Since they have been on the radar a lot lately. I figured I'd lay out the history and put some myths to rest. I realize I'm coming at this from a "Leftist" perspective but I believe that the right wing leanings of American education have let us believe that ANTIFA is a new thing as the movement was and is non partisan (there is no unified political belief system involved, if you talk to anti-fascists you will find communists, anarchists, socialists, Democrats, and Republicans at this juncture the rallying cry is "My grandfathers generation didn't fight WWII so that people could march through American streets waving Nazi flags).
Let's start with where it comes from:
To quote the article:
The Arditi del Popolo brought together unionists, anarchists, socialists, communists, republicans and former army officers. From the outset, anti-fascists began to build bridges where traditional political groups saw walls.
This exists within ANTIFA even today I know Anarchists and card carrying Republicans who have never voted Democrat a day in their lives fighting on the same side.
Now here's where it gets interesting:
Once in government, Mussolini began a policy of "Italianization" that amounted to cultural genocide for the Slovenes and Croats who lived in the northeastern part of the country. Mussolini banned their languages, closed their schools and even made them change their names to sound more Italian. As a result, the Slovenes and Croats were forced to organize outside of the state to protect themselves from Italianization, and allied with anti-fascist forces in 1927. The state responded by forming a secret police, the Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo, the Organization for vigilance and repression of anti-fascism (OVRA), which surveilled Italian citizens, raided opposition organizations, murdered suspected anti-fascists, and even spied on and blackmailed the Catholic Church. Anti-fascists would face off against the OVRA for 18 years, until an anti-fascist partisan who used the alias Colonnello Valerio shot Mussolini and his mistress with a submachine gun in 1945.
"Americanization" has always been a part of our culture right from Ellis Isle "Your name is Schmitt now it's Smith", "Antonio, now it's Anthony". It was even worse for slaves and Native Americans. "Indian Schools" "Cultural Adoption" etc. Right up through the House Un American Activities Committee, FBI infiltration of Left Wing groups, COINTELPRO, the USA PATRIOT ACT (pretty much making the 4th amendment null and void) straight through to corporate surveillance (if you make a call on any Google service you have to give them permission to record your calls). I got a little sidetracked, back to the article at hand.
To be continued....
C/S,
Rev J
Let's start with where it comes from:
To quote the article:
The Arditi del Popolo brought together unionists, anarchists, socialists, communists, republicans and former army officers. From the outset, anti-fascists began to build bridges where traditional political groups saw walls.
This exists within ANTIFA even today I know Anarchists and card carrying Republicans who have never voted Democrat a day in their lives fighting on the same side.
Now here's where it gets interesting:
Once in government, Mussolini began a policy of "Italianization" that amounted to cultural genocide for the Slovenes and Croats who lived in the northeastern part of the country. Mussolini banned their languages, closed their schools and even made them change their names to sound more Italian. As a result, the Slovenes and Croats were forced to organize outside of the state to protect themselves from Italianization, and allied with anti-fascist forces in 1927. The state responded by forming a secret police, the Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo, the Organization for vigilance and repression of anti-fascism (OVRA), which surveilled Italian citizens, raided opposition organizations, murdered suspected anti-fascists, and even spied on and blackmailed the Catholic Church. Anti-fascists would face off against the OVRA for 18 years, until an anti-fascist partisan who used the alias Colonnello Valerio shot Mussolini and his mistress with a submachine gun in 1945.
"Americanization" has always been a part of our culture right from Ellis Isle "Your name is Schmitt now it's Smith", "Antonio, now it's Anthony". It was even worse for slaves and Native Americans. "Indian Schools" "Cultural Adoption" etc. Right up through the House Un American Activities Committee, FBI infiltration of Left Wing groups, COINTELPRO, the USA PATRIOT ACT (pretty much making the 4th amendment null and void) straight through to corporate surveillance (if you make a call on any Google service you have to give them permission to record your calls). I got a little sidetracked, back to the article at hand.
To be continued....
C/S,
Rev J
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