US Calls on Australia to Join Coalition Against Global “Far-Left Terrorism”

During his opening address at the 16 July 2026 Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism, a Washington DC meeting that involved representatives from more than 65 nations, including Australia, US secretary of state Marco Rubio made certain that the purpose of the forum was to tackle the terrorism “blind spot” that nations have been neglecting, which is “far-left terrorism”.

For the last 25 years, Rubio told the meeting of unnamed officials, “radical Islamist extremism” has been the focus of counterterrorism efforts, whilst “neo-Nazi” or far-right actors have also been considered terroristic in the past. Yet, over time, an “extraordinary ideological prejudice” has developed when it comes to far-left terrorism being treated as if it’s the “tragic excess of idealism”.

The Trump White House laid the groundwork for this shift in approach taken to leftwing groups, when US president Donald Trump signed the National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM)-7 on 25 September 2025, which identified rising political violence as part of “sophisticated, organised campaigns of targeted intimidation… and violence designed to silence opposing speech”.

NSPM-7 proclaimed that these rising forces fall “under the umbrella of self-described ‘anti-fascism’”, or antifa, while a 16 July 2026 White House presser described the focus of the ministerial as the “global campaign to crush radical left terrorism”, with the accompanying determination that it “will be treated with the same seriousness and ferocity the world has long reserved for jihadist terrorism”.

This determination to designate forms of leftwing activism as terroristic is controversial, as the left is usually concerned with social justice matters and its actions are, for the most part, nonviolent. And while the current White House is considered far-right, this move will assist in silencing its opposition, and in terms of Australia, we will likely blindly follow Washington down this rights-eroding path.

Civil liberties-wielding terrorists

“For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot – a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left,” Rubio told the representatives from the 65-odd countries gathered in the US capital. “Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a rightwing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy.”

“A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was a nefarious and murderous act of evil. It is,” explained the secretary, in terms of how terrorism has been treated in the past. “But a bomb planted by a Marxist revolutionary – well, that’s just merely a tragic excess of idealism…. For years, this extraordinary ideological prejudice was embedded in the way we talked about political violence and extremism.”

Rubio gave examples of violent far-left extremists from the past, such as “the Baader-Meinhof Group in Europe” and “the Weather Underground” in the US, while Homeland security advisor Stephen Miller warned that the trick with far-left terrorists and their supporters is that they frame their actions as attempts to promote civil liberties and justice.

The opening address also involved US treasurer Scott Bessant vowing that his department would be focused on dismantling the financial infrastructure that is keeping far-left terrorism alive, which should further sound alarm bells about the Trump White House trying to stamp out its opponents. And Bessant singled out charities and nonprofits for extra scrutiny in these areas.

Rubio recalled the successes of the war on terror in the wake of the 2001 9/11 attacks. And he now called on the “civilised world” to “identify and map this threat and rebuild our counterterrorism architecture”, so that far-left terrorism can be defeated via “intelligence and information sharing”, “coordinated law enforcement strategy”, along with “financial targeting and disruption”.

Silencing dissent

Former FBI agent Mike German told Democracy Now last week that in asserting that there’s a global “far-left terrorism” network, the White House will be able to go after those leftwing groups opposing it more thoroughly, as while terrorism offences apply to both domestic and international acts, the framing of US leftwing groups as having global links opens up greater domestic investigative tools.

“People look at the material support for terrorism statute and think that it helps target terrorists, but the purpose of it is to target people who are not terrorists, who are engaging in activities that are not criminal, but the government alleges that they – through a series of arguments – in the end, benefit terrorist groups abroad,” German told host Amy Goodman.

The framing of leftwing groups as terrorists has been occurring incrementally across the west since the global solidarity movement for Palestine sprung up in October 2023.

The UK designated civil society group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation on 5 July 2025, and this decision was upheld on appeal in June. President Trump signed a September 2025 executive order declaring antifa to be a domestic terrorist organisation, while a November 2025 order declared “German-based Antifa Ost, and three other violent Antifa groups in Italy and Greece” as terrorists.

And these designations are beginning to impact judicially. The Filton 4, a group of Palestine Action activists, who’d taken part in a direct action against an Elbit Systems facility in the UK were sentenced as terrorists, after they’d been convicted as mere criminals, whilst eight suspects declared antifa in the US were recently sentenced to a combined 450 years imprisonment over a direct action.

German further explained that the White House is forging this new policy to target its “perceived political enemies”. And he pointed to the case against the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which pleaded not guilty this month to criminal offences suggesting it’s been funding extremist groups, whilst 15 anti-ICE activists from Minnesota have been charged with terrorism-related offences too.

Left is the new right

Rubio suggested that the far-left terrorists have a number of labels they go by, which include “anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist or communist or anarchist or Marxist”, whilst, in delivering his 2026 annual threat assessment on 24 June, ASIO director general Mike Burgess explained that security threats now include those from “anarchists”, “revolutionary groups” and “far-left activists”.

This was the first time during one of Burgess’ seven annual threat assessments that leftwing actors were incorporated into the politically motivated threat list. In incorporating leftists into the mix, the top spy said far-left activists were linked to other groups, like neo-Nazis, Islamic extremists and issue-motivated extremists, due to their “common hatred” or their antisemitic beliefs.

Australia was amongst the 65-odd nations represented last week at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism and it can be expected that Australia will adhere to the request to join the global coalition to combat far-left terrorism, as this nation is so embroiled in the US military-industrial complex that to suggest it would not be partaking isn’t feasible.

No leftwing activists in Australia have been framed as terrorists in the courts as yet. But when the NSPM-7 suggests that the holding of anti-American and anticapitalist sentiment as being characteristic of anti-fascist national security threats, it may not be too long before activists start finding themselves up on terror-related charges.

The Trump administration announced to its allies, including Australia, last November that its embassies would be monitoring the crime perpetrated by migrants in these countries, whilst a cable sent out by Rubio in March, ordered diplomatic staff to commence combating anti-American sentiment in these foreign jurisdictions, as well as to begin disseminating pro-USA content. 

Sydney Criminal Lawyers has heard from a number of leftwing activists in Victoria who have been raided by counterterrorism police over recent months and this shift to deploying antiterror officers to deal with social justice activists hasn’t quite added up – that’s until, this global turn towards combating far-left terrorism suddenly comes into view.

The other clear sign that Australian authorities are starting to crackdown on leftwing activism is the extreme law that the Crisafulli government in Queensland enacted to ban certain political slogans that pro-Palestinian organisations were using during protests. So, it’s gotten to the point that in that jurisdiction the uttering of seven words in a distinct order can see one facing prison time.

“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,” Burgess warned the Australian public three weeks before Rubio declared a global war against far-left terrorism.

“I recognise criticism of the government of Israel is not of itself antisemitic, but some of the threatening statements made by the perpetrators go well beyond political protest or commentary,” the top spy added somewhat ominously.

Main image: Terrorist and peace sign from Shutterstock. Mike Burgess by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is licensed under CC BY 3.0. Marco Rubio photo in the public domain