Left-wing terrorism

Damage from the bombing outside of the Chamber of the United States Senate on November 7, 1983. The bombing was a retaliation hit against U.S. military involvement in Lebanon and Grenada.[1]
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Left-wing terrorism or far-left terrorism is terrorism motivated by left-wing or far-left ideologies,[2] committed with the aim of overthrowing current capitalist systems and replacing them with communist or socialist societies.[3] Left-wing terrorism can also occur within already socialist states as criminal action against the current ruling government.[4][5]

The majority of left-wing terrorist groups originated in the aftermath of World War II and were predominantly active during the Cold War.[3] Most left-wing terrorist groups that had operated in the 1970s and 1980s disappeared by the mid-1990s.[2] One exception was the Greek Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N), which lasted until 2002. Since then, left-wing terrorism has been relatively minor in the Western world in comparison with other forms of terrorism;[3][needs update] currently, it is generally carried out by insurgent groups in the developing world.[6]

  1. ^ "CQ Almanac Online Edition". library.cqpress.com. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  2. ^ a b Porat, Dan (August 2024). Evans, Richard J.; Neuburger, Mary C. (eds.). "Dual Narratives of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict in Court: Shaping the Perception of International Terrorism". Journal of Contemporary History. 59 (3). SAGE Publications: 576–596. doi:10.1177/0022009424126. ISSN 1461-7250. LCCN 66009877. S2CID 271824536.
  3. ^ a b c Robinson, Kristopher K.; Crenshaw, Edward M.; Jenkins, J. Craig (June 2006). "Ideologies of Violence: The Social Origins of Islamist and Leftist Transnational Terrorism". Social Forces. 84 (4). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press for the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 2009–2026. doi:10.1353/sof.2006.0106. ISSN 0037-7732. JSTOR 3844487. S2CID 143560023.
  4. ^ Aubrey, pp. 44–45
  5. ^ Moghadam, p. 56
  6. ^ Malkki, Leena (2018). "Chapter 8: Left-wing terrorism". In Silke, Andrew (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism (1st ed.). London and New York City: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315744636-8. ISBN 978-1-317-59270-9. S2CID 159356487. During the last two decades, left-wing terrorism has commonly been perceived as a relatively minor phenomenon even if at times predictions have been made about its return. [...] During the last two decades left-wing terrorism has been a relatively minor phenomenon in the whole spectrum of terrorism.