freedom fighters
Armed resistance members
Freedom fighters are people engaged in armed resistance against an occupying force or oppressive government.
The term carries positive connotations—one side's freedom fighters are typically the other's terrorists or rebels.
The label depends entirely on political perspective: Reagan called the Contras freedom fighters; critics called them death squads.
The phrase implies the cause is just and the violence defensive.
- revolutionariesThose seeking systemic overthrow
- rebelAuthority defier
- rebel forcesArmed anti-government combatants
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- underground movementSecret organized opposition
liberation · national liberation · Pan-Africanism · abolitionists · self-determination · militant · people's army · emancipation · independence · decolonization · indigenous leaders · national heroes · insurrectionists · patriots · activist · struggle · martyrs · civil disobedience
- Americanspresidents, senators, governors, generals, authors
- Philippine historypresidents, Spanish rule, vice president, revolutionaries, Imelda
- African IndependenceNelson Mandela, independence movement, national liberation, anti-colonial, armed struggle
- Filipino Heroesnational heroes, revolutionaries, patriots, revolutionary leaders, revolutionary figures
- Greek Independenceuprising, Greek War of Independence, liberation struggle, revolt, revolutionaries
- revolutionariesrevolutionaries, revolutionary, rebel, rebels, Lenin
freedom fighterscolonial forces
Soldiers of occupying power
oppressors · death squads · secret police · imperial troops · government forces
freedom fightersterrorists
Those using violence politically
extremists · insurgents · radicals · militants · seditionists
freedom fightersoppressors
Those who subjugate others
tyrants · colonizers · occupiers · enslavers · dictators
free, freedom, freeing, freer, freedoms, freest, fighters, emancipate, freedom fighter