Antifa (United States)

The English word antifa is a loanword from the German , where it is a shortened form of the word ("anti-fascist") and a nickname of (1932–1933), a short-lived group which inspired the wider antifa movement in Germany. The German word Antifa first appeared in 1930. The long form antifaschistisch was borrowed from the original Italian ("anti-fascists"). The pronunciation of the word in English is not settled as it may be stressed on either the first or the second syllable. Conservative writers such as L. Brent Bozell III associated the tactics of Black Lives Matter with those of antifa. In 2020, Politico reported that "the term [antifa] is a potent one for conservatives" because "[i]t's the violent distillation of everything they fear could come to pass in an all-out culture war. And it's a quick way to brand part of the opposition." Alexander Reid Ross, who teaches at Portland State University, argues that the popularization of the term antifa was a reaction to the popularization of the term alt-right, "to the point where [antifa] simply describes people who are anti-fascist or people who are against racism and are willing to protest against it." == Movement structure and ideology ==

Antifa is not a unified organization but rather a movement without a hierarchical leadership structure, comprising multiple autonomous groups and individuals. According to Mark Bray, "members [of antifa groups] hide their political activities from law enforcement and the far right" and "concerns about infiltration and high expectations of commitment keep the sizes of groups rather small." Bray adds that "[i]t's important to understand that antifa politics, and antifa's methods, are designed to stop white supremacists, fascists, and neo-Nazis as easily as possible." According to Bray, "they function in some ways like private investigators; they track neo-Nazi organizing across multiple social-media platforms." According to a member of a New York City antifa group, their group's identification research on whether an individual or group is "fascist, Alt Right, White Nationalist, etc." is "based on which groups they are a part of and endorse". While noting that "Nazis, fascists, white nationalists, anti-Semites and Islamophobes" are specific overlapping categories, the main focus is "on groups and individuals which endorse, or work directly in alliance with, white supremacists and white separatists. We try to be very clear and precise with how we use these terms." The antifa movement grew after the 2016 United States presidential election. As of August 2017, approximately 200 groups existed, of varying sizes and levels of activity. Individuals involved in the antifa movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian, In his 2017 article "The Rise of the Violent Left" for The Atlantic, Beinart writes that antifa activists "prefer direct action: They pressure venues to deny white supremacists space to meet. They pressure employers to fire them and landlords to evict them. And when people they deem racists and fascists manage to assemble, antifa's partisans try to break up their gatherings, including by force." the "vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent. But their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and preemptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly distinguishes them from liberal anti-racists." Despite antifa's opposition to the Democratic Party and liberalism, some right-wing commentators have accused their adherents of being aided by "liberal sympathizers", or of being "affiliated with the Democratic Party", According to CNN, "Antifa is short for anti-fascists. The term is used to define a broad group of people whose political beliefs lean toward the left -- often the far left -- but do not conform with the Democratic Party platform." The BBC notes that, "as their name indicates, Antifa focuses more on fighting far-right ideology than encouraging pro-left policy." Beinart argues that the 2016 election of Donald Trump vitalized the antifa movement and some on the mainstream left were more willing to support them as a tactical opposition. == History ==

Background When Italian dictator Benito Mussolini consolidated power under his National Fascist Party in the mid-1920s, an oppositional anti-fascist movement surfaced both in Italy and countries such as the United States. Many anti-fascist leaders in the United States were anarchist, socialist, and syndicalist émigrés from Italy with experience in labor organizing and militancy. Ideologically, antifa in the United States sees itself as the successor to anti-Nazi activists of the 1930s. European activist groups that originally organized to oppose World War II-era fascist dictatorships re-emerged in the 1970s and 1980s to oppose white supremacy and skinheads, eventually spreading to the United States. Their motto was "We go where they go", by which they meant that they would confront far-right activists in concerts and actively remove their materials from public places. In 2002, ARA disrupted a speech in Pennsylvania by Matthew F. Hale, the head of the white supremacist group World Church of the Creator, resulting in a fight and 25 arrests. Other antifa groups in the United States have other genealogies. