Iran begins 10-Day Dawn festivities

Iran begins 10-Day Dawn festivities
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The photo shows the late Imam Khomeinei (R) back home from a 14-year exile as he gets off the plane at Mehrabad International Airport in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on February 1, 1979.

Millions of Iranians across the country have begun ten days of celebrations, marking the 35th anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The ceremonies kicked off all over the nation on Saturday morning at 9:33 a.m. local time (0603 GMT), the time when the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini arrived back home on February 1, 1979 from exile.

Imam Khomeini spent more than 14 years in exile, mostly in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf. He also spent some time in Turkey and France, before his return to Iran.

The day when Imam Khomeini returned to Tehran marks the start of 10 days of celebrations better known as the 10-Day Dawn festivities, which culminate in nationwide rallies on February 11, the anniversary of the triumph of the Islamic Revolution.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei visited the mausoleum of the late Imam Khomeini, southern Tehran, to pay tribute to the founder of the Islamic Revolution on Saturday morning.

The Iranian nation toppled the US-backed Pahlavi regime 35 years ago, ending the 2,500 years of monarchic rule in the country.

The Islamic Revolution spearheaded by the late Imam Khomeini established a new political system based on Islamic values and democracy.

During the 10-Day Dawn festivities, Iranians take part in different events and activities to mark the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

SF/NN/HRB

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Greece: Fascist Golden Dawn Party Built Up by Elite to Violently Suppress Working Class

The murder last week of hip-hop musician Pavlos Fyssas by fascist thugs has intensified class tensions in Greece. Thousands have taken to the streets on a daily basis to demonstrate against fascist terror and government attacks on social programs, jobs, wages and pensions. The police have responded with violence, attacking demonstrations and protecting the offices of the fascist Golden Dawn organization. There are open discussions in ruling circles of a possible military coup.

Fascism and dictatorship can be prevented only if the working class intervenes into the crisis as a politically independent force on the basis of a genuinely democratic and socialist program. Only on the basis of such a program can the working class mobilize behind it all of the oppressed layers of society. Such a movement cannot permit itself to be subordinated to the state or the bourgeois parties, which ever more aggressively attack the democratic rights and social interests of the workers. It must link the struggle against dictatorship with resistance to social attacks and be directed against the capitalist system itself.

It is necessary to form self-defense committees in neighborhoods and factories to protect workers and immigrants from the fascist gangs and their police accomplices, and prepare strike action.

Golden Dawn, which denies the Holocaust and employs a modified swastika as its symbol, has been deliberately built up by the ruling class. Forces within the state apparatus, the political establishment and big business set up the party to spearhead the fight against the working class. Funded by layers of the super-rich, the party has established paramilitary units, trained by the Army and supported by the police.

The same circles are now discussing plans to establish a military dictatorship. On Wednesday, the Federation of Greek Reservist elite soldiers (KEED) demanded a government of “national necessity” under the “guarantee” of the armed forces. The demands of this association largely coincide with those of the Golden Dawn, including calls for the expulsion of all immigrants and the seizure of German assets in Greece.

The aim of such dictatorial measures is to suppress the continuing resistance by workers to austerity. Class struggles in Greece are reaching the point where the ruling class can no longer impose social attacks by traditional means. To implement the latest dictates of the “troika”—the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank—against workers’ opposition, the ruling elite increasingly relies on the army, police and fascist gangs.

Greece poses most starkly the question posed across Europe and internationally. Either the working class breaks politically from all sections of the bourgeoisie, intervenes independently in political life, expropriates the big banks and major corporations, and establishes a workers’ government, or the ruling class will reduce society to barbarism. The crucial question is now the independent mobilization of the working class in political struggle.

Opposing this perspective are the various pseudo-left groups, such as the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) and the Communist Party (KKE). Together with the trade unions, they are sabotaging the struggles of workers and subordinating them to the state and the so-called “democratic” parties of the ruling class, chiefly the social democratic PASOK. By politically paralyzing the working class, they create favorable conditions for the most right-wing elements, using nationalist and pseudo-populist demagogy, to gain a hearing among desperate layers of the middle class and sections of the working class itself.

