Pesmerga posted:

"The Guardian posted:

Greeks protest against Golden Dawn attack on Communists

Thousands of Greeks took to the streets of Athens on Friday to protest against a violent attack on Communist party members by black-shirted supporters of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party which left nine people in hospital with serious injuries.

In what was described as a murderous attack – and the most serious violence since the extremist group was elected to the country's parliament last year – about 50 men wielding crowbars and bats set upon leftists as they distributed posters in a working-class district of the capital late on Thursday.

In a statement KKE, the Communist party of Greece, said: "The way in which they acted and the weapons employed … are evidence of the murderous nature of the attack. Among the Golden Dawners, some of whom had covered their faces or wore helmets or [party] shirts, were their leaders, well-known fascists and thugs."

With the Communist party preparing to stage a youth festival in the coming days, Thursday's midnight assault comes amid mounting fears that the far right is trying to cultivate an atmosphere of civil war in Greece. Prominent members of the virulently anti-immigrant Golden Dawn have openly predicted that the debt-stricken country is heading towards civil war.

Dimitris Psarras, a writer who has chronicled Golden Dawn's rise over almost four decades since the collapse of military rule, said: "Their agenda, clearly, is to create a climate of civil war, a divide where people have to choose between leftists and rightists."

Psarras argues the attack in the dock-side district of Perama – a Communist stronghold where Golden Dawn has made considerable inroads in recent years on the back of anger over austerity measures – was indicative of that strategy.

"It was very well organised and the most serious incident yet," he told the Guardian. "They are no longer only targeting immigrants in the middle of the night. They are deliberately increasing tensions, expanding their agenda of hate, by going for leftists."

Earlier this year, the Muslim Association of Greece received a letter bearing the insignia of the group and an implicit threat that its members would be "slaughtered like chickens" unless they left the country. Marking the anniversary of the September 11 attacks this week, the party posted a vehemently antisemitic diatribe on its website denouncing "world Zionism [as] the architect of global terrorism".

Greece, whose political faultlines were entrenched by a bloody civil war in the wake of brutal Nazi occupation, is mired in a sixth year of recession that has seen poverty and unemployment soar as it navigates its worst crisis in modern times.

Recent opinion polls have shown that no other party has managed to capitalise on the growing levels of desperation and despair as effectively as Golden Dawn.

Surveys released by the pollsters Public Issue and Pulse in recent days confirmed that the extremists – who recently blasted people attending a "Greeks only" food handout with the official anthem of Nazi Germany – were the nation's fastest growing group and, at 13% and 15% respectively, its third biggest political force.

The main opposition party, the radical left Syriza, topped the ratings with 29% of support, marginally ahead of prime minister Antonis Samaras's centre-right New Democracy party. Many worry that Golden Dawn, which won 18 seats with almost 7% of the vote last June, will further boost its share of votes when local elections are held next year.

According to analysts, Thursday's attack demonstrates Golden Dawn's growing self-confidence and ability to spread its appeal. They point to the inroads the party is making into middle-class neighbourhoods of Athens.

With prominent clerics also voicing support for the group, commentators have begun to ask whether the ruling conservatives should join forces with Golden Dawn, whose views on issues of public order are strikingly similar.

"It is a particularly worrying turn of events that we should now have a debate suggesting that Golden Dawn be brought in from the cold," Psarras said. "Talk that it should end its isolation and link up with New Democracy is dangerous at a time when Greece is going from bad to worse."

Mainstream political parties – like foreign embassies – currently have no official contacts with Golden Dawn.

Leftists rallying near the spot where the attack took place called on authorities on Friday to "finally take action" and "erase" the fascist group.

Pesmerga posted:

Here is the latest from Greece: -


History is repeating itself. Conservative groupings suggesting alliances with them because they have more similarities than differences (probably mistakenly believing they can control them, as these parties are wont to believe), members of the clergy openly supporting them...this is seriously scary stuff.

Orange Devil posted:

This is why we should burn all the loving churches.

my dad posted:

That's just what Greece needs. An angry Dutchman with a torch. Will you at least let the religious Greeks leave, or do you intend to lock them up inside a church and just torch them all?

Pesmerga posted:

Here is the latest from Greece: -


History is repeating itself. Conservative groupings suggesting alliances with them because they have more similarities than differences (probably mistakenly believing they can control them, as these parties are wont to believe), members of the clergy openly supporting them...this is seriously scary stuff.

Pesmerga posted:

History is repeating itself. Conservative groupings suggesting alliances with them because they have more similarities than differences (probably mistakenly believing they can control them, as these parties are wont to believe), members of the clergy openly supporting them...this is seriously scary stuff.

