Vol. 77/No. 36      October 14, 2013

The governing political parties have responded with a crackdown on Golden Dawn that seeks to curb the party’s growing influence and organized brutality for now, while at the same time twist anti-fascist sentiment into a bludgeon against the political rights of working people.

In the early morning of Sept. 18 Fyssas, 34, who is a member of the metal workers union, was stabbed to death by a self-professed Golden Dawn cadre as nearby police looked on.

Amid the deep economic and social crisis here, the ultrarightist party — which in 2012 won 21 of 300 seats in Parliament — has been recruiting from demoralized layers of small businesspeople, professionals, workers and lumpen elements. Over the last couple years, attacks by Golden Dawn goons targeting immigrants and workers has become increasingly bold.

The other bourgeois parties in Parliament have publicly shunned Golden Dawn (it was not invited by New Democracy to join a governing coalition). But the government has, until now, largely turned a blind eye to assaults and killings by the party’s fascist street goons.

In the fifth mass protest a largely young crowd of some 10,000 people turned out Sept. 25 to demonstrate outside Parliament. The anti-fascist action was called by the General Confederation of Labor of Greece (GSEE) and Civil Servants’ Confederation (ADEDY).

“These protests in Keratsini and elsewhere have surprised the government and it is worried,” Dimitris Vamvakidis, 30, an unemployed stage light technician, told the Militant at the demonstration. “The protests have been useful, but they are not large enough.”

“The government and much of the press are pushing the line that society must condemn both ‘extremes’ that ‘function outside the rules of the constitution,”’ said Vamvakidis. “They are trying to put an equal sign between fascist violence and the protests and strikes that have taken place against the assaults on our rights and living standards. This is a dangerous attempt at violence-baiting opponents of the government.”

In public statements Sept. 18, Chrysanthos Lazaridis, adviser to New Democracy Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, criticized both Golden Dawn and Syriza for political violence and suggested the latter was not part of the “constitutional axis.” Syriza is a left Social-Democratic coalition and the main opposition with the second-most number of representatives in Parliament.

Under pressure to act against Golden Dawn and its base of support among the police forces, the government dismissed seven senior police commanders, including the chief of the special forces and internal security. Two other police chiefs resigned.

Cops back fascists

“There is a long historic continuity that Golden Dawn is part of,” Dimitris Papachristos, a veteran of the 1973 student uprising against the military dictatorship that ruled Greece at the time, told rally participants. “They trace their roots back to the Metaxas dictatorship in the late 1930s, to the Nazi collaborators during the occupation in World War II, to the death squads in the 1940s and 1950s and to the military dictatorship” in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the wake of the protests, some 22 Golden Dawn members were arrested Sept. 28-29, including its leader Nikos Michaloliakos and deputy leader Christos Pappas, following a series of raids on homes and party offices. Four of the party’s legislators were indicted Oct. 1 on charges that included participation in a criminal organization, assault, money laundering and attempted and voluntary homicide based on alleged links to the killing of Fyssas and an immigrant earlier this year.

At a private meeting of the American Jewish Committee in New York Sept. 30, Prime Minister Samaras announced that the governing coalition will press legislation aimed at “eradicating” Golden Dawn. These include new laws denying state funding to political parties whose leaders are charged with crimes, stricter penalties for crimes motivated by racial hatred and laws targeting hate speech.

In April, Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks urged the Greek government to ban Golden Dawn.

“I feel positive about what has happened. There is more willingness to participate in the struggle against the fascists,” Giorgos Pissanos, a student at Athens Polytechnic University who lives in the Keratsini neighborhood where Fyssas was killed, told the Militant Oct. 1.

“At the same time, I don’t trust the government in their newly found anti-fascist guise,” Pissanos said. “Their aim is to push people off the streets. Banning Golden Dawn would have a temporary, superficial effect and will turn the fascists into heroes. And the government could turn around and use the same laws against the workers movement.”
 
 
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