[GREECE] AFTERMATH OF A MURDER - About fascism and the discussion within the left

We publish an article written by a Greek comrade about fascism and the discussion within the left. This article was written after the assesination of Pavlos Fyssas, a greek activist, an anti-fascist artist. The issues covered by the article are timely and very important regarding the events in Ukraine and the development of fascists groups in Europe.

AFTERMATH OF A MURDER

Golden Dawn, an old story

Golden Dawn (GD) is not new. It was founded in the early 80's and was from the very beginning a neonazi group.[1] It is responsible for hundreds of attacks on immigrants and left militants[2]. And murders also, with the last one being the assassination of Pavlos Fyssas on 17/9/2013.

Golden Dawn always had a privileged relationship with sections of the state apparatus and especially the police and always enjoyed tolerance and essentially asylum by the bourgeois governments.

During these years of crisis GD turned from a small marginal neonazi group into a party that won 441.018 votes (6,97%) in the June 2012 national elections. And that happened while remaining a fascist party, although it now claims to be “just” nationalistic, misleading and reluctantly disclaiming its former open accession to Nazism. But, let's take a step back first:

How does fascism grow?

In an historical level, the victory of fascism not only expresses the huge deadlock of the bourgeois regime but also the weakness of the proletariat to overthrow capitalism for its own historical purposes and interests. Not only expresses the failure of social-democratic and generally parliamentary management of capitalism but also the lack of a revolutionary party of the working class, able to lead the liberation struggle of the masses.

Fascism organizes, militarizes and mobilizes despairing petty-bourgeois masses, also entraining impoverished or backward sections of the proletariat and turns them into violent attack on the working class and its organizations. The misery produced by the very crisis of capitalism becomes through fascism, a murder weapon in it's service, against the class that can overthrow capitalism. The Capital finds in the face of fascism, a movement of masses acting in it's service to deteriorate and discourage working class with systematic terrorism and violent attacks, the aim of which is capturing the power to completely crush all mass organizations of the working class, to crush, in the literal sense, the militant and political forefront and keep for a long time the working class in a state of coercive fragmentation.

The conquest of petty-bourgeois masses by the fascists is not at all a given. Particularly in the early establishment of the fascist movement, the fascists organize only a small part of their potential social base, the most scoundrel. The great masses tentatively swing between the two camps. The "stake" of the bourgeoisie on the fascists is a double-edged sword, as it is an open, violent attack in a crowded and organized class, the working class (in any case, with far greater potential for organization -therefore potential of centralized power- than the middle class).

The reaction of the working class in the genesis of the fascist threat is the catalytic criterion for the further development of the fascist movement and whether the Monopoly Capital will invest "all-in" to the fascist option, having secured or at least quite likely not to risk it's overthrow .

The bourgeoisie will play "in full " the fascist option of "all or nothing" when sure enough - from the way the working class reacts against the emergence and development of fascism – that the odds are in favor of "all" and not of "nothing" with regard to its class domination.

A common and powerful response, combative defense and safeguard of members and organizations from the side of the working class makes dubious the use value of fascism for the bourgeoisie and simultaneously undermines the possibility of widening the fascists mass base, snapping the " radical " dynamic picture of the "invincible and fearless savior" cultivated by the fascists, casts doubt, to their social reservoir for further enlargement, on the prospects of their victory. Such a development tightens the lines within the working class, strengthens confidence and assertiveness, widens the leading shoulder at petty exploited strata, cultivates the ground for a social and political revolutionary counterattack.

On the contrary, any development that indicates passivity and resignation, split, inefficiency and loss, enhances the "security" felt by the bourgeoisie in order to “play the fascist card” and expands the reach and ability of the fascists massing from the lines of desperate petty-bourgeois, unemployed and politically backward workers.

Therefore it is absolutely necessary, that the organizations of the working class (trade-unions, political parties etc) from the beginning and jointly defend class members, organizations, strikes and protests against the attacks of the fascists, to defend the vested political and trade union rights and freedoms and to turn their interest in wrestling for the problems on which the fascist's opportunistic demagogue relies to grow. If the working class and its organizations are reluctant or subside then give the margin to fascism to enormously grow, showed up as the only one who has the determination, vigor, courage and fist to impose "drastic solutions".

