What is Anti-Fascism?
It's a political philosophy, an organizing principle, and a way of life!
There are a lot of popular myths and misconceptions about anti-fascism.
Captain Leif Iron-Leg is passionate about educating the public about anti-fascism, to empower more people to engage with anti-fascist action in their own lives.
What does it mean to be anti-fascist?
WHAT IS ANTI-FASCISM?
Anti-fascism is an illiberal, no-tolerance approach to addressing the problem of fascist movements as they emerge in a society or community. Any action or organizing that directly opposes fascism without relying on intervention by the state can be considered anti-fascism. Media portrayals of anti-fascism often depict black-clad protesters engaged in fights with far-right groups. This is only a small part of what anti-fascism can be. Although anti-fascism sometimes involves punching Nazis, it can also involve everyday activities, such as writing a "letter to the editor" or making a phone call.
WHO ARE ANTI-FASCISTS?
Anti-fascists are people who take action to oppose fascism. Literally anyone can be an anti-fascist! There is no official organization or governing body of anti-fascists keeping membership records; a person becomes an anti-fascist simply by believing that fascism is bad, and choosing to do something about it!
WHY BE ANTI-FASCIST?
The lessons of history are clear: fascist movements cause immeasurable harm, wherever and whenever they appear. On the national or societal scale, when fascists come to power they cause death and suffering to countless innocent people. Even if they do not hold significant political power, fascist individuals and organizations make communities less safe. The horrors of Nazi Germany, as described by those who survived the ghettos and the concentration camps, are probably the most familiar example of the inhumanity of fascism. Through careful study of history, in particular the early rise of fascist movements at the beginning of the 20th century, it becomes clear that liberal institutions of the state are unwilling and unable to stop fascism from emerging and rising to power. Therefore anti-fascists believe that ordinary people can and should take action to stop the proliferation of fascist movements and ideas. Because fascism and its consequences are intolerable, anti-fascists organize with the goal of making the public platforming of fascist ideas and the maintenance of fascist organizing impossible. By making it impossible for fascists to organize openly, anti-fascists seek to prevent fascists from gaining ground and building power.
WHY NOT DEBATE FASCISTS AND PROVE THEM WRONG?
Fascism is not a logical or consistent set of beliefs, and therefore it isn't something that can be defeated through debate. Calls for fascists to be defeated through "civil debate" are based on a misunderstanding of what fascism is and how it proliferates. Fascists arrive at their beliefs through irrational feelings of hatred, not through logic, so they cannot be persuaded with logic to change their minds. When fascists claim to want dialogue and debate, they are being disingenuous; what they actually want is an opportunity to platform their beliefs. This platform grants them an opportunity to attract and connect with others who share their beliefs, and also creates a hostile environment for the groups of people who fascists target. For these reasons, anti-fascists refuse to debate fascists by default.
WHY NOT JUST IGNORE THEM?
One of the most commonly-held mistaken beliefs about fascism is that it's a problem that will go away on its own, and that organizing against fascists builds more momentum for their movements. This could not be further from the truth. Fascist movements gain momentum most quickly when they are not met with opposition. Every time fascist organizing is ignored, they become more organized and harder to stop. For some people whose circumstances grant them a degree of protection from fascist movements (for example, affluent white people) it may appear that ignoring fascism is effective, because the consequences of ignoring fascism are felt by marginalized groups with whom they have little contact.
AREN'T FASCISTS ENTITLED TO FREE SPEECH?
Anti-fascists are in favor of free speech; however anti-fascists believe that fascism and its adjacent hate ideologies (white supremacy, religious nationalism, etc.) are inherently calls to violence and as such should not be considered free speech. When platformed publicly, fascist beliefs embolden hateful people to act on their hatred, thus creating an environment where marginalized people cannot exercise their own rights to free speech for fear of fascist retaliation. Although fascists will claim that anti-fascists are themselves fascists for silencing them, this couldn't be further from the truth; there is already an understanding that calls to violence and false alarms are not protected speech, and fascism is inherently holds call to violence against the marginalized as a part of its ideological basis. Just as a person screaming "Fire!" in a crowded theater is not protected by the right to free speech, a fascist saying "Trans people must be eliminated" is not exercising free speech. Any claim that anti-fascists enact fascism themselves is absurdly mistaken; the act of fighting fascism does not make an anti-fascist into a fascist, any more than fighting fires makes a fireman into a fire. The only way to stop a fire from spreading is to put out the fire. Likewise the only way to preserve free speech for the whole of society is to prevent fascism from inhibiting the free speech of others. The phrase "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" is frequently misattributed to Voltaire and held up as the embodiment of America's First Amendment. Anti-fascists reject this, because if we defend fascist beliefs as free speech, we inevitably enable them to inhibit the rights of everyone else.
DO ANTI-FASCISTS ADVOCATE VIOLENCE OR TERRORISM?
Anti-fascists are against terrorism. We oppose fascism because we are against the acts of violence and terror perpetrated by fascists and adjacent far-right movements. However, at the same time, anti-fascists reject liberal demands for "nonviolence" in the face of fascist violence. While nonviolent resistance can be an effective tactic for some situations, it is important to bear in mind that violence must sometimes be used for self-defense. When fascists commit violent acts (for example, a physical assault against a targeted minority) there is often no effective way to nonviolently resist. Asking people who are targeted by fascists to resist nonviolently is essentially asking them to accept fascist violence as inevitable. Furthermore, when fascist movements become organized enough to exert social and political power, the need to stop them becomes an urgent matter. Physical opposition to fascism which is labeled "violent" is almost always a last resort intended to prevent future violence against vulnerable and marginalized people. Anti-fascists use violence only when absolutely necessary, and only in order to prevent infinitely greater violence which fascism would enact upon the populace. Viewing history in retrospect, when we consider the 6 million innocent people killed by the Nazis, no person could reasonably argue that some amount of violence against the Nazis would have been reasonable to prevent them from taking power. Anti-fascists believe it is better to punch a Nazi today, than to risk the lives of our neighbors through inaction.
In short, think of it this way...
If punching a few Nazis could have stopped the events that led to the Holocaust, wouldn't you punch as many as you could?