This statement was originally published in Greek on 26 January 2018. It is not so much an in-depth analysis of the Macedonian issue; its emphasis is laid on the wave of resurgent –and utterly reactionary– Greek chauvinism.
Communist Revolutionary Action ★ Avantgarde
Against the chauvinist rallies!
The enemy is within “our own” country!
We take the streets on both Saturday and Sunday in internationalist, anti-fascist rallies!
Since Sunday 21/1, the country is living in the rhythm that has been imposed by the far-right sewer and the deep state, after the nationalist rally in Thessaloniki.
The official government is also dancing to the tunes of the far-right -as it usually does every time the situation gets tense- carrying out the orders of the EU and the liberals of the reactionary movement “We Stay in Europe”. In order to comply with those who are truly in power in this country, the police turn a blind eye to or even support the fascist provocations, as was the case three times in Thessaloniki when they attacked together the Free Social Space “School”, unsuccessfully, and were repelled by the self-defense; a little later they torched the anarchist squat Libertatia, with the police preventing even the fire brigade from approaching. The joint action of fascists and SWAT police (MAT) continued the following day, when they attacked a 2,500-strong rally in solidarity with the Libertatia squat, beating and tear-gassing dozens of demonstrators and arresting 5 of them on serious –as well as baseless– charges.
Yet, the fascist arsonists enjoy absolute immunity from the government, which signals its tolerance to the indignant, Macedonia-stricken militants who may have accepted the entire framework of the memoranda capitalist cannibalism, but are now posing as proud nationalists – and bullies of the Balkans.
The far-right parastate (status in statu), with the favor of the official Right and the open support of the fascist organizations, does not limit its agenda to the Macedonian issue. The escalating mobilization of the recent days has been building its networks for a long time. They are the same ones that, during the period of the anti-memorandum struggle, turned up in the rallies of the “Indignados” to shout about “traitors” and “Goudi” (Goudi is a place in Athens where the leaders of the failed Asia Minor campaign were executed back in 1922 – also, two military coups begun from there, in 1909 and 1967), they are the same ones that could be traced at the upper side of the Syntagma Square chanting nationalist songs and slogans about the «Macedonian glory» and «coming back with your shield or on it». It is those who in October 2011 intervened in the parades and brought to power first Papadimos and then Samaras-Venizelos, in order to impose the most severe austerity package. These are the same vermin that emerged as the “We Stay in Europe” movement at the time of the referendum in the summer of 2015, when the deep state was threatening with a coup and the current president of democracy, chosen by SYRIZA, was declaring that he would not allow the country to leave the Eurozone. It is the same petty bourgeois garbage that took the streets dressed up as the “movement of the tie” along with the big farmers who demanded the cuts in subsidies to poor farmers. This riffraff are the descendants of the Nazi collaborators during WWII, of the parastate, those who feel nostalgia for the dictator Metaxas and the Junta. It is those who have lived off plundering the state and the sweat of the working class, domestic and foreign, for decades, who now tell us that it is workers’ rights, trade unionists and the Left to blame for the problems of the economy.
It is true that the Thessaloniki gathering was also attended by people who do not belong to the nationalist sewer. Nevertheless, flocking together with fascists and acting as ecstatic audience to the far-right priests and the neoliberal NATO general Fragos Fragoulis, who is now the leader of all this chauvinist hysteria, is a political choice. Obviously the people need somewhere to turn for hope. The absence of a reliable left-wing alternative after the defeat of the movement and the humiliation of SYRIZA, that could inspire the people who continue to suffer from the crisis and the bourgeois offensive, might push a portion of the dissatisfaction to the other side. Such is the price of defeat. The worst thing that could happen, however, would be for the Left to bow before this kind of dissatisfaction. To think that we can somehow influence these people «now that they have gotten up from their couches». Huge mistake.
This time it is not our –disappointed– people who will take the streets. It is those who believe that, in order to survive, one needs to step on the dead bodies of the weaker ones. It is those who see in «Skopje», as they call the neighboring state in a demeaning manner, not a danger or a threat, but a poor people ripe for looting and bullying. It is the same people who view the hungry, the poor, the chased, the refugees and the immigrants as a “danger”. And it is the same people who stand at attention in front of the powerful nations of the planet and especially their own bosses, ready to do all kinds of favors for them.
The people who stand for liberation, social justice, equality and solidarity have absolutely nothing to do with this cannibalistic hatred, chauvinism, national pride, tolerance of fascist gangs and anti-communist hysteria.
