O antifascism is a way of acting adopted by some social movements and aims to combat the advance of fascism and far-right political groups. It usually brings together people identified with leftist currents – socialists, communists and anarchists – to act against the growth of the fascist movement, mainly through direct action.
It emerged during the 1920s and 1930s in the context in which Fascism was advancing in Italy and Nazism advancing in Germany. The anti-fascist groups that originated in these places have failed, but this form of resistance has appeared elsewhere and continues to act against this political ideology today.
Accessalso: O nazism is right or left?
What does antifascism represent?
Antifascism is not understood as a political movement, but as a a form of action that individuals and social movements adopt. Also known as "antifas”, contemporary antifascists carry out their political struggle through direct action.
![Anti-fascism represents a form of action that defends the struggle against fascism and the extreme right.[1]](/f/8dce0d7e926453f602d5d5836aa7c81b.jpg)
THE actiondirect it is a form of political action in which people who are willing to debate a subject come together to propose improvements to the society and to find ways to repress behaviors that are reprehensible and that put other people in risk. It is a measure of autonomous action and usually takes place without the involvement of large political parties.
Antifascists, in general, are linked with political ideologies of the left, which are the anarchism, O socialism it's the communism. These groups were the ones who coordinated the creation of antifascism in the 1920s and 1930s in the struggle against the totalitarianismfascist and Nazi on the European continent.
Currently, anti-fascism has extended its field of struggle and does not limit its action only against fascists, but against all extreme right-wing political practices. In addition, it stands against political groups that pose threats to certain groups in society, such as immigrants, homosexuals and blacks, who are constantly threatened by neo-Nazis and supremacists.
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When did anti-fascism come about?
Antifascism was a response to the growth of fascism in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. The first significant anti-fascist experiences took place in Italy and Germany, countries that had the greatest fascist regimes in history. However, historian Mark Bray claims that we can identify a movement “proto-antifascist"in France, at the end of the 19th century|1|.
In the French context, the country was being shaken by the trial of captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish military man who was accused of divulging military secrets from France to Germany. The charge against Dreyfus was false, but it was a strong indication of the growth of the anti-Semitism, not only in France, but throughout Europe.
In France, small groups of Dreyfus defenders were formed, who occupied the streets to defend themselves against anti-Semitic groups that carried out attacks in France. This French moment was a prelude to what would happen in Europe in the following decades. When fascism took Italy and Nazism advanced in Germany, anti-fascism organized itself.
Fascism was structured on the European continent since the second half of the 19th century, but these were the conditions given by the context of the post-First World War that allowed this political ideology to take hold. The factors responsible for the rise of fascism were resentments with the results of the First War, the economic crisis that hit some countries, the fear of the advance of socialism and the desire to expansion imperialist.
Shortly after World War I, several militarized groups arose with Tendenciesultranationalists, conservativeThes andanti-Semites. In the Italian scene, Benito Mussolini led the Fascio di Combattimento, created in 1919, and, in Germany, adolf hitler he led the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
The antifascist groups that emerged in Italy and Germany were formed by action of social democrats, socialists, communists and anarchists, who found in antifascism a way to defend themselves against the fascist advance. Anti-fascism in these countries was a form of self-defense because the violence promoted by the fascists against these groups was so great.
In these two countries, the growth of fascist policies occurred through the action of militarized groups that persecuted and attacked their political opponents (leftist groups in general). In Italy, fascist violence was carried out by gangs of black shirts, also known as squadrist. In Germany, in turn, this violence was carried out by the tclothes of Thejump, a Sturmabteilung or SA.
This violence was channeled against socialists, communists and anarchists, mainly, and the fear of many groups in society with socialism, as liberals who were part of the middle classes and economic elites, made this violence well received. However, over time, the fascists gained enough strength to turn even against the liberals who supported the attacks on the socialists. Now we will see how the anti-fascist resistance took place in these two places.
Accessalso: How did fascists come to power in Italy?
