Greek police arrest leader of far-right Golden Dawn party

[adipocere]

"Mihaloliakos has warned it may pull its 18 lawmakers from parliament if the crackdown does not stop"

....and baby jesus wept.


Greek police arrest leader of far-right Golden Dawn party (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/28/us-greece-goldendawn-idUSBRE98R02Q20130928)

ATHENS | Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:19am EDT
(Reuters) - Greek police arrested the leader and the spokesman of the far-right Golden Dawn party on Saturday on charges of founding a criminal organization, and have issued arrest warrants for dozens more party members and lawmakers, police officials said.
Police are investigating the party for links with the killing of an anti-fascist rapper by a self-proclaimed Golden Dawn supporter. The stabbing to death of Pavlos Fissas on September 17 sparked violent protests in the capital of Athens.
"The Secretary General and one lawmaker of the Golden Dawn Party were arrested a short while ago after arrest warrants were issued," Greek police said in a text message to journalists.
The two men arrested were party's leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos and spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, officials said.
Golden Dawn - Greece's third most popular party, according to opinion polls - has denied any links to the rapper's killing and Mihaloliakos has warned it may pull its 18 lawmakers from parliament if the crackdown does not stop.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Oh, so they're denying having anything to do with the murder now? I thought they were practically boasting about it last I heard...

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

This is actually quite good news. If even the far-right greek police are being forced to act (or are acting) against Golden Dawn, then it puts paid to any realistic way of Golden Dawn coming to state power.

I know it's not much when it's the police acting, but it at least drags Greece back from the possibility of a fascist takeover, which history shows us is something we should always sigh a sigh of relief at.

[Delenda Carthago]

Yeah, its not like Hitler did a 10 month jail before the authority was given to him.



This is a fuckin dealing between parts of greek Capital. The construction and partly industrial part of it, against the shipping capital that GD was supporting. We have nothing to celebrate about. Only the people's movement can give a full stop to authoritarianism, with swastiga or not.

[Comrade Jacob]

I thought a large amount of the police were Golden-Dawn voters.
Good, make sure he spends more than 10 months.

[Paul Pott]

So basically, by attacking people in the streets they are starting to scare sectors of the liberal establishment currently in power. Actually, with immigrants it was ok, but now they've killed a Greek.

Watch him try to be Hitler and write a dumb book in prison.

[Sasha]

Good piece by roarmag: http://roarmag.org/2013/09/golden-dawn-party-leader-arrested/

[Jimmie Higgins]

Good piece by roarmag: http://roarmag.org/2013/09/golden-dawn-party-leader-arrested/

Yeah I thought this was put really well:


Unfortunately, the institutional crackdown and criminal charges are long overdue, as the government (with Europe’s blessing) willingly tolerated (http://roarmag.org/2012/10/golden-dawn-european-union-silence/) the proliferation of neo-Nazi violence against immigrants and leftists for years. There are thus good reasons to remain profoundly skeptical of the government’s actual intentions and the broader implications of the arrests for the future of the antifascist struggle. While arresting its leaders will undoubtedly cripple Golden Dawn’s hierarchical organization and may temporarily paralyze the party’s official actions, it does not eradicate the penetration of fascism into the very fabric of the Greek state and society. Most importantly, a very large amount (http://blogs.aljazeera.com/blog/europe/high-police-support-greeces-golden-dawn) of Greek police officers and key elements of the country’s armed forces still support and adhere to Golden Dawn’s violent and openly racist ideology

I don't think we should dismiss the short-term disorganizing impact this might have on the right, but we also shouldn't overstate the government's "crackdown" on them or the longer-term effects on fascism as a phenomenon in the country. Yeah Hitler went to prison but the NAZIs took over anyway, but it's not like society went into a carbonite freeze for the intervening time. What probably matters most now is what the Greek movements do with the little momentum and perhapse a little bit of popular opinion as well as short-term disorganization/demoralization of the far-right.

[Sasha]

Occupied London statement on the ‘dismantling’ of the Golden Dawn by the Greek state: There ain’t no such a thing as bourgeois justice (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/09/30/occupied-london-statement-on-the-dismantling-of-the-golden-dawn-by-the-greek-state-there-aint-no-such-a-thing-as-bourgeois-justice/)

