Golden Dawn and the rise of fascism
Posted: June 20, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 4 Comments »by Spryros Marchetos , originally published at The Guardian
The electoral take-off of Golden Dawn took Greece by surprise. In the space of a few months it passed from insignificance to almost 7% of the national vote, a percentage it maintained at the June elections, when the voters had been properly apprised of its neo-Nazi character. This party now has a rather even geographical spread and sex distribution, slightly higher among men and in rightwing areas, and also a definite social basis – mainly small proprietors, unemployed, members of the security forces, plus the criminal underworld.
Where did Golden Dawn come from? Is it a national phenomenon or does it portend a European trend? Could similar parties rise in other societies ravaged by the economic crisis? Certainly, it cannot be blamed on any “national” characteristics; If anything, Greece was, together with Britain, one of the very few countries that did not develop any mass fascist movement before the second world war.
Fascists did not suddenly multiply in Greece. Rather, extreme right ideas and values gradually permeated public consciousness, and became mainstream in the last 20 years. Then the troika (of the European commission, European Central Bank and the IMF) imposed measures of violent pauperisation, and even created widespread perceptions of decay and victimisation, and feelings of national persecution and humiliation. All these, as the US historian Robert Paxton argues in his magisterial Anatomy of Fascism, help fascism rise. Finally, when the crisis stole the clientelist appeal of the ruling parties, many of their voters turned towards those who professed openly what traditional politicians only implied.
Golden Dawn appeared on the electoral radar in November 2011, when all the other forces of the right participated in the unelected, and unloved,government of a banker, Lucas Papademos. It projected an anti-systemic image, but actually its objectives and practices were in harmony with those of powerful Greek institutions. For example, immigrants were first demonised by the state itself. They were interned, and their rights were cancelled in practice. Bureaucrats failed to enforce protective labour legislation. The police and the judiciary do not prosecute fascists under existing laws, which are more or less adequate, and don’t penalise racial attacks, antisemitism and spreading of hate, all trademarks of Golden Dawn.
The rise of fascism also owes a lot to mainstream media. Effectively unregulated by the state and owned by a few small Berlusconis, Greek television channels have for decades been cultivating chauvinism, racism, sexism and anti-immigrant hate. Now they habitually present Golden Dawn cadres as normal people, explore their lighter side and even turn them into lifestyle icons or tele-celebrities. They rarely discuss the violent crimes for which many of these people have been accused or convicted.
Most worrying is the ease with which conservatives justify fascist actions. The recent violent attack by Ilias Kasidiaris, a Golden Dawn deputy, on two leftwing women deputies, broadcast live on national television, was hailed by many on the right, and proved a vote-winner. The chief of New Democracy for northern Greece promptly declared that his party and Golden Dawn were “sister organisations”, without provoking any criticism among his colleagues. Privileged strata and traditional politicians increasingly see the cultivation of a fascist mass movement as a legitimate reply to the advance of the left. In conditions of social dislocation and economic freefall, this may have explosive consequences.
The left grievously underestimated this threat all these years, hoping that it would evaporate by itself. Its leadership still has no strategy to counter the spread of fascism. Syriza until recently took democratic normality for granted, while the Communist party seems determined to repeat all the blunders of the German communists that brought Hitler to power.
Both parties refused to mobilise when Golden Dawn, with the support of the police, created a fief in a central Athens neighbourhood. Years of insouciance, in which thousands of attacks against immigrants provoked few reactions, led to deputies being beaten in front of the cameras. And even then, they refused to call for mass mobilisation against the thugs. The perceived moral of the story was that when fascists strike the left leadership, the latter shows a most Christian meekness. This instils little enthusiasm in the rank-and-file, and even less self-respect.
Hope comes mainly from the reaction of civil society. In recent weeks local anti-fascist fronts have sprung up from below in many places, with scant support from the official left. Mass anti-Nazi rallies, mobilising many thousands of people, shook the principal cities of Greece. There is even talk of self-defence groups, comprising locals and immigrants, that will fight Golden Dawn in the streets and provide to all the security that the state now offers to few.
The fascist advance in troika-dominated Greece was predicted by analysts. The factors that fuelled it exist in other societies too. In eurozone countries falling victim to the debt crisis, fascism will return to the fore. It has dynamics weaker than in the 1930s, but it is dangerous again. European elites have been playing with fire for too long. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, succeeded where the Führer himself had failed, in creating a Nazi party in Greece. Similar feats will require less effort in other countries.
Deflationary economic policies mixed with a state tolerant of fascist actions, a sympathetic media, a right that needs allies in the streets and a dormant left are a recipe for disaster. Siblings of Golden Dawn may patrol Bolzano or Birmingham earlier than we imagine.
This is an excellent analysis. My one quibble would be that fascism is always a latent possibility in any capitalist country, not merely when economic conditions deteriorate. Capitalists of course much prefer to rule with the democratic veneer of social approval, but when large numbers of people begin to withdraw their approval, then we see the building of fascist movements as a counter.
Greece had better take Golden Dawn seriously. As Spryros hinted, the German Left did not take seriously the threat from the Nazis, and paid a horrific price. Greece is the “guinea pig” for all-out neoliberalism and as it is the country in which the crisis is most advanced, it is natural that the Left has risen most strongly there (taking nothing away from Greece’s strong Left traditions). But that draws a counter-reaction from capitalists, who start stoking fascism in order to build a corps of Right shock troops.
That Golden Dawn could retain its voting strength after the televised attacks on the Communist and Syriza deputies, and boast about it afterward, is an unmistakable warning flag. And an unchecked Golden Dawn rise in Greece will inevitably give ideas to other countries. Extreme Right-wing movements bankrolled by big capitalists are already common — the “tea party” in the United States is a prime example — and it is not at all excluded that such parties might get ideas if violence elsewhere is unchecked.
I think your article treats thoroughly only one aspect of the reasons behind the emergence of this phenomenon: you consistently leave out the fact that Greece had become, following EU policy-makin g- the buffer zone for the wars the West maintains in the Middle East. While in central/northern Europe there is no evidence in the cities and towns and villages of *any* wars going on – despite the fact that north-west Europe IS the first to send troops for oil-related wars – in Greece refugees and displaced people, often with all the signs of having been in a conflict, are for everyone to view. Streets are strewn with people with chopped-off limbs, certain areas have become ghettos and have been abandoned by Greek people at a huge costs – leaving their houses and their shops or companies. And while it may be easy to criticize those duped by the fascists, one should also take into account the increased criminality in Athens/Attica and elsewhere of the past 10 years following the wars in the Middle East and the overt inability of the state to handle this. For political theorising by Zizek is fine, but it is often neglected that returning home from work and finding our house had been broken into and occupied by 40 men from Pakistan who are refusing to leave is a routine problem for many living in certain parishes of Attica. And in these cases, the police say they can do nothing, ‘contact the Golden Dawn’. So the links with the state are way deeper than it appears, but the economic deterioration cannot explain all of this. Please do not ignore this out of a misplaced sense of ‘political correctness’ and the extremely infuriating tendency of some leftist groups to find fault *only* the intra-Greek population or the top-down approach by the EU/IMF.
And I don’t see a problem with the ‘meek’ Christian ethics of the Left in Greece. Would you have preferred all-out open intra-civic battles? That leads to a civil war if you do not know.
European Elites And Debt Crisis
http://www.coolissues.com/government/europeanelites.html