West Coast antifa shut down Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley, however, that the term gained the mainstream attention that it has now.’

“The problem with the antifa movement is that many of them are anarchists who don’t believe in organized institutions, so it is hard to tell what their beliefs are. Some of them believe that if the public sees that there are more anti-fascists than there are white supremacists, regular, fence-riding citizens won’t feel pressured to join the fascist movements out of popularity. Some of them believe in fighting fascism with education. And some of them believe that the only way to fight tyranny is with force.”