United States President Donald Trump introduced late on Wednesday that he was designating the left-wing activist motion, antifa, a “terrorist” organisation.
Here’s what we all know:
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What has Trump mentioned about antifa?
On his Reality Social platform, Trump wrote: “I’m happy to tell our many U.S.A. Patriots that I’m designating Antifa, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”
He added: “I may even be strongly recommending that these funding Antifa be totally investigated in accordance with the very best authorized requirements and practices.”
What’s antifa?
Antifa, which is brief for “anti-fascists”, just isn’t a single group. It’s a loosely organised, decentralised, left-wing collective of organisations and activists within the US that opposes right-wing and fascist ideologies.
“Antifa is a sort of politics, not a particular group,” US-based historian Mark Bray, creator of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, advised Al Jazeera. “In the identical means that there are feminist teams however feminism just isn’t, itself, a gaggle.
“Any group that calls itself antifa and promotes the fundamental ideas of militant antifascism is an antifa group. There is no such thing as a basic headquarters or chief to get official recognition from.”
The motion is secretive, and it’s not possible to find out the precise variety of members, their identities, or their management, as this info just isn’t public.
The motion began gaining momentum in 2016, earlier than Trump’s first time period. Nonetheless, activist teams had been utilizing the time period “antifa” earlier than that.
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian ideology marked by dictatorial rule, intense nationalism, suppression of dissent, and strict management over society. It rejects democracy, and historic examples embrace Benito Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany of the Nineteen Thirties.
Actually, the phrase antifa might be traced again to an anti-Nazi German phrase from 1946.
In 2007, an organisation referred to as Rose Metropolis Antifa was based in Portland, Oregon. The members of the group put on all black and stay nameless. They “dox” – or reveal private info – about public figures on the precise. Different organisations make use of related techniques.
What main incidents has antifa been concerned in?
Whereas folks and teams aligned with the antifa ideology have participated in lots of protests and counterprotests, a couple of incidents stand out.
Chicago restaurant assault, 2012
A bunch of 18 masked folks carrying metal batons and hammers stormed a suburban Chicago household restaurant, attacking what they claimed was a gathering of white supremacists.
5 of the lads had been apprehended and charged with aggravated battery, mob motion and felony harm to property.
Berkeley protests, 2017
A sequence of rallies and demonstrations descended into violent clashes between Trump supporters and black-clad, mask-wearing antifa protesters in Berkeley, California, all year long.
The primary violent incident occurred throughout a protest on February 1 in opposition to Trump supporter Milo Yiannopoulos, who was attributable to give a speech on the college.
Professional-Trump rallies on March 4, April 15 and April 27 additionally led to violence between Trump supporters and antifa activists.
On August 27, a “Say No to Marxism” rally was cancelled in mild of the earlier violence however Trump supporters and antifa protesters arrived however and clashed.
Many accidents had been reported and arrests had been made. Police confiscated weapons, together with baseball bats, bricks and steel pipes.
Demonstrators conflict as they beat up a person and chase him down throughout a counterprotest in opposition to white supremacists at MLK Park in Berkeley, California, on August 27, 2017 (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Instances through Getty Pictures)
Charlottesville protests, 2017
In August 2017, far-right protesters organised a “Unite the Proper” protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in opposition to the elimination of a statue of Accomplice icon Basic Robert E Lee.
In response to those protests, scores of counterprotesters stormed the protest web site in Charlottesville. These folks got here from different backgrounds: whereas a few of them had been residents rallying in opposition to white supremacy, others carried indicators denouncing fascism, capitalism and racism.
Twenty members of 1 such group, Redneck Revolt, which was based in 2016 and calls itself anti-racist and anti-fascist, carried rifles and shaped a safe perimeter across the counterprotesters.
Left-wing protesters, some affiliated with antifa, maintain a counterprotest in opposition to right-wing protesters taking part in a political rally on July 25, 2021, in New York Metropolis (Stephanie Keith/Getty Pictures/AFP)
Who funds antifa?
Since antifa just isn’t a cohesive group, there is no such thing as a means of figuring out and collating an inventory of financiers of the motion, because it includes a number of autonomous teams with different funding sources, which are sometimes not made public.
“Talking of ‘antifa’ within the singular is deceptive and performs into Trump’s efforts to repress the left,” mentioned Bray. “He’s attempting to advertise the widespread right-wing conspiracy idea that there are shadowy financiers like George Soros taking part in puppet grasp behind all the pieces the left does.
