- The State Department designated four antifa-aligned groups in Europe as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, adding them to the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list effective Nov. 20.
- The designation blocks their U.S. assets, bans Americans from supporting them and allows criminal prosecution of anyone offering material aid.
- President Donald Trump and Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt have pushed for the move, arguing that antifa operates as a coordinated transnational terror network rather than a loose ideology.
The State Department officially designated four antifa-aligned cells as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, and they will be added to the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, effective next Thursday.
The four terror cells include Antifa Ost (Germany), International Revolutionary Front (Italy), Armed Proletarian Justice (Greece) and Revolutionary Class Self Defense (Greece).
This designation will prohibit Americans from providing any of the four groups with “material support or resources,” their assets in the U.S. will be blocked, and their supporters will be barred or expelled from the country, per the State Department.
It also allows the U.S. to criminally prosecute anyone found offering material support or conspiring to give support to the militant groups in the United States.
In October, Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt formally requested the State Department to designate antifa’s foreign groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
After the State Department’s announcement Thursday, Schmitt thanked Secretary of State Marco Rubio for “taking action,” saying, “It’s a major step in our fight against Antifa’s terror network. I was proud to work with the administration to make it happen.”
Schmitt says antifa is an organized network
In mid-September, President Donald Trump announced he was going to label antifa as a major terrorist organization.
On Truth Social, he wrote, “I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
While some say antifa is more of an “idea” than an organized group, there is some evidence grassroots antifa groups get direction from larger organizations.
For example, Antifa International connects people with local antifa groups, and as its site says, “In a lot of ways, antifa are more organized than ever before.”
“We’re seeing cross-border collaboration with projects like this,” the group wrote.
In an X thread, Schmitt wrote, “Antifa is not an ‘idea.’ It is a sophisticated, violent terrorist movement — and its network extends far beyond our borders. As I have outlined at length in the past, the Antifa violence we see on U.S. soil is driven by a global web of extremist groups."
He continued, “Americans should understand that these aren’t isolated local gangs. They are chapters in the same transnational movement that fuels leftist violence from Atlanta to Athens. These militants are in regular communication with each other, coordinating and mobilizing across borders.”
Schmitt explained, though antifa does not have an identifiable leader, it operates “as a decentralized, cell-based terror network.”
Specifically, the Italy-based International Revolutionary Front “declares the necessity of the revolutionary armed struggle against nation states and ‘The Fortress Europe,’” the State Department wrote.
The group has taken credit for bombs and threats of violence against economic and political institutions in the name of being “anti-capitalist.”
One of the Greece-based groups, Revolutionary Class Self-Defense, has taken credit for two attacks against the Greek government and a private transportation company in the last two years.