Intersections
We’ve already made it clear that anti-fascism is individuals, any of whom might hold various ideological beliefs that intersect with, but don’t necessarily represent, anti-fascism. Anarchist groups and AF may have common ground and interests, for instance, but they’re not the same. Other social justice movements focused on one particular aspect – racial injustice, economic injustice, gender biases, etc. – unquestionably have common ground with anti-fascism, but they’re not the same. Even if the same person is doing the talking for two different interests, they still aren’t the same.
This is also true of the Black Lives Matter movement, and any other social justice movement be it based on racial inequality, sexual identity, economic status, or what have you. Nobody operating under the banner of “Antifa” honestly is trying to co-opt, usurp, or claim any movement; we do stand with and within all of them. Take apart the unspoken assumptions in trying to suggest this:
- That all anti-fascists are white and therefore have no proper voice in a movement for black equality.
- That this technique can be used to generate hostility among anti-fascists based on what appears to be the running assumption that all anti-fascists are shallow virtue signalers who really don’t care about ending oppression but are only interested in virtue signaling on social media
- That black people aren’t smart enough to know when someone’s playing them for fools.
As with any sort of counter-revolutionary propaganda, it only take a bit of discernment and applied critical thinking to see through it to the underlying motivations. We stand with BLM, unreservedly. We believe in their values, we believe in their cause.
Racism and other forms of bigotry area also facets of authoritarianism. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to say that out loud, as a point of discussion. Most of the time there’s no need for it and it can come off sounding like “all lives matter.” It really does go without saying that opposing fascism, by definition, is also an act of opposing racism – and sexism, and homophobia, and transphobia, and xenophobia, and all other forms of oppression. You don’t need us to tell you that, whether you identify with one movement or the other or both or neither, unless you’re a fascist and a bigot in which case telling you would be a waste of time anyway.
Unfortunately it seems like people who want to preserve and advance fascist ideals continue to try to create these separations, and without a centralized leadership it’s been difficult to counter-program that. Hence, this website and social media accounts. Now there is a place, clearly labeled “antifa,” that anyone can point to when faced with this kind of propaganda and say “no, they say right here that isn’t true.”
Nothing terrifies those who hold power in the oligarchy that threads through the world than the idea that black people, white people, and those of all other ethnicities might all get fed up simultaneously and work together to end oppression of marginalized communities. That’s exactly why we strive for complete intersectionality, because “anti-fascism” is the intersection where all forms of social justice converge.
Endorsements
As to the question of political candidates, parties, and institutions: we will never endorse a candidate, nor a party (never say never; it may well be that an “Antifa Party” happens in the future, but we’re not planning on it). While a political scientist might rightly observe that “fascism” is a “right-wing” ideology and therefore “anti-fascism” must therefore be a “left-wing” ideology, we tend to think wings are for the birds and all these labels are just different ways to try to split people up and keep them fighting each other in the margins so we can never quite work together effectively to fight the real enemy – fascists, authoritarians, and oppressors.
Identities
As to the question of identities – who are we, who “owns” this page, etc.: These questions will never be answered by us with anything but the same statement every time: “WeAntiFascists does not confirm identities of writers and admins.” Why not? What’s the big secret? There isn’t one; we don’t offer or confirm this kind of information because as soon as we do that, it becomes about personalities instead of ideology. It gives the counter-revolutionary fascist propagandists something to point at and make accusations with. There’s no positive purpose to it; our work speaks just fine for itself.
No face, no personalities, just a few people doing the typing and ensuring anyone who takes issue with our positions has their chance to dispute, correct, offer changes, etc. We’re human too, and we can make mistakes; we rely on our visibility to ensure those mistakes are caught and corrected.
Obviously if someone wants to “interview antifa,” we can’t have 330 million people show up; that’s a matter of logistics. But we work diligently to ensure that we keep our personal ideologies and identities separate from those we put forth as “Antifa,” and we absolutely depend on everyone else who stands against fascism to help keep us honest. If we say something that you believe violates the principles of anti-fascism, by all means let us know. We don’t have a contact form here to avoid spambots wasting our time, but you can always directly message either the Facebook Page or the Twitter account. We’ll be happy to discuss any honest criticism. Stupid fascist tricks like trying to dox the admins? That just reveals the sniveling dogs who pretend to be on our side but are really working for the fascists, and we think that’s just fine, especially given the number of fakes there clearly are.
Our solution to that issue is simple: let them drag themselves out into the light and save us the trouble of interacting with them. Nobody with good-faith interest in criticism or critique is going to come at us with threats of being doxxed or harassed into oblivion. We have absolute faith that anyone with genuine interest in and commitment to anti-fascist ideology will see through that nonsense and properly ignore it, beyond noting the identities of those participating as at best stunningly ignorant and inept, and at worst likely agents of the state trying to harvest identities for later leverage and authoritarian threat.
Consequently, we have no personal identity. We are an effort of ideology and principle, and any human beings directly involved in the creation of content on this site or our social media pages are only there because human interaction is necessary to create this information. The information itself belongs to the whole concept of “anti-fascism” and all who support it, and we – the humans doing the typing here – seek no profit, no credit, no personal gain, no personal publicity from our work.
It’s not perfect, but nothing will be, and we can think of no better working model to allow for canonical reference in a leaderless disorganization.
