Riots or Demonstrations have occurred a lot more frequently in recent years mostly by those of us on the left wing. Anti-fascist (ANTIFA) groups across the world from the United States of America to Germany are gaining traction politically and on the streets much to the surprise of the mainstream media. Groups like ANTIFA have a long history dating back to Mussolini's Italy but the difference now is a difference in tactic. The modern version of ANTIFA uses tactics that they didn't really use under Mussolini's reign purely out of fear of much more brutal oppression from the regime than what they were already getting, from the use of black bloc tactics to confrontations with the police, the media as a whole has shunned these groups for these violent acts usually deeming them to be "Senseless" acts of violence with no real message. But is that really true? Do these riots and demonstrations really not change anything? That's what i hope to explain now.
ANTIFA are an Anti-fascist conglomeration of self-styled groups all over the world, ANTIFA are not one group they are different groups adhering to the same objection to which that is Fascism. ANTIFA is a Left-wing to Far-left wing conglomeration having members who are Communist, Anarchist, Socialist and even some Social Democrats. They are a non-hierarchical collection of groups there are no leaders and there are no followers per se. Their protests are usually violent in nature but they do peaceful protests as well, what differentiates them from other protesters is their relentlessness to fight back when pushed enough by the police or Fascist/alt-right groups.
Well it's best to underline what happens at a riot/demonstration, what is shown to us on the news and media is a group of "ruthless thugs" looting and fighting with the police. But this is just one half of the story, which really shows the hypocrisy of the media when they say "we need to listen to both sides" but when a demonstration happens they only show one side of it, and that being the side of the establishment/status quo aka police and government. It's best to understand the ideology and philosophy of the majority of those in ANTIFA and other such related groups to understand what they are trying to show at these riots because what the media shows isn't as simple as it seems, it is much more than that.
Fascism is a political ideology that is Ultra-nationalistic and Authoritarian which is Anti-communist and although not explicitly, has historically been Pro-corporation and Pro-big business. Fascism almost always uses Racist, Homophobic and Xenophobic rhetoric to attract vulnerable people to their cause. They aim to attract the downtrodden who happen to live in homogeneous areas that don't have that much in the way of different cultures living in close proximity to each other, they promise the working classes things like more jobs, better wages and hours whilst also giving handouts to big corporations and hiking up taxes on those who they promised more jobs to.
Groups like ANTIFA are opposed to these groups on the basis of Fascist and Nazi governments in the past coming to power through illegitimate ways (yes, the Nazi's were elected but the policies they enacted were illegitimate). They are also opposed to the Homophobic and Xenophobic rhetoric that Fascists and their supporters use that can lead to innocent lives being lost way before the fascists even come to power again (if that ever happens again) for example, back in 2015 the KKK made a plea to its members to kill LGBT people specifically Gay men for the reasoning of "ending the HIV crisis". Now, according to U.S. Government statistics ranging from 2008 to 2014 the number of newly infected people dropped by 18%, Yes HIV is still a issue but it isn't so bad that you kill people based on sexual orientation since straight people can get HIV too from Heterosexual sex.
Fascist governments tend to have a strong police state usually used to crush political opponents and in more odd cases people who have committed "thought crime". ANTIFA's fights with the police mainly in the states stems from this in some ways especially when it came to the J20 Riots that were a protest against the inauguration of Donald Trump. The police kettled around 260 protesters and mass-arrested them, an act that the supreme court ruled to be unconstitutional and unfair especially now that is has come to notice that those arrested are now facing charges that could land them up to 60 years in prison.
Black Bloc is the name given to the usage of black clothing, scarfs to hide the face and disorientate the protesters they are counter-protesting as well as the police. Black bloc was mostly influenced by the Squatters movement in Germany in the 60s who would wear the same clothing when protesting to avoid arrest since the police knew they were active squatters and they wanted to lower the chance of them being locked up.
For ANTIFA, Black Bloc is used for very much the same reasoning plus the symbolism of solidarity. The idea "if we all look the same we are the same, we are a movement and an organism in our own right listen to us".
Violence against the police isn't so much a tactic as is a means of defence. The police have been known at peaceful black bloc's to push and shove the protest to try and get a reaction out of them usually so that they have a viable excuse to arrest them. To groups like Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA violence is the only way to be heard when the people who society teaches us are there to protect our freedom of speech and protest are not listening to us e.g The government and the Police.
The smashing of windows is actually much more of hint to what they are protesting than it is them being angsty teenagers. Smashing windows occurs for one of two main reasons, the company of the windows they are smashing doesn't pay their taxes and is well documented of not doing so OR the company is part of the reason there are economic crisis's in their country. For example, during the London Riots roughly 7 years ago now there was smashing of a bunch of banks, banks that had a large part to play in the recession and the Conservative led austerity measures that pushed thousands of disabled people off of benefits and took money away from single mothers who were struggling to meet ends meet. By smashing banks windows you're forcing them to pay back into the community by fixing that window, they're going to have to hire a local glass fitter and that money will eventually filter back into the community, kind of the same reason for shops who get their windows smashed in Riots only difference is they evade taxes, for example; Google, Starbucks, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.
