State department claims groups in Germany, Italy and Greece \u2018conspiring to undermine foundations of western civilization\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US state department has announced that it will designate four European self-described anti-fascist groups as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, as the Trump administration broadens its campaign against what it portrays as an international wave of leftist violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a public statement on Thursday, the state department said it would designate Antifa Ost in Germany<\/a>, the Italy<\/a>-based International Revolutionary Front, and two organisations in Greece<\/a> \u2013 Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense \u2013 as \u201cSpecially Designated Global Terrorists \u2026 conspiring to undermine the foundations of Western Civilization through their brutal attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The designation was the first time that \u201cantifa\u201d groups had been deemed a foreign terrorist threat, allowing law enforcement to use more aggressive techniques to oppose them. It also could extend to those deemed leftist supporters of the groups in the United States, allowing federal authorities to use similar surveillance and financial oversight tools against US citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGroups affiliated with this movement ascribe to revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideologies, including anti-Americanism, \u2018anti-capitalism\u2019 and anti-Christianity, using these to incite and justify violent assaults domestically and overseas,\u201d the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The administration\u2019s press release described incidents including the use of homemade explosive devices, shootings and hammer attacks as the cause for the listing. The designation would make financial transactions with the organisations or its members a criminal act in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration has blamed leftist organisations for violent confrontations in the United States in the cities of Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, following the assassination of the rightwing youth political organiser Charlie Kirk. The focus on antifa was first codified in a presidential executive action from September that declared \u201cantifa\u201d a \u201cdomestic terrorist organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n National security experts have said that the designation is problematic because antifa, which is short for anti-fascist, does not have a clear membership or leadership structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary Bossis, emeritus professor of international security at Piraeus University in Athens, said it was \u201cplain wrong\u201d to conflate anti-fascist activists with violent extremists. While Greece, was once a hotbed of underground guerrilla activity where armed leftwing militants<\/a> counted US diplomats and military personnel among their victims, antifa had never advocated violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bossis told the Guardian: \u201cIt is highly exaggerated to say that the antifa movement in Greece<\/a> employs terror tactics. They even run in elections and have never shown any sign of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If anything, she said, terror groups snubbed the antifa movement, because \u201cit talks too much\u201d. Meanwhile, the online messaging of antifa activists across Europe had shown no sign of the violent rhetoric often seen in rightwing groups, the security expert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is so sad to see this extreme conservatism in the US,\u201d added Bossis. \u201cIt seems to me that this is part of a [Trumpian] strategy to divide the world between the \u2018good right\u2019 and \u2018bad left\u2019. It makes no sense unless you see it in the light of blackening the name of anyone with centre-left or progressive views because these guys don\u2019t advocate violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n