Far Left American radicals have long treated imprisoned violent criminals and domestic terrorists as martyrs to their causes, and while many of these icons were relics of mid-20th century militant activism, a new generation of violent incarcerated saints is being canonized, with many of them hailing from the anti-Israel movement.
The United States suffered a spasm of extreme right and left domestic terrorism that extended through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. On the left side of the political spectrum, Marxist and racial revolutionary groups, groups like the Weather Underground or Black Liberation Army, carried out shootings and bombings in the name of anti-capitalism or anti-imperialism.
Europe saw its own troubles with domestic terrorism, including a red terror that often collaborated with Palestinian factions to hijack aircraft.
Many of the violent far Left activists belonging to these groups were imprisoned, but their causes were only physically repressed. Their ideologies continued to be taught on campuses and championed by NGOs.
These imprisoned activists became symbols for commitment to the cause and the importance of direct action to bring about revolution. One such activist was convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur. Far Left activists commonly quote and praise Shakur, who escaped from prison in 1979 and was given asylum in Cuba.
While on the frontlines for the cause outside of prison, such activists are seen as the vanguard on the front of prison abolition, a tenet of many streams of modern Marxist ideology. Fredrich Engels asserted in The Condition of the Working Class in England that the social pressures of capitalist economic conditions demoralises the working-man, pushing him to adopt antisocial behaviors.
Karl Marx links criminality to disparity in Das Kapital, detailing how excess capital accumulation created a "dangerous class" in the "relative surplus population," and how feudal retainers were turned into robbers and vagabonds through expropriations. In his historical review of stripping property from peasants, Marx describes how peasants were impoverished and then criminalized for being poor.
Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin wrote in The State and Revolution how the state placed itself above the people with institutions of coercion like prisons.
Some streams of Marxism have exegetically built upon the principles in these gospels, and the result can be seen in the 2021 Party for Socialism and Liberation lecture on prison abolition. Criminals are explained to be products of their environment, victims of a class structure that criminalizes in order to oppress.
Crime comes from disparity, so if disparity is resolved through communism then there will be no violent crime like robbery, PSL founding member Eugene Puryear explained.
Prison is therefore not a societal necessity, but a tool maintaining state of oppression, with PSL organizer Rachel Domond explaining in the lecture how 1960s-80s activists from organizations "antagonistic to the Capitalist US government" were curtailed through an expansion of prison systems and enhanced punitive measures.
"Activists were turned into political prisoners, criminalized as a result of their tireless struggle for political and economic freedom," said Domond.
With the doctrinal hatred for prisons, it is no wonder that campaigns for the release of imprisoned far Left domestic terrorists became so important among far Left radicals. Campaigns have pushed for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal since his conviction for murdering a police officer in the 1980s.
Yet for all the glorification of these saints of revolutionary violence, few have followed in their path. The same imprisoned icons have been worshipped since the 1980s. Abu-Jamal was a guest speaker at the Detroit People's Conference for Palestine in August.
Shakur is still the stale source for activist quotes, be it at the previous year's Detroit conference, or when a City College of New York protest rallying cry in April, or in Columbia University Apartheid Divest chants last September.
Far Left 'political prisoners'
The only new prisoner heroes were abroad, in the form of the Palestinian movement. Marxist-Leninist terrorist groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine exported the stories of Palestinian "political prisoners" to far Left American audiences.
"The US state isn't the only state to hold political prisoners. We would be remiss if we failed to mention that illegitimate state of Israel, its occupation of Palestine, and the thousands of Palestinian freedom fighters who have been locked behind bars for largely the same reasons of those who have fought here in the United States," Domond said in the 2021 PSL lecture.
PFLP terrorist Walid Daqqah has become cited by far Left activists as much as Shakur, with PSL, International League of Peoples' Struggle, and the Workers World Party engaging in calls for his release when he still lived.
Dozens of socialist groups signed a Palestinian Youth Movement petition for his release. Lebanese terrorist and PFLP affiliate Georges Abdallah had also captured the imagination of many socialists, up until his release from a French prison this year.
According to Workers World, PFLP proxy Samidoun NY/NJ coordinator Laila Boutros quoted imprisoned PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat at a 2021 Philadelphia rally calling for the release of Abu-Jamal, stating “Whether the name is Mumia Abu-Jamal, Walid Daqqah or Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, political prisoners behind bars can and must be a priority for our movements."
