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Month: October 2020

Golden Dawn leaders convicted

A clear victory for the antifascist and anti-racist movement. The struggle still goes on


20/10/2020

What just happened?

October 7th was a great day not only for Greece but for anti-fascists all over the world. Concluding a five and a half year long trial, compared by many commentators with the Nürnberg trials, the court ruled unanimously that Golden Dawn (GD) is a Nazi criminal organization, which has for years disguised as a legitimate political party. Its entire executive committee was found guilty for administrating a criminal organization; and the rest of the leadership – including the former MPs – were found guilty for participating in a criminal organization, plus several specific crimes.

A week of discussion of pleading ‘mitigating circumstances’ ensued, where the defense lawyers, used lies, timid statements, even a ridiculous and fruitless attempt to replace the court members. Finally the sentences were announced on October 14th – Six of the 7 members of the executive committee, including the “führer” Michaloliakos received 15 years imprisonment (2 years short of the maximum) for directing a criminal organization. Other sentences include five to seven years for those convicted principally for membership in a criminal organization, and life imprisonment for the murderer of Pavlos Fyssas. His co-perpetrators got seven to 10 years. The perpetrators of the assault on Egyptian fishermen received seven to 10 years and those guilty of the attack on trade unionists of the KKE, two years (they were convicted for assault and not attempted murder). Thanassis Kampagiannis, lawyer of Abouzid Embarak commented “The sentences for the leaders are stiff, but not the strictest. The penalties for those involved in the criminal organization and for the perpetrators of individual crimes are lower than what is appropriate”.

The court will next consider applications to suspend the sentences of the 57 Golden Dawn convicts pending appeals, or instead to issue arrest warrants and put them to jail. Lawyers for Golden Dawn’s victims insist that vindication for their clients and for democratic public opinion in Greece depends on the neo-nazis being jailed.

A historic victory

No matter what finally happens with procedures and despite the fact that the sentences ought to have been higher – the verdict of finding GD guilty is a great victory and is absolutely consistent with the popular demand. The day of the announcement saw tens of thousands of people gathered outside the Court of Appeals from early in the morning (there was a half day work stoppage called by ADEDY –the public sector confederation- and many trade unions). They wished to send their message that the court decision should acknowledge what the majority of the Greek society has known for years: That Golden Dawn is a Nazi formation of criminals. It was one of the biggest demonstrations in a city with a proud record of mass protests. It looks like everyone was there.

The banners and flags of ADEDY (public sector) and EKA (Labor Center of Athens), OLME (secondary school teachers) and DOE (primary education teachers), were standing along political parties of the left like: KKE, ANTARSYA, LAE, MERA 25 and SYRIZA; and

hundreds of rank and file unions, students’ unions, occupied schools, women’s and LGBTQI+ organizations, immigrants and refugees, cultural associations, local initiatives – and of course thousands of other everyday people.

As analyzed previously in ‘Berlin-Left’ [1], the trial brought together three cases (the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, the attempted murder against PAME trade unionists and the assault against the Egyptian fishermen, plus an overall case of GD acting as a criminal organization). It was an un-equal legal case, because a small group of resolute prosecution lawyers had to face the mechanism of an organized nazi formation and the catastrophic proposal of the public prosecutor. That public prosecutor denied in her proposal any connection between the party GD and the actions of its members [2]. The prosecution lawyers managed to bring to the surface the existential bond between the parliamentary window of GD and the battalion squads it had formed modeled on Hitler’s “Sturmabteilung”.

Of course the lawyers were not alone. Thanks to the vital support of the anti-fascist movement inside and outside the court room, crucial evidence was collected. This exposed the facts that GD was not being charged for its ideology (as its defendants claimed) – but for its actions, which followed Nazi instructions. By the end of the hearings, the evidence indicated that criminal activity was not accidental, but coordinated from the leadership of GD, with proved support from inside the state apparatus and the police forces.

