[Peace-discuss] Antifa

[C G Estabrook]

Diana Johnstone's recent article, "Antifa in Theory and in Practice,” begins "'Fascists are divided into two categories: the fascists and the anti-fascists' [Ennio Flaiano, Italian writer and co-author of Federico Fellini’s greatest film scripts]. In recent weeks, a totally disoriented left has been widely exhorted to unify around a masked vanguard calling itself Antifa, for anti-fascist.  Hooded and dressed in black, Antifa is essentially a variation of the Black Bloc, familiar for introducing violence into peaceful demonstrations in many countries. Imported from Europe, the label Antifa sounds more political.  It also serves the purpose of stigmatizing those it attacks as 'fascists’…"

'Johnstone (born 1934) is an American political writer based in Paris, France. She has a BA in Russian Area Studies and a Ph.D. in French Literature from the University of Minnesota. She was active in the movement against the Vietnam War, organizing the first international contacts between American citizens and Vietnamese representatives. Johnstone was European editor of the U.S. weekly 'In These Times' from 1979 to 1990. She was press officer of the Green group in the European Parliament from 1990 to 1996. From 1992 to 2000, she was associated editor of the Paris quarterly Dialogue concerned with Balkan geopolitics. Johnstone also regularly contributes to the online magazine CounterPunch.

'After the 2003 publication of her "Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, Nato, and Western Delusions," Johnstone became the centre of controversy over her claim in the book that there is "no evidence whatsoever" that the Srebrenica massacre of the Bosniaks was genocidal. The book was rejected by publishers in Sweden, prompting an open letter in 2003 defending Johnstone's book—and her right to publish—that was signed by, among others, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Tariq Ali and John Pilger. The signatories stated, "We regard Diana Johnstone's Fools' Crusade as an outstanding work, dissenting from the mainstream view but doing so by an appeal to fact and reason, in a great tradition” … Richard Caplan of Reading and Oxford University reviewed the work in International Affairs, where he described the work as "a revisionist and highly contentious account of western policy and the dissolution of Yugoslavia. [… It] is insightful but overzealous […] well worth reading—but for the discriminating eye.”

'In April 2012, she wrote about the first round of the French Presidential elections a few days earlier and identified Front National leader Marine Le Pen as "notably" "basically on the left" while also labelling Le Pen as "demagogic". She also rejected claims Le Pen is antisemitic: "There is absolutely nothing attesting to anti-Semitism on the part of Marine Le Pen. She has actually tried to woo the powerful Jewish organisations, and her anti-Islam stance is also a way to woo such groups”.

'Her other books include
	• The Politics of Euromissiles: Europe's Role in America's World (New York, NY: Schocken Books, 1985)
	• Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, Nato, and Western Delusions (London: Pluto Press; New York: Monthly Review Press, 2003)
	• Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton (CounterPunch, 2015)'

A member of AWARE has recently been in contact with Johnstone. You can read a typical attack on her at <https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/16/the-nimpe-critique-of-antifa/ <https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/16/the-nimpe-critique-of-antifa/>>.

To avoid cross posting, I’ve sent the article to the <peace at anti-war.net <mailto:peace at anti-war.net>> list, as a call to action - but not of the antifa sort.

AWARE and the anti-war movement in general should regard Antifa as Johnstone suggests: the US is not killing people around the world for white supremacy, but for the profits of the 1%. We should be talking to people about what the US is doing, and why, in order to oppose it - not 'de-platforming' (or punching) people with bad ideas. —CGE

 



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