and Konstantinos Moutzouris!
Statement of
Liaison Committee of the Fourth International
Greek Trotsky leader Savas Michael-Matsas is to appear in court on 3 September together with the former rector of the National Technical University in Athens Konstantinos Moutzouris charged with defamation and incitement to violence by the fascist Golden Dawn party. The incitement to violence is the use of the term “smash fascism” in the press of the Workers Revolutionary Party, of which Michael-Matsas is a leader and allowing the premises of National Technical University in Athens to be used by the independent news portal Indymedia.
After a demonstration in May 2009 Golden Dawn charged the entire left with these offenses including the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the left alliance SYRIZA, the anticapitalist alliance ANTARSYA and also the EEK – as well as immigrant associations and independent activists. But in 2012 the Antonis Samaras government, which has just passed another round of savage austerity cuts, began investigation and have targeted these two individuals.
Michael-Matsas noted in an interview: [1]
The Nazis have connections to the repressive state apparatus from the time of the Greek civil war in the 1940s and the dictatorship of 1967-74. But these connections have gotten stronger after the youth revolt of 2008. Due to the crisis, the fascists are getting help from the state: they are protected from criminal prosecution, while prosecutors raise charges against antifascists. It is no coincidence that half of the police voted for "Golden Dawn" in the last elections.
And further:
The fact that I am a Jew makes my case worse. On the internet there are slogans like "kill the Jewish rat", saying that I am an agent of a "World Jewish Conspiracy" to establish a "Judeo-Bolshevik regime" in Greece.
Após os motins gregos 2008 06 de dezembro de 2008, quando Alexandros Grigoropoulos, um estudante de 15 anos, foi morto por dois policiais do estado e os fascistas responderam como Savas-Michael explica:
“The right-wing government – with the assistance of the Nazis of "Golden Dawn" – unleashed pogroms in neighbourhoods with lots of immigrants. The Greek left organized a number of antifascist demonstrations in which our party also participated.”
The dangers of a right wing/fascist coup are growing ever greater in Greece and the international working class and left have a pressing duty to defend them. We will mount an international campaign involving picketing Embassies and petitioning etc to defeat this attack from the far right on workers organisations in Greece.
Build an International Defence Campaign for the Greek anti-fascists!
Defend Savas Michael-Matsas and Konstantinos Moutzouris!
Drop the charges brought against them by the fascist Golden Dawn now!
Smash the fascist Golden Dawn, Defend the Immigrants!