Freedom News

As Syriza ponders an “accommodation” with Golden Dawn, anarchists fight back

In the aftermath of recent clashes in Athens, Greece, on the anniversary of the police murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos on December 8th 2008, fascist party Golden Dawn has attempted to get itself back into the news through attacking journalists. But in Patras at least they aren’t having it all their own way.

On December 10th MPs and hangers-on of Golden Dawn rushed the third floor of the headquarters of the Athens Journalists’ Union, ESIEA, while people inside were marking Human Rights Day. The journalists were talking about migrant rights when MPs Yiannis Lagos, Ilias Panagiotaros and Constantinos Barbarousis, plus a group of allied thugs, pushed their way into the building and tried to shut down the meeting. Police had been forewarned about the possibility of an attack but didn’t show up.

In Patras however, Golden Dawn are being forced to keep their activities quiet. Also on the 10th, the Nazis tried to organise a secret gathering at their offices, having previously been shut down by a major anti-fascist mobilisation in the city. However antifa organisers got wind of the meetup and closed off the street, pushing up against police lines and eventually forcing Golden Dawn’s loyalists to leave under the protection of police escorts. Organisers with the Anarchist Political Organisation said:

As a spontaneously organised group of anarchists, we knew it was imperative to immediately halt the Nazi rabble wherever they appear as they are a key part of reinforcing the the modern fascist para-State.

Paramilitaries have attacked housing refugee squats  and other self-managed and occupied spaces of struggle while the State concentrates on putting people in detention centres and concentration camps. The humiliation and the physical barrier of the borders of fortress Europe is the most obvious show of brutality by a regime that creates war and misery, which uses fascist gangs to attack immigrants, refugees and those who are fighting, but also to intimidate those who have every reason to resist.

Against this regime, the bottom have only one road to cross, that of self-organisation of resistance and solidarity. Social self-defense and of creating a class of mutual structures. Promote the ongoing struggle for global social revolution, anarchy and libertarian communism.

Senior figures in Syriza meanwhile are talking about legitimising the fascist organisation. Speaking on Sunday, former justice minister and Syriza MP Nikos Paraskevopoulo said: “We have to decide what we prefer: To include Golden Dawn in the democratic processes or remain in a permanent rift with them. In my opinion, we should choose convergence.”

Grigoropoulos: A thorn the police can’t dislodge

The confrontations follow on from fierce rioting that took place in Athens on December 6th, following a rememberance for Alexis Grigoropoulos, who was shot dead aged 15 by two armed officers in 2008. This murder in the heart of the anarchist enclave of Exarchia sparked a string of riots all over Greece. Below is footage of the huge protest and fighting that took place this year.

 

 

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