Nothing 'Imaginary' About Antifa's Legacy of Real Violence

In June 2019, some 400 anarchists, led by a local Antifa cell, took to the streets of Portland, Oregon shouting "Whose streets? Our streets?"

Wearing black helmets or masks, the rioters invaded an area known as City of Roses and wreaked havoc.

As the mob destroyed private property and threatened residents and business owners, police officers followed the orders of intimidated elected officials to stand down.

Since that time, Antifa radicals have rioted and looted in over 200 cities.

The results: over 30 dead and at least $2 billion in damages to public and private property.

And as the flames were scorching inner city neighborhoods, the hierarchy of the Democratic Party downplayed the violence claiming the "protests were mostly peaceful," or "an impressive show of democracy in action."

One brave soul who has been following the far-left insurrection movement, is journalist Andy Ngo.

In fact, at that June 29, 2019 Portland riot, militants shouting "no hate" attacked Ngo for photographing them.

"The masked attackers," Ngo has written, "wore tactical gloves — gloves hardened with fiberglass knuckles.  . . ."Trying to surrender, Ngo’s camera was destroyed, he was kicked several times in the groin, and he was bashed in his head with a stiff placard.

Sadly, when the bleeding Ngo fell to the ground as the mob pelted him with a "hailstorm" of eggs, milkshakes and various hard objects at his face and head, the police failed to intervene.

Later at a hospital emergency room, Ngo learned his brain was hemorrhaging.

After extensive physical, speech, cognitive, and occupational therapies, Ngo was on the road to recovery.

Yet, while he suffered from vision, memory and balance issues, these deficiencies did not stop him from tracking Antifa’s violent activities in Portland, Seattle, New York, London and other beleaguered cities.

Ngo’s disturbing findings are recorded in his new book "Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy."

This fine work refutes Congressman Jerry Nadler’s claim that Antifa is "imaginary."

Antifa exists, but is elusive by design. "It is," Ngo notes, "leaderless and structured to be functional through small, independent organizations known as affinity groups, and individuals. Only the ideology needs to be propagated for lone wolves or groups to be inspired. Part of that ideology involves extensive training or ‘digital security’ that is using encrypted tools, apps, and web browsers to completely evade detection by authorities and others.  . . ."

This phantom movement is dedicated to unleashing havoc by inciting "opportunist looters and rioters."

The genius of Antifa’s riot strategy, Ngo concludes, is that "they only have to light the match."

The oldest Antifa cell is Portland’s Rose City Antifa (RCA).

Founded in 2007, RCA is a subdivision of the Torch Network, "a network of connected violent militant Antifa groups across the United States."

Prospective RCA members are required to complete a secret training course based on a fifteen-page, nine-part syllabus that Ngo managed to obtain.

Taught that violence in the name of anti-racism is permissible, trainees must pledge "to disrupt 'fascist' activity, refuse cooperation with law enforcement and courts, oppose oppression" and support those outside the network "who we believe have similar aims or principles."

The key component of the training curriculum is devoted to security. Members are told to trust no one — not even family members.

Because Antifa participates in criminal conspiracies, the educational program instructs members not to brag, talk loud in bars, boast on Facebook or discuss sensitive matters with close friends or relatives.

Antifa members, Ngo explains, are trained to be insurrectionists dedicated to imposing an ideology based on Marxist economics and class warfare.

Influenced by Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979), the "cultural Marxist" and "father of the New Left," Antifa holds that tolerance means actively suppressing opposing viewpoints, particularly right-wing ones.

Intolerance in the name of tolerance rationalizes Antifa’s nostrum that violence is permissible to destroy "perceived structures and systems of oppression such as capitalistic white privilege."

Hence, "people over property" is the rallying cry of radicals who have been destroying the homes and businesses owned by white folks.

Ngo cites Antifa sympathizer Vicky Osterweil’s book "In Defense of Looting": "Looting strikes at the heart of property, of Whiteness, and the police.  . . .  And it also provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine a world that could be."

In other words, looting is morally permissible!

After reviewing Antifa’s activities in various cities, Ngo concludes that many naïve people find Antifa attractive because they actually believe that a communist utopia is possible where there will be "no borders, police, prisons, racism or fascism. All material needs would be met through community mutual aid, not through working in an exploitive capitalist system."

Sound familiar?

These are the same false claims Lenin, Stalin and Mao made that resulted in the murder of tens of millions of innocent people.

To learn how Antifa’s members "seek to destroy the American philosophy and the liberal state itself," pick up a copy of Andy Ngo’s "Unmasked."

George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." He is chairman of Aid to the Church in Need-USA. Mr. Marlin also writes for TheCatholicThing.org and the Long Island Business News. Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.