Deconstructing Memes: What does it really mean to be anti-fascist?

A meme can be an excellent way to communicate powerful messages with few words and sometimes images. At the same time, a meme can oversimplify or distort historical facts. GRIID will now regularly deconstruct memes, in part because memes continue to increase in number on social media, but also because they often engage in misinformation.

Two weeks ago, we deconstructed a meme that was clearly created to make a point about the 2024 Elections and the Presidential candidates, which was rather misleading. In today’s Deconstructing memes, I want to look at a meme that makes certain claims about what is means to be an anti-fascist.

There are no images with this meme, just text, which reads:

There is no organization called “ANTIFA.” Antifa stands for anti-fascism. World War II veterans were Antifa because they fought fascism. Anyone who is against fascism in Antifa. There is no membership card. Everyone should be Antifa.

There certainly are some parts of this text that I agree with, such as the fact that antifa is not an organization, but it is often small groups of people organizing against fascism. It is also true that there is no membership card, and that anyone can be an antifascist.

The parts of this meme that are problematic and misleading are the point about “anyone who is against fascism is antifa” and “World War II veterans were Antifa because they fought fascism.”

It is important that we understand the history of the anti-fascism. There are several good books on the topic, such as Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, Jason Stanley’s How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, and Gord Hill’s, The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements. 

First, it is important that those who first identified as antifascists, were groups in Italy, Spain and Germany that were actively resisting the growing fascist movements led by Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. Those movements had been around for more than a decade before the US entered WWII. In each of these cases, the antifascists were made up of either anarchists, socialist or communist groups, all of which opposed fascism and capitalism. 

Another common element about antifascist groups have been that they engaged in direct resistance, often using force. In addition, antifascist groups wanted to replace fascism with social and economic relations that were based on cooperation instead of competition. 

A third element of what makes someone an antifascist is that whenever fascism gets organized, antifascists respond. In a contemporary settling, this means that when the Proud Boys, the KKK, or other ALT Right groups come to town, antifascists will confront them and kick them out of their communities. It’s an active form of resistance, one that doesn’t allow for people to sit back and just make statements. 

On the matter of World War II veterans automatically being antifascists, it is a bit of a grey area. First, those in the US military during WWII were fighting against Hitler and Mussolini because they didn’t have a choice. Those soldiers were merely following orders, not helping to plan an antifascist plan. Equally important to note is the fact that the local Italian and French antifascist groups that were able to win back their communities and cities from fascist forces, were often removed from power by British and US forces who came through after the fact. As Noam Chomsky notes in his book, Deterring Democracy, US and and British military forces actively removed the socialist, anarchist and communist movements that had defeated the fascists in Europe. Chomsky states that these antifascist forces were often replaced by fascists collaborators they had defeated, “to weaken unions and other popular organizations, and to block the threat of radical democracy and social reform.” The fascist collaborators were more inclined to embrace capitalism and the social order that came with it. 

I understand the sentiment reflected in the ANTIFA meme, but apart from being too simplistic, it is also misleading and doesn’t sever the public since it doesn’t provide a more robust history or understanding o what antifascism really is.