Why did Golden Dawn grow?

The current global capitalist crisis, creates economic and social conditions for the resurgence of the fascist phenomenon. The highly peaked manner and forms of manifestation of the crisis in Greece, based on a pre-existing damage to the political system of bourgeois parliamentary democracy and a relatively large area of middle and petty-bourgeois classes- created the social and political support for the emergence of fascism.

After the crisis outbreak and the Memorandums, a huge lack of political representation and leadership of the broad masses developed, creating the conditions necessary for exiting the fascists of GD from the political fringe, as reserve of the bourgeoisie for the contra-revolutionary integration of the petty-bourgeoisie and crushing the resistance of the labor movement.

From the Memorándum to the National Elections

The revolutionary Left was (and still is) unable to establish a united front tactic of fight and a convincing revolutionary political proposal and -in close interconnection with it- the vanguard of the industrial proletariat is unable to put its stamp on the developments, in spite of partial and incomplete efforts (eg the nine-month Halyvourgia strike). The defeat and retreat of militant mobilizations against the enactment of the First Memorandum, as we approached the 2012 elections, gave the time, social and political room to consolidate the presence of the Golden Dawn.

However the electoral slogan of SYRIZA about a "left government" played a double role : on the one hand it replaced the void of a revolutionary political solution in a reformist and ultimately unrealistic way, perversely expressing however the adversarial dynamic of the situation. On the other hand, created the premise of a new social-democratic reserve for the bourgeoisie to integrate the petty bourgeois masses and the labor movement. The side effect was a temporary and unstable possibility of halting further massification of the fascists.

For the bourgeoisie to create a new social democratic reserve, even though it has not the potential to longevity and to " thrive" in the long run as PASOK, even if it works as "disposable", is an option that can be particularly useful. The evolution of the crisis and inter-imperialist rivalries, the agony and the friction inside the Greek ruling class about the prospects of it's position in the imperialist chain, make it even more important that there is a social-democratic alternative. The "capacity for resilience and flex" that the leadership of SYRIZA demonstrated (eg the "Europeanist" Tsipras has no problem asking a new " Marshall Plan " while remaining defender of the Euro) and the process of recycling and reusing politicians and worn bureaucrats coming from PASOK portend good prospects for the formation of a new social democratic reserve.

However there is also the opposite side, concerning the working class. Arises not from the leadership of SYRIZA, either from the non-existent prospects of inter-party dominance of the radical wing of SYRIZA. Derives from the "adversarial dynamism" that the slogan of the “left government” contains, the promise for termination of the Memorandum etc, ie the promise of a rupture with dominant political policies of the bourgeoisie. It is assumed that none of these ruptures can take place substantially without the application of a revolutionary transitional program. However, this “adversarial dynamism” of SYRIZA that still managed to illusionary balance between the social democratic adaptation and rupture, managed simultaneously to hinder further enlargement of despair that feeds the fascists.

But still, GD got 6,97% in the elections. And the oncoming social democratic adaptation of SYRIZA would work vice versa. The social democratic recipe can not solve the problems of the masses during the crisis. Despair will be expanded. The unstable equilibrium point cannot last forever. A united front of anti-fascist action was needed at instance. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Antifascist action was not absent, but still was underestimated in many ways, even within the revolutionary Left.

After the elections, Golden Dawn kept on growing

As a result, the fascists organized this small, initial part of their base. The worrying forebodings flared. They started creating their own “syndicalist groups” within the union movement of the petty-bourgeois working people: taxi owners, lawyers. And then, they moved on to the labor movement. They tried to challenge the leadership of KKE in the union of the workers of the shipbuilding zone (where unemployment is growing huge) in Perama, a popular neighborhood, where, in the June 2012 elections, the whole Left (SYRIZA, KKE, ANTARSYA, etc) took 42,91% of the votes while the fascists took 10,91%. They where openly speaking of creating their own union which would put aside the union leaded by KKE. They accused it that with its tactics of strikes it has forced the ship owners to leave and thus condemned the workers to unemployment. On the night of 12/9/2013 -five days before the murder of Fyssas- members of KKE in Perama, who where sticking posters for KNE 's (the youth organization of KKE) annual festival, where violently attacked by a gang of GD. Nine people were wounded. One of them, not randomly and irrelevantly to the above, was the president of the shipbuilding union, member of KKE, Sotiris Poulikogiannis[3].

