Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to
fascist ideologies, organizations and governments. There is a difference between anti-fascism as a political movement, and personal opposition to fascism. In the broadest sense, an anti-fascist is anyone who disagrees with fascism or engages in anti-fascist
direct action. This includes most mainstream political parties and groups in the
Western world, including both
leftists and moderate
rightists. Anti-fascist political movements have been historically associated with left-wing movements such as
anarchism,
communism and
socialism. However, many anti-fascists aren't associated with those ideologies. Another term for anti-fascism (or anti-fascists) is
antifa.
Most major
resistance movements during
World War II were anti-fascist, although some people who joined the resistance weren't technically anti-fascists. In
France, quite a few people who joined the
Resistance against the
Vichy regime came from
far right nationalist and
royalist backgrounds. They abandoned the Vichy regime and started fighting against the
Germans when they saw that
Philippe Pétain was totally bending over to the
Nazis and had no intent to stop
collaboration.
Within the anti-fascism movement, there are two broad positions:
militant anti-fascism and
liberal anti-fascism. There's also disagreement about whether violence is justified in the struggle against fascism. Some anti-fascists believe violence is not justified, since fascists don't represent a massive physical threat in many areas. They argue that the battle should be fought intellectually.
Violence played an important role in the 1920s and the 1930s, when anti-fascists confronted aggressive far right leagues, such as the Action Française movement in France, which dominated the
Quartier latin students' neighborhood. In Italy in the 1920s, anti-fascists had to fight against the violent
Squadristi. In Germany, anti-fascists were in conflict with the
Freikorps. Today,
neo-Nazis pose a genuine physical threat in some areas, and have even killed people. Militant anti-fascists claim that
self-defence is necessary because the
state can't be depended on to defend all communities.
Pre-World War II
*
National Blue Shirt MinutemenWorld War II
|
Members of the Maquis in La Trésorerie |
*
Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League*
Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa*
Armia Krajowa*
Auxiliary Units*
Belarusian resistance movement*
Czech resistance to Nazi occupation*
Danish resistance movement*
Edelweißpiraten*
Estonian resistance movement*
Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje*
French resistance*
German resistance movement*
Greek Resistance*
Gwardia Ludowa*
Italian resistance movement*
Jewish resistance movement*
July 20 Plot*
Kreisau Circle*
Latvian resistance movement*
Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army*
Maquis*
Dutch resistance movement*
Norwegian resistance movement*
Operation Spark (1940)*
People's Liberation Army*
Polish resistance movement in World War II*
Red Orchestra*
Slovak resistance movement*
Swing Kids*
White Rose*
Valkenburg resistance*
Yugoslav resistance movement*
Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa *
Zydowski Zwiazek WalkiPost-World War II
*
43 Group*
Anti-Fascist Action*
Anti-Nazi League*
Anti-Racist Action*
Antifascistisk aktion*
Fight Dem Back*
Pacifica Foundation*
RASH*
Searchlight magazine*
Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice*
Unite Against Fascism*
Mordechaj Anielewicz*
Hannah Arendt*
Tony Blackplait*
Joseph Bonanno*
Willy Brandt *
Menno ter Braak *
Albert Camus*
Emil Carlebach *
Daniel Cohn-Bendit*
Benedetto Croce*
Buenaventura Durruti*
Albert Einstein*
Carl Einstein*
Georg Elser*
David Emory*
David Frankfurter*
Jozef Gabčík*
Leone Ginzburg*
Kurt Goldstein *
Antonio Gramsci*
Israel Holmgren*
Erich Honecker*
Ernst Kirchweger*
Jan Kubiš*
Uno Laht*
Marinus van der Lubbe*
Georg Lukács*
Herbert Marcuse*
Jean Moulin*
Edvard Munch*
Ture Nerman*
George Orwell*
Sylvia Pankhurst*
Sandro Pertini*
Christian Pineau*
Phil Piratin*
Jean-Paul Sartre*
Vidal Sassoon*
Hannie Schaft*
Kurt Schumacher*
Josip Broz Tito*
Leon Trotsky*
Walter Vielhauer*
Nancy Wake*
Simon Wiesenthal*
Angelic Upstarts *
Anti-Flag *
Atari Teenage Riot*
Attila the Stockbroker*
Aus-Rotten*
Billy Bragg*
Blaggers I.T.A.*
Chumbawamba *
The Clash*
Dead Kennedys*
D.O.A.*
MDC*
Naked Aggression*
Napalm Death*
Oi Polloi *
The Oppressed*
Phil Ochs *
Propagandhi *
Reagan Youth*
Red Alert*
The Redskins*
Refused*
The Ruts*
Subhumans*
System of a Down*
Woody Guthrie*
Against unveiling monument to Nazi troops*
Anti-fascism from Avtonom*
Remembering the Anarchist Resistance to fascism*
The Nazi atrocities in the Soviet Union
