by Kara Machowski
In the past week America has seen a number of greatly disturbing scenes, from the one that ignited all of the protesting, the horrid death of George Floyd; to protests that birthed scenes of riots filled with violence, destruction, looting, shootings and a few deaths that never needed to happen. Of course those who don’t understand the Black Movement are going to be afraid, especially when they're being told by the president that they're from an organized
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The idea didn’t originate from Trump, but he definitely politicized and promoted it on Sunday when he tweeted, “the United States of America will be designating antifa as a Terrorist Organization”.
Many who have never witnessed injustice are watching their neighborhoods and favorite stores destroyed and looted by anarchists while any channel you turn to on television is displaying energized civilians being hit with batons, tear gas, rubber bullets and even vehicles while police officers are being attacked by rioters and protected by protesters.
There are few business owners who were beaten to a pulp to try and protect their business and the media is not only getting these violent acts confused with peaceful protesters, but now they have decided to take personal attack on a movement that has no leader and whose messages that incited violence that were read and retaliated by the president, was authored by an account that is associated with a white-supremacist group. Yes, the account was built by the far right to shed a negative light on an anti-fascist movement against antisemitism, you know the idea that promoted the Holocaust.
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What is Antifa?
Antifa was a movement that began in the 1940’s at the time of Hitler’s reign in Germany and in response to the Holocaust. According the Merriam Webster the official definition is; “a person or group actively opposing fascism : an anti-fascist movement”.
Antifa is the the shortened version of "anti-fascism" and anifaschistisch, the German way of pronunciation of "anti-fascist".
You could consider the family who hid Anne Frank and her family supporters of antifa.
The idea of a militant group also follows the definition in other dictionaries, which isn’t untrue, but at the same time it isn’t the complete truth. Militant groups were formed within the underground resistance movement against Nazis, which at that time didn’t have a name and wasn't the entire representation of those who followed the antifa movement. You could consider the family who hid Anne Frank and her family supporters of antifa.
“The argument is that militant anti-fascism is inherently self-defense because of the historically documented violence that fascists pose, especially to marginalized people,” said Mark Bray, a history lecturer at Rutgers University and the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.”
"@Antifa_US was actually built linked to a group of far-right, antisemitic activists, Identity Evropa" -Twitter
@Antifa_UA is a fake antifa account
Now if you turn to Fox News or search antifa you’ll receive false and mixed messages calling any radial protester an Antifa member. Even videos that were tweeted days ago are resurfacing while calling people in the video "terrorist antifa members". Far-right groups have created threatening messages that are said to be from antifa members (which there is no leader or real member). Far right leaders are also sharing these messages, which in some cases has brought real fear to people who consider themselves to live in "white neighborhoods", the targeted threat by these fake accounts.
"@Antifa_US was actually built linked to a group of far-right, antisemitic activists, Identity Evropa", according to a Twitter spokesperson. The account has since been taken down as it violated Twitter's User Rights and Rules by promoting violence and specifically for being a fake account.
Why does the far right hate antifa?
2017, Charlottesville raised attention to the antifa movement as protesters who were promoters of antifa showed up at the "Unite the Right" in protest to the event. The organized event was formed by a group of white "far-right" (supremacists) and were allowed to march as it was considered free speech.
Few of you may remember when Cornel West linked arms at the rally which was full of white nationalists mixed with anti-fascists. Eventually the scene, which began as peaceful, erupted with mace and water bottles and then turned violent as makeshift weapons were branded and used. Then was the most anti-famous moment where a car being driven by a far-right activist plowed through the crowd of anti-far-right and killed a woman. A scene that should have been labeled as domestic-terrorism was quickly brushed under the rug by the right.
After the event in Charlottesville began the ramped up far-right opposition of antifa and far-right media labelled of those who followed the antifa movement as terrorists. For years the far right has been trying to label antifa as a terrorist group, from creating fake Antifa accounts that display disturbing images and statements to promoting them as an actual terrorist group through out far right media.
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