Antiracist demo attacked by fascists in Athens
Submitted by taxikipali on Jan 23 2010 16:24
A local antiracist demo in Ampelokipoi, Athens, came under attack by fascist thugs, leading to the hospitalisation of one woman. More than 40 fascists have been detained. The attack marks a climax of fascist violence which has also led to the torching of Chania's Synagogue.
On Saturday 23 January an anti-racist demo of the Cultural Centre of Ambelokipoi in Athens was fiercely attacked by a fascist group of so-called “autonomous nationalists”. The demo was organised as a response to continuing disturbance of the functioning of the 50 year old Centre by fascist thugs who tried to burn it down last week. Before the official start-time of the demo, at 12, when only the organisers were in Panormou square, 40 fascist thugs attacked them with sticks leading to the wounding of three people, amongst which a 50 year old woman who has been hospitalised. During the attack riot police forces stationed in the square stood by watching, even moving aside to let the fascists strike. Nevertheless, the demostrators managed to counterattack chasing the fascists, despite police efforts to stop them.
Thr police finally intervened only after it became known that an MP was also amongst the people attacked. The police intervention has led to 44 detentions of fascists, who are being interrogated at the police headquarters.
The attack comes in a climax of similar moves that have been growing ever since the government announced a law that will legalise hundreds of thousands of second generation immigrants giving them the right to vote. The extreme-right has launched a campaign of hate in order to halt the procedure.
Ambelokipoi, the area where the attack took place, has a long record of fascist action, with leafleting at schools of the area coming under frequent attacks, once even at gun-point. This does not however mean that the neighbourhood is fascist as such. In fact, after the 50 year old woman was taken to the near by Red Cross Hospital, doctors and nurses came down to the street to join the demo in protest to the fascist violence. The demo formed a protest march towards the Athens police HQ which is also in the area.
The Coalition of Radical Left MP who participated in the demo has declared that “For one more time fascists are acting in the open with the toleration of the police against any kind of protest against racism and xenophobia. This terrorism will not pass. Fascism will not take root in this country”. The Left wing labour union umbrella “Autonomous Intervention” denounced the “Uncontrollable activity of neofascist groups which are provoking the democratic and anti-fascist sentiments of the people”.
It must be noted that recently Spartakos, the 30 year old “Network of Free Conscripts”, revealed that the Ministry of National Defense has been organising paramilitary training camps in Chalkdiki, where ex-soldiers and other militaristic elements have been trained in “counterterrorist” operations. After the revelations, Spartacus has come under the spotlight of the fascist parliamentary party LAOS, which has demanded from the Ministry the containment of the group. Spartakos has denounced efforts of detaining its members during leafleting, and has further revealed that a secret General Stuff document describing in detail the Network’s totally legal day-to-day activities has come to the Network’s possession.
Moreover, the escalation of fascist violence has inculded the torching of the Chania Synagogue which destroyed thousands of rare manuscripts and books. Regarding the torching (twice in one month), the police has arrested 1 greek and 2 british citizens as part of the anti-Semitic group that perpetrated the attack. The greek has confessed, while the british are denying any involvement in the act; 2 US citizens are also wanted for the same case. However, the police is refusing to follow the link to the torching of the Immigrant Social Centre of the city which occurred within the same time. Swastikas were found painted in the torched Immigrant Centre, while a slate of soap believed to be the group’s signature was found in the torched Synagogue.
The arrests come as a rare incident in a country where fascist action is tolerated by the state to the degree that it is often believed that fascist groups are in fact parastate terror organisations, similar to the ones kept by the state until the end of the junta.
Jan 23 2010 20:05
#2
Quote:
Regarding the torching (twice in one month), the police has arrested 1 greek and 2 british citizens as part of the anti-Semitic group that perpetrated the attack. The greek has confessed, while the british are denying any involvement in the act; 2 US citizens are also wanted for the same case.
Is this the first incident of foreign fascists coming to Greece? Is there much chance of Greece becoming a hub for the international far right?
Jan 23 2010 20:22
#3
members of Golden Dawn have visited dublin
Jan 23 2010 20:36
#4
Fascists have tried to hold international assemblies but these have been cancelled (at least publicly) due to the general outcry against them. I think that fascism is Greece is a deeply institutional state-sponsored phenomenon as the visit of the previous mininster of public order to the Golden Dawn Agios Panteleimonas group last summer has once again proved (after their meeting, Villa Amalias one of the oldest anarchist squats in Athens was attacked by the fascists). Nevertheless the maximum people a fascist demo has managed to gather is 100 people, as much as any of the small leftist groups in Athens can mobilise on its own. LAOS which is the extreme-right party in parliament (BNP greek style) is more of an expression of right-wing votes leaking from the Conservative Party due to its (now ended) move towards neoliberalism. I hope I will get the time for something more analytical on this issue at some point. Dont forget however that fascist death squads were active throughout the 1940s, that Greece before the war was ruled by a fascist (nazi salute included) dictatorship, and that the 1960s 1970s junta was also explicitly fascist.
Jan 24 2010 15:38
#5
Update2: According to the bourgeois media, the final outcome of the interrogations has been the arrest of all 44 fascists. Apart from the initial charge for "breach of the peace" initially suggested, the state persecutor has also charged them with the anti-hood law, attempt to cause bodily damage, illegal carrying of weapons and illegal use of weapons. Two of the 44 have been also charged with dangerous bodily damage, and one of them with dangerous bodily damage and threat. 8 of them are also accused with insulting the authorities and moral culpability for all the above acts. All 44 remain in custody awaiting their appearance before the state interrogator.
It is estimated by some radical cyrcles that the so-called "autonomous nationalists" are a splinter group of the neonazi paramilitary Golden Dawn which is under the direct control of the state. In this perspective the wave of attacks recently could be part of an inter-fascist antagonism, while the arrest of the 44 could signal a purge of fascists who try to break away from the direct control of the national service of information (EYP).
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Update: According to the bourgeois media, 35 of the detainees have been declared arrested and will be persecuted for "breach of the peace". It is indicative of the state's stance towards the fascists that although one person was hospitalised during their attack, the thugs are not accused for human injuries etc. "Breach of the peace" is the most harmless accusation possible under the circumstances. It is also indicative that, as revealed by photos published on the web, the fascists are not being persecuted under the anti-hood law, though they are visibly arrested while wearing full-face masks. Unlike the usual police brutality towards anarchists and the left, or in fact any common protester, the cops did not even use their batons against their ideological colleagues.
On the farmers front, the international harbour of Igoumenistsa (the largest on the west coast of the country) has been blockaded by farmers, halting all import-export activity, as well as passenger transport to Italy. The wildcat action has caused anger in the greek government. Despite below zero temperatures and snow farmers in north greece remain at their blockades blocking both the south-north and the east-west national highway. Forestry Department workers have set their own blockade in Asprovalta. The clash between the official unions and the autonomous farmers has become explicit as the former agreed to meet with the Ministry of Agriculture and lift 17 blockades across the country. On the other hand, the autonomous farmers have refused to participate in the talks, and have been called "terrorists" by the Bulgarian PM, who is angry about the continuing closure of the Greek-Bulgarian borders by the blockades. All in all 10 out of 20 blockades in the north of the country will not take part in the proposed dialogue and intend to form a demo outside the Presidential Mansion in Athens where the collaborationist unions will meet the Ministry on Monday. Thessaly farmers have also announced their not participation in the talks.