Post–World War II anti-fascism
decentralised informal network of anti-fascist groups focusing on the radical struggle against the far right
Post–World War II anti-fascism, including antifa groups (), anti-fascist movements and anti-fascist action networks, saw the development of political movements describing themselves as anti-fascist and in opposition to fascism. Those movements have been active in several countries in the aftermath of World War II during the second half of the 20th and early 21st century.
Europe
The immediate aftermath of the Second World War saw Fascism and its ideological successors discredited as the ideologies of the defeated Axis powers, with the eradication of Fascist ideologies a stated goal of the victorious Allies, culminating in processes like the Nuremberg trials and de-Nazification. The onset however, of the Cold War saw the urgency attached to these goals diminish in the face of superpower competition, and anti-fascist activities becoming less prominent.
The appearance of rightist political parties and their upsurge since the dissolution of the Soviet Union has stimulated a corresponding growth of anti-fascist movements. In Germany Neo-Nazism was never eradicated, and former Nazis including Reinhard Gehlen and former chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger rose to positions of great power. The Freedom Party of Austria was founded by politicians including former Nazis in 1955. In France, where the far-right National Rally was founded in 1972.
In post-WWII Great Britain, skinheads and football hooligans often promoted vehement racism; the English Defence League was founded in 2009. The Netherlands has seen the rise of a number of rightist parties, starting with the Centre Party, then the NVU, and then the PVV with Geert Wilders and the young Forum voor Democratie.
The public source identifies “Post–World War II anti-fascism” as decentralised informal network of anti-fascist groups focusing on the radical struggle against the far right. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Post, World and anti-fascism.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q278364. None of the 4 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1955, 1972 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Post–World War II anti-fascism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.