"These names illustrate the continuity of struggle against our collective enemy - their legacies of organizing that reach back to the anti-colonial liberation movements of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, to today," Bourtros continued. "Political prisoners are not simply individuals; they are leaders of struggle and organizing.”
Framing of Gaza Strip as 'open-air prison'
The Palestinian cause has been important to radical socialist activists, but with the October 7 Massacre, the cause seems to resonate even further. Socialists embraced the framing of Gaza as an "open-air prison."
Revolutionary Communist International called the Hamas-ruled territory as such on October 11, and an October 9 Socialist Worker article framed Palestinians as tearing "down the fences that imprison them."
Other far Left activists saw the October 7 Massacre as a bid to free "Palestinian political prisoners" from Israeli prisons. Communist social media influencer Black Red Guard said in November 2023 that Palestinian terrorists released in a ransom for hostages captured by Hamas was the "fruit of the armed struggle."
An X user claiming to be associated with the Democratic Socialists of America said a month later that October 7 "was designed to embarrass the IDF and capture hostages for prisoner exchange."
The resonance of October 7 and the ensuing war seemed to rally the dormant Marxist martyr-complex. Since 2023, there has been a surge in anti-Israel domestic terrorism, and with this, a new generation of martyrs for the anti-American revolutionary cause have arisen.
On Tuesday, anti-Israel serial arsonist Casey Goonan was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for fire bombings in California. Last June, Jewish Voice for Peace Columbia, Students for Justice in Palestine Columbia, and CUAD, issued a statement of support for Goonan, calling his actions brave.
When Columbia student activists attended a Manhattan court proceeding for their alleged involvement in the occupation of their university's Hamilton Hall, two of their number wore shirts calling for Goonan's release. Workshops for Gaza call on Instagram for others to emulate Casey Goonan.
Also on Tuesday, Within Our Lifetime protested outside the UK diplomatic mission in New York City to demand the release of "political prisoner" Tueta Hoxha. The UK Palestine Action activist allegedly was involved in an incident in which Elbit UK’s South Gloucestershire Horizon facility was breached with a van and a security guard, and two Bristol Police officers were wounded by activists armed with sledgehammers, whips, and other homemade weapons.
Hoxha became a symbol of the crackdown on the political vandalism group Palestine Action with her hunger strike demanding the return of prison privileges. At the People's Conference for Palestine in August, the emcee called for her release.
Chapters of SJP and Pal-Awda have launched a campaign calling for the freedom of student activist Tarek Bazrouk, with some groups signing a mitigation letter to send to the court. Bazrouk was charged with federal hate crimes in May for three separate assaults of NYC Jews. While wearing a Hamas headband, said the DOJ, Bazrouk lunged at pro-Israel protesters last April.
As was being arrested, he kicked a Jewish college student in the stomach. In December, Bazrouk stole an Israeli flag from another student, and when the student followed to retrieve it, the suspect snuck up beside him and punched him in the face.
A month later, Bazrouk punched another pro-Israel protester in the nose. A search of his phone revealed pro-Hamas propaganda and evidence of his antisemitic bias, identifying himself as a "Jew hater" who called on God to get rid of Jews.
In a September 14 interview with anti-Israel activist Richard Medhurst, Georges Abdallah called for more actions like that of alleged Washington shooter Elias Rodriguez.
Rodriguez allegedly murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in May. Palestine Action US co-founder and former DSA delegate Calla Walsh shared the call to action.
The rebranded Palestine Action branch, Unity of Fields, signed a petition in support of Rodriguez's release alongside Bronx Anti-War Coalition, DSA Liberation Caucus, Kansas Socialist Bookclub, and other far Left groups.
It is not simply that there is more pro-domestic terrorist rhetoric or more attacks, an entire culture of violent hero worship has been revived in the last two years.
Domestic terrorists like Goonan or Rodriguez aren't just committing attacks, they've become new radical champions that will be revered and prayed to with prison letters for decades to come. While Luigi Mangione or Charlie Kirk's alleged murderer are unrelated to the anti-Israel movement, the hagiographies of anti-Israel activists resurrected a dormant sentiment in the US that paved the way for their own cult followings.
Murderers are icons again, and if they inspire like their mid-20th century counterparts, there should be concern that they won't be alone for long.