Antifascism in Italy
Fascist violence in Italy was the path found by Benito Mussolini to boost the growth of his political group, the Fascio di Combattimento. He knew how to use the violence of the squadrist to ensure the growth of fascism and also knew how to control it to gain space in traditional politics.
Post-World War I Italy was experiencing great political turmoil due to resentment of the few gains from World War I, economic crisis and the rise of socialists. All this gave rise to the fascists, a group that formed militias to attack socialists in central and northern Italy, mainly.
In these places, fascists attacked people who participated in strikes carried out by socialists and offices ridden by these, in addition to attacking and threatening them, forcing many to flee their cities to ensure their safety. With that, fascism stopped being a movement with hundreds of followers in 1919 and became a middle party with thousands of followers and with seats in the Italian Parliament.
O rise of fascism and its violence caused an anti-fascist reaction in Italy. These reactions were spontaneous and came from groups of workers, trade unionists, socialists, among others, who organized and acquired weapons to defend themselves. Italy's most significant antifascist experience was the Arditi del Popolo, led by argoSecondari.
This Italian anti-fascist action was autonomous and had no party links, because the parties of left in Italy did not accept autonomous experiences and did not approve of the proposed armed resistance fur scheming. The Arditists formed veritable military forces and carried out large street fights against the fascists.
The strength of Arditism, however, lasted for only a year, as fascism was politically consolidated, possessing material wealth and legitimacy in the view of a portion of the Italian population. Furthermore, the political structure of the Italian left had already been severely destroyed by the fascists. When Mussolini came to power in 1922, state force was used to crush anti-fascist resistance.
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antifascism in germany
O german case it was somewhat different from the Italian case because the anti-fascist resistance in Germany was, in some cases, directly controlled by the country's major parties. O Nazism it emerged in Germany as a result of resentment of defeat in World War I, the economic crisis, ultranationalism, anti-Semitism, and conspiracy.
![Anti-fascism in Germany emerged as self-defense from attacks carried out by the assault troops, the SA.[2]](/f/bb397575812be130b2c53c6da077bed0.jpg)
You Nazis, like the fascists, used violence to fight their enemies. In the German context, in addition to socialists, communists and anarchists, social democrats and Jews were also persecuted. The revolutionary upheaval in post-World War I Germany was gigantic and the Nazis took advantage of it.
Nazism had assault troops, known in German as stombteilung (or SA), who were responsible for attacking the enemies of Nazism as a way of intimidating them. Throughout the 1920s, the Nazi party was growing and ensuring more space in German politics. The more it grew, the greater the violence.
The German left even sought to carry out actions to ensure greater presence among ex-combatants (one of the groups that filled the most the Nazi ranks), but disagreements between different groups on the left prevented a more organized reaction. arise. Thus, in 1928, Nazism already had 60,000 members|1|.
That same year, the Nazis' paramilitary forces began to invade neighborhoods of socialists and communists and attacking meeting places of groups from the left. A symbolic case was carried out by HorstWessel, an SA member who led an attack on the headquarters of the German Communist Party. Wessel was eventually attacked by the Communists and died on February 23, 1930.
It was the rise of Nazi violence that led left groups to organize a antifascist resistance, especially from 1929 onwards. Even with the resistance, the number of communists killed grew from 1930 onwards. At least 171 Communists were killed between 1930 and 1932.|2|
The anti-fascist reaction in Germany had the involvement of different groups, which were formed in order to position themselves as a front of resistance to Nazism. One of them was the Alliance of Red Front Combatants, a RoterFrontkämpferbund, which formed militias to attack taverns that served as the SA meeting point.
Another anti-fascist group that was created was the Steel Front, controlled by the German Social Democratic Party, but it took a more restrained action. The most expressive antifascist group in Germany in that context was the well-known Actionantifascist, a anti-fashionistaction, created by the German Communist Party.
