http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.24.1.1/5284?ns=guardian&pageName=Greek+police+accused+of+collaborating+with+Golden+Dawn%3AArticle%3A1757295&ch=World+news&c3=Guardian&c4=Greece+%28News%29%2CGolden+Dawn+%28News%29%2CFar+right%2CEurozone+crisis%2CEurope+%28News%29%2CWorld+news&c5=Unclassified%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful&c6=Helena+Smith&c7=12-Jun-08&c8=1757295&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=World+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&c42=News&h2=GU%2FNews%2FWorld+news%2FGreece
Golden Dawn spokesman who assaulted leftwing politicians evades arrest as protesters denounce fascism
Protesters across Greece poured on to the streets of cities Friday night, denouncing the "dark force" of fascism as the spokesman of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party continued to elude arrest more than 24 hours after his extraordinary on-screen assault of two female leftwing politicians.
Nine days before fresh general elections, the fault lines in Greek society are deepening.
And late on Friday, as a police manhunt for Ilias Kasidiaris showed little sign of yielding a positive result, the divisions were on full display.
While anti-fascist demonstrators descended on public squares, supporters of Golden Dawn crammed into a hotel in Athens to hear the party's leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, rail against immigrant "scum" and the corrupt and crooked system that had brought the crisis-hit country to such a "dark place".
"There is growing polarisation. People are becoming increasingly radicalised thanks to all the rhetoric in the EU and here against the anti-austerity leftist majority and that is opening the door for Golden Dawn," said veteran activist Petros Constantinou. "We are demonstrating not only against the rise of the far right but against those who have enabled fascism to take root."
Constantinou, a tall, thin man who has spent years running an organisation that protects migrants, is, like a growing number of Greeks, convinced that it is the police who have facilitated Golden Dawn. "Without police cover and protection Golden Dawn would not have survived," he said. "And the proof of that is the failure to capture Kasidiaris.
"How is it possible that a man can do what he did in a television studio and yet manage to get away and stay on the run after a state prosecutor has ordered his arrest? The police clearly don't want to arrest him."
Dimitris Trimis, the head of the Greek journalists' association, ESEA, agreed. In a nation where physical violence is rare – and public displays of violence against women even rarer – Kasidiaris's assault on Liana Kanelli and Rena Dourou, during a live TV debate of politicians representing the seven parties that won seats in the country's inconclusive 6 May election, had clearly shocked Greeks (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/07/golden-dawn-tv-assault-greece?newsfeed=true).
All day Friday, TV channels had replayed footage showing Kasidiaris, a former commando in the Greek army, lashing out at Dourou first, hurling a glass of water in her face before turning his fists on Kanelli, the KKE communist party's spokeswoman, a former news anchor.
But his ability to evade arrest was entirely plausible, said Trimis.
"Suspicions of the collaboration between the police and Golden Dawn were confirmed at the ballot box in May," he said.
"As much as 50% of the police force voted for the party. There might be all the political will to arrest Kasidiarias. But there is a certain level of unwillingness among the police force that will stop that happening."
For years, he said, rightwing extremists had done the police force's "dirty work", mopping up migrants from the ghettoes of inner Athens in exchange for protection.
The spokesman of the Hellenic police force, Thanassis Kokkalakis, denied the accusations and said special units all over Greece were looking for Kasidiaris.
"Our belief is that he is hiding in the knowledge that the arrest warrant runs out at one minute past midnight. He doesn't want the media all over him, showing him in handcuffs ahead of the election."
Golden Dawn is widely regarded as Europe's most fanatical neo-Nazi party, going so far as to ensure that its emblem bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika.
By playing on deep disgruntlement over the punishing income cuts and tax increases demanded by creditors in return for rescue loans, it won 7% of the vote last month – ushering the hard right's entry into parliament for the first time since the collapse of military rule in 1974. Although polls have shown its popularity dropping to as low as 3.6% as Greeks gear up for a second election, it would be enough to allow the party representation in Athens' 300-seat house.
Emboldened by the growing divisions between left and right, rich and poor, Golden Dawn has resolutely refused to condemn or even reprimand Kasidiaris for his behaviour. A party statement said the spokesman had instead been provoked by the female politicians.
"Ms Kanelli got up first ... hitting him unprovoked in the face with a sheaf of documents," it said.
The denial fits in with the neo-Nazi party's history of terrorising women, including female journalists whose photographs and passport numbers have been published in the party's weekly newspaper.
With Thursday's assault quickly followed by Golden Dawn attacks on socialist MPs campaigning in northern Greece and leftwing students at Athens' Panteion University, there are mounting concerns that the darkening mood could be a precursor of worse to come – even if Kasidiaris's explosive temper has shone a spotlight on the party as never before.
On television and radio chatshows commentators voiced fears that in a country where memories of the brutal 1946-49 civil war are still vivid, Greece could be hurtling towards a full-scale social breakdown – sparked initially by its worst economic crisis in modern times and now exacerbated by the political uncertainty engulfing the nation.
"After months of extreme hate speech, violence has climaxed," wrote the analyst Vivian Ethymiopoulou in the mass-selling Ta Nea newspaper.
"From verbal run-ins and yoghurt throwing we have officially passed to acts of personal revenge and daggers being drawn."

