Golden Dawn leaders arrested: Greek left must step forward

Submitted by Matthew on 2 October, 2013 - 12:15

Over the weekend 28-29 September, eighteen leading members of Greece’s fascist Golden Dawn party, including party chair Nikos Michaloliakos, were arrested and charged with forming a criminal association.

In a raid on Michaloliakos’ house, illegal firearms were confiscated, and 40,000 euros ($54,000) in cash. Thirty other Golden Dawn members were also arrested.

Two high-ranking police officials have resigned last week because of their cooperation with the fascists, and others have been suspended from service until further notice or removed to other posts.

On Saturday 28th, a law was passed to withdraw state financing from parties whose deputies are being prosecuted. Golden Dawn’s 18 parliamentary deputies have threatened to resign en masse, which would trigger new elections in the affected districts.

The arrests are a victory for the anti-fascist and labour movements. Since the murder of Paul Fyssas by a Golden Dawn activist on 18 September, a popular outcry against Golden Dawn had been expressed in demonstrations of thousands and thousands of people in every corner of the country.

Golden Dawn called for a mass mobilisation of their supporters outside the Attica General Police Directorate. Only 100 supporters turned out, looking dizzy and mildly waving Greek flags.

The small turnout, and its contrast with Golden Dawn’s poll ratings of sometimes over 10%, are a vindication of the permanent struggles of the left and the anti-fascist movement against the neo-Nazi thugs of Golden Dawn.

But along with our sense of vindication must come the permanent distrust and eternal suspicion that nourishes the working-class movement’s attitude towards capitalist state institutions and governments.

Historical experiences, as well as our daily struggles, have taught the working-class movement not to take things at face value. In 1924, after the so-called beer-hall putsch in Munich, Hitler was sentenced to five years’ jail. But he was released from prison after only nine months.

In April 1932, Germany’s president Paul Hindenburg banned the SS and the Nazi Assault Squads. Ten months after he made Hitler chancellor.

The arrest of the Golden Dawn leaders will be a relief to many. Migrants will find it easier to walk the streets.

And yet, the authorities who arrested Golden Dawn, on the basis of a damning report quickly presented by a Supreme Court prosecutor, have had detailed information about the party’s criminal activities for years.

Racist violence has been widely reported by international media, national and international NGOs. Yet Greece’s anti-racist law was never applied (an improved version was recently rejected in parliament).

Less than a year ago, Nikos Dendias, the minister of public order, insisted that no link existed between the police and Golden Dawn, and threatened the Guardian with a libel suit when it reported that policemen tortured anti-fascists.

Yet in the wake of Fyssas’s assassination, Dendias launched an inquiry into such links, and several senior officers were sacked or suspended.

The charges brought against Golden Dawn leaders show months and years of monitoring. Obviously the prosecution dossier was not created just last week, and the state did not wait for the aftermath of the assassination of Paul Fyssas to start monitoring conversations between Golden Dawn leaders.

Without underestimating the role played by the popular anger and the anti-fascist demonstrations, it is obvious that the government of Samaras had an off-the-shelf plan to “dismantle Golden Dawn” ready enough to implement it with speed.

The dramatic collapse of the morale and alleged militancy of Golden Dawn mechanism demonstrated that the fear and terror strewn by the neo-Nazi squads was with borrowed power, based on the belief that they always enjoy cosy relations with the state, the judiciary, and the police. When for its own reasons the memorandum regime withdrew its protection from the Nazis, the fascist gang could not even hold a decent rally in response.

What brought the government’s turnaround?

First there was the weight of unprecedented anti-fascist and anti-government reactions of outrage against the government’s tolerance following the murder of Paul Fyssas on 18 September.

And then there was the risk that Golden Dawn would turn against the government, as Al Qaeda turned against the US after first being aided by it in order to trouble the USSR in Afghanistan.

The autonomy of Golden Dawn should not be underestimated. The government attempted to control it. They found that impossible. They underestimated the independent dynamics of Golden Dawn.

Some believe that the arrests of Golden Dawn leaders will be used by the government to change the political landscape in favour of ND (New Democracy, the right-wing party that leads the current coalition government, committed to carrying out the “memorandum” of cuts demanded by the EU, the European Central Bank, and the IMF.

