The group made their presence known first during the protests around the US in recent years, which also includes the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
US President Donald Trump has claimed that the United States would announce Antifa, a group of loosely affiliated Far-Left anti-fascism activists, as a terrorist organisation.
However, the US doesn't have a law for domestic terrorism and that antifa is an organisation with any leader, a defined structure or membership roles.
Instead, antifa is a group who follow a similar philosophy and tactics. The group made their presence known first during the protests around the US in recent years, which also includes the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
WHO ARE THE MEMBERS OF ANTIFA?
As per The New York Times, the followers of antifa recognize their movement as secretive and has no official figurehead but is organised into autonomous local cells.
The members of this group campaign against any actions which they view as authoritarian, homophobic, racist or xenophobic. Even though antifa is not officially connected with other movements on the Left, it still works with other local activist networks that share the same goals, such as the Occupy movement or Black Lives Matter.
WHAT IS THE GOAL OF ANTIFA?
The followers of antifa generally are on the look-out to hunt down anything which is fascist, racist and far-right groups from having a platform to promote their views.
And also proclaiming the fact that public demonstration of those types of ideas generally leads to the targeting of marginalised people, including racial minorities, women and members of the LGBTQ community.
"The argument is that militant anti-fascism is inherently self-defence because of the historically documented violence that fascists pose, especially to marginalised people," said Mark Bray, a history lecturer at Dartmouth College and the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.
HOW IS ANTIFA DIFFERENT FROM OTHER PROTEST GROUPS?
Mark Bray revealed how the followers - on many occasions - use similar tactics to anarchist groups, such as dressing in all black and wearing masks. But the group got overlapping ideologies simply because both criticise capitalism and look to deconstruct the structures of authority, that also includes police forces.
HOW DID THE MOVEMENT FORM?
As per Bray, the word "antifa" - as per the Merriam-Webster dictionary - got first used back in 1946 but was borrowed from a German phrase which meant opposition to Nazism. Numerous people started joining the group in US right after Trump got elected as the POTUS back in 2016 to counter the danger which they thought was posed by the so-called alt-right.
Rose City Antifa, one of the first US groups who have a huge social media following, claimed it was founded in 2007 in Portland, Oregon. However, since 2017, antifa started receiving more attention globally after they pointed out anti-fascist protesters, which includes the obtaining of a prominent Alt-Right member, etc.
The United States is currently in quite a pickle after as many as 40 cities and Washington D.C. across the face of the nation imposed curfews on Sunday amid the relentless protests against the death of George Floyd, an African-American man, in police custody.
"Today, about 5,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen are supporting our local and state partners responding to civil unrest in 15 states and DC [District of Columbia] Thousands more stand ready if needed," Chief of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Joseph Lengyel said on Sunday.
Derek Chauvin, Minneapolis police officer, was charged with murder in the death of 46-year-old George Floyd after a video clip of the officer kneeling on Floyd's neck generated a wave of protests across the nation.
Soon after Floyd's death in police custody last May 25, the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul erupted in massive protests which later on spread all across the country.
Protesters also torched the 3rd Precinct station, the focus of many of the protests, which was abandoned before the angry crowd surrounded the building.
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