Militant anti-fascism

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Militant anti-fascism is a form of anti-fascism that advocates the use of violence against fascism. Within the anti-fascist movement, the term militant anti-fascism is often used in contrast to liberal anti-fascism.

Fascists often use violence and depend on a physical presence in the streets, and militant anti-fascists believe that an equal counterweight is essential to stop fascism.Fact|date=June 2007 While European liberal anti-fascists either call on the state to censor what they call hate speech or prosecute fascists under existing laws, militant anti-fascists either oppose such calls or put no energy into heeding them. In contrast, militant anti-fascists believe that fascism should be tackled by communities rather than by the state.Fact|date=June 2007 Militant anti-fascists are usually supporters of class struggle, and view fascism as an anti-working class political system. Militant anti-fascists tend to promote radical anti-capitalist transformation of society, rather than defending the status quo of liberal democracy. This often translates into support for some form of socialism, communism, or anarchism.

The term "antifa"

The term "antifa" derives from "Antifaschismus", which is German for anti-fascism. It refers to individuals and groups that are dedicated to fighting fascism, and some anti-fascist groups include the word "antifa" in their name. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Soviet Union sponsored various anti-fascist groups, usually using the name antifa. POWs captured by the Soviets during the Eastern Front campaign of the Second World War were encouraged to undertake antifa training.

In contemporary times, the term antifa has come to refer to individuals and groups that are dedicated to fighting fascist tendencies. In Germany many antifa groups were formed as a reaction to the rise of right-wing extremismafter German reunification and the death of more than a hundred people who were killed by right-wing extremists. [de icon [http://www.opfer-rechter-gewalt.de/ Opfer-Rechter-Gewalt] ] There is a world-wide network of antifa groups, but they do not constitute a movement. Depending on the particular group or individual, the goals may be quite different.

The terms "anti-fascist" and "antifa" are almost exclusively used by left-wing groups. For these groups, the struggle against fascist tendencies is usually associated with a broader view that holds society (or aspects of it) responsible, and therefore seeks radical social change. They tend to describe themselves as being opposed to: racism, nationalism, anti-Semitism, sexism, homophobia, and capitalism. Many members of antifa groups consider communism, socialism or anarchism as desirable forms of social organization. According to the German intelligence agency Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, some antifa groups that are part of the autonomist movement are willing to use violence against right-wing extremists. [de icon [http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/download/SHOW/vsbericht_2004.pdf Verfassungsschutz-bericht 2004] , p. 168-172]

Germany

Communist Party and Social Democratic Party (SPD) members at different times in the 1920s and 1930s advocated both the use of violence and mass agitation amongst the working class in an effort to stop Hitler's Nazi Party. Leon Trotsky was one advocate of militant anti-fascism’s use of violence in Germany. He wrote that "fighting squads must be created… nothing increases the insolence of the fascists so much as 'flabby pacifism' on the part of the workers' organisations… [It is] political cowardice [to deny that] without organised combat detachments, the most heroic masses will be smashed bit by bit by fascist gangs." [quoted "Fighting Talk" no.22 October 1999, p.11]

Italy

The rise of fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the 1920s was resisted violently by a small fraction of the workers' movement. After the signature by the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) of a "pacification pact" with the National Fascist Party on August 3, 1921, and the embracement by the trade-unions of a legalist and pacified strategy, others components of the workers' movement who disagreed with this strategy formed the "Arditi del popolo" in 1921. The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and the PSI refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia, while the Italian Communist Party (PCI) ordered its members to quit the organization. The PCI organized by themselves some militant groups, but their actions were relatively minor and the party kept a non-violent, legalist strategy.

The Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni, who exiled himself, along with many others comrades, to Argentina following the 1922 March on Rome, organized there several bombings against the Italian fascist community.

pain

In the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, the Republican army, the International Brigades and particularly the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and anarchist militias like the Iron Column are examples of militant anti-fascism who fought the rise of Francisco Franco with military force. The Friends of Durruti were one particularly militant group, associated with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI). Spanish anarchist guerrilla Sabate fought against Franco’s regime up until the 1960s, from a base in France. (See Anarchist Catalonia, Anarchism in Spain.) The Spanish Maquis also fought the Franco regime long after the Spanish Civil war finished, from across the border in France.

