The US government has included four European radical left groups in its list of global terrorist organizations, which it accuses of being entities “antifa (anti-fascist) violent.” As part of this list, the four groups fall into the same category as violent radical Islamist organizations such as Al Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS).
The groups include Germany’s Antifa Ost, which the State Department describes as a “Germany-based militia” that carried out attacks against suspected “fascists” in that country between 2018 and 2023 and in Romania in 2023. Also included are the Informal Anarchist Federation-International Revolutionary Front, which the U.S. government says operates primarily in Italy, and two Greek groups, Armed Proletarian Justice and Class Self-Defense Revolutionary.
According to the State Department, Proletarian Justice claimed responsibility for planting a bomb near the headquarters of the riot police in Gudi in 2023. The Revolutionary Class Self-Defense claimed responsibility for an explosion in April at the Trenes Helenos railway company, which resulted in no injuries and caused only minor property damage. This group also claimed responsibility for an attack on the Ministry of Labor in Athens in 2024, which left no casualties.
The designation, which will come into force from November 20, takes place in parallel with the campaign that US President Donald Trump launched in his country against the anti-fascist movement after the murder in September of the young conservative activist Charlie Kirk and also following the protests in several cities against his harsh policy of mass deportations.
The Republican then called antifa a terrorist organization, despite the fact that experts almost unanimously consider that these groups in the United States are not coordinated, lack structure and organization, and their protest activism is far from resembling terrorism.
According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, his government will continue to add more antifa groups to the list of foreign terrorist organizations.
“Groups affiliated with this movement adhere to anarchist or Marxist revolutionary ideologies, including anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-Christian ideas. And they use them to incite and justify violent attacks, on their soil and abroad,” the US diplomatic chief said.
“The United States will continue to use all tools at its disposal to protect our national and public security and will prevent terrorists from accessing funds and resources,” the senior official says.
