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· 02 Nov 2021

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What exactly is Antifa? Is it a movement or a concept, and what are the goals of supporters?

Since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, Antifa has witnessed a steady growth in media coverage. Antifa is frequently portrayed by Republicans as a well-organized group of "terrorists" worthy of inclusion on national watch lists. Antifa members are blamed for rioting and looting by right-wing media.
However, much of what politicians say about Antifa is inaccurate.
Here's what Antifa means?
What it is still not, and where it is?
Things you should know:
Antifa is neither a well-organized movement nor a concept. Antifa is a loose coalition of grassroots activists from the United States and a few other nations.
The term "Antifa" is short for "anti-fascist," and it is used by both supporters and opponents of fascism.
People that identify as Antifa are renowned for what they oppose rather than what they support:
Fascism, nationalism, far-right beliefs, supremacism, dictatorship, discrimination, homophobia, and intolerance are examples of fascism, nationalism, and far-right ideologies. Some anti-fascists also criticize capitalism and the government as a whole.
Antifa supporters are mostly on the left of the political spectrum. President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party, or its officials are not linked with Antifa. Antifa has been slammed by Vice President Joe Biden, who has called the violence "unacceptable."
Antifa's methods have ranged from tracking and openly labeling alt-right members to violently attacking opponents.

What Difference Does It Make?
Few people believe Trump will go ahead and designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. For instance, aside from vandalism and fistfights, there have been few incidents of genuine violence associated with the movement. Any neighborhood gang, by that metric, would be considered a domestic terrorist danger. Despite the lack of homegrown terrorism law in the United States, there is an underlying statute that the president might utilize to penalize Antifa. Trump might issue a new presidential order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, which has never happened before in American history. However, if Trump is really about labeling a violent extremist group for the first time, there are a slew of other groups that would make more sense than Antifa, as previously indicated.



Who are the Antifa members?
It is impossible to estimate the number of people who consider themselves to be members. The movement's supporters acknowledge that it is covert, has no formal leaders, and is organized into independent local cells. It's also just one of a slew of activist groups that have banded together in recent years to combat the far right.
"Attempting to throw a milkshake is not the same as killing someone," Professor Ben-Ghiat remarked in an interview last year, "but because the people in power are aligned with the right, any provocation, any opposition against right-wing violence, backfire."
According to a University of Maryland-led terrorism research consortium, religious extremists were responsible for 53% of terrorist attacks in the United States between 2010 and 2016, with right-wing extremists accounting for 35% and left-wing or environmentalist extremists accounting for 12%.
Militancy on the side can "become an excuse for those in power and their right-wing friends to retaliate," according to Professor Ben-Ghiat. " In these cases, the left, or Antifa, is usually installed in impossible situations."
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