The United States State Department has announced the designation of four European self-described anti-fascist groups as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, broadening the Trump administration's campaign against what it views as an international wave of leftist violence.
In a statement on Thursday, the State Department said it would label Antifa Ost in Germany, the Italy-based International Revolutionary Front, and two Greek organisations — Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense — as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists ... conspiring to undermine the foundations of Western Civilization through their brutal attacks”. This marks the first time that “antifa” groups have been deemed a foreign terrorist threat.
The designation allows US law enforcement to use more aggressive techniques against the groups and could extend to those deemed leftist supporters in the United States, enabling federal authorities to employ surveillance and financial oversight tools against US citizens. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that groups affiliated with this movement ascribe to revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideologies, including anti-Americanism, ‘anti-capitalism’ and anti-Christianity, using these to incite and justify violent assaults.
The administration cited incidents involving homemade explosive devices, shootings and hammer attacks as justification for the listing, which makes financial transactions with the organisations or their members a criminal act in the United States. The Trump administration has previously blamed leftist organisations for violent confrontations in US cities following the assassination of rightwing youth organiser Charlie Kirk, and a September executive action declared “antifa” a domestic terrorist organisation.
National security experts have criticised the designation, noting that antifa lacks a clear membership or leadership structure. Mary Bossis, emeritus professor of international security at Piraeus University in Athens, described it as “plain wrong” to conflate anti-fascist activists with violent extremists. She told the Guardian that antifa in Greece had never advocated violence, instead running in elections without showing signs of terror tactics, and suggested the move was part of a strategy to divide the world between the “good right” and “bad left”.
