NYC: Astoria repudiates 'Golden Dawn' fascists
We recently noted the frightening rise of the neo-fascist "Golden Dawn" party in Greece, which actually now holds a parliamentary bloc despite the fact that its leaders (including sitting MPs!) are accused of violent attacks on immigrants. On Sept. 22, Digital Journal reported that these sinister creeps were making an effort to organize the Greek diaspora, launching local chapters in Melbourne, Australia, and in Astoria—the Greek neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. They launched a New York website (now seemingly disabled) that spouted the predictable populist pabulum, e.g.: "Our goals are to promote and support the Golden Dawn's nationalist ideals and vision for Greece among the Greek diaspora. We must resist and overcome the genocidal multi-culturalist, and anti-Hellenic agenda of the New World Order." And they organized an event to collect food and clothing to send back to Greece, ostensibly to aid families thrown out of work in the country's current econo-cataclysm. A photo from the event is online at the website Fuck Yeah Anarchist Banners, with a caption helpfully informing us: "This is NOT an anarchist banner. This is a fascist banner, being hung by organizers from the Golden Dawn neo-fascist party. They are violent, antisocial racists. It is being hung at the Stathakion Cultural Center."
Indeed, the banner sports the Golden Dawn's creepy swastika-like symbol, being held aloft in the vestibule of the Stathakion Cultural Center, which is the auditorium of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York. Ironically, your very own blogger was among the panelists at a left-wing event on the global economic crisis held at the Stathakion center in February 2011, which also included a live video hook-up to a simultaneous panel being held in Crete. (Also ironically, the Stathakion center happens to be a reconverted former synagogue!)
Now for the good news: Astoria-based activist Pete Korakis, who invited me to the panel at the Stathakion center, writes on his blog that on the night of Oct. 9, some 300—"men, women, young, and old, Greek, and non-Greek"—filled a room at the neighborhood's Church of the Redeemer for an educational meeting in repudiation of the Golden Dawn, emphasizing the necessity to resist xenophobic scapegoating for the economic crisis both in New York and in Greece. The event was co-sponsored by the Left Movement NY (Aristeri Kinisi NY), Occupy Astoria-Long Island City, Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination, and Strike Debt. It was covered in anti-racist blog The North Star, the Occupy Astoria website, and USA Greek Reporter.
Adds Pete:
This isn't the only effort in opposition to the Golden Dawn coming to the US. Anonymous has responded by taking down their website—which is (was? its still down, and has been for the better part of the past month as of this post) xanyc.org. The large Greek-American organization AHEPA recently issued this statement denouncing Golden Dawn as well as fascism in general. Also local NYC officials lead by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Greek-American State Senator Michael Gianaris, and Assembly Member Aravella Simotas, as well as Jewish leadership all came together and condemned the opening of Golden Dawn's NYC office.
Hopefully, the Golden Dawn have got the message that they are not welcome in New York City. We will be watching this one.
Bill Weinberg. That is a perfect Jewish name
Bill Weinberg. That is a perfect Jewish name because of the "Wein," which sounds like "whine," which is a perfect way to describe both the stereotypical pitch of a Jewish voice (e.g., Mayor Bloomberg) and it is a perfect way to describe the behavior of the Jew when the Jew is scared.
Wah! wah! wah! Golden Dawn is fascist! And what are you Weinberg? Oh, that's right, you are God's chosen people. That describes why you are so unbelievably arrogant and confident in your ways even when they collapse society on your head.
Don't try to act like the Nazis are the most despised group of people ever to walk the earth.
You do that only to distract from the truth: the Jews are the most despised group to ever walk the earth.
The Nazis were just the typical response of a healthy people to a bacillus, just like the Arabs, the Czarist Russians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Spanish under King Edward I, the Hungarian Uprising, the Polish in 1946, the Cossacks, and many, many more.
But it's them, not you, right?
Always, God's chosen are innocent in the world court.
Or is that just another of many, many, Big Lies?
It's getting old Weinberg. It's getting really old.
Please tell me that you're not so arrogant as to think you really have the same control
on information today in the digital age as you did in the age of print.
See, anti-Semitism is all in my imagination
The above comment of course completely violates our Posting Policy, but every once in a while we like to approve such a specimen as an example of the kind of post we do not approve—and to shame the fools who are constantly telling us that anti-Semitism doesn't exist. That one was really special, thank you.
Nazis can't get their history straight
Edward I was the English king who expelled the Jews in 1290. The Spanish king who expelled the Jews in 1492 was of course Ferdinand. Real sharp, "Joe McCarthy."
Joe the idiot
Mr. McCarthy:
You are an idiot beyond imagination. Not only are you not the student of history that you clearly purport to be but you are a hateful little man with some truly disturbing thoughts. Scary that people like you even exist in a modern society. Get a grip and get a life.
Greece: anti-fascist protesters tortured
Fifteen anti-fascist protesters arrested in Athens during a clash with Golden Dawn supporters Sept. 30 say they were tortured in the custody of the Attica General Police Directorate (GADA), and subjected to what their lawyer describes as an Abu Ghraib-style humiliation. Members of a second group of 25 who were arrested after demonstrating in support of their fellow anti-fascists the next day said they were beaten and made to strip naked and bend over in front of officers and other protesters inside the same police station.
Several of the protesters arrested after the first demonstration told reporters they were slapped and hit, spat on, burned with a cigarette lighter and "used as ashtrays," and kept awake all night with flashlights and lasers shone in their eyes. (The Guardian, Oct. 9)
Astoria stands up to Golden Dawn: "They Shall Not Pass!"
Astoria-based activist Pete Korakis reports that bilingual Greek-English flyers have been appearing in the neighborhood reading "They Shall Not Pass!," with a statement repudiating the Golden Dawn as "a neo-Nazi paramilitary party with a long and brutal history of violence and terror in Greece." He adds:
Very heartening news.
Joe the Idiot has a friend
Some Golden Dawn supporters posted a tsunami of abuse on Pete Korakis' blog. One closes: "Fisa roufa malaka! ZHTO XPHSy AYGH!" What does that mean? We probably don't want to know...
Meanwhile, Pete points out that Athens News reported back in May that Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos was denounced by the Greek government and Jewish leaders for Holocaust denial. "There were no ovens, this is a lie... there were no gas chambers either," Michaloliakos told Mega TV. Fortunately, Greece has no stupid, counter-productive laws criminalizing Holocaust denial, so poor Nikos doesn't get to cry censorship.