Looting by ANTIFA is for the most part actually helping the homeless and disadvantaged in their area's. Let me explain, ANTIFA members loot food, water, blankets, etc to give back to the disadvantaged and homeless. During the London Riots i mentioned before, this is what happened with members of ANTIFA, many looted food and basic necessities especially in areas where food prices were hiked up but wages weren't which hit single mothers hard and caused some to become homeless because they were stuck between giving their kids a home or feeding their kids.
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The long answer is yes it has in the past and probably will long into the future. If it weren't for violent upheavals we wouldn't have gotten rid of the slave trade and given black people their rights as well as LGBT+ Rights wouldn't really exist. The police raid on gay bars in the states and if people didn't fight back and continued to protest both peacefully and violently there wouldn't have been much of a cry out for the most disadvantaged in our community that we call Planet Earth. Huey P. Newton started the Black Panther Party and with the combined efforts of the Black Panthers and the Pacifists like Martin Luther King Jr and his supporters their combined action against slavery and discrimination helped end the slave trade once and for all in america.
Now is ANTIFA some call to arms to start a Communist revolution? No, probably not. But they are a voice worth listening to even if their actions are questionable to your own beliefs.
[1] - "Think riots have never caused change in America? Think again" by Al-jazeera: https://goo.gl/FNH4AU
[2] - "Six out of Britain's 10 biggest firms pay ZERO corporation tax despite ringing up global profits of £30billion" by
Daily Mail: https://goo.gl/h7vEAG
[3] - "U.S Statistics" By HIV.gov: https://goo.gl/yWcxDP
[4] - I am part of an ANTIFA group here: https://redfrontrepublic.org/about/
The redneck Revolt is a Pro-guns, anti-fascist, pro-open carry, Anti-capitalist group in the USA that helped out the counter-protesters against the "Unite the Right": https://www.redneckrevolt.org/
All in all, a decent article. That being said, there are a few points I'd like to expand on and talk about (in the order the appear in the post).
"Groups like ANTIFA"
While I don't think you think the following, many do - quite often people with think of antifa as this one, big, monolithic group. This lack of understanding that people have is quite issuesome. Instead of seeing a great number of fairly independent groups which are all anti-fascistic and often work together, but aren't actually the same, people quite often see "antifa" as a single group. In doing so, it's easy to condemn all of "antifa" because if one member or group does something wrong it can be blamed on all of "antifa" (for whatever reason; US anti-fascist groups are quite often quite new and while being well-meaning they can still mess up). Instead, I typically use the term "anti-fascist groups" because most people are generally against fascism and it makes people stop seeing us as one big group, minimising the ability of a single poor decision discrediting all anti-fascist groups. Furthermore, by using these same tactics it's easy to frame groups because we tend to hide our identities, at least while protesting.
(I don't think you actually think that it's one big group, I think it was just an imperfect choice of wording)
"The Nazi's were elected"
Saying this seems to imply that they were peaceful and democratic to gain power, which is a common misconception. At first, they planned a violent uprising. They did this, referred to as the Munich Putsch, but it failed. Hitler was imprisoned (where he wrote Mein Kampf) - he was released really quickly because those in the judiciary system on his case were sympathetic.
After this, the Nazis changed their strategy. While still utilising violence (e.g. they sent people to break up Communist meetings - the Communists being their main opponents in terms of "radical" politics [I guess the Nazis were radical, just in the wrong direction]).
When the election came, people turned to either the Nazis or the Communists. The Nazis got the greatest amount of votes, but lacked a majority - an issue particularly in the Weimar political system. This resulted in the requirement of a political deal, which the Nazis had tried in an election however many months before that but Hindenburg, Papen & co. refused. This time they didn't, making Hitler vice Chancellor. They thought they could control him, but of course they didn't.
From there it was just moving up the ladder; he becomes Chancellor and soon Fuhrer by manipulating article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. All of this is done with illegal and violent methods at parts, he just found that in the democracy of the Weimar Republic, democratically worked best with the help of the Sturmabteilung (the "Brownshirts") and other parties. He also killed off a load of political opponents and the military in events such as the Night of the Long Knives and others.
So from this, you can see that a lot of their tactics were illegitimate or at least slightly bending the rules, not just the acts they passed.
Black bloc tactics
Expanding on the black bloc tactics, it's used both offensively and defensively. Quite often they'll do both; provide physical defence for allies and go on the offensive when required. It's to do with what you said, one of unity and avoiding arrest, but they have also evolved into a quite effective tactic with violent characteristics in certain situations. There's obviously a lot more that can be written about this, but there already has been elsewhere.
Overall Thoughts on Antifa
Anti-fascist organisations and groups are great. In America they're still pretty new in comparison to ones elsewhere, so they've messed up in places and will mess up again, but all in all they positively contribute quite a lot. That being said, I feel a lot of their tactics, while seeming obvious to the more radical of us, will seem as random violence by most, or at least many, people. To avoid this, we could possibly do more to explain to people the reasons why it's done. That is of course made easy with the internet, which is frequently used, but we should also be looking for mediums with greater audiences, such as mainstream television if possible.
Again, decent post - worth the read. This isn't really arguing against much said in the post, just a few developments on what you said really and a bit of my own views on Antifa.
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This is a pretty nice post detailing the contemporary Antifa movement and how useful they are to the left. Hope this post explodes.
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The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @fmlpanda to be original material and upvoted it!
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