by Kara Machowski
"Antifa" has slipped from the lips of both leftist and far right antagonists, especially in Alt-Right Media. When the president announced from Cape Canaveral, that the group of looters and rioters who emerged from the protests spared by the death of George Floyd, were “members” of “Antifa”. President Trump of course released a number of tweets since then touting that he would label “Antifa” as a domestic terrorist group, with no real guidelines on domestic terrorism given that the KKK has remained unscathed from the title “terrorist” since the origination began.
The president tweeted recently that the 75 year old, Martin Gugino, who was knocked down by Buffalo police officer, Aaron Torgalski, and Robert McCabe, was a member of “ANTIFA”, after blaming the elderly man of tripping and falling harder than he was pushed.
Alt-Right Media such as The New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdock and other news sources under his umbrella, Fox News and affiliates, News Corp and Sky, are all reporting that “Antifa” is "in fact a militant group who is designed to conduct domestic terrorism". Recently, Sky News Australia released a video on YouTube that called Antifa an “Orwellian organization who paints themselves as against tyrannical government but are “themselves the most fascist organization” on the planet.
Some have taken great defense to this because the definition and first time that the term “antifa” was used originated from the anti-Natzi/anti-fascist actions that were taken against Nazis and any promoter of the Holocaust. ANTIFA stands for the shortened version of "anti-fascism" and anifaschistisch, the German way of pronunciation of “anti-fascist”. Since WWII, the only actual “Antifa” members would show up at peaceful protests, displaying signs of the original two-flag emblem. Besides that, the term is only used by the far right to defame the organization.
"ANTIFA" and Punk Rock
In the 1980's the Antifa-movement sparked during the rise of punk-rock because of how they clashed with skin-heads and at the time the two were considered enemies.
Mark Bray, author of The Antifa Handbook, stated “in many cases, the North American modern Antifa movement grew up as a way to defend the punk scene from the neo-Nazi skinhead movement, and the founders of the original Anti-Racist Action network in North America were anti-racist skinheads.
The fascist/anti-fascist struggle was essentially a fight for control of the punk scene [during the 1980s, and that was true across of much of north America and in parts of Europe in this era". For those who have seen SLC Punk, you may remember the broods that erupted between the punks and skin-heads that of course were at times very violent and included make-shift weapons.
In the 80's few anarchist groups adopted the Antifa-movements branding of twin flags and during the population of anarchism when "The Anarchist's Handbook" was released. However, the "anarchist-Antifa-movement" fizzled out and few small remaining anarchist groups still use the propaganda but no real acts of terrorism or large groups of "Antifa-Anarchists" ever panned out.
Green Day
In 2016, in retaliation to the Trump Presidency, punk band, Green Day, chanted at the MTV Music Awards the repurposed lyrics from Texan punk trailblazers MDC’s 1981 song Born to Die;
“No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!”
This re-sparked the anti-Antifa movement, primarily within the far-right and brought hate out of the supporters of Donald Trump towards the group.
Unite the Right, Charlottesville,VA, 2017
The rhetoric “Antifa” has actually not been used widespread until the fateful day in Charlottesville, VA, 2017. Anti-Nazi individuals organized counter protests and showed up in black masks donning the “antifa” banner that originated in the 1940’s during WWII and few representations of the Anonymous movement.
The event that was organized by Jason Kessler, a former journalist and a member of the the Proud Boys, an ultra-nationalist group, labelled; “Unite the Right” and created in response to the General Robert E. Lee statue being taken down.
What Happened at "Unite the Right"; August 12th, 2017
Unite the Right had one successful night on Friday, marchers descended on the University of Virginia carrying torches and yelling slogans "white lives matter" and "blood and soil”.
The group that showed up as counter-protesters were labeled as “Antifa” due to their brandishing of the adopted flag and for being ‘anti-fascists’, the exact definition of the Antifa-movement.
Both groups marched toward each other and eventually the march turned into chaos as the Far-Right and counter-protesters clashed and pepper spray was deployed, separating the groups.
A car driven by an admitted white supremacist, plowed through the leftist protesters. The world watched the horrendous scene unfold as one female, Heather Heyer, was killed.
President Trump's comments shocked the nation when claimed there were "very fine people" on both sides of the argument following the death of Heather Heyer.
The Disgracing of "Antifa"
After the event in Charlottesville began the ramped up far-right opposition of Antifa and the far-right media labelled those who followed the ANTIFA movement as terrorists. For the next few years the far right tried to label “Antifa” as a terrorist group, from creating fake Antifa accounts that display disturbing images and statements.
