“[Antifa] is essentially a kind of coalition politics of all kinds of radicals, from different kinds of socialists to communists, anarchists and more independent radicals,” says historian Mark Bray.
“Sometimes I compare it to feminism. There are feminist groups, but feminism itself is not a group. There are antifa groups, but antifa itself is not a group,” he said.
“Insofar as terrorism is setting off explosives and killing people, that’s not what these groups ever do,” Bray said.

— Mark Bray, a historian at Rutgers University and author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, quoted in the Washington Post, 22 September 2025