The extreme right, either openly through the Golden Dawn, or covertly through the various generals and New Democracy, with the tolerance of the various bourgeois politicians and with the neoliberal center-Left bowing in front of it, and even through the semi-official offshoots of the church and the hooligan mafias, is waging its attack against the people of the Left, the conscious proletariat, against every political and social force that continues the struggle inspired by the ideals of social equality and solidarity, against those who fight for a society without bosses, without exploitation, without ruling classes and nations sitting on the neck of the weakest of this planet. The Macedonian issue is merely an excuse for them to impose their own reactionary agenda, as is the case in many European countries where the racist Right has become one of the official pillars of the political system after the collapse of the social contract.
The nationalist mobilization is not some kind of confused or disoriented continuation of the struggle against the memoranda – it is exactly the opposite. It is a bourgeois counter-rebellion from which the only winners will be the right wingers as well as their fascist wing.
On February 4, the nationalists are preparing to gather in Athens. It is possible that the gathering will also be attended by thousands of lumpen elements in the search of their lost dignity. On that day, they will try to put their own stamp on the developments. Not only for the Macedonian issue. Their appetite is whetted . And since they will not find any «Scopians» in their way, their aggression will be directed to the “traitors of the nation”. Let there be no doubt about this. Everywhere, these people declare that the arson of the Libertatia squat was just the beginning. Their slogans make it crystal-clear: «Anarchists and Bolsheviks, this land does not belong to you». The fascist gangs once again attempt to amaze. After a while, the media are once again sympathetic to them and their come-back, while the state tolerates them as it has done during the 2008-2013 period. Their targets do not only include a few anarchist squats, but the entire Left, the proletariat, the radicalized youth who do not buy the national fairytales, the communist and the anarchist movement, the people who do not share the nationalist hysteria. Every part of the Left is a target for them, even the one that sees some kind of genuine and progressive patriotism in the nationalist gatherings.
Will we let these vermin have a walk in the park? Will we allow far-right punks to threaten and attack our comrades? Will we let them plunder the honorable history of our dead, trample over our values – and over the banners of social liberation? Will we tolerate, after the memoranda, to have fascists sitting on our neck?
The Communist Revolutionary Action calls upon all the political and social forces of the organized proletariat to respond right here and right now to the far-right provocation by organizing our own rallies and by defending with militancy and resolve every space of our movement against the far-right para state. No challenge should be left unanswered. The message must be clear in every direction.
¡No pasarán!
They shall not pass!
The enemy is within “our own” country!
We take the streets on both Saturday and Sunday in internationalist, anti-fascist rallies!
Since Sunday 21/1, the country is living in the rhythm that has been imposed by the far-right sewer and the deep state, after the nationalist rally in Thessaloniki.
The official government is also dancing to the tunes of the far-right -as it usually does every time the situation gets tense- carrying out the orders of the EU and the liberals of the reactionary movement “We Stay in Europe”. In order to comply with those who are truly in power in this country, the police turn a blind eye to or even support the fascist provocations, as was the case three times in Thessaloniki when they attacked together the Free Social Space “School”, unsuccessfully, and were repelled by the self-defense; a little later they torched the anarchist squat Libertatia, with the police preventing even the fire brigade from approaching. The joint action of fascists and SWAT police (MAT) continued the following day, when they attacked a 2,500-strong rally in solidarity with the Libertatia squat, beating and tear-gassing dozens of demonstrators and arresting 5 of them on serious –as well as baseless– charges.
Yet, the fascist arsonists enjoy absolute immunity from the government, which signals its tolerance to the indignant, Macedonia-stricken militants who may have accepted the entire framework of the memoranda capitalist cannibalism, but are now posing as proud nationalists – and bullies of the Balkans.
The far-right parastate (status in statu), with the favor of the official Right and the open support of the fascist organizations, does not limit its agenda to the Macedonian issue. The escalating mobilization of the recent days has been building its networks for a long time. They are the same ones that, during the period of the anti-memorandum struggle, turned up in the rallies of the “Indignados” to shout about “traitors” and “Goudi” (Goudi is a place in Athens where the leaders of the failed Asia Minor campaign were executed back in 1922 – also, two military coups begun from there, in 1909 and 1967), they are the same ones that could be traced at the upper side of the Syntagma Square chanting nationalist songs and slogans about the «Macedonian glory» and «coming back with your shield or on it». It is those who in October 2011 intervened in the parades and brought to power first Papadimos and then Samaras-Venizelos, in order to impose the most severe austerity package. These are the same vermin that emerged as the “We Stay in Europe” movement at the time of the referendum in the summer of 2015, when the deep state was threatening with a coup and the current president of democracy, chosen by SYRIZA, was declaring that he would not allow the country to leave the Eurozone. It is the same petty bourgeois garbage that took the streets dressed up as the “movement of the tie” along with the big farmers who demanded the cuts in subsidies to poor farmers. This riffraff are the descendants of the Nazi collaborators during WWII, of the parastate, those who feel nostalgia for the dictator Metaxas and the Junta. It is those who have lived off plundering the state and the sweat of the working class, domestic and foreign, for decades, who now tell us that it is workers’ rights, trade unionists and the Left to blame for the problems of the economy.