The struggle against fascism in Spain attracted strong international support from leftist and working class people. Thousands of people from many countries went to Spain in support of the anti-fascist cause and joined International Brigade units such as the Lincoln Battalion, the British Battalion, the Dabrowski Battalion, the "Mac-Paps" and the Naftali Botwin Company. Notable anti-fascists who worked internationally against Franco were: George Orwell, who fought in the POUM militia and wrote "Homage to Catalonia" about this experience, Ernest Hemingway, a supporter of the International Brigades who wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls" about this experience, and radical journalist Martha Gellhorn.

Canada

Canada's history of militant anti-fascism began during the 1930s and continues on to this day. Originally led by Catholic immigrants, the movement in Canada is now very diverse and includes people from all walks of life.

Canada's modern antifa movement is strongest in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Alberta. It's tactics focus on targeting both prominent leaders and organizers in the far-right, and also individual rank and file members as well. Some suggest that this is a unique element of the Canadian struggle which comes about as a necessity, based on the general lack of an overtly public fascist presence to identify and attack. Today, Canadian neo-Nazi leaders Paul Fromm and Marc Lemire have been primary targets of anti-fascists in southern Ontario. Their meetings are often disrupted and militantly shut down, with property of the fascists being damaged or destroyed in the process. The Aryan Guard is also a target of anti-fascists in Alberta, where its more open style of recruitment and activity creates a different confrontational dynamic.

United Kingdom

The rise of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) was challenged by the Communist Party of Great Britain, socialists in the Labour Party and Independent Labour Party, Irish Catholic dockmen and working class Jews in London's east end. A high point in the struggle was the Battle of Cable Street, when thousands of eastenders and others turned out to stop the BUF marching. Initially, the national Communist Party leadership wanted a mass demonstration at Hyde Park in solidarity with Republican Spain instead of a mobilisation against the BUF, but local party activists argued against this. (However, the campaigns against fascism in Spain and in England were explicitly linked when local activists rallied support with the chalked slogan on the streets of East London "They shall not pass," taken from the slogan of Republican Spain, "No Pasaran".) The book "Out of the Ghetto" by Joe Jacobs contains an official CP leaflet advertising the demonstration in solidarity with Spain, overprinted with the word "Cancelled" and re-directing supporters to Cable Street.

After World War II, Jewish war veterans continued the tradition of militant confrontation with the BUF in the 43 Group, and in the 1960s the 62 Group continued the struggle against neo-nazis.

1970s-1990s

In the 1970s, fascist and far right parties such as the National Front (NF) and British Movement were making significant gains electorally and were increasingly confident in their public appearances. This was challenged in 1977 with the Battle of Lewisham, when thousands of black and white people physically stopped an NF march in South London. [ [http://lewisham77.blogspot.com/ Lewisham '77 history site] ] Shortly after this, the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) was launched by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). The ANL had a campaign of high profile propaganda, as well as anti-fascist squads that attacked NF meetings and paper sales to disrupt their ability to organise. The success of the ANL's propaganda and physical campaigns, combined with Thatcher's right wing politics meant the end to the NF's period of growth.

The SWP, whose theoretician Tony Cliff described the period as one of downturn in class struggle, disbanded the ANL. However, many squad members refused to stop their activities. They were expelled from the party in 1981; many going on to form the group Red Action. The SWP used the term squadism to dismiss these militant anti-fascists as thugs. In 1985, some members of Red Action and the anarcho-syndicalist Direct Action Movement launched Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), which was to be the focus of militant anti-fascism in the UK for the next 15 years. Thousands of people took part in militant AFA mobilisations such as the Remembrance Day demonstrations in 1986 and 1987, the Unity Carnival, the Battle of Cable Street's 55th anniversary march in 1991, and the "Battle of Waterloo" against the British National Party in 1992.

After 1995, some anti-fascist mobilisations did still occur e.g. against the National Front in Dover in 1997 and 1998. Internally, a new AFA National Coordinating Committee was set up. In 1997 an AFA statement officially banned members from associating with Searchlight - and in 1998, Leeds and Huddersfield AFA were expelled by the new Committee, officially for ignoring this policy. Expulsions didn't stop the decline. There were some local re-launches – e.g. Liverpool in 2000. But by 2001 - though probably a long time before - AFA as a national organisation hardly existed.