Maybe with its new kudos from “dismantling neo-Nazism”, the government can push through more unpopular measures and promote a new memorandum.

The “theory of two extremes” has been promoted by the government and by journalists. The MEGA TV news has stated that the arrests of the Golden Dawn have proved that any “anti-systemic” organisation falls outside the democratic norms of the Greek constitution.

Government apologists say that one of the extremes is Golden Dawn, and the other is Syriza and the Left in general. Now one extreme is “dismantled”. Will it now be the turn of the other end?

The Left must respond to the arrests of Golden Dawn leaders, not by credulity or illusions, but by launching a big counter-attack. The fight against fascism is inseparable from the struggle to free the country from the Troika, memoranda and neo-liberal looting.

Golden Dawn had been emboldened by its remarkable influence in the polls, by the privileges of its new parliamentary representation, by its financial support from portions of capital, and by its strong bridgeheads in the armed forces and police. It seems to have had its own “autonomous” plans, which included the political assassination of the anti-fascist Paul Fyssas and the attacks shortly before that on Communist Party trade unionists.

At a time when the Greek ruling class is seeking maximum stability of government and “social peace”, the risky “tactics/strategy”of the Nazis could not be tolerated. The bourgeois state had two options: either to sacrifice their “right extreme” or to accept the risk of Golden Dawn’s violence destabilising politics.

But the arrests will not end the fascist threat. The friends which Golden Dawn had within the state machine, within New Democracy, and in the capitalist class, may judge it prudent to stand aside now.

But, until the social and political roots of fascist reaction are cut, they will find new ways to promote the same aims. Golden Dawn had been deliberately built up by sections of the ruling class. It has been funded by layers of the super-rich. It has had paramilitary units trained by the Army and supported by the police.

On Wednesday 25 September, the Federation of Greek Reservist elite soldiers (KEED) demanded a government of “national necessity” under the “guarantee” of the armed forces. The demands of this association largely coincide with those of the Golden Dawn, including calls for the expulsion of all immigrants and the seizure of German assets in Greece.

The daily newspaper Ethnos has published pictorial evidence of the cooperation between the Golden Dawn and EKAM, the country’s “special anti-terrorist unit”. Other photos show members of Golden Dawn alongside police units attacking protesters.

The daily newspaper To Vima has listed at least 300 violent attacks by neo-Nazis over the last three years.

On Sunday 29 September To Vima also reported that members of Golden Dawn had been trained by special units of the Greek Army. In a video on Alpha News, a former member of Golden Dawn confirmed the report. “We always had people there from the leadership, and therefore they let us into the training centres”. A majority of the riot police vote for Golden Dawn in the last election, and up to now the police have protected members of the party from prosecution.

Back in March, the conservative daily Kathimerini reported on the financing of Golden Dawn. “Golden Dawn was financially supported by the democratic parties. They helped in previous election campaigns to print propaganda material in order to impede the rise of [another far-right party] LAOS…

“But in 2012 these funds were not sufficient. I have data that show that Golden Dawn received money in May last year before the election from shipping tycoons, contractors, lawyers, and perhaps even a bank”.

In February this year around 80 ND deputies tried to pass a racist law together with the Golden Dawn parliamentary group against the government majority. There have been demands from within ND for a coalition government with the neo-Nazis.

The furore around Golden Dawn could give the Samaras coalition an opportunity to call elections and present itself in the role of guarantor of democracy, invoke the dilemma of “stability or chaos”, shift the debate from social and economic collapse and memorandum/ anti-memorandum to the defence of institutions.

If it attempts that, it has an extremely difficult task. Samaras must try to equate the memorandum program to democratic normality and create a suffocating environment where vows on normality will need be given by everyone, first of all from the left-wing opposition, Syriza.

Already the Antarsya journalist Giorgos Delastic has been portrayed, by way of mixing up his words and phrases, as a “defender of Golden Dawn”.

Giorgos Tragas at Real Fm has accused KKE (Greek Communist Party) of withdrawing the daily column of Nicos Bogiopoulos immediately after the publication in that column of police documents from 1999 that recorded the relations of the Golden Dawn with police, army and MPs. The conclusion according to Tragas: KKE supports Golden Dawn.

Right-wingers on the internet claim that Syriza has promoted Golden Dawn in a desperate attempt to defeat ND. Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos has claimed that “those who supported the squares movement [in 2011] nurtured Golden Dawn’’.