The mainstream media tried to ignore the findings of the trial. But thousands of people across the country and overseas exchanged this information. They built public events to discuss what’s at stake, how to apply political pressure for a fair judgment and – most important – how the Nazis can be stopped. Trade unions were at the heart of this process. They called for work stoppages to facilitate anti-fascist mobilizations, drafted resolutions demanding the sentence of GD, and trade-unionists served as witnesses for the prosecution. As the verdict day approached, the trial gained publicity and importance inside Greek society, this is how we arrived at the fantastic mobilization outside the court.

Nothing is the same as before

The verdict has sparked a political earthquake inside the Greek society and the political parties. It is to no surprise that the right-wing government of ‘New Democracy’ rushed to celebrate it, disavow ‘Golden Dawn’ and present itself as the guard of democracy in the country. Everybody knows that this is pure hypocrisy. New Democracy is the party which had oscillated between collaborating with Golden Dawn to form a government in the days of political instability in 2013 and indicting its leadership. It finally did the latter, after the murder of Pavlos Fyssas and the political turmoil caused by the massive anti-fascist protests that followed. New Democracy is the party which hosts ‘regretted’ (or not so regretted) extreme right-wingers like Makis Voridis and Adonis Georgiadis, political personas with a disgraceful history of anti- communism, nationalism and bullying. Last but not least, it’s the government which is organizing the worst policies against immigrants and refugees like the shame of Moria and other camps.

Last Sunday Syriza’s official newspaper, ‘Avgi’, responded with a front page of the current right wing prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his New Democracy predecessor Antonis Samaras, who had led a hard right and racist government between 2012-2015. It had the headline “They are not Innocent”, which was the popular slogan that developed over the last couple of weeks against Golden Dawn in the run up to the verdicts. It was a justified thought, nevertheless it went too far, as it tried to equate all forms of right-wing politics with Nazism. In addition, it comes from a party which led a government that imposed the anti-refugee agreement between the E.U. and Turkey; and which failed to purge the police and state apparatuses which provided such a support mechanism for the neo-Nazis.

But in any case this reveals the crisis and polarization inside Greek society. On the one hand everyday people feel confident that their voice put finally pressure to the establishment and the hated Nazis are defeated. Immigrants and refugees have greeted the verdict with relief and hope. But on the other hand right-wingers and their media talk about the “danger of the two extremes” and accuse openly the left. The front page of a disgraceful tabloid (‘Proto thema’) claims that “the upper section of the squares movement [3] is going to jail”, implying that the other (left-wing) section should go to jail as well.

The idea that Golden Dawn rose out of the Indignados movement of 2011 is a big lie. GD denounced those protests officially in its newspaper. GD’s leader Michaloliakos, called it a mixture of chaotic elements, where “Greeks of various ideologies were demonstrating together with immigrants”! As a matter of fact GD rose out of the discontent and despair caused by Greece’s financial crisis and by the political crisis that ripped the mainstream right-wing parties. It thrived from nationalism and racism orchestrated by governments and speculated on defeat and disappointment and not on the hope that rose from the mass movement.

Kyriakos Velopoulos, is the leader of “Greek solution”, the nationalist right-wing formation created to replace GD inside parliament. He did not miss a chance to accuse the anti-capitalist left ‘Antarsya‘, and specifically Athens councilor Petros Constantinou as “a far left extremist, who has to be prosecuted as well”! In addition to being a libel, such accusations show the frustration inside the establishment, not just for the demise of GD, but for the role played by the mass movement. They realize that this has shifted the balance of forces to the left and they are mad about it. GD defense lawyers were complaining for the crowd of “barefoot tramps” protesting outside the court and one of them said that the entire atmosphere reminded him the French revolution!”. These are signs of lack of confidence.

On October 12th, “Kathimerini”, a respected right-wing daily, which had for long ignored the trial, published an article under the title “A court which took place 17 years later”. This reminded readers that back in 1996 Dimitris Zotos, a member of the Egyptian fishermen prosecution – had brought a suit to have Golden Dawn declared a criminal gang, acting on behalf of socialist activists assaulted by the neo-Nazis in the neighborhood of Kypseli. His legal action was denied by the authorities and didn’t reach the court, until 2014, when it was included in the file of this trial. This is a vindication for the prosecution.

