Racism from Greece and Greeks

[spitfire]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Surely you're aware of the many outrageous things that they do already...

It's called inciting violence, usually done through hate speech, some bananas call that "freedom of speech"...

On the contrary. They will use the deprive of freedom of speech as an excuse. I posted a documentary yesterday on the topic. If you take the time to watch it, you'll understand everything about the rise of the golden dawn.

It's the mentality of people changing slowly that put a brake on their rise. It will take some time more unfortunately. But making martyrs out of them will not help.

[Constellation]

Originally Posted by spitfire

On the contrary. They will use the deprive of freedom of speech as an excuse. I posted a documentary yesterday on the topic. If you take the time to watch it, you'll understand everything about the rise of the golden dawn.

It's the mentality of people changing slowly that put a brake on their rise. It will take some time more unfortunately. But making martyrs out of them will not help.

If Golden Dawn is a neo-nazi movement, it would mean the organization would combine a left wing economic ideology (socialism) with racism.

I would imagine such an ideology would be popular in Greece.

[Gocka]

That is their stance, and that is why they are gaining in popularity.

Originally Posted by Constellation

If Golden Dawn is a neo-nazi movement, it would mean the organization would combine a left wing economic ideology (socialism) with racism.

I would imagine such an ideology would be popular in Greece.

[Constellation]

If I recall correctly, did not Hitler dislike Greeks and so-called "Slavs"?

Did he not call the Greeks "The Gypsies of Europe"?

So what gives?

[spitfire]

Originally Posted by Constellation

If Golden Dawn is a neo-nazi movement, it would mean the organization would combine a left wing economic ideology (socialism) with racism.

I would imagine such an ideology would be popular in Greece.

It's not about ideology, it's about money. Did you see the documentary? There was proof after it was published. The "baltakos gate" happened after that and thus the documentary was true!

In case you don't know what the "baltakos gate" is:
A couple of months after the documentary, one of the accused members of golden dawn, exposed the secretary of the cabinet talking to him and giving him all the information of how the prime minister organised the plan of the arrest and the whole planning that involved the minister of justice and the minister of public safety.
The plot involved their intervention in the justice system and accusations that were made up.

To cut a long story short, golden dawn is proved to have connections with the government, "under the table" as the documentary exposed.

[Gocka]

Originally Posted by Constellation

If I recall correctly, did not Hitler dislike Greeks and so-called "Slavs"?

Did he not call the Greeks "The Gypsies of Europe"?

So what gives?

http://books.google.com/books?id=KqT...ypsies&f=false

Page 76.


This is where I think what your saying above originates from.

Most neo nazi groups in the world do and say plenty of things that are contrary to real nazis, what gives? I have no idea.

[spitfire]

Originally Posted by Constellation

If Golden Dawn is a neo-nazi movement, it would mean the organization would combine a left wing economic ideology (socialism) with racism.

I would imagine such an ideology would be popular in Greece.

Excuse my second quote on the same. Just to clarify that nationalsozialismus means that a nazi actually is a socialist.

The difference between communism and nazism is that communism builds a new society based on a new man, whereas a nazi builds the same but takes into account the race. It's basically the same centralized principle. Nazis were leftist.

[George S.]

AMHRC CALLS UPON AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT TO DENY

GREEK “NEO NAZI” GROUP MPs ENTRY INTO AUSTRALIA



Melbourne, Australia

27 August 2014



The Australian Macedonian Human Rights Committee (AMHRC) is deeply concerned about reports that European Parliament MPs from the Greek political party Golden Dawn, Eleftherios Synadinos and Georgios Epitideios, are set to visit Australia in October in order to “raise funds and increase awareness among Greek-Australians” according to a statement by Golden Dawn's Australian representative.



At present, the Golden Dawn political party has no less than 18 members in the Greek Parliament and 3 seats in the European Parliament. The party preaches an openly “neo-Nazi” platform, promoting the supremacy of the Greek nation and hatred of others. According to a report submitted by the Greek Helsinki Monitor (an Athens based human rights organisation) to the United Nations Committee on the



Elimination of Racism and Discrimination (UN CERD), Golden Dawn is “openly neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, racist and white supremacist and have been involved in many violent incidents against migrants, Macedonians ... as well as in desecration of

Jewish monuments” (See full GHM submission here:



http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/cerds75.htm)



In the Greek Parliament, MPs belonging to the Golden Dawn party frequently refer to Macedonians as “Gypsy-Skopians” (a highly offensive term of abuse) and call for the destruction of the Macedonian state. On the 4th of June 2009, Golden Dawn members forcibly disrupted the launch of a Greek-Macedonian dictionary in Athens by the ethnic Macedonian political party in Greece, Ouranio Toxo (EFA-Rainbow Party), threatened the participants, damaged equipment and destroyed promotional materials. The party regularly threatens and harasses activists belonging to Greece’s sizeable Macedonian minority, deeming them to be a “traitorous fifth column” simply because they demand respect for their basic human rights.