Monday, September 30, 2013
And so, on the sunny autumn morning of September 28th – a quiet, almost tranquil morning – the state and media, inside and beyond the Greek territory, woke up anti-fascist. Were the days when the exact same culprits fueled Nazism, the days when authorities meticulously wovethe institutional racism, totalitarianism and impoverishment just a bad dream? Of course not. In the time that has passed since the murder of Pavlos, they have scrambled to present a clean face, but for all their pretensions the anger is still there. Just under five swirling years after Alexis dropped dead on that Exarcheia street corner, we are still faced with the same power zombies that our revolt had attacked but did not manage, it seems, to finish off. During all these years, the number of our sisters and our brothers who died in the hands of the state or its offshoots only keeps growing. Katerina Goulioni (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/tag/katerina-goulioni/), Nikolas Todi (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/tag/nikollas-todi/), Cheikh Ndiaye, (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/02/02/37-year-old-cheikh-ndiaye-dies-on-metro-track-after-being-chased-by-municipal-police-in-athens/) Mohammad Atif Kamran (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/tag/mohammad-atif-kamran/) and Shehzad Luqman (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/01/18/murderers-of-26-year-old-serdar-yakoub-had-stash-of-golden-dawn-leaflets-in-their-house/)… Katerina died in the hands of her state captors; Nikolas, Cheikh and Mohammad were assassinated by the police; Shehzad was killed by the knives of Nazis, just like Pavlos did on September 17th. Along with who knows how many others, tortured (http://map.crisis-scape.net/reports/view/51) and pulled off the streets, held in Amygdaleza (http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2012/04/30/little-stories-from-imf-run-greece-migrant-concentration-camp-opens-in-athens/) and all the other concentration camps, sentenced to death and then to oblivion, too – for national homogeneity reserves no space even for the memory of most of its victims. These same people that have now supposedly turned anti-fascists are those who ordered the detention 70,000 migrants in a single year; who vilified supposedly HIV-positive women and rounded up drug addicts en masse; who lead women and men to despair and suicide daily… The list only keeps growing.
And now, after all these years, the same state power that bred the Nazis seems to have decided that it no longer needs them, that they must be discarded. Is this justice? Of course not: how can the perpetrators ever offer justice to their victims? Whether or not it decides to keep its offshoots by its side, this is the same plexus of power that convicted all of our sisters and brothers to torture and death, in a myriad of ways. It is the one that has entrenched racism and fascism as an everyday condition, the one that has consolidated its perpetuated authority upon the bodies and the minds of migrants, lesbians and gays, anti-fascists, pariahs and dropouts from its system: one and all who do not fit into the suffocatingly tight frame of national unity and social order. It was not us who killed off the Golden Dawn; the system that bred it did. So don’t mistake this for justice; we will never see any delivered by those who breed injustice and exploitation.



source: http://blog.occupiedlondon.org/2013/09/30/occupied-london-statement-on-the-dismantling-of-the-golden-dawn-by-the-greek-state-there-aint-no-such-a-thing-as-bourgeois-justice/

[ВАЛТЕР]

It's kind of like when the SA was purged from the nazi ranks. Considering the police force and fascists work together as almost one unit, and that GD uses its cadre as proper shock troops against immigrants, minorities, etc. I can see that a "demilitarization" (idk a better term) of GD will make it appear more "in control" of its cadre, making them seem less like violent savages and more like the "defenders of the Greek people"...

[Sasha]

2 October 2013 Last updated at 11:04 GMT Greece's Golden Dawn: 'Don't say a word or I'll burn you alive'

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/56625000/jpg/_56625363_007363121-1.jpg By Mark Lowen BBC News, Athens http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70226000/jpg/_70226726_70226725.jpg Golden Dawn has recently been riding a wave of support
Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24363776#story_continues_1) Related Stories



Profile: Golden Dawn (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24346993)
Golden Dawn leader appears in court Watch (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24318392)
Wave of protests after Greek killing (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24157433)


A fortnight ago, Golden Dawn was feeling smug. Greece's neo-Nazi party was riding high in the opinion polls at about 15%, double what it got in last year's election.
Its support was soaring among a nation buckling under its worst financial crisis in living memory. It had opened new offices, lectures it hosted presenting the party's view of Greek history were proving popular, its 18 MPs appeared untouchable.
But Pavlos Fyssas changed all that. A left-wing hip hop musician and activist, he had spent the evening watching football on TV in a bar near Athens. As he left, he was set upon by a group. The man arrested for stabbing him to death confessed to being an active supporter of Golden Dawn.
The murder prompted a national outcry. Tens of thousands took to the streets, demanding that the violent neo-Nazis be reined in.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70226000/jpg/_70226730_70226729.jpg Some of Golden Dawn's arrested MPs have been released pending trial
And then, in a weekend morning raid, the government sprang into action. Some 22 members were arrested, six of them MPs, including the party leader Nikos Mihaloliakos. They were charged with belonging to a criminal group, with counts including murder, assault and money-laundering.
'Offer of violence' Police say they found evidence linking the killer of Pavlos Fyssas to the Golden Dawn leadership. In the homes of MPs arrested, they said they uncovered photos of Adolf Hitler and swastika flags. Witness testimony told of a "Fuehrer-like" party structure, commanding hit squads that drove through Athens attacking migrants.
Whistleblowers are now under police protection. But we traced a former supporter who offered us a rare insight into how the party functions.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70228000/jpg/_70228279_protest.jpg

Woman describes how Golden Dawn members offered to attack a man in exchange for cash

