On July 16, 2026, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened a gathering of United States government officials, congressional representatives, and governmental officials from 65 nations at the State Department. Informally called the “Antifa summit,” the topic that brought everyone together was the supposed resurgence of “left” political terrorism.
Secretary Rubio declared that U.S. counterterrorism doctrine has “had a blind spot—a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left. Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy.”
He added: “Far-left political terrorism is not a recent-day, modern novelty. It is not a fiction manufactured by conservative politicians. For most of the modern era, it was, in fact, the dominant form of political violence.”
Of course, no evidence is offered to back up the assertion that so-called left-wing violence could claim more victims than two global wars precipitated by rightist colonialist nations—from the First Imperialist War to the right-wing Nazis of the Second Imperialist War—the millions murdered by colonial governments in their frantic and delusional attempts to reassert colonial control after the end of the Second World War, which also included U.S. misadventures in Korea and Vietnam, and the so-called “War on Terror” unleashed by the United States when the countervailing force of the Soviet Union disappeared.
But in a period of normalized irrationality, where evidence to substantiate intellectual arguments is unnecessary and the historical experience of just the twentieth century negates Rubio’s assertions, it is power that imposes its definition of truth.
The objective of Marco Rubio and U.S. officials such as Stephen Miller is to take another political and institutional step toward consolidating fascism—while criminalizing opposition to fascism! What is “antifa” besides an abbreviation for social forces opposing fascism?
As slick as this move was to intimidate and criminalize opposition to fascism at this gathering, the real history of the United States demonstrates that the fallback position to fascism as a response to capitalist crisis and/or to preempt political opposition from the left is nothing new, especially for African/Black organizations and our movements for social change and basic survival.
Our current bulletin will resurrect and contextualize that history and the specific expressions of institutional oppression emanating from the U.S. national security state. The Bulletin’s feature article, “Twentieth Century Red Scares in the United States,” by Dr. Charrise Burden-Stelly, contextualizes the current assault on human rights while also reminding readers that the declaration of war on the left in general still inevitably means a concentrated focus on revolutionary African/Black organizations. There is nothing new in that focus. It ultimately means that this particular iteration of repression represents the historical continuity of efforts to criminalize and destroy African radical organizations and left opposition in general.
And while the specific conditions of consolidating fascism in the United States are unique to this moment of deep institutional weakness and declining legitimacy, the significance of National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence, unveiled last September, is not a reflection that the United States suddenly rediscovered political repression. Rather, its significance lies in the reconstitution of an older repertoire of political repression through the institutional technologies of the post-9/11 security state, mobilized to confront what the state increasingly represents as an existential threat posed by opposition from the left.
COINTELPRO sought to disrupt organizations capable of producing independent Black political power; the post-9/11 state developed unprecedented capacities for network surveillance, financial intelligence, and preemptive intervention; NSPM-7 potentially brings these two histories together around an expanded conception of left political extremism. For Black radical forces, the danger is therefore not merely that particular organizations may be labeled “terrorist.” The deeper danger is that independent Black political organization, Black internationalism, and anti-imperialist politics are increasingly being interpreted through a national-security framework designed to disrupt the development of autonomous political power, inviting murderous repression from the state.
From the Palmer Raids, McCarthyism, and COINTELPRO to post-9/11 counterterrorism, NSPM-7, and the 2026 State Department anti-left initiative, left opposition today is being framed as an international counterterrorism problem.
That is an ominous development, but one consistent with the fascist agenda. The more than two hundred Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the United States have been unleashed against anti-fascist opposition. However, what we have are the people and a determination to resist. This is where the People(s)-Centered Human Rights framework has strategic value: the defense of political opposition becomes inseparable from the defense of collective political agency and peoples’ right to organize themselves as political subjects.
This is a threat to fascism, but we have no other choice. At this historical moment, this must be the task, the responsibility, and the objective of anti-fascist opposition. The fate of the world demands no less.