During all these years of crisis and even before, the words and policy of the bourgeois governments were of course creating the framework within which GD was growing. The constant verbal attacks to the Left, the police violence against any resistance movement, the racist preaching and action, the creation of barriers of barbed wire in the frontiers with Turkey to prevent “illegal immigration”, the continuous and violent police operations to arrest “illegal immigrants” and the concentration camps, are only some of the governmental policies which Golden Dawn actually claims of being more “capable” to carry through.

In the current situation, the government is weak and fragile, the “memorandum block” has no spare. SYRIZA levitates. It does not yet inspire confidence in the bourgeoisie, the "adversarial dynamics" that it carries, although fizzling -with the SYRIZA leadership doing all it can about that- still creates frustration and anxiety on the bank of the bourgeoisie. It does not inspire confidence nor on the other side. According to a recent poll, half of the voters of SYRIZA in the last elections, do not believe that SYRIZA as government will truly cancel the memorandum. The working class and it's political representation of any kind, is unable to regroup as a movement of opposition for overthrowing the government and its policy and to create an outlet. This only, saves the otherwise weak government which is facing unresolved deadlock amid worsening crisis.

Whilst the Left fails to exploit the weakness of the government, the recent events involving Golden Dawn were an attempt to -at least prepare to- exploit it from the far- right. And this was not a shock for those who had their eyes open. On 25/8/2012, the general secretary of GD, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, speaking on a public gathering of GD, said these exact words: "Dendias (the Public Order Minister) said with wry smile in the Parliament that they will crush the Assault Battalions. Here we are. They will crush them? You are the Assault Battalions of the Golden Dawn! Shall they come, to confront and see". And he added: "We do not feel well inside the Parliament. We feel uncomfortable in the parliamentary benches, we feel a disgust. If they want, we abandon them at anytime and take it to the streets and there we shall see. They shall see what Assault Battalions mean, what does Battle mean, what does Fighting mean, what does <<the spears of the swords being sharpened on the sidewalks>> [4]mean". [5]

On 15/9/2013, three days after the attack in Perama and two days before the assassination of Fyssas, an event of great symbolic importance took place in Meligalas. Meligalas is an historic place. From 13 to 15 September 1944, the Battle of Meligalas took place, the first days after the withdrawal of the occupying Nazi forces from the Peloponnese. The battle of Meligalas was one of the conflicts between ELAS Resistance Army and collaborationist Security Battalions where many members of the Security Battalions were killed by ELAS or lynched by outraged peasants. It was actually a preliminary sign of what was to come. These Security Battalions, instruments of the Nazis and the collaborating Greek bourgeoisie against the resistance movement ant the “communist threat”, were to be used, after the liberation from the Nazis, in the British military intervention against ELAS and the people of Athens in December 1944 and in the civil war of 1946-1949. Annually, relatives of the dead Battalionists, make a memorial service, which also serves as a "feast" for rightists, far- rightists and nationalists. The current mayor of Meligalas, presiding in the memorial service, was elected with the support of New Democracy (ND). Golden Dawn gathered many of it's members from all over Greece in this year's memorial service and verbally -and a bit of physically- attacked the mayor who was speaking in a spirit of -let's say- “national reconciliation”[6]. It was a symbolic but straight questioning of the leadership of ND within the bourgeois power block. Golden Dawn was claiming to take the initiative and the leading role.

Simultaneously, the polls were showing that towards the Euro Elections, SYRIZA was possibly leading the race over ND, and GD was third but ambitiously challenging for the second place. Voters on the Euro Elections are usually loose. And as a result it cannot be excluded at all, that GD could actually make it to the second place. Golden Dawn was starting to feel very strong and invincible. And started stating, by words and acts, that it is a movement for seizing power and not a supplement to ND. 

Then came the assassination of Fyssas, who was an active antifascist artist, son of a shipyard worker. Note this: the assassination took pace in a neighborhood, Keratsini, where in the June 2012 elections, the whole Left took 48,13% of the votes and the fascists 9,08%! 

