AAfG announcement for the Golden Dawn trial

On the 20th of April begins the trial of the neo-Nazi gang “Golden Dawn. According to recorded incidents, more than 2,000 individuals have been victims of racist murderous attacks during the last few years in Greece, and these attacks are continuing. It is time the criminals who murdered Pavlos Fyssas and Sachzat Loukman by means of their assault battalions, and those who armed the neo-Nazis, are convicted for these crimes. After the outbreak of the economic crisis and the austerity policies against working people enforced by the memorandum governments in Greece, the neo-Nazis managed to propel themselves to third place in the Greek Parliament. “Golden Dawn” is a criminal organisation which hails Adolf Hitler as its idol, and enforces street violence and pogroms as methods of “national uplift” in the hope that the door to power will open for them. The racist and xenophobic rhetoric of the previous New Democracy led coalition government, as well as the cooperation and cover provided by the Police and the Judiciary, armed the hands of the neo-Nazis and allowed them to attack immigrants, refugees, solidarity groups, the Roma community, communists, LGBT people, and anyone they labeled as an “internal enemy”.

The crisis of the capitalist system, the European economic policies of extreme austerity, the racist speech and scapegoating of immigrants propagated via mass media, as well as the much touted supposed connection of immigration with criminality promoted by right-wing leaders such as Antonis Samaras in Greece, assisted in the explosion of racist far-right groups in most EU countries. At the same time this xenophobic and anti-immigration propaganda was used, by those who ultimately serve the interests of banks and big capital, as a means of justifying social problems such as unemployment, poverty, inaccessibility to health services and education, effectively hiding the real reasons for the economic crisis and the austerity imposed on the majority of their countries’ citizens. During this capitalist crisis we have seen walls of shame raised at the eastern borders of Europe, the reinforcement of FRONTEX which makes a profit out of the misery of refugees and immigrants as well as the lucrative contracts agreed with the corrupt European elite, the resurrection of concentration camps, the day to day downplaying of refugee deaths in the Mediterranean sea and Europe’s borders as something unavoidable or a necessary evil.

The antifascist-antiracist movement and its supporters in Greece managed to isolate “Golden Dawn” in neighbourhoods and urban centres. They also managed to pressure the previous government and the Judiciary into imprisoning the leadership and members high up in the hierarchy of the criminal organisation. The new government will have to ensure that the trial of the neo-Nazi thugs is widely publicised and that all victims are heard and protected. “Anti-Fascist Action for Greece” calls everyone who believes in human rights, social justice, and freedom, to unite our struggle in the streets and never let fascism pass again. Antifascist and antiracist action concerns everyone. The enemies of every notion of democracy and freedom must be isolated and punished for their crimes.

AAfG

To go to the rally call, please click here.

Advertisement