On Sunday, the President of the United States Donald trump in the quest to find those responsible for the massive, violent riots, decided to pay attention not to abuse the police, not on racism, but on the movement “Antifa”. Without any legal basis the President said that he recognizes the extreme left movement “Antifa” “terrorist organization”.
However in the USA there is no law on domestic terrorism, so many doubt that Donald Trump will be able to carry out his plan. In addition, the “Antifa”, an abbreviation of the phrase “anti-fascist movement”, is an Association of groups rather than an organization in which there are leaders or hierarchical structure can be traced.
Despite all charges, the FBI said the supporters of white supremacy “primary threat”
In Europe the last twenty years, the demonstration of the left are often short, groups that call themselves anti-fascists, but they look menacing in black clothes with their faces covered. Despite the fact that in the United States for many decades is the fight against racism, such groups began to gain momentum after winning trump for the 2016 elections, when a group of white “Suprematism” (so called in the United States supporters of the white supremacist — approx. ed.), neo-Nazis and “alternative right” began to consider themselves legitimate organizations.
Supporters of the “anti-fascists” are convinced that the necessary direct action to combat authoritarianism, homophobia, racism and xenophobia. In recent years, they have influenced the conduct of the activities of supporters of the extreme right-wing movements, for example, sought cancellation of their performances in the universities and organized a counter-demonstration, such as in 2017 in the city of Charlottesville. Then the protests started after a racist drove a car into the crowd, killing a girl and about twenty people were injured.
These groups adhering to the strict anti-capitalist position, do not refuse from the use of force, for example, protests of beating the enemy and damage to property. However, according to the author of the book “anti-fascists. Reference-fascism” (Antifa. The anti-fascist handbook) mark Bray (Mark Bray), the use of force is a “self-defence initially, as throughout the history of documented violence of the Nazis against, in particular, to marginalized populations.”
Supporters of the anti-fascist movement participated in the protests triggered by the death in Minneapolis of the African-American George Floyd (Floyd George) from the hands of the police. However, there is no evidence that the activists of the movement “Antifa” were the instigators of the unrest. In fact, the American media have suggested that right-wing radicals on the Internet to incite riots.
Is not the first time Donald trump offers to declare “anti-fascists” as a terrorist organization. Last year on Twitter, the U.S. President said that “the police will be easier to do the job,” but further words business didn’t go.
On Sunday, the representative of the Democratic party Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) raised the question of why the FBI does not consider white Suprematists domestic terrorist group, and stressed that carried him to Congress. “They (the FBI) insisted on the fact that we can’t cross that line, despite the clear cases of targeted violence involving supporters of white supremacy. Civil liberties are under serious threat,” said the Congressman of Hispanic origin.
This is despite the fact that in 2020, the FBI announced group of white Suprematists “primary threat” and equates them to international terrorism.
The American civil liberties Union criticized the President’s statement and noted: “thus he showed that terrorism is essentially a political label that can easily be misused”. “There is no legal basis for the recognition of the inner group a terrorist organization,” said the organization in a statement.