Where now?

Acknowledging that the court decision is an achievement for anti-fascists, the stakes are high for the movement and the left to build on this success. Immediate goals are of course the imprisonment of all the convicted (no suspension for the execution of their penalties), the closing of their remaining headquarters in the country and the expulsion of nazi councilors from local councils, including the notorious thug Kasidiaris, who has been elected in Athens.

At a political level there are (at least) two tasks: Firstly to develop the anti-racist struggle, which in Greece means to support immigrants and refugees, who are trapped between Turkey and their way to the E.U., residing in the most horrendous camps like Moria and Kara Tepe. And secondly to oppose nationalism and the cries for a harder antagonism with Turkey, which plays in the hands of the Greek government in order to upgrade itself in the east Mediterranean. In the past both issues have bread the beast of Nazism and GD particularly.

But times are changing, since we halted the Nazis there is a good chance to fight their roots and the policies which made them such a menace. This is a challenge. The struggle continues.

 

Footnotes

1 https://www.theleftberlin.com/post/awaiting-a-verdict-in-the-golden-dawn-trial

2 https://www.theleftberlin.com/post/golden-dawn-trial-before-the-verdict

3 The anti austerity protests of 2011, which followed the uprising of Plaza del Sol in Spain

QAnon’s threat from beyond the fringe

The idea that Covid-19 was created by a cabal of satanists is fusing with conspiracy therories about 5G and vaccines. It may sound like a plot of a B Movie, but it’s gaining traction


19/10/2020

Along with the public health catastrophes and economic and social dislocation triggered by Covid-19, we have seen a pandemic of paranoia. Theories that the virus was created in a biological weapons laboratory; or, that epidemic diseases are part of a shadowy plot to depopulate the world – have interwoven with previously marginal fears about the dangers of vaccination and 5G telecommunications infrastructure. Now these theories are fusing with opposition to public health measures. Demonstrations in the US, Britain, Ireland, Australia and Germany have called for an end to lockdowns, mask-wearing and social distancing.

Organisers claim that coronavirus is a “plandemic”, engineered by governments in order to seize dictatorial powers and destroy small businesses. Among some of their adherents, these theories have fused with much more well-worn fantasies about cabals of (often Jewish) puppet masters, who pull the strings of both liberal politicians and the radical left. These claims often cross over to a moral panic about the sexualisation of children. Often casting LGBT+ activists as predators or defilers of family values. Unsurprisingly the far right has sensed an opportunity. The far right is working to both promote these conspiracy theories and to recruit from the protests that they have inspired. Nowhere is this more obvious than with the rise of the so-called “QAnon” movement.

QAnon is not so much a conspiracy theory as a bustling ecosystem of bizarre hypotheses, paranoid fantasies and far-right ideological motifs. At its core is the idea that President Trump is part of a group of high-level patriots who are working to expose the ‘real rulers’ of the US. These ‘real rulers’ are a secret satanic society of liberal politicians, faceless bureaucrats and bankers, referred to as “the cabal”. QAnon arose on the 4chan messaging board, one of the centres of the US’s online farright and white-nationalist scene. All posters to 4chan are anonymous, earning users the nickname “Anons”. It makes the site attractive to all sort of fringe communities, including Nazis.

In October 2017, an account identifying itself as “Q” began posting to 4chan. It claimed that it had access to classified intelligence about the Trump administration and its opponents. Q claimed that Trump was fighting a hidden war against the cabal, struggling against a plot to overthrow hi,. This was supposedly led by Hillary Clinton, the liberal media, Hollywood and military intelligence agencies. Q also claimed that that cabal is involved in the abduction of huge numbers of children for use in satanic ceremonies. These children are supposedly kept in underground dungeons for use in ritual sexual abuse while their hormones are farmed for use as a drug.