While such manifestations of intolerance and racism may be acceptable to Golden Dawn supporters and more widely to certain elements within Greek society itself, they have absolutely no place in Australian society.



The AMHRC calls on the Minister for Immigration, the Hon. Scott Morrison MP, to take action to prevent the abovementioned Golden Dawn MPs from visiting Australia for the purpose of disseminating their racist propaganda. Under Section 501 of the Australian Migration Act 1958, the Minister has the power to refuse entry into Australia of persons who do not meet the character test as defined in the Act. We strongly believe that no sitting MP in the Greek or European Parliaments belonging to the Golden Dawn party or any office bearer of the Golden Dawn party would meet the character test requirements as defined in subsection (6) of Section 501. Namely,

we believe that there is strong evidence to support the view that in the event that any such person as described above were allowed to enter or remain in Australia, they would:

(iii) vilify a segment of the Australian community; or

(iv) incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community; or

(v) represent a danger to the Australian community or to a segment of that community, whether by way of being liable to become involved in activities that are disruptive to, or in violence threatening harm to, that community or segment, or in any other way.



The AMHRC also appeals to all community organisations in Australia, especially those of the Greek and Jewish communities, to join this call from within the Australian Macedonian community for the abovementioned European Parliament Golden Dawn MPs and indeed all Golden Dawn MPs and representatives to be denied entry into Australia.



AUSTRALIAN MACEDONIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE (AMHRC)

Suite 106, Level 1, 55 Flemington Rd

North Melbourne VIC 3051, Australia

Tel/Fax: +61 3 9329 8960

Email:info@macedonianhr.org.au

Visit our website: www.macedonianhr.org.au
These people shouldn't be allowed to come to Australia.

[George S.]

Solun mayor Boutaris sworn in wearing yellow star amid Golden Dawn protests



Solun Mayor Yiannis Boutaris wore a yellow Star of David badge, like the ones worn by Jews rounded up in the northern city during the Second World War, on Thursday for his swearing-in ceremony.



Boutaris pinned the badge to his jacket amid protest by leftists against the presence of Golden Dawn MP Artemis Matthaiopoulos on the municipal council. Mathaiopoulos gained 7.7 percent of the vote when he stood for Solun mayor in May’s local elections, helping Golden Dawn elect two councilors.



Protesters exchanged chants and insults with Golden Dawn supporters who sat in the opposite public gallery at the municipal council. Boutaris pleaded with both sides to calm down.



“The municipal council is not a coffee house or a soccer stadium,” said Boutaris, who prevailed comfortably in May’s elections, winning 58.1 percent of the vote in the second round to secure a second term.



His decision to wear the yellow badge carries significant symbolism as almost 90 percent of Solun’s Jews were killed during the Second World War after being transported to Nazi German concentration camps, leaving only some 10,000 survivors.

[George S.]

Greek Australians vow to stop neo-fascist party from spreading hate as extremist group steps up efforts to tap diaspora for support

Helena Smith in Athens and Michael Safi in Sydney

Thursday 28 August 2014

theguardian.com

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...reek-community

----

A planned visit to Australia by members of the European parliament representing Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party has been met with embarrassment and dismay by leading members of the country’s Greek community.

Days after the extremist group announced that former army generals Eleftherios Synadinos and Georgios Epitideios would visit Sydney and Melbourne in October, Greek Australians vowed to stop the organisation spreading its message of hate.

“Greeks in Australia oppose Golden Dawn,” Bill Papastergiadis, the president of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria, told Guardian Australia. “The visit by an anti-immigrant party is incompatible with the pluralist and multicultural society in which we live.”

More than 300,000 people of Greek descent live in Melbourne.

