See the guy in the photo there, dangling an ax from his left hand? That's Greece's new "Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks" Makis Voridis captured back in the 1980s, when he led a fascist student group called "Student Alternative" at the University of Athens law school. It's 1985, and Minister Voridis, dressed like some Kajagoogoo Nazi, is caught on camera patrolling the campus with his fellow fascists, hunting for suspected leftist students to bash. Voridis was booted out of law school that year, and sued by Greece's National Association of Students for taking part in violent attacks on non-fascist law students.
With all the propaganda we've been fed about Greece's new "austerity" government being staffed by non-ideological "technocrats," it may come as a surprise that fascists are now considered "technocrats" to the mainstream media and Western banking interests. Then again, history shows that fascists have always been favored by the 1-percenters to deliver the austerity medicine.
This rather disturbing definition of what counts as "non-ideological" or "technocratic" in 2011 is something most folks are trying hard to ignore, which might explain why there's been almost nothing about how Greece's new EU-imposed austerity government includes neo-Nazis from the LAOS Party (LAOS is the acronym for Greece's fascist political party, not the Southeast Asian paradise).
....
That's where we are today. Greece drowning in debt, its democracy broken, and despite fighting the Nazis in World War Two, and taking back democracy from a fascist junta in 1974in the end, it was the EU and the Western banks that put a guy like Makis "Hammer" Voridis, the guy who patrolled his law school with a makeshift ax, in power, administering banker-pain.
The implications of the EU and bankers forcing Greece, the birthplace of democracy, to cancel a popular plebiscite as "irresponsible," forcing instead an austerity regime composed partly of neo-Nazis fascists to administer more "pain"is something that should frighten the shit out of everyone. Because like it or not, we're all in the cross-hairs of the same banking interests, and we're all going to face it again and again. Greece just happens to be the first in line.
Recommend reading the entire lengthy article @ Naked Capitalism with pictures of normal size. I couldn't figure out how to resize the .jpg.
Greece, under pressure from creditors, is calling on Turkish firms to bid for 50 billion euros worth of its assets on sale. Prices are cheap and Greece welcomes Turkish investors, the country's privatization authority says
Greek officials and Turkish business representatives address the audience at a meeting in Istanbul yesterday to promote Greek state assets on sale to local investors. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÃœREL
Greek authorities see Turkey as a strong alternative to Western investors in buying tens of billions of euros worth of its state assets, as a part of the country's large privatization plan imposed by its creditors.
The Greek sell-out plan includes ports, airports, power plants, highways and energy firms, a top official said yesterday during an Istanbul meeting to promote assets to Turkish businesses. Turkey has a rapidly growing economy despite the global economic woes.
"One third of Greek land is on sale," said Panos Protopsaltis, head of Privatization Program of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, (HRAD) speaking to Hürriyet Daily News on the sidelines of the "Privatizations in Greece and Opportunities" meeting, which was attended by large business missions from both countries.
"Turkish firms are more than welcome to invest in Greece, as assets in the privatization basket are under normal market conditions," the Greek official said, noting that a total of over 71,000 properties on 3.4 billion square meters of land across the country were waiting for investors from Turkey, as well as from other countries.
"I am confident that there will be no obstacles against Turkish investors who would like to take part in the tenders," said Protopsaltis, speaking at the meeting organized by the Foreign Economic Board Relations Board of Turkey (DEÄ°K).
The HRAD brought a vast portfolio of potential privatizations to the meeting, totaling roughly 50 billion euros. The program aims to generate nearly 19 billion euros in cash by 2015.
"We would like to see BotaÅŸ (Turkey's state-owned pipeline firm) taking part in tender for Greek gas pipeline operator DEPA," he told the Daily News. Recently, Russia's Gazprom also announced that it was considering bidding for DEPA.
In the absence of investors willing to commit fund for Greek assets, he called on Turkish business people to take advantage of the low prices.
"It is almost impossible to receive loans from Greek banks currently. Partnering with Turkish firms, Greek companies may benefit from loans provided by Turkish lenders in order to secure their businesses from a lack of liquidity," Dimitris Papanicolaou, chairman of Greek-Turkish Business Council, told the Daily News. According to him, "both sides of Aegean have got closer during the economic crisis."
