Whereas the primary functions in the branches of a normal political party would be secretary, treasurer, chair, and so on, these are mere formalities in a Golden Dawn “branch,” which is instead organized around “security.” The Greek term for them translates as “battalion squads;” they are modeled on Adolf Hitler’s Sturmabteilung or Benito Mussolini’s squadrismo.

[...] Pavlos Fyssas was murdered on the night of September 17, 2013. He was stabbed three times (once in the heart) by Giorgos Roupakias, a member of the five-man leadership of the Nikea branch of Golden Dawn, as other neo-Nazis held him down. Branch members had recognized Fyssas at the café. [...] the battalion squad assembled at the offices of Golden Dawn in Nikea within fifteen minutes. [...] They joined with another group of Golden Dawn members who were already there. A radio conversation between the base and police who were present during the attack recorded them saying: “Fifty people with bats, heading to the store called Coralli. Have you received?” But the police did not intervene. They only belatedly caught up to where the stabbing took place, saying it had taken them minutes to run there although it was on the main street just a hundred meters from the café.

Tellingly, as he was arrested Roupakias told the police: “I’m one of yours. I’m Golden Dawn.”

[...] Golden Dawn acted in alignment with the big employers of the shipyard who wanted to get rid of the militant union. Days after the attack, union members at one yard were sacked and replaced with workers provided by a labor agency set up by Golden Dawn.

[...] Golden Dawn MP Lagos had told a meeting in Perama: “We have received complaints about … all these issues with the Egyptians who come here, do whatever they want, sell their fish in the way they want… and generally do not stand accountable to anyone. We tell them that from now on they will be accountable to Golden Dawn.” In other cases, immigrant shopkeepers — victims of arson and violent intimidation — have reported that Golden Dawn members ordered them either to leave the area or pay protection money.

The battalion squads’ campaigns to “cleanse” neighborhoods were both efforts at racist elimination as well as a mafia-style means of self-enrichment extending to the top of Golden Dawn.

Yet it is not the only way in which Golden Dawn’s Nazi ideology is fused with its character as a criminal enterprise. The hierarchical organization of the battalion squads is a material expression of that ideology and its commitment to a conquest of power and elimination of all democratic space.

The Nazi ideology also explains the choice of victims — the overall criminal intent linking together each of many felonious acts: a rapper popular in progressive youth circles, a left-wing trade union leader, and immigrant workers. Other attacks have targeted left-wing social spaces, lesbian and gay people, socialists, outspoken and democratic public figures, and anarchist groups­ — all of which are identified as enemies of the neo-Nazi organization.

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/greece-neo-nazi-golden-dawn-trial/

#podcast

https://roarmag.org/2020/10/13/david-harvey-acc-s03e1-2/

#books

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/karl-marx-liberalism-rights-igor-shoikhedbrod-review/

We know from studies of 323 violent and nonviolent movements around the world, protests that mobilize at least 3.5 percent of the population can produce regime change.

[...] How ironic, then, that it is anarchists who are perceived as violent, when in fact the vast majority of violence has been perpetrated by those working for capitalists and the state.

[...] People are responding with care, cooperation and mutual aid amidst the calamity of the coronavirus pandemic, the frenzy of police brutality and the recent devastating forest fires on the US West Coast

[...] From street medics on the front lines of protests and disaster relief to organizers in Brooklyn bringing people groceries during the pandemic, direct action and initiative by everyday people is making a material difference in people’s everyday lives."

[...] No matter who is elected in November, this agitation and movement building must continue. Despite the current administration’s demonization, today’s anarchists work toward creating a free society not merely through militant street demonstrations, but by engaging in workplace organizing, mutual aid projects, and the creation of directly democratic organizations and counter-institutions.

[...] We share a desperate need for a fundamentally different society. One that does not wreak havoc on the environment in pursuit of profits, one where police no longer murder people of color to preserve white supremacy, one free of the exploitation of people’s labor, and free of misogynist violence, a society where the people affected by political decisions are the ones making those decisions. A directly democratic society principally opposed to domination and exploitation is some of what anarchism offers and why it is so dangerous to the wielders of established power.

https://itsgoingdown.org/anarchism-threat-to-elites/

Fresh air being sold in bottles is already a reality, not some anti-utopian futuristic sci-fi. The richest countries didn't have decrease in air pollution due to ecological reforms, they did it by relocating the dirtiest industries into countries of Global South, where labour is being violently exploited and states bribed to keep regulations at bay.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/where-the-air-is-pure

it is worth explaining that right-wing libertarians generally treat “agreeing” to do something as synonymous with “choosing,” “wanting,” and “preferring” to do something. If you agreed to sell one of your organs to a black market organ-grinder in order to pay your child’s medical bills, it means you “wanted” to do so. There is no compulsion under capitalism, meaning that even if the only job available involves allowing Jeff Bezos to perform disfiguring medical experiments on you, you are simply a voluntary participant in a mutually beneficial transaction.

[...] Low prices are the ‘At least the trains ran on time” of big capitalism—a basic concession to daily stability while the power centers gather strength in the shadows.

[...] According to the Economic Census of today’s markets, the eight largest software publishers code programs that earn half the market’s income. The four biggest snack food corporations produce over half the total, and 80% of US pet food comes from just eight firms (often misleadingly labeled as separate brands), both being classic oligopolies

currentaffairs.org/2020/10/big-business-and-its-bottomless-bootlickers/