Resistance to fascism is about as old as fascism itself, yet it is only recently that the word "antifa" has entered the popular lexicon. Those who are currently being labeled as "antifa" are really very far from the origins of antifascism. What is now being called by news and media outlets is just another form of liberalism, and has nothing to do with the historical trajectory of antifascism. This first piece will examine some of the first people to fight against fascism.
The Early Years
As the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler first started fleshing out exactly what fascism would look like, resistance to them was almost immediate. Socialist and communist parties often conflicted with fascists in the streets. In Italy, partisan groups, often made of Slovenians and Croatians, formed to wage war against fascism from the underground. This is particularly interesting, as fascism in Eastern Europe has recently been on the rise. In just a few generations, some groups have gone from fighting fascism to the death, to being some of the main proponents of it.
In Germany, resistance ranged from the generally nonviolent White Rose, to the slightly more rebellious Edelweiss Pirates. The White Rose distributed pamphlets and propaganda, urging people to organize against Hitler. The Edelweiss Pirates formed something similar to juvenile street gangs, as a response to the authoritarianism of the Hitler Youth. While fighting groups in Germany existed, they generally tended to be under the control of the USSR, and were not as organically created by the German people.
As is often the case, resistance to fascism in both Italy and Germany was brutally suppressed. The vast majority of people who participated in these initial waves of antifascist activity were either imprisoned or executed. The original antifascists saw plainly that their free speech, and rights in general, were under attack by fascists, and they paid the ultimate price for standing up for themselves.
In the next piece, we will go over antifascist movements after WW2, and delve into a bit more recent history...