WINTER/SPRING 2020 The Public Eye Special Double International Issue: The Golden Dawn Model: Once Emulated by U.S. White Nationalists, Greece’s Anti-Migrant Party Faces an Uncertain Future Enemy in the Making: The Language of “Anti-Sorosism” in the U.S. and Hungary Nothing Is Untouched: The Aftermath in Chemnitz End Times Antisemitism: Christian Zionism, Christian Nationalism, and the Threat to Democracy The Right in the Streets: The Past and Present of the Polish March of Independence Third Millennium Fascism: Highlights from Italy Right-Wing Populism Outside the Global North: Brazil and the Philippines WINTER/SPRING 2020 THE PUBLIC EYE QUARTERLY PUBLISHER Tarso Luís Ramos EDITOR Kathryn Joyce COVER ART Atelier Populaire PRINTING Hello from PRA. We hope you’re staying safe and well during these challenging Park Press Printers times. The Public Eye is published by Political Research Associates Our latest issue, nearly a year in the making, is a special internationally themed Tarso Luís Ramos edition of The Public Eye, drawing on contributions from 10 writers and covering EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR nine countries. Overall, the picture these pieces show is grim, with country after Frederick Clarkson country contending with a greatly emboldened Far Right, and many sliding away SENIOR ReseARCH ANALYST from democracy and toward autocracy. Over the course of finalizing this issue, as Cloee Cooper ReseARCH ANALYST much of the world shut down to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, some nations used Steven Gardiner the crisis as an opportunity to further entrench illiberal or authoritarian policies, as AssISTANT ReseARCH DIRECTOR with Viktor Orbán’s seizure of emergency powers in Hungary. But all of these trends Heron Greenesmith have been years in the making, and many are deeply interrelated. SENIOR ReseARCH ANALYST Marshall Hanig In our (appropriately) first piece of the issue,“The Golden Dawn Model” (pg. 4), OPERATIONS SUPPORT Patrick Strickland considers the rise of Greece’s Far Right. Nearly a decade ago, the Olivia Lawrence-Weilmann PROGRAM COORDINATOR world watched in shock as the fascist, neonazi party linked to rising anti-refugee vi- Isabelle H. Leighton olence began to also gain power in the Hellenic Parliament—a terrifying preview of DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR things to come across Europe more broadly. Less well-understood was how Golden Ben Lorber Dawn had forged close ties with U.S. neonazis and White supremacists, helping the ReseARCH ANALYST Far Right grow and adapt on both continents. Koki Mendis COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Next up, in , Anna Szilágyi and Kristóf Szom- Anne Murphy “Enemy in the Making” (pg. 7) FINANCE DIRECTOR bati undertake an authoritative exploration of how liberal philanthropist George Charles Ocitti Soros became the preeminent bogeyman of the global Right, by studying how he DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS is discussed in his native Hungary and his adopted home of the United States. In Greeley O’Connor both countries, age-old antisemitic stereotypes, baseless conspiracism, and sophis- MANAGING DIRECTOR ticated propaganda techniques have been deployed by political leaders and ampli- Aidan Orly fied by right-wing media to legitimize illiberal rule and demonize pro-democracy DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR initiatives. FELLOWS Dan Atkinson • Zoé Samudzi • Tina Vasquez In “Nothing Is Untouched” (pg. 14), Hilary Moore reports on the aftermath of INTERNS Hanwen Hu • Julia Cameron the mob violence that shook Chemnitz, Germany, in 2018, when hordes of protest- ers attacked people of color perceived to be immigrants or refugees. That violence, Board of Directors which drew global condemnation, may have seemed spontaneous, but as Moore Jeyn Levison, Chair writes, it grew from a years-long process of neonazi and fascist mobilization, and Fatema Ahmad • Cathy Albisa • Saqib Bhatti before that, the untended traumas of Germany’s reunification, which left Chemnitz Ginna Green • Ellen Gurzinsky Orson Moon • Mandisa Moore-O’Neal in a “pre-pogrom” state. Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald Founder Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 Somerville, MA 02144-1837 Tel: 617.666.5300 [email protected] © Political Research Associates, 2020 All rights reserved. ISN 0275-9322 ISSUE 101 www.politicalresearch.org 2 • The Public Eye WINTER/SPRING 2020 editor’s letter In “End Times Antisemitism” (pg. 19), PRA assistant research director Steven Gardiner takes a deep dive into understanding how Christian Zionism has forged a powerful and toxic bond between the U.S. and Israel. Long a simmering force on the Christian Right, in the Trump era, apocalyptic Christian Zionist beliefs are now national policy—the motivation behind destabilizing moves like the relocation of the