-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sid
Shniad
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 4:31 AM
Subject: Golden Dawn and the rise of fascism
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/19/golden-dawn-fascism-greece
*
*
The Guardian
19 June 2012* *
Golden Dawn and the rise of fascism
Fascists didn't suddenly multiply in Greece – their ideas gradually permeated
public consciousness. They will elsewhere, too* *
Spyros Marchetos*
The electoral take-off of Golden Dawn took Greece by surprise. In the space of
a few months it passed from insignificance to almost 7% of the national vote, a
percentage it maintained at the June elections, when the voters had been
properly apprised of its neo-Nazi character. This party now has a rather even
geographical spread and sex distribution, slightly higher among men and in
rightwing areas, and also a definite social basis – mainly small proprietors,
unemployed, members of the security forces, plus the criminal underworld.
Where did Golden Dawn come from? Is it a national phenomenon or does it portend a
European trend? Could similar parties rise in other societies ravaged by the economic
crisis? Certainly, it cannot be blamed on any "national" characteristics; If
anything, Greece was, together with Britain, one of the very few countries that did not
develop any mass fascist movement before the second world war.
Fascists did not suddenly multiply in Greece. Rather, extreme right ideas and
values gradually permeated public consciousness, and became mainstream in the
last 20 years. Then the troika (of the European commission, European Central
Bank and the IMF) imposed measures of violent pauperisation, and even created
widespread perceptions of decay and victimisation, and feelings of national
persecution and humiliation. All these, as the US historian Robert Paxton
argues in his magisterial Anatomy of Fascism, help fascism rise. Finally, when
the crisis stole the clientelist appeal of the ruling parties, many of their
voters turned towards those who professed openly what traditional politicians
only implied.
Golden Dawn appeared on the electoral radar in November 2011, when all the
other forces of the right participated in the unelected, and unloved,
government of a banker, Lucas Papademos. It projected an anti-systemic image,
but actually its objectives and practices were in harmony with those of
powerful Greek institutions. For example, immigrants were first demonised by
the state itself. They were interned, and their rights were cancelled in
practice. Bureaucrats failed to enforce protective labour legislation. The
police and the judiciary do not prosecute fascists under existing laws, which
are more or less adequate, and don't penalise racial attacks, antisemitism and
spreading of hate, all trademarks of Golden Dawn.
The rise of fascism also owes a lot to mainstream media. Effectively
unregulated by the state and owned by a few small Berlusconis, Greek television
channels have for decades been cultivating chauvinism, racism, sexism and
anti-immigrant hate. Now they habitually present Golden Dawn cadres as normal
people, explore their lighter side and even turn them into lifestyle icons or
tele-celebrities. They rarely discuss the violent crimes for which many of
these people have been accused or convicted.
Most worrying is the ease with which conservatives justify fascist actions. The recent
violent attack by Ilias Kasidiaris, a Golden Dawn deputy, on two leftwing women deputies,
broadcast live on national television, was hailed by many on the right, and proved a
vote-winner. The chief of New Democracy for northern Greece promptly declared that his
party and Golden Dawn were "sister organisations", without provoking any
criticism among his colleagues. Privileged strata and traditional politicians
increasingly see the cultivation of a fascist mass movement as a legitimate reply to the
advance of the left. In conditions of social dislocation and economic freefall, this may
have explosive consequences.
The left grievously underestimated this threat all these years, hoping that it
would evaporate by itself. Its leadership still has no strategy to counter the
spread of fascism. Syriza until recently took democratic normality for granted,
while the Communist party seems determined to repeat all the blunders of the
German communists that brought Hitler to power.
Both parties refused to mobilise when Golden Dawn, with the support of the
police, created a fief in a central Athens neighbourhood. Years of insouciance,
in which thousands of attacks against immigrants provoked few reactions, led to
deputies being beaten in front of the cameras. And even then, they refused to
call for mass mobilisation against the thugs. The perceived moral of the story
was that when fascists strike the left leadership, the latter shows a most
Christian meekness. This instils little enthusiasm in the rank-and-file, and
even less self-respect.
Hope comes mainly from the reaction of civil society. In recent weeks local
anti-fascist fronts have sprung up from below in many places, with scant
support from the official left. Mass anti-Nazi rallies, mobilising many
thousands of people, shook the principal cities of Greece. There is even talk
of self-defence groups, comprising locals and immigrants, that will fight
Golden Dawn in the streets and provide to all the security that the state now
offers to few.
The fascist advance in troika-dominated Greece was predicted by analysts. The
factors that fuelled it exist in other societies too. In eurozone countries
falling victim to the debt crisis, fascism will return to the fore. It has
dynamics weaker than in the 1930s, but it is dangerous again. European elites
have been playing with fire for too long. Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel,
succeeded where the Führer himself had failed, in creating a Nazi party in
Greece. Similar feats will require less effort in other countries.
Deflationary economic policies mixed with a state tolerant of fascist actions,
a sympathetic media, a right that needs allies in the streets and a dormant
left are a recipe for disaster. Siblings of Golden Dawn may patrol Bolzano or
Birmingham earlier than we imagine.
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