Ubiquitous
2020-08-05 01:05:01 UTC
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16104/antifa-history
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."
Antifa is not only officially tolerated, but is being paid by the
German government to fight the far right. Bettina Röhl, German
journalist, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 2, 2020.
"Out of cowardice, its members cover their faces and keep their names
secret. Antifa constantly threatens violence and attacks against
politicians and police officers. It promotes senseless damage to
property amounting to vast sums." Bettina Röhl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
June 2, 2020.
: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." Pictured: A senior citizen flees
:after being brutally beaten by members of Rose City Antifa on June 29,
:2019 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Moriah Ratner/Getty Images)
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has blamed Antifa a militant
"anti-fascist" movement for the violence that has erupted at George
Floyd protests across the United States. "The violence instigated and
carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the
rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly," he
said.
Barr also 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." Earlier, U.S. President Donald J.
Trump had instructed the U.S. Justice Department to designate Antifa as
a terrorist organization.
Academics and media outlets sympathetic to Antifa have argued that the
group cannot be classified as a terrorist organization because, they
claim, it is a vaguely-defined protest movement that lacks a
centralized structure. Mark Bray, a vocal apologist for Antifa in
America and author of the book "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,"
asserts that Antifa "is not an overarching organization with a chain of
command."
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. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Justice is currently
investigating individuals linked to Antifa as a step to unmasking the
broader organization.
In the United States, Antifa's ideology, tactics and goals, far from
being novel, are borrowed almost entirely from Antifa groups in Europe,
where so-called anti-fascist groups, in one form or another, have been
active, almost without interruption, for a century.
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. In the United States, Antifa's immediate aim
is to bring about the demise of the Trump administration.
Antifa's nemeses include law enforcement, which is viewed as enforcing
the established order. 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."
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. "The fight against fascism is only won when the
capitalist system has been shattered and a classless society has been
achieved," according to the German Antifa group, Antifaschistischer
Aufbau München.
Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency, in a special report on
left-wing extremism, noted:
"Antifa's fight against right-wing extremists is a smokescreen.
The real goal remains the 'bourgeois-democratic state,' which,
in the reading of left-wing extremists, accepts and promotes
'fascism' as a possible form of rule and therefore does not
fight it sufficiently. Ultimately, it is argued, 'fascism' is
rooted in the social and political structures of 'capitalism.'
Accordingly, left-wing extremists, in their 'antifascist'
activities, focus above all on the elimination of the
'capitalist system.'"
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, and racism being an
oppressive mechanism related to fascism."
In an essay, "What Antifa and the Original Fascists Have In Common,"
Antony Mueller, a German professor of economics who currently teaches
in Brazil, described how Antifa's militant anti-capitalism masquerading
as anti-fascism reveals its own fascism:
"After the left has pocketed the concept of liberalism and
turned the word into the opposite of its original meaning,
the Antifa-movement uses a false terminology to hide its true
agenda. While calling themselves 'antifascist' and declaring
fascism the enemy, the Antifa itself is a foremost fascist
movement.
"The members of Antifa are not opponents to fascism but
themselves its genuine representatives. Communism, Socialism
and Fascism are united by the common band of anti-capitalism
and anti-liberalism.
"The Antifa movement is a fascist movement. The enemy of this
movement is not fascism but liberty, peace and prosperity."
Antifa's Ideological Origins
The ideological origins of Antifa can be traced back to the Soviet
Union roughly a century ago. In 1921 and 1922, the Communist
International (Comintern) developed the so-called united front tactic
to "unify the working masses through agitation and organization" ...
"at the international level and in each individual country" against
"capitalism" and "fascism" two terms that often were used
interchangeably.
The world's first anti-fascist group, Arditi del Popolo (People's
Courageous Militia), was founded in Italy in June 1921 to resist the
rise of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party, which itself was
established to prevent the possibility of a Bolshevik revolution on the
Italian Peninsula. Many of the group's 20,000 members, consisting of
communists and anarchists, later joined the International Brigades
during the Spanish Civil War (193639).