U.S. Embassy, the recognition of Israeli claims to contested territory, and the defunding of agencies that provide support to Palestinian refugees—to the detri- ment of Jews, Muslims, and democracy itself. P. 19 “The Right in the Streets” (pg. 25), Piotr Kocyba and Małgorzata Łukianow’s historical study of Poland’s annual March of Independence, takes us on a tour of how the Polish Far Right has appropriated and converted a national holiday into an ethno-nationalist spectacle, marked by White supremacist slogans and violence. But despite those facts, Kocyba and Łukianow write, the march continues to draw tens of thousands each year, as well as the support of the ruling political regime. In “Third Millennium Fascism” (pg. 29), Maddalena Gretel Cammelli plumbs the backstory of Italy’s idiosyncratic but influential neofascist group CasaPound Italia. Through a mix of cultural offerings, symbolic rituals, powerful political alliances, and street violence, CPI offers less a specific policy agenda than an all- encompassing community for young recruits to neofascism. And, thanks to a so- phisticated approach to media campaigning, they’ve gone almost completely un- challenged. Finally, in “Right-Wing Populism Outside the Global North” (pg. 33), Ramon H. Royandoyan and Mario Braga explore how the same authoritarian trends sweeping Europe and the U.S. are also evolving in Brazil and the Philippines. While local political realities mean that certain staples from the authoritarian playbook— P. 25 like anti-immigrant scapegoating—are less effective there, other popular concerns, from drugs to crime, are easily tapped to take their place. And understanding the rise of figures like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro or the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte is para- mount to understanding how developing nations fit into the global populism puzzle. In between our print issues, PRA is publishing regularly online, including ongo- ing coverage on how the COVID-19 crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement pro- tests are being affected or exploited by the Right, so be sure to visit us at politicalre- search.org. Kathryn Joyce P. 29 WINTER/SPRING 2020 Political Research Associates • 3 BY PATRICK STRICKLAND The Golden Dawn Model Once Emulated by U.S. White Nationalists, Greece’s Anti-Migrant Party Faces an Uncertain Future Golden Dawn members hold a party flag at a rally outside of the party headquarters in Athens in March 2015. Credit: DTRocks/ Wikimedia Commons. ctober 24, 1998. Anyone ism conference required such stringent Greek neonazis, had organized the con- walking past the conference security2: it hadn’t been a tourism con- ference, dubbed the Fifth Pan-European in Thessaloniki, Greece’s ference at all. Rather, around 150 people Conference of Nationalist and Social second-largest city, would had gathered for two days of speeches Forces.3 The keynote speaker was Wil- haveO likely found the presence of guard about strengthening ties between White liam Luther Pierce III, founder of the dogs at the entrance odd, the Southern nationalist and neonazi groups across U.S.-based National Alliance and pseud- Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report national borders. Hailing from Austria onymous author of The Turner Diaries, a later pointed out. After all, the event sign to South Africa, Germany to Portugal, futuristic novel that envisions race war read: “Greek Coordination of Touring and the U.S. to Belgium, the participants consuming North America. Groups.”1 mingled, donned swastikas, and per- By the time Pierce touched down in Four days after the conference ended, formed fascist salutes. Greece, his 1978 novel was well known Greek newspapers learned why a tour- Golden Dawn, a then-obscure band of for inspiring hate crimes and terror at- 4 • The Public Eye WINTER/SPRING 2020 tacks.4 Among them, the 1984 murder of Golden Dawn’s rise to parliamentary ing a criminal organization.16 Jewish radio host Alan Berg by members prominence—a surge from command- Fyssas’s murder sent shockwaves of The Order, a White nationalist terror ing street gangs to occupying 18 seats throughout Greece, prompted mas- group; Timothy McVeigh’s 1995 bomb- in the Hellenic Parliament—provided a sive anti-fascist rallies, and left 69 party ing of the Oklahoma City federal build- model for likeminded White nationalists members on trial, but it initially did little ing, which killed 168 people; and the the world over. In effect, its electoral suc- to wither Golden Dawn’s support. Leg- 1998 lynching of James Byrd in Jasper, cess suggested that fascists didn’t have islative elections in January 2015 saw Texas. to choose between boots and suits; they Golden Dawn assume the rank of the par- That history of violence was no issue could simultaneously infiltrate main- liament’s third largest party. for Golden Dawn, which, since its found-