Can we do anything (other than tutting) about Golden Dawn in Greece?

[AdriftAndOutOfStardust]

The more I hear about Golden Dawn the more disturbed I feel. I also saw this today on facebook which sickenned me.

All that it takes for evil to thrive is for good people to do nothing but I feel powerless. What can we do? Can our MEPs do anything if we all write to them?

I think the best response to Golden Dawn or similar is to keep teaching people about things like the holocaust, the rise of naziism and other lessons from history. Couple that with not ejecting Greece from the EU but continuing to provide economic support. Like all extreme groups at both ends of the political spectrum, they exploit ignorance & prejudice and agitate for revolution, but will find it harder to get heard as things improve.

What would like your MEPs to do? Ban a legitimate political party in a foreign country?

If you want to make a difference to the lives of the Greek people, find a way to get them out of the EU.

Probably do what we do in the UK with the BNP. Just laugh at them and move on. Taking them seriously just gives them legitimacy.

Probably do what we do in the UK with the BNP. Just laugh at them and move on. Taking them seriously just gives them legitimacy.

Err...no. That's not a solution at all. In the UK, you don't have the BNP patrolling the streets, threatening and beating up protesters (at least these incidents are comparatively rare) and the BNP isn't integrated in to the establishment like it is in Greece.

Golden Dawn has infiltrated Greek police, claims officer

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/26/golden-dawn-infiltrated-greek-police-claims

threatening and beating up protesters*

Sorry. immigrants and protesters.

Life in Greece is becoming very tough for folks. Recessions always seem to lead to a rise in right wing parties in Europe, look at the poor bashing that's going on here. I am not defending Golden Dawn and was shocked when a woman I know in a small Greek village told me she'd be voting for the "Hitler Party" i.e. Golden Dawn. She is in her late 60's and a successful local business woman. She must have family members who suffered under the Nazi regime on Crete, evidence of which is everywhere. The next village has a monument to all the men and boys there, who were shot by the Nazis and the village burned to the ground in retaliation to the resistance. Other Greek friends in the village were scared for their children's future on every level, hours at schools have been cut to save money on teachers pay, pharmacists haven't been paid by the government for drugs they have prescribed, people are genuinely fearful they will lose everything they have worked for. It is very very sad for this beautiful, welcoming country and I do believe we have to be careful here that the tories don't lurch even further to the right to combat Ukip

Weird ttossa because, from all your previous messages in support of uprisings and riots, I thought you'd be positively urging popular revolt and violence against the Greek government and its austerity-imposing ways. Or does it not count if the population have chosen to back the wrong horse..... ?

Cogito-

a) It's not the Golden Dawn which is rioting and uprising against the government. They are supporting the government by cracking down on protests and beating up protesters.

b) The Golden Dawn doesn't represent a 'Popular Revolt', as the majority of the population is against them.

c) The Golden Dawn cannot, in principle, lead a 'popular revolt' because they declared that a large portion of the public are enemies.

So the Golden Dawn leading a 'popular revolt' is like the Nazi party leading a 'popular revolt' by killing Jews, gays, leftists, unionists, immigrants, intellectuals, etc...

A similar thing is going on here. The far-right party appeal to popular (a subsection of the popular) discontent by providing convenient scapegoats and offering a solution so that they are elected in to power.

Hope this helps.

its absolutely frightening.

Here is a rather shocking short documentary about the Golden Dawn party in Greece:

www.channel4.com/news/racist-anti-semitic-violent-the-true-face-of-golden-dawn

It horrifies me too how all his happened. The vote of Golden Dawn was in June 2012, 420,000 or 6.92% of the total, but because of the proportional representation method of Greek elections they got 18% of parliamentary seats! The next elections will be probably in 2016. The seat of GD is Athens and mailnly most of their MPs are there. There are many small parties in Greece which did not get any seat because they had less than 2% of the vote. I guess the total of the small parties was nearly 6.5%. So their share of pie is eaten up but those who got more than 2%.

CogitoErgoSometimes, it is compulsory in the Greek secondary national curriculum to teach the holocaust. This is taught in the last years of the Lyceum in the subject of ?Relious Education? which is also compulsory. There are teacher conferences on how to do this and they incorporate documentaries.

The reasons for the rise of GD are complex and probably one needs to look at the history of the country.