“The truth is that antifa teams should not have giant budgets in any respect, and what they’ve is mainly crowdsourced or generated from members themselves. It’s largely for bail, actually.”
Can Trump designate the antifa motion as a ‘terrorist’ organisation?
It’s unclear how Trump would designate antifa a “terrorist” organisation from a logistical standpoint as a result of it’s not a singular, monolithic group. Critics have, subsequently, raised questions as to how a “terrorism” designation can be enforced and dealt with, given the amorphous nature of antifa supporters.
Throughout Trump’s first presidential time period, he additionally threatened to designate antifa as a terrorist organisation, however his Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) director on the time, Christopher Wray, mentioned this may be troublesome. In testimony that yr, he mentioned antifa is an ideology, not an organisation, missing the hierarchical construction that will often permit it to be designated as a terror group by the federal authorities.
The US secretary of state is authorised to designate international teams as international terrorist organisations (FTOs). The secretary doesn’t require congressional approval to make this designation, however is required to tell Congress seven days earlier than an organisation is designated, in line with a Authorities Accountability Workplace report from 2015.
Nonetheless, whereas the US Structure permits the federal government to designate international teams, it lacks a particular statute that will permit it to designate a home group as a terrorist organisation.
Mary McCord, a former senior Division of Justice official, advised Al Jazeera throughout Trump’s first time period that his makes an attempt to designate antifa would “elevate vital First Modification issues”.
Historian Bray mentioned: “If that is extra than simply bluster, because it has been for the previous eight years every time Trump or one other Republican chief requires ‘antifa’ to be declared a terrorist group, then it can present itself as a blanket excuse for the regime to crack down on anybody to the left of them beneath the elusive rubric of ‘antifa’.”
What does it imply when a international group is designated as ‘terrorist’?
It’s unlawful beneath US legislation to offer cash or present funding to an FTO. The US can even freeze any belongings held by members of the organisation within the US banking system. The members additionally face monetary sanctions.
Members of FTOs who usually are not residents of the US are banned from coming into the nation.
Has Trump focused antifa earlier than?
Sure, in Might 2020, Trump posted on his X account: “The US of America shall be designating Antifa as a Terrorist Group.”
That was again when Trump and Democrat Joe Biden had been campaigning for the 2020 presidential election, which Biden gained. Trump’s publish additionally got here after widespread protests in opposition to the killing of a Black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, had damaged out in a number of US states.
On the night of January 5, 2021 – the day earlier than Biden’s election win was attributable to be licensed in Washington, DC – Trump posted on X, then referred to as Twitter: “Antifa is a Terrorist Group, keep out of Washington. Regulation enforcement is watching you very intently!”
Then, hundreds of individuals stormed the US Capitol, protesting in opposition to the 2020 election outcomes on January 6, 2021.
On the time, Axios reported, citing unnamed sources acquainted with the matter, that Trump had tried to privately blame “antifa folks” for storming the US Capitol. The information outlet reported that Trump mentioned this throughout a name with then-Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy. The report added that McCarthy responded: “It’s not Antifa, it’s MAGA. I do know. I used to be there.”
A police officer pushes an antifa protester, carrying a black masks, out of the road throughout protests in Washington, DC, on July 6, 2019 (Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Publish through Getty Pictures)
Why is Trump speaking about antifa now?
Trump’s newest assertion comes only a week after the deadly taking pictures of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was shot useless in entrance of a crowd of three,000 folks whereas he was talking at a college occasion in Utah on September 10. After a federal manhunt that lasted 33 hours, the authorities arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson for the taking pictures. Utah Governor Spencer Cox advised US media that Robinson was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology“.
Robinson appeared in courtroom through a digital hyperlink on Tuesday and was charged with seven offences, together with aggravated homicide and felony discharge of a firearm.
Some US conservative social media accounts have been posting claims that Robinson was affiliated with the antifa motion.
For instance, one X account referred to as US Homeland Safety Information, however unaffiliated with the US authorities, posted a faux picture of Robinson, which has been edited to appear to be he’s carrying a “Harris Walz” T-shirt, referencing Trump’s Democratic challenger within the 2024 election, Kamala Harris, and her operating mate, Tim Walz. Nonetheless, within the authentic picture, Robinson was carrying a plain T-shirt.
The account captioned the picture: “He’s a Democrat militant antifa leftist. No query.”
