The Left’s History of Political Violence: A Century of Bombings, Assassinations, and Domestic Terror
From anarchist bombings to communist revolutionary organizations and modern attacks on government institutions, federal records reveal a documented history of violence committed in pursuit of radical left-wing political objectives.
An Original MAGA Viral™ Investigative Report
By Joshua Allen Johnson | Founder & Editor-in-Chief
October 8, 2026
On August 24, 1970, a bomb exploded at Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.
The target was a building housing the Army Mathematics Research Center, which antiwar militants opposed because of its connection to U.S. military research.
The explosion killed 33-year-old researcher Robert Fassnacht and injured three others.
It was not an accident, nor was it an ordinary act of criminal vandalism. Four men were implicated in the politically motivated bombing. Three were apprehended, while the fourth, Leo Frederick Burt, remained a fugitive for decades.
The attack represented one chapter in an extraordinary period of domestic unrest during which revolutionary organizations used explosives, firearms, kidnappings, and assassinations to advance political objectives.
More than half a century later, historical FBI reports, criminal convictions, and terrorism research provide a detailed record of that violence.
Thousands of Bombings: The Numbers Behind America's Radical Years
During remarks at a July 16, 2026, international counterterrorism conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio highlighted the history of far-left political terrorism.
Rubio cited approximately 2,500 bombings across the United States during an 18-month period between 1971 and 1972.
That figure is attributed to Rubio's remarks. The original FBI tabulation underlying his specific 18-month figure has not been independently located for this investigation.
Other figures are directly documented by the FBI.
According to the Bureau's historical account, the United States experienced an estimated 3,000 bombings and 50,000 bomb threats in 1970 alone.
The FBI's Terrorism in the United States 1999 report recorded approximately 641 terrorist incidents between 1971 and June 1975, including 166 bombings, 120 firebombings, and 118 shootings.
The report attributed the vast majority of those terrorist incidents to left-wing and antiwar extremists, including members of the Weather Underground, Black Liberation Army, Symbionese Liberation Army, and militant Puerto Rican separatist organizations.
The distinction matters: the FBI's broader count of nationwide bombings does not mean every bombing was a left-wing terrorist attack.
Independent academic research further documents the extent of left-wing extremist activity during that decade.
The University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, known as START, found that left-wing motivations were associated with 68% of terrorist attacks in the United States during the 1970s and 58% of resulting deaths.
The researchers also identified substantial overlap with nationalist and separatist movements, meaning ideological classifications were not necessarily mutually exclusive.
An international study published in the Global Terrorism Index 2019 examined 1,677 incidents of politically related terrorism across Western countries between 1970 and 1980. It attributed 93% of those incidents to far-left groups.
The study also reported 446 deaths from political terrorism during the period, with just under 58% attributed to far-left organizations.
These findings concern different datasets, geographic populations, and definitions. They cannot be combined into one overall statistic.
Collectively, however, they demonstrate that organized far-left terrorism was a significant historical security threat.
The Earliest Years: Anarchist Bombings in 1919
America's experience with revolutionary political violence began long before the Vietnam War.
In 1919, anarchist militants carried out a campaign targeting government officials, law enforcement personnel, business leaders, and other prominent figures.
On June 2, explosives detonated at targeted locations across several American cities.
One bomb exploded outside the Washington, D.C., home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. The suspected bomber, Carlo Valdinoci, was killed when his explosive detonated prematurely.
A night watchman was killed during the wider bombing campaign, and other victims were injured.
Earlier that spring, explosive packages had been mailed to prominent Americans. One explosion severely injured a domestic worker.
The FBI describes the attacks as the work of militant anarchists seeking to overthrow established political and economic institutions, although investigators could not conclusively identify every participant.
These attacks predated America's modern domestic terrorism terminology but demonstrated how revolutionary political ideology could become a justification for violence.
The Weather Underground: Bombing America's Institutions
One of the most extensively documented far-left extremist organizations in American history was the Weather Underground.