Pesmerga posted:

Incidentally, does anyone know of any academic papers on the link between austerity and the rise of extreme right movements?

Fojar38 posted:

If the Golden Dawn actually starts a civil war I wonder if Greece could invoke Article V?

Rogue0071 posted:

I'm not sure the fascists will need the support, they've already got the police on their side.

Fojar38 posted:

I meant against the fascists. I can't see NATO assisting fascists.

Rogue0071 posted:

You might want to read about the last Greek civil war, then.

Fojar38 posted:

Ehh, not quite the same as Greece is now a NATO member and there isn't any Soviet spectre hanging over Eastern Europe. Plus I'm disinclined to call the nationalists "fascists." The only ones who used that term were their far-left enemies.

Rogue0071 posted:

If the situation in Greece was to degenerate to the point of civil war, it wouldn't be Golden Dawn against everyone else including the government. It would be Golden Dawn, most of the bourgeois parties, and large sections if not the entirety of the government against the leftists and maybe a few liberals. Do you really think NATO would intervene in favor of the leftists?

Emden posted:

I think you're definitely overestimating GD's position. I mean, "the entirety of the government"? Come on. If that was the case they'd already be in power. And while I doubt anyone is going to give support to Greek commies, I'm sure NATO would help some centrist party. Why not some liberals? They'd go along with austerity, pay back the debt, etc.

The Cold War's over. There's no point in helping nationalists when they don't serve any greater purpose like defending against Communism.

Rogue0071 posted:

If the situation in Greece was to degenerate to the point of civil war

fatherboxx posted:

The 8th of September was a "united election day": a number of mayors, regional and municipal councils got elected. As usual, Putin's United Russia won pretty much everywhere, most importantly, at Moscow Mayor Election - to much disappointment of "non-systemic" liberal opposition. The curious exception is Ekatirenburg ("Capital of The Urals"), where the mayoral elections ended with the victory of Evgeni Roisman, a representative of Civil Platform - political party founded by Mikhail Prokhorov (billionaire, owner of Brooklyn Nets among other things).


"Smoking marijuana is the first sign of male homosexuality" - mayor of a 1,3m Russian city

Roisman is the leader of City Without Drugs - a controversial organisation that routinely uses vigilante tactics in its activities. Such activities as:
1) Raids on crackhouses; akin to the fancy neonazi gents in OP, thugs go into CWD to "legally" punch addicts and low-rent pushers, preferably of non-Russian nationality. Of course, Russia had not lived through any kind of state-funded War on Drugs, so people genuinely believe that such actions will clean up the cities.
2) More interesting stuff - forceful rehabilitation. CWD has several centers that completely reject replacement therapy and medical methods in general. Employing same kind of thugs that go into raids, centers round up addicts from crackhouses and those that are dumped by their families (who obviously can't afford actual rehab). Treatment consists of beatings, starvation and handcuffing during withdrawals. In his interviews, Roisman doesn't make a difference between drug traders and drug addicts - they are evil scum that needs to be punished and cleaned away from the society.

Roisman served time in the 80s for robbing women that he seduced; his lieutenants have juicier biographies: rape, murder, hate crimes. The folk hero does not deny that he got help at starting his business from Uralmash - Ekatirenburg crime syndicate that operated in the 90s.

So here you go - in the dire economy and the abscence of competent policework, power fetishism takes place and ultra-right ringleader gets elected against fierceful resistance of the ruling party.

OwlBot 2000 posted:

Roisman is almost certainly a Jewish name (though he may have converted to Christianity, like Zhirinovsky), odd that he'd be popular with Nazis. Then again, don't go looking for logic on the ultra-right.

Edit: Yep, some Nazi groups say he's "The right kind of Jew" because he "demolished" Gypsy homes. Wow.

OwlBot 2000 posted:

Roisman sounds to be a Jewish name (though he may have converted, like Zhirinovsky), odd that he'd be popular with Nazis. Then again, don't go looking for logic on the ultra-right.

Edit: Yep, some Nazi groups say he's "The right kind of Jew" because he "demolished" Gypsy homes. Wow.

OwlBot 2000 posted:

Roisman sounds to be a Jewish name (though he may have converted, like Zhirinovsky), odd that he'd be popular with Nazis. Then again, don't go looking for logic on the ultra-right.

Edit: Yep, some Nazi groups say he's "The right kind of Jew" because he "demolished" Gypsy homes. Wow.

Leonidas Oikonomakis, in ROARMAG.org posted:

For Pavlos: the antifa rapper killed by Golden Dawn

Last night, Greek activist and artist Pavlos Fyssas was stabbed to death by a gang of neo-Nazi thugs. Leonidas Oikonomakis pays tribute to his friend.

Eyewitness reports on Pavlos’ murder are available here.

For Pavlos,

I still remember the last concert we gave in Athens as Social Waste back in 2005. It took place at the legendary “An Club” in Exarchia and we shared the stage with Rhymeshot, the new band at the time of Killah P.

– “We are not ready Pavlo, we’d better not perform, we haven’t done rehearsals for a long time.”

– “No, no! In our first concert I want you guys there! C’mon!”

At the time Pavlos was 26 years old, and I was 23. We had met at Freestyle Productions, a socio-political hip-hop production team that was formed around Active Member, the country’s biggest hip-hop band. As we shared similar political beliefs and respect for each other we became friends, and we remained so even after we both left Freestyle Productions.

Pavlos was from a working class suburb of Piraeus and, like all the kids born and raised there, he was a fan of Olympiakos (“..and Proodeftiki!” he would add!) — another thing we had in common and that brought us close. I remember we always used to hang out in the demonstrations being organized in Athens and elsewhere at the time, often marching together in the same formation. Pavlos was always present in the social struggles of his time and his generation, and he tried to contribute to them through his music and lyrics as well.

Time passed. I left Greece and now when I return I very rarely spend time in Athens. We lost contact but I was always learning his news from common friends. I heard he had opened up a small taverna in his neighborhood and I kept following his songs and activities from abroad.

And last night, after watching the game of my — and Pavlos’ — favorite team over the Internet, I kept browsing the web when the news came up: “Antifascist stabbed by neo-Nazis in Amfiali. It all took place after the game of Olympiakos-PSG”. I kept following the thread as the news slowly kept coming in, and then I read it:

“The antifascist young man is dead. His name was Pavlos Fissas, known in the hip hop circles as Killah P…

I froze.

I don’t even know why I am writing these lines right now… Or maybe I do know. Because a young man died tonight, a young man who happened to be a friend of mine, stabbed to death by a neo-Nazi squad whose members today are inside the Greek Parliament and who seem to be enjoying great popular support. And all this has a reason: the rise of fascism in Greece is a direct result of the austerity policies that have driven the people here into extreme levels of poverty, marginalization and insecurity, providing fertile ground for the neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn who promise them national glory in place for economic security.

The neoliberal austerity policies that have brought Greece to this condition are being imposed by the Troika of foreign lenders: the ECB, the IMF, and the EU, and implemented by the servile government of this country.

Both the Troika and the Greek government have chosen to turn a blind eye to the murderous actions of Golden Dawn. They know about it — it’s not that they don’t. But as long as the austerity measures are voted through Parliament and the debt is repaid, the Troika is happy. At the same time, Antonis Samaras’ ruling right-wing party views Golden Dawn supporters as “their own people”, and even the Prime Minister himself regularly adopts Golden Dawn’s hate speech, especially when it comes to matters of immigration.

None of this is new. It has been going on for three years now while the social and economic conditions in the country steadily worsen, sending more and more people into the violent arms of Golden Dawn. Neither is Pavlos the only victim of this murderous squad. Just one year ago, a 27-year-old Pakistani immigrant Shehzad Luqman was also stabbed to death by these neo-Nazis, while numerous others have been seriously injured in the past years. And the police — many of whom are Golden Dawn supporters — are turning a blind eye as well. Now, after the immigrants’, it was Pavlos’ turn. And tomorrow? Whose will it be?

And how much longer will you be turning a blind eye?

Goodbye Pavlo.

And be sure… No Pasaran!

Leonidas from Social Waste

ROARMAG.org posted:

A report by Pavlos’ father (via Occupied London):

Pavlos’ friends made a remark against Golden Dawn inside a café where they were watching a football match. Somebody from a nearby table overheard them and made a phone call to Golden Dawn members. Golden Dawn squads arrived almost simultaneously with DIAS motorbike police. Pavlos tried to help his friends evade the scene, but he was ambushed by another Golden Dawn squad and surrounded. Then another Golden Dawn associate drove with his car opposite in an one-way street, stopped and stabbed him to death, while the DIAS policemen did not intervene. One girl asked them to help but they didn’t. They only approached afterwards to arrest the man with the main suspect.

From eye-witness report (via Indymedia Athens):

Around 24:00 a group of 15-20 fascists, wearing black T-shirts and military pants and boots, was deployed on P. Tsaldari street. During that time, Pavlos (a.k.a. Killah P) was walking with his girlfriend and another couple when he was spotted by the fascists shouting “what are you looking for here, you know there is no place for you in this hood”. The fascists hunted the two couples down P. Tsaldari street towards Gr. Lampraki avenue, where from another street, a new group of around 10 fascists came out and surrounded the guys. At that time, a car drove opposite in an one-way street, stopped, the driver came out and stabbed Killah P once in the heart and once in the abdomen (the stabbing on his abdomen had an upside-down “L” shape).