SYRIZA supports the European Union—the bankers’ conspiracy against the European working class—and presents itself as a force for “stability” in alliance with “democratic” forces in the ruling parties, including the right-wing New Democracy. It opposes any independent mobilization of the working class against the bourgeois parties and the system they defend. In this way, it lends its support to the brutal austerity measures directed against the working population.

It has responded to Fyssas’ murder and the subsequent mass protests by stepping up its efforts to present itself to the ruling elite as a reliable defender of the status quo, while seeking to politically disarm the working class in the face of ruling class preparations for dictatorship. At a recent meeting in Vienna, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras declared that the armed forces and the police “are democratized and pose no threat to democracy.” A few days later, plans for a military coup and further evidence of the cooperation between Golden Dawn and the police came to light.

Calls for a state ban of Golden Dawn have essentially the same content. Such a ban would not weaken the fascists, but ultimately strengthen them. It would give the state apparatus, which is profoundly compromised by its relations with the neo-Nazis, greater powers to act against political organizations and against the working class.

SYRIZA’s main concern is to stabilize Greek capitalism and preserve its relations with the European Union. Tsipras recently called for an alliance against the fascists with the ruling New Democracy, which has innumerable links to Golden Dawn.

Similar policies are being advanced by the other pseudo-left organizations in Greece, which speak for the same privileged middle-class milieu and differ only on details. The Communist Party (KKE) seeks to stir up illusions that the trade unions can lead the fight against the fascists and calls for a “popular front”. The state capitalist SEK has joined the chorus of those demanding the banning of Golden Dawn.

All these groups speak for wealthy layers of the petty-bourgeoisie, such as the trade union bureaucracy, which fear an independent movement of workers far more than state repression and fascist terror. By sabotaging the struggles of workers and subordinating them to the state, however, they are paving the way for the rise of fascism.

The political mobilization of the working class against the threat of fascism and dictatorship requires a struggle to expose the reactionary role of the pseudo-left tendencies. This is essential for establishing the political independence of the working class from all sections of the bourgeoisie and developing the struggle for workers’ power and socialism.

Global Research

Greece: Fascist Golden Dawn Party Built Up by Elite to Violently Suppress Working Class

Greek govt cracks down on neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, arrests leader

Published time: September 28, 2013 13:33

Supporters and members of extreme-right Golden Dawn party hold Greek national flags as they sing the national anthem outside the Greek police headquarters in Athens September 28, 2013 (Reuters / John Kolesidis)

Greek police have arrested the leader, several MPs and dozens of members of ultra-right Golden Dawn party on charges of leading a “criminal organization.” The party promised to respond with mass rallies of its supporters.

Greek police issued arrest warrants for Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos, party spokesman and MP Ilias Kassidiairis, two other prominent members, at least five other party MPs, as well as number of ordinary party members.

“The Secretary General and one lawmaker of the Golden Dawn Party were arrested a short while ago after arrest warrants were issued,” Greek police informed journalists.

Police have detained about 30 members of the ultra-right party, which won 18 seats in the Greek parliament in the June 2012 elections, having received close to 7 percent of the popular vote.

“Democracy in Greece is strong,” Justice Minister Haralambos Athanassiou said after meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias. “All those arrested will have a fair trial,” he said.

In response to the crackdown, the neo-Nazi party called on to its supporters to “resist unlawfulness.”

“We call upon everyone to support our moral and just struggle against the corrupt system,” a statement said on the party’s website.

The ultra-right party faced a public backlash after the Sept. 18 murder of 34-year-old anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, who was stabbed to death in Keratsini by George Roupakias, 45, an avowed supporter of Golden Dawn.

In the aftermath of the killing, the government signaled it would take a tough line against the neo-Nazi party.

“This government is determined not to allow the descendants of the Nazis to poison our social life, to commit crimes, terrorize and undermine the foundations of the country that gave birth to democracy,” Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said in a televised address a day after the killing.

The man who allegedly murdered the rapper confessed to the killing when detained by police, and volunteered that he had links to Golden Dawn. The party, however, denied any links to the murderer and the killing.

