Protests against Greek nazi violence

This October 2014 video is called Anti-Fascists Rise Against Golden Dawn in Greece.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Racist attacks spark protest march

Sunday 20 January 2013

by Our Foreign Desk

Thousands marched through central Athens on Saturday in protest against a series of attacks on immigrants.

About 150 members of Greece’s Pakistani community had gathered outside Athens City Hall earlier to pray and pay their respects to Shehzad Luqman, a Pakistani killed in a suspected race attack on Thursday.

Mourners unfurled a banner by his coffin that read in Greek and English: “Punishment to the fascist murderers of Shehzad Luqman.”

The community’s leader Javied Aslam said: “We want to be peaceful. We are simple workers, and we will not do what the fascists do.

“In the last three years they have attacked 700 to 800 people.

It’s the job of the police to arrest these people and send them to jail.”

Anti-immigrant feeling has surged in Greece since the start of its economic crisis.

The ultra-right wing Golden Dawn party won seats in Parliament for the first time last June, taking about 7 per cent of the vote and capitalising on local resentment of rising unemployment and crime.

Two Greek men in their 20s have been charged with Mr Luqman’s murder.

They have admitted killing him but claim it followed a heated argument.

But police sources said the men had taken off their motorbike’s licence plate and Golden Dawn pamphlets and several knives were found when their homes were searched.

By Sarah Ensor in England:

Over 500 anti-fascists rallied outside London’s Greek embassy today, Saturday. The protest was in solidarity with a demonstration in Athens against Greece’s Nazi party Golden Dawn.

Unite Against Fascism (UAF) called the rally.

Speakers included Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and David Lammy, London Assembly member Andrew Dismore, and veteran campaigner Tony Benn.

Tony Benn said, “Greece’s mass unemployment and poverty has made people desperate. That’s when the hard right emerges.” Author and Labour Party member Owen Jones agreed, linking the growth of Golden Dawn to the savage imposition of austerity in Greece.

Charlie Kimber, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, reminded people that Greece’s ruling parties had targeted immigrants before the growth of Golden Dawn. He said, “New Democracy has rounded up 60,000 immigrants and is holding 4,500 of them in concentration-style camps.”

Many linked up the struggle against fascism here with that in Greece. John Whitfield from Chelmsford came to the rally “because we saw off the English Defence League last October and this is the same struggle”.

Jennifer Moses, equality officer of NASUWT union, sent a message of solidarity against Golden Dawn. She said, “As austerity grows so do the Nazi attacks but the support for the campaign against them is global and shows our strength. We must not let the Nazis infiltrate our schools.”

Amadit Singh from the CWU post workers’ union told the rally, “I’m here to bring solidarity to the comrades in Greece who are standing against Golden Dawn and all they stand for.”

Around 15 Nazis turned up – but hundreds of protesters chanting, “Nazi scum off our streets” drowned them out.

Weyman Bennett, joint chair of UAF, ended the rally. “Never again will we allow the gas chambers of Treblinka, the pink triangle or racist murders on our streets,” he said. “We struggle together and we will win together”.

Anti-racists joined Senegalese migrants to demonstrate outside Athens town hall on Thursday of last week, over the killing of a Senegalese street vendor: here.

Chicago Protest Against Greek Fascist Party Golden Dawn: here.

Related articles

• Thousands march in Athens protesting racist attacks in Greece (PHOTOS) (rt.com)
• Hundreds Rally in London in Solidarity with Anti-Fascists in Greece (eu.greekreporter.com)
• Anti-Greek nazis demonstrations, 19 January (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Hundreds rally against spread of Neo-Nazi influence in Greece (rawstory.com)