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Demonstration outside the Greek embassy
Holland Park, London, 21.09.2013
Holland Park, London, 21.09.2013
Pavlos Fyssas – 34 and well-known for his anti-fascist views – was stabbed to death early on Wednesday [18 September 2013]. 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.
[…]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.[...]
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 [Deputy Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International].
The news of the killing is saddening but not surprising.
Over the past few years, Greece has seen an epidemic of violence. In July 2012, I documented dozens of attacks on foreigners, who had been beaten, kicked, and chased down the streets of Athens by gangs of Greeks. Victims included migrants and asylum seekers, pregnant women, and children.
Members and supporters of Golden Dawn, an unabashedly neo-fascist party with strident anti-immigrant rhetoric, have been linked to violence in the past, including attacks on foreigners.
Last January, two men stabbed a Pakistani man to death as he rode his bicycle to work. The police, who have said the attack may have been racially-motivated, reportedly discovered dozens of Golden Dawn pamphlets in the home of one of the attackers. One of the accused in the trial for the stabbing of an Afghan asylum seeker, Ali Rahimi, in September 2011, ran (unsuccessfully) for office on the Golden Dawn ticket in last year’s national elections.
In September 2012, Golden Dawn members of parliament and sympathizers violently attacked immigrants’ stalls during raids in open-air markets in an Athens suburb in Rafina, and in Messolonghi, western Greece.
[...]
It is vital that the government sends a strong message that violence will not be tolerated whoever the victim is, and that the police holds those responsible to account. Unchecked violence like that directed against migrants is bound to spread to the rest of society.
The murder of Mr Fyssas has jerked the coalition government out of its position of outraged inaction. It launched its first-ever investigation into whether the police forces were infiltrated by Golden Dawn members or sympathisers. Police stations were raided. Seven senior police officers were replaced to ensure an independent inquiry; two police generals resigned abruptly. If a direct link is proved between the party and the death, the state could cut off funding for a group that now has 18 members of parliament. A minister has proposed such a law. The crackdown, which is welcome though belated, is not without risk. It could drive Europe's most extreme and violent far-right movement underground.
Golden Dawn's popularity has dipped, as thousands took to the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki in protest at the latest murder. These crowds may reflect the fear that the violence that has so far been reserved for immigrants is now being turned on Greeks. Even so, the far-right group can still count on the support of about 8% of the voters. And absolutely no one thinks that the current crackdown will purge police ranks. The links go too deep.
There is no end in sight to Greece's economic misery. After four years of austerity, the country's debt-to-GDP ratio has grown from 120% to 175%. [...] The worst keeps on getting worse. And as each year passes, the economy approaches implosion. Youth unemployment is now around 60%.
Golden Dawn challenges not only the power of the Greek state. If it continues to grow, it will challenge its democratic core. Greeks can no longer afford to wait for the next crisis. By the time the indifference of the creditor nations of northern Europe to the social and human consequences of their actions is shattered, it will be too late. The next crisis may be a different order entirely.
A week after antifascist hip-hop singer Pavlos Fyssas was murdered in cold blood by a gang of Golden Dawn thugs, tens of thousands of antifascist protesters staged an impressive rally [...] amid a growing wave of popular outrage over the government’s continued insistence on austerity and its wilful reluctance to stem the rise of violent fascism this has produced. It also comes immediately on the heels of a 48-hour public sector strike against further budget cuts that will lead to the sacking of at least 12.500 civil servants in a country where unemployment already stands at 28% — higher even than the 25% peak experienced by the US during the Great Depression in 1933.
The new wave of social mobilization triggered by the murder of Pavlos Fyssas appears to have finally galvanized the ruling coalition into a much-belated crackdown on the openly neo-Nazi party and its sympathizers within the state apparatus. The government has announced its intention to charge any politicians involved in the attacks under anti-terrorism legislation and has proposed cutting off state funding for their parties. It also ordered the anti-terrorism unit and secret service to investigate Golden Dawn’s infiltration of the police and army.
Eight senior police officers were already sacked to guarantee the “objectivity” of the investigation — some of them accused of failing to give arrest orders for Golden Dawn members following their violent attacks — and two more resigned, citing “personal reasons”. Meanwhile, fascist sympathizers within the armed special forces now stand accused of clandestinely training Golden Dawn militias in the mountains and countryside. In a recent interview, one former Golden Dawn member claimed that the party has at least 3.000 men on standby — fully trained and armed with weapons “for when the time comes.”
[...]
There are already some troubling signs that a further escalation of social tension might lie ahead. In a public statement, the daughter of Golden Dawn’s party leader publicly asked its members “to what extent they are ready to sacrifice themselves for the movement, to give their life.” But despite the fascist belligerence coming from the party’s leaders and its thugs, today the Greek left — both institutional and extra-parliamentary — showed its resolve in the face of the fascist threat and further increased the pressure on both Golden Dawn and the political establishment to stem the rising tide of fascism.As official investigations by the Financial Crimes Unit show that Golden Dawn is actually being funded by a group of wealthy businessmen, ship-owners and priests, the party’s popular support is rapidly collapsing. [...] Meanwhile, Golden Dawn has also been driven onto the defensive in its grassroots battle for control over the streets and neighborhoods. [...].Today’s massive antifascist protest and the recent convergence of labor struggles in the public sector seem to mark the start a new wave of popular resistance to both neo-Nazism and the increasingly authoritarian neoliberal state under which it arose. But the fight against fascism is by no means over [...]
See also:
Occupied London, 18.09.2013
Greece: after Killah P's murder, a battle for democracy?
Paul Mason, Channel 4, 25.09.2013
Racist attacks in Greece: interactive map
Mona Chalabi, The Guardian, 25.09.2013
Greece: after Killah P's murder, a battle for democracy?
Paul Mason, Channel 4, 25.09.2013
Racist attacks in Greece: interactive map
Mona Chalabi, The Guardian, 25.09.2013
How I was knifed by golden Dawn supporters - video interview
Ross Domoney, The Guardian, 27.09.2013
Greece arrests senior members of far-right party
Liz Alderman, The New York Times, 28.09.2013
Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos arrested
Helena Smith, The Guardian, 28.09.2013
In Cultural Synergy:
Hate on the Streets: Human Rights Watch on racist violence in Greece
Amnesty International: Greece must halt mass police crackdown on 'irregular migrants'
Abusive crackdown on migrants in Greece
Amnesty International: Greece must halt mass police crackdown on 'irregular migrants'
Abusive crackdown on migrants in Greece
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