Anti-fascists have been using direct action against fascist regimes for decades, and often described as 'terrorists' as a result. Here we celebrate six of the best 'Antifa Terrorists'.

This post was written in response to a recent attack on a far-right provocateur, resulting in the spread of the '#AntifaTerrorists' hashtag. Fascists have always smeared militant anti-fascists: partisans were called 'bandits', the French resistance a 'crime army'. Below are other fine militants who fought fascism and were subsequently smeared by their enemies.

Francesc Sabaté Llopart

The life of Francesc Sabaté Llopart (pictured above), aka ‘El Quico’, reads like the story of an anarchist action film.From the Spanish Civil War, to the anti-Nazi resistance in France and armed struggle against Franco, Sabaté carried out assassinations of fascists, illegal border crossings across the Pyrenees and armed robberies to fund the resistance. He was eventually named as Franco's 'Public Enemy No. 1'.







Frieda Belinfante

Frieda Belinfante was a Dutch cellist, conductor, lesbian and anti-Nazi resistance member. During the occupation she forged documents for people, and took part in attack on the population registry, which destroyed documentation the Nazis were using to round up Jews in the Netherlands. She survived the war by escaping to Switzerland, crossing the French Alps on foot.







Willem Arondeus

One of Belinfante's comrades in the Dutch resistance was the gay anti-fascist Willem Arondeus. A leader of the Raad van Verzet (Resistance Council), he also participated in the attack on the Amsterdam public records office. However, unlike Belinfante, Arondeus was arrested and executed by the Nazis. His last words before execution were: "Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards".







Gino Lucetti

Italian anarchist, Gino Lucetti, from the anarchist stronghold of Carrara, tried in 1926 to assassinate the world’s first fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. Shot in the neck by a fascist and unable to find a doctor willing to remove the bullet, Lucetti was smuggled to France where he was eventually treated. It was here that the assassination attempt was planned: one day, in Rome, Lucetti waited for Mussolini's car to pass before throwing a bomb, which smashed the windscreen but failed to detonate. Eventually arrested, he would die just one week after the Italian surrender in 1943.







Stuart Christie

As an 18-year-old was involved in an attempt to assassinate Spanish dictator General Franco. Christie was imprisoned in Spain where met some of the major players in the Spanish resistance. On his release he founded the Anarchist Black Cross and was accused by the state of providing support to British urban guerrillas the Angry Brigade.







Violet Gibson

A 49-year-old Irish aristocrat and peace activist who attempted to assassinate Italy's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, in Rome in 1926. She had armed herself with a pistol wrapped in a shawl, and a rock to break his car window if needed. As she fired at his head, Mussolini moved, meaning that the bullet hit his nose, travelling through both nostrils.