Economics editor, who never saw a bank
he could hate, to Greece to check up on
Golden Dawn, instead of the Troika
bank loans which were causing right-minded
people to support the Cracks [of Dawn].
Here are some choice snippets:
Read 'em: BBC
Alarm
at Greek police 'collusion' with far-right Golden Dawn
Greece's
far-right party, Golden Dawn, won 18 parliamentary seats in the June election
with a campaign openly hostile to illegal immigrants and there are now
allegations that some Greek police are supporting the party.
"There
is already civil war," says Ilias Panagiotaros. If so, the shop he owns is
set to do a roaring trade.
It
sells camouflage gear, police riot gloves, face masks and T-shirts extolling
football hooliganism.
On
the walls are posters celebrating the last civil war in Greece, which ended in
1949.
"Greek
society is ready - even though no-one
likes this - to have a fight: a new type of civil war," he says.
"On
the one side there will be nationalists like us, and Greeks who want our
country to be as it used to be, and on the other side illegal immigrants,
anarchists and all those who have destroyed Athens several times," he
adds.
You
hear comments like this a lot in Greece now but Ilias Panagiotaros is not some
figure on the fringes: he is a member of the Greek parliament, one of 18 MPs
elected for the far-right Golden Dawn in June's general election.
Theatre
attack
And
for Mr Panagiotaros, civil war is not something theoretical.
Last
week he led a demonstration that closed down a performance of the Terence McNally play, Corpus Christi.
....
“Policing
the Greek crisis would pose a huge challenge, even without the issue of
political support for the far right inside the police force”
"Now,
only with one phone call saying Golden
Dawn is going to pass by, the police is going there. That means the brand name
of Golden Dawn is very effective."
He
confirms the party's strategy is to force police action against migrants and to
claim their right to make citizens'
arrests against those they suspect of criminality.
"It's
like fashion - our dress code is now extremely popular and more people want to
follow it. The brand name is synonymous with order, law and order and
efficiency."
And
if it projects fear among perfectly legal migrants? I ask.
"There
are no legal migrants in Greece," says Mr Panagiotaros "not even
one."
Now
Golden Dawn is suddenly everywhere. Its eight local offices at election time
have become 60 nationwide. It is polling consistently as the third most popular
party at 12%.
Its
parliamentarians have threatened to "drag migrant children from the
kindergartens," and requested a
list of the kindergartens with high migrant numbers. This, the Greek education
ministry has willingly provided.
Time
and again there is a pattern to Golden Dawn disturbances.
They
target migrants, the Left, lawyers representing migrants, or in the case of the
theatre picket, gay people. And the
police stand by.
Anarchists have tried to
counter Golden Dawn's patrols in migrant areas by staging their own, motorbike
mounted
patrols - hundreds strong.
During
a motorbike protest last week, a clash with Golden Dawn occurred.
A
unit of the motorbike-mounted police called Delta Force arrested 15
demonstrators, stripping them naked in the prison cells and, say the detainees,
using tasers, stress positions, humiliation techniques and beatings.
A
report of this in the Guardian last week has become a matter of national
controversy here, and is strenuously denied by the government.
On 8
October a further 25 protesters were arrested at a demonstration at the
courthouse to support those originally detained.
Yiannis,
one of those detained, tells the story:
"They
searched us, made us strip, kneel. They hit me on the head and knees. They said
we know where you all live.
I
meet Yiannis and Maria, two of those alleging mistreatment, in a quiet flat in Exarchia, the bohemian district of Athens.
Both
will speak only on condition that I change their names, and film them without
showing their faces. Though charged eventually with misdemeanours, they were
both held for four nights in police custody.
Yiannis
continues: "They said: You're finished and things are not going to be the
way they were from now on.
"They
said they would pass on the video they filmed of us to Golden Dawn. They picked
on me to use as an example to the others. They kept making me say to every new
detainee: 'if you too disobey they will [hurt] your mother'."
Maria,
who has been calm and confident as we have prepared for the interview, now
becomes disturbed as she tells her story.
"They
made me strip in front of the others," she says.
"The
Delta police arrived and spoke about
Golden Dawn as if they were their siblings, including the officer in charge.
They praised Hitler, saying he was better than Stalin.
"They
told us we should remember this - that they are Golden Dawn supporters
now."
“The
issue driving support for Golden Dawn is
clear: illegal migration”
Dimitris
Psaras, whose new book, Golden Dawn's Black Bible, details the organisation's
recent rise, believes the influence of
far right within the police force works at an insidious level:
"There
is an osmosis of Golden Dawn supporters, between those working in the police and those in private security as
well as those providing night club protection.
"Sometimes
the same person can be providing all
these three services. They usually meet in local gyms and specific coffee shops owned by those who share the
same ideology."
....
Growing
support
Golden
Dawn has gained ground spectacularly in two leaps. First, during the riotous
summer of 2011, when the right wing
Christian nationalist party Laos disintegrated after it joined the
pro-austerity coalition.
“Last
month, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, warned Europe that his country was on the edge of a
Weimar Germany-style social collapse”
Laos
vanished and Golden Dawn took its place, scoring 6-7% in the inconclusive Greek
elections of May and June 2012.
The
second spurt is occurring now, as the coalition government - which includes
Conservatives, Socialists and the "moderate" Marxists of the
Democratic Left party - has failed to put a lid on the crisis.
And
the issue driving support for Golden
Dawn is clear: illegal migration. [you’re
ignoring the bankers who were mentioned more than once. Unfortunately, some can
translate, and others know Paul Mason as his light touch on the banks]
Faced
with virtually uncontrollable borders, the coalition government launched a
roundup of migrants from the city streets, and has detained around 4,000 in
makeshift camps. A further 3,000 have been deported.
A
senior lawmaker in the ruling New Democracy party told me, back in June:
"What will solve the Golden Dawn problem is getting an immigration policy.
We haven't had one."
But
the crackdown on immigration has not
stopped Golden Dawn's rise. As the media have joined in - relentlessly
identifying foreigners with crime - the far right's poll rating has increased.
Theodora
Oikonomides, a journalist at the alternative radio network RadioBubble, who has
covered the rise of Golden Dawn, voices a fear common to many:
"Golden
Dawn's favourite themes, such as xenophobia, homophobia and anti-Semitism have
now become part of Greek public discourse, whether at the political or at the
social level.
"By
failing to take action against Golden Dawn while
nodding and winking to its electorate at every opportunity, the Greek
politicians - who are now in power with the support of European partners - have
opened a Pandora's box that will not close any time soon."
Political
war
Last
month, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, warned Europe that his
country was on the edge of a Weimar Germany-style social collapse.
...
In
the garden outside his shop, protected by 15-foot high fencing and beefy
colleagues in their black T-shirts, he tells me:
"Golden
Dawn is at war with
the political system and those who represent it, with the domestic and international bankers, we are at war with these
invaders - immigrants.
"And
if Syriza wins the next
election, we will win the one after that. It is not a dream that within
one, two or three years we will be the first political party."
