Antifa — short for “anti-fascist” — is a decentralised, leaderless movement of far-left individuals who stand against what they see as fascist and rightwing entities.
It is “a label for people who have a certain ideology [who] believe violence is justified to fight against fascistic entities within our society”, including the government or specific organisations, said David Schanzer, director of Duke University’s Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
Antifa does not have a membership list or a doctrine, and it does not raise money, hold meetings or have a website, as an established organisation would.
The “consensus” among US terrorism experts was that it was “an ideology” that “has not manifested itself organisationally”, Schanzer said
Is antifa a terror threat?
Data shows leftwing extremists have posed a relatively minor security threat to the US over the past three decades, particularly when compared with violence from rightwing groups, although leftwing attacks are on the rise. From 1994 to July of this year, there were 495 rightwing terror attacks and plots, and 68 leftwing ones, according to data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank. But there have been five leftwing attacks this year, compared with one rightwing incident. “2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that leftwing terrorist attacks outnumber those from the violent far right,” according to a recent CSIS report.
Seth Jones, president of the defence and security department at CSIS, said: “Our data does show that there has been an increase in violent far-left activity, particularly over the last year. How much of that is antifa? Pretty limited.” “The vast majority of domestic terrorism in the United States is perpetrated by individuals not groups. And antifa is a great example of this,” Jones added. What does the terrorist designation achieve?
Trump’s executive order calls for federal agencies to “investigate, disrupt and dismantle any and all illegal operations” by antifa. However, no legal mechanism exists to designate a domestic group as a terrorist organisation. Nor is a terrorist designation necessary to direct more law enforcement resources towards investigating, surveilling, infiltrating and prosecuting extremist groups.
While European countries designate domestic organisations as terrorist groups, the US has avoided doing so partly out of concerns for individuals’ constitutional rights to free speech and assembly, along with civil liberties. “It’s a performative act,” Schanzer said. In the end, the Trump administration “may be trying to dismantle an organisation that doesn’t exist”.
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