Is it Fair To Call Antifa ‘The Real Fascists’?

They hope to attach to Antifa the same stigma as is attached to fascism.

Since the election of Donald Trump, the anti-fascist group Antifa has made somewhat of a name for itself. Donning black and red attire and faces masked, they often appear at political events and engage in what they consider revolutionary class warfare, or as the rest of civilization sees it, violent thuggery. The group has attracted many critics, some of which consider the name Antifa to be oxymoronic, and consider Antifa to be ‘the real fascists.’ Could this be true? Or are these critics simply trying to shift the label of fascism away from themselves? This suggestion is not as bizarre as it sounds, with leading political historians such as Zeev Sternhell suggesting that fascism was born out of French Marxism rather than Italian or German nationalism. To answer this, we must first explore what fascism is.

Fascism is a word used colloquially to refer to a broad range of figures, being anyone from feminists or nationalists to the stern teacher who gives you detention. This has trivialized the term and masks the diverse ideas which fascism is comprised of, leading to historians such as Gilbert Allardyce to suggest dismissing the term altogether. Academically, Fascism has been a hard ideology to pin down, due to its multiple manifestations and contradictions. Despite the nebulous nature of fascism, many academics adopt some variant of historian Roger Griffin’s definition ‘Palingenetic Populist Ultra-Nationalism’ (Palingenetic meaning to instigate the rebirth of the nation). Though this definition has its flaws, it is an appropriate generalization of fascists.

Griffin presents ultra-nationalism as a key component of fascist ideology, which is clearly absent in Antifa’s rhetoric. Many Antifa members align themselves with communism, and so accordingly prefer to see the world through the prism of class struggle rather than national struggle. Therefore, describing Antifa as ultra-nationalist would constitute a total misunderstanding. This was evident in the words of Jeff Shantz writing for anti-fascist news, who presented his movement as directly opposed to this notion:

Fascism proposes an elite that can save the nation from the degenerate state. This makes clear the choices made by Trump in his cabinet. The cabal of millionaires and billionaires are the elite who will bring about national rebirth.

Though this writer expresses a somewhat misinformed understanding of fascism, his intentions are telling. This means that Antifa is missing a key element of fascist ideology, thus damaging their credentials as ‘the real fascists’.