My speech at the antifascist demo at the Greek Embassy in London - September 19. 2013 The murder of Pavlos Fyssas by the neonazi thugs of Golden Dawn is further proof that the situation in Greece is that of a state of exception. This is certainly not the first time that Golden Dawn attacks and kills people in the streets. This is what this gang has been doing from the outset and increasingly so over the last year. In particular, we do not forget the murder of the Pakistani worker Sahjat Lukman in January - just one of the many racist murders that have taken place in Grece in recent years. Everyone, however, understands that the murder of a leftist and antifascist activist constitutes a significant turning point. Coming after the military attack against communist activists in the neighbouring suburb of Perama, it signals a qualititive escalation in the strategy of tension pursued by Golden Dawn. And this strategy could not have been implemented without the direct and indirect support of the state, of the police and of the media. Let us say first a few words about Pavlos. Pavlos Fyssas was a 34 year old handsome working-class guy, working occasionaly as a metal worker at the shipyards, the job his father did all his life. Like him Pavlos was a member of the metal-workers union, a combative, class-oriented union and spent his life in Keratsini, an emblematic workers stronghold of the industrial belt of Piraeus. Pavlos was also a well-known figure in the local community and beyond. He was a committed antifascist and by the stage name of Killah P. an artist active in the hip hop scene. His songs express the rage of the people of his class. But, his was a rage that was politically loaded and class aware. By listening to his songs, thousands of young people could get a glimpse of a political discourse directly connected to their everyday experience. Pavlos became a target of neonazi thugs because he was one of those people whose presence on the ground, in those working-class neighbourhoods devastated by the crisis, is a permanent obstacle for fascist agitation and recruitment. Pavlos’s murder is not an isolated act. It is not a coincidence that violence escalated precisely after the start of the most important strikes of the past 18 months. It is not a coincidence that, throughout this period, Golden Dawn has enjoyed the some times passive some times active support of the Greek police – a police force which is deeply infiltrated by the fascist cancer. And, of course, it is not a coincidence that successive governments have been targeting migrants for many years, legitimising thus the racist discourse that portrays them as responsible for the crisis. Following on its predecesors’ footsteps, the current government has turned racism into a state doctrine and policy. It has also legitimised Golden Dawn’s inclusion into the political scene through the use of the so-called theory of the « two extremes ». - a theory constantly propagated by the media which essentially claims that the nazis are not worse than the radical left and that nazi violence is no bigger threat than the supposed violence of popular protests. How has all this become possible? Why is fascism, in its most radical form, on the rise in a country like Greece with such an experience of dictatorships and where fascism never before developed into a popular movement ? The answer is in a way quite simple. Fascism and its political expression, Golden Dawn, could only emerge as a mass movement in a country devastated by the shock doctrine applied over the last three years under the supervision of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. In a country where recession, unemployment and poverty have reached levels unseen in this part of the world since the 1930s; In a country where democracy has been destroyed and an entire society humiliated. It is not possible to wage any serious fight against fascism without simultaneously fighting against those policies that paved the way to its rise. It is a scandal to stigmatise the Greek people or any part of Greek society for their alleged propensity to support a fascist party without seeing the scale of the destruction and the despair that lies behind it. In order to fight fascism, it is indispensable that we achieve the broadest posible unity. But this unity, should not, by any means, serve as a pretext to build bridges with parties or the system that produced these developments. This unity can only be the unity of all the forces involved in the popular resistance against those barbaric policies. It has to be built at all levels through joint actions and discussions. Our gathering today shows that such unity is not only necessary but also possible. We call on everyone who is interested, to join us in forming a network against fascism in Greece. This is the moment to fight back. Θάνατος στον φασισμό! No pasaran !
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 00:55:36 +0000
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