In Germany, the Communist Party of Germany established the paramilitary
group Roter Frontkämpferbund (Red Front Fighters League) in July 1924.
The group was banned due to its extreme violence. Many of its 130,000
members continued their activities underground or in local successor
organizations such as the Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus (Fighting-
Alliance Against Fascism).
In Slovenia, the militant anti-fascist movement TIGR was established in
1927 to oppose the Italianization of Slovene ethnic areas after the
collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The group, which was disbanded
in 1941, specialized in assassinating Italian police and military
personnel.
In Spain, the Communist Party established the Milicias Antifascistas
Obreras y Campesinas (Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias), which
were active in the 1930s.
The modern Antifa movement derives its name from a group called
Antifaschistische Aktion, founded in May 1932 by Stalinist leaders of
the Communist Party of Germany. The group was established to fight
fascists, a term the party used to describe all of the other pro-
capitalist political parties in Germany. The primary objective of
Antifaschistische Aktion was to abolish capitalism, according to a
detailed history of the group. The group, which had more than 1,500
founding members, went underground after Nazis seized power in 1933.
A German-language pamphlet "80 Years of Anti-Fascist Actions" (80
Jahre Antifaschistische Aktion)" describes in minute detail the
continuous historical thread of the Antifa movement from its
ideological origins in the 1920s to the present day. The document
states:
"Antifascism has always fundamentally been an anti-capitalist
strategy. This is why the symbol of the Antifaschistische
Aktion has never lost its inspirational power.... Anti-fascism
is more of a strategy than an ideology."
During the post-war period, Germany's Antifa movement reappeared in
various manifestations, including the radical student protest movement
of the 1960s, and the leftist insurgency groups that were active
throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
The Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was
a Marxist urban guerrilla group that carried out assassinations,
bombings and kidnappings aimed at bringing revolution to West Germany,
which the group characterized as a fascist holdover of the Nazi era.
Over the course of three decades, the RAF murdered more than 30 people
and injured over 200.
After the collapse of the communist government in East Germany in 1989
-90, it was discovered that the RAF had been given training, shelter,
and supplies by the Stasi, the secret police of the former communist
regime.
John Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor
University, described the group's tactics, which are similar to those
used by Antifa today:
"The goal of their terrorist campaign was to trigger an
aggressive response from the government, which group members
believed would spark a broader revolutionary movement."
RAF founder Ulrike Meinhof explained the relationship between violent
left-wing extremism and the police: "The guy in uniform is a pig, not a
human being. That means we don't have to talk to him and it is wrong to
talk to these people at all. And of course, you can shoot."
Bettina Röhl, a German journalist and daughter of Meinhof, argues that
the modern Antifa movement is a continuation of the Red Army Faction.
The main difference is that, unlike the RAF, Antifa's members are
afraid to reveal their identities. In a June 2020 essay published by
the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Röhl also drew attention to
the fact that Antifa is not only officially tolerated, but is being
paid by the German government to fight the far right:
"The RAF idolized the communist dictatorships in China, North
Korea, North Vietnam, in Cuba, which were transfigured by the
New Left as better countries on the right path to the best
communism....
"The flourishing left-wing radicalism in the West, which
brutally strikes at the opening of the European Central Bank
headquarters in Frankfurt, at every G-20 summit or every year
on May 1 in Berlin, has achieved the highest level of
establishment in the state, not least thanks to the support by
quite a few MPs from political parties, journalists and
relevant experts.
"Compared to the RAF, the militant Antifa only lacks prominent
faces. Out of cowardice, its members cover their faces and
keep their names secret. Antifa constantly threatens violence
and attacks against politicians and police officers. It
promotes senseless damage to property amounting to vast sums.