Emerging in 1969 from the radical wing of Students for a Democratic Society, the organization embraced revolutionary communist ideas and violent opposition to U.S. institutions.
Its stated objectives included opposition to the Vietnam War, American imperialism, and racial injustice.
Its methods included bombings.
According to the FBI, the organization claimed responsibility for approximately 25 bombings by 1975.
Its targets included the United States Capitol, the Pentagon, the State Department, police facilities, and other government buildings.
On March 6, 1970, three Weather Underground members died when explosives they were assembling detonated inside a Greenwich Village townhouse.
Investigators subsequently discovered 57 sticks of dynamite, four completed bombs, detonators, timing devices, and additional bomb-making equipment.
On March 1, 1971, the organization bombed the U.S. Capitol.
On May 19, 1972, it bombed the Pentagon.
On January 29, 1975, a bomb exploded at the State Department headquarters in Washington, damaging 20 offices across three floors.
No one was injured in that State Department attack.
The absence of casualties in some bombings does not erase their political intent, nor does it transform the use of explosives against government facilities into peaceful dissent.
The Symbionese Liberation Army: Murder and Kidnapping
Another violent revolutionary organization emerged in California during the 1970s.
The Symbionese Liberation Army, or SLA, advocated armed revolution against the American political and economic system.
On November 6, 1973, Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster was murdered. His deputy, Robert Blackburn, was wounded.
The SLA claimed responsibility.
The school officials had been shot with cyanide-tipped bullets.
Three months later, on February 4, 1974, the SLA kidnapped 19-year-old newspaper heiress Patty Hearst from her Berkeley apartment.
The organization demanded concessions from her family and subsequently released recordings presenting Hearst as participating in its revolutionary campaign.
The kidnapping became one of the most notorious criminal investigations in American history.
The SLA's violence demonstrated that revolutionary rhetoric was not limited to the destruction of property. Its targets also included human beings.
The FALN: Four Dead at Fraunces Tavern
On January 24, 1975, a bomb exploded during lunchtime at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan's financial district.
Four people were killed.
Fifty-three others were injured.
The Armed Forces of Puerto Rican National Liberation, commonly known as the FALN, claimed responsibility.
The organization pursued Puerto Rican independence through a militant revolutionary campaign involving bombings and other attacks.
A federal court subsequently described the Fraunces Tavern bombing as an indiscriminate killing of innocent diners.
No individual was convicted specifically for carrying out the bombing.
The FALN's campaign extended beyond New York City.
According to the FBI's Chicago field-office history, a coordinated wave of bombings struck locations in Chicago, New York, and Washington on October 27, 1975.
In Chicago alone, the FBI documented 19 bombings, six incendiary attacks, and two armed takeovers associated with the broader FALN campaign between 1975 and March 1980.
Puerto Rican separatism is not inherently synonymous with left-wing politics. Nevertheless, the FBI historically classified a substantial share of these revolutionary separatist attacks within its left-wing terrorism category.
The Black Liberation Army and the 1981 Brink's Killings
On October 20, 1981, members of the Black Liberation Army and associated revolutionary militants conducted a violent armored-car robbery near Nyack, New York.
The attackers stole approximately $1.6 million.
Brink's security guard Peter Paige was shot and killed.
As the suspects attempted to escape, Nyack police officers Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady were also killed.
Additional people were wounded.
The robbery involved members and associates of revolutionary organizations connected to the Black Liberation Army and May 19th Communist Organization, including individuals associated with the earlier Weather Underground movement.
Several participants were convicted of murder and robbery.
The killings showed that revolutionary networks surviving into the 1980s continued to carry out armed operations with fatal consequences.
The 1983 Bombing of the United States Senate
On November 7, 1983, an explosion tore through the north wing of the United States Capitol.
A group calling itself the Armed Resistance Unit claimed responsibility, citing American military actions in Grenada and Lebanon.
The bomb detonated at approximately 10:58 p.m., after nearby congressional areas had largely emptied.
