Do you know where Antifa in America comes from?

Before Antifa, there was Anti-Racist Action (ARA), a national youth movement started in 1986 in Minnesota, influenced by punk rock and militant anarchist politics.

This laid the foundation for Antifa today.

Listen to these clips, directly from the activists involved in the original movement, explaining how the organization they created evolved into the modern militant anti-fascist movement in America.

Anti-Racist Action was started by Generation X, influenced by punk rock, militant feminism and queer politics from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Anarchism was crucial in the development of the Anti-Racist Action network.

They rejected all non-militant kinds of anti-facism, including rejecting liberal of anti-fascism.

They believed in militant confrontation with racists and nazis in the streets.

When asked “What is the relationship between historic ARA and contemporary Antifa?”, former members of ARA are very clear that there was a significant overlap in membership and very direct influence.

When ARA started adopted more security culture, it involved to Antifa.

A former ARA member describes how they trained to “let the nazis take the first punch so that it looks like self-defense.”

They knew they would get arrested but that they would get off and not serve jail time.

“Make sure you don’t throw the first punch, throw the last.”

We watch this full panel, along with a documentary about Anti-Racist Actions, on the December 27, 2025 episode of Socialism Saturday. Find the full episode here: