Anti-fascism

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Members of the Dutch Eindhoven Resistance with troops of the US 101st Airborne in Eindhoven in September 1944.

Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, organizations, governments and people.

There is a difference between anti-fascism as a political movement, and personal opposition to fascism. In the broadest sense, an anti-fascist is anyone who disagrees with fascism or engages in anti-fascist direct action. This includes most mainstream political parties and groups in the Western world, including both leftists and rightists. Anti-fascist political movements have been historically associated with movements such as anarchism, communism and socialism; however, one does not have to be left-wing to be opposed to fascism.^{[citation needed]} Another term for anti-fascism (or anti-fascists) is antifa.

Large scale anti-fascist movements were first seen during the Spanish Civil War. Amongst others, the International Brigade and the Spanish anarchist militias formed a broad popular anti-fascist movement.

Members of the Maquis in La Trésorerie

Most major resistance movements during World War II were anti-fascist. In France, quite a few people who joined the Resistance against the Vichy regime came from far right nationalist and royalist backgrounds. They abandoned the Vichy regime and started fighting against the Germans when they saw that Philippe Pétain was entirely subservient to the Nazis and had no intent to stop collaboration. The anti-fascist movement, known as the Italian resistance, was also an important part of Italian history; many people left their houses and went to live in the mountain side, fighting against both Fascists and Third Reich soldiers. Many cities of the northern Italy, including Turin and Milan, were freed by anti-fascist uprisings.

Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst, executed for participation in a resistance movement against the Nazi regime through White Rose.

There are two broad positions within the anti-fascism movement: militant anti-fascism and liberal anti-fascism. There is disagreement within the anti-fascist movement about whether violence is justified.^{[citation needed]} Violence played an important role in the 1920s and the 1930s, when anti-fascists confronted aggressive far right groups such as the Action Française movement in France, which dominated the Latin Quarter students' neighborhood. In Italy in the 1920s, anti-fascists fought against the violent Squadristi. In Germany around the same time, anti-fascists had physical conflicts with the Freikorps.^{[citation needed]} In the 2000s, neo-Nazis pose a genuine physical threat in some areas, and have even killed people. Militant anti-fascists claim that in those areas, self-defence is necessary because the state can't be depended on to defend all communities. However, liberal anti-fascists argue that not all neo-Nazis are directly responsible for violence, and that engaging in vigilante actions against them allows them to depict themselves as innocent victims.^{[citation needed]}