As it was correctly written by a militant of the left-wing of SYRIZA (Communist Tendency of SYRIZA): “The murderous attack on communist militants in Perama, and then the murder of Paul Fyssas, represented a plan of attack on the left and the labor movement , through which the fascists believed that they can benefit from. For any other political party committing a murder would be objective problem. According to the method of thought, action and political purposes of the fascists, this act, always of course on the appropriate political and social conditions, can provide a practical, successful propaganda. Taking as given the accelerating deterioration of the government and the essentially passive opposition of the leadership of SYRIZA, the fascists believed that this new cycle of spectacular action could put them on track for seizing the power”. 

Under the social and political circumstances analyzed above, it is that the government decided to take action against GD and arrest it's leadership, after the assassination of Fyssas, and not look the other way as it had done in many other cases of criminal action by the GD. With the words of another militant of the left-wing of SYRIZA (Kokkino) : "For the dominant fractions of the bourgeoisie the time has not come to make the Golden Dawn basic - and more over- dominant choice. This would result in the collapse of the "recipe" of building the authoritarian rule of Samaras - Dendias . Its construction was based on the premise that the attack on the Left (theory of two extreme edges) and racist ( concentration camps etc. ) suppression would be made by the state itself, its institutions and the police, with the Golden Dawn in complementary role. The 'early onslaught' of GD threatened to topple heavily this basic premise in all its aspects . The attack on members of KKE, but mainly the murder of Paul Fyssas, risked to trigger a process of ' hot' confrontation from below, between the Nazis on the one and the movement and the Left on the other, a process that could legitimize the formation of unified - fighting base committees from the movement and the Left, extremely dangerous for the bourgeois - memorandum state and the government. The risks of destabilization of the bourgeois - memorandum parliamentary 'democracy' was great, while its net reserves of pro-memorandum political forces have blown (collapse of PASOK , DIMAR) , the crisis of political representation remains, the Left claims electoral victories and the government is preparing to pass a hard endurance test with the new measures, the new memorandum, the «stress test» of the banks, the financing gap or the "haircut" of the debt with the hard trade-offs that will be required ."

The release of several of the accused MP's of GD on probation ban of leaving the country, and especially the release of Ilias Kasidiaris, the parliamentary spokesman of GD, and the “military chief” of the “criminal organization” according to the indictment (!) shows clearly that the government has no intention to eliminate GD. They just want to control them for the time being and negotiate with them on several crucial open issues. Fascism is an alternative for the preservation of bourgeois rule. The government knows that very well. As a revolutionary left militant (former Avantguard-Red Orchestra, now Communist Revolutionary Action) wrote:"GD was, is and will be a party of the bourgeois counterrevolution and regardless of the irritation that it brings to the hegemonic sections of the bourgeois power block, it continues to be a strong backup for the system, and that is exactly what was retaliated to GD within a few days". 

In conclusion : on the grounds of the crisis and its consequences and with “help” from the Left - that could neither propose effectively a way out, nor attempted virtually and efficiently to stop the fascists- Golden Dawn transformed from a marginal Nazi group in a parliamentary Nazi party and now constitutes a Nazi movement. Small, young, ridiculous, maybe. They weren't however, mutatis mutandis, less small or ridiculous the Mousolini's or Hitler's fascists in their startups .

In a situation where the movement and the Left has not been defeated definitively but it does not make it to win either, thus contributing to the maintaince of a "social tension" with no way out, with the government weakened and signs suggesting that it seemed in danger of losing it's electoral basis -middle and lower middle (and some labor) layers who supported it ( in order not to fall in the left "chaos")- while having to manage a very difficult situation, the Golden Dawn attempted to open a " strategy of tension" so to the right, and especially to the left, in order to take the first decisive steps in a fascist path to seize power. Whether it went too far or simply was rehearsing, or anything else, is of secondary importance. The main thing is that this is the the reason of it's existence, even though for the time being GD fell to a doubtful “STOP”.

Crucial ideological issues in the debate of the Left

Is Golden Dawn a “criminal organization”?