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, a group called the Baldies was formed in 1987 with the intent to fight neo-Nazi groups directly. which has chapters throughout the United States. Other antifa groups are a part of different associations such as NYC Antifa or operate independently. Activities In a 2017 interview, Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the California State University, San Bernardino, said antifa activists feel the need to participate in violent actions because "they believe that elites are controlling the government and the media. So they need to make a statement head-on against the people who they regard as racist." According to National Public Radio, antifa's "approach is confrontational" and "people who speak for the Antifa movement acknowledge they sometimes carry clubs and sticks." Antifa activists also used clubs and dyed liquids against white supremacists in Charlottesville. a contributor to Vice and Reuters, and others. According to The Kansas City Star, police asked persons carrying firearms (including both antifa members and members of the far-right militia movement group Three Percenters) at a September 2017 rally in Kansas City to remove ammunition from their weapons. Apart from the other activities, antifa activists engage in mutual aid such as disaster response in the case of Hurricane Harvey. Antifa activists wear masks to hide their "identity from protestors on the other side (who might dox people they disagree with) or from police and cameras" and for philosophical reasons such as the beliefs that "hierarchies are bad and that remaining anonymous helps keep one's ego in check." Joseph Bernstein from BuzzFeed News says that antifa activists also wear masks because "they fear retribution from the far right and the cops, whom they believe are sympathetic if not outright supportive to fascists." When antifa became prominent in the news during the George Floyd protests and was accused of being responsible for much of the violence, a report in Vox stated that "[m]embers of antifa groups do more conventional activism, flyer campaigns, and community organizing, on behalf of anti-racist and anti-white nationalist causes", quoting Mark Bray as saying that this was the "vast majority" of what they did. In July 2020, The Guardian reported that "a California-based organizer and anti-fascist activist" stated she saw "Trump's claims about antifa violence, particularly during the George Floyd protests, as a message to his 'hardcore' supporters that it was appropriate to attack people who came out to protest." Notable actions Along with black bloc activists, antifa groups were among those who protested the 2016 election of Donald Trump. speaker Milo Yiannopoulos, where antifa gained mainstream attention, During the Berkeley protests on August 27, 2017, an estimated one hundred antifa and anarchist protesters joined a crowd of 2,000–4,000 other protesters to confront alt-right demonstrators and Trump supporters who showed up for a "Say No to Marxism" rally that had been cancelled by organizers due to security concerns. In November 2018, police investigated a left-wing group associated with antifa, Smash Racism D.C., following a protest by 12-20 people outside the home of The Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson, who they accused of being a racist and white supremacist. Activists of the group defaced the driveway of Carlson's property by spray-painting an anarchist symbol on it. 2025 Alvarado, Texas, incident Late in 2025, the US Department of Justice filed terrorism-related charges for a July 4 shooting outside the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, where a police officer was wounded. Prosecutors allege an "antifa cell" used fireworks and vandalism to draw out police before conducting a rifle attack. Nineteen individuals were ultimately charged, including seven alleged accessories. Officials said the case is the first time terrorism charges have been used against individuals for antifa activities. Five pleaded guilty in November 2025 to charges of providing material support to terrorists, an offense that can carry a maximum prison sentence of up to 15 years. The trial of nine others started in February 2026. Several defendants have disputed their alleged ties to antifa and said they believed they were attending a peaceful noise demonstration. On March 13, 2026, nine defendants were convicted by a Texas jury of "providing support to terrorists" while one defendant was convicted of the "attempted murder of a police officer." == Public reactions ==

Academics, scholars, and activists Historian Mark Bray, who has studied the antifa movement, stated in 2017 that "[g]iven the historical and current threat that white supremacist and fascist groups pose, it's clear to me that organized, collective self-defense is not only a legitimate response, but lamentably an all-too-necessary response to this threat on too many occasions." In 2017, Alexander Reid Ross, a lecturer in geography and an author on the contemporary right, argued that antifa groups represented "one of the best models for channeling the popular reflexes and spontaneous movements towards confronting fascism in organized and focused ways." In 2017, historian and Dissent magazine editor Michael Kazin wrote that "[n]on-leftists often see the left as a disruptive, lawless force. Violence tends to confirm that view." In 2017, veteran radical activist Noam Chomsky described antifa as "a major gift to the right", arguing that "the movement was self-destructive and constituted a tiny faction on the periphery of the left." Civil rights organizations In 2020, the ADL said that while there have been hundreds of murders by far-right groups in the last few decades, there has only been one suspected antifa-related murder. When Trump threatened to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization in 2020, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), called this dangerous and a threat to civil liberties. The SPLC also reported that antifa members "have been involved in skirmishes and property crimes, 'but the threat of lethal violence pales in comparison to that posed by far-right extremists. This assessment was replaced with one in 2019 which states that "Antifa is a movement that focuses on issues involving racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism, as well as other perceived injustices. The majority of Antifa members do