What took place in Charlottesville, like what took place in February when antifa and Black Bloc protesters thwarted UC Berkeley’s attempt to host the crypto-fascist Milo Yiannopoulos, was political theater. It was about giving self-styled radicals a stage. It was about elevating their self-image. It was about appearing heroic. It was about replacing personal alienation with comradeship and solidarity. Most important, it was about the ability to project fear. This newfound power is exciting and intoxicating. It is also very dangerous.... Chris HedgesCriticism of Antifa from progressives on the left mounts. This is different from the liberal ACLU "free speech even for Nazis" critiques. Self-declared anarchists are not the most loved on the left --- after all, they often disparage the essential beliefs of many leftists. Who is to say that Hedges is protested at some point for disagreeing with Antifa? I am not comfortable with people making certain decisions as to who is kosher and who is not.
Hedges makes some important points:
Street clashes do not distress the ruling elites. These clashes divide the underclass. They divert activists from threatening the actual structures of power. They give the corporate state the ammunition to impose harsher forms of control and expand the powers of internal security. When antifa assumes the right to curtail free speech it becomes a weapon in the hands of its enemies to take that freedom away from everyone, especially the anti-capitalists.Here is the entire article with some historical references.
The focus on street violence diverts activists from the far less glamorous building of relationships and alternative institutions and community organizing that alone will make effective resistance possible.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/antifa-mirrors-alt-right/
