You’ve heard of alt-right for sure, but how about antifa or the anti-fascism movement?
Extremism doesn’t just belong to the far right. Those on the far left are rejecting the mainstream left and fighting extremism with extremism, says Ameil Joseph, a professor of social work at McMaster University who studies race and activism.
The antifa movement has its roots in Europe in the 1930s, when radicals took a “paramilitary approach” to fighting Nazism, says Joseph. It was also found in the actions of the Black Panthers in the American civil rights era.
Today, it’s found in groups like Black Lives Matter or the indigenous protests against the Dakota pipeline, Joseph told CTV's Your Morning.
“There is the belief that the left hasn’t done enough to fight fascism, corruption, widespread centralized executive ordering and that a more radical approach is necessary.”