Islands for sale
"Greece has over 6,000 islands, and the operation rights of some plots on these islands may be transferred," said Aristomenis M. Syngros, chairman of the Invest in Greece Agency, welcoming the potential Turkish investors' interest in local tourism sector.
Adnan Nas, board member of Global Investment Holdings, said his company was currently interested in eight ports in Greece.
"We can finance the tenders worth less than one million euros on our own," he told the Daily News. "For bigger tenders, we might seek a foreign partner." he noted. İpragaz, one of the leading Turkish firms in the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector, plans to acquire an LPG firm in Greece, according to Alp Ergüngör, its operation support executive.
"This is the best time to invest in Greece," said Selim Egeli, the head of Turkish-Greek Business Council at DEÄ°K, noting that many Greek firms had applied to the council to look for potential Turkish partners or investors.
ASSETS FOR SALE IN 2012
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News First quarter:
29 percent in Greek Organization of Football Prognostics, touristic facility with golf course and seven kilometers long beach in Rhodes
Second quarter:
35 percent of oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum, nickel mining company LARCO, Horserace betting firm ODIE, 49 percent in Athens Casino, Egnatia Odos motorway, Athens and Thessaloniki water and sewerage firms, small ports and marinas
Third quarter:
37 regional airports
Fourth quarter:
12 ports, state stake in ATE Bank, Postal Bank, truck assembler ELVO, train operator TRAINOSE
Athens may miss debt goal
BERLIN /ATHENS
Greece's international creditors see "significant risks" that the country might fail to bring down its debt burden within targets, meaning it would require more rescue loans, according to The Associated Press. In a document seen by news agency yesterday, creditors say Greece's program "could be accident prone."
"Authorities may not be able to implement reforms at the pace envisioned," said the report.
On top of concerns that reforms are too slow, the Greek economy faces a grim outlook.
Separately, Greece's public deficit for 2011 is expected to close at 9.2 percent of output, the government has said, according to an Agence France-Presse report. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/one-thi...pageID=238
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
Surprise! The Golden Dawn Party (The Greek Nazi party that's now entering parliament) behaves exactly like the super-aggressive hooligans you're imagining.This video (via @yannikouts) shows the scene at the Golden Dawn victory press conference. As the leader was walking in, one of his henchmen shouted at the journalists to rise in his presence. And then those who didn't were barked at and told to leave.Charming.
Chryssi Avgi (Golden Dawn), which won 6.97% of the votes and 21 seats in the Greek parliament in Sunday's parliamentary elections (see background), has made intolerable death threats against Xenia Kounalaki, the editor of the foreign news desk of [url=http://www.ekathimerini.com/]Kathimerini, Greece's leading broadsheet, unleashing a wave of reactions on the resurgence of neo-Nazi extremism. On 12 April, Kounalaki wrote an op-ed, arguing that the Greek media should ignore Chryssi Avgi, a party of what she called Nazi thugs, and which according to her should have been banned from running in the elections. The response was almost immediate: a 2.500-word article, revealing many details of Kounalaki's personal and professional life, and mentioning her daughter for no apparent reason, was published at Chryssi Avgi's website. 'Kommt Zeit, kommt Rat, kommt Attentat!'" wrote the unknown author of the article. Anyone who speaks German, like Kounalaki (born in Hamburg), knows that this is a barely masked threat against her life. EU reaction still pending The issue was brought up during the daily briefing of the European Commission yesterday (7 May) by Kounalaki's colleague at Kathimerini, Costas Karkagiannis, the newspaper's Brussels correspondent. Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, the Commission's spokeswoman, reaffirmed the EU commitment to press freedom, but refused to comment any further, referring the issue to the Greek authorities. European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, responsible also for Information Society and Media, will surely address the issue in the European Parliament today (8 May) at a seminar on media freedom, organised by the Association of European Journalists AEJ. Kounalaki has already talked to the Greek police, but she was told that there is very little which could be done, since the threatening article was unsigned and the domain name provider was registered in the United States. Reportedly, Kounalaki's daughter is having nightmares, since some of her fellow students are also members of Chrysi Avgi. Numerous members of the fringe party have been arrested in the past for attacks against immigrants and leftist activists. At least one of them served time in prison for attempted homicide. Chryssi Avgi started as a fringe organization of "Nationalist Socialist Studies" three decades ago. It published a little known magazine, in which it praised Hitler's "contribution to humanity". Its muscular activists and leader casually exchange Nazi salutes among them. Until 2010's municipal elections, Chryssi Avgi drew very little support. Greece has suffered a brutal Nazi occupation during World War II and faced the bitter experience of a military dictatorship, between 1967 and 1974. However, the financial implosion has shaken the foundations of Greece's two-party system, and exposed the weaknesses of an unsustainable growth model, based on fiscal laxity, cronyism, nepotism, and corruption. The influence of Chryssi Avgi's virulent anti-immigrant and anti-IMF rhetoric, often accompanied by the party's "militia patrols" in the most crime-stricken neighborhoods of Athens, grew faster than its most fanatic supporters had anticipated. Analysts concur that Chryssi Avgi is a symptom of the crisis. The results of Sunday's elections reflect a seismic shift in Greece's political landscape, putting an end to the four-decade-domination of the center-right New Democracy and center-left PASOK parties. Although both are to be blamed for the country's bankruptcy, PASOK and New Democracy were the pillars of the most prolonged period of political stability in Greece's history. Their downfall, during a time of severe economic recession, signals the start of a transitional period, bearing many similarities with the times of the Weimar Republic. In other words, the threat of a possible exit from the eurozone may be Greece's least pressing problem now. Sunday's polls show that the nation is deeply divided. If these divisions are not healed sooner rather than later, then the new dawn for the country will definitely not be golden.
Published on Thursday, June 7, 2012 by Common Dreams
Greek Neo-Nazi PM Assaults Leftist Rivals on Live Television
- Common Dreams staff
Today, Ilias Kasidiaris, a spokesman for the far-right Golden Dawn party in Greece, assaulted two separate members of leftist opposition parties during a panel discussion on live television.
A public prosecutor ordered the man's immediate arrest after Thursday's incident.
The 31-year-old Kasidiaris, according to The Guardian's Helena Smith, was elected to the 300-seat Athens parliament last month and "is the most vocal opponent of suggestions that [Golden Dawn] is a violent organisation with a history of attacks on society's most vulnerable" including "Greece's burgeoning population of immigrants."
A former member of Greek military's special forces, reports Al-Jazeera, Kasidiaris hit communist party member Liana Kanelli in the face three times, "with right-left-right slaps to the sides of her head." This was after he threw a glass of water on a member of the leftwing Syriza party, Rena Dorou after she declared that his party would "take [Greece] back 500 years."
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.â€
Buckminster Fuller
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
Quote: "is the most vocal opponent of suggestions that [Golden Dawn] is a violent organisation with a history of attacks on society's most vulnerable"
Hahahaha....FAIL
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.â€
Buckminster Fuller
Quote: "is the most vocal proponent of suggestions that [Golden Dawn] is a violent organisation with a history of attacks on society's most vulnerable"
Keith - I fixed the quote for our illiterate fascist thug.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
Protesters across Greece poured on to the streets of cities Friday night, denouncing the "dark force" of fascism as the spokesman of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party continued to elude arrest more than 24 hours after his extraordinary on-screen assault of two female leftwing politicians.
Nine days before fresh general elections, the fault lines in Greek society are deepening.
And late on Friday, as a police manhunt for Ilias Kasidiaris showed little sign of yielding a positive result, the divisions were on full display.
While anti-fascist demonstrators descended on public squares, supporters of Golden Dawn crammed into a hotel in Athens to hear the party's leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, rail against immigrant "scum" and the corrupt and crooked system that had brought the crisis-hit country to such a "dark place".
"There is growing polarisation. People are becoming increasingly radicalised thanks to all the rhetoric in the EU and here against the anti-austerity leftist majority and that is opening the door for Golden Dawn," said veteran activist Petros Constantinou. "We are demonstrating not only against the rise of the far right but against those who have enabled fascism to take root."
Constantinou, a tall, thin man who has spent years running an organisation that protects migrants, is, like a growing number of Greeks, convinced that it is the police who have facilitated Golden Dawn. "Without police cover and protection Golden Dawn would not have survived," he said. "And the proof of that is the failure to capture Kasidiaris.
"How is it possible that a man can do what he did in a television studio and yet manage to get away and stay on the run after a state prosecutor has ordered his arrest? The police clearly don't want to arrest him."
Dimitris Trimis, the head of the Greek journalists' association, ESEA, agreed. In a nation where physical violence is rare and public displays of violence against women even rarer Kasidiaris's assault on Liana Kanelli and Rena Dourou, during a live TV debate of politicians representing the seven parties that won seats in the country's inconclusive 6 May election, had clearly shocked Greeks.
All day Friday, TV channels had replayed footage showing Kasidiaris, a former commando in the Greek army, lashing out at Dourou first, hurling a glass of water in her face before turning his fists on Kanelli, the KKE communist party's spokeswoman, a former news anchor.
But his ability to evade arrest was entirely plausible, said Trimis.
"Suspicions of the collaboration between the police and Golden Dawn were confirmed at the ballot box in May," he said.
"As much as 50% of the police force voted for the party. There might be all the political will to arrest Kasidiarias. But there is a certain level of unwillingness among the police force that will stop that happening."
For years, he said, rightwing extremists had done the police force's "dirty work", mopping up migrants from the ghettoes of inner Athens in exchange for protection.
The spokesman of the Hellenic police force, Thanassis Kokkalakis, denied the accusations and said special units all over Greece were looking for Kasidiaris.
"Our belief is that he is hiding in the knowledge that the arrest warrant runs out at one minute past midnight. He doesn't want the media all over him, showing him in handcuffs ahead of the election."
Golden Dawn is widely regarded as Europe's most fanatical neo-Nazi party, going so far as to ensure that its emblem bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika.
By playing on deep disgruntlement over the punishing income cuts and tax increases demanded by creditors in return for rescue loans, it won 7% of the vote last month ushering the hard right's entry into parliament for the first time since the collapse of military rule in 1974. Although polls have shown its popularity dropping to as low as 3.6% as Greeks gear up for a second election, it would be enough to allow the party representation in Athens' 300-seat house.
Emboldened by the growing divisions between left and right, rich and poor, Golden Dawn has resolutely refused to condemn or even reprimand Kasidiaris for his behaviour. A party statement said the spokesman had instead been provoked by the female politicians.
"Ms Kanelli got up first ... hitting him unprovoked in the face with a sheaf of documents," it said.
The denial fits in with the neo-Nazi party's history of terrorising women, including female journalists whose photographs and passport numbers have been published in the party's weekly newspaper.
With Thursday's assault quickly followed by Golden Dawn attacks on socialist MPs campaigning in northern Greece and leftwing students at Athens' Panteion University, there are mounting concerns that the darkening mood could be a precursor of worse to come even if Kasidiaris's explosive temper has shone a spotlight on the party as never before.
On television and radio chatshows commentators voiced fears that in a country where memories of the brutal 1946-49 civil war are still vivid, Greece could be hurtling towards a full-scale social breakdown sparked initially by its worst economic crisis in modern times and now exacerbated by the political uncertainty engulfing the nation.
"After months of extreme hate speech, violence has climaxed," wrote the analyst Vivian Ethymiopoulou in the mass-selling Ta Nea newspaper.
"From verbal run-ins and yoghurt throwing we have officially passed to acts of personal revenge and daggers being drawn."
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
![[Image: n_16494_4.jpg]](http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/images/news/201203/n_16494_4.jpg)
![[Image: Gokhan-Kurtaranweb.jpg]](http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/images/news/Gokhan-Kurtaranweb.jpg)
Gökhan Kurtaran