‘There are no leaders. In fact, that is the whole point’: Why Trump can’t ban Antifa

How do you criminalise a group without any figureheads, or any formal leadership? How do you criminalise a group which, to all intents and purposes, doesn’t actually exist at all?

This is the challenge facing Donald Trump if he wishes to proceed with his pledge to criminalise Antifa, a repeat of the threat he made in August 2019.

Antifa, a contraction of anti-fascist, is best understood not as a single body, but as a movement that links hundreds of autonomous strands. Mr Trump may be adamant that Antifa is “a terrorist organisation”, but experts say it is more like a belief system, such as liberalism or conservatism.

Mark Bray, an author and historian based in New Jersey, has done as much as anyone to codify this system. Having previously organised for Occupy Wall Street, he now writes about anarchism, rather than participating in it. But his Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, which charts the history of the movement all the way back to the 1920s, has become an essential text for many of its adherents.

Bray is unequivocal: Trump can’t ban Antifa – because there’s nothing to actually ban.

“Antifa is an umbrella term for a whole network of groups that all organise themselves,” Bray tells The Independent.

“There are no leaders. In fact, that is the whole point of anti-authoritarian anti-fascism. It rejects hierarchy and traditional forms of organisation.”

Bray, who lectures at Rutgers University and has previously worked at the private Dartmouth College, is sanguine about Mr Trump’s threat. He says he has no reason to stop writing, and believes the president’s tweet was simply “a distraction” following the death of George Floyd while in police custody.

To Bray and other anti-fascists, Floyd’s death was just the latest example of state-endorsed racism during the Trump presidency. To them, the real threat to American security comes not from the streets, but from the White House itself.

“Trump swims in the sea of the far right. He encourages them, he apologises for them, he incites their violence,” Bray says.

“Look at the people he retweets, look at the influence of people like Stephen Miller [a senior adviser accused of spreading white nationalist propaganda]. Trump is a far-right sympathiser.”

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There is a counterargument, of course. Ever since Mr Trump was elected, Antifa groups, who often appear at conservative rallies dressed in masks and all-black uniforms, have been accused of violence and intimidation. Last year, an Antifa activist was jailed for six years for striking a conservative demonstrator on the head from behind.

The criticism has reached a new pitch during the paroxysm of protest triggered by Floyd’s death. In New York, police say Antifa activists have set fire to police cars and hurled Molotov cocktails, and several local officials have blamed anarchists for fomenting violence (although it has also emerged that white supremacists have been creating fake Antifa accounts online, in the hope of framing leftists for the clashes).

Bray suggests that the percentage of Antifa supporters involved in burning, looting and property destruction is very small, but he concedes that “it’s reasonable to assume that members of Antifa groups were involved in some areas”. While he believes the rebellion is being led by black activists, the protesters share many of Antifa’s core goals “including destroying white supremacy and abolishing the police”.

In some cases, Bray says, Antifa activists may see physical confrontation as a necessity if these goals cannot be achieved by any other means.

“I’ve interviewed a lot of people [within Antifa] and their attitude tends to be to use the least violent option to oppose the far right.

“You use letters so you don’t have to use fists. You use fists so you don’t have to use knives. You use knives so you don’t have to use guns.

“But in some extreme cases, as a response to aggression, armed self-defence might be necessary for anti-fascist groups. Even pre-emptive self-defence is justified, in certain situations.

“What Antifa wants is a revolutionary transformation of society, which may require violence.”

But can this violence be justified, if it results in the wanton destruction of property and even leads to physical injuries?

“Was it justified in Italy in the 1920s or Germany in the 1930s?”, Bray responds. “In both cases the aggressors were the far right and that is the case in the US today.”

In fact, Bray believes, anti-fascists now have a bigger role than ever.

“It does feel like we’re at a tipping point in US political history. Covid[-19] has shone a light on the inequalities in society and at the same time [the image of] wearing a mask has changed, so the stigma around wearing a mask at protests is reduced.

“Meanwhile Trump continues to apologise for right-wing figures. Violence against black people continues – and there’s no reason to suggest it will stop anytime soon, because there are no consequences.

“It appears that we are on the verge of a situation akin to the 1960s. The civil rights movement and the Vietnam War felt like huge moments in this country’s history. This is similar.”

So will we see more clashes over the coming months? Will the kind of violence witnessed in the wake of Floyd’s death become commonplace?

“Unfortunately this feels like a new normal,” Bray concludes.