NATIONWIDE -- You might have heard antifa blamed for much of the violence and property damage that has occurred at protests across the nation following the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police.

What You Need To Know


  • Antifa can be traced back to anti-fascist efforts in Europe beginning around 1920

  • Modern U.S. antifa movement has roots in Anti-Racist Action group, founded in 1980s

  • Protesters identified with movement use violent and non-violent tactics

  • President Trump has threatened to designate antifa as a terrorist group

Indeed, President Donald Trump has threatened to designate antifa as a terrorist group.

The problem is, by definition, antifa isn’t really a group at all. Rather, it’s a movement, and the word antifa, or anti-fascist, is at best an umbrella that includes a number of loosely affiliated groups whose numbers vary and which are spread across the country.

Antifa’s roots can be traced to a movement to fight European fascism around the time of the world wars. Today’s antifa movement in the United States is said to have begun in the 1980s with a group called Anti-Racist Action. It was associated with the punk movement in the U.S. and its members confronted neo-Nazis and attempted to suppress their recruitment efforts.

Broadly, the antifa movement is comprised of diverse, autonomous groups that engage in political activism through both violent and non-violent means. While they tend to be identified with the left, they are not associated with the mainstream Democratic party and may subscribe to ideologies such as Marxism, communism, socialism and anarchism.

However, further contributing to confusion, the Anti-Defamation League says the term antifa should be limited to those protesters who seek physical confrontations and not those who merely protest fascism.

Rose City Antifa was one of the groups first identified with the movement and was established in Portland, Oregon, in 2007.

People who identify with the antifa movement look to disrupt far-right and alt-right events and speakers, sometimes online and other times at physical locations. They may also call out or “dox” individuals they have identified as being alt-right in hopes of removing that person from employment or housing.

Groups may also participate in activities closer to community organizing such as protest marches and rallies. Those who identify with the movement frequently dress in black and cover their faces with masks or helmets in order to conceal their identities.

While some groups associated with antifa have used violence or destroyed property in some instances, some have said they renounce the use of weapons and direct confrontation, instead limiting violence to self-defense.

Most recently, President Trump and other conservatives have blamed groups associated with the movement for violence that has broken out at protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Some of this has come from social media and has proven to be false. According to the Associated Press, Twitter Monday night confirmed a tweet that promised antifa would “move into residential areas” and “white” neighborhoods was actually sent by the white supremacy group Identify Evropa. It has since been removed.

Similarly, posts on Twitter and Facebook recently stated “busloads” of antifa members were set to arrive in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. That turned out to be false.

This is merely a brief overview of antifa. Those interested in a further dissection of the movement can find a number of books and articles on the subject. A word of caution, though: the topic is divisive and one should look for scholarly, unbiased sources. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.