Nevertheless, MP Renate Künast (Greens) recently complained
in the Bundestag that Antifa groups had not been adequately
funded by the state in recent decades. She was concerned that
'NGOs and Antifa groups do not always have to struggle to
raise money and can only conclude short-term employment
contracts from year to year.' There was applause for this from
Alliance 90 / The Greens, from the left and from SPD deputies.
"One may ask the question of whether Antifa is something like
an official RAF, a terrorist group with money from the state
under the guise of 'fighting against the right.'"
Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency explains Antifa's
glorification of violence:
"For left-wing extremists, 'Capitalism' is interpreted as
triggering wars, racism, ecological disasters, social
inequality and gentrification. 'Capitalism' is therefore more
than just a mere economic order. In left-wing extremist
discourse, it determines the social and political form as well
as the vision of a radical social and political reorganization.
Whether anarchist or communist: Parliamentary democracy as a
so-called bourgeois form of rule should be 'overcome' in any
case.
"For this reason, left-wing extremists usually ignore or
legitimize human rights violations in socialist or communist
dictatorships or in states that they allegedly see threatened
by the 'West.' To this day, both orthodox communists and
autonomous activists justify, praise and celebrate the left-
wing terrorist Red Army Faction or foreign left-wing terrorists
as alleged 'liberation movements' or even 'resistance
fighters.'"
Meanwhile, in Britain, Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), a militant anti-
fascist group founded in 1985, gave birth to the Antifa movement in the
United States. In Germany, the Antifaschistische Aktion-Bundesweite
Organisation (AABO) was founded in 1992 to combine the efforts of
smaller Antifa groups scattered around the country.
In Sweden, Antifascistisk Aktion (AFA), a militant Antifa group founded
in 1993, established a three-decade track record for using extreme
violence against its opponents. In France, the Antifa group L'Action
antifasciste, is known for its fierce opposition to the State of
Israel.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of communism
in 1990, the Antifa movement opened a new front against neoliberal
globalization.
Attac, established in France in 1989 to promote a global tax on
financial transactions, now leads the so-called alter-globalization
movement, which, like the Global Justice Movement, is opposed to
capitalism. In 1999, Attac was present in Seattle during violent
demonstrations that led to the failure of WTO negotiations. Attac also
participated in anti-capitalist demonstrations against the G7, the G20,
the WTO, and the war in Iraq. Today, the association is active in 40
countries, with more than a thousand local groups and hundreds of
organizations supporting the network. Attac's decentralized and non-
hierarchical organizational structure appears to be the model being
used by Antifa.
In February 2016, the International Committee of the Fourth
International advanced the political foundations of the global anti-war
movement, which, like Antifa, blames capitalism and neoliberal
globalism for the existence of military conflict:
"The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and
socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war
except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital
and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of
militarism and war."
In July 2017, more than 100,000 anti-globalization and Antifa
protesters converged on the German city of Hamburg to protest the G20
summit. Leftist mobs laid waste to the city center. An Antifa group
called "G20 Welcome to Hell" bragged about how it was able to mobilize
Antifa groups from across the world:
"The summit mobilizations have been precious moments of
meeting and co-operation of left-wing and anti-capitalist
groups and networks from all over Europe and world-wide. We
have been sharing experiences and fighting together, attending
international meetings, being attacked by cops supported by
the military, re-organizing our forces and fighting back.
Anti-globalization movement has changed, but our networks
endure. We are active locally in our regions, cities, villages
and forests. But we are also fighting trans-nationally."
Germany's domestic security service, in an annual report, added:
"Left-wing extremist structures tried to shift the public
debate about the violent G20 summit protests in their favor.
With the distribution of photos and reports of allegedly
disproportionate police measures during the summit protests,
they promoted an image of a state that denounced legitimate
protests and put them down with police violence. Against such
a state, they said, 'militant resistance' is not only
legitimate, but also necessary."
Part II of this series will examine the activities of Antifa in Germany
and the United States.
: Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone
: Institute.