The explosion damaged offices, furniture, historic artwork, and parts of the Senate complex.
The U.S. Senate Historical Office estimated approximately $250,000 in damage.
There were no fatalities.
Following a five-year investigation, federal agents arrested six members of the Resistance Conspiracy.
In 1990, three defendants were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for conspiracy and malicious destruction of government property.
The attack became a turning point in Capitol security procedures.
It was also further evidence that revolutionary political bombing campaigns had continued beyond the Vietnam War era.
Lesser-Known Revolutionary Campaigns
The nation's history contains additional cases that receive comparatively little public attention.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the United Freedom Front committed bombings, robberies, and violent assaults.
Thomas Manning, associated with the organization, received a life sentence for the murder of New Jersey state trooper Philip Lamonaco.
The Macheteros, a militant Puerto Rican independence organization, carried out attacks against American military and government installations.
In January 1981, attackers used explosives at the Muñiz Air National Guard Base in Puerto Rico, destroying eight military aircraft and damaging two others.
Contemporary reporting estimated approximately $45 million in damage.
In September 1983, Victor Gerena helped steal approximately $7 million from a Wells Fargo armored-car facility in West Hartford, Connecticut.
The FBI subsequently connected Gerena with Los Macheteros and conducted an extensive investigation into the robbery.
By the late 1980s, federal investigations and prosecutions had substantially weakened many of the revolutionary organizations that emerged during the 1960s and 1970s.
Environmental Extremism and the Attacks of the 1990s
Political violence also took other forms.
The Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front participated in campaigns of arson, sabotage, and property destruction.
In October 1998, extremists set fire to facilities at the Vail ski resort in Colorado, causing approximately $12 million in damage.
A Justice Department investigation covering attacks from 1996 through 2001 eventually examined more than 20 incidents connected to environmental and animal-rights extremists, with combined damage estimated at $80 million.
These cases require a separate classification distinction.
The FBI historically placed environmental and animal-rights terrorism in a special-interest category, rather than automatically labeling every incident traditional left-wing terrorism.
They remain relevant to the broader history of ideologically motivated violence, but their statistics should not be silently merged with counts of communist or anarchist terrorism.
Political Violence in the Modern Era
The dissolution of historical revolutionary organizations did not end politically motivated attacks against American institutions and officials.
On June 14, 2017, gunman James Hodgkinson opened fire during a Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia.
Representative Steve Scalise was seriously wounded, along with several other victims.
The FBI documented Hodgkinson's anti-Republican social media activity and reported that he had asked whether the players were Republicans or Democrats.
The Bureau initially stated that it had not established a terrorism connection.
In 2021, however, the FBI revised its assessment and acknowledged that the attack was conduct it would characterize as domestic terrorism.
A May 2025 report from the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee further challenged the Bureau's original conclusions after reviewing its case files.
The committee characterized the shooting as a premeditated, politically motivated assassination attempt.
In July 2019, Willem Van Spronsen attacked an immigration detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, using incendiary devices while armed with a rifle.
Police described him as an anarchist who claimed association with the antifascist movement.
He was killed by responding officers. No detention-center personnel were killed in the attack.
The 2022 Firebombing and Supreme Court Assassination Plot
The Supreme Court's consideration of abortion rights became another flashpoint for extremist violence.
On May 8, 2022, an office housing an anti-abortion organization in Madison, Wisconsin, was attacked with an incendiary device.
Investigators found a Molotov cocktail and threatening graffiti at the scene.
Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury later pleaded guilty.
In April 2024, he was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison.
The Justice Department described the attack as an act of domestic terrorism.
That same year, Nicholas Roske traveled to Maryland with a firearm, ammunition, and other equipment intending to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Roske later admitted he was upset about the leaked Supreme Court draft decision concerning abortion and the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
He pleaded guilty to attempted murder in April 2025 and was sentenced to 97 months in prison that October.
The incident involved a direct attempt to kill a federal judicial official over grievances involving politically contentious issues.
