# Are There Any Left-Wing Terrorists? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259 "2008-07-12T20:08:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/21 "2008-07-17T04:12:24Z")
[QUOTE=ivan astikov] I know the extreme animal rights activists could be considered “left wing”, but there doesn’t seem to be many other liberal terrorists about. Are us Liberals in general letting our side down with our wimpish nature, or merely showing our overwhelming common sense and decency? [/QUOTE] If you keep going left, eventually you get past “liberal” and move on to Democratic Socialism, Socialism, Communism, Marxism, and so on… The PLO is a kinda-sorta “terrorist” group these days, but is decidedly liberal when it comes to economics and social policy. For that matter, so are Hamas and Hezbollah, for the most part, especially if you discount the whole “crushing the Pirate State of Israel” thing, which is decidedly undemocratic. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/22 "2008-07-17T06:59:29Z")
[Naxalites](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalite) do resort to extreme violence ,destruction of public property… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/23 "2008-07-17T07:00:18Z")
It’s debatable whether politically-motivated property destruction, by itself, counts as terrorism. [Spike a Tree for Jesus!](http://www.darrylcherney.com/hippieslyrics.htm#spike) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/24 "2008-07-17T09:37:38Z")
[QUOTE=World Eater] There’s the “ERF” (Earth Liberation Front). I think they’ve burned down a few Humvee dealerships and McMansions in California. [/QUOTE] That, and they’ve [released gobwins to terrorize marbits.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfworld) ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/25 "2008-07-17T18:54:31Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] There’s no such thing as a Humvee dealership, the Humvee is a nickname for the HMMWV, which the “H1” or “Civilian Hummer” is based on. “Hummer” dealerships sell H2s and H3s which are not connected to the military vehicle at all, and only bear a superficial aesthetic resemblance to them. [/QUOTE] Yes, you are correct. H2s and H3s are just glorified Suburbans. Thanks **Chacoguy420** , I’ve been a little sleep deprived. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/26 "2008-07-17T18:58:29Z")
[QUOTE=Derleth] That, and they’ve [released gobwins to terrorize marbits.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfworld) [/QUOTE] 😛 ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/27 "2008-07-17T21:57:36Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] It’s debatable whether politically-motivated property destruction, by itself, counts as terrorism. [Spike a Tree for Jesus!](http://www.darrylcherney.com/hippieslyrics.htm#spike) [/QUOTE] “Spiking a tree” could mean driving a spike into it so that a logger could hit it with his chainsaw, a potentially fatal event. That would be terrorism, and there are certainly eco terrorists. Are they left wing because they are fighting against the big bad logging industry on behalf of the people who want to enjoy the beauty of a tree? Power to the people? Or are they just terrorists, trying to influence some aspect of their world in a very potent way? I think the latter. Not left wing or right wing. I think those labels don’t fit. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/28 "2008-07-17T22:32:40Z")
There was also the [Front de libération du Québec](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_de_lib%C3%A9ration_du_Qu%C3%A9bec): > [@](#): > > The Front de libération du Québec (Québec Liberation Front), commonly known as the FLQ, and sometimes referred to as Front de libération Québécois was a Marxist revolutionary group in Canada responsible for more than 200 bombings largely directed at Quebec’s English-speaking community but also the the bombing of the Montreal Stock Exchange in 1969 and the deaths of at least five people, which culminated in 1970 with what is known as the October Crisis in which British Trade Commissioner James Cross who was in Canada at the time was kidnapped and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte was murdered. Founded in the early 1960s, it supported the Quebec sovereignty movement. The period of its founding coincided with Quebec’s “Quiet Revolution,” the period during which the provincial government of Quebec began to play a more active role in solving economic and social issues, following the death of the province’s long-serving premier, Maurice Duplessis. Its actions were denounced by federalist political parties in Quebec and the moderate sovereigntist Parti Quebecois. > > FLQ members practiced propaganda of the deed and issued declarations that called for a Marxist insurrection in the view of which the oppressors were identified with anglophones (English-speaking Quebecois), the overthrow of the Quebec government, the independence of Quebec from Canada and the establishment of a French-Canadian workers’ society. The organization was also influenced by other movements, such as those for the independence of former colonies such as Algeria, Vietnam and Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2008, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/29 "2008-07-18T09:16:23Z")
[QUOTE=ivan astikov] “left wing” … other liberal terrorists about [/QUOTE] To expand on **Really Not All That Bright** ’s point, you can think of politics as a sort of doughnut arrangement. If you start at the 'pragmatic middle-of-the-road" part of the doughnut and head either left or right, you encounter progressively more extreme views until you get to “rabidly narrow-minded violently oppressive”. Those groups that are genuinely terroristic tend to blur together in the practical terms of their programme (do whatever we want or we’ll kill your family), irrespective of what brand of slogan they are spouting. Rather like the remarkable similarities between Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao etc. At the extremes, I don’t think there’s a lot of point trying to distinguish between left and right wing - they’re all authoritarians of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259/30 "2008-07-18T09:53:23Z")
Wikipedia describes the Palestinian Fatah Party as a centre left political group. The Black September movement that killed Israeli sports people in Munich were a splinter group from Fatah and could therefore probably be classed as a left wing terrorist group. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-left-wing-terrorists/456259.md?page=1)