Golden Dawn causes ripples here
Greece’s Golden Dawn party is causing tensions here among the Greek expat community. Article doesn’t say, but I suspect the party knows that expats can be conservative and old-worldy, hanging onto values long left behind by people still living in the old country, and are counting on that for support. Also leaves open the question what, if anything, Canada should do about groups with open Fascist tendencies putting down roots here.
Michel 12:15 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
I love how a hard-line anti-immigration Greek group is trying to set up an office in a city where, you know, there are a whole bunch of Greek immigrants. Cognitive dissonance, thy name is Golden Dawn.
Chris 12:24 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
If the old country is so great, why don’t they go back there?
Kate 13:09 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
Michel, I think it’s quite possible to do some mental bookkeeping that says it’s OK for Canada to be full of immigrants, because that’s essentially what we are, but that Greece should remain pristinely Greek.
dwgs 13:32 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
You pretty much nailed it on the conservative values thing Kate. I married into the community and there’s a big difference in attitude between here and there.
Unfortunately the situation there is becoming very grave, with Golden Dawn thugs regularly administering beatings to those who they see as not Greek enough. There have been reports that a significant portion of the Athens police force is sympathetic to the cause. It’s very scary in a post Treaty of Versailles devastated economy sort of way.
No\Deli 14:07 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
Golden Dawn thuggery and police sympathy have been on for years though. It’s the legitimization of the party, the potential for codification of any of their BS into law – that’s new.
steph 00:04 on 2012/10/14 Permalink
Are these the clowns that depict Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform?
Kate 10:35 on 2012/10/14 Permalink
I don’t think so. This item says it was a newspaper and doesn’t mention Golden Dawn, but my search also found that the some protesters greeted Merkel by wearing Nazi uniforms, so clearly the Greeks haven’t received the memo about Godwin’s law.
I could be wrong, but I gather Golden Dawn’s problem is with immigrants, whereas the people protesting Merkel are those reacting in an extreme way to Eurozone austerity measures, and while some of these may be the same people it isn’t specifically Golden Dawn doing the Nazi stuff. If anything, Golden Dawn seems to be emulating Nazi symbolism, not using it for satire. But I haven’t followed this issue in detail.
Raymond Lutz 11:05 on 2012/10/14 Permalink
The losing fight (for now) between democracy and plutocracy in Greece will make history.
Regarding Golden Dawn, I’ll simply point to this Boing Boing post, and to my own comment, sorry for citing myself 8-)
http://boingboing.net/2012/10/01/the-golden-dawn.html#comment-668204252
Kate 12:27 on 2012/10/14 Permalink
So are you Vishy Moghan or Raymond Lutz?
Raymond Lutz 16:20 on 2012/10/14 Permalink
On BoingBoing I’m lutzray and the link I provided go to my comment (#668204252)
which comment is simply a redirection… Je n’ai, pour ma part, pas grand chose de neuf et d’inédit à rajouter, sinon ces importantes références…
here is BB suggestion:
For french reading boingboingers there’s the excellent blog “Notebook of an anthropologist in Greece” In this particular post, a policeman claims 95% of the police force is behind the Golden Dawn party: http://greekcrisisnow.blogspot.fr/2012/09/les-iles-laube.html
Kate 22:12 on 2012/10/14 Permalink
When I click on that link I go directly to Vishy Moghan’s comment, sorry. Must be a glitch. Thanks for the link.