Antifascistisk Aktion

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Antifascistisk Aktion (AFA) is a militant Swedish and Danish extra-parliamentary network whose goal is to "smash fascism in all its forms".^[1]

It is a socialist group that wishes to replace capitalism with a stateless and classless society. Its members oppose sexism, racism and homophobia. AFA's ideology is based on the theory of triple oppression. Antifascistisk Aktion was founded in 1993 when there was an increasingly racist climate in Sweden and a rise in confrontations between anti-fascists and fascists.^[2] In Denmark AFA was founded in Copenhagen in 1992 after Henrik Christensen, a member of International Socialists, was attacked by a bomb and killed, possibly by right-wing activists.^[3] AFA has taken responsibility for burning down Tråvads spinneri in western Sweden, which was owned by the right-wing extremist Curt Linusson, and was used as the headquarters of the neo-Nazi organization Nationalsocialistisk Front. ^[4] ^[5] ^[6] ^[7] AFA members were involved in protests during the EU summit in Gothenburg 2001.^{[citation needed]} Some critics say AFA does not respect freedom of speech, because some AFA members have attacked fascists and other nationalists,^[8]^[9] as well as the house of a migration judge.^[10]

Its activities have included handing out flyers, organizing demonstrations and physical confrontations with political opponents. They believe that a certain amount of violence is inevitable in the struggle against fascism and capitalism. In line with their ideology, and as a consequence of being constantly monitored by the police, AFA has no central authority, and is organized in a platformist manner. This means it has a flat organization composed of many independent groupings, also without a board, chairman or leader. The point of having the organization is to exchange information, collect information and to coordinate activities between local groups. As of 2006, there were 17 AFA groups listed on the Swedish AFA's website.^[11] AFA has a support group and a dokugrupp, which surveys alleged fascists and fascist activities.^[12] AFA works with other anti-racist networks all over Europe.^[13]^[11]