--
Democrats and the liberal media hate President Trump more than they
love this country.
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."
Antifa is not only officially tolerated, but is being paid by the
German government to fight the far right. Bettina Röhl, German
journalist, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 2, 2020.
"Out of cowardice, its members cover their faces and keep their names
secret. Antifa constantly threatens violence and attacks against
politicians and police officers. It promotes senseless damage to
property amounting to vast sums." Bettina Röhl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
June 2, 2020.
: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." Pictured: A senior citizen flees
:after being brutally beaten by members of Rose City Antifa on June 29,
:2019 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Moriah Ratner/Getty Images)
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has blamed Antifa a militant
"anti-fascist" movement for the violence that has erupted at George
Floyd protests across the United States. "The violence instigated and
carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the
rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly," he
said.
Barr also 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." Earlier, U.S. President Donald J.
Trump had instructed the U.S. Justice Department to designate Antifa as
a terrorist organization.
Academics and media outlets sympathetic to Antifa have argued that the
group cannot be classified as a terrorist organization because, they
claim, it is a vaguely-defined protest movement that lacks a
centralized structure. Mark Bray, a vocal apologist for Antifa in
America and author of the book "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,"
asserts that Antifa "is not an overarching organization with a chain of
command."
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. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Justice is currently
investigating individuals linked to Antifa as a step to unmasking the
broader organization.
In the United States, Antifa's ideology, tactics and goals, far from
being novel, are borrowed almost entirely from Antifa groups in Europe,
where so-called anti-fascist groups, in one form or another, have been
active, almost without interruption, for a century.
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. In the United States, Antifa's immediate aim
is to bring about the demise of the Trump administration.
Antifa's nemeses include law enforcement, which is viewed as enforcing
the established order. 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."
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. "The fight against fascism is only won when the
capitalist system has been shattered and a classless society has been
achieved," according to the German Antifa group, Antifaschistischer
Aufbau München.
Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency, in a special report on
left-wing extremism, noted:
"Antifa's fight against right-wing extremists is a smokescreen.
The real goal remains the 'bourgeois-democratic state,' which,
in the reading of left-wing extremists, accepts and promotes
'fascism' as a possible form of rule and therefore does not
fight it sufficiently. Ultimately, it is argued, 'fascism' is
rooted in the social and political structures of 'capitalism.'
Accordingly, left-wing extremists, in their 'antifascist'
activities, focus above all on the elimination of the
'capitalist system.'"
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, and racism being an
oppressive mechanism related to fascism."
In an essay, "What Antifa and the Original Fascists Have In Common,"
Antony Mueller, a German professor of economics who currently teaches
in Brazil, described how Antifa's militant anti-capitalism masquerading
as anti-fascism reveals its own fascism:
"After the left has pocketed the concept of liberalism and
turned the word into the opposite of its original meaning,
the Antifa-movement uses a false terminology to hide its true
agenda. While calling themselves 'antifascist' and declaring
fascism the enemy, the Antifa itself is a foremost fascist
movement.
"The members of Antifa are not opponents to fascism but
themselves its genuine representatives. Communism, Socialism
and Fascism are united by the common band of anti-capitalism
and anti-liberalism.
"The Antifa movement is a fascist movement. The enemy of this
movement is not fascism but liberty, peace and prosperity."
Antifa's Ideological Origins
The ideological origins of Antifa can be traced back to the Soviet
Union roughly a century ago. In 1921 and 1922, the Communist
International (Comintern) developed the so-called united front tactic
to "unify the working masses through agitation and organization" ...
"at the international level and in each individual country" against
"capitalism" and "fascism" two terms that often were used
interchangeably.
The world's first anti-fascist group, Arditi del Popolo (People's
Courageous Militia), was founded in Italy in June 1921 to resist the
rise of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party, which itself was
established to prevent the possibility of a Bolshevik revolution on the
Italian Peninsula. Many of the group's 20,000 members, consisting of
communists and anarchists, later joined the International Brigades
during the Spanish Civil War (193639).
