Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook
AuthorMark Bray
Audio read byKeith Szarabajka
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectSocial movements
PublisherMelville House
Publication date
August 2017
Pages288
ISBN978-1-61219-703-6

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook is a 2017 book written by historian Mark Bray and published by Melville House Publishing, which explores the history of anti-fascist movements since the 1920s and 1930s and their contemporary resurgence.

Content

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook details the emergence of anti-fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, and offers an analysis of contemporary anti-fascist movements, particularly antifa in the United States and Europe. Bray argues in his book that militant anti-fascism is a reasonable and legitimate political tradition, and describes his book as "an unabashedly partisan call to arms that aims to equip a new generation of anti-fascists with the history and theory necessary to defeat the resurgent far-right". Historical examples referred to in the book include the 43 Group, Rock Against Racism, the Red Warriors, and the Autonomen who popularized black bloc tactics.[1][2][3] It also details key events in the history of anti-fascist movements, such as the Battle of Cable Street.[4]

In addition to describing the history of anti-fascist movements, the book dedicates a chapter to "Five Historical Lessons for Anti-Fascists".[5][1] It discusses the subject of antifa as it relates to deplatforming and freedom of speech.[6][7][1] Interviews that Bray conducted with antifa activists are included in the book.[8][9][10] Bray conducted 61 such interviews across 17 different countries.[5][4] Bray uses the definition of fascism provided by Robert Paxton.[3][11] He defines antifa as "illiberal politics of social revolutionism applied to fighting the Far Right, not only literal fascists" and as a "pan-left radical politics uniting communists, socialists, anarchists and various different radical leftists together for the shared purpose of combating the far right."[11][12][13]

Reception

The San Francisco Chronicle praised the book's writing, calling Bray's analysis "methodical and informative" and his arguments "incisive and cohesive".[5][14]

Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post commented that "the book's most enlightening contribution is on the history of anti-fascist efforts over the past century, but its most relevant for today is its justification for stifling speech and clobbering white supremacists".[3]

In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Luca Provenzano said that the book was "written from a commendable place of engagement and provides a serviceable genealogy for militant anti-fascism in the present", but was also critical of the book, saying that a "closer, more critical look at modern antifa's inception in the 1960s and '70s reveals some of the pitfalls of militant organizing, and a truly credible analysis of anti-fascist protest tactics would need to pay much closer attention to this period."[15]

Fred Shaw, writing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, called the book "pointed with concise analysis provided by an insider’s perspective", but also said it was "not a page-turner".[11]

In Brazil, Bray's book featured in what Bray described as "a little bit of a controversy" on Twitter in 2021, when a member of the self-described "Anti-Fascism Police Movement" tweeted a photo of himself holding the book, to which the author replied that if he was really anti-fascist he should quit his job.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Denton, Donald D. (January 2, 2021). "ANTIFA: The Anti-Fascist Handbook and From Fascism to Populism in History". Terrorism and Political Violence. 33 (1): 205–208. doi:10.1080/09546553.2021.1864970. ISSN 0954-6553. S2CID 231654301.
  2. ↑ Mogelson, Luke. "In the Streets with Antifa". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Lozada, Carlos (September 1, 2017). "The history, theory and contradictions of antifa". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 3, 2017. Retrieved October 1, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. 1 2 "Anti-fascist handbook explores long history of opposition movement". CBC Radio. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. August 24, 2017. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 Sycamore, Mattilda Bernstein (September 8, 2017). "'Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,' by Mark Bray". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  6. ↑ Burns, Chase (November 8, 2017). "Shut Up About Nazi-Punching and Pick Up Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook". The Stranger. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  7. ↑ Duford, Rochelle (January 30, 2019). American Philosophical Association. "'Who is a Negator of History?' Revisiting the Debate over Left Fascism 50 Years after 1968". Journal of the American Philosophical Association. 5 (1): 59–77. doi:10.1017/apa.2018.39. ISSN 2053-4477. S2CID 166995084.
  8. ↑ Flood, Alison (August 22, 2017). "Antifa: the Anti-fascist Handbook – 'What Trump said made the book seem even more urgent'". The Guardian. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  9. ↑ Penny, Daniel (August 22, 2017). "An Intimate History of Antifa". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  10. 1 2 Schargel, Sergio; Guimarães, Julia de Oliveira Góes (March 31, 2023). "Between Antifascism and Antifa: A Conversation with Mark Bray, Author of Antifa". Revista Brasileira de História. 43: 305–321. doi:10.1590/1806-93472023v43n92-19. ISSN 0102-0188.
  11. 1 2 3 Shaw, Fred (November 5, 2017). "Mark Bray writes a roadmap to anti-fascist beliefs". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  12. ↑ Koch, Ariel (May 19, 2021). "The Non-Jihadi Foreign Fighters: Western Right-Wing and Left-Wing Extremists in Syria". Terrorism and Political Violence. 33 (4): 669–696. doi:10.1080/09546553.2019.1581614. ISSN 0954-6553. S2CID 197703519.
  13. ↑ "Antifa violence is ethical? This author explains why". NBC News. Retrieved May 3, 2023.
  14. ↑ Tucker, Eric; Flaccus, Gillian; Madhani, Aamer (June 2, 2020). "A look at the antifa movement Trump is blaming for violence". San Francisco Chronicle. AP. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020.
  15. ↑ Provenzano, Luca (October 21, 2017). "Street Fighting Men: Antifa's Origins in the '60s and '70s". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
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