The Far Right on the Rise
Published by deviousdiva February 21st, 2008 in Neo-nazi.From the IPS (Inter Press Service)
“Who are you with?” an excited fellow around 20 years old asked a journalist standing by, looking at riot police surrounding the main University of Athens building in downtown Athens.
Not receiving an answer he said, “I am from the Golden Dawn, and we keep an eye on journalists, because you are garbage.”
The Golden Dawn is a neo-Nazi group whose members have been involved in many violent attacks on migrants, leftist activists and anarchists. It is estimated to be a small group, but with many determined members among its ranks.
About the recent riots in the centre of Athens.
Some hours later, as clashes continued, video footage started circulating of riot policemen collaborating with members of the Golden Dawn, causing serious concern about the relations of police forces with fascist elements.
The police officially deny that riot police have joined forces with fascists, and blame the scale of violence on poor preparation on their side. The government says the police did nothing more than “stand between the two fronts.”
Will we ever know what REALLY happened ? I want to keep this discussion going because these issues tend to get buried very quickly.
Petros Tzomakos, a member of the Greek wing of Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE), who broke his hand during the clashes, sees things differently. “If in the past we could talk about police tolerating them, this time they clearly co-operated with the Golden Dawn. They backed them up while they assaulted people,” he told IPS.
“They worked together with a gang who exists at the expense of society, stabbing migrants and beating up people who look or think differently. We demand that policemen present in the incident are brought to the courts to explain themselves.”
I’ve been saying for a long time that we should act.
According to the YRE, fascists are becoming more active. They have been involved in 20 cases of assault over the last six months, attacking or intimidating political activists, damaging their organisations’ offices, and brutally beating and stabbing migrants from Pakistan, Morocco and Sudan.
“There is a serious boost in extreme right radicals’ confidence lately,” Tzomakos said. “Their ideological relatives are in the parliament for the first time (the extreme right Popular Orthodox Alarm), and they enjoy more support than before. We ought to face this before it is too late.”
Are we going to wait until it’s too late ? Really ? Do people have to die before we realise that there is a problem here ? Here in Greece ?
Read the full article here
Technorati: greece, golden dawn, neo-nazi, extremist, chryssi avgi, police, fascism
The problem is that the Greek state is completely dysfunctional, not under the control of the government, and they appear to have no strategy to deal with it. As is repeatedly mentioned in international reports, the criminal acts of state officials involved in border controls go unpunished, the corruption of state officials in dealing with everything from taxes to residence permits has been out of control in perpetuity, not a single Greek has a good word to say for the state…
So, my question would be: how is anything conceivably going to be done? It is almost 100% certain that no problem is going to be addressed until it is a near-disaster: Chryssi Avgi is nowhere near a disaster yet, so nobody will do anything. Until it is too late. This is Greece and the Greek approach to problem-solving [also known as ostrich-keeping].
Also known as “ohbrotherism” (Ωχαδελφισμός). It is true and the unfortunate thing is that the worst these things get, the more people turn to the extreme right and assume that a mentality of “back to tradition”, “it’s all the migrant’s fault” will make things better. This is the reason why the crypto-fascists of LAOS finally managed to enter the greek parliament.
Ah, to live in a “functional” state like Britain, which is clever enough to send its cranks packing to foreign lands.
Yes Hermes. This is the type of functionality Martin speaks of. Or would that be…”doesn’t speak of”?
The Telegraph
Diva, It looks like all the nationalists have taken over your site. With Cyngin, Against Comm, Herpes, and the various others, we are wondering what happened to the other posters.
Mr. Zardoz used to be great at helping defend the kind hearted people of Greece, as well as Ellas Devil, etc.
Where are all the non-nationalistic Greeks at?
I”m sending a radar out to them.
Zardoz, help we’re being overwhelmed…
Judging by John Z’s comments, who appears to have a stronger grasp of the mongrel races that populate what people call the British Isles, I think Martin is Welsh. Nevertheless, he is definitely not coping which is evidenced by his reflexive “peasant” and other comments which have become so tiresome, boring, unoriginal and lacking in any academic rigour of any sort. The campus is also awash with vicious rumours which I happen to think are a little unfair but the mob always take it a little too far.
As for the Far Right in Greece. Spare us. It really is a poor excuse for a Far Right compared to the institutionalised Far Right of our beautiful neighbour Turkey and the weirdo-criminal-Far-whatever up north in Albania and Kosovo. Also, if one was to aggregate the damage done to private and public property in Athens and Thessaloniki over the last 15 years I think the Far Left would come out on top by a mile. Why is there no mention of their imposition of their Fascist ideology on the poor law abiding citizens of Greece?
