Antifa () is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It consists of a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups that use nonviolent direct action, incivility, or violence to achieve their aims. Antifa political activism includes non-violent methods such as poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also use tactics involving digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage. Supporters of the movement aim to combat far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Individuals involved in the movement subscribe to a range of left-wing ideologies, and tend to hold anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-state views. A majority of individuals involved are anarchists, communists, and socialists who describe themselves as revolutionaries, and have little allegiance to liberal democracy, although some social democrats also participate in the antifa movement. The name antifa and the logo with two flags representing anarchism and communism are derived from the German antifa movement. Dartmouth College historian Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, credits Anti-Racist Action (ARA) as the precursor of modern antifa groups in the United States.
The American antifa movement grew after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016. Antifa activists' actions have since received support and criticism from various organizations and pundits. Some on the political left and some civil rights organizations criticize antifa's willingness to adopt violent tactics, which they describe as counterproductive and dangerous, arguing that these tactics embolden the political right and their allies. Both Democratic and Republican politicians have condemned violence from antifa. Many right-wing politicians and groups have characterized antifa as a domestic terrorist organization or use antifa as a catch-all term for any left-leaning or liberal protest actions. Some scholars claim that antifa is a legitimate response to the rise of the far-right. Scholars tend to reject an equivalence between antifa and right-wing extremism. Research suggests that most antifa action is nonviolent.
There have been numerous efforts to discredit antifa by various right-wing groups and individuals. Some have been done via hoaxes on social media, many of them false flag operations originating from alt-right and 4chan users posing as antifa backers on Twitter; some hoaxes have been picked up and portrayed as fact by right-leaning media and politicians. There were repeated calls by Donald Trump and William Barr to designate antifa as a terrorist organization. Academics, legal experts, and others have argued such an action would exceed the authority of the presidency and violate the First Amendment. Several analyses, reports, and studies have concluded that antifa is not a major domestic terrorism risk.
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