Greece (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/greece)
Golden Dawn party (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/golden-dawn)
The far right (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/far-right)
Eurozone crisis (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/debt-crisis)
Europe (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news)

Helena Smith (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/helenasmith)

guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk) © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions (http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html) | More Feeds (http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds)

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BNaDmVcxJSy6GQaEdwI0JxAdKW4/0/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BNaDmVcxJSy6GQaEdwI0JxAdKW4/0/da)
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BNaDmVcxJSy6GQaEdwI0JxAdKW4/1/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/BNaDmVcxJSy6GQaEdwI0JxAdKW4/1/da)


More... (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/08/greek-police-golden-dawn)

And who was the first to stand up to the fascists, a few days ago and seventy years ago? These scum of humanity have no memory, but KKE does.

Statement of the Press Office of the CC on the thuggish attack of the representative of the “Golden dawn”

“The KKE condemns the thuggish attack of the representative of the “Golden Dawn” against the MP of the KKE Liana Kanelli and generally his behaviour on the TV programme “Good morning Greece” against the representatives of other parties like SYRIZA.

The Nazi formation can be dealt with by the people themselves through the strengthening and the radicalization of the workers’ and people’s movement. Only a movement of rupture and overthrow can eliminate such organizations which operate as the iron fist of the system itself. Furthermore, “Golden Dawn” has supported for many years the employers’ organizations against the working people through strike-breaking etc.

The working people, the youth, the pensioners who voted for “Golden Dawn” must abandon it and join their class and the KKE “

Extracts from the speech of the GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, at the press conference:

“Allow me to condemn, on behalf of the party of course, the well known thuggish assault of the candidate of “Golden Dawn” against Liana Kanelli and the SYRIZA candidate Rena Dourou.

We clarify our position: the response to “Golden Dawn cannot be either “an eye for an eye” or a policy of revenge. The response should be given above all by the people in the elections. Of course, we do not blame those who voted for the “Golden Dawn” for the activities and the orientation of this party. Nevertheless, they should realize that they have the weapon of the vote and should marginalize “Golden Dawn” because that is what it deserves.

Above all such Nazi formations can be dealt with by a well organized and deeply politicized workers’ and people’s movement. We underline the issue of deep politicization because the yardstick for the orientation of the movement in a period of crisis is completely different from any other period we have experienced.

We should remind you of something else: “Golden Dawn” has always been available to offer its services to the employers or employer-led trade unionism and indeed its services have been requested on several occasions in order to break strikes, and with its thuggish violence and the use of fear to push the workers to abandon such forms of struggle.

I think that the time has come for the workers to think again as to why the KKE was skeptical and reserved about various movements which emerged during the crisis, that regardless of the slogans, were movements without a clear identity. “Golden Dawn” was one of the forces that operated systematically in these movements and tried to replace the spontaneous popular demands with the well-known slogans “300 to the place of execution in Goudi”, “Burn the Parliament” etc which they often said in cruder ways. Obviously the ordinary people who participated are not to blame for this. Indeed there were also the slogans “Parties out” and “Trade unions out”. In these movements without a clear identity, which may have had a spontaneous character to a certain extent, such organizations can operate comfortably and can play a very damaging role regarding the politicization of the working class-popular masses, but chiefly through provocations and the undermining of any genuine spontaneous protests which can lead to their dissolution.

Some people who very easily denounced the KKE when it expressed its doubts about the effectiveness of movements without a clear identity should think again.



http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2012/2012-06-08-epithesi-kan

I think that the time has come for the workers to think again as to why the KKE was skeptical and reserved about various movements which emerged during the crisis, that regardless of the slogans, were movements without a clear identity. “Golden Dawn” was one of the forces that operated systematically in these movements and tried to replace the spontaneous popular demands with the well-known slogans “300 to the place of execution in Goudi”, “Burn the Parliament” etc which they often said in cruder ways. Obviously the ordinary people who participated are not to blame for this. Indeed there were also the slogans “Parties out” and “Trade unions out”. In these movements without a clear identity, which may have had a spontaneous character to a certain extent, such organizations can operate comfortably and can play a very damaging role regarding the politicization of the working class-popular masses, but chiefly through provocations and the undermining of any genuine spontaneous protests which can lead to their dissolution.

Wow, I just realized that the role of "Golden Dawn" in the Wisconsin debacle was played by the Democratic Party. Man, the KKE just goes from strong position to strong position! Always making exactly the right step.

Wow, I just realized that the role of "Golden Dawn" in the Wisconsin debacle was played by the Democratic Party. Man, the KKE just goes from strong position to strong position! Always making exactly the right step.

As much as our first instincts were to call for pay-backs this is the correct course, in this case the sweetest revenge will be had at the ballot box. Always principles first so the people always know where the Party stands. When the machinations of the 'leftist collation' proves as hollow as the rest KKE will be alone on the high ground.(which will also make them a bigger target too)

Golden Dawn will undoubtably provide many other provocations to beat the hell out of them, but not this time.