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==Neo-Fascism in Greece== ==Neo-Fascism in Greece==
:''See also ]''
Organizations that have been described as 'Neo-Fascist' include; Organizations that have been described as 'Neo-fascist' include:
*] (Nikolaos Michaloliakos)
*] *]
*] (Kostas Plevris) *] (Kostas Plevris)
*] (George Papadopoulos) *] (])
*] (George Karatzaferis)


Neo-fascism in ] has been present in Greek politics since the authoritarian regime of ], though with limited popularity among the public. During the 50's and 60's, Greek neo-fascists composed extremist fractions, one of which was responsible for the killing of politician Grigoris Lambrakis. In 1967, the Greek military Junta of ] found inspiration in the Metaxas period (]) of 1936-1941 and gathered many Greeks of a neo-fascist mentality to power. Neo-fascism in ] has been present in Greek politics since the authoritarian regime of ], though with limited popularity among the public. During the 50's and 60's, Greek neo-fascists composed extremist fractions, one of which was responsible for the killing of politician Grigoris Lambrakis. In 1967, the Greek military Junta of ] found inspiration in the Metaxas period (]) of 1936-1941 and gathered many Greeks of a neo-fascist mentality to power.


⚫ After the restoration of democracy in 1974, former Junta leader George Papadopoulos founded and leaded ], a party supporting, if not neo-fascism, at least ] views and the ideal of "Ellas ton Ellinon Christianon" (Greece of Greek-Orthodox Greeks).
After the fall of the Colonels' regime in 1974, Greek neo-fascists were greatly alienated, but continued to existed in fringe minority parties, very rarely achieving parliament seats. In the early 80's ], a former Greek Army parachutist and youth leader of the Greek neo-fascist party ] founded ], an extreme ] party. Members of Hrisi Avgi even participated as volunteers in the Yugoslav wars in Bosnia, effectively aiding the Serbian Army in the ] war atrocities. Until its dissolution in late 2005, Hrisi Avgi was considered among the more influential National Socialist movements in the world. It held over 10 offices across Greece and its monthly youth magazine was relatively popular among some Greeks. Hrisi Avgi became part of Patriotiki Symmachia in 2005.


The Greek neo-fascists were greatly alienated thoguh, but continued to existed in fringe minority parties, very rarely achieving parliament seats. In the early 80's ], a former Greek Army parachutist and youth leader of the Greek neo-fascist party ] founded ], an extreme ] party.
⚫ Another important neo-fascist party was the 4th of August Party, later named Proti Grammi (First Line), headed by ]. Plevris is a former ] and a die-hard admirer of Metaxas and Hitler{{fact}}, a renowned Hellenic supremacist, ] and Holocaust denier with close ties with other European revisionists.

⚫ After the restoration of democracy in 1974, former Junta leader George Papadopoulos founded and leaded ], a party supporting, if not neo-fascism, at least ] views and the ideal of "Ellas ton Ellinon Christianon" (Greece of Greek-Orthodox Greeks).


⚫ Another important neo-fascist party was the 4th of August Party, later named ] (First Line), headed by ]. Plevris is a former ] and a die-hard admirer of Metaxas and Hitler{{fact}}, a renowned Hellenic supremacist, ] and Holocaust denier with close ties with other European revisionists.
L.A.O.S., the ], has been adjectived as "neo-fascist", even if its leader ] has distanced himself from holding such political views. LAOS was third in the Athens prefacture in November 2004, which gained him the epythet of "Greek Le Pen". Karatzaferis, however, is known for his virulent ultra-nationalism, his flagrant anti-semitism, homophobia and populist convictions.


== Neo-Fascism in Turkey == == Neo-Fascism in Turkey ==
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==Neo-Fascism and the United States== ==Neo-Fascism and the United States==
:''See also ]''
The presence or absence of ] in the ] has been a matter of long-dispute from a variety of political viewpoints (see ]). This idea, for example, was brought up in the cautionary novel ] by ].
⚫ Movements identified as neo-fascist include the ]. Arguably neo-Nazi groups include the ], and the ].


