Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook

</image> <label>Author</label> <label>Illustrator</label> <label>Published on</label> <label>Publisher</label> <group layout="horizontal"> <header>Publication order</header> <label>Previous</label> <label>Next</label> </group> </infobox>Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook is a 2017 book by Mark Bray that discusses the history and philosophy behind the anti-fascist movement.

Summary

Chapter Two: “Never Again”: The Development of Modern Antifa, 1945–2003

Modern antifa movements began immediately after World War II, with the 43 Group forming in the UK by former Jewish Soldiers in the UK Army. They infiltrated fascist groups led by Oswald Mosely and attacked their meetings throughout the 1940s, and disbanded in 1950 as the threat died off.

The next wave of anti-fascism in the UK began in the late 1950s among immigrants Caribbean and South Asia brought into the UK to stop the post-war labor shortage. They were often harassed and assaulted by a new generation of fascists, and with little to no support from the police, had to defend themselves. They would often carry machetes for defense and attack fascist hangouts with molotov cocktails. Although successful in defending immigrant communities, the new wave of UK fascism in the late 1950s and early 1960s (a response to the fall of the British Empire and decolonization of Africa) leading to the formation of the 62 Group.

Chapter Four: Five Historical Lessons for Anti-Fascists

This chapter draws on five key lessons that the anti-fascist movement must learn in order to become more effective. They are:

1. Fascist revolutions have never succeeded. Fascists gained power legally.
2. To varying degrees, many interwar anti-fascist leaders and theorists assumed that fascism was simply a variant of traditional counterrevolution politics. They did not take it seriously enough until it was too late.
3. For ideological and organizational reasons, socialist and communist leadership was often slower to assess the threat of fascism, and slower to advocate militant anti-fascist responses, than their parties rank-and-file membership.
4. Fascism steals from left ideology, strategy, imagery and culture.
5. It doesn't take many fascists to make fascism.

Chapter Five: “So Much for the Tolerant Left!”: “No Platform” and Free Speech

This chapter answers the most common objections towards militant anti-fascism, ranging from the effectiveness of militant tactics to concerns about erasing the right to free speech.

1. Free Speech is only guaranteed from the US government, it doesn't protect you from violence from other citizens. Even then, the US government repeatedly breaks this promise by enforcing copyright laws, repression of left-wing activists (notably in the Red Scares, COINTELPRO and the Occupy movement), censorship during wartime, lack of rights for prisoners, the shooting of civilians in wars, supporting numerous dictatorships across the world, nondisclosure agreements. If it's okay to restrict speech in these areas, why shouldn't it be okay to restrict it to stop a resurgent fascist movements. And if it isn't okay to repress speech in these areas, why do these areas get no attention from self-described 'free speech' advocates. Not only that, but only using debate to fight fascists has been an unreliable strategy, costing millions of people their lives.

External Links

• Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook at libcom