In Germany, the Communist Party of Germany established the paramilitary
group Roter Frontkämpferbund (Red Front Fighters League) in July 1924.
The group was banned due to its extreme violence. Many of its 130,000
members continued their activities underground or in local successor
organizations such as the Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus (Fighting-
Alliance Against Fascism).
In Slovenia, the militant anti-fascist movement TIGR was established in
1927 to oppose the Italianization of Slovene ethnic areas after the
collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The group, which was disbanded
in 1941, specialized in assassinating Italian police and military
personnel.
In Spain, the Communist Party established the Milicias Antifascistas
Obreras y Campesinas (Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias), which
were active in the 1930s.
The modern Antifa movement derives its name from a group called
Antifaschistische Aktion, founded in May 1932 by Stalinist leaders of
the Communist Party of Germany. The group was established to fight
fascists, a term the party used to describe all of the other pro-
capitalist political parties in Germany. The primary objective of
Antifaschistische Aktion was to abolish capitalism, according to a
detailed history of the group. The group, which had more than 1,500
founding members, went underground after Nazis seized power in 1933.
A German-language pamphlet "80 Years of Anti-Fascist Actions" (80
Jahre Antifaschistische Aktion)" describes in minute detail the
continuous historical thread of the Antifa movement from its
ideological origins in the 1920s to the present day. The document
states:
"Antifascism has always fundamentally been an anti-capitalist
strategy. This is why the symbol of the Antifaschistische
Aktion has never lost its inspirational power.... Anti-fascism
is more of a strategy than an ideology."
During the post-war period, Germany's Antifa movement reappeared in
various manifestations, including the radical student protest movement
of the 1960s, and the leftist insurgency groups that were active
throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
The Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was
a Marxist urban guerrilla group that carried out assassinations,
bombings and kidnappings aimed at bringing revolution to West Germany,
which the group characterized as a fascist holdover of the Nazi era.
Over the course of three decades, the RAF murdered more than 30 people
and injured over 200.
After the collapse of the communist government in East Germany in 1989
-90, it was discovered that the RAF had been given training, shelter,
and supplies by the Stasi, the secret police of the former communist
regime.
John Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor
University, described the group's tactics, which are similar to those
used by Antifa today:
"The goal of their terrorist campaign was to trigger an
aggressive response from the government, which group members
believed would spark a broader revolutionary movement."
RAF founder Ulrike Meinhof explained the relationship between violent
left-wing extremism and the police: "The guy in uniform is a pig, not a
human being. That means we don't have to talk to him and it is wrong to
talk to these people at all. And of course, you can shoot."
Bettina Röhl, a German journalist and daughter of Meinhof, argues that
the modern Antifa movement is a continuation of the Red Army Faction.
The main difference is that, unlike the RAF, Antifa's members are
afraid to reveal their identities. In a June 2020 essay published by
the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Röhl also drew attention to
the fact that Antifa is not only officially tolerated, but is being
paid by the German government to fight the far right:
"The RAF idolized the communist dictatorships in China, North
Korea, North Vietnam, in Cuba, which were transfigured by the
New Left as better countries on the right path to the best
communism....
"The flourishing left-wing radicalism in the West, which
brutally strikes at the opening of the European Central Bank
headquarters in Frankfurt, at every G-20 summit or every year
on May 1 in Berlin, has achieved the highest level of
establishment in the state, not least thanks to the support by
quite a few MPs from political parties, journalists and
relevant experts.
"Compared to the RAF, the militant Antifa only lacks prominent
faces. Out of cowardice, its members cover their faces and
keep their names secret. Antifa constantly threatens violence
and attacks against politicians and police officers. It
promotes senseless damage to property amounting to vast sums.
