One year ago today Golden Dawn stormed into the political scene of Greece by getting almost 7% of the vote. The initial response was one of incredulity and a dismissal that the vote was a protest vote, that people didn’t really understand who GD truly is, etc. One year later Golden Dawn’s real face should be obvious to everyone, yet GD holds steady as the third political party in polls with 10-12%. The reality that one million Greeks are consciously supportive of a fascist and neo-nazi political agenda and practice is at times unfathomable but also undeniable.
I have been posting a lot during the last year about the rise of fascism in Greece, the brutal attacks of Golden Dawn and sympathizers, the collusion of police forces, the complicity of the government, and its outright suppression of dissent. I have lost count on the number of mornings that I have woken up to read the news or talk with friends and comrades back home and find myself bursting into tears or rage (or both) at what is going on.
Yet, there is more here than just bad news. Of the 1 million or so Greeks who support Golden Dawn only a thousand or two are really the thugs on the ground. At the same time tens of thousands of Greeks from all walks of life have taken an increasingly active role in formulating an organized popular resistance. Whereas for a long time it has been only the anarchists and the organized anti-fascist and anti-racist activists who physically stood in the way of fascist violence and fought back, we now see broader coalitions emerging and many syndicalists and leftists joining in direct action against Golden Dawn. While most political parties are simply issuing statements of condemnation, more and more Greeks are no longer satisfied with just talk and are putting their bodies on the line to defend immigrants and to fight for a Greece and a world that has no tolerance for fascism.
I want to take a moment and acknowledge all the friends and comrades back home, old and new, known and unknown, who have stood up for what we believe in, who have perceived an attack on one as an attack on all, who have braved beatings, jails and torture to show us all that solidarity is not a noun but a verb, not just a word but a way to live. We still have a long way to go but because of you I have more moments of hope than despair.
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