No! Of course they are bullies , thugs , murderers , extortionists , pimps and many more. But they are not “criminals” if with this concept is implied that this is independent from the fact them being fascists! That is what the propaganda of "criminal organization" by the Media, the anonymous "repented members" who supposedly discovered with horror that “tGD are not just nationalists, they are gang” etc is trying to suggest. This whole story is just trying to legitimize the existence of a fascist party "as long as it does not do extremities".

And unfortunately the ridiculous announcements of SYRIZA (and of sections of the extra-parliamentary Left) give a hand to that propaganda : "From the first time we pointed out that the GD is not simply a fascist political party but a criminal gang." Oh, dear gentlemen of SYRIZA, there has not, and will never exist such a thing as a "simply fascist" party! Let's be clear: The Golden Dawn is a political party that has within it, criminal Assault Battalions. And this is precisely because it is a fascist party and not because they are criminals “camouflaged as a party”, as some militants of SEK suggested in a public article. With the words of a militant of the left-wing of SYRIZA(Communist Tendency of SYRIZA): The indirect “laundering” of fascist ideology is attempted by the state courts and the bourgeois media by addressing the GD basically as a criminal organization". Thus what is presented as a danger for society is not the ideology, policies and methodology of fascism, but the criminal acts of individuals". 

Is Golden Dawn a parastatal organization, a “long arm of the state” etc ? 

This is a widespread perception. A well know left journalist (member of NAR) no less - nor more wrote that Samaras planned the murder. Most authentically this perception was expressed by ARIS (one of the organizations constituting ANTARSYA) : "Both the murder of Paul Fyssas , and the surprising prosecution of the leadership team of GD are two sides of a single evolution of disorientation of the People from the tragic consequences of the memorandum policy". This line of reasoning except of being disorienting could also be dangerous: it cultivates the impression that Golden Dawn is just a component of the state and thus underestimates in practice the need to particular, speicific struggle against the Neonazi organization. As a left wing militant of SYRIZA (Kokkino) wrote:"Fascism, in our case the Golden Dawn, although it is an agent of the finance capital in its class nature and historical mission, that does not mean it is a 'long arm of the system' , ie simply a "component" of the “state of emergency", a phenomenon which is unleashed from above and therefore may also be "gathered up" from the top. Although that at its very beginning and throughout is path of construction it has a constant "building line" such as the "entryism" and the creation and expansion of bearings within the "deep state", the special forces of the police and army, fascism is built as a political movement from below. As such a political movement it has elements of autonomy, it has a strategy of seizing power with a fascist coup , and its road to power passes through the seizure of power in the streets, neighborhoods and social areas, through the crash of the organizations of the movement and the Left with physical violence”.

Are the arrests a “victory of Democracy”?

The solemn declarations by government officials about the “victory of Democracy over extremism and illegal actions”, were unfortunately supplemented by corresponding declarations of SYRIZA on the “efficiency of the Institutions”: Statement of Syriza's Press Office: “Today it is proved that Democracy and our current legal framework provide every potentaility that criminals be put firmly before the Law...Without further delay, calmly and with respect to the existing legal framework, Justice should be left undisturbed in its work to ascribe responsibilities for both the murder of P. Fyssas and a number of other criminal actions". Tsipras' statement in Brussels: "We trust in the Institutions, we trust to Justice".

Such declarations where accompanied by suggestions to the movement for “temper and moderation” or in other words for passivity. This is a repeat of the old social democratic recipe which concerning the antifascist struggle expects to find in bourgeois democracy (justice, police and "democratically elected government") the means for the political isolation of the fascists and the struggle against them. And such a line is making the movement vulnerable to the pressure of the bourgeois parties for a “broad constitutional front”, a front of allegiance to the preservation of bourgeois legitimacy and “the monopoly of state violence”, which aims to proclaim the social resistance and fair mass violence against government policies as unlawful. At least SYRIZA is for the time being officially denying this pressure, although such voices where heard from its ranks.