The whole scene took place in the presence of DIAS motorbike police, who only afterwards and only as soon as most of the fascists had already dispersed, arrested the murderer (according to some witnesses Killah P, while still in shock, kept pointing at the murderer and this is how the cops arrested him — a 55-year-old holding a knife, described by other eye-witnesses as a known Golden Down associate). The ambulance took 35 minutes to arrive and Pavlos was pronounced dead at Nikaia general hospital.”

A call for a gathering on the spot of his assassination was made for today, Wednesday 18:00, on 60, P. Tsaldari street (from Athens, via public bus B18 from Ralli-Salaminas, or Γ18 from Gr. Lampraki, from Piraeus via public bus 824 or 826). There are also calls for demonstrations in Thessaloniki: 10:00 in the teachers demo, 16:00 in Physics dept. in AUTH university campus, 18:00 demonstration from “Kamara” on Egnatia street. In Mytilene, Lesbos island, 18:00 on Sappho square, in Patras, 10:00 on Olga square, in Larissa 10:00 in the 1rst Lyceum and 10:30 in the teachers’ demo, in Komotini and many other towns there also demos on 18:00.

It is hardly surprising that the Greek police once again did nothing to prevent Golden Dawn’s fascist violence (Golden Dawn is largely supported by the Greek capitalists, the government and the church, as a willful thug against militants, workers and the poor, and more than half of the police vote for this openly neo-Nazi party) if not actively participating in or covering the organisation of what looks as a death trap for a well-known radical, member of the metalworkers union and antifa hip-hop artist in a working class district, near the spot where a few days ago eight members of the communist party (KKE) were also brutally assaulted by Golden Dawn neo-Nazis.

The silence of the mass media, which are kept alive with the government’s vast loans and benefits, is hardly surprising. They either decided to describe the assassination as a “fight after an argument about football” or not to mention it at all. They are the same mass media that promote every misanthropic Golden Dawn activity as an “opposition to the system’s flaws”, and lately as a realistic government partner for the future. They are of course the voice of their owners, the same few families of capitalists, owners of a shitload of tanker ships, banks and hotels that support the right-wing government and its thuggish little counterpart on the streets, the Golden Dawn, in what they see as a Golden opportunity to get rid of workers’ rights and turn Greece into a proper labor camp under the nationalist and religious kitsch.

It is worth noticing that this is a hard time for the government and their nazi counterparts, as even after their full scale assault on anarchists, squatters, and workers’ struggles, the movements seems to find again its momentum, with the current struggles of the teachers, the hospital workers, and so on.

Tias posted:

And yet the only organization to be charged with terrorism is the antifascist organization Keerfas. I guess they'll stop killing people if we just give them a cross enough reprimand, eh?

Amnesty International posted:

The Greek authorities must do everything in their power to prevent further politically motivated violence after a far-right supporter killed a musician and anti-fascist activist in the capital Athens this morning, Amnesty International said.

Pavlos Fyssas – 34 and well-known for his anti-fascist views – was stabbed to death early on Wednesday. Police said that eyewitnesses identified his attacker, who was arrested at the scene – the 45-year-old man, who said he is a member of the far-right political party Golden Dawn, has reportedly confessed to the crime.

Golden Dawn has denied any involvement in the attack but the police moved to search some of the party’s offices. Several demonstrations are due to take place this evening to protest against the murder of Pavlos Fyssas.

“Politically motivated violence of this kind is unacceptable anywhere, and history has shown the grim consequences if it goes unchecked. The Greek authorities must send a clear message that attacks like this will not be tolerated, and the individual or individuals responsible must be brought to justice,” said Jezerca Tigani, Deputy Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed concerns over how intolerance and violence have been on the rise in recent years – manifesting themselves in public acts of xenophobia and racism, which have been met with a weak response by the authorities.

“The Greek authorities must stem this dangerous tide before it leads to further human rights abuses, which pose a serious threat to individuals’ safety and ability to exercise their right to freedom of expression. People must be able to express their political beliefs without fear of physical violence.”

Just before his death, Pavlos Fyssas had reportedly had a verbal dispute in an Athens bar on Tuesday evening. Upon leaving the bar, he and his friends were ambushed, reportedly by a group of far-right extremists.

