Lois Thielen, Times Writers Group Published 2:35 p.m. CT July 6, 2020

In the wake of the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, angry protesters looted, vandalized and burned buildings in cities across the country.

While most of the protests were peaceful, those that were not were condemned as violence begetting more violence. Among those accused of perpetrating this violence were members of a movement known as antifa.In fact, President Donald Trump even wanted antifa listed as a terrorist organization.

Lois Thielen(Photo: Times photo)

But antifa isn't even an organization and its name is short for antifascist.Its followers fight authoritarian right-wing movements of the kind found in Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy.

Rather than an organized group, it's a loose collection of groups and individuals who believe in active, aggressive opposition to far-right movements, according to the Anti-Defamation League.Their ideology is rooted in the belief that the Nazi Party would not have been able to assume the power it had in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s had citizens fought more aggressively in the streets at the time.

According to a June 24 article of the Smithsonian Magazine by James Stout entitled"A Brief History of Anti-Fascism,""Anti-fascism began where fascism began, in Italy." Known as "The People's Daring Ones," the anti-fascist movement began in 1921 to fight the increasingly violent forces supported by Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist dictator from 1925-1945.The resistance brought together trade unionists, anarchists, socialists, communists, republicans and former army officers.

About the same time in Germany, anti-fascists fought in the streets against the repression of Jews and gays as perpetrated by the Nazis, until forcibly disbanded in 1933 when Adolf Hitler became dictator.

Antifa gained visibility in the United States after the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where white supremacists and anitifa clashed.

Because antifa is not a group but members of groups as well as individuals not part of a group, it's been hard to identify who antifa is and what their goals are.This leads to false accusations, such as after the Black Lives Matter protests, when Trump labeled them a left-wing terrorist group, although they are not a group and many involved with antifa are not leftists.

Furthermore, according to a June 6article in The Guardian by Jason Wilson, the FBI has said it found no evidence of antifa involvement in the George Floyd protests or related destruction.

But rumors flooded social media sites of bands of terrorists traveling en masse into rural areas of America.InCoeur d'Alene, Idaho, groups of 30-50 men armed with semi-automatic weapons occupied downtown streets, guarding against the "busloads of radical leftists" they had been assured were heading their way.

"But the 'antifa' discussed in the presidents tweets and on Fox News bears little resemblance to this morally gray reality," saidZack Beauchamp in a June 8 Vox blog entitled "Antifa, explained.""They are a trumped-up boogeyman for the conservative movement, a totem used to justify their violent law and order approach to legitimate demonstrations demanding racial justice."

Nor is antifa responsible for the current unrest.Systemic racism has beenthe focus of the recent protests and antifais about opposing this systemic racism, according to Mark Bray, a historian of antifa at Rutgers University.

They believe, and I think rightly so, that fascism and proximate far-right politics are inherently aggressive and that, if youre not ready to defend yourself in advance, it may be too late when the time comes.

This is the opinion of Lois Thielen, a dairy farmer who lives near Grey Eagle. Her column is published the first Tuesday of the month.

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Is antifa the leftist radical group we think it is? - SC Times