2025: Renewed Concern Over Left-Wing Extremism
Recent terrorism research indicates that left-wing extremist attacks and plots increased during the 2010s and into 2025, although the numbers remain far below the revolutionary bombing campaigns of the 1970s.
A May 2026 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies documented 15 U.S. attacks and plots classified as left-wing anti-government extremism during 2025.
That was an increase from three such incidents in 2024.
The 2025 incidents in that category caused three victim fatalities.
The study also classified six of eight partisan extremist incidents during 2025 as involving extreme-left perpetrators.
Those are relatively small totals and include researchers' ideological assessments, which are not always equivalent to a criminal court finding.
The report included the September 2025 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in its left-wing partisan category.
Utah prosecutors have alleged that accused shooter Tyler Robinson targeted Kirk over his political and religious views.
The defendant's alleged motive has been contested in ongoing criminal proceedings, and the research classification should not be mistaken for an adjudicated finding about ideology.
Among the most clearly documented modern cases is the July 4, 2025, attack at the Prairieland immigration detention facility in Alvarado, Texas.
According to the Justice Department, members of a North Texas antifascist cell arrived with weapons, body armor, and other equipment.
The attack involved vandalism, fireworks, and gunfire. An Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck.
Federal jurors convicted multiple defendants in March 2026.
In June 2026, Benjamin Hanil Song received a 100-year federal prison sentence for his role, including the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
Seven additional defendants were also sentenced.
The case demonstrates that organized, politically motivated attacks against law enforcement facilities are not confined to historical archives.
Beyond America's Borders
The international record adds further context.
In Italy, the Marxist Red Brigades kidnapped former Prime Minister Aldo Moro in March 1978.
The kidnapping operation also killed five members of Moro's security detail.
After 55 days of captivity, Moro was murdered. His body was discovered in Rome on May 9.
In Germany, the far-left Red Army Faction conducted bombings, kidnappings, and murders over nearly three decades.
German public broadcaster ARD reports that the organization killed 34 people and injured more than 200 before dissolving in 1998.
These organizations formed part of the broader Western revolutionary terrorist movements examined in historical terrorism research.
The Institute for Economics & Peace reported that far-left groups committed 93% of the 1,677 incidents in its dataset of politically motivated terrorism in Western countries during 1970–1980.
That finding does not cover every form of terrorism or every bombing in those countries. Its significance lies in the specific historical category and period it measured.
What the Historical Record Establishes
The evidence documented by the FBI, the Justice Department, federal courts, and independent terrorism researchers establishes that far-left extremist organizations have carried out sustained campaigns of political violence.
Those campaigns included bombings of federal institutions, assassinations, murders of police officers, kidnappings, armed robberies, and attacks on private property.
Their motivations varied, ranging from revolutionary communism and anarchism to anti-imperialism, militant separatism, and opposition to specific government policies.
Not every incident qualifies under the same terrorism classification, and the actions of violent extremists cannot automatically be attributed to ordinary Americans who share elements of their political beliefs.
But the documented history cannot be dismissed.
The names of the victims, the physical destruction, the criminal convictions, and the historical government records remain.
Political disagreements are protected expression. Bombings, murder, and armed intimidation are not.
The history of far-left political violence is not a matter of speculation. It is part of the historical record.
Sources and References
Federal records, court decisions, contemporary reporting, and independent terrorism research consulted for this investigation:
U.S. Department of State — Secretary Marco Rubio's July 16, 2026 Remarks. Remarks at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism, including Rubio's historical bombing statistics.
Federal Bureau of Investigation — Terrorism in the United States 1999. Historical documentation of terrorist attacks, extremist organizations, bombing incidents, and ideological classifications.
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/stats-services-publications-terror_99.pdf
FBI — And Justice for All, 1954–1971. Historical account of the estimated 3,000 bombings and 50,000 bomb threats in 1970, along with the Sterling Hall bombing.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/history-of-the-fbi/and-justice-for-all
University of Maryland — START. Research into ideological motivations for terrorism in the United States from 1970 to 2016.
