HERDING CATS AGAINST THE DAWN

by Dimitrios Papageorgiou

“The anti-fascist and anti-Nazi front has as much rage today as it had during WWII."

The above words were written recently in the Twitter account held by Evangelos Venizelos, the president of PASOK and – along with Antonis Samaras of New Democracy – copilot of the Greek government.

Had anyone else used such words they would have been subjected to smear attacks from the media and accused of provoking a civil war mentality. Compare, for instance, what happened in the case of Golden Dawn MP, Ilias Panayiotaros, when he made some much more "conciliatory" remarks in an interview with the BBC. Then all hell broke loose, with everyone in the establishment blaming Golden Dawn for attempting to drag the country into a civil war. Then, along comes Mr. Venizelos and upgrades the supposed “warmongering” rhetoric from the civil war to the most deadly war ever, a war whose outcome was responsible for Europe losing most of its geopolitical strength.

The Kampf of the "Right"

At the moment the political system seems to have overcome most of its initial awe in dealing with problem posed by Golden Dawn, and has decided the method that will be used to contain and reduce its support in the period before next election. Although polls show that support for Golden Dawn has stabilized, with the party in third position with a percentage of between 10 and 15%, no one can be sure that this is the culmination, since developments in the wider right have definitely not stopped.

Even though Golden Dawn claims to be a new force in Greek politics, the great mass of its support comes mainly from the old right. This includes votes mainly from the conservative New Democracy Party, but also from the Independent Greeks Party (a party that really looks, sounds, and smells like UKIP).

With the unrest in the right wing a permanent fact, no one knows what can happen.  People in the conservative parties are nowadays deeply concerned about the possibility of the emergence of Golden Dawn as the dominant party of the right, especially if we take into account that the old, formerly dominant “socialist” party has seen its support collapse and is governing with the conservatives and that there are actually talks going on of a “merger.”

The other major political scenario being considered is even worse, although no-one actually talks about it openly. This involves a compromise between the radical leftist SYRIZA and the (neo) conservative New Democracy Party. This would probably make Golden Dawn the only viable option for any rightist.

The political establishment knows that, and its counter offensive against Golden Dawn is a “twin track” strategy. On one track, the New Democracy Party and the Independent Greeks try in every way possible to avoid “legitimizing” Golden Dawn politically by not accepting it as “part” of the greater right, not even as the extreme wing of the right. At the same time various legal and institutional challenges are created against the Golden Dawn’s extremely successful extra-political activities.

The examples are many. The right-wing head of the Doctor's Association in Greece declared that every doctor participating in a Golden Dawn project named “Doctors with Frontiers” that treats underprivileged Greeks would lose his license. 

In another case Golden Dawn tried to distribute food to Greeks (with IDs proving that they are the real McCoy) in Syntagma Square right across from parliament. The police actually apprehended the trucks bringing the food to the area and forcefully (using tear gas) drove the Golden Dawn members away, because they didn't obtain a license from the leftist mayor of Athens in order to use the square. It is believed to be the first time that someone had to get a license to use the square.

The political and propaganda presence of the Golden Dawn was until recently based on direct action. But like any other form of propaganda, it is a case of diminishing returns, with repetition subtracting from the value of each action. So the actions of Golden Dawn distributing food to Greeks have begun to lose their luster.  Whether Golden Dawn manages to overcome these obstacles, or not is something we'll see.

So the "right" and the authorities try to socially and politically contain Golden Dawn, depriving it of the routes of penetrating society.

The Kampf of the Left

The other front against Golden Dawn is the leftist reaction. The left has taken a different approach, that of "smearing" Golden Dawn and attempting to "criminalize" it. Wherever Golden Dawn appears, in the pursuit of it legitimate activities, counter demonstrations and events spring up. The antifa is becoming a strong factor in the political life of Greece and the left is funnelling a lot of support to it, helping to organise local chapters in every city in Greece and every neighbourhood of Athens.

It was just a few days ago that a moto-event of about 20 Golden Dawn members was ambushed in four different locations by the local antifa, consisting of about 200 people. Those people were not only attacked but were also portrayed as the perpetrators of a crime by an important percentage of the media.

The left has two goals. The first is to emphasize the connection between violence and Golden Dawn that can then be exploited by a hostile media. In almost every open air event of Golden Dawn there is violence caused by leftists. Even if ten or twenty people break shops and storefronts, this automatically becomes the necessary amount of violence to reinforce the negative association for passive TV viewers. Also there are cases where a member of Golden Dawn has lost his cool and given them what they want. They gamble on the inexperience of Golden Dawn to make mistakes that they will exploit. In one case a journalist of Thracian Times was threatened by members and officers of Golden Dawn. (Here it should be said that the newspaper Thracian Times is an oasis of national information on developments in the region, often uncovering sinister actions stemming from the Turkish consulate.)

Gaps in the Political Turmoil

But although the system seems to have worked out its strategy vs. Golden Dawn, it doesn't seem to be running entirely smoothly. Every group involved in the effort also has its own goals and works in order to secure the popular support it wants. Thus there are gaps in the anti-Dawn strategy, like what happened in the case of the antiracist bill that was introduced to the Greek parliament by the member of the Democratic Left Party and then Minister of Justice Roumeliotis. (The Democratic Left left the government coalition just a few days ago). It was never voted on because although New Democracy wanted to limit Golden Dawn, it realized it could not alienate hundreds of thousand of voters that would have seen the “antiracist law” as a direct threat not only to their freedom of speech but also as a stepping stone towards the complete acceptance of the millions of immigrants in the Greek state.

So what happened was actually hilarious. Golden Dawn sat back, doing nothing at all, except for one or two press releases. No action was taken, no mobilisation of its supporters, nothing at all. New Democracy said that the old antiracist laws needed some modernisation and so decided to bring along some modifications that made denial of the Holocaust a criminal offence. The two other parties of the government coalition (PASOK and Democratic Left) accused New Democracy of going “soft” and said they wouldn't vote on just those “modifications.” Those two parties then responded to New Democracy’s backtracking by bringing forth two separate bills for an antiracist law. Following this, SYRIZA the extreme leftist party that is polling in second place, tabled an antiracist bill of its own, that sounded somewhat like “lock up anyone who is not a leftist” and make every “antiracist” or “immigrant” spokesperson an “official” of the state.

The Independent Greeks Party said it wouldn't vote for any of the bills, but would instead bring up one of its own. The Communist Party then chimed in with its own unhelpful comments, saying that it wouldn't vote for any of the antiracist bills put forward. 

As a result, the whole mess was discussed for about two weeks in the media and no bill gathered the needed support, and almost immediately the whole subject was forgotten and replaced by more pressing issues. This farce reminds one of the expression "herding cats," and suggests that the divisions and petty factionalism of the Greek political system creates the basis for its downfall.