Nevertheless, MP Renate Künast (Greens) recently complained
in the Bundestag that Antifa groups had not been adequately
funded by the state in recent decades. She was concerned that
'NGOs and Antifa groups do not always have to struggle to
raise money and can only conclude short-term employment
contracts from year to year.' There was applause for this from
Alliance 90 / The Greens, from the left and from SPD deputies.
"One may ask the question of whether Antifa is something like
an official RAF, a terrorist group with money from the state
under the guise of 'fighting against the right.'"
Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency explains Antifa's
glorification of violence:
"For left-wing extremists, 'Capitalism' is interpreted as
triggering wars, racism, ecological disasters, social
inequality and gentrification. 'Capitalism' is therefore more
than just a mere economic order. In left-wing extremist
discourse, it determines the social and political form as well
as the vision of a radical social and political reorganization.
Whether anarchist or communist: Parliamentary democracy as a
so-called bourgeois form of rule should be 'overcome' in any
case.
"For this reason, left-wing extremists usually ignore or
legitimize human rights violations in socialist or communist
dictatorships or in states that they allegedly see threatened
by the 'West.' To this day, both orthodox communists and
autonomous activists justify, praise and celebrate the left-
wing terrorist Red Army Faction or foreign left-wing terrorists
as alleged 'liberation movements' or even 'resistance
fighters.'"
Meanwhile, in Britain, Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), a militant anti-
fascist group founded in 1985, gave birth to the Antifa movement in the
United States. In Germany, the Antifaschistische Aktion-Bundesweite
Organisation (AABO) was founded in 1992 to combine the efforts of
smaller Antifa groups scattered around the country.
In Sweden, Antifascistisk Aktion (AFA), a militant Antifa group founded
in 1993, established a three-decade track record for using extreme
violence against its opponents. In France, the Antifa group L'Action
antifasciste, is known for its fierce opposition to the State of
Israel.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of communism
in 1990, the Antifa movement opened a new front against neoliberal
globalization.
Attac, established in France in 1989 to promote a global tax on
financial transactions, now leads the so-called alter-globalization
movement, which, like the Global Justice Movement, is opposed to
capitalism. In 1999, Attac was present in Seattle during violent
demonstrations that led to the failure of WTO negotiations. Attac also
participated in anti-capitalist demonstrations against the G7, the G20,
the WTO, and the war in Iraq. Today, the association is active in 40
countries, with more than a thousand local groups and hundreds of
organizations supporting the network. Attac's decentralized and non-
hierarchical organizational structure appears to be the model being
used by Antifa.
In February 2016, the International Committee of the Fourth
International advanced the political foundations of the global anti-war
movement, which, like Antifa, blames capitalism and neoliberal
globalism for the existence of military conflict:
"The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and
socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war
except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital
and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of
militarism and war."
In July 2017, more than 100,000 anti-globalization and Antifa
protesters converged on the German city of Hamburg to protest the G20
summit. Leftist mobs laid waste to the city center. An Antifa group
called "G20 Welcome to Hell" bragged about how it was able to mobilize
Antifa groups from across the world:
"The summit mobilizations have been precious moments of
meeting and co-operation of left-wing and anti-capitalist
groups and networks from all over Europe and world-wide. We
have been sharing experiences and fighting together, attending
international meetings, being attacked by cops supported by
the military, re-organizing our forces and fighting back.
Anti-globalization movement has changed, but our networks
endure. We are active locally in our regions, cities, villages
and forests. But we are also fighting trans-nationally."
Germany's domestic security service, in an annual report, added:
"Left-wing extremist structures tried to shift the public
debate about the violent G20 summit protests in their favor.
With the distribution of photos and reports of allegedly
disproportionate police measures during the summit protests,
they promoted an image of a state that denounced legitimate
protests and put them down with police violence. Against such
a state, they said, 'militant resistance' is not only
legitimate, but also necessary."
Part II of this series will examine the activities of Antifa in Germany
and the United States.
: Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone
: Institute.
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Democrats and the liberal media hate President Trump more than they
love this country.