Ignore the Antifa at Your Own Peril

Ignore the antifa at your own peril. 

While most of the media is focusing on the neo-Nazis and their responsibility in the violence in Charlottesville over the weekend, escaping attention is the role of the antifa. Perhaps more precisely, anyone who points out how the antifa contributed to the violence in Charlottesville is being shouted down angrily. This is despite clear evidence that the antifa was there, in force, armed, wearing helmets and body armor, spewing their own hate, and instigating violence. 

What is the antifa?  It is a loose organization of violent leftist extremist groups who share a disdain for law and order. They claim to be anti-racism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-globalism and anti-capitalism. Their one true organizing principle is that they are anarchists. 

They are anarchists because they do not trust government and its institutions. Rather, government is viewed as a tool to empower fascism, authoritarianism, capitalism and racism. So, the antifa operate outside the law, using violence and the threat of violence to impose their own belief of what society should be. The antifa don't ask permission. They start by threatening. If the threats don't work, they show up, in large numbers, and ready to engage in violence. 

The name is short for anti-fascists. Some claim that their roots go back to the 1930s in Europe, when fascism was on the rise. Others say that the current crop of antifa started in the 1980s, and took the name from the groups that preceded them in the 1930s. The movement began in Europe, but has since spread to the United States. 

The antifa is not the name of a single group. It is more of an organizing principle. The extremist groups use social media, websites, list-serves and other high tech media to communicate. They target conservative speakers and events. They intimidate venues with threats of violence to compel the cancellation of the events. When the intimidation doesn't work, they descend on the event in numbers to violently disrupt it. 

This year has seen an explosion of hate-filled antifa tactics. It started with Donald Trump's inauguration, when hate-filled antifa thugs, clad in black, smashed windows and set cars on fire in Washington. 

The tactics continued in Berkeley, when the antifa rioted in the streets of the liberal college town, setting fires, to protest a planned event featuring far-right wing speaker Milo Yoannopoulos. With this violence fresh in their minds, UC - Berkeley later cancelled a speaking engagement featuring conservative columnist Ann Coulter. 

In April, merely the threat of hundreds of unruly antifa member, ready to brawl, caused the cancellation of the annual Rose Parade, all because the local Republican Party had a tradition of marching. 

The tactics are to label their opponents as fascists or authoritarians. Once so labeled, the antifa clamp down on free speech, threatening harm to venues that dare allow the exchange of ideas the antifa deem repugnant. 

The antifa lurk in the shadows. They cover their faces with t-shirts, bandannas or masks, in a tactic known as "black bloc," to avoid identification. They thrive in anonymity. After all, they are committing acts of lawlessness, and could face repercussions for it. 

The ACLU of Virginia documented the antifa's presence and antagonism in Charlottesville. Many were clad in black, covered their faces, and sported helmets, body armor and weapons, in a show of intimidation. They shouted encouragements to the counter-protesting crowd, to initiate fights with the white supremacist protestors. Video footage caught the antifa beating protestors to the ground. Witnesses saw the antifa throwing rocks and bottles, just as the neo-Nazi protestors did. To be clear, the antifa descended on Charlottesville with the intent of creating a violent disruption to an event that had received a legal permit to proceed. 

Ignoring the antifa and their role in Charlottesville has only emboldened them. It is believed that the antifa took part in the unlawful destruction of public property in Durham, North Carolina, just days after the tragic events in Charlottesville. Seeing Charlottesville as a success, the antifa are likely to continue their reign of brutality, attempting to suppress the free expression of those whose ideas they find disagreeable. 

But for now, the antifa's targets are symbols of the Confederacy and the white supremacists who defend those symbols. By some in the media, and in the public, they are being viewed as heroes for opposing racism. Their bend toward lawless violence and vandalism is excused, or even justified, because of their targets. But the antifa answers to no external control. Allies today could easily be labeled authoritarians tomorrow and targeted for acrimonious savagery. Their tactic is to apply labels, manipulate the emotional baggage attached to those labels, and incite hate against their targets. 

To be clear, neo-Nazis came to Charlottesville in a show of aggression and intimidation that is repugnant to civil society. The white supremacists and neo-Nazis are a band of lawless thugs and deserve condemnation for their actions. But, By failing to recognize the role of the antifa in Charlottesville, society has chosen either to ignore a dangerous group of radical extremists, or worse, to justify its actions because at least it opposed hate and bigotry. This time. But there is no virtue in opposing hate, bigotry and lawlessness with more hate, bigotry and lawlessness. It only creates a never-ending cycle where civil society spirals out of control, and law and order is supplanted by private vigilanteism. The antifa need to be opposed and rooted out just as much as the white supremacists. 

William J. Kovatch, Jr.

References

Andrew Beale and Sonner Kehrt, "Behind Berkeley's Semester of Hate," New York Times (August 4, 2017).

Peter Beinart, "The Rise of the Violent Left," The Atlantic (September 2017). 

Doug Brown, "82nd Avenue Parade of the Roses Cancelled After Threats of Political Protest, Violence," Portland Mercury (April 25, 2017).

Brenna Cammeron, "Antifa: Left-Wing Militants on the Rise," BBC News (August 14, 2017).

Edmund Kozale, "The Shadowy Extremist Group Behind the Anti-Trump Riots: Antifa Flies UNder the Radar Despite Escalating Acts of Violence Against President's Supporters," Lifezette.com (April 24, 2017).

Katie Mettler, "Portland Rose Parade Canceled After 'Antifascists' Threaten GOP Marchers," Washington Post (April 27, 2017).

Christina Silva, "What Is the Antifa?  Anti-Fascists Protestors and White Power Groups Were Battling Long Before Charlottesville," Newsweek (August 13, 2017).

Patrick Strickland, "US Anti-Fascists: 'We Can Make Racists Afraid Again,'" Al Jazeera, February 21, 2017).

Ian Tuttle, "The Roots of Left-Wing Violence," National Review (June 5, 2017).

Dave Weigel, "Fear of 'Violent Left' Preceded Events in Charlottesville," Washington Post (August 13, 2017).