⚫ The presence or absence of ] or fascist elements in the ] since the ] has been a matter of long-dispute from a variety of political viewpoints. Some have argued though that American economic policies have had fascist elements since the ]. This is further discussed in the ] and ] articles.
⚫ Movements identified as neo-fascist include the ]. Arguably neo-nazi groups include the ], and the ].


⚫ ==Neo-Fascism and religion==
The claim that the United States was once, or is now, fascistic remains dubious and fiercely debated, with few scholars supporting the claim.

] has warned that people in the U.S. need to remain vigilant to keep America from drifting towards fascism.. Some link growing corporate power to fascism..

], emeritus professor of politics at Princeton University, speaks of an "inverted totalitarianism" which "has an upside-down character": political apathy instead of mobilization of the society, "short-circuits" in the voting system replaces the abolition of the ], and media state control is replaced by ]:
:"Like previous forms of ], the ] boasts a reckless ] that believes the United States can demand unquestioning support, on terms it dictates; ignores treaties and violates ] at will; invades other countries without provocation; and incarcerates persons indefinitely without charging them with a crime or allowing access to counsel. The drive toward total power can take different forms, as Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union suggest. The American system is evolving its own form: "inverted totalitarianism." This has no official doctrine of ] or ] but, as described above, it displays similar contempt for restraints."

Writing in the Toronto Star, Paul Bigioni argues that:

:"Before the rise of fascism, Germany and Italy were, on paper, liberal democracies. Fascism did not swoop down on these nations as if from another planet. To the contrary, fascist dictatorship was the result of political and economic changes these nations underwent while they were still democratic. In both these countries, economic power became so utterly concentrated that the bulk of all economic activity fell under the control of a handful of men. Economic power, when sufficiently vast, becomes by its very nature political power. The political power of big business supported fascism in Italy and Germany."

In several essays, author David Neiwert has explored the rise of what he calls "pseudo-fascism." Neiwert concedes that "American democracy has not yet reached the genuine stage of crisis required for full-blown fascism to take root" and thus "the current phenomenon cannot properly be labeled 'fascism.'" He warns:

:"But what is so deeply disturbing about the current state of the conservative movement is that it has otherwise plainly adopted not only many of the cosmetic traits of fascism, its larger architecture -- derived from its core impulses -- now almost exactly replicates that by which fascists came to power in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s."

⚫ Some libertarians and conservatives argue that American economic policies have had fascist elements since the ]. This is further discussed at ] and ].

====External links for this section====
=====Neofascism=====
*
* .pdf format
* by ], ''Free Inquiry'' magazine.
* by Paul Bigioni, Toronto Star, November 27 2005
* from ''Newsday'' July 18, 2003 by Sheldon S. Wolin, professor of political science at Princeton University.
*] "I was a Republican from before the fascists took over."

==Neo-Fascism and religion (Islam, Christianity, Judaism etc)==
:''See main article, ].'' :''See main article, ].''


Line 172: Line 143:
*] - Canada (no longer exists) *] - Canada (no longer exists)
*]- Serbia *]- Serbia

== Endnotes ==
⚫ <references/>


==See also== ==See also==
*] *]
*] *]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
⚫ *]
*] *]
*]
*]


===Academic surveys=== == Endnotes ==
⚫ <references/>

==Further reading==<!--These should actually be more about neo-fascist movements after WWII proper-->
* '']'' by Martin A. Lee, (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997, ISBN 0316519596) * '']'' by Martin A. Lee, (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997, ISBN 0316519596)
* '']'' (Oxford Readers) by ] (1995, ISBN 0192892495 * '']'' (Oxford Readers) by ] (1995, ISBN 0192892495

Revision as of 23:13, 7 June 2006

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This page pertains to fascism after World War II. For a discussion of groups and movements that also include as core tenets racial nationalism, antisemitism, and praise for Hitler, see Neo-Nazism. For neofascist groups associated with a religious identity or theology, see Neofascism and religion. For analysis of where fascism fits on the left/right ideological spectrum, see Fascism and ideology. For discussions concerning the United States, see this page for post-WWII, and Fascism and ideology for pre-WWII and the FDR Administration.