The aim of Anti-Fascist Action was to create a front that could bring together Communists and Social Democrats in the struggle against Nazism. It was this group that developed the symbol used by contemporary antifascists. There were, however, two differences.
The two flags present on the German anti-fascist symbol were colored red.
The flags were turned to the right.
Antifascism in Germany, like that in Italy, failed, but generated considerable backlash. Richard J. Evans says that around 143 Nazis from the paramilitary forces were killed in fighting with anti-fascist militias between 1930 and 1932|2|. O failed occurred because the resistance german started too late.
Nazism was already very influential in 1930, being the second largest party in Germany and therefore had more resources to employ in the fight against the anti-fascists. When the Nazis came to power in January 1933, Hitler used the Gestapo to pursue and destroy anti-fascist cells in the country.
Accessalso: Main Nazi concentration camps
contemporary anti-fascism
We have seen that anti-fascism emerged in the context of the emergence of far-right totalitarian dictatorships. THE defeat of nazi-fascism during the Second World War it did not mean the end of these ideologies. They continued to exist, however in a very marginalized way. This picture, however, has changed radically in the 21st century, as the neo-fascists adopted another strategy, which has made the fascist ideals gain strength in the world.
Anti-fascism continued to act in the struggle against fascism, but from the second half of the 20th century onwards, it adopted the struggle against the extreme right as part of the movement as well. Contemporary anti-fascism was divided by Mark Bray into two moments: the first, which extended from 1945 to 2003, and the second, which extended from 2003 to the present day.|1|.
In addition to the struggle against the far right, modern anti-fascism has embraced new agendas, including ideals anti-racists andanti-capitalists, besides going out in women's defense and of the LGBTI rightss, etc. At that time, open confrontation against fascist and far-right groups remained a tactic employed in many places.
Modern antifascists have begun to draw inspiration from autonomist groups, that is, those who defend the self-managementSocial as a form of political organization of society. THE anti-racist fight it became a fundamental element of the anti-fascists, since, from the 1960s onwards, fascism was directly associated with anti-immigration agendas and with groups of supremacists.
It was this agenda that made groups like the Asian Youth Movement, O UnitedBlackyouthleague it's the rockagainstracism arise in England; O RaRa arise in Holland; it's the Anti-Racist Action (ARA) in the United States. Some of these movements had a direct connection with the punk movement, and the physical confrontation against supremacists and fascists was a frequent weapon.
The change of strategy of the fascists from the 21st century on made these forms of combat lose effectiveness, in addition to the strengthening of neo-fascist movements in different locations of the world.
Currently, neo-fascism has been hiding in the right-wing populism. In general, neo-fascists deny a direct association with fascist symbols and ideals, but, in practice, the tactics, defend the same ideals and secretly have admiration for supremacists and well-known figures of Nazism and fascism.
In Europe and the United States, neo-fascism is directly linked with anti-immigration, racist and Islamophobic ideals, gaining a lot of space in politics because, as there is no direct and public association of populists from the right with Nazi-fascism, many fail to identify this element in the ideology of the neo-fascists.
This scenario in which neo-fascists are in parties that win popular support and are legitimized within of the political debate makes the old tactics – open confrontation and the occupation of spaces – to be ineffective. Some antifascist groups have used the doxxing, the exposure of personal information about fascists, this being a way of reaching them by publicly demonstrating their connection with fascist or neo-Nazi groups.
Even so, there is a certain difficulty for modern anti-fascist groups in finding ways to combat this growth of the far right and neo-fascism. Although the anti-fascist movement is still small in number, the new threat from the far right and the fascism has stimulated the growth of the anti-fascist reaction in Europe, North America and also in the Brazil.
Grades
|1| BRAY, Mark. Antifa: the antifascist manual. São Paulo: Literary Autonomy, 2019.
|2| EVANS, Richard J. The arrival of the Third Reich. São Paulo: Planet, 2016, p. 337.
Image credits:
[1]Paul M. Driftmier and Shutterstock
[2]Everett Historical and Shutterstock