Institute for Economics & Peace — Global Terrorism Index 2019. International terrorism research, including historical Western far-left revolutionary extremism. See pages 46–48.
https://www.economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/GTI-2019-web.pdf
FBI — Early Terrorism Investigation: The Bomb Outrages of 1919. History of the coordinated anarchist bombing campaign.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/early-fbi-terrorism-case-062819
FBI — Weather Underground Bombings. Federal investigative history documenting the organization's bombing campaign.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and-criminals/weather-underground-bombings
FBI — Patty Hearst. Official investigative account of the Symbionese Liberation Army's crimes and the Hearst kidnapping.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and-criminals/patty-hearst
Federal Court Records — Matter of Archuleta, 446 F. Supp. 68 (1978). Court documentation concerning the Fraunces Tavern bombing and FALN.
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/446/68/2130270/
FBI — Chicago Field Office History. Investigations into FALN attacks and bombing activity in Chicago and other cities.
United Press International — 1981 Brink's Robbery Convictions. Contemporary reporting on criminal convictions and the deaths of three victims.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/06/27/Brinks-defendant-gets-75-years-to-life-term/8062457156800/
U.S. Senate Historical Office — Bomb Explodes in Capitol, 1983. Official documentation of the November 7, 1983, bombing.
https://www.senate.gov/about/historic-buildings-spaces/capitol/bomb-explodes-1983.htm
FBI — New Haven Field Office History. Documentation of the 1983 Wells Fargo armored-car robbery and the investigation involving Los Macheteros.
U.S. Department of Justice — National Security Division Progress Report, 2008. Investigations into environmental extremism and the Vail arson.
https://www.justice.gov/nsd/docs/2008/nsd-progress-rpt-2008.pdf
FBI — Investigation into the 2017 Congressional Baseball Shooting. Original federal investigative findings.
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — 2017 Congressional Baseball Shooting Report, 2025. Congressional assessment of the original FBI findings.
U.S. Department of Justice — Wisconsin Firebombing Conviction and Sentencing. Federal prosecution of Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury.
U.S. Department of Justice — Attempted Murder of a Supreme Court Justice. Federal prosecution and sentencing of Nicholas Roske.
Center for Strategic and International Studies — Global Terrorism Threat Assessment, May 2026. Updated research examining 2025 terrorism trends and ideological motivations.
https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2026-05/260522_Palmer_Threat_Assessment.pdf
U.S. Department of Justice — Prairieland Detention Center Attack. Federal convictions and sentencing records from the July 2025 attack in Texas.
German Public Broadcaster ARD — History of the Red Army Faction. Historical overview of the German far-left terrorist organization and its victims.
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/gesellschaft/rote-armee-fraktion-hintergrund-100.html
University of Bologna Historical Archives — Aldo Moro Kidnapping, 1978. Archival documentation of the Red Brigades' kidnapping and murders.
https://bub.unibo.it/it/bub-digitale/archivio-rodrigo-pais/anni-di-piombo/1978
About the Author
Joshua Allen Johnson is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of MAGA Viral™ (Media Amplifying Grassroots America), an independent media platform dedicated to news coverage, investigative reporting, and amplifying grassroots American voices.
Through MAGA Viral™, Johnson works to bring attention to important national developments, historical events, and stories that deserve greater public scrutiny.
Author: Joshua Allen Johnson
Research and Editorial Compilation: Joshua Allen Johnson | MAGA Viral™
Publisher: MAGA Viral™
Editorial disclosure: This report incorporates historical government records, judicial findings, contemporary reporting, and independent terrorism research. Ideological classifications are attributed to the organizations and researchers that developed them. Historical accusations and modern criminal allegations are distinguished from court-adjudicated findings.
© 2026 MAGA Viral™ | Joshua Allen Johnson. All rights reserved.
Originally published on MAGAViral.com.