George asks:
Where are all the non-nationalistic Greeks at?
They are all busy ruining the country, George. Preparing to start riots. Swarming and attacking anyone who dares to disagree with them. You know; fun stuff like that.
Though it IS quite telling that George is unable to defend himself here without his friends. Clearly there is strength in mob numbers.
A short word to the wise; if you cannot defend your position without name calling or shouting down, then your position is embarrassingly weak and may not be worth what you think it is.
George and other normal people on this blog: I will not be posting here again. The foul-mouthed peasants who have taken over this blog are just too much to deal with. My original purpose when I started posting here was simply to offer serious scientific opinion, much of it derived from my privileged access to unpublished Greek state data. It had not even occurred to me that nasty little dwarfs would come here to make their snide personal remarks. I cannot spare the time and effort dealing with these petty racists: previously I have asked DD to censor the blog properly.
Unfortunately, many British people are too polite and just let Nazi types get away with murder. I learned that being polite to these people is disastrous: they know only the taste and smell of shit, and try to force it on everyone else. I have had enough of their foul stench.
Yeeeaaah right. Oh Martin! If you cannot stand a little heat from a few “peasants” and are unable to defend your bigoted self, be a man and just say so. No need to shroud it in anything else. Life is rarely as simple as your little academic echo chamber where you all form a a happy little circle jerk and congratulate each other on your “successes”. Convincing people who do not agree with you with logic, data, and honour is what creates greatness and changes the minds of the masses. Not being a condescending little snot who despises anyone who DARES disagree with you all the while calling everyone peasant, stupid, idiot, racist etc. Run off now and lick your wounds.
I have asked DD to censor the blog properly.
What else do people like Martin know how to do but to censor and oppress? If you do not agree with them then censoring, in all its forms, is what needs to be done. Who gives a crap about freedom of speech and thought? Martin is OK with word and thought crimes. Sheesh, what a loon. And HE is giving advice to people of power?
“The campus is also awash with vicious rumours which I happen to think are a little unfair but the mob always take it a little too far.”
Do tell more Legein! My spider-senses are tingling!
I’ve been browsing the blogs in Greece the last few weeks and found this one. It seems that Greeks love to argue and speak loud.
Living in Greece this last year I’ve observed some strange things with my wife’s family and Greeks in general in the neighborhood. For example, on Easter, my wife’s father and brother’s fight over who gets to eat the lamb brain.
And then my wife’s aunt forks the eyeball and chases me around with it, trying to get me to eat it, ’cause it’s gonna make me smart.
My wife has 27 first cousins. Just 27 first cousins alone! And the whole family is big and loud. And everybody is in each other’s lives and business. All the time! Like, you never just have a minute alone, just to think, ‘Cause we’re always together, just eating, eating, eating! The only other people they know are Greeks, ’cause Greeks marry Greeks to breed more Greeks, to be loud breeding Greek eaters.
My wife broke the mold when she married me…
God save us!
The far lest being fascists? You do realize that fascism is a far-right ideology right?
As for the left ruining the country, well, that would be difficult since they have never been in power and the country keeps getting shittier. The more right it gets, the shittier it gets as well so go figure…
Non-nationalistic Greeks?
What does that mean?
If we’re not nationalistic, then we are just European blub.
Maybe that’s the point of the EU: blur boundaries and turn us all into indistinguishable blub.
I won’t be blub.
[quote]I won’t be blub[/quote]
Right, so I guess you don’t really have any personality but rather use the “Greek archetype” to define yourself?
Chrysi Avgi and other groups like that…become more popular because the traditional main stream parties are not addressing the immigration disaster.
When any opposition regardless of how moderate is demonized as xenophobic or racist the discussion ends and then people become radicallized.
This is the problem with political correctness.. No open debate and discussion about peoples concerns about the new comers leads to all this..
I suppose to you my saying hey this is a small country of 10,000,000 this is too many people coming in now from too many countries with too many cultural dissimilarities you will dismiss this as racist..HATE.. when its just an observation that different cultures clash when they encounter each other…and assimilation works by having LOW immigration..
The problem is that most discussion about immigration is already framed as being about race. Chrysi Avgi are racist by their own definition. They are proud of being racist so it’s unfortunate that you use them as an example.
I will point out racism where I see it. And I see it in the far-right groups in this post because it is there. They are radical all by themselves. That has nothing to do with me “demonizing” them.