Antifa - No 1 in mostly peaceful rioting and looting

The harm inflicted on the US by members and camp followers of the rifle-toting deranged US Antifa militias has been mostly ignored in the US mainstream media. Ms Osterweil's prescriptions for progressive looting have been approved or explained away by numerous gullible, opportunistic, or ideologically bolted-on reviewers and commentators.

In Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy(Hachette Book Group, 2000), the US journalist-author Andy Ngo documents the specific organizational manifestation of the armed militias in the US and their violent hangers-on who coalesce under the name/banner/brandAntifa. Ngo provides an eyewitness account of the prolonged breakdown in public order in 2019/2020 in the US West Coastcities – Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, and the retribution which his Antifa-supporting media and related enemies have visited on him and his family for his news reporting. Chapter 4of his book is a very detailed documented account of how the "loosely organized" Antifa formations are united in their unrelenting determination to use violence to replace the rule of law and representative democracy.

Mark Bray's book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook (2017) was released in Australia that year by Melbourne University Publishing which describes the book as "A detailed survey of the full-history of anti-fascism to the present day––offering insight into the growing but little-understood resistance fighting back against fascism in all its guises."

In an interview on ABC News Radio in 2020 Dr Bray, an historian ofhuman rights, terrorism and politics at Rutgers University, emphasised that the institutional solidarity of the armed Antifa revolutionary resistance movement embodied direct action. It would abolish police departments and stop the fascists.

One prominent US Antifa armed militia formationis Redneck Revolt. It pretends to stand up for the "oppressed" generally, and racial minorities, immigrants and other identity groups favoured by it. When, in 2017/2018, ABC-TV, unwisely, provided Redneck Revolt with an opportunity to spread its deplorable message of armed resistance, the national broadcaster neglected to inform its viewers that the City of Charlottesville had appointed Timothy J Heaphy to conduct an independent investigation of the events in that city on 12 August 2017, and that in his report Mr Heaphy found that the participation of Redneck Revolt was one of the multiple causes of the appalling breakdown in public order and the ensuing deaths and injuries.

The ABC, also neglected to mention that the armed Redneck Revolt troublemakers had consented to a Court order forbidding the gun-toting misfits of that Antifa formation returning to Charlottesville to celebrate the first anniversary of its "community service".

In June 2020, the ABC web site headline position on Antifa was "Donald Trump calls them terrorists, but many Antifa see themselves as ordinary citizens fighting oppression, racism and police brutality".

The ABC's lackadaisical attitude to the truth, its systemic patronising self-absorption "We don't just tell the stories that matter! We tell you why they matter to you!", and its ridiculous preaching "Think Bigger!" help explain its willingness to make excuses for the wreckers of Antifa.

In recent decades the national broadcaster has allowed itself to be diverted from complying strictly with its unique statutory obligation to present news and information impartially and in accordance with the highest standards of objective journalism.

It needs to be reminded of the trust reposed in it by the elected representatives of the people of Australia which includes a unique immunity from judicial enforcement of the explicit duties of the ABC Board.

At the same time, it needs to remind itself of the explicit powers which the same representatives of the people have conferred on the Board, and upon the Minister responsible to the Parliament for the administration of the ABC Act, to ensure that it abides by its unique national trust.