A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #29-25 - Anti-fascism Under Attack. Trump and the Antifa Memorandum (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Since the current US President took office, we've become accustomed to 
his antics, but we mustn't make the mistake of underestimating them, as 
even the most incredible statements can turn into something far more 
concrete and dangerous. As is well known, on September 22nd, the 
individual in question signed yet another executive order defining 
"antifa" as a "domestic terrorist organization." This decision was 
followed by a meeting on the same topic attended by top US government 
officials. The Attorney General vowed to "dismantle that organization 
brick by brick," and the Secretary of the Interior even compared 
"antifa" to ISIS. The President stated that "it should be clear to all 
Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terrorist threat in our 
country" and promised that his Administration "will be far more 
threatening to them than they have ever been to us, including the people 
who fund them." He then asked the Treasury Department to open an 
investigation to identify the sources of "antifa" funding. The meeting 
was attended, in addition to those mentioned above, by representatives 
of the Department of Justice and high-level FBI officials.

One need not be so gullible as to overestimate the intelligence and 
culture of the White House occupant, but one must not be so naive as to 
believe that there isn't (at least) one person on his staff who could do 
a simple internet search and discover that an organization called 
"antifa" doesn't exist. It was therefore immediately clear that the term 
was merely used as a decoy, as the real objective was much broader. As 
was clear from reading the "Memorandum (NSPM-7)," signed by Melanija 
Knavs's husband and released on September 25, titled "Countering 
Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence."

The document is intended (according to its author) to clarify what is 
meant by "antifa," a term that appears only once in the seven-page 
document. The document's objective is to provide the necessary guidance 
for investigating, repressing, and legally prosecuting "self-styled 
anti-fascists" who pose a threat to the United States and are 
responsible for all existing public order problems: from the dossier 
against Anti-Immigration Police officers to the murder of Charlie Kirk. 
The reason for this relentlessness is that these movements consider 
"fundamental American principles, such as support for the police and 
border control" to be fascist. It must be added that their activities 
are "a violent assault on America's democratic institutions, 
constitutional rights, and fundamental freedoms. The common threads 
animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, 
anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the 
United States government; extremism on immigration, race, and gender; 
and hostility toward those with traditional American views on family, 
religion, and morality."

Clearly, the term "antifa" has served merely as a convenient label to 
list the ideas expressed by people who are not aligned with the 
government's ideology, who are the real target of the provisions of this 
Memorandum. Some American political commentators who have retained a 
modicum of intellectual honesty have pointed out that descriptions such 
as those contained in the Memorandum seriously undermine freedom of 
expression and criticism and lend themselves very easily to unleashing a 
modern-day "witch hunt."

But thinking about it, even in our parts, the term "anti-fascism" isn't 
doing so well. For three years now, it has been equated, in the daily 
propaganda of government politicians and their supporters, with all 
manner of atrocities. It's no coincidence that the inability of some 
politicians to call themselves "anti-fascists" is often justified by the 
notion that anti-fascism should be considered something despicable, 
sometimes blaming it for the "foibe" massacres, sometimes for all the 
murders of neo-fascist militants in the 1970s. Not to mention the armed 
struggle.

The tactic is crude, but it is applied with determination and 
stubbornness, and it is part of an all-too-obvious attempt to rewrite 
certain pages of history, for example, by downplaying the partisan 
liberation struggle and reducing post-war anti-fascism to a struggle 
between gangs. A constant work of mystification that takes advantage of 
every opportunity, whether referring to recent events or events more 
distant in time. Any excuse is good enough to denigrate anti-fascism 
and, consequently, all those who identified with it yesterday and still 
identify with it today. In recent weeks, the targets have been those 
participating in protests against the Gaza massacre, against the Israeli 
government, and against the complicity of the Italian government, for 
which they even implicated the "Red Brigades."

Finally, it should be noted that constantly attacking anti-fascism 
automatically means attacking the parliamentary opposition, and vice 
versa, which is also very convenient. Although an organization called 
"antifa" doesn't exist in this country, and therefore outlawing it would 
be complicated, it cannot be completely ruled out that, given the number 
of fans the US President has here, someone might decide to mimic his 
ways once again.

Moreover, the above-mentioned Memorandum, if we remove the national 
references, contains content that would be worrying even for anyone 
engaged in social opposition in Italy.

Pepsy

https://umanitanova.org/antifascismo-sotto-attacco-trump-e-memorandum-antifa/
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