QAnon frames Trump’s reactionary political agenda as a cosmic battle with the forces of evil. Liberal establishment figures such as Clinton are not just neo-liberal, corrupt and patronising — they are positively demonic. Since its emergence on 4chan, QAnon has gone big. QAnon believers began appearing at Trump rallies in 2018, often with cardboard letter Qs suspended on huge sticks. Soon after, vice-president Mike Pence was photographed next to a member of a Florida SWAT team with the letter Q stitched to his police uniform. Other police officers have since been exposed as co-thinkers, including the president of one of New York City’s police unions.

It is not just individuals within the most right-wing parts of the US state that are drawn towards the conspiracy theory. The biggest QAnon social media groups have millions of members. It is expected that the first QAnon conspiracy theorists will enter the US congress this year. Georgia Republican and QAnon advocate Marjorie Taylor Greene looks set to win a seat in the House of Representatives in November. Her election broadcasts involve her issuing threats to Black Lives Matter demonstrators while waving an assault rifle and a bible. Despite the US-centric nature of QAnon’s vision of a cosmic clash between Trump and the powers of evil, the theory has managed to migrate to Europe. It has begun to gain a foothold in Britain, with “Save Our Children” marches demanding the release of the fabled stolen children from the clutches of the cabal.

Local newspapers have often been blindsided by these events, reporting on them as though they were genuine marches against child sexual exploitation, despite them often veering into homophobic claims that LGBT+ people promote paedophilia. In Germany, QAnon supporters have been involved in two large demonstrations against public health measures in Berlin in August, mixing with members of the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD).

Richard Donnelly is co-editor of International Socialism journal. In November’s Socialist Review Richard completes his analysis of QAnon and conspiracy theories generally with a look at how these ideas and movements are being opposed. This article first appeared in Socialist Review. Reproduced with permission.

Yehudit Yinhar on Unlearning Zionism

Yehudit Yinhar (YY), an artist and activist based in Berlin, is co-founder of the School for Unlearning Zionism, which is running a series of online events and an exhibition this month. ,After claims made about speakers in the October program the KHB turned against the project, blocking the funding and the website of the Kunsthalle […]


Yehudit Yinhar (YY), an artist and activist based in Berlin, is co-founder of the School for Unlearning Zionism, which is running a series of online events and an exhibition this month. ,After claims made about speakers in the October program the KHB turned against the project, blocking the funding and the website of the Kunsthalle hosting the October program., The Antonio Amadeus Foundation, meanwhile, has added the School for Unearning Zionism to its database of antisemitic incidents. Interview by Phil Butland (PB)

PB: Could you start by explaining the idea behind the School for Unlearning Zionism?

YY: The School for Unlearning Zionism was created by a group of Jewish Israelis – artists and researchers – who were interested in reflecting on the hegemonial narrative in which we were raised. It’s a space in which we reflect on the personal and the political in our story, as well as places of power often being invisible to those who are part of it.

We’ve been meeting regularly for almost a year and having this conversation in Hebrew. We’re a group that is quite dynamic – and it’s always been an open format. We thought that so many valuable things are happening in that space that we wanted to share it with others and open it up for joint learning for anyone who’s interested in taking part. That is where the “October Program” was born, where we invite people for the month of October to discuss different historic events that happened in October and look at the hegemonial narrative through these events.

PB: How have things gone so far?

YY: So far, it’s been wonderful! People are very curious, asking super interesting questions. Part of our intention is to create a space in which knowledge which is not usually part of the conversation we were raised in can be presented and discussed and new connections of knowledge can be made.

In that sense, the people who are coming to our sessions are also asking questions from an intersectional or transnational perspective. That is very exciting for us, as part of the work that we’re trying to do, and the spaces of belonging which we’re trying to create, are based on more than ethnic or national identity.

PB: You have had some problems with your funding. Could you explain what happened there?

