reverseracism:

‘Their ideas had no place here’: how Crete kicked out Golden Dawn

• “Golden Dawn was formed in 1980 and remained a fringe party until Greece’s devastating financial crisis started in 2009. As faith in the major political parties ebbed away, Golden Dawn’s narrative of a once-great nation ruined by immigration struck a chord with some disillusioned voters. As well as becoming the third-largest party in the Greek parliament, it also established a street-based paramilitary wing that regularly attacked immigrants and political opponents.”
• Crete’s anti-fascist movement initially struggled to fight back.
• “Our philosophy is that you never let the far right get hold of public space,” says Konstantinos (not his real name), a militant anti-fascist in his early 20s. “In warmer countries like Greece, public space is where the working class spends their lives. Wherever fascists are present, you have to make your presence felt too.”
• In September 2012, everything changed. In a crime that shocked the country, the prominent anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas was allegedly murdered on Golden Dawn’s orders. Huge protests broke out and 69 members of the party, including its leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, and 18 MPs, were arrested and charged with running a criminal organisation. Their trial is ongoing.
• “Before this, a lot of people had the attitude of ‘We do not fear Golden Dawn, we just need to educate them’,” says Haris Zafiropoulos, a 27-year-old activist with New Left Current, a coalition of left-wing groups.
• Militant activists also made the controversial decision to confront the group violently. In April 2018, Konstantinos and around 70 other anti-fascists organised a night attack on the Heraklion office. “We destroyed everything of value – the floors, the ceilings, the AC unit,” he says. “We think that was the final straw for them. Indeed, Golden Dawn packed up and left two weeks later.

You mean to tell me that when Antifacist activitivists made an active effort to confront and combat fascists and neo Nazis they were able to kick them out of their community?