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The Golden Dawn are taking over Athens

Started by Cain, October 01, 2012, 03:54:17 PM

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Cain

OK, this is just the latest in a number of disturbing things I am hearing out of Athens

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/28/greek-police-victims-neo-nazi?CMP=twt_gu

QuoteGreece's far-right Golden Dawn party is increasingly assuming the role of law enforcement officers on the streets of the bankrupt country, with mounting evidence that Athenians are being openly directed by police to seek help from the neo-Nazi group, analysts, activists and lawyers say.

In return, a growing number of Greek crime victims have come to see the party, whose symbol bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika, as a "protector".

One victim of crime, an eloquent US-trained civil servant, told the Guardian of her family's shock at being referred to the party when her mother recently called the police following an incident involving Albanian immigrants in their downtown apartment block.

"They immediately said if it's an issue with immigrants go to Golden Dawn," said the 38-year-old, who fearing for her job and safety, spoke only on condition of anonymity. "We don't condone Golden Dawn but there is an acute social problem that has come with the breakdown of feeling of security among lower and middle class people in the urban centre," she said. "If the police and official mechanism can't deliver and there is no recourse to justice, then you have to turn to other maverick solutions."

Other Greeks with similar experiences said the far-rightists, catapulted into parliament on a ticket of tackling "immigrant scum" were simply doing the job of a defunct state that had left a growing number feeling overwhelmed by a "sense of powerlessness". "Nature hates vacuums and Golden Dawn is just filling a vacuum that no other party is addressing," one woman lamented. "It gives 'little people' a sense that they can survive, that they are safe in their own homes."

Far from being tamed, parliamentary legitimacy appears only to have emboldened the extremists. In recent weeks racially-motivated attacks have proliferated. Immigrants have spoken of their fear of roaming the streets at night following a spate of attacks by black-clad men on motorbikes. Street vendors from Africa and Asia have also been targeted.

Make no mistake, the Golden Dawn is an outright fascist organization, despite the Guardian dancing around it with the "flag that resembles a swastika" hinting bullshit.

Half of the Athens police force voted for the Golden Dawn, so their sympathy for the group is obvious.  The Golden Dawn are also buying up sympathy by distributing food to the poor (so long as they can prove they are Greek) and providing general security on the streets, both from rioting anarchists and leftists and from "immigrant crime" (real or imagined).

Less publically, but still acknowledged, are the night-time armed attacks, beatdowns and murders of the same above enemies of the party.  The Greek state, fearful of political instability, seems to be content to let the Golden Dawn take care of the left, and seems to hope that public opinion will take care of any popularity the Golden Dawn might accrue.

Except, of course, it's not working.  Because the Golden Dawn are thriving off the chaos they are creating through their actions, creating a self-sustaining loop of insecurity and violence which feeds into their political ambitions while giving their group greater cohesion and paramilitary experience.

Unlike other "Eurofascist" parties, the Greek fascists are old school.  It's jackboots on the streets and the physical elimination of enemies.  And with the EU pushing for more and more cuts, because it believes the demented idea that austerity cannot fail (it can only be failed), the Greek state is going to continue to fall apart and rely on paramilitary groups to maintain order. 

Juana

Is their popularity limited to Athens proper or does the rest of the country feel largely the same way?
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Nephew Twiddleton

Any chance of this spreading? What would the consequences of a fascist greece be?
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
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Phox


Cain

The Golden Dawn came fifth in the last elections, but according to current polls, they are in third place.  I believe their organizational and membership base is chiefly located in Thessaloniki.  In addition to being Greece's second largest city, it is also a hub for Greek foreign trade, immigration and foreign students.  However, they don't seem to have the same institutional arrangement with the police there as they do in Athens.

The consequences of a fascist Greece would be...well, probably civil war.  Fascists have taken over Greece twice before, and each time they were defied by military means.  A fascist Greece would also likely pull out of the Eurozone, as the Golden Dawn reject austerity plans as much as any Greek party (not to mention the open borders the EU insists upon).  And god only knows what the consequence of that would be.

Phox

Cain, do you know of any similar parties elsewhere that might be able to gain ground in the future, or does this seem to be a phenomenon isolated to Greece (so far, anyway)? 

Cain

Most Eurofascist parties are not as violent as the Golden Dawn, and thankfully the economic crisis is not as bad in other countries as it is in Greece right now.

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Nephew Twiddleton

I dont understand the appeal of fascism especially where if you ignore the fact that fascism is inherently xenophobic violent and about as unfree as you can get its a really inefficient system of government headed by one guy who is invariably paranoid.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Faust

Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on October 01, 2012, 10:12:39 PM
I dont understand the appeal of fascism especially where if you ignore the fact that fascism is inherently xenophobic violent and about as unfree as you can get its a really inefficient system of government headed by one guy who is invariably paranoid.

The country as a whole feels fucked over by corrupt politicians and the rest of the EU at large. Maybe it's naive of me to a make a comparison between the reparations of Germany leading in to world war II and the austerity of the EU IMF but it seems to have a lot in common.
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Elder Iptuous

that's what i've been thinking.  it seems like a national 'shaming' is not such a great idea, and that's what appears to be going on.

who's the personality focus in the GD, Cain? Does Michaloliakos  get them all worked up?

Internet Jesus

Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on October 01, 2012, 10:12:39 PM
I dont understand the appeal of fascism especially where if you ignore the fact that fascism is inherently xenophobic violent and about as unfree as you can get its a really inefficient system of government headed by one guy who is invariably paranoid.

When you've been fucked over by nameless bureaucrats and faceless politicians, the urge to turn everything over to one guy can sometimes seem sane.
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hunter s.durden

I am excited by this. Putin is not doing shit toward a new Cold War and Islamic Terror is so last decade. A fascist party with a name like that is some old school European shit that I've never really gotten to see live.

Bring on the lulz  :horrormirth:

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Nephew Twiddleton

Quote from: Internet Jesus on October 02, 2012, 03:46:34 AM
Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on October 01, 2012, 10:12:39 PM
I dont understand the appeal of fascism especially where if you ignore the fact that fascism is inherently xenophobic violent and about as unfree as you can get its a really inefficient system of government headed by one guy who is invariably paranoid.

When you've been fucked over by nameless bureaucrats and faceless politicians, the urge to turn everything over to one guy can sometimes seem sane.

Unless you're a historian.

Twid,
as of right now, still a historian in training, even though that's going to change.
Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

Internet Jesus

Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on October 02, 2012, 04:48:01 AM
Quote from: Internet Jesus on October 02, 2012, 03:46:34 AM
Quote from: Nephew Twiddleton on October 01, 2012, 10:12:39 PM
I dont understand the appeal of fascism especially where if you ignore the fact that fascism is inherently xenophobic violent and about as unfree as you can get its a really inefficient system of government headed by one guy who is invariably paranoid.

When you've been fucked over by nameless bureaucrats and faceless politicians, the urge to turn everything over to one guy can sometimes seem sane.

Unless you're a historian.

Twid,
as of right now, still a historian in training, even though that's going to change.

We've been falling for personality cults since at least the Gracchi.  IMO it's part of how we're programmed to be social.

And really, how many folks do you know that seriously learn from History?
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