YY: I am an art student at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee (KHB). The October Program is hosted by the Kunsthalle at Hamburger Platz, which is an independent learning space of the KHB. A complaint was made to the University that four speakers of our “October Program” are associated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The next thing we know, the University says our project “is not funded by public money” (meaning it’s budget has been blocked by the KHB who has since then created a link to a ,,statement on their website distancing themselves from the project which names the BDS resolution)

Our Program is not about BDS but we refuse to accept “BDS: yes or no?“ as the parameters of our conversation.

German institutions cannot claim ownership on which Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian stories may be told publicly – and which should be boycotted (ironically enough). Here we see, again, a German insitution discriminating against marginalized communities and voices because they are saying things which are not part of the German hegemonial narrative.

PB: What can people do to support you?

You can support us by coming to our lectures and listening to our speakers who have many interesting and important things to say! Also visit our exhibition at the Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz! You can create more positive and constructive/productive discussion around these topics, which is meant to include everyone. You can create more schools for unlearning, because there are many more things that we think should be unlearned, and we’re not the only ones who have homework to do.

You can find the programme for the School for Unlearning Zionism here.

This week’s lectures are as follows:

You can see videos from the previous meetings here.

Sudan Uprising

Taking the Sudanese revolution further


16/10/2020

Our group, SudanUprising Germany was founded in January 2019 to support the Sudanese revolution. Next week we are launching a new initiative, the #EndJanjaweed campaign. Through it, we aim to end Germany and the EU’s immoral support for migration control and externalized borders in Sudan, and by extension, its complicity in the rise of the Janjaweed militia, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The word “Janjaweed” is from the Darfur region of Sudan. It refers to militias that are accused by Darfurians and human rights groups of committing genocide, war crimes and mass rape. The RSF has terrorized IDPs, women, migrants, and protestors around the country.

EU policy, led by Germany, has been a key factor since 2015 in the violation of refugee and migrants’ rights in the Horn of Africa. The EU channels its money through a “cooperation framework” called The Khartoum Process. The RSF were tasked by then dictator Omar al-Bashir of intercepting refugees and migrants at the borders. Though al-Bashir is gone, there is evidence that the Khartoum Process not only remains but may be expanding.

SudanUprising Germany’s new website (live from 18/10 on) is the best way to stay informed about the campaign and how to support it.

Solidarity Message: The statue of peace must remain!

Statement by the Filipino Women’s Organisation Gabriela Germany on the threatened removal of the Trostfrauen statue in Berlin-Moabit


13/10/2020

by Gabriela Germany

 

We in ‘Gabriela Germany’ and ‘International Womens Alliance’ extend our solidarity in amplifying the voices of AG “Trostfrauen“- Solidarity for Comfort Women, Korea Verband – and we state that the Statue of Peace in Moabit, Berlin must stay.

The Statue of Peace commemorates the more than 200,000 girls and women from 14 countries who were sexually enslaved as “comfort women” by the Japanese military during the World War 2 in the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The women in the Philippines, spearheaded by the comfort women organisation ‘Lila Pilipina’ have suffered many state repressions. Including that a copy of the same statue as in Moabit, dedicated to former „comfort women“ – was removed on April 2018, only a few months after its inauguration. This unjust removal order was a sign that the Philippine government itself kowtows to the order and political pressures of the Japanese government to forbid installations of such statues.

The plan to remove the memorial of peace by the German government indicates the insensibility to the continued sexualized violence perpetrated against girls and women during wars and peacetime. This is a chapter of history during the Second World War, a war of aggression that so hardly affected the Asia-Pacific that could not be erased. The peace memorial is a symbol against war crimes, sexual abuses and atrocities committed by the Japanese against women.

Again, we stand firm and strong that the statue and all that it symbolizes should remain. Removing this statue of remembrance is like violation of the rights, abuse and repression of women twice over, as even our right to remember and honor are brazenly disrespected and forcibly denied. We challenge the German Government to stand with the ‘AG Trostfrauen’ and all other women that advocate the same call, lest we will never forget the significance of such statues in reminding us to never repeat the horrors wars of aggression bring.

THE STATUE OF PEACE MUST REMAIN!

NO TO THE REMOVAL OF THE STATUE OF PEACE IN BERLIN!