The English word Antifa was adopted from the German language. The German Antifa, where it is a shortened form of the word antifaschistisch (“anti-fascist”) and a nickname of Antifaschistische Aktion (1932–1933), a short-lived group which inspired the wider Antifa movement in Germany.

According to Wikipedia, “Antifa (/ænˈtiːfə, ˈænti(ˈ)fɑː/) is a left-wing, anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States.”

Anarchists, communists, and socialists, who describe themselves as revolutionaries and criticize liberal democracy, are characterized as Antifa. Although some of them are social democrats and others on the American Left, among them environmentalists, LGBT and indigenous rights advocates, who also adhere to the Antifa movement.”

Some scholars argue that Antifa is a legitimate response to the rise of the far right. Although scholars tend to reject the equivalence between Antifa and white supremacy

Individuals involved in the Antifa movement tend to hold anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist^, anti-fascist, and anti-state views, subscribing to a varied range of left-wing ideologies.

According to professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, Peter Beinart, “Antifa is heavily composed of anarchists” and “its activists place little faith in the state, which they consider complicit in fascism and racism.” 

Antifa activists’ ideologies, as well as their involvement in violent actions against far-right opponents and the police has led some scholars and news media to characterize the movement as far-left and militant. 

In his article “The Rise of the Violent Left” for The Atlantic, Beinart writes that Antifa activists “prefer direct action: They pressure venues to deny white supremacists space to meet. They pressure employers to fire them and landlords to evict them. And when people they deem racists and fascists manage to assemble, Antifa’s partisans try to break up their gatherings, including by force.”

Antifa is united by opposition to right-wing extremism and white supremacy. According to historian Mark Bray, an expert on the movement.

Bray states that “the vast majority of Antifa militants are radical anti-capitalists who oppose the Democratic Party” and that Democratic Party leaders, including Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, have condemned Antifa and political violence more broadly. Despite Antifa’s opposition to the Democratic Party and liberalism, some right-wing commentators have accused their adherents of being aided by “liberal sympathizers” and “affiliated with the Democratic Party” as well as being “a single organization”, “funded by liberal financiers like George Soros“, “masterminding violence at Black Lives Matter protests”, and that “Antifascists are the ‘real fascists'”, with Bray citing these as examples of five myths about Antifa.

According to Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the California State University, San Bernardino, Antifa activists feel the need to participate in violent actions because “they believe that elites are controlling the government and the media. So, they need to make a statement head-on against the people who they regard as racist.”

On August 29, 2017, Nancy Pelosi, then House Minority Leader for the Democratic Party, condemned the violence of Antifa activists in Berkeley. 

In July 2019, Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and Ted Cruz introduced a nonbinding resolution that would designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization. 

In June 2020, Republican Senator Tom Cotton advocated using military force to quell nationwide protests against police brutality and racism, calling for the 101st Airborne Division to be deployed to combat what he called “Antifa terrorists”. Cruz accused “Antifa protesters” of “organizing these acts of terror” and called for “systematic law enforcement targeting Antifa and other terrorist groups”.

In September 2020, 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden also condemned Antifa violent actions, having previously already condemned violence across the political spectrum, expressing his support for the peaceful protests.