It is true that the Thessaloniki gathering was also attended by people who do not belong to the nationalist sewer. Nevertheless, flocking together with fascists and acting as ecstatic audience to the far-right priests and the neoliberal NATO general Fragos Fragoulis, who is now the leader of all this chauvinist hysteria, is a political choice. Obviously the people need somewhere to turn for hope. The absence of a reliable left-wing alternative after the defeat of the movement and the humiliation of SYRIZA, that could inspire the people who continue to suffer from the crisis and the bourgeois offensive, might push a portion of the dissatisfaction to the other side. Such is the price of defeat. The worst thing that could happen, however, would be for the Left to bow before this kind of dissatisfaction. To think that we can somehow influence these people «now that they have gotten up from their couches». Huge mistake.
This time it is not our –disappointed– people who will take the streets. It is those who believe that, in order to survive, one needs to step on the dead bodies of the weaker ones. It is those who see in «Skopje», as they call the neighboring state in a demeaning manner, not a danger or a threat, but a poor people ripe for looting and bullying. It is the same people who view the hungry, the poor, the chased, the refugees and the immigrants as a “danger”. And it is the same people who stand at attention in front of the powerful nations of the planet and especially their own bosses, ready to do all kinds of favors for them.
The people who stand for liberation, social justice, equality and solidarity have absolutely nothing to do with this cannibalistic hatred, chauvinism, national pride, tolerance of fascist gangs and anti-communist hysteria.
The extreme right, either openly through the Golden Dawn, or covertly through the various generals and New Democracy, with the tolerance of the various bourgeois politicians and with the neoliberal center-Left bowing in front of it, and even through the semi-official offshoots of the church and the hooligan mafias, is waging its attack against the people of the Left, the conscious proletariat, against every political and social force that continues the struggle inspired by the ideals of social equality and solidarity, against those who fight for a society without bosses, without exploitation, without ruling classes and nations sitting on the neck of the weakest of this planet. The Macedonian issue is merely an excuse for them to impose their own reactionary agenda, as is the case in many European countries where the racist Right has become one of the official pillars of the political system after the collapse of the social contract.
The nationalist mobilization is not some kind of confused or disoriented continuation of the struggle against the memoranda – it is exactly the opposite. It is a bourgeois counter-rebellion from which the only winners will be the right wingers as well as their fascist wing.
On February 4, the nationalists are preparing to gather in Athens. It is possible that the gathering will also be attended by thousands of lumpen elements in the search of their lost dignity. On that day, they will try to put their own stamp on the developments. Not only for the Macedonian issue. Their appetite is whetted . And since they will not find any «Scopians» in their way, their aggression will be directed to the “traitors of the nation”. Let there be no doubt about this. Everywhere, these people declare that the arson of the Libertatia squat was just the beginning. Their slogans make it crystal-clear: «Anarchists and Bolsheviks, this land does not belong to you». The fascist gangs once again attempt to amaze. After a while, the media are once again sympathetic to them and their come-back, while the state tolerates them as it has done during the 2008-2013 period. Their targets do not only include a few anarchist squats, but the entire Left, the proletariat, the radicalized youth who do not buy the national fairytales, the communist and the anarchist movement, the people who do not share the nationalist hysteria. Every part of the Left is a target for them, even the one that sees some kind of genuine and progressive patriotism in the nationalist gatherings.
Will we let these vermin have a walk in the park? Will we allow far-right punks to threaten and attack our comrades? Will we let them plunder the honorable history of our dead, trample over our values – and over the banners of social liberation? Will we tolerate, after the memoranda, to have fascists sitting on our neck?
The Communist Revolutionary Action calls upon all the political and social forces of the organized proletariat to respond right here and right now to the far-right provocation by organizing our own rallies and by defending with militancy and resolve every space of our movement against the far-right para state. No challenge should be left unanswered. The message must be clear in every direction.
¡No pasarán!
They shall not pass!