After the killing, an investigation revealed that sympathetic members of Greek law enforcement agencies had helped to train the Golden Dawn party’s paramilitary wing. As a result nine police officers, including two high-ranking officials, were fired while two senior police officials resigned for “personal reasons.”

The murder of the anti-fascist activist sparked mass protests nationwide as people held street protests to express their anger with the murder, clashing with police on Wednesday night.

The anti-fascist mass rallies apparently prompted the Greek government to launch a crackdown on the members of Golden Dawn, reportedly including wiretapping party members.

But Mihaloliakos and other leaders of Golden Dawn appeared to be defiant ahead of their arrest.

“We will exhaust any means within our legal constitutional rights to defend our political honor,” Mihaloliakos told reporters on Thursday.

On Friday, Golden Dawn threatened to pull its 18 MPs out of parliament in protest against the murder accusations, a move that could potentially prompt by-elections in 15 regions of the country and – if the opposition were to win those elections – it could threaten the small majority of the ruling coalition, which currently controls 155 seats in the 300-seat parliament.

A good result for the opposition could mean that the ruling coalition would become politically untenable, The Guardian reported Mihaloliakos as saying Friday.

“Golden Dawn holds a weapon in its hands to cause a political earthquake. Those in charge should bear that well in mind,” Mihaloliakos said.

Greece’s finance minister downplayed the political risks of arrests of the Golden Dawn party members.

“There is no risk of destabilization,” Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras told reporters on Saturday.

On Saturday, the ultranationalists called on their supporters to rally outside the police headquarters in Athens where their leaders were being held.

“Shame on them, the people will lift Golden Dawn higher,” Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros told reporters shortly before his own arrest.

The Golden Dawn party has expressed open hostility toward left-wing opponents and immigrants in Greece, championing slogans such as “clean up the stench,” and “Greece for the Greeks.” They have pledged to eject all immigrants from Greece and secure Greece’s borders with landmines and armed patrols. The party has also opposed austerity measures introduced in exchange for bailout credits from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank – the so-called “Troika”. 

The arrests of Golden Dawn leaders are the largest crackdown against a political party in Greece since the fall of the neo-fascist military junta in 1974.

RT – News

Greek govt cracks down on neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, arrests leader

Immigration, Unemployment, The Golden Dawn and The Not-So-Funny Side of Beppe Grillo

It Can’t Happen Here

So just how do we construct a valid set that that contains poorly-regulated immigration, unemployment, The Golden Dawn, and Beppe Grillo? If we’re lucky, here in America, we probably cannot. So, as Cliff Eastwood famously asked. “Are you feeling lucky?”

Now given the nice, violent intro and the unresolved rhetorical queries above, I should explain this all a bit. I’ll endeavor below. The governments of what we typically refer to as The West are following a set of economic policies and a set of immigration policies that are accidentally making the rise of a politically influential fascist movement more likely in the Western World.

If things work out really badly over here, we could easily be on our way to having people gain power in America like Governor Huey Long. We once had a President who thanked and congratulated Filmmaker D.W Griffith on his pro – Ku Klux Klan historical fantasy “Birth of a Nation.”

So we’ve established that American electorates will vote for fascists if they are smart enough not to publically brand themselves as mass-murderers. Huey “The Kingfish” Long claimed to favor “Sharing the Wealth.” His populist slogan went “Every man a king, but nobody wears a crown.” Woodrow Wilson, while enjoying his pro-KKK movies, styled himself as Progressive.

But are Americans really dumb enough to just elect a crypto-fascist for novelty’s sake? Blessedly no. A lot has to go wrong first. People adapt the ideologies of fascism in response to what they view as existential threats. A common threat that empowers individuals with totalitarian desires involves the confluence between poor employment prospects and massive immigration.

People start out struggling to find work at all. They then see people who were not born in their country come in and find jobs. The fascist then tells the disgruntled person that these immigrants have somehow “stolen” this employment. This is made significantly more believable if native born workers are restricted from employment by minimum wage laws and union membership requiremnts and then they see recent immigrants doing precisely the same types of work they’ve been blocked from entering. Something then has to be done about these people before they breed and take over.

Margaret Sanger made a career as a political activist meeting this perceived need. She addressed The New History Society on January 17th, 1922. Some of Ms. Sanger’s Progressive Liberalism follow below.

