In America Trump called them a terrorist organisation.* In the UK, they turn up in all-black attire, with masks and hoodies and attempt to physically attack anyone they label as ‘fascists’. In Europe, they attack their opponents with hammers and bars.
Unfortunately, the US does not have a ‘domestic terrorism law’ and antifa, a contraction of the phrase “anti-fascist,” is not a single organisation with a leader, structure or membership. In the UK, antifa is just as secretive and appears to be made up of autonomous local ‘cells’. These cells come together to oppose (often violently) any group or issue they deem ‘far right’.
Antifa is a symbol of the political and physical defeat of the socialists and communists by the National Socialists in pre-1933 Germany. Today, without community support and living in their little anarchist bubble, these middle-class ‘street fighters’ are a symbol of a fragmented, out-of-touch and increasingly isolated extreme left.
In 2016, Britain First leader Paul Golding and his then deputy, Jayda Fransen, were arrested after “wearing uniform with political objective” at a rally in Luton. Political uniforms are banned in Britain under the 1936 Public Order Act, brought in to prevent the British Union of Fascists wearing their blackshirts.
At an anti-asylum demonstration held outside of an hotel in Leeds in December 2022, antifa activists, in their black trousers and boots, cheap black hoodies and masks were photographed by British Movement observers continually being told to pull their masks and hoods up by a group of older Marxists. Once again we have the double-standards of the System allowing the extreme-left to behave with impunity, yet the slightest whiff of law-breaking by Nationalists leads to arrests.
In Germany, where Antifa was first spawned back in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, antifa cells are much more violent than those in Britain. Our home-grown wannabe-terrorists seem to be mainly spotty middle-class students and squeaky-voiced girls.
Last January, antifa extremists attacked two Nationalists in Erfurt, Germany, with an axe and baton, causing seriously injuries. On April 23rd 2022, left-wing extremists organised attacks on Thor Steinar clothing stores in six German cities. The presumed motive of the attacks is that the brand is popular with Nationalists. In several cases, there was damage to property – and in one of the attacks, a saleswoman was brutally beaten (see video below).
“The apparently coordinated offensive hit stores in Erfurt, Magdeburg, Schwerin, Halle, Dresden, and Berlin. The most violent was the attack on the Erfurt store, in which a 32-year-old saleswoman was overpowered from behind by a masked perpetrator during what she assumed was a sales talk with a woman in the group. Meanwhile, two other masked individuals sprayed the store with tar paint. The woman who served as a decoy was also masked and beat the sales clerk with a baton. Before leaving the store, one of the perpetrators sprayed the saleswoman in the face, presumably with pepper spray. The 32-year-old mother was treated in hospital as a result.”
Last summer, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution warned that “serious bodily harm to victims, including possible death, is being condoned” among left-wing extremists.
A number of the ring-leaders of Antifa in Germany are currently appearing in front of the Dresden Higher Regional Court for membership in a criminal organisation. The case has been going on for over 20 months but is expected to finish in late May or early June.
Four far-left activists have been charged in Germany on allegations that they were part of a group involved in a series of attacks on Nationalists and other patriots over a period of two years, according to prosecutors.
Lina E., whose last name was not divulged in line with German privacy laws, is accused of coming up with the idea in 2018 to target far-right individuals based on a “militant extreme-left ideology” and helping to plan the attacks. Three men, Lennart A., Jannis R. and Jonathan M., are alleged to have joined up with her no later than the end of 2019. They were based in the eastern city of Leipzig, and most of the attacks came there or in nearby Wurzen, prosecutors have said.
Several are alleged to have been involved in a 2020 attack with about 15 or 20 others on a group of six people in Wurzen railway station upon their arrival back from a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the firebombing of Dresden – an event that attracted many racial Nationalists. Several victims sustained serious injuries after being punched, kicked and hit with batons, prosecutors said.
All except Lennart A. are accused of an attack in 2019 in the central city of Eisenach, where police say they and about 10 to 15 others stormed a restaurant believed to be a meeting place of the far-right, beating five visitors and the owner with batons and causing serious injuries.
All are charged with causing serious bodily harm and other offenses. Lina E., who faces the most charges, has been in custody since her November 5, 2020 arrest. The others have remained free.
THE “HAMMER GANG”
At the beginning of February, at least eight German left-wing extremists are said to have attacked any individual they suspected of being far-right in Budapest and in some cases seriously injuring them with iron bars and CS gas.
One of the people attacked was a middle-aged man going about his business. His crime, according statements from his attackers, was that he was wearing camouflage trousers, leading them to jump to the conclusion that he was a ‘fascist’. Some of these red heroes are still in detention in Hungary, while others are on the run. The trail of the brutal attack from Budapest quickly led to Saxony. Investigators believe that the accused are proof that the notorious “hammer gang” is still active.
In Dresden, the federal prosecutor’s office is demanding 8 years in prison for Lina E. from Leipzig and her three co-defendants if they are convicted. The radical left is already mobilising across Europe for “Day X”, threatening retaliation: one million euros in property damage for every year of imprisonment, one million for every raid, according to an appeal on the online portal “Indymedia” at the beginning of April. Targets include construction sites, police stations, courthouses and the Chemnitz prison where Lina E. is being held.
*During his time as US President, Donald Trump was quoted as saying that the United States would designate antifa as a terrorist organisation. Unfortunately this was all just hot-air like many of his pronouncements.
STOP PRESS:
Dresden – The long-running trial against the four left-wing extremists (the so-called Hammer Gang), before the Saxon Higher Regional Court has finished. After 97 days of hearings, chairman Hans Schlueter-Staats (61) announced the sentence against the four accused for membership in a criminal organisation.
Lina E. (28) – the main suspect in the proceedings – was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in prison. Her co-accused, Lennard A. (28, three years in prison), Jannis R. (37, two years and five months in prison) and Jonathan M. (28, three years and three months in prison) received shorter sentences. The red thugs last lived in Leipzig or Berlin and were born in Kassel, Duisburg, Braunschweig and Freiberg.
During her time in custody (a total of 30 months), Lina E. supposedly fell seriously ill with rheumatism during the so-called corona pandemic. Judge Hans Schlueter-Staats, lifted the arrest warrant at around 7:50 p.m. the same evening (as the sentencing), and allowed her to go home!
In numerous cities (e.g. Bielefeld, Duisburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe) left-wing groups organized solidarity demonstrations on Wednesday evening. Leipzig is expecting widespread disorder on “Day X” (June 3rd). Left-wing extremists from all over Germany want to make a pilgrimage to Leipzig and “bring their anger onto the streets”. They have threatened a “second G20” riot.
A report on the aftermath of the trial will appear in a blog on this website tomorrow.
Resources:
Top Image: Public Domain – Antifashistische Aktion conference, Germany 1932.
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AFA in both parts of Ireland is effectively a “front” for violent republicans, from the openly red terrorists of the INLA to the inept bombers & gunmen of the “new” IRA.
Additionally they enjoy mainstream political backing from the cafe/cultural Marxists of Sinn Fein who share the cosmopolitan ideology at the core of AFA.
The German case is a working model of their aspirations.