A Brief Look at Left Wing Terrorism

It has always interested me how many of those on the left frequently make history what they want us to believe it to be.  Misrepresentations, omissions or outright lies are so often the case.  For instance, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, whose extreme leftist views are well credentialed, has been quoted as saying "Normally domestic terrorists, tend to be on the far right."  It rolls off his tongue with such ease that it is likely that he believes what he says.  But, is it true?  There is no question that far rightist have engaged in acts of terrorism.  But to say they are "normally" the source of domestic terrorism is a stretch.  The most recent act of so called domestic terrorism for us was the Boston Marathon bombing. While it could be challenged as domestic in nature, it was distinctly leftist.  Here are few other acts of leftist domestic terrorism we have experienced throughout the past 100 years.  You might find them informative.

1.  The 1901 President William Mckinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz, a socialist anarchist.

2.  The 1919 bomb scares were initiated by Luigi Galleani and his anarcho-communist followers and sparked The First Red Scare of subversive actions of foreign and leftist elements within this country.  Galleani was active in the United States from 1901 to 1919.  Notable other actions include:

     In April 1919 approximately 36 booby trap bombs were mailed to a number of prominent politicians, including the US attorney general, judges and businessmen.  One bomb was sent to R.W. Finch, an agent investigating the Galleanist organization.  Only one of the bombs exploded injuring the target's wife and her maid.

     In June 1919, eight bombs, larger than those in April, exploded almost simultaneously in several cities. All of the intended targets had participated in some way with or openly supported the investigation of the Galleanist anarchist radicals.

     In 1920 Wall Street was bombed by the Galleanists.  Thirty eight people died and scores others were injured.  The accused bomber, known as Buda, fled to Italy after the bombing but other Galleanists continued their bombings for another twelve years.

3.  In October 1969 the Weather Underground Organization, a communist organization, split from the Students for a Democratic Society, a socialist group spawned in opposition to the Vietnam War.  Weather Underground conducted a series of terrorist activities known as the Days of Rage during which they rioted in the streets, destroyed public property and set off a bomb at Chicago's Haymarket police statue.  In December they bombed police vehicles.  Notable other actions include:

      In 1970 three of its members were killed while making bombs in a Greenwich village house.  However, they did bomb New York City's police headquarters.    

     In 1971 they bombed the US Capitol.

     In 1972 they bombed the Pentagon. 

     In 1981 they conducted the Nyack, NY Brinks robbery which seized $1.6 million, killing two guards and two Nyack policemen, wounding three others.

4.  The anti-capitalistic/socialistic Black Liberation Army (BLA) assisted the Weather Underground Organization in the just mentioned Brinks robbery.  Between 1970 and 1980 the BLA is credited with the killing of 13 police officers and over 60 other acts of left wing violence.

5.  Between 1978 and 1995, the Unibomber and noted leftist, Ted Kaczynski sent letter bombs to his selected targets which injured 23 people and killing three.    

6.  Over the last 20 years or so eco-terrorism by multiple groups of leftist environmental organizations have, according to the FBI, used or threatened the "use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature."  Although no one has been killed, groups such as the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front have caused more than $100 million in damages.

We could cover more but it is clear that Leftism is not as benign as Chris Matthews apparently thinks it is or wants us to think it is.  Its history throughout the last century alone should make that point.  This is not to whitewash anything extreme rightist have done (ie: the Oklahoma City's 1995 Murrah Building bombing by extreme right wing radical Timothy McVeigh).  But, it is a fact that the left's big three (while each is different, Communism, Fascism and Nazism are varying forms of leftist/socialist political philosophies) has to this point committed murder of over 100 million people.  It is also interesting that the left frequently seeks to pin Nazism exclusively on the right.  Its official name, National Socialist German Worker's Party, belies that claim.  As Wikipedia explains:  "The party was created as a means to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism. Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti capitalist rhetoric, although such aspects were later downplayed in order to gain the support of industrial entities, and in 1930s the party's focus shifted to antisemitic and anti-Marxist themes."  Further, as also noted in Wikipedia, Hitler himself explained that "Nazism was not exclusively for any class, and indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved 'pure' elements from both 'camps' stating [according to Max Domarus in The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary] that 'From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism'." 

Lastly, we need to remember the definition of left wing terrorism.  Wikipedia notes it is "sometimes called Marxist-Leninist terrorism or revolutionary/left-wing terrorism" and it "is a set of tactics directed at the overthrow of capitalist governments and their replacement with Marzist-Leninist or socialist societies." Doesn't that have at least a partial ring of current day truth?  It is surprising to me that Chris Matthews and others of his ilk do not know the brief basics covered here.  Then again, maybe he and they know this quite well but don't want us to know they know. 

George Burns