From Eco-Terrorists to Antifa Terrorists: The Government’s Playbook for Criminalizing Dissent

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A federal jury in Fort Worth this week convicted nine anti-ICE protesters on various charges, including providing material support to terrorists, for their roles in a July 4, 2025 demonstration outside the Prairieland Detention Center. Attorney General Pam Bondi declared the verdict “will not be the last” as the administration moves to dismantle what it calls organized left-wing terrorism. It is the first domestic terrorism prosecution targeting alleged “Antifa” members under the Trump administration.

This is not the first time the U.S. government has used the terrorism label against activist movements. In 2002, the FBI designated radical environmental groups like the Earth Liberation Front as the number one domestic terror threat—despite never killing anyone. The ensuing crackdown, known as the Green Scare, destroyed the movement through prosecutions, informants, and sweeping investigations that targeted not just those who committed crimes but anyone in their orbit.

Political violence scholar Thomas Zeitzoff has spent years researching exactly this pattern. His new book, No Option But Sabotage (Oxford University Press, 2026), is based on more than 150 interviews with more than 100 environmental activists, experts, and law enforcement. His research found that the terrorism label does more than punish, it reshapes entire movements by disrupting recruitment networks, chilling participation, and forcing activists underground. His findings speak directly to what is unfolding now with the Prairieland prosecutions and the broader crackdown on left-wing activists under President Trump’s new National Security Presidential Memorandum-7.

Zeitzoff can speak to: how the terrorism label functions as a tool of repression; parallels between the Green Scare and the current crackdown on “Antifa”; how activists respond to government repression; and the contested boundary between protest and terrorism.

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zeitzoff@gmail.com | www.zeitzoff.com

Thomas Zeitzoff is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University. His research focuses on political violence, extremism, and political psychology.

Bluesky: http://www.zeitzoff.bsky.social

Substack: https://zeitzoff.substack.com/

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