not promote or endorse violence; however, the movement consists of anarchist extremists and other individuals who seek to carry out acts of violence in order to forward their respective agendas." In September 2017, Politico obtained confidential documents and interviews indicating that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) believed that "anarchist extremists" were the primary instigators of violence at public rallies against a range of targets in April 2016. testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the agency "considers antifa more of an ideology than an organization" which was later reiterated the same year in a September 17 remark to lawmakers. According to the Associated Press, Wray "did not dispute that antifa activists were a serious concern", stating that antifa was a "real thing" and that the FBI had undertaken "any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists", including into individuals who identify with antifa, whom the FBI identified as "a movement or an ideology" rather than as "a group or an organization". Members of Congress On August 29, 2017, Nancy Pelosi, then House Minority Leader for the Democratic Party, condemned the violence of antifa activists in Berkeley. In June 2020, Republican Senator Tom Cotton advocated using military force to quell nationwide protests against police brutality and racism, calling for the 101st Airborne Division to be deployed to combat what he called "Antifa terrorists". Cruz accused "Antifa protesters" of "organizing these acts of terror". In September 2020, Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden also condemned antifa violent actions, having already condemned violence across the political spectrum and expressed his support for peaceful protests. Trump administration First presidency (2017–2021) In August 2017, a petition was lodged with the White House petitioning system We the People calling upon President Donald Trump to formally classify "AntiFa" as terrorist. The White House responded in 2018 that federal law does not have a mechanism for formally designating domestic terrorist organizations. The writer of the petition later stated he had created it to "bring our broken right side together" and to "prop up antifa as a punching bag". Politico interviewed unidentified law enforcement officials who noted a rise in activity since the beginning of the Trump administration, particularly a rise in recruitment and on the part of the far right as well since the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. One internal assessment acknowledged an inability to penetrate the groups' "diffuse and decentralized organizational structure". By 2017, the FBI and the DHS reported that they were monitoring suspicious antifa activity in relation to terrorism. In May and June 2020, during the nationwide George Floyd protests following Floyd's murder, Attorney General William Barr blamed the violence on "anarchic and far left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics", and described the actions of "Antifa and other similar groups" as "domestic terrorism", echoing similar statements by National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien. In Twitter posts and other statements, Trump blamed "ANTIFA and the Radical Left" for violence, and repeatedly pledged that the federal government would designate antifa as a "Terrorist Organization". However, the president lacks the authority to do so because under existing law the federal government may designate only foreign organizations as terrorist and antifa is a loosely associated movement rather than a specific organization. Legal experts, among others, believe that designating antifa as a terrorist group would be unconstitutional, raising First Amendment and due process issues. In 2020, historian Mark Bray wrote that antifa cannot be designated as a terrorist organization because "[t]he groups are loosely organized, and they aren't large enough to cause everything Trump blames them for." Two days later, Barr claimed that "[w]e have evidence that antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity." However, the Trump administration has provided no evidence for its claims According to Bray, while "confident that some members of antifa groups have participated in a variety of forms of resistance" during the protests, it is "impossible to ascertain the exact number of people who belong to antifa groups." As of June 9, 2020, none of the 51 people facing federal charges were alleged to have links to antifa. As of September 16, 2020, no antifa or left-wing group has been charged in connection with the civil unrest. In an August 2020 interview, Trump asserted "people that are in the dark shadows" control his Democratic presidential opponent Joe Biden and then claimed that "we had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend, and in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that", adding that "they're people that are on the streets. They're people that are controlling the streets." Antifa activists commonly dress in black. Trump's remarks were similar to false social media rumors during preceding months that planes and buses full of antifa gangs were preparing to invade communities, allegedly funded by George Soros. Two days after Trump's remarks, Barr asserted he knew antifa activists "are flying around the country" and "we are following them". However, there is no evidence of any such flight. Brian Murphy, who was the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis until August 2020, asserted that DHS secretary Chad Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli instructed him "to modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with the public comments by President Trump on the subject of ANTIFA and 'anarchist' groups." On September 18, 2020, Trump publicly criticized FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and hinted that he could fire him over Wray's testimony about antifa and Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections. On September 25, 2020, the Trump campaign released details of a "Platinum Plan for Black America", under which Antifa and the Ku Klux Klan would be prosecuted as terrorist organizations. Second presidency (2025–present) On September 17, 2025, Trump announced plans to designate antifa as a "major terrorist organization". The announcement came a week after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Much like his attempt to do so in 2020, it is unclear how this would happen as the president lacks the authority to designate antifa as a terrorist organization. Legal experts once again expressed concerns about the first amendment and political suppression should it happen while others questioned whether such a designation would even have any impact. According to Mary B. McCord, the acting head of the DOJ's national security division during the Obama administration and the first Trump administration, "Trump can declare whatever he wants to declare, but there is no legal authority to actually designate a domestic group as a terrorist organization even assuming that antifa is an organization and not just an ideology. That means [Trump] declaring this has no legal impact. Certainly it does not trigger criminal terrorism charges, like providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization." On September 22, Trump filed an executive order intended to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, with the lack of a formal legal mechanism to do so. According to the executive order, the administration will "investigate, disrupt, and dismantle" individuals and groups associated with, or providing material support, to antifa. This resulted in a surge on white supremacist social media channels, urging them to target specific people and perceived antifa members. Legal experts questioned the move, citing the lack of any federal authority to designate domestic terror groups, the fact that antifa is a movement rather than an organization, and the first-amendment concerns raised by using federal power against a domestic movement. == Hoaxes and conspiracy theories ==

Conspiracy theories about antifa that tend to incorrectly portray antifa as an organization with leaders and secret sources of funding have been spread by right-wing activists, media organizations, and politicians, as well as the 2020 Trump campaign. #PunchWhiteWomen (2017) In August 2017, a #PunchWhiteWomen photo hoax campaign was spread by fake antifa Twitter accounts. Bellingcat researcher Eliot Higgins discovered an image of British actress Anna Friel portraying a battered woman in a 2007 Women's Aid anti-domestic violence campaign that had been re-purposed using fake antifa Twitter accounts organized by way of 4chan. The image is captioned "53% of white women voted for Trump, 53% of white women should look like this" and includes an antifa flag. Another image featuring an injured woman is captioned "She chose to be a Nazi. Choices have consequences" and includes the hashtag #PunchANazi. Higgins remarked to the BBC that "[t]his was a transparent and quite pathetic attempt, but I wouldn't be surprised if white nationalist groups try to mount more sophisticated attacks in the future". After the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, similar hoaxes falsely claimed that the shooter was an antifa "member"; another such hoax involved a fake antifa Twitter account praising the shooting. Another high-profile fake antifa account was banned from Twitter after it posted with a geotag originating in Russia. Such fake antifa accounts have been repeatedly reported on as real by right-leaning media outlets. The basis for the conspiracy theory was a series of protests against Donald Trump organized by the group Refuse Fascism. The protests passed off as planned without causing significant disruption. "Antifa Manual" (2017) A fake "Antifa Manual" has circulated online, debunked by Snopes in 2017. According to the ADL, the language used in the document appears designed to sow division and features many statements that do not align with the sentiments of anti-fascist organizers, often clumsily mimicking "left wing" rhetoric. The same images continued to be shared on social media in posts about the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, including a Twitter post by alt-lite conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec. 8chan list (2018) George Floyd protests (2020) During the nationwide George Floyd protests against police brutality and racism in May and June 2020, false claims of impending antifa activity circulated through social media platforms, causing alarm in at least 41 towns and cities. On May 31, 2020, @ANTIFA_US, a newly created Twitter account, attempted to incite violence relating to the protests. The next day, after determining that it was linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, Twitter suspended the fake account. The FBI's Washington Field Office report stated that members of a far-right group on social media had "called for far-right provocateurs to attack federal agents, use automatic weapons against protesters" during the D.C.