She attended Golden Dawn meetings looking for support, after being harassed by a man.
"Inside, I saw clubs and shields," she tells me. "Everyone stood to attention when the leader came in. They talked of beating up gay and dark-skinned people."
She lights a cigarette and holds back the tears.
"A party member came to visit me," she says. "He made me an offer: he could break someone's arm and leg for 300 euros [£250]. Set a car on fire for 1,000 euros. Put someone in hospital for a month for 1,500 euros.
"I didn't want any of it, so I broke off communication. Later he came back and told us not to say a word or he'd burn us alive."
Police collusion? So why, when the party's vigilante nature was well known, did the authorities not act sooner?
Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24363776#story_continues_2) “Start Quote


We have no involvement in the killing of Pavlos Fyssas. You can buy a T-shirt for 10 euros and you can stab anyone you like. So does it mean Golden Dawn is responsible for your actions?”
Artemios Mathaiopoulos Golden Dawn spokesman
Greece's Racist Violence Reporting Network found that in 2012, there were 154 cases of racist attacks and, so far this year, 104. Two immigrants were murdered. Almost every incident is attributed to Golden Dawn.
One theory for the failure to act against this is the alleged collusion of the police. In last year's election, figures from some areas of Athens suggested that one in every two police officers voted for Golden Dawn.
Several high-ranking members of the force have been suspended in the recent clampdown on the party, with others resigning.
Footage filmed by the website info-war.gr showed men in plain clothes standing close to riot squads policing an anti-fascist demonstration two weeks ago, hurling rocks at the left-wing activists. At least one of the men has been identified as a Golden Dawn member.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70231000/jpg/_70231550_riot.jpg

Amateur video from info-war.gr shows alleged Golden Dawn sympathisers clashing with left wing protesters in Athens

We met a Pakistani immigrant stabbed three times by suspected Golden Dawn supporters. A year on, the scars are still there - one just millimetres from his heart. On his stomach is a lump of scar tissue from the second wound, which has never healed.
But, he says, the police did nothing, launching no investigation and never contacting him beyond a first conversation.
"It's because I'm a foreigner", he says. "The police never act with us. If it were a Greek who got stabbed, they'd hunt the aggressor immediately. Now I'm terrified to go outside.
"I want to leave Greece for somewhere safer, like England."
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/70226000/jpg/_70226724_70226723.jpg A Pakistani immigrant survived being stabbed close to his heart
But the government has defended itself against charges of dragging its feet. The Minister for Public Order, Nikos Dendias, says the murder of Pavlos Fyssas was the first time that a clear chain of command could be drawn to the highest echelons of Golden Dawn.
"Any citizen or head of a political party could report Golden Dawn to the supreme court to have it classified as a criminal organisation," he tells me.
"The fact that nobody did until now shows there was not enough proof."
I put it to him that he had appeased Golden Dawn for the last year so as to push through the government's crackdown on illegal immigration. And that it had taken the killing of a white Greek citizen for authorities to spring into action.
"I totally reject that," he says. "Criminal files have been opened in all the cases until now. But to claim that a criminal organisation was created, you have to have very clear evidence. When that came, we acted. And we took a huge political risk."
Beginning of end? It is a risk that appears to be paying off. For the first time since the election, Golden Dawn has dropped significantly in the opinion polls - down to about 6%. Daily revelations about weapons found in suspects' homes should, the government hopes, turn the public mood against the party.
But its acting spokesman, Artemios Mathaiopoulos, remains defiant. "We are a political movement that has no relation to crime", he tells me outside police headquarters. "We have no involvement in the killing of Pavlos Fyssas."
I put it to him that police found Golden Dawn clothing and other items in the assailant's home.
"You can buy a T-shirt for 10 euros and you can stab anyone you like. So does it mean Golden Dawn is responsible for your actions?"
Is this the beginning of the end of his party, I ask?
"It's the beginning of the end of the government", he proudly replies.
But Greece's neo-Nazi party is in chaos. Decapitated of its leadership, on the back foot and facing a barrage of damaging disclosures, it is hard to see Golden Dawn being able to fight back.
That said, it still has a significant support base among Greeks exhausted by the financial crisis, revolted by the political mainstream and seeing salvation in ultra-nationalism.
The government can crush the party structure, but removing its ideology and bringing its supporters back from the extreme will be the real challenge.






source with video's: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24363776

[Greedisgood]

As much as I can't stand Golden Dawn I would like to raise the point that Greece is like a incubator for ultra-fascism at this very moment.

I mean think about it!

The world banking elite debt up Greece and keep it in absolute poverty and then turn up the heat by making martyrs out of the Golden Dawn leadership by arresting them for a crime of 1 of their members.

This has been done by design. Now the entire member base of Golden Dawn are going to believe they are totally oppressed by SYRIZA.

All this is going to do is increase the tensions in Greece and the rest of Europe.

And what is next after Golden Dawn has had their fill of blaming immigrants, muslims/jews and anti-fascists? Who they going to go for next?

They will go for disabled people. Trust me. They will start blaming the helpless.