This social democratic line of "legitimacy" is trying to build on a rotten prop, to embellish it in the eyes of workers. What this accomplishes is to let the fascists present themselves as the only enemies of the bankrupt bourgeois parliamentary democracy and make the fight against them ineffective as fascists are actually organically connected to the repressive mechanisms of the bourgeois state. And as for the so much needed direct struggle against the fascists, the working class will not find its actual means in the bourgeois parliament, Justice and police but in their own organization and its own forces, in the existing institutions of its own working democracy, (which fascism seeks to destroy) its political parties, trade unions and other organizations, in its rights and political freedoms won by its struggle. In fact, the working class is bound to trample bourgeois legitimacy in order to defend and crush fascism in symmetrical proportion with the fact that it is obliged to trample bourgeois legitimacy and smash the bourgeois state to escape from capitalist exploitation and the dramatic consequences of the capitalist crisis and thereby decidedly close the road to fascism .

And in contrast to the -emanating from the same social democratic theory- practice of "peaceful", "non-violent" resistance which makes the working class a passive prey to the murderous fury of the fascists, we must oppose the active, violent self-defense, organizing self-defense committees in workplaces and neighborhoods, in the process (and regardless of the routes, the methods and the growth rate of this process) of the ultimate prospect: the establishment of an armed workers' militia that is irreplaceably necessary for the proletarian revolutionary uprising.

The Prime Minister, Samaras, was very clear indeed: At 1/10/2013, at an event held in Washington in “Peterson Institute for International Economics” he said: "We are crushing extremism, we as a government have the political will, the leadership of the Golden Dawn has been driven to jail". And then he turned the arrows to the left: “Αpart from the Golden Dawn 'the other edge' should be treated also, the 'extreme opposition' that speaks of exiting the NATO, the Euro and the EU, something that would be very detrimental to our big cause". The Left should be crystal clear too. And should be preparing itself and the oppressed masses.

Are the arrests a “victory of the antifascist movement”?

This was a popular opinion within sections of the left wing of SYRIZA but also within sections of the extra-parliamentary, revolutionary Left. SEK declared: “The arrests of Michaloliakos and Kasidiaris and other leaders of the Golden Dawn is a victory for the magnificent anti-fascist movement that took to the streets after the murder of Paul Fyssas. Finally the provocative immunity of neo-Nazi murderers is broken and those who protect them are forced to pretend the belated pursuers. We celebrate this and we organize the continuance". 

OKDE - Spartakos wrote: " The massive , militant anti-fascist movement came to the fore again. Organized protests across the country, upsetting the correlations. The arrest of the leadership of the Golden Dawn would have been unthinkable without the massive pressure of popular mobilisations of antifascists lately. In essence, it was this that overthrew the scenarios of certain bourgeois staffs, who wanted a coalition of ND with the Golden Dawn, and put, for now at least, the Nazis in their margin. Ultimately it is this factor, the struggle and resistance of workers and popular masses to fascism that makes the bourgeoisie very reluctant to choose such a solution."

And EEK stated: “The situation is out of the control of the ruling class, which tries to put a muzzle on its mastiffs, not because they are afraid of being bitten by it but of an uncontrollable storm that would exceed that of December 2008. They were forced to act not from fear of the threat posed by criminals of "Golden Dawn", those fascist parastatal organs. What they feared was that the explosion of popular hatred will make them completely lose control of the situation.”

These are very one sided points of view and thus misleading. The government is indeed weak. The aggressive initiative developed by the Golden Dawn, under certain circumstances could actually create conditions for a social explosion or at least trigger a reverse process of uplifting the movement. The social climate that emerged, the mobilizations of decent massivity that were organized, we can reasonably assume that have raised concern within the government. Indeed, we are discussing the arrests of Golden Dawn but we tend to forget that only in the protests that took place in Athens after the murder, the police proceeded to 130 arrests, 34 of whom were eventually prosecuted.

More because of its own weakness than because of the power of the movement, but the government is scared even of the seed of a potential movement. With this sense, yes, the anti-fascist mobilisations occurred after the murder, brought a pressure on the government to act. But the specific mode of its action can not be attributed to the pressure from its left but as discussed above to the pressure from its right. The pressure of its right of course can create problems in tackling the key enemy on the left. But this is not a " victory of the movement ".