-area protests over Floyd's murder on May 31, 2020. In May and June 2020, Lara Logan repeatedly promoted hoaxes as part of Fox News' coverage of antifa, including publishing a false document she described as an antifa battle plan and claiming that a joke about juggalos was evidence of a clandestine antifa hierarchy. In June 2020, in an appearance on Fox News's The Ingraham Angle, Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed that "Antifa" as well as "Black Lives Matter" and unspecified communists were working together to "do away with our system of courts" and "take your property away and give it to other people", asserting without evidence that they receive significant funding from an outside source. Giuliani had previously criticized George Soros, who has been a frequent target of conspiracy theories, claiming he funded such groups and demonstrations. In June 2020, the California Highway Patrol's air unit launched a search for "antifa buses" in response to Instagram and Facebook posts showing a van with the slogan "Black Lives Matter" written on it. Later in June 2020, a multiracial family on a camping trip in Forks, Washington, were accused of being antifa activists, harassed and trapped in their campsite when trees were felled to block the road. In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, groups of armed right-wing vigilantes occupied streets in response to false rumors that antifa activists were planning to travel to the city while similar rumors led to threats being made against activists planning peaceful protests in Sonora, California. In Klamath Falls, Oregon, hundreds of people, most of whom were armed, assembled in response to false rumors that antifa activists would target the city, spread by a commander in the Oregon Air National Guard. Although this has been described as "clearly a ploy to associate the Democratic Party with antifa", some on the right seized upon it. A 2021 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) internal report found that senior DHS officials had sought to portray the 2020 protests in Portland, Oregon, without evidence, as an organized effort by antifa to attack government institutions, and had ordered staff to characterize protests as "Violent Antifa Anarchist Inspired". A 2020 study by Zignal Labs found that unsubstantiated claims of antifa involvement were one of three dominant themes in misinformation and conspiracy theories around the protests, alongside claims that Floyd's murder had been faked and claims of involvement by George Soros. Some of the opposition to antifa activism has also been artificial in nature. Nafeesa Syeed of Bloomberg News reported that "[t]he most-tweeted link in the Russian-linked network followed by the researchers was a petition to declare Antifa a terrorist group". Capitol attack (2021) Immediately after the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, a false claim that it was a false flag operation staged by antifa to implicate Trump supporters was spread by a number of Trump loyalists including Representative Mo Brooks, Mark Burns, Lou Dobbs, California State Senate minority leader Shannon Grove, Laura Ingraham, Mike Lindell, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, actor Kevin Sorbo, Eric Trump, and L. Lin Wood. Representative Paul Gosar was the first member of Congress to claim that people associated with antifa were responsible for the attack. During Trump's second impeachment trial, his attorney Michael van der Veen stated that "One of the first people arrested was the leader of antifa." In posts on Parler, leaders of the Proud Boys had disclosed plans to attend the rally wearing "all black" clothing associated with antifa activists and arrive "incognito" in an apparent effort to shift blame for any violence on antifa. A false claim that a facial recognition software company had identified participants in the incursion as antifa activists originated in a report by Rowan Scarborough published in The Washington Times, and was promoted on the U.S. House floor by Representative Matt Gaetz. The Washington Times retracted the story and issued a correction the next day. The FBI said there was no evidence of antifa involvement in the mob incursion. The conspiracy was also promoted by Republican Senator Ron Johnson. A poll released in February 2021 by the American Enterprise Institute found that 30% of Americans (including 50% of Republicans and 20% of Democrats) believe antifa was mostly responsible for the violence that happened in the riots at the U.S. Capitol. == Analyses and studies ==

Questions on how effective antifa is, and whether it is a reasonable response, In relation to the events of the Unite the Right rally, a 2018 study conducted by professor of criminology Gary LaFree on the link between antifa and terrorism concluded that "while the events share many characteristics of terrorist attacks", the actions by antifa supporters during this event "do not include all of the elements of terrorism required by the GTD". Whereas it fulfilled the requirements of an action led by "sub-national actors" with "violence or threat of violence", it lacked in particular the "intentionality of the incident", that is the "result of a conscious calculation on the part of the perpetrators". According to the database, there were no murders linked to antifa or anti-fascism since 1994. The only death resulting from an anti-fascist attack recorded in the database was that of Willem van Spronsen, who was shot dead by police while allegedly firebombing a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Tacoma, Washington, in 2019. In contrast, the study highlighted the fact that 329 people were killed by American white supremacists or other right-wing extremists during the same period. In July 2020, Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said: "Antifa is not going around murdering people like rightwing extremists are. It's a false equivalence. I've at times been critical of antifa for getting into fights with Nazis at rallies and that kind of violence, but I can't think of one case in which an antifa person was accused of murder." Reinoehl was charged by Portland police with second-degree murder and was later shot and killed by a federally led fugitive task force near Lacey, Washington. Reinoehl self-identified as antifa but was not associated with Rose City Antifa or the Portland-based anti-fascist organization Popular Mobilization. == See also ==