The Trump regime is moving rapidly to officially classify “antifa” a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)—the same category as reactionary Islamic fundamentalist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS.¹ FTO designation gives the government vast and fundamentally unconstitutional powers for the explicit purpose of quickly destroying the targeted group.²

For a decade, the MAGA fascists have built up a wildly distorted picture of antifa as a highly organized, quasi-military, left-wing bogeyman threatening the lives and property of ordinary people. Building on this, in September, Trump issued an executive order “Designating Antifa As A Domestic Terrorist Organization” and on that basis the regime declared its intent to launch “an all-of-government effort to dismantle [what the regime calls] left wing terrorism.”

On October 8, Trump held a "roundtable on antifa" with a collection of fascist livestreamers and provocateurs. At it, he was asked whether he would designate antifa as an FTO. Trump responded: "I think it’s the kind of thing I’d like to do. If you agree, I agree. Let’s get it done.” In an important article, the website Just Security³ asserts: “This was not casual political rhetoric. It was a directive from the Commander-in-Chief to his national security apparatus, witnessed by millions of Americans.”

Ripping Away Basic Rights from Anyone Who Opposes Fascism

It is difficult to overstate the dangerous and potentially disastrous implications of this designation, not just for those who identify with antifa, but for the most fundamental and basic civil rights of anyone who opposes fascism in the U.S. and even other countries. 

To start with, antifa is not an organization—it is an orientation towards taking on fascists, racists, and various forms of injustice. Nor is it “terrorist” in any meaningful sense of the word. But Trump is using a purposefully vague term to paint the broadest brush possible against those who oppose this regime. Spokespeople from the regime use the word “antifa” interchangeably with “the radical left,” and they consider the Democratic Party a “radical-left” organization. Stephen Miller himself said that the Democratic Party is a "domestic extremist organization”! So FTO status could directly impact literally millions of people.

What does an FTO designation do? Well, one thing is that providing “material support” to an FTO group or a member or supporter of an FTO group is a federal crime carrying up to 20 years in prison. “Material support” includes donations, food, lodging, expert advice, “training,” and so on. According to Just Security, a Supreme Court ruling (Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project) established that “even speech intended to promote peaceful conflict resolution may constitute material support if provided to a designated organization.”

Widespread Implications

Think about the implications of this. Progressive groups often rely on pro bono (free) legal assistance in the face of arrests. Under FTO, law firms could themselves face criminal charges for providing this. A church that hosts a forum or rally at which people labeled “antifa” speak, could be liable—opening themselves up to surveillance and repression. If an organization is deemed to be part of an FTO, they're prevented from using banks!

But that is only the beginning. Non-citizens (including permanent residents, foreign students, etc.) can be deported for membership in an FTO. Even naturalized citizens could lose their citizenship if, within five years of being naturalized, they participate in an “antifa” rally, donate to a legal defense fund or even express anti-fascist sentiments. (And it’s relevant that the Department of Justice [DOJ] recently declared that denaturalization cases would be one of its top five enforcement priorities.) 

Readers: Please think about what this could mean!!

Then there is civil liability—“any person who aids and abets, by knowingly providing substantial assistance, or who conspires with” those who commit acts of “international terrorism” can be sued by anyone who is injured or suffers damages—and they can demand triple damages! Keep in mind, the Trump regime is very close to branding antifa as “international terrorists.”⁴ Now think about this: antifascist forces have been very active in standing up against ICE raids in cities like Chicago and LA. And there have been many instances where ICE has falsely claimed that they were “attacked” by people or vehicles who were protesting them. This could be the basis for a lawsuit, which could include not only whatever individual was accused of the act, but someone who (for example) gave that person a ride to the demonstration. Even if these lawsuits are thrown out of court, it costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to respond to such a suit in court.

FTOs—and alleged sympathizers or supporters—are also blocked from Internet platforms like Facebook, meaning that one of the main arenas in which politics takes place in our time would be off-limits. Among other things, this means that the fascists can saturate the Internet with slanders and lies, but people who disagree with those lies would risk being labeled “supporters of terrorism.”

And, there are vastly looser rules on government surveillance: once you have that FTO label, the government claims the right to spy on you—including wiretapping, physical surveillance, surreptitiously searching people’s homes or businesses. If the state claims you have some connection to the FTO, they do not have to show that they suspect a crime has been committed, they only have to assert that connection. 

Aiming to Put a Chill on All of Society

These are “direct” effects. But now think about indirect effects. There is a whole ecosystem of progressive organizations, human rights groups, research organizations and think tanks that play an important role in sustaining all kinds of social movements. This classification of antifa as an FTO is trying to create a situation where all of these groups would be compelled to think very carefully about any group or individual they work with, hire, support, or platform, to avoid devastating lawsuits if not outright prosecution.

So just this move of designating antifa as an FTO will have an extremely widespread and dramatic chilling effect on society, making the mere expression of anti-fascist views potentially very dangerous. And doing this to antifa—again, applying measures of suppression that were supposed to be used against groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda to a very broad unorganized political trend and set of beliefs—is establishing a new precedent. Once this is done, the same can be done to environmental groups, immigrant rights groups, and so on.

The kind of atmosphere this aims to create is the hallmark of a fully fascist regime, where exercise of basic rights of speech, assembly, association and so on fundamentally cease to exist. 

This is just a brief sketch, but it should be enough for anybody and everybody who cares about civil rights, human rights or the basic right to free speech and dissent, to rise to condemn and oppose this step, and to resist it—to refuse to “obey in advance”—if it comes down. Law firms, academic institutions, professional groups, as well as ordinary people of all political and ideological stripes need to speak out.  Resistance organizations need to have each other's backs in the face of attack. There is extreme urgency in overcoming divide-and-conquer schemes,  uniting all who can be united to drive the Trump fascist regime from power.