Antifa Started In Italy
The Claim
“German Communists founded ANTIFA. They are anti-capitalism and anti-American.”
News posted on
Emerging story
On March 29, 2021 Lauren Boebert tweeted that “German Communists founded ANTIFA. They are anti-capitalism and anti-American.”
This tweet was retweeted nearly 3,000 times and received a lot of negative reactions. Many Twitter users responded by asking Boebert who the anti-fascist Germans were fighting.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found this claim to be incorrect.
Merriam-Webster defines fascism as “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”
According to Time and Smithsonian Magazine, fascism began in Italy. The first fascist regime was led by Benito Mussolini in the 1920s. Naturally, anti-fascism began there as resistance to Mussolini’s fascist regime. The first group to oppose Mussolini’s regime was “The Arditi del Popolo” (The People’s Daring Ones). This means that this anti-fascist Italian group was the first anti-fascist movement and therefore could be considered the founders of Antifa. The Arditi del Popolo included unionists, anarchists, socialists, communists, republicans, and former army officers.
However, Antifa isn’t actually one organization; rather, anti-fascism is an idea that different groups share. There are multiple Antifa groups in the United States, such as Rose City Antifa in Portland and NYC Antifa. According to these groups, they were created to fight ultranationalism, authoritarianism, and xenophobia. Rose City Antifa’s website says that their ultimate goal is “to create a world without fascism and one where fascist ideology is completely intolerable.” It doesn’t seem that they have a clear anti-capitalist or anti-American agenda.