The worst thing is that especially in the case of SEK -most authentic exponent of the "victory of the movement" opinion- this perception has a perverse affinity to the "democratic demands" put forward by SYRIZA. So SEK has supplemented its request to the state "to close down the offices of the Golden Dawn" with the “clearance” of the Police, prosecutors, political heads and the “resignation” of Dendias and the whole government. But even a leading member of OKDE – Spartakos was to write: "the only real danger for the time being is not to proceed with the prosecution. This is the 'bet'.” And thus -although correctly indicated various tasks needed- , he ended up to elevate as a key the same thing said -in other words- by SYRIZA: "to advance the prosecutions. The criminal justice system to do its work ". But the “bet” became very ambiguous only a few hours later: Kasidiaris was released...

A revolutionary left blogger aptly commented: "the revolutionary organizations of the working class have to decide the exact “how” of propagandising and organizing the defense mechanisms of the working class, the mechanisms by which the working class will defend its organizations against fascism which -fascism- is not eliminated by administrative measures and against the “state of emergency” which can not be cleared with “constitutional fonts” . So there is no space with in the revolutionary left of fantasizing about victories against fascism, not immediately achieved by the very working class. Nor with SYRIZA discussing about constitutional fronts and “legal shield” of Democracy, nor the way of KEERFA (of SEK) expressing joy because supposedly the antifascist movement forced Samaras to bury the Nazi bastards in jail and requesting from the state to send Dendias to. Mercy!”.

Let us recall Trotsky's words:”the slogan of disbanding and disarmament of fascist gangs by the bourgeois state and approval for such measures is utterly reactionary”...

The united antifascist front that was -and still is- needed.

The united front of antifascist action means relative mobilization of trade unions and labor parties and organizations. Also means, however, mobilization and action in the neighborhoods (where the working class lives and the youth is "socialized" and where the propaganda and attacks of the fascists reveal).

The united front of antifascist action should aim at integrating immigrants into the labor movement and labor - folk society, at breaking the isolation of ghettoisation and only national based organization, together with support for their particular problems.

The antifascist action should seek activation of the union movement and aim targeted intervention and organization of the struggle for the problems of the lower classes and especially on the issues fueling the massification of fascists: laborers and petty misery, poverty, hunger, unemployment. But also the antifascist front means: zero tolerance in the fascist propaganda and action, continuous disclosure and harassment/cancellation of their activities. Organizational preparation and violent conflict with the fascist violence.

Effective inhibition of fascists through a process of self-organization, united front and action can create conditions for rejuvenation and counterattack of the labor movement. Moreover, it may be the scope of a real test to the action of the promises of SYRIZA and political isolation of its social democratic line, the potential dominance of which will enhance the development of the fascists. The only realistic way to address conditions for tolerance to a “left government” is those terms being built in action, organizing the struggle of the masses around them and challenging the future rulers of SYRIZA to give a hand now, in action on the immediate problems and not just wait for the masses in the future to put their hand in the ballot box.

The future leftist rulers who claim that to they will abolish the police arbitrariness and will dissolve (or outlaw) fascist gangs are they willing to scare them off today from the trade unions, workplaces and neighborhoods, to defend immigrants, militants and fighting working people, the main victims of fascist attacks, practicly today, to protect youth from the fascist poison, to clash with police and fascist violence against the movement ?

The future leftist rulers who claim that they will abolish the Memorandum and promise tax equity, are they willing to organize a real (partial of course) abolition of the memorandum in practice now, a massive tax disobedience now, non-payment of hike, reconnection of electricity, with that this involves politically (organization, stewardship , conflict with the police, Justice, government, the bourgeois state in general) ?

The future left rulers who promise to "tame" the raids of the banks and ensure that "there will not be one man without food, shelter, clothing, etc." are they willing to organize resistance to the auctions of houses and evictions? To endorse the occupation of unsold / vacant homes for the homeless and needy? To endorse activities for requisition / expropriation of food and clothing for those in need, rather than resorting to charity or simply sharing the poverty of the poor with the poorer?

All these methods of action should not be put as a prerequisite of a united front of action. The only prerequisite is the decisive mass self-organization and action. The participation of the masses and their experience of inefficient (legal, parliamentary , reformist , charity) action methods of the reformists coupled with the relentless pressure of the problems and the constant propaganda and criticism of communists (which however will participate in the fight) is that that will lead to the radicalization of the struggle of the masses and choice on their part of our proposed methods of communist revolutionary struggle for the immediate problems, paving the way for the wider revolutionary orientation of the masses.

