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-Kurt Vonnegut
From Paris to Canberra, left-wing extremists are exploiting our anger
Europe’s autumn of discontent has widened, with the wave of youth-inspired and left-wing anti-government protests spreading to Germany, Portugal, Poland and the Netherlands at the weekend while French police clashed with demonstrators for the third week running in Paris.
While protests in France demonstrate how violent factions exploit civil unrest, Australia highlights the delicate task of distinguishing legitimate democratic protest from extremist agitation.
The wave of civil unrest across France this month has exposed how political dissatisfaction and socioeconomic grievances are creating fertile ground for the mobilisation of violent left-wing extremist actors.
The world watched as peaceful protests devolved into violent riots, with almost 800,000 people across France taking to the streets and clashing with roughly 70,000 police. What began as students protesting the failing education system snowballed into wider demonstrations by working-class citizens, trade unions and members of the gilets jaunes (yellow vest movement) uniting against crippling taxes and the cost-of-living crisis.
Anarchists, anti-fascists, and revolutionary groups are seeking to exploit wider political grievances to justify confrontation with police and state institutions. Getty
The unrest challenges the final months of President Emmanuel Macron’s term before the 2027 election. Critics say Macron’s public service cuts and mismanagement of the debt crisis have perpetuated an atmosphere of despair and abandonment. The vast scale of the protests, which united people of different ages and political movements, illustrates how widespread dissatisfaction can generate collective opposition to government authority.
Against this backdrop, anarchists, anti-fascists, and revolutionary groups are seeking to exploit wider political grievances to justify confrontation with police and state institutions. Left-wing extremism has historical roots in communism, socialism, and anarchism, particularly beliefs surrounding inequality, class conflict and the exploitation of the working class.
During the late 19th century, anarchist militants adopted “propaganda of the deed” – using political violence to inspire revolutionary change. While left-wing ideologies often promote equality, some communist regimes such as Mao’s China and Stalin’s Russia have done the opposite, reinforcing inequality and suppressing political opposition.
Extremist beliefs can fester from political dissatisfaction, economic hardship and declining trust in government. Some left-wing extremists see themselves as part of a broader revolutionary movement, believing that capitalism and existing political structures can only be overturned through radical change and violence.
The National Liberation Army in Colombia, for instance, emerged in 1964 from the Cuban revolution. Founded by students of Che Guevara, Catholic radicals and leftist intellectuals, the group set out to overhaul Colombia’s oppressive sociopolitical and economic structures. Similarly, Weather Underground was an American militant organisation formed in the 1960s from student protests against the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. Militancy was deployed over non-violent actions. Guerrilla warfare would act as a catalyst for a revolution. And Germany’s Red Army Faction emerged in the 1970s after anti-Vietnam War protests reached a violent tipping point. The death of a student demonstrator sparked widespread outrage and transformed the face of German left-wing extremism.
Ideological grievances are shifting towards an endorsement of politically motivated violence.
In each of these cases, the organisations trained in guerrilla warfare; became proficient with explosives, arson and kidnapping; targeted infrastructure, buildings, government and the police and utilised propaganda to influence the public. Tactics are used to weaken state authority, provoke government responses and generate political instability, while generating symbolic resistance to institutions.
Today, left-wing extremism operates in an atmosphere that can accelerate dangerous narratives and propaganda.The technological environment means social media and artificial intelligence are being weaponised to disseminate propaganda, manipulate political information and exploit emotionally charged events. We should be deeply alarmed by extremist groups using deepfakes, synthetic imagery and voice cloning to misrepresent political statements, fabricate confrontations and erode faith in public institutions.
Unlike radical groups of the ’60s and ’70s, modern extremist groups can churn out propaganda around social injustice with fewer resources, time, and money. This has turbocharged radicalisation and violence.
Australians mobilising across the political spectrum have been influenced by global events. Consider how the Christchurch terrorist attack, Black Lives Matter protests, the coronavirus pandemic and the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023 have all generated competing narratives concerning racism, inequality, state authority and international conflict.
Following October 7, Israel-Gaza conflict demonstrators captured anti-imperialist and anti-colonial perspectives within their political activism.
To be clear, most participants engaged in legitimate democratic expression. But extremist actors seized on international conflicts, such as right-wing extremists using the coronavirus against the Jewish population and left-wing extremists using the same issue against the government to justify hostility towards institutions, glorify violence and promote revolutionary narratives.
These narratives are not confined to the Israel-Gaza conflict but can incorporate the Russia-Ukraine war, Western military interventions, and perceived government failures.
Road to Wangaratta
The concern here is that ideological grievances are shifting towards an endorsement of politically motivated violence. This shift is partly driven by international conflicts that intensify ideological grievances, perceived injustices, alongside technological developments that enable extremists to exploit tensions.
The alleged deliberate attack against independent federal parliamentarian Helen Haines in Wangaratta, Victoria, in October 2026, highlights the vulnerability of democratic institutions to targeted violence. Haines sustained catastrophic injuries, and a 43-year-old man was charged with several offences.
The incident generated national security concerns, and the police are investigating motives. While no ideological motivation has been established, the incident could reinforce and fuel narratives and propaganda by extremists in the Australian environment. This incident can reinforce narratives of political instability, institutional legitimacy, and societal division.
Both France and Australia demonstrate how left-wing extremism is shaped by the convergence of political, social, and geographical conditions. Political dissatisfaction weakens public trust in government and institutions; social networks can exacerbate shared grievances and mobilise people to take action.
While protests in France demonstrate how violent factions exploit civil unrest, Australia highlights the delicate task of distinguishing legitimate democratic protest from extremist agitation.
Security agencies must ground their threat assessments in hard evidence – assessing intent, capability, and real behaviour – rather than mistaking political dissent for extremism. Striking that balance safeguards democratic institutions, while ensuring we recognise when revolutionary talk turns into physical violence.
