The President of America took it to Twitter, “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organisation.” The Antifa squad members are of left-wing ideologies and a majority of them describe themselves as revolutionaries with anti-capitalist and anti-government viewpoints.
The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
President Donald Trump announced on May 31st that the USA will designate Antifa as a terrorist organization after the protests fuelled angst across the nation over the death of George Floyd. Trump’s administration believes that the group is responsible for the violent protests and looting that started in Minneapolis, plus similar protests were also reported from various parts of the country.
According to Merriam Webster, Antifa is vaguely defined as militant political activist movement which identifies itself as far-left and anti-fascist. The first known use of the term Antifa was way back during Nazi Germany and is borrowed from German Antifa, short for “Antifaschistische’ anti-fascist’, in Antifaschistische Aktion (multiparty front initiated by the German Communist Party in 1932 to counter Nazism) and in other collocations.”
The members of Antifa are of left-wing ideologies and a majority of them describe themselves as revolutionaries with anti-capitalist and anti-government views. They dress in black, sometimes covering their face with masks and helmets to remain unidentified from all-right groups and police. They use a variety of tactics to disrupt the event of all-right groups which they deem fascists and the most extreme factions members of Antifa carry pepper spray, knives, bricks and chains.
The far-left group defends the use of violence to fight the “fascist” forces and, according to an AOL report, call it appropriate tactics against Trump’s “unprecedented levels of surveillance, incarceration, deportations, and police brutality and murders against the US Public”. It gained new prominence in 2017 after it confronted white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017.
Helene Elliott is the senior reporter for News Raise. She covers Science news. She also has a keen interest in photojournalism. Helene holds a nomination for the prestigious Red Smith Award. She is married to author Dennis D’Agostino, a former publicist with the New York Mets.
