Greece Analysis: Time for the Left to combine and fight its real enemies, not Golden Dawn

[TexasTowelie]

By The Slog

I’ve been spending quite a lot of time time travelling in and out of, and around, Greece over the last month. Last night I was in Kalamata - the Messinian capital in the Peloponnese, a warm place with cool people in it….albeit alongside the increased level of muggings and burglary that have marred Greece since the crisis took hold in a big way four years ago.

Although Kalamatians miss the elegant capital they used to inhabit, there are still huge parts of it – the Castle, the old town, the seafront taverna bars and the newer hip venues in the centre – that could rival any civilised European city for fascination and charm. Now that Antoniki (Samaras) has corruptly ensured a spanking new motorway links his home region to Athens, Kalamata offers easy access to all things of real importance in contemporary Greece. Traditionally, this area is solidly Right Wing (New Democracy) but last night Kalamata was the venue for a large joint Left demonstration in the centre against the neo-Nazi Party Golden Dawn. Or – put another way – the Left in Greece is just as parochial in its hatreds (and irrelevant in its enemies) as it is everywhere else in Europe.

The more time I spend in Greece, the more it becomes obvious that it is the same squeezed, respectable middle and lower classes that are paying the price of mad EU hubris, corrupt bureaucrats, political embezzlers and professional State rip-off greed as elsewhere in Europe. But equally obvious is the Left’s riven and outdated focus on a bunch of directionless clowns playing at being Nazis….a Far Right which, after its recent appalling behaviour here, has made even Prime Minister Samaras understand he must keep his distance from them.

The Demo I watched last night contained nothing more than rote-slogans about fascists and neo-Nazis and ‘Golden Dawn out-out-out’. It’s like watching the Hard Left forty years ago in Britain wittering on about Rock against Racism and building the Anti-Fascist League against the tiny minority of BNP loons who represent an infinitessimal proportion of the votes being cast at 95% of elections. And while it is fair to say that Golden Dawn has made huge gains in recent years, its support has stalled – whereas the Alexis Tsipras phenomenon around Syriza has once again returned to growth. The Communist (KKE) ranks remain strong and influential: but Tsipras the strategist remains fearful of alienating the ‘middle to lower middle’ vote…or turning it back towards Golden Dawn.

More at http://beforeitsnews.com/eu/2013/09/greece-analysis-time-for-the-left-to-combine-and-fight-its-real-enemies-not-golden-dawn-2535556.html .

Another interesting paragraph in the article:

Greece’s Leftist rainbow from disgruntled Pasokists via Syriza to the KKE needs to wake up fast to four blatant realities: Greece will need another bailout next Spring, and then Brussels-am-Berlin will turn nasty; the euro is going to fail, and thus further pain is even more pointless that that already experienced; their enemy is not Golden Dawn, but rather the professional and political classes complicit in the ravishing of the Greek State; and the traditional middle is never going to come over to their cause.

[dipsydoodle]

1. A side note for comparison : different approaches.

I was in Malaga , south of Spain , for a week up to 18th. I'd already heard from friends what had happened to the price of cups of coffee in Greece - increased to between 5 and 7 Euros. In Spain they've done the opposite to encourage people to spend - reduced the price to a single Euro to encourage spending.

The Greeks are still at it too refusing payment by credit cards which leave a paper trail for tax purposes and accepting cash only.

I have no sympathy for Greece.