Antifa is the abbreviated term for anti-fascism, which names a political movement dedicated to fighting fascism around the world.
Antifa is a movement in which people or groups are vocally opposed to all forms of manifestation of fascism, such as active militancy of a political party or movement that has in its ideology the support of prejudice or social, economic, cultural and racial.
How did the antifa movement come about?
The antifa movement emerged in the 1920s, from the formation of a group of people that became known as the Communist International of the Soviet Union (Comintern or Komintern in German). The group began to organize itself during the Third World Congress in Moscow in 1921.
The main objective of creating the Comintern was to bring together left groups to try to organize a communist revolution.
The following year, during the Fourth World Congress in Moscow, the Communist International brought together left-wing parties and began to strengthen its ideology against fascism.
Characteristics of the Antifa movement
Even if the Antifa movement is classified as a left or far left organization, its supporters they only antagonize the far-right ideology, without promoting initiatives that determine another system political. That is, it is a movement that positions itself as anti-fascism.
The movement is also not intended to participate in elections or influence the approval of laws and their strategies are based on tactics that are supported by a strong discourse against the capitalism.
Actions that look more like the anarchist movement than the traditional left are also used. A good example of this is the fact that antifa have already considered violence to be a valid method when carrying out popular protests.
Antifa currently have groups spread across different countries and the most active are in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. The German group, for example, is one of the oldest anti-fascist groups in the world. It was founded in 1932 as an extreme left group that made opposition to Nazism, which lasted from 1933 to 1945.
This group was eventually disarticulated by Adolf Hitler until returning in the late 1980s, as a response to the emergence of neo-Nazi groups after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
See more about the Nazism and about the Berlin Wall.
Antifa in Brazil
In Brazil, the Antifa movement began in São Paulo in 1933 with the creation of Antifascist Unity Front (FUA), who opposed the integralism that was born in the country. Integralism was a political movement considered to be on the far right.
The antifa groups were mainly made up of trade unionists, anarchists and communists from various small groups who were also against integration ideas. Also part of the FUA were members of the Brazilian Socialist Party and the Communist League.
Today there are antifascist groups spread across Brazil. In some places these groups are well articulated, but in other regions of the country the population knows little about fascism and there are no local antifa groups.
See also the meanings of Fascism and Fascist and know the main characteristics of fascism.