Yet it was prime minister Samaras himself who declared, in March 2012: “Our cities have been occupied by illegal migrants; we will take them back”.

His government launched the Xenios Zeus operation, rounding up dark-skinned people and detaining undocumented immigrants in camps euphemistically named “holding centres”. The same government repealed the reform of the 2010 Greek citizenship law, the first to offer second-generation migrants a potential entitlement to citizenship.

There should be no complacency from the Left. Fascism cannot be uprooted by police measures alone. Golden Dawn will defend itself. For some disoriented people, the Golden Dawn leaders’ imprisonment can be artfully transformed into a heroic struggle against the parliament which imposes the memorandum and the “kleptocracy”.

Meanwhile an inescapable third Memorandum is looming, and new legislation against the trade unions, popular liberties, and democratic rights. Immediately after dealing with Golden Dawn the coalition will turn with greater fury against its class enemy.

Urgently required is the formation of an independent anti-fascist and anti-government movement in defence of popular rights and freedoms. A front of Syriza, the Communist Party, Antarsya, and others.

The Left trapped itself by false estimates. A few hours before the arrests, top officials of Syriza were certain that Michaloliakos was blackmailing Samaras with the threat of elections, and that Samaras would back down.

Others on the Left had their view blurred by half-truths.

“Golden Dawn is the ultimate instrument of the system. ND is friendly with the Golden Dawn and will not touch it”.

“Golden Dawn is a completely autonomous phenomenon in the bourgeois political system and a front of all against Golden Dawn is urgently needed”.

“Fascism does not really matter because ultimately it is only a form of capitalism, and the problem will be solved by socialism”.

“Golden Dawn is a capitalist distraction. Its stabbings are a trick to divert the people from the issue of the memorandum”.

“The prosecution of the Golden Dawn today has as its only purpose prosecution and suppression of the Left tomorrow”.

“The arrest of the Golden Dawn leaders does not mean anything because fascism can only be crushed and uprooted by working class struggles”.

A united anti-fascist front led by Syriza and the Left should be complemented by a comprehensive response to the Troika, with the aim of a government of the Left.

The anti-fascist committees built should be strengthened, expanded, and coordinated. Trade unions should be actively involved in this process. Rank and file activists should raise the issues at general meetings to put pressure on the leaders

In areas where the neo-Nazis, building on real problems, have managed to find some support , we need massive campaigns door-to-door in order to break the terror.

The anti-fascist committees have to take initiatives in the direction of building networks of solidarity with the victims of the crisis and making clear that the streets belong to the movement and not to the thugs and killers.

Above all, the battle against fascism must be connected with the struggle for the overthrow of the capitalism system that creates fascism.

It is the duty of the Left — and especially of Syriza, because of its political weight — now more than ever, to sharpen and radicalise its politics to overthrow the government of Samaras-Venizelos and bring in a government of the Left that will implement an anti-capitalist programme.

Syriza needs to respond appropriately to the theory of “two extremes”, clarifying that Syriza, by its very nature and principles, is at the opposite pole to fascism and generally of bourgeois reaction, namely the pole of genuine workers’ democracy and socialism.

Comments

Submitted by AWL on Wed, 02/10/2013 - 14:24

More developments:
The "anti-fascist" "witch-hunt" and "crack-down" of the government on the Nazis did not last for long.
Kasidiaris , Panagiotaros and Michos have been released on bail and only Lagos remains in custody.
This unanimous decision of both investigator and prosecutor has been met with surprise and is sure to bring unexpected and unusual complications in the case. Special interest is now focused on whether to Golden Dawn's president and vice president Nikos Michaloliakos will be held in jail (he is due to appear in court today).
The release of the three leaders has been portrayed as a first victory by Golden Dawn with nauseous tones on their website. They can still hold on to their position which enables them develop a strong presence in parliament and, in turn, provides a potential for greater intervention in society.
The crack down on Golden Dawn is primarily political, for who. Their growing strength requires a large anti-fascist anti-memorandum anti-capitalist movement. Fascism needs to be smashed in every neighborhood, every workplace; Greek workers need a government of the left and an extended workers democracy; a socialised, democratically planned economy under workers power and control; recallable representatives of the working people at all levels.
Theodora Polenta

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