The Politics of Knives – Η πολιτικη των μαχαιριων _video

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/76455142[/vimeo]

This film is part of the research project crisis-scape.net
The neo-Νazi party Golden Dawn has been active in Greece since the mid-1980s. Through the years, GD has attacked migrants, antifascists and homosexuals, often with the tolerance or even the collaboration of parts of the Greek police force. In recent years, the party saw a largely unexplained soaring in its funding, a broad coverage of its activities (whether real or fictitious) by mainstream media and the opening up of more than fifty local branches across Athenian neighborhoods and Greek cities.
The ostensibly meteoric rise of the GD in mainstream political discourse came at an extremely critical conjuncture, amidst the global financial crisis that hit Greece hard from approximately 2008/09 onward. In the 2009 national elections, GD had received a mere 0.2% of the vote; in 2012, its share sky-rocketed to approximately 7%. The electoral success of GD was matched by the introduction of anti-migration policies by the government coalition, often-encountered police operations specifically targeting anti-fascist activists in Athens and other Greek cities and the rise of racist attacks in the country.
On September 17th a self-confessed GD member, Giorgos Roupakias, stabbed anti-fascist rap musician Pavlos Fyssas (aka Killah-P) to death. In the aftermath of the assassination the GD leader, Nikos Mihaloliakos, and key GD MPs and members have been arrested and charged. Only now, after decades of presence in the Greek political landscape, the GD’s connections to the country’s security forces and political establishment are untangled and exposed in mainstream political discourse and in the media.