Fighting Back: The Rise of Anti-Racist Action in Minneapolis

In the days after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, youth-led protests in the city helped spark rebellions around the globe. The police, military, and white supremacist groups all responded. President Trump blamed the protests on “antifa” and called for participants to be labeled terrorists. Anti-Racist Action (ARA) started in Minneapolis and is a predecessor to the crews often now called antifa. ARA started in 1987 with a multiracial group of teenage skinheads who fought the rising white power movement. It grew into a network of groups in at least 120 towns and cities across the U.S. and Canada. ARA’s first principle was: “We go where they go. Never let the Nazis have the streets.” They eventually applied that not only to white power organizing, but to homophobic and anti-abortion organizing, and to police violence, which they saw as all connected. Told through vivid first-person accounts, archival audio, and music from the era, “Fighting Back: The Rise of Anti-Racist Action in Minneapolis” starts under the railroad tracks in Uptown, Minneapolis and traces a movement that continues to shape the U.S. to this day.

Kara La Lomia