According to eyewitnesses, between 15 and 20 people were involved in the ambush, many of them wearing black t-shirts and military-style trousers – similar to the clothing worn by Golden Dawn supporters. The police said the 45-year-old perpetrator arrived at the scene a few moments later brandishing a knife, which he used to kill Fyssas.

The killing occurred after several years of austerity measures in Greece amid a serious economic crisis. Far-right views like those espoused by Golden Dawn have also gained support during this time – the party currently has 18 seats in the Greek Parliament.

Last week, Golden Dawn supporters reportedly attacked a group of Greek Communist Party members, leaving eight people injured and in need of medical treatment. Attacks against migrants and refugees in the country have also been on the rise in the past two years, with some resulting in fatalities.

“This surge in xenophobia, intolerance and politically motivated attacks in Greece is truly chilling – the authorities must act now to prevent such violence from spreading before it gets out of hand,” said Jezerca Tigani.

quote:

The Greek government has hinted that it will seek to ban Golden Dawn after the far-right party was linked to the murder of a leading leftwing musician in Athens.

As violence erupted on the streets and demonstrators protested after the fatal stabbing of Pavlos Fyssas, a prominent anti-fascist, the public order minister, Nikos Dendias, cancelled a trip abroad saying the government would table emergency legislation that would seek to outlaw the group.

Amid renewed political tensions between the extreme left and right, the new law would re-evaluate what constituted a criminal gang, he said.

"Neither the state will tolerate, nor society accept, acts and practices that undermine the legal system," the minister told reporters, adding that the attack showed "in the clearest way the [party's] intentions".

Earlier in the day, police raided Golden Dawn offices across the country, with media reporting running street battles outside branches in Crete, Thessaloniki and Patras.

a bad enough dude posted:

Greek gov is moving to ban Golden Dawn.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/18/greece-ban-golden-dawn-pavlos-fyssas

my dad posted:

loving finally. I just hope they'll be able to round up Golden Dawn's leaders before they start getting funny ideas about fighting back in an organized manner.

Captain_Maclaine posted:

I know this is childish of me and wishing for more violence isn't exactly healthy, but there is a part of me that sorta wants those bastards to try to fight it out and (optimally) be the ones crushed under the boot-heel for a change.

ekuNNN posted:

Greek rapper and anti-fascist Pavlos Fyssas was stabbed to death yesterday by Golden Dawn members.
According to his father:

quote:

Pavlos’ friends made a remark against Golden Dawn inside a café where they were watching a football match. Somebody from a nearby table overheard them and made a phone call to Golden Dawn members. Golden Dawn squads arrived almost simultaneously with DIAS motorbike police. Pavlos tried to help his friends evade the scene, but he was ambushed by another Golden Dawn squad and surrounded. Then another Golden Dawn associate drove with his car opposite in an one-way street, stopped and stabbed him to death, while the DIAS policemen did not intervene. One girl [allegedly Pavlos' girlfriend] asked them to help but they didn’t. They only approached afterwards to arrest the man with the main suspect.

This is after this happened last week:

quote:

Thousands of Greeks took to the streets of Athens on Friday to protest against a violent attack on Communist party members by black-shirted supporters of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party which left nine people in hospital with serious injuries.

In what was described as a murderous attack – and the most serious violence since the extremist group was elected to the country's parliament last year – about 50 men wielding crowbars and bats set upon leftists as they distributed posters in a working-class district of the capital late on Thursday.

It seems the fascists in Greece are getting bolder. Here is an older picture of Golden Dawn hunting an immigrant in Greece:


This is happening at the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okdbGcdXh9Y

And this is the cops protecting the Golden Dawn headquarters earlier:


And thousands of people holding an anti-fascist demonstration at the site of the murder:

quote:

Speculation is rife that the leadership of Golden Dawn may have lost control over a party whose grassroots supporters view themselves as soldiers in an armed struggle aimed at overthrowing a political establishment they blame for the country's woes.

"It is up to the government now to deal with Golden Dawn once and for all," said Giorgos Kyrtsos, a prominent political commentator. "We know very little about the inner workings of Golden Dawn, and whether its leadership has lost control [over its members]. But what we do know is that, for the first time, the government has them in a corner."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/18/greece-ban-golden-dawn-pavlos-fyssas

Omi-Polari posted:

I'm also skeptical Golden Dawn higher-ups would have ordered it. This reads like a better theory:

I'm part of the non-Marxist brigade in this thread but I think we can all come together and hope Greece will smash Golden Dawn into the pavement.

Hodgepodge posted:

I'm going to be the pessimist and remind people that the Beer Hall Putz gave Hitler enough prison time to do a little writing...

Strudel Man posted:

Hitler was the Beer Hall Putz.

(You mean Putsch.)