Thursday December 13, 2012, 9:18 am
(Image: Logo for Golden Dawn group.)

In the wake of Greece's economic meltdown, several factions have jockeyed for power amid social unrest, soaring debts and austerity measures both complicated and controversial. Perhaps the most notorious of these groups is the increasingly popular far-right, anti-immigrant Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) Party, which won 18 seats in the country's Parliament back in June 2012, despite (or because of) their neo-Nazi imagery, hardline nationalism, and links to attacks on Asian and African migrants.

Not content to proselytizing in their homeland, Golden Dawn has started to expand worldwide.

Barely a month after their electoral victories, Golden Dawn launched a widely-criticized branch in Melbourne, Australia, home to one of the largest Greek populations outside of Athens. In October, several groups protested the opening of a Golden Dawn office in New York City, which had opened for the explicit purpose of building support for the party among Greek expatriate communities and collecting food and medicine to distribute in Greece -- but only for Greeks. And in Montreal, Golden Dawn is holding a Christmas food drive. The catch? They're only giving food out to Greek Christians.

But this quote near the bottom of the last story is what really caught my eye:

"Golden Dawn members in the United States have told CBC News they plan to open chapters shortly in Chicago, in Connecticut and in Toronto."

Chicago has a sizable Greek community with a popular Greektown neighborhood. But Chicago also has sizable non-Greek communities, including the very same Asian, African and Jewish communities that Golden Dawn is dedicated to kicking out of Greece. Although Golden Dawn North America seems to have an official blog confirming the upcoming expansion into the aforementioned locations, I couldn't find any indication that the Chicago branch has "officially" launched.

In an amusing twist, most searches on Google for "Golden Dawn Chicago" point to something very different -- the local branch of a spinoff of Western Occultism/New Age spiritual mish-mashing pioneers, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Whether support for a party dedicated to a "state that constantly serves the eternal revolutionary principles of the nationalist worldview, with the ultimate goal of forming a new society and a new type of man" takes off in the Chicagoland Greek community remains to be seen. Just in the past few days, the party has seen its Athens office bombed by an anti-fascist group, and two of its members turned away from Greek Parliament for attempting to bring in guns. It's not uncommon for expatriate communities to feel strong ties to the homeland, but it'll be difficult for Golden Dawn to avoid scrutiny from Greek patriots and would-be donors the longer it stays cloaked with the specter of violence.

But the group is not likely to apologize for its public stances or actions any time soon. In response to the Montreal food drive controversy, the Golden Dawn North America blog lashed out against the Jewish groups behind the protests for engaging in "racist hypocrisy" for not distributing aid to non-Jewish groups in Greece.

Meanwhile, some outlets are reporting that Golden Dawn plans to launch an organization in Greece called "Doctors Within Borders" -- a group that would only medically treat Greeks. The irony here is that a group claiming to preserve the Greek people and their historical identity is getting ready to throw away the very basis of medical ethics established in the Hippocratic Oath -- a Greek doctrine dating back to the 5th century B.C.

Greece is not the only European country facing a surge in right-wing nationalist fervor, nor is the only part of the world plagued with increasingly widespread ethnic and religious xenophobia and violence. Likewise, there are no easy answers to Greece's economic problems, nor the economic problems leading people to leave their countries in favor of Greece and the rest of Europe.

But there's a certain tragic symbolism to seeing Greek civil society deteriorate alongside other parts of the world. As Human Rights Watch's Europe Director Jan Egelund put it to TIME, "If we give up on Greece, this cradle of civilization, philosophy and humanism, how can we make progress in the Congo, or Afghanistan or Syria?"
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By Jason Prechtel | Gapersblock | Hate Watch |

Thursday December 13, 2012, 1:46 pm
Just what we need in this country... Another hate and fascist group...

For the Greek expatriates only...

Ty, Kit.
.

Thursday December 13, 2012, 2:01 pm
Great.....another Fascist party.....like having the Baggers/Republicants isn't enough.....

Thursday December 13, 2012, 3:23 pm
Shame on the Greek people for letting this go so far. I suppose, there are not enough Greeks to remember the Nazi flag flying on the Parthenon.

Thursday December 13, 2012, 4:15 pm
Noted and very sad. We need love and healing not more hate :(

Thursday December 13, 2012, 4:16 pm
Noted. Thanks.

Thursday December 13, 2012, 4:30 pm
Greek Nazi's? Like I said in another post, sometimes I really hope the Mayan calendar is right, and we'd only have to put up with the Madness of this World for another Week...

Thursday December 13, 2012, 5:23 pm
Oh goody; the grand daddy of the Theosophical Society, Madame Blavatsky, the Lucifer or Lucius Trust; Alistair Crowley the father of the OTO; indirectly Ron Hubbard and Scientology out of which morphed the Church of the Process of the Final Judgement. You in California will remember them oh they of the Black cowelled robes of which Charlie Manson and the family were affiliated with as was Berkowitz and quite a few other nefarious characters. Do you really want these fascist idiots in America. I would think we have enough of our own crazies without importing them.

Thursday December 13, 2012, 6:22 pm
Human overpopulation brings more "tribes" into closer proximity and increases opportunities for tension.

It'll only get worse.

Thursday December 13, 2012, 6:27 pm
Don't we have enough of our own homegrown here in America, do they really need to import more to us.

Thursday December 13, 2012, 6:43 pm

From a historical perspective there is nothing unusual about the growth of extremist groups during times of financial hardships. Mussolini came to power with the support of the two most divergent groups , the very poor and the very wealth, these were also Hitler's supporters from the early inception of the NAZI Party. Now we also see a resurgence of the KKK, again an extreme right wing group, with religion as their front.

Thursday December 13, 2012, 10:41 pm
You beat me to the territory of my first thoughts Kit! The anger borne from scarcity and insufficiency for survival like austerity measures have brought to many are indeed fertile ground for those who prey on the vulnerabilities of the angry and direct it against those perceived to be different. One of the ironies is the alignment in Montreal in the words "Greek Christians"--the Greek Orthodox Church's Bible includes the commands to love their neighbor like all other Christian churches.

Friday December 14, 2012, 1:36 am
I am only speaking of what has happened to me
I live in a Greek community, in Australia, and they have been very kind to me, but I will add they are a very close Community and it can be very hard to get close to them

Friday December 14, 2012, 3:04 am
I think somewhere down the line we will have a massive wealth destruction ... through social unrest that the well--to-do greedy will live to regret. Occupy--has been rather peaceful to this point but that could change if nothing else does. I feel most people won't join radical groups like the KKK--or Nazi's but OCCUPY has a lot of supporters who are not even physically involved at this point.

Friday December 14, 2012, 10:15 am
I can't blame Greek Community for helping Greeks, even though I would be excluded. There are plenty of national associations helping their own.

People who don't want that limit should donate to other charities, that's all. And if the Greek Christian crowd donated a few extra bucks to the needy - so be it.

Muslims have Zakat which is given to Muslims. I don't see anything wrong with this either.

People have to decide where their money will go.

Friday December 14, 2012, 12:25 pm
Great. Maybe the RNC can wine & dine them while they're here. Have a hate fest.

Tuesday December 18, 2012, 1:01 am
I hope Harper hasn't done away with the laws against hate speech that'll help restrict Golden Dawn in Canada.

Too bad we can't do away with Harper's whole party so we wouldn't have to worry about such things,,,