…have Congress set up a special department for the study of population problems and appoint a Parliament of Population, the directors representing the various branches of science: this body to direct and control the population through birth rates and immigration. to keep the doors of immigration closed to the entrance of certain aliens whose condition is known to be detrimental to the stamina of the race, such as feebleminded, idiots, morons, insane, syphilitic, epileptic, criminal, professional prostitutes, and others in this class barred by the immigration laws of 1924….. to apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.

We don’t see this tendency gaining adherents in America at present. We have to look over to Europe instead. In Greece, where unemployment is over 20% and the nation is essentially bankrupt, an openly and militant fascist party called The Golden Dawn has seats in Parliament. They base a lot of their appeal on natavism. Here pay close attention to their proposal to reform the Greek Welfare System.

Opinion polls show support for Golden Dawn jumped from 6.9% to 11.5% soon after it entered parliament for the first time at last June’s general election. It has remained steady for several months. The party’s characteristics are violent racism (demonstrated by scores of attacks against immigrants), anti-semitic rhetoric and a “social action programme” for the needy (as long as they can produce a Greek identity card)

.

And in Italy, the economic scene is similar. Former Comedian and radical Leftist, Beppe Grillo, has emerged from the sidelines to form “The 5-Star Movement” and win 25% of the vote in last weekend’s Italian parliamentary elections. I wrote a partially favorable opinion of the man yesterday. Like Mordred and Benedict Arnold, he has a valid point. He probably feels genuinely aggrieved and outraged at what is happening to Italy. I’m sure Huey Long was legitimately peeved about The Great Depression as well.

Grillo, a former comedian, has some not-so-funny aspects to his act as well. He begins amassing power in a state that has effectively been forced to accept an outside “Technical Government” that placed them under servere austerity. Here is a description of conditions in Italy.

Government at all levels is corrupt. It’s the only way people can survive. Everybody is playing double games. People are doing two jobs and running their own businesses out of government offices. Everybody cheats on taxes. The mafia controls half the country. Survival depends on the black market, the black economy. The currency is kept artificially high, so exports crash.

So when Beppe Grillo goes on his blog and uses the old Red Army Slogans he learned growing up, it’s easy just to think the comedian is kidding. Some of the uglier parts of his agenda follow below. The ideals sync up nicely with Woodrow Wilson’s Progressive buddies D.W. Griffith and Margaret Sanger. It’s all about getting rid of the undesireables.

The Jews are a small, wandering minority of Arabs who stole the Holy Land from the others 2,500 years ago. They now run the world through the Illuminati, the Masonic Lodges, the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. The Jews are responsible for Italy’s mess, because they own the banks that charge usurious interest rates. The Jews who run the world need to be “processed” en masse. Grillo supporters will not define “processed,” but they love the idea. Whatever it means. Beppe Grillo can save Italy by nationalizing the banks and cutting off trade to Europe. The fact that Italy is physically part of Europe is no impediment.

Before we all just laugh at the crazy Italians and crazy Greeks, we should keep in mind that similar ideas have been electorally successful in America. Planned Parenthood made its money helping get rid of undesirables. I’ve argued abortionist Kermit Gosnell did the same until his arrest. Fascist, eugenic thought makes the Freakonomics argument that abortion reduces crime a possibility.

So in conclusion, a society that fails to adequately solve its economic problems and fails to reasonably restrict the extent to which immigration changes the complexion of its society will trigger a violent and ignorant reaction. This reaction will take the form of an authoritarian and nativist political movement that will often seek to remove the “undesirables” from that society in a literal and bloodthirsty fashion.

America today has some of the problems that make fascism powerful. We do not have them to the extent that Southern Europe does. This is why there currently isn’t a powerful and well-represented Golden Dawn Party in the US. If we are lucky, we can continue what we are doing now and we may have nothing this bad actually happen. As I listen to GOP leadership justify a capitulation to the left on both immigration reform and on all matters economic, I have to ask the question: “Do we really feel that lucky?”

Immigration, Unemployment, The Golden Dawn and The Not-So-Funny Side of Beppe Grillo