2000s

Some former elements from AFA regrouped to form a militant anti-fascist group called No Platform in 2002, but this group disbanded shortly.In 2004, members from the Anarchist Federation, Class War, and No Platform founded the organisation Antifa. This largely anarchist dominated group has imitated AFA's stance of physical and ideological confrontation with fascists and has a policy of non-cooperation with Searchlight or any other state-linked agencies. On September 23, 2004, Antifa was involved in a confrontation with David King, a former British National Party treasurer and his BNP security entourage in Basildon, Essex. [ [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/298235.html?c=on UK Indymedia - Wannabe BNP councillor has a bad night ] ] On January 15, 2005, Antifa was involved in a confrontation with National Front white power skinheads in Woolwich. [ [http://www.ainfos.ca/05/jan/ainfos00250.html A-Infos (en) Britain, Woolwich, Fascist Boneheads in Train Accident by antifa* ] ] On March 27, 2005, 30 anti-fascists from a local Yorkshire based Antifa group attacked a British National Party meeting in Halifax. The anti-fascists threw half bricks and rocks at the BNP security, and BNP member's cars were smashed. [ [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2005/03/307957.html?c=on Uk Indymedia | Come Down On The Bnp Like A Tonne Of Bricks ] ] On the 13th of March 2008, Yorkshire Antifascists attacked "several Leeds venues recently used for meetings of the fascist British National Party " [ [http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/393779.html UK Indymedia - BNP Venues Attacked ] ]

More recently, other groups across the UK have appeared (e.g. Antifa Scotland, which appeared around September 2006). [ [http://www.antifascotland.uk.md Antifa Scotland] ]

weden

Militant anti-fascist groups active in Sweden include Antifascistisk Aktion and Revolutionära Fronten. Anti-fascist counter-demonstrations and meetings in Sweden often result in rioting and fights with the police since the police usually tries to separate the fascists from the anti-fascists and also tend to "protect the fascists". Anti-fascist activities in Sweden have included physical abuse of, or counter-demonstrations against neo-Nazis. Yearly neo-nazi demonstrations in Sweden that have led to riots and fights with the police include the one in Salem on 9 December, and on National day on 6 June.

Criticism of militant anti-fascism

Critics of militant anti-fascism tend to focus on its use of political violence. Pacifists and many liberals consider the use of violence as essentially wrong, and see militant anti-fascists as mirroring the fascists they oppose. This criticism suggests that by mirroring fascist violence with anti-fascist violence, the struggle against fascism is reduced to a game. Historian Dave Renton, in his book "Fascism: Theory and Practice", writes that "for anti-fascists, violence is not part of their world view", and calls militants "professional anti-fascists." [Fascism: Theory and Practice. Pluto Press, ISBN 0-7453-1470-8 [http://www.dkrenton.co.uk/books/theory.html] ] Left wing critics of militant anti-fascism contrast the violence of small militant groups with mass action. Communist Party of Great Britain leader Phil Piratin denounced squadism and called for large actions.

Some anti-racists and multiculturalists argue that by focusing on the white working class, the militant anti-fascist movement sidelines issues related to racial minorities' struggles against racism — such as the issue of white privilege. To these critics, militant anti-fascists focus on fascism to the exclusion of racism, and trivialise more pervasive forms of racial prejudice and institutional racism unconnected to organised fascist groups.

Footnotes

Bibliography

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ee also

* Anti-fascism
* Anti-Fascist Action (UK)
* Antifascistisk Aktion
* Anti-Racist Action
* Anti-racism
* Direct Action Movement
* Independent Working Class Association
* Red Action
* Red and Anarchist Skinheads
* Redskin (subculture)
* Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice
* Squadism
* TIGR
* United Front

External links

* [http://www.antifa.org.uk/ British Antifa]
* [http://www.antifa.net/ AntifaNet]
* [http://www.antifascotland.uk.md/ Antifa Scotland]
* [http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/en/index_en.html German Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution]
* [http://www.antifa.de/ Antifaschistische Linke Berlin: AfA-Germany]