United States President Donald Trump introduced late on Wednesday that he was designating the left-wing activist motion, antifa, a “terrorist” organisation.
Here is what we all know:
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What has Trump mentioned about antifa?
On his Truth 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 completely investigated in accordance with the very best authorized requirements and practices.”
What is antifa?
Antifa, which is brief for “anti-fascists”, is not a single group. It is 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, writer of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, advised Al Jazeera. “In the identical means that there are feminist teams however feminism will not be, itself, a gaggle.
“Any group that calls itself antifa and promotes the fundamental rules of militant antifascism is an antifa group. There isn’t any normal headquarters or chief to get official recognition from.”
The motion is secretive, and it’s inconceivable to find out the precise variety of members, their identities, or their management, as this info will not be public.
The motion began gaining momentum in 2016, earlier than Trump’s first time period. However, activist teams have 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 embody Benito Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany of the Nineteen Thirties.
In truth, the phrase antifa will be traced again to an anti-Nazi German phrase from 1946.
In 2007, an organisation referred to as Rose City 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 fitting. Other organisations make use of comparable ways.
What main incidents has antifa been concerned in?
While individuals and teams aligned with the antifa ideology have participated in lots of protests and counterprotests, just a few incidents stand out.
Chicago restaurant assault, 2012
A bunch of 18 masked individuals carrying metal batons and hammers stormed a suburban Chicago household restaurant, attacking what they claimed was a gathering of white supremacists.
Five of the lads have been apprehended and charged with aggravated battery, mob motion and felony injury 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 first violent incident occurred throughout a protest on February 1 towards Trump supporter Milo Yiannopoulos, who was on account of give a speech on the college.
Pro-Trump rallies on March 4, April 15 and April 27 additionally resulted in violence between Trump supporters and antifa activists.
On August 27, a “Say No to Marxism” rally was cancelled in gentle of the earlier violence however Trump supporters and antifa protesters arrived nonetheless and clashed.
Many accidents have been reported and arrests have been made. Police confiscated weapons, together with baseball bats, bricks and metallic pipes.
Charlottesville protests, 2017
In August 2017, far-right protesters organised a “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, towards the removing of a statue of Confederate icon General Robert E Lee.
In response to those protests, scores of counterprotesters stormed the protest website in Charlottesville. These individuals got here from assorted backgrounds: whereas a few of them have been residents rallying towards 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.
Who funds antifa?
Since antifa will not be a cohesive group, there isn’t any means of figuring out and collating an inventory of financiers of the motion, because it includes a number of autonomous teams with assorted funding sources, which are sometimes not made public.
“Speaking of ‘antifa’ within the singular is deceptive and performs into Trump’s efforts to repress the left,” mentioned Bray. “He is attempting to advertise the frequent right-wing conspiracy idea that there are shadowy financiers like George Soros enjoying puppet grasp behind the whole lot the left does.
“The actuality is that antifa teams do not need giant budgets in any respect, and what they’ve is mainly crowdsourced or generated from members themselves. It’s principally for bail, actually.”
Can Trump designate the antifa motion as a ‘terrorist’ organisation?
It is unclear how Trump would designate antifa a “terrorist” organisation from a logistical standpoint as a result of it isn’t a singular, monolithic group. Critics have, due to this fact, raised questions as to how a “terrorism” designation can be enforced and dealt with, given the amorphous nature of antifa supporters.
During 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 is able to be troublesome. In testimony that yr, he mentioned antifa is an ideology, not an organisation, missing the hierarchical construction that will often enable it to be designated as a terror group by the federal authorities.
The US secretary of state is authorised to designate overseas teams as overseas 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, based on a Government Accountability Office report from 2015.
However, whereas the US Constitution permits the federal government to designate overseas teams, it lacks a particular statute that will enable it to designate a home group as a terrorist organisation.
Mary McCord, a former senior Department of Justice official, advised Al Jazeera throughout Trump’s first time period that his makes an attempt to designate antifa would “increase vital First Amendment considerations”.
Historian Bray mentioned: “If that is extra than simply bluster, because it has been for the previous eight years each 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 below the elusive rubric of ‘antifa’.”
What does it imply when a overseas group is designated as ‘terrorist’?
It is unlawful below US legislation to provide cash or present funding to an FTO. The US may also freeze any belongings held by members of the organisation within the US banking system. The members additionally face monetary sanctions.
Members of FTOs who aren’t residents of the US are banned from coming into the nation.
Has Trump focused antifa earlier than?
Yes, in May 2020, Trump posted on his X account: “The United States of America will probably be designating Antifa as a Terrorist Organization.”
That was again when Trump and Democrat Joe Biden have been campaigning for the 2020 presidential election, which Biden received. Trump’s publish additionally got here after widespread protests towards 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 on account of be licensed in Washington, DC – Trump posted on X, then referred to as Twitter: “Antifa is a Terrorist Organization, keep out of Washington. Law enforcement is watching you very intently!”
Then, hundreds of individuals stormed the US Capitol, protesting towards the 2020 election outcomes on January 6, 2021.
At the time, Axios reported, citing unnamed sources conversant in the matter, that Trump had tried to privately blame “antifa individuals” for storming the US Capitol. The information outlet reported that Trump mentioned this throughout a name with then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The report added that McCarthy responded: “It’s not Antifa, it’s MAGA. I do know. I used to be there.”
Why is Trump speaking about antifa now?
Trump’s newest assertion comes only a week after the deadly capturing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was shot lifeless in entrance of a crowd of three,000 individuals 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 capturing. Utah Governor Spencer Cox advised US media that Robinson was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology“.
Robinson appeared in court docket 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 Security News, 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. However, within the authentic picture, Robinson was carrying a plain T-shirt.
The account captioned the picture: “He is a Democrat militant antifa leftist. No query.”