All these mentioned above do not mean that we should wait on whether SYRIZA or KKE (the mass left parties) will decide to take action. We do not have this luxury of time wasting. Especially as SYRIZA and KKE have an obsessive insistence that the antifascist struggle is “primarily ideological and political”, meaning by that, that the practical action and physical confrontation with fascists is unnecessary if not provocative. Especially as KKE continues it long-lasting sectarian line, avoiding to co-operate with any other left force, denying any kind of common action and united front. 

Again in the words of left wing militant of SYRIZA (Kokkino): "Can we, do we have the right, to limit ourselves to mass antifascist work, ignoring our "existential" duty of systematic safeguarding of events, activities , places , offices , etc. , organizations, activists and militants, of the movement and Left, hoping that Golden Dawn will not strike again and murder or that we will be protected by the police? No, this would equate with “criminal negligence” against the very lives of our people! The stewardship and mass popular self-defense must be introduced to the antifascist struggle as a necessary and irreplaceable dimension!"

The creation of Antifascist Initiatives, the coordination in action of various existing antifascist initiatives is an imperative task. I give the final words to a revolutionary left militant (former Avantguard-Red Orchestra, now Communist Revolutionary Action): "the anti-fascist movement can and should benefit from taking its own initiatives and not being the applauder to Counter-terrorism State Services (which made the arrests of GD) or bourgeois legality, as SYRIZA does in the most vulgar way , posing only “criticism” that such action should have been taken by the state years ago . So let us know who has the initiative and there seek the “gaps” left by this “dislocation”. There, should the anti-fascist movement take its own aggressive initiatives. Crushing gangs wherever they attempt to reappear. Building everywhere a network of antifascist groups of self-defense, the necessary complement of a broad anti-fascist propaganda in neighborhoods , stadiums, workplaces and schools. Removing any soil from the fascists in order to recover. Knowing, however, that the state can return tomorrow, the “weapons” it now removes from them, with the same speed it does now.”

[1]front pages of the “ideological magazine” of GD, Aug.-Sep. 1982 and July 1991 respectively

http://omadeon.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/prd_xa_aug-sept1982.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZaEFNzEa7xL5aqzvYB3IrGZDRxw_R-V9L2z-yDvl3XP5CCh5zqJQIYoyFE0LUeVDQNdSAGI3hzWU7gCix4h0u72sev9FT4jsCFbKwwu5WFeyXc70G2Loq1fdqxwKgn2c5yw2Gvxdn9eHu/s1600/cover.jpg

[2] One of the uncountable examples: on June 1998, during mass student mobilization against governmental education reform, the leading member of NAR's youth organization, leading member of EAAK and representative in EFEE (the national university students association), Dimitris Kousouris, miraculously survived following a lethal attack by a GD gang. Antonis (Periandros) Androutsopoulos, leading member of GD at the time, was the prime mover.

http://irakliolive.gr/site/assets/files/17017/k2.jpg

The police was “unsuccessfully seeking out” for him for seven years. Finally he turned himself in. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He served five of them and then he was released. In the meantime he came into conflict with the leadership of Golden Dawn and he is now leading a small neonazi group of “right opposition” (!) to GD, called “Autonomous Nationalist Meanders” (AME). http://maiandrioi.blogspot.gr/

[3]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvHKRX704spzMhAGN7Rh1-qsJTrG95hXKrx_DVmZNaB_2a8r2EMcCjJuc45k2hRDtAzIX22cdMXmO0Bl95LsdYOuFJUMD159qwOj2sQwQUVJUqrn_rpm8DmoEhazh5TAE_ZRwHVYoDPK7F/s1600/kke-epithesh-apo-xrysh-avgh.jpg

[4]This prompt is inspired by the lyrics of the official march of Hitler's Sturmabteilung (SA). This march was titled "Blood Must Be Shed" and the lyrics in question were as follows: "Sharpen your knives off the sidewalks / Drive the knives in the body of the Jews / A lot of blood should be shed / We shit on the freedom of this Jewish Republic / Hang a hog in the Synagogue / And throw grenades to the Parliaments."

[5]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJceoGIz_6M

[6]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRadhVsG0Bs