Recent racist assaults in Rethymno and Laconia, Greece

Between 12 and 14 of April in Rethymno, Crete, some racist scum attacked high school pupils both of Greek and Albanian origin who were hanging out together in the street. The racist “gang” consisted of young Greeks who first attempted to terrorize and beat a Greek boy; when his Albanian friend intervened non-violently to stop them, the “gang’s” “leader” turned to him, asked “where do you come from?” and when the boy answered “Albania” he started beating him. One day after that, the “gang” assaulted again the Albanian boy. The incident in Rethymno comes approximately one month after the beating of leftists students by ultra-nationalist neo-nazi scum in the same city.

As the announcement of the Forum of Immigrants in Crete (http://clandestina.org/EIDHSEIS/2009/EIDHSEIS_APRIL_2009_10.html) reads:

“[T]hese attacks target not only immigrants but also Greek pupils, students or citizens who defend their fellow people of immigrant origin. This is absolutely not a conflict between some two extremes or some local gangs and immigrants, as some argue.

These attacks is a continuation of all that happened the prior years. It starts with slogans and graffities full of hatred against immigrants and those who defend democratic values and expands in attacks as the one two weeks ago against two students. It is the continuation of attacks that immigrants fall victims of by right-wing groups with their allies in various media (for example, in Agios Nikolaos, at Petrou Ralli, around Agios Panteleimon in Athens, etc.). No crisis legitimizes violence and fascism against immigrants![…]“.

Some days later and some kilometers norther in the Country the diffuse racism of the Greek provinces took a more organized form. What is very encouraging is that there as well, a place with remarkable tolerance for ultra-conservative scum, there also one meets people fighting against the ideologies of hatred (http://skalalakonias.wordpress.com/). Their announcement of April 22 reads as follows:

“[I]n Skala, Lakonia, a small rural town in southern Peloponnese, in the last 2 days something very disturbing happened, which should not be left unanswered.

The Day before yesterday in the evening at around 12 a group of about 10 young people vituperated a Romanian man. Me and two comrades happened to be passing by around there and asked them why they do it. They responded aggressively and started argument. At that time a police patrol arrived, but they did not say a word about the incident, they simply decided to carry the comrades to the Police station for the procedure of identity verification . The next day (April 21), around 12, the story got bigger and more dangerous. A group of about 20 young people (16 to 20 years old) from two cafes in the town took it to the miserable settlement some Pakistani orange-field workers use to dwell in. The workers are living under appalling conditions and with extremely low wages. The group of juveniles began to throw stones at sleeping people. Indeed one of the Pakistani was injured when one from the group hit him with a broomstick. The Pakistanis tried to react, and went armed looking for the perpetrators who of course had already disappeared, as much as the Greek police had done so that to leave fascistic action take place unobstructed [...]“

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