The forthcoming trip is the most concrete sign yet of the neo-fascists’ determination to extend their global reach. Emboldened by its unexpectedly good performance in recent local and European polls, the Holocaust-denying party, now the third-biggest political force in Athens, has stepped up efforts to tap the Greek diaspora for support.

Australia appears to have pride of place in that campaign. Ignatius Gavrilidis, Golden Dawn’s newly appointed Australia representative, told the ABC support for the group was soaring, especially among younger Greek Australians, despite a judicial inquiry in Greece that has unmasked the movement as a criminal organisation. Most of its leadership is detained in pre-trial custody as a result.

The visit aimed to raise awareness and funds, Gavrilidis said. He acknowledged that some ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn MPs admired Hitler – with its leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, keeping a portrait of the Führer in his home – but they neither espoused nor endorsed Nazi ideology.

“Yes they have admired the leadership of Hitler, just like we also admire the leadership of many strong leaders across the world,” Gavrilidis told the public broadcaster. “Vladimir Putin is a very strong leader. He’s got integrity. Benjamin Netanyahu is a very strong leader.”

Supporters in Australia numbered in the “thousands” even if there were no more than 70 activists nationwide, Gavrilidis said.

But Greek community leaders denied the far-right group had any appeal. “Support for Golden Dawn is largely nonexistent,” Papastergiadis said. “They have no profile whatsoever in Australia.”

Victorian Liberal MP Nick Kotsiras, a former minister in the state government, echoed that sentiment, saying Golden Dawn had minimal support among Australia’s Greek community.

“I am embarrassed by the existence of Golden Dawn. Golden Dawn does not represent me, it does not represent my family and does not represent the vast majority of Greeks living in Victoria,” he said. “But they are also not representative of Greeks living in Greece. They are the antithesis of what the Hellenic spirit is all about.”

The politician insisted that if the far-right MEPs were allowed into Australia it should only be after passing the character test automatically conducted on people trying to enter who are suspected of being associated with a criminal organisation.

In May, black-shirted Golden Dawn followers clashed with Greek Australians from the anti-fascist front during a protest in Brisbane that was also attended by supporters of the far-right Australia First party.

A Greek-Australian organiser with the Melbourne Anti-Fascist Initiative, Alex Kakafikas, said opponents of Golden Dawn were meeting to discuss their response to the MEPs’ visit, including a blockade of any events they held.

“The ultimate goal is to stop them from having their meeting,” he said.

Kakafikas said Golden Dawn maintained a “shadowy” presence in Melbourne and had only a few supporters.

“But one of the problems is that local Greek-Australian supporters are making connections with the far-right in Australia. Golden Dawn’s Australian leader has spoken at an Australia First meeting,” he said.

“It’s not that Golden Dawn will be able to muster enough energy for political influence here. Our concern is its ability to contribute resources [to the Greek branch] and to send people over there to work with the organisation,” he said. Australian members of the group had regularly travelled to Greece to take part in demonstrations and engage in “paramilitary training”, he said.

In Athens, leftist activists who maintain contact with the Melbourne-based “No to Golden Dawn” campaign pledged to help stop the party broadening its support base.

“Their aim, clearly, is to set up Nazi cells of hate in the Greek diaspora that would strengthen far-right forces that already exist in Australia and the United States,” said Petros Constantinou, a prominent campaigner with the Movement against Racism and the Fascist Threat (Keerfa).

“We will coordinate with our friends over there to stop them creating this black international of fascism. We will help and support their mobilisations in any way we can,” he said in Keerfa’s Athens office. “Diaspora Greeks, immigrants themselves, have been very vociferous in rejecting Golden Dawn’s message of hate.”

The party, whose insignia bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika, has gone out of its way to soften its image as support for the organisation has risen on the back of Greece’s economic and social collapse. Both Epitideios, an erstwhile Nato commander and Synadinos, the former head of Greece’s special forces, are representative of Golden Dawn’s determination to replace boots with suits in an effort to expand its appeal.

But although the makeover appears to have paid off – with the far-rightists more than doubling the party’s showing in the Athens mayoral election in May – Golden Dawn MPs still face criminal charges for the brazen violence and hate speech they have directed against immigrants, gay people and Jews. Attacks against dark-skinned migrants and homosexuals by black-shirted assault squads have once again proliferated over the Athens summer.

Michaloliakos, who founded the party more than 30 years ago, and is accused of murder, extortion and assault, will stand trial with other MPs later this year.

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