For quite a long time, I have wanted to become involved on the street level with an anti-fascist organization/group, but that became a lot harder to do once antifa became something more publicly known. Infiltration by government and law-enforcement became a fear. What is something I can do on my own? Do you have any tips on infiltrating right wing spaces online and monitoring them?
DO WE EVER!!! First off: yes, we recognize that it's often difficult to join existing anti-fascist groups, because thanks to having to both deal with state repression and death threats from fascists, anti-fascists have to be a lot more careful these days about who they let in to their crews and work with. But that's not to say that no antifa group would accept new members! Here is our advice about how to find and approach a local antifa crew you're interested in joining or working with, or, if that doesn't work out, how to start your own! Second off: there are two requirements to become "antifa:" a) you have to oppose fascism b) you have to be willing to do something about it That's it! If you can say yes to a) & b) then you are antifa, my friend! Thirdly and related to b): if you're wondering what you can do to put your anti-fascist beliefs into action, we have a list of 30 anti-fascist actions that we believe just about anyone could pull off (maybe with the help of a couple of friends in some cases). Check out the list, pick something that sounds easy to do, do the thing, evaluate how it went/how it could've gone better, then do it again or move on to the next thing! Don't like any of our ideas? Spencer Sunshine x PopMob did a 'zine a while back called 40 Ways To Fight Fascists - find some inspiration in there! Still not inspired? Take a deep dive through our archive to find out what other anti-fascists elsewhere have been up to. Note here: even if the action you take seems small & insignificant, believe us when we say that it's not. The smallest action signals to others that anti-fascists are active in the area and may inspire others to act as well. Lots of small actions in one area, over time can lead to bigger and better things! Finally: we get that infiltrating & monitoring the far-right seems like a logical place to start. But we would not recommend that as a starting point for any anti-fascist. Why? -that's some of the most dangerous work you can get involved in and without the right experience, training, and security precautions you can put yourself, your family, and your friends in a lot of danger. To do this properly, weeks of preparation have to happen, to maximize your online/IRL security and establish a credible cover/sock puppet. -even if you were able to safely & successfully infiltrate & monitor a far-right/fascist group, what are you going to do with the info? It's not of much value unless you've established relationships with other anti-fascists in the area and have a plan in place about how the info collected gets used. So basically, a lot of first steps need to be taken before jumping to "I'm going to infiltrate & monitor a far-right extremist group!" Again, we'd recommend picking some antifa actions to pull off first and building off of those first. Good luck & feel free to let us know how it goes!
