The reality that gave birth to the Golden Dawn

"In an attempt to provide some answers concerning the emergence and evolution of fascism in Greece, we will describe the course of Golden Dawn’s rise and stabilization in the political scene throughout the important events of the last five years. Afterwards, we will try to highlight the relationship of the state to this fascist movement, and the example of the police in particular, approaching this phenomenon as one that reflects the interests of the dominant political and financial forces, which, as it will become evident, have definitely tolerated Nazi activity, if not promoted it. This interaction between the political establishment and Nazism has been intensified throughout the crisis years, among other reasons, due to the state of exception that has been imposed by successive Greek governments in order to carry on implementing the directives of the memoranda despite popular reaction."

Acknowledged as a growing human rights issue, hundreds of thousands of migrants residing in Greece exist in a state of -bare life‖ (Agamben) without protected political rights and subjected to brutal violence. Individuals existing in a state of bare life are excluded from political participation and so are abandoned to violence and death. This formation plays out at multiple levels of governance with important implications for sociological analysis. As Greece's financial crisis and move toward austerity continue to devastate the economy, the production of violence against immigrants has increased. This surge is exacerbated by supranational institutions like the European Union coordinating policy frameworks for member states that focus on the exclusion of migrants by utilizing a Fortress Europe policy paradigm. Since the EU failed to establish a legal framework for the inclusion of migrants, the Greek state has complete sovereignty to include legal migration into state law. Due to the inefficient and cumbersome legalization process, however, migrants are excluded from Greek society and protected rights. In addition, in the midst of economic crisis, the Greek state has diverted attention from the burden of harsh austerity measures by exploiting public racism and xenophobia. The Greek state maintains sovereignty and legitimacy by arresting, detaining, and expelling immigrants depicted as criminals plaguing Greek society. These strategies have supported the rise of the right-wing political party Golden Dawn which acts as a paternalistic protector of the Greek people by providing social welfare and protecting Greeks from perceived criminal immigrants by perpetrating violence against those immigrants.

Book's title :Social movements in Central and Eastern Europe. A renewal of protests and democracy, Geoffrey Pleyers, Ionel N. Sava (eds.) University of Bucharest, 2015

Crime, Law and Social Change, 2016

South European Society and Politics, 2013

The article examines the rise of the one of the most extremist political parties in Europe, the Golden Dawn. It sketches the historical trajectory of the Greek far right, examines the ideological, organisational and voter profile of the Golden Dawn, and offers possible explanations for its breakthrough in the 2012 elections. The article shows how the economic crisis has brought about a massive realignment of the Greek electorate away from mainstream parties, giving rise to anti-system and anti-immigrant sentiments. The violent tactics of the Golden Dawn allowed the party to establish an anti-system and anti-immigrant profile, and capitalize on these sentiments. The future of the party will depend on its capacity to organisationally absorb future tensions between party pragmatists and idealists.

South European Society and Politics, 2013

The article examines the rise of the one of the most extremist political parties in Europe, Golden Dawn. It sketches the historical trajectory of the Greek far right, examines the ideological, organisational and voter profile of Golden Dawn, and offers possible explanations for its breakthrough in the 2012 elections. The article shows how the economic crisis has brought a massive realignment of the Greek electorate away from mainstream parties, giving rise to anti-system and anti-immigrant sentiments. Golden Dawn's violent tactics have allowed the party to establish an anti-system and antiimmigrant profile and capitalise on these sentiments. The party's future will depend on its capacity to absorb organisationally any future tensions between party pragmatists and idealists.

This thesis addresses a major issue in contentious politics. Why are revolutionary groups resilient in Greece? Greece has experienced regular instances of political violence in the past decades – from low-level phenomena, such as vandalisms, riots and clashes with the police, to high-level occurrences, such as the operation of clandestine groups. Particularly critical has been the rise of a series of revolutionary groups from the 1960s onwards. Identified as clandestine left-wing groups that organise underground and use violent methods to disrupt the political system and cause radical political change, revolutionary groups have been one of the most enduring challenges faced by the modern Greek state. By employing mixed methods for a deep analysis of the phenomenon’s causes in Greece, this thesis shows how the emergence of the revolutionary groups can be traced back in the military junta’s era (1967 – 1974) – making Greece the oldest and most protracted case of revolutionary violence in Europe, and one of the most resilient globally. To trace the phenomenon, this thesis follows a relational analytical approach (McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly 2001; Alimi, Demetriou and Bosi 2015) that emphasises the role of mechanisms and posits the content of interactions as key to the understanding of groups’ violence. Based on a comparative design across generations of armed groups and the study of their communiqués, this research provides a detailed analysis of the mechanisms that facilitated the radicalisation process of two different revolutionary groups: the Popular Revolutionary Resistance (LEA) (1965 – 1974) and the Revolutionary Organisation November 17 (17N) (1975 – 2002). By combining a process-oriented approach with an analysis of the groups’ collective action frames and framing strategies, this thesis traces the similarities and dissimilarities of the two contentious episodes, revealing the recurring mechanisms that triggered the revolutionary groups’ emergence, resilience and decline in Greece.

The Boston Occupier Free Press, 2013