The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund began five years ago, a year after we started the Antifa International social media collective.  As we did our thing on social media, we noticed more and more that antifascists were winding up in emergency situations because of their work fighting hatred and bigotry and would then have to rely on themselves and their friends scrambling to come up with the resources required to help them out of those situations.  We thought that, with our increasing connections to antifascists the world over, we could do better.  We thought that setting up a standing fund to defend and support antifascists in times of crisis would be an excellent way to demonstrate real solidarity.  So we established The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund and set to work raising money for it and reaching out to antifascists internationally.

About a month later we made our first contribution, which went to the legal defence of Valentin – an antifascist and SV Werder Bremen supporter  arrested after he defended himself and others from an attack by neo-nazis after a football match in Bremen, Germany.  After a few weeks of fundraising, we were proud to be able to contribute a whopping €45 (about $49USD).

Five years on, we’ve donated over €76,000 ($83,000USD) to help out more than 500 antifascists in 22 different countries!  Every decision we make is reached democratically by the Defence Fund’s Decisions Crew – a body of 863 antifascists (and counting!) from around the world.  Every time we provide support to an antifascist, we blog about it, so our decisions are as transparent as possible.

Year Five: 2019-2020

Over the last 12 months, The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund came to the rescue of anti-fascists confronted with difficult & potentially life-altering or deadly circumstances 25 times – a 47% increase over 2018-2019.  Here is an overview for you:

• We donated $23,400USD to 90 anti-fascists; the largest amount we’ve ever donated in our five years.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund: Donations To Anti-Fascists
  2019-2020 also marked a 48% increase in the number of anti-fascists we supported from the previous twelve months, when we helped out 61 people.
• The support we provided went to antifa in 13 countries:

• • 28 in Norway
  • 20 in the United States
  • 11 in Russia
  • 10 in Ireland
  • 7 in Germany
  • 4 in Canada
  • 2 each in Greece, Poland, and Sweden
  • One each in Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, and the UK
• 71% of contributions covered legal defence, court costs, fines, and prisoner support; 16% of contributions covered medical bills, injury recovery and living costs while antifa dealt with injuries sustained in attacks against them;  13% of contributions covered emergency relocation.

• The Defence Fund‘s Decisions Crew (the body that discusses and decides on what support to give requests or proposals received) grew 20% to include 872 antifa from 18 different countries, making the Decisions Crew the largest organization of anti-fascists in the world (to our knowledge!).
  

All of this has been accomplished with the collaboration and cooperation of literally thousands of anti-fascists around the world.  Donald Trump’s early birthday present yesterday tells us that the fight is far from over and the struggle isn’t about to get any easier.  La lucha continua and we look forward to seeing all of you standing with us, side-by-side.  If you haven’t made a contribution to the Defence Fund or signed up to become a monthly contributor, it is more important than ever before for you to do so now.  Here’s where to do that!