About two hundred people took to the streets of St Petersburg, Russia, at the weekend for the annual ‘March Against Hatred’, which aims to ‘unite those who fight against intolerance, xenophobia, fascism and discrimination on grounds of race, nationality, religion and beliefs, sexual orientation etc.’ The following day, tens of thousands in about 100 cities […]
08 Oct
By KEVIN OVENDEN This piece is a follow-up to “Greece, the state & anti-fascism”, which was subsequently also posted at Socialist Unity in the UK and Socialist Worker in the US. The anti-fascist conference in Athens last weekend hosted by the Greek anti-fascist/anti-racist coalition KEERFA was a major step forward. About 600 people, from a broad spectrum […]
04 Oct
By KEVIN OVENDEN The struggle against the most pernicious and entrenched neo-Nazi force in Europe is at a critical moment. At stake in the dramatic arrests of Nikolaos Michaloliakos and other leaders of the Golden Dawn in Greece is not only the immediate future of a Nazi party that has 18 MPs, with 7 percent […]
25 Sep
From ΚΕΕΡΦΑ / KEERFA– Movement United Against Racism and the Fascist Threat. The cold-blooded murder of 34 year old artist Pavlos Fyssas in Keratsini by thugs of the Golden Dawn in a Nazi ambush has sent shockwaves through millions of people, not only in Greece but around the whole world. Eight months ago, it was a […]
19 Sep
Last week in Athens I attended a teachers’ demonstration. The protest took place in the evening, the day before schools returned for the year. Cuts to education in Greece are savage, and teachers have been on strike for most of the semester already. I spoke to an art teacher, who advised that the entire art […]
22 Jul
One of the most striking things about the mainstream media coverage of Kevin Rudd’s “PNG solution” is how the discussion is mostly framed by ideas, policies and language that are increasingly relics of a past phase of the interminable “border security” debate. By outmanoeuvring opponents to both his Right and Left on this issue, Rudd […]
10 Mar
Comments Off on Europe: The persistence of racism & the fascist threat
by KEVIN OVENDEN Below are the points, updated and a little amplified, I made in a contribution to the highly successful Unite Against Fascism conference in London on 2 March. The speech (and I’ve incorporated my summing up) was in a workshop with Petros Constantinou from Greece, Marwan Mohammed from France and Glyn Ford […]
01 Mar
London-based anti-fascist activist KEVIN OVENDEN reports on two aspects of the rise of the far Right in Europe. First, he analyses the high vote for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the Eastleigh by-election, where they beat the Tories into third place. Following this, a short piece on how the mainstream Right is feeding the […]
19 Jan
Comments Off on Solidarity with the Greek anti-fascist resistance
Today is the international day of action against fascism, an initiative called from Athens where the thugs of Golden Dawn have been trying to capitalise on their electoral breakthrough in the country feeling the sharpest edge of Eurozone austerity. Left Flank extends its best wishes to the ordinary Greek people fighting the twin horrors of […]
13 Jan
JUST ANNOUNCED: SYDNEY ANTI-FASCIST DEMONSTRATION IN SOLIDARITY WITH GREECE 12:30pm Friday 18 January, Greek Consulate, 219-223 Castlereagh Street, Sydney Event Facebook page / Initiated by Solidarity & endorsed by We Are All Greeks Sydney / To endorse the demonstration, get more information or media call Amy on 0430 554 263 *** One of the key political […]
07 Nov
Comments Off on Internationalism, racism & the geo-political labyrinth