The US Broadens the Far Leftwing Terrorist Group Net, with Clear Implications Down Under

The US Department of the Treasury announced on 26 August 2026, that its foreign assets office is taking action “to counter the growing threat posed by violent far-left terrorist groups”. This shift in approach to leftwing activism was officially spruiked by the Trump administration in July, although the UK and the US courts had beat them to it. And Australian authorities have since fallen in line.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent led the announcement, which linked to the September 2001 executive order 13224, as it serves to freeze the assets and ban the funding of designated terrorists overseas, and this week saw UK-based direct action group Palestine Action, Italy’s far-left tech org Autistici Inventati, along with transnational pro-Palestinian group Masar Badil, all listed as terrorists.

The British courts designated Palestine Action as terrorist in July 2025, whilst US president Donald Trump declared antifa a domestic terrorist group in September 2025. But it was the remarks of US secretary of state Marco Rubio at the 16 July 2026 Resurgence of Political Terrorism meet that revealed the US is going after leftwing actors as terrorists, and this is not confined to its own borders.

In terms of Australia being the third AUKUS nation, alongside the US and the UK, as well as with its status as one of Washington’s vassal states, ASIO director general Mike Burgess had already signalled our nation was on course to start considering leftwing activists as potential terrorists in June, while the Australian federal police is now hunting pro-Palestinian actors to charge as terrorists.

The leftwing actions in the US and the UK that are being treated as terrorism have comprised of direct actions, or more than simple street protest. Leftwing direct actions involving property damage and crimes not against the person have traditionally been shown a degree of tolerance as their aim is to highlight rights issues. Yet, these same actions are now being viewed through a terrorism lens.

The terrorist within

“Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: we will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear,” US treasury secretary Bessent told the press on 26 August. “Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”

The US has labelled Britain’s Palestine Action a terror group, following a UK appeals court upholding the local decision to deem it one in June. Italy’s Autistici Inventati is now deemed terroristic, as the US alleges it “provides a range of technological tools and services to violent left-wing extremist groups”, whilst Masar Badar is said to be linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

This week’s treasury announcement comes on the back of the 6 July 2026 Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism, which was hosted by US state secretary Rubio and also featured Bessant as a speaker. The Washington DC meeting included 65 representatives from various nations, including Australia, considering the “blind spot” that is “far-left terrorism”.

Rubio’s recent pronouncements followed the 25 September 2025 National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM)-7, which served to identify rising political violence as part of “sophisticated, organised campaigns of targeted intimidation… and violence designed to silence opposing speech”, which is being organised “under the umbrella of self-described ‘anti-fascism’” or antifa.

NSPM-7 was issued after Trump signed an executive order deeming antifa a terrorist organisation, which, as it is an umbrella term for leftwing agitators, means that this designation can be liberally applied to left leaning groups as desired. And as in Australia, in the US the framing of leftwing activist groups as terrorist orgs with global links, opens up more invasive investigative tools for authorities.

Whole lotta terror goin’ on

The shift towards criminalising leftwing actors as terrorists took a sharp turn on 12 June 2026, when the British courts sentenced four Palestine Action activists as terrorists, after being convicted as regular criminals in relation to a significant direct action at an Israeli weapons manufacturer near Bristol, and the incident turned ugly, as one protester hit a police officer with a sledgehammer.

The British courts went on to try these activists as regular criminals, but it was then determined to sentence them as terrorists, which means a much steeper punishment. And this could be pursued via a special law in the UK that allows judicial officers to treat convictions as acts of terrorism after finding that they have a “terrorism convention” following the delivery of verdicts.

A Texas court then sentenced a group of US leftwing activists as terrorists on 23 June, over a 4 July 2025 action that targeted Texas’ Prairieland Detention Centre, which is an ICE facility. This too turned ugly as an organiser drew his gun and shot a security guard, who was then pointing his gun at a protester. This outcome saw the letting off of fireworks outside the centre being treated as terrorism.

The cases that have seen leftwing actors carrying out direct actions in response to political situations underway prosecuted in the United States and the United Kingdom as terrorism both involved a demonstrator using violence against the authorities, and this appears to have been the reason that the temperature could be turned up in terms of the approach taken against these lawbreakers.

And as the MAGA White House subtly prompts its allies to start to approach the “blind spot” surrounding activism, so that it is viewed through a terrorist lens, it’s likely that whether, and as soon as, a leftwing direct action involves violence towards a person on the part of a local demonstrator occurs, then the framing of such actions as terrorism will get underway.

Falling in line with the MAGA agenda

During the delivery of his 24 June 2026 Annual Threat Assessment, ASIO boss Burgess hinted at the fact that leftwing actors were coming into the frame when it came to investigations of terrorism, as he explained that “anarchists and revolutionary groups” or “far-left activists” are united with other extremists, such as the Islamic type and neo-Nazis, via their common antisemitic beliefs.

“Anarchists and revolutionary groups can be antisemitic,” the ASIO boss outlined. “This gets surprisingly little media coverage, but Australian companies with perceived links to Israel are being subjected to repeated acts of vandalism and arson by far-left activists.” And he warned that some threats made by leftists in response to Israel go “well beyond political protest or commentary”.

And just like clockwork, a few weeks after Rubio’s assertions, the AFP announced that it is now probing an arson attack that targeted the Lovitt Technologies facility on Wurendjeri land in the Melbourne suburb of Greensborough in July 2025, as “an act of terrorism, potentially orchestrated by far-left extremists with anarchist and revolutionary ideologies”.

The incident being considered terrorism comprised of leftwing actors setting three cars on fire at the Lovitt premises, along with the spraying of anti-Israel messaging on other vehicles and on walls. And it should be said that much of the shift towards framing leftwingers as terrorists has stemmed from actions opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as the US shift toward authoritarianism.

So, similar to how this shift towards criminalising leftwing direct actions as terrorism, if the AFP and the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team do apprehend the Lovitt perpetrators and charge them as terrorists, as has occurred in the States, their crimes of property damage that would usually carry up to 10 years goal time, will suddenly jump to have maximum penalties of up to life imprisonment.

Section 100.1(1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) defines terrorism as an act or threat involving harm to person or property, or the death of a person or endangering life or creating a serious threat to public health or safety or threatens an electronic infrastructure system, and the crime must also intend to advance a political, religious or ideological cause via intimidation of government or public.

As Amnesty International explained as the four Palestine Action activists were sentenced as terrorists in the UK, the reason that leftist direct actions have been treated with leniency in the courts is that such actions are often motivated by rights issues and social justice, and ‘going easy’ on suspects further serves to preserve democratic rights, such as freedom of communication and assembly.

The decision of the Victorian JCTT to pursue the Lovitt Technologies incident as terrorism coming a year after the crimes were perpetrated does tend to hint at this decision having been prompted by the Trump administration’s July announcement that it will be, and its allies should be, shifting to frame the punishment of leftwing activists as penalisation over serious threats to national security.

And the announcement this week by the Trump administration treasury that it is expanding the list of international leftwing organisations listed as terrorist groups tends to convey that the framing of the far-left as terrorists is a policy being expanded, and it further builds upon earlier suggestions that the MAGA White House will be intervening in the domestic terrorism and crime matters of its allies.

Image: Official portrait of Marco Rubio is in the public domain. Burgess in 2023 by ASIO is licensed under BY CC 3.0. Peace sign and terrorist from Shutterstock. Image asset number 1904316616