Secular Café: Neo-Nazis in Greece Have Global Ambitions

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Neo-Nazis in Greece Have Global Ambitions Apr 8th 2013, 20:54 http://www.care2.com/causes/neo-nazi...ambitions.html Seems we never learn as a species. Even the name "golden dawn" is like something out of the past (shining path?), and a horrible misnomer... Quote: The Golden Dawn, Greece's far right political party, won a shocking 7 percent of the vote in elections last June and now holds 18 seats in the country's parliament. It's an understatement to say that its members have been buoyed by its successes. The leaders of the extremist party has offices throughout Greece and have begun opening offices around the world, in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Germany. The flag of the Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi) is emblazoned with a swastika-like insignia; its members are "prone to give Nazi salutes" and have been accused of violence against immigrants. At its founding in the 1980s, the Golden Dawn linked itself with British Neo-Nazis, according to the Guardian. Its founder, Nikos Michaloliakos, was a supporter of the military leaders who ruled Greece as dictators until 1974. Dimitris Psarras, who has written a book about the Golden Dawn, says that members meet with Neo-Nazis from Germany, Italy and Romania regularly. The Golden Dawn has recently called for immigrants accused of violent crimes to be given the death penalty. Iliad Kasidiaris, a spokesman for the Golden Dawn, (who assaulted two female politicians on a Greek talk show last year and then "disappeared" for some time, with the police unable to find him for some time), has said the party will set up cells "wherever there are Greeks." So far, the response of many of Greek ancestry in the U.S, Canada and Australia has been of simple disgust, not only for the violence but for the group's anti-immigrant stance. "We don't see any gold in the Golden Dawn," says Father Alex Karloutsos, a prominent Greek community figure in Southhampton, New York. Many in the Greek diaspora are more than aware of having been immigrants themselves who were discriminated against and persecuted by the likes of the Ku Klux Klan. "No dogs or Greeks allowed," said signs in Florida restaurants in the 1920s.

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