ANTIFA Archives - Public Seminar

Activism

Why Street Fighting Is No Way to Resist Fascism

The French left’s popular front strategy from the 1930s is a better way to resist the far right

October 15, 2020 • by Mitchell Abidor

It is almost futile to try to pinpoint the ideological underpinnings of antifa. Natasha Lennard in her writings speaks of Foucault and “microfascisms,” but in America, antifa groups seem to be inspired more by the anarchist Hakim Bey and his proposal to create “temporary autonomous zones.” Mark Bray, in ...

Why Street Fighting Is No Way to Resist Fascism

Democracy

Ghosts of Weimar

Is factual accuracy even the point when it comes to the discourse of antifascism?

October 15, 2020 • by Anton Shekhovtsov

Alexander Yanov, the emigré historian of Russia and Russian nationalism, was critical of major Western approaches towards post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s. He criticized the "devious simplicity" of the Western logic holding that, because a non-market Russia had been the West’s sworn enemy, a free-market Russia would become its partner. ...

Interviews

On Fascism, Non-fascism, and Antifa

Natasha Lennard in conversation with James Miller

October 15, 2020 • by Natasha Lennard and James Miller

JM: Since you've written an entire book with the title Essays on a Non-Fascist Life, can you tell me a bit about how you chose that title, and what the term "non-fascist" means to you, in the context of those essays? We both know the appearance of the phrase in the context ...

Activism

Varieties of Antifascism

Russian notes towards a global debate

October 15, 2020 • by Mischa Gabowitsch

_____ A question may bе raised as to why, if we wish to explore new resources for combating fascism, we do not give as much attention to the "potential antifascist." The answer is that we do study trends that stand in opposition to fascism, but we do not conceive that they ...

Feature

Against the “Diversity of Tactics”

Why Antifa Street Fighting Is Not a Strategy to Defeat Fascism

August 29, 2019 • by Leo Casey

As democratic socialists we have always been anti-fascists, because the essence of fascism -- its authoritarianism, its racism, its misogyny, its homophobia and its suppression of independent unions, political freedom and civil liberties -- runs completely counter to the principles and moral values that are most important to us. The ...

Democracy

Further Thoughts on Antifa

Counter-Violence is not Self-Defense

August 26, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

On the one hand, my piece has generated some interesting discussions, the main point of contention of which centers on the question of whether “Antifa” is a form of self-defense in response to the presence of dangerous and armed racists. On the other hand, “antifascist” organizing continues apace in Bloomington. A rump market ...

Democracy

Antifa Is Not a Terrorist Organization

But That Doesn’t Make It Good

August 20, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Simultaneously, racism and white supremacism have assumed a new importance. President Donald Trump is a virulent racist and demagogue who consorts with white supremacists, praises them, gives them aid and comfort, and even includes them as high-ranking members of his campaign (Steve Bannon) and administration (Stephen Miller). The mass murder ...

Feature

Unite the Right #2

Rally in DC doesn’t even unite the counter-protestors

August 18, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

When Unite the Right announced it would hold a rally across from the White House on the August 12 anniversary of its 2017 rally in Charlottesville VA, it caused a lot of consternation. Violence had permeated the 2017 event, resulting in the death of a counter protestor. Several organizations and coalitions ...

Feature

Antifa vs. Nazis: Where Has All The Violence Gone?

Despite warnings of precipitating a nascent civil war, antifascist violence has ended with the retreat of the far right

June 21, 2018 • by Mike Isaacson

Another weekend has passed with a little noted gathering of fascists away from public view and with minimal confrontation between them and antifa. On a small peninsula in Montgomery Bell Park in Tennessee, two white nationalist organizations: the American Freedom Party and the Council of Conservative Citizens, held a joint conference. Like many ...

Antifa vs. Nazis: Where Has All The Violence Gone?

Feature

Antifa, Cultural Appropriation, and Income Inequality – LIVE!

Past Present: Episode 101

September 26, 2017 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Natalia, Niki, and Neil debate the historical origins of Antifa, cultural appropriation, and the role of contract labor in an unequal society.

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Antifa, Cultural Appropriation, and Income Inequality – LIVE!

Feature

What Berkeley Needs is a Non-Violent Containment Squad

Reflections from a civil rights veteran

September 8, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

Those reports took me back to the 1960s when I was doing voter registration for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and marching against segregation in Birmingham and Mississippi. Then, we were the equivalent of the "fascists" that Antifa and the black bloc are beating up in Berkeley. They called us Communists, ...