antifa

The lunatic in the White House recently labeled antifa a terrorist organization, which is wrong on two counts. As I understand it, antifa is not terrorist. I have no fear of them. And it is not an organization,.

We can expect the tRumpublicans to be shouting "antifa" from now until November. That way they won't have to talk about the murder of Mr. Floyd.

Antifa has a vague, romantic history going back to the 1930s, when some people began to form into small groups to fight Fascism. What we see today, apparently, are a lot of small affinity groups, maybe ten people per group, who know each other well and would be hard to infiltrate. There is no central leader--many members are anarchists--and probably no national structure.  There is an informal website, "It's Going Down."  (As far as I can tell.)

I suppose the different affinity groups show up in places where they think they can be useful. Sometimes they dress in black and break windows. Sometimes they mass against demonstrations by the far right. Blows might get struck. Absolute freedom of expression is not one of antifa's causes.

As far as I know, antifa has not killed anyone. They are not the left equivalent of Nazis. Maybe the best way to join antifa is to form your own affinity group (inviting only people you have known forever),  buy some black clothes and then show up at the right place and the right time.

Cornel West credits antifa with saving his life when he was attacked by Nazis. Antifa drove them off.