PHOTO: Forensic officers examining the blast site outside the HQ of Hellenic Train in Athens following a bomb attack on 12 April 2025
ΕΑΝ ΠΡΟΤΙΜΑΤΕ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΠΑΤΗΣΤΕ ΤΗ ΣΗΜΑΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΑΤΩ ΜΕΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΟΘΟΝΗΣ
How two recently emerged groups in Greece were swept into the U.S. “antifa‐linked” designation — and why it matters for Athens and beyond.
By Helleniscope’s Editorial Team
On November 13, 2025, the U.S. Department of State announced that it was designating four European organizations as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” (SDGTs) and intended to classify them as foreign terrorist organizations. The move targeted entities the U.S. described as linked to the loosely-defined “anti-fascist” or “antifa” movement and accused of revolutionary anarchist or Marxist ideology, anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-Christian sentiments, and the use of violence domestically and abroad. Among the four groups named were two based in Greece.
In its statement, the Department of State linked the Greek entities to specific violent incidents: a bomb attempt near riot-police headquarters in Athens, and explosions targeting the Labour Ministry and the national rail operator. The sanction designations allow the U.S. government to block assets, deny access to the U.S. financial system, and restrict support for these organisations under Executive Order 13224.
PHOTO: Greek anti-terror squad secures the area near the riot-police (MAT) headquarters in Goudi, Athens, after a bomb attempt attributed to the group Armed Proletarian Justice in late 2023
The Greek Context
“Armed Proletarian Justice”
The first Greek organisation, referred to in the U.S. announcement as Armed Proletarian Justice (Ένοπλη Προλεταριακή Δικαιοσύνη), is described by the U.S. Treasury as being established in December 2023. According to the U.S. notice, the group claimed responsibility for planting a bomb near the headquarters of Greece’s riot police in the Goudi district of Athens in 2023 — though the device failed to detonate. The designation marks the group as a transnational terrorist organisation, signalling that the U.S. will seek to choke off financial flows and support networks tied to it.
“Revolutionary Class Self-Defence”
The second Greek organisation is listed as Revolutionary Class Self‑Defence (Επαναστατική Ταξική Αυτοάμυνα). According to the U.S. statement, this group was founded in 2024 and claimed responsibility for a February 2024 bomb outside Greece’s Labour Ministry in Athens (after a warning call) and an April 2025 explosion outside the offices of the national railway operator, causing minor damage and no casualties. Like the other group, it is now designated as a transnational terrorist organization subject to U.S. sanctions.
Implications and Observations
The U.S. naming of these groups as “antifa-linked” militants marks a shift in how Washington addresses left-wing anarchist and anti-fascist activist organisations in Europe — traditionally, many such groups were viewed as protest organisations rather than formally designated terrorist groups. The Greek cases, although small in scale compared to some far-left organisations of past decades, demonstrate that even relatively recent and loosely organised networks are now entangled in global counter-terrorism policy.
For Greece, the listings raise questions about how Greek law enforcement and the judicial system will respond, whether the groups will be further disrupted, and how activism in anarchist / anti-fascist milieus might adapt. On the international level, the designations carry the weight of U.S. financial sanctions and a signal to allied governments that such militant left-wing networks are on the radar of major international counter-terror mechanisms.
CITATIONS:
U.S. State Department press release: “Terrorist Designations of Antifa Ost and Three Other Violent Antifa Groups” — state.gov
U.S. Treasury/OFAC recent-actions listing — ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20251113_33
Reporting on Greek groups included in the designations — Reuters, AP News, Al Jazeera
Anarchist left wqing groups are a part of Greek society. Other European countries, such as Italy, Germany and Great Britain, have rid themselves of that scourge. Not Greece. Ever since Nov 17th group was dismantrled, others have taken up its mantle. The newer ones are not as deadly as Nov 17th, but nevertheless are a nuisance. Chrysochoidis, the minister of citizen porotection is active in opposing those groups. Mitsotakis’ first order of business was to empty all the “confiscated” buildings from its occupiers, mostly in the neighborhood of exarchia. Anbd I have noticed that the nightly raids with molotov coctails have been dramattically reduced, due to stricted police control.
Greeks are the children of the revolutionary kleftes and of the guerillas.
However, I think Trump’s tactics, of financial controls against those groups is like using a machine gun to kill a fly. These groups are not suffisticated enough to control large amounts of cash. Trump is comparing them to South American drug gangs.
Moreover, in Europe, the threat is not from the left, as was Baander Meionhoff in Germany. It is now from the extreme right. Trump loves to dump on the left only, while cuddling the right and even freeing criminalks, such as the Jan 6th rioters.
Well, aren’t they terrorists? It appears to be a good decision to me.
Every country has its crackpots. And its tortured half-buried historical memories.
In the case of Greece, it makes me recall the words of a now-deceased Greek immigrant to the US in a conversation we had about his Greek army service in the late 1940s in the war against the commies in Greece. He said, “The communists were not that numerous–but they were very well-organized.”