ANDY NGO: The US simply declared battle on Antifa’s worldwide arms—right here’s what you’ll want to know
From German hammer-beating mobs to Greek bombings and shootings—how four violent Antifa networks landed on the U.S.’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list.
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department announced that four international Antifa groups—all primarily based in Europe—have been officially designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
It marks the first time in U.S. history that the government has applied this powerful legal designation to any Antifa-aligned network.
“Today, building on @POTUS’s historic commitment to uproot Antifa’s campaign of political violence, the Department of State is designating four Antifa groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” Secretary Marco Rubio wrote on X. “The United States will continue using all available tools to protect our nation from these anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-Christian terrorist groups.”
What does FTO really mean?
The FTO label is not symbolic—it is a legal tool under U.S. law. It enables: sanctions against individuals associated with the groups, asset freezes, travel bans and criminal penalties for membership or providing material support. In short, it is now a federal crime to belong to or assist the four violent Antifa/anarchist groups.
By contrast, “domestic terrorism” designations in the U.S. (under executive orders) are largely symbolic. They instruct agencies like the FBI and DOJ to treat Antifa-linked violence as terrorism, but membership itself remains legal inside the U.S. due to First Amendment protections of association.
Last month, when I testified before the President and his cabinet at the White House roundtable on Antifa, I recommended using FTO designations against Antifa’s international arms. The State Department has now started doing that.
Who are the groups?
1. Antifa Ost (“Antifa East”) — Germany and EU states
Known as the Hammerbande (“Hammer Band”), Antifa Ost is infamous for its coordinated hammer and baton beatings on political opponents across several EU states.
Once led by Lina Engel and her boyfriend Johann Guntermann, the cell of about 20 known militants have carried out a string of near-fatal beatings from 2018–20. Victims, who were accused of being far-right, suffered broken bones, concussions and skull fractures.
Antifa Ost leader Lina Engel smashed a victim’s skull open
Engel and her group used burner phones, disguises, and fake IDs (for equipment rentals) to evade detection. Arrested in November 2020, Engel’s prosecution became a flashpoint for Antifa in Germany and around the world.
Over the next three years, Antifa rioted repeatedly in Germany, threatening judges, investigators and prosecutors involved in the case. At one point, authorities had to transport Engel by helicopter due to credible threats of attacks on law enforcement.
In May 2023, Engel was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for attempted murder. Her comrades rioted again in retaliation.
The group has also operated outside Germany. In February 2023, Antifa Ost militants carried out a series of ambush beatings in Budapest, Hungary, targeting victims they accused of being far-right. One attack caught on video showed the victim’s head split open by batons before the assailants sprayed mace into his wounds.
One of the victims of Antifa violence in Budapest
One of the identified suspects in the mob beatings was an Italian woman named Ilaria Salis. She was arrested shortly after the attacks and spent time in custody for years ahead of trial. But leftists in Italy had a plan. The Green and Left Alliance party in Italy nominated her as a candidate for a seat in the European Parliament. In June 2024, she was elected and granted diplomatic immunity. The Hungarian court was forced to dismiss the prosecution against her.
Italian Antifa member Ilaria Salis
Trantifa militant, “Maja,” the trans name for violent man Simeon Ravix Trux, is a German national extradited to Hungary to face justice for the Antifa Ost attack
2. Federazione Anarchica Informale (FAI) — Italy; international
Also known as the Informal Anarchist Federation or International Revolutionary Front, FAI is a violent anarchist network responsible for bombings and shootings targeting democratic institutions and corporate leaders.
In 2012, FAI militants shot the CEO of the nuclear energy firm Ansaldo Nucleare in both knees in Genoa. Multiple violent anarchist cells operate internationally under the FAI banner, and they have carried out bombings targeting liberal democratic institutions, such as the EU.
3. Armed Proletarian Justice — Greece
Armed Proletarian Justice is a secretive, violent, revolutionary, anti-Zionist, anti-state anarchist group based in Greece. It has claimed responsibility for at least one bombing. In December 2023, the group conducted an IED attack on police headquarters in Goudi.
“On Dec. 18, armed fighters from our organization approached the Central Camp of the MAT/EKAM (Attica Police Operations Directorate) on Kokkinopoulou Street and placed a bomb under the target’s outpost,” the group said in a statement in Greek. “This time you were lucky, the same will not be true next time. We dedicate our energy to those who have been murdered, tortured, beaten, raped by the Greek Police.”
4. Revolutionary Class Self-Defense – Greece
A newer far-left terror organization, this group has claimed two major bombings in Greece — one at the Labor Ministry in Athens in February 2024 and another targeting Hellenic Train, the national rail operator, in April 2025.
The group’s “communiqués” cite opposition to capitalism, the state, and support for Palestinian nationalism as motivations. The group may be linked to or inspired by the Organization for Revolutionary Self-Defense, another armed Greek far-left terrorist group that was dismantled in late 2019.
The State Department did not name anyone sanctioned under the new FTO designations. However, the announcement signals a major escalation in how the U.S. government treats transnational Antifa networks. With this designation, Antifa’s most violent international networks are now formally recognized as global terrorist threats, placing them alongside groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda in legal status.
A spokesperson from the State Department has been reached for comment.