Neo-fascism is the term used to describe a range of movements emerging after the Second World War that display significant elements of Fascism, or Clerical Fascism. The term Neo-Fascist (note uppercase 'F') may be claimed by groups that express a specific admiration for Mussolini, the insignia of Fascist Italy (e.g. the fasces, the Roman salute) and features specific to Fascist Italy. This usually includes nationalism, nativism, anti-communism and various oppositions to parliamentary system and liberal democracy. Neo-fascist (note lowercase 'f') movements can draw on an eclectic mix of attachment to Fascism, Nazism, and the fascist movements of other nations. Allegations that a group is neofascist may be hotly contested, in particular if term is used as a hyperbolic political attack that uses the term fascism as a politic epithet. George Orwell once remarked that "fascism" no longer seemed to mean much of anything, other than "objectionable." Hence the necessity for scholars to reach a precise definition of this movement which first took power in Italy during Mussolini's 1922 March on Rome. Anyhow, neofascism was used after the war to design movements or regimes sharing common characteristics with Fascism. While there exists a wide variety of neofascist movements, the question of neofascist regimes is more controversial.

Definition of Fascism

Main article: Fascism

First adopted in Italy during the 1920s, Fascism spread across Europe and the rest of the world between World War I and World War II, although some historians preferred to restrict the concept to Italian Fascism and German Nazism. Debates concerns the imitation of fascism by a wide variety of regimes, including Imperial Japan, Horthy's Hungary, Dollfuss in Austria, Salazar's Estado Novo in Portugal and Franco in Spain, Vargas's Estado Novo in Brazil, Perón in Argentina, the Croatians Ustashe, etc.; some historians prefer to keep for those regimes the traditional authoritarian appelation or plain dictatorship.

Fascism's roots have been traced by some scholars, such as Zeev Sternhell, to the revolutionary extreme left, as it mixed, in its first stages, certain socialist policies with nationalist ideology. Sternhell in particular points out toward anarcho-syndicalist Georges Sorel's theorization of "revolutionary violence" in class struggle in Reflections on Violence (1908) and the Cercle Proudhon 's thought. However, others historians argue that fascism is essentially a mass movement, which distinguish it from the intellectual debates to which Sternhell traces Italian fascism's roots. Furthermore, some divide fascism into various phases, beginning with the squadristri, then fascism in power, and finally "war fascism" stage which only nazism would have fully achieved. Besides, this analysis tends to underestimate the role of irredentist movements and territorial revisionism which followed the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and largely supported the rise of fascism, along with WWI veterans. Irredentism, largely based on historical and geopolitical positions, has been indeed fundamental to the fascist phenomenon of the 1930s. Enrico Corradini, a follower of Gabriele d'Annunzio who occupated Fiume in 1919 in a measure of gesture towards the Paris Peace Conference, thus developed the same year the concept of "proletarian nationalism", creating an inedit mix of Marxist terminology and nationalism opposed to Marxist internationalism. On the other hand, Nazism itself was closely linked to pan-germanism movements, which Hannah Arendt qualified as "continental imperialisms". Notwithstanding the Great Depression, these historical conditions of the rise of fascism as a mass movement between the two World Wars partly explains the difficulties of transposing the concept of "fascism" out of its historical context of origin.