Most notably, Antifa supporters were among those who protested the 2016 election of Donald Trump, participated in the February 2017 University of California, Berkeley protests against alt-right speaker, Milo Yiannopoulos, showed up for Charlottesville, 2018 in Portland, Oregon. Now they’re being labeled as the rioters and looters during our 2020 protests for justice for George Floyd and against police brutality.
2016; Marches also took place in Boston, Chicago, Seattle, California, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, whose also promoted gay-rights and chanted "not my president".
2017, February through August, anarchists, protesters and leftists clashed with the far-right white supremacist supporters on the campus of Berkley to protest the Milo Yiannopoulos, where Antifa was associated with By Any Means Necessary, who set fires, damaged property, threw fireworks, attacked members of the crowd, and threw rocks at the police. Trump threatened to withhold federal founding from UC Berkley if they didn't allow Yiannopoulos practice free speech. The Yiannopoulos event was cancelled anyway.
When the "March 4 Trump" decided to join in and march in defense of known British far-right activist with leaked ties to white nationalists and violently clashed with protesters. Yiannopoulos is a Trump supporter, openly gay, promotes relationships between adults and tweens, and has ties to Steve Bannon.
During the event, founder of the white supremacist, alt-right group Identity Evropa (the same linked to the fake Antifa_US Twitter account) punched a female protester in the face and then ran into the crowd, further sparing media against ANTIFA.
2017, in Manhattan there were reports that "Antifa" was going to start a Civil War and Fox News warned of an "Antifa Apocalypse" turned out to be a peaceful and small protests against President Trump.
A separate article released by Politico, another Alt-Right publication, warned of an attack by "Antifa" in retaliation to the incident at Charlottesville, which never happened. The same article claimed that "Antifa" were throwing "Molotov cocktails and bombs" at the Charlottesville event, which of course, was another false claim. The article went as far to compare the anticipated "Antifa Apocalypse" to the Timothy McVeigh bombing where he blew up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.
2018, in October protesters showed up in Portland, Oregon to demonstrate against the death of Patrick Kimmons, who was fatally shot by police Sept. 30. According to the Fox News article that claimed "Antifa protesters bullied a woman in a wheel-chair”, a false claim made by the woman and luckily filmed by a citizen.
Another incident was reported by independent journalist, Andy Ngo, who claimed to have been attacked by "Antifa" protesters, told Todd Starnes on "The Todd Starnes Show" that there was a video of twelve or so protesters dressed in black, beating him. What actually occurred is both laughable and concerning.
It took an underground reporter that infiltrated a far-right group, The Proud Boys, to unearth an audio-recording of the far-right activists with Ngo, talking about their weapons and discussing how they were going to use them against "Antifa". What really happened; Ngo, who antagonized protesters, had a milkshake either thrown or what more closely appears, to have been dumped on his head, like you'd do to a high school bully. Ngo was labelled as a far-right activist and lost all credibility as a journalist.
2018, Unmasking Antifa Act; This one is hard to explain without relaying that it was a retaliation to the fact that white supremacists don't brandish the KKK hood and white robe and that the president truly feared an uprising similar to the one in "V" for Vendetta, or the one happening now, where many people are required to wear a mask. The bill reads;
"This bill amends the federal criminal code to make it a crime for an individual, while in disguise, to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate a person: (1) who is exercising or enjoying a protected right or privilege, or (2) because the person has exercised a protected right or privilege. A violator is subject to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to 15 years, or both.”
Additionally, the bill establishes an enhanced penalty—“a mandatory two-year prison term—for a person who wears a disguise during an offense involving the willful and malicious destruction of a building or property."
2020, the tweet that caused the president to react and try and label "Antifa" as a domestic terrorist group was actually originated from a confirmed fake Twitter account that was created by a far right group, whose tweet sated;
“Tonight’s the night, Comrades. Tonight we say ‘Fuck The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods…. and we take what’s ours.” - @ANTIFA_US, a confirmed far right created fake ANTIFA account
Republican Matt Gaetz tweeted; “Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" Twitter ended up labeling Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida for ‘glorifying violence’ in tweet about hunting supposed Antifa members.
Attorney General William Barr also blamed Antifa and other similar groups over violent protests and called the acts "domestic terrorism". However, not a single person who was arrested over the protests claimed to be a part of Antifa and not a single one was charged under the Unmasking Antifa Act.
In conclusion, not a single violent act over the past few weeks can actually be connected to any sort of organization and instead many of the looters and rioters who are being arrested have previous criminal history and are quite simply put, modern day American criminals.
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