Antifa is much in the news these days with their brutal beating of journalist Andy Ngo in Portland. Many Americans assume that Antifa is a new group, but in reality, it is only new, or relatively new, in the United States. Back in 2011, I spoke at an outdoor rally in Stuttgart, Germany, and Antifa was out in force. Hundreds of police were there also, and if they had not been, I would not be writing this today: before I spoke, I was standing in front of the massive police phalanx with some members of the German group that had invited me; among them was a young man who I took to be one of their number until I shook his hand and smiled and he responded, “If it weren’t for all these police here, I would have knifed you by now.”

As the other speakers and I spoke, Antifa members threw rocks, bottles, and manure at us, while screaming things such as “Nazis raus.” This was ironic, as they were behaving much more like Nazis than those they were screaming at. So I decided to address them. In the midst of this barrage, I stood at the front of the stage and addressed the Leftists, while they blew their vuvuzelas and booed to try to drown me out, and kept on throwing things.