Fascism is typified by:

After the defeat of the Axis Powers during WWII and the desperate attempt of the Italian Social Republic, the concept of totalitarianism would be used mainly in the United States in the 1950s, in the beginning of the Cold War and in the midst of MacCarthyism, to describe the specific forms of regimes which had appeared during the 1920-30s. The term had first been used, along with "statolatry", by Fascist ideologue Giovanni Gentile, who ghostwrote The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) for Mussolini. Hannah Arendt, Carl Friedrich or Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as president Carter's US National Security Advisor, used the term to criticize an alleged characteristic of both Nazism and Stalinism; surprisingly, Fascism was not included by H. Arendt, who considered it a more traditional "authoritarian" regime. Her interpretation has since been widely discussed. Furthermore, many have pointed towards much more similarities between the Nazi and the Fascist regimes — including a common ideology and territorial revisionism (irredentism) — than with Stalinism.

The wide popularity acquired by the concept of totalitarianism has lead in part to a confusion between fascism and totalitarianism, which may explains parts of the debate on some specific cases of alleged "neo-fascist regimes", in particular when dealing with regimes claiming to be democratic. Thus, several authors (Theodor Adorno, Guy Debord, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze) have questionned the concept of totalitarianism and criticized mass consumption societies as form of "soft totalitarianism". Debord thus spoke of a "diffused spectacle," Foucault of "disciplinary society," Deleuze of "society of control" and "microfascism" opposed to the fascist political movements of the 1930s, etc. The debate thus shifted in part from fascism to totalitarianism, and the last concept was used in new contexts: partly created to denounce the Soviet Union, it was in effect reversed against the "Free World" first by Frankfurt School's critical theory. In this new use of the concept of totalitarianism, however, the nationalist ideology and irredentism specific to fascist movements of the 1930s had no place. But militarism retained its importance, as in Adorno's concerns with the "death pulsion" and the military-industrial complex.

Regimes often called fascist after World War Two

Some post-World War II regimes have been called "neo-fascists" due to their authoritarian nature and sometimes their fascination for fascist ideology and rituals. Furthermore, dictatorships such as Franquist Spain, Pinochet's Chile, Isabel and Juan Perón's Argentinian regime which preceded Videla's junta, or Stroessner's Paraguayan regime were accused of hosting former Nazis war criminals whom part escaped through the ODESSA network. These regimes also participated together in Operation Condor, which targeted political opponents worldwide. These international operations gave rise to some cooperation between various neo-fascist elements engaged in a "Crusade against Communism" and state security services. This includes Operation Condor, but also Operation Gladio and Italy's strategy of tension, in which "false flag" terrorism actions were used — see the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing or the 1980 Bologna massacre (Valerio Fioravanti and Francesca Mambro, two Neofascists activists, were convicted to life imprisonment for the Bologna attack; Licio Gelli, head of Propaganda Due, was condemned for investigation diversion, along with Francesco Pazienza and SISMI officers Pietro Musumeci and Giuseppe Belmonte ) . This relationship between some authoritarian regimes and neo-fascist groups is highlighted by those claiming these regimes were neo-fascist, while others tend to believe this only proves the existence of neofascist tendencies in such dictatorships. Just as Salazar's Estado Novo, Franco's dictatorship or Getulio Vargas's Estado Novo regime in Brazil, they asserted that these regimes belonged to the traditional class of authoritarian dictatorships or to the long lineage of Latin American caudillos and military juntas.

Under this definition, which basically excludes the use of "neo-fascist" for post-WWII regimes, neo-fascism is in fact restricted to more or less marginal political movements which never actually attained power. This interpretation, however, tends to underplay the role of several former Nazis and Fascists directly involved in neofascist groups engaged after WWII in the "Crusade against Communism" . A third element could thus be added to the distinction between neo-fascist movements and regimes: the one of an unformal "Neofascist International" which gathered worldwide neofascist activists opposed to Communism . The contacts between Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie (present at various massacres on various continents), American DINA agent Michael Townley, anti-Castrist Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch (whom founded the CORU), Vincenzo Vinciguerra, Turkish Grey Wolves member Abdullah Catli , French Petainist Yves Guerin Serac (whom worked with Salazar's secret police after having taken part in the OAS), etc., are the proofs of communication between various national neofascists movements and some state security forces, links which probably provides the strongest argument for the alleged existence of true neo-fascist regimes — at least of regimes which strongly supported these neofascist movements and were actively involved in them.

Furthermore, in some cases neofascist elements did acquire executive power. Hence, even before Videla's junta, José López Rega, the piduista leader of the Triple A neofascist movement, was also Minister of Social Welfare. Again, those who opposed the classification of such regimes as neofascist will argue that, despite the acknowledged presence of neofascist tendencies in the government itself, such regimes should be qualified as ordinary dictatorships, as the precedent authoritarian regimes of the 1920-30s. Such an argument lift the question of the legimity itself of the "neofascist" category, since in this case it is restricted to movements which are not in power, although they may have benefitted from specific state complicities. Neofascism is thus understood as a tendency, but not as a valid category for defining a political regime. It's definition is henceforth strictly limited, in such an extent than it may be argued that the concept itself of neofascism disappears in this definition, since it put aside the relationship between several Cold War regimes and international neofascist movements whom cooperated in several specific operations, including assassinations and false flag bombings .

The case of Bernardo Leighton is an example of such international cooperation mixing neofascist elements and state services. The latter, a Chilean Christian Democrat, was severely injured, along with his wife, on October 5, 1976 by gunshots while in exile in Rome. According to the National Security Archive and Italian attorney general Giovanni Salvi, in charge of former DINA head Manuel Contreras' prosecution, Stefano Delle Chiaie (founder of Avanguardia Nazionale) met with former CIA agent Michael Townley and anti-Castrist Virgilio Paz Romero in Madrid, in 1975, to prepare, with the help of Franco's secret police, the murder of Bernardo Leighton . Attorney general Giovanni Salvi accused the Italian SISMI of having dissimulated proofs of the DINA's involvement in the terrorist attack.

The Colonels' Junta in Greece (1967-1974) was often adjectived as "fascist", even if the regime's nature was not fascist but military-based, anti-communist, ultra-nationalist and authoritarian. Some claim it was backed by the CIA because of the Junta's leader George Papadopoulos' former militancy in the Greek Secret Intelligence service (KYP].

South Africa (1948-1994) - Many scholars have labelled the apartheid system built by Malan and Verwoerd as a type of fascism. Whether it was a fascist regime or an example of a socially conservative administration with excessive powers is hotly debated. The racial and nationalist ideas were implanted inside the South African regime, however the economic structure of the country was not as regulated as that of a typically fascist state.

Guatemala (1953-1980s) - Mario Sandoval Alarcón, a self-declared fascist, headed the National Liberation Movement after a coup d'état, supported by the US, overthrew the democratic government of Col. Jacobo Arbenz. Sandoval became known as the "godfather of the death squads" during the Guatemalan military's 30-year counter-insurgency campaign and at one point served as Guatemala's vice president.

Rhodesia (1965-1978) - The racial segregation system by Ian Smith is similarly considered by some to be a form of fascism. See the comments for South Africa.

Lebanon (1982-1988) - The right wing Christian Phalangist Party, backed by its own private army and inspired by the Spanish Falangists, was nominally in power in the country during the 1980s but had limited authority over the highly factionalised state, two-thirds of which was occupied by Israeli and Syrian troops. Phalangists, trained and supported by Israel carried out the Sabra and Shatila Massacre in 1982.

Iran (1950-1953) - Under the Iranian National Front, during the regime of Mohammad Mossadegh, attacks on the political left were led by right-wing groups with fascistic elements including the Iranian Nation Party, led by Dariush Forouhar; the Sumka (The National Socialist Iranian Workers Party) led by Dr. Davud Monshizadeh; and Kabud (Iranian Nazi Party) founded by Habibollah Nobakht.

South America

Latin America has a long tradition of "populist" (the term is not well defined) and authoritarