The Trump administration formally designated four violent left-wing groups based in Europe as foreign terrorist organizations on Thursday, part of a broad effort to crack down on extremism.
According to the New York Post, the State Department announced that the groups — Antifa Ost, the International Revolutionary Front, Armed Proletarian Justice, and Revolutionary Class Self Defense — “use force against those they identify as opponents of their Marxist and anarchist projects.”
“These anarchists, Marxists, and violent extremists of Antifa have waged a terror campaign in the United States and across the Western world for decades, carrying out bombings, beatings, shootings, and riots in service of their extreme agenda,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.
“The State Department is committed to identifying and dismantling these terror networks that conspire to ruthlessly suppress the will of the people and violently undermine the very foundations of the United States and Western Civilization,” Pigot added.
The groups, based in Germany, Italy, and Greece, have carried out numerous attacks over recent years, including assaults, bombings of government buildings, and shootings.
According to Germany’s Interior Ministry, “It is not to be expected that this circle of individuals will turn away from violence. It is rather to be feared that, over time, a further radicalisation will take place.”
The International Revolutionary Front, also known as the Informal Anarchist Federation and based in Italy, has promoted “revolutionary armed conflict” against the government.
A 2014 report from West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center noted that the group carried out a letter-bomb campaign against European Union officials between December 2003 and January 2004.
Most of the bombs were intercepted, though one detonated at the home of the European Commission’s president in Bologna without causing injury.
In Greece, Armed Proletarian Justice carried out a failed bombing attempt in December 2023, targeting a government building.
Officials said the explosives were discovered and defused before detonation. The attack was dedicated to “the Palestinian people and their heroic resistance.”
President Trump first declared Antifa a “major” terrorist organization on Sept. 17, six days after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk by an alleged 22-year-old gunman radicalized online toward “leftist ideology.”
Trump’s executive order cited Antifa’s “pattern of political violence designed to suppress lawful political activity and obstruct the rule of law,” directing all relevant federal agencies to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle operations conducted by or on behalf of Antifa.
The designation will bar the groups from accessing the U.S. financial system and allows prosecutors to pursue anyone providing support to these organizations.
