Déjà Vu: Fascism on the Rise

By Justin Raimondo

Here in America we have only just begun to feel the social and political effects of the worldwide economic crisis: rising unemployment, a wave of bankruptcies andforeclosures, and a general contraction in economic activity. State and local governments are imposing austerity measures, and the federal government faces a “fiscal cliff” that may be much steeper than anyone now imagines. In Europe, however, they are already halfway down into the abyss, with Greece falling faster andharder — and several southern European countries not too far behind.

The response of governments throughout the continent has been a regime of “austerity” designed to reduce deficits piled up as a result of many decades of extravagance: populations which have come to expect government subsidies as their just due are being subjected to draconian budget cuts, and the social and political structures built up since the end of the second world war are in danger of collapse. The decline and probable fall of the euro augurs worse to come, with the spillover effectthreatening us here in the US.

The last worldwide economic depression led to the rise of national socialism in Germany, fascism in Italy, and ultimately to a devastating global conflict that killed millions: could it happen again?

The economic and social factors that led to the rise of national socialism and fascism in Europe are too well-known to require much reiteration here: the plight of Weimar Germany, with its runaway inflation, and subsequent social disintegration, pulverized the socio-economic fabric of the nation that gave us Goethe and Beethoven, empowering authoritarian ideologues of the right and the left. Marginal figures moved to the mainstream, and the results were horrific.

That process seems to be repeating itself today, with the rising tide of far-right movements in Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and even Finland. And it isn’t just Europe: the so-called Arab Spring is occasioned by skyrocketing food prices and even worse economic conditions than we see elsewhere. With Islamist parties moving to fill the breach as US-supported tyrants like Hosni Mubarak fall by the wayside, the Weimar Effect is very far from being an exclusively European phenomenon.

Greece, the most extreme case of economic implosion, is showcasing the looming threat. With more than 25% unemployment (twice that among the young), and the complete collapse of the country’s most basic institutions, an openly fascist political party is moving to fill the gap. “Golden Dawn” is quite explicit about its ideological antecedents: their symbol is the Greek version of a swastika.

The party was founded in the early 1990s by Nikolaos Michaloliakos, a fifty-five year old rightist agitator and ex-military man with a long history as a pro-Nazi propagandist. Like Hitler, he served a jail term early in his political career for his violent “activism”: imprisoned in the same facility with the leaders of the 1967 military junta, their example inspired him to create “Golden Dawn,” initially a magazine which featured apologias for Naziism, and Holocaust denial. He and his followers registered Golden Dawn as a political party in 1993. A marginal force initially, the party — which garnered less than 1 percent in previous polls — received a stunning 14 percent of the national vote in Greece’s recent parliamentary elections.

Golden Dawn’s message is all too familiar: while the far left — which is also gaining ground — blames “capitalism” for the country’s woes, the Golden Dawners are far more explicit: Jewish bankers, they say, are the cause of Europe’s economic problems and Greece’s plight (oh, and by the way, the Holocaust is a lie). Their response to the “austerity” policies of centrist politicians is to blame foreigners — 2 million of whom currently reside in Greece — for rising crime and “stealing jobs” from natives. Black-shirted toughs patrol the streets, beating up foreigners, attacking immigrant hotels, and even infiltrating the police, who have “out-sourced” law enforcement in large sections of central Athens to Golden Dawn thugs. Like all fascists everywhere, they cite historical fantasies of a “Greater” nation: if Golden Dawn ever came to power, the “lost” lands of Macedonia and portions of the former Yugoslavia would be “reclaimed,” and war with Turkey would only be a matter of time.

Read the rest here.