Antifa
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Template:Anarchism The word Antifa is derived from Antifaschismus, German for "anti-fascism".
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Soviet era Antifa
During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s the Soviet Union sponsored various anti-fascist movements, usually using the name Antifa to describe the groups. In particular, POWs captured by the Soviets during the Great Patriotic War in the 1940s were encouraged to under take Antifa training. Pal Maléter who was a Hungarian POW, and later led the revolutionary forces in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, became a communist after under-going Antifa training in Kiev.
Contemporary Antifa
Today Antifa is used to refer to groups or organizations, especially in Germany but increasingly in other European countries and elsewhere, that dedicate themselves to fight what they call "fascism", which they take to include all racist, racialist or nationalist tendencies, which they view as a serious and pervasive threat. These groups often include the term antifa in their names.
While there is a network of such groups, they do not constitute a homogeneous movement. Opposition to fascism, racism and nationalism is often only the lowest common denominator on which the various groups and even members of particular groups can unite.
The struggle against fascism, racism and nationalism is usually associated with some broader view that holds current society or aspects of it responsible for them and therefore seeks radical social change. Depending on the particular group the ultimate goals may be quite different. Nonetheless, antifa groups most often view capitalism as fundamentally related to fascism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other perceived forms of oppression, and communism or anarchism as desirable forms of society with the possibility of being free of fascism, nationalism and racism.
The term "anti-fascist" and especially "Antifa" in Germany is now almost entirely used by left-wing political, so-called "Autonomous", groups, many but not all of which are prone to violence. The "Antifa" has therefore been classified in a report from the German Verfassungsschutz as "violence-ready left-wing extremists" (Gewaltbereite Linksextremisten) (see [1] (http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/de/publikationen/verfassungsschutzbericht/vsbericht_2002/vsbericht_2002.pdf) p.121 / pdf p.122).
- Autonomous propagate the resistance against authorities and ignorance of standards. The framework of their mostly spontaneous activities are diffuse fragments of anarchist and communist ideology, all stamped by diverse anti-attitunes ("anti-fascist", "anti-capitalist", "anti-patriarchal").
- (Report of the German Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution, p.123)
Antifa methods include research, public information or propaganda, and demonstrations that typically take the form of counter-demonstrations or the targeting of what are seen to be right-wing businesses, clubs, and hang-outs. Persons and property associated (rightfully or not) with right-wing groups are often attacked by members of antifa groups, but normally the attacks are only loosely connected with any particular antifa organization.
See also
- Anti-Racist Action
- Anti-racism
- Anti-Sexism
- Anti-Fascism
- Antifascistisk aktion (AFA)
- Anarcho-Skinheads
External links
- AntiFaNet (http://www.antifa.net/)
- German Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/en/index_en.html)
- AntiFa UK - Taking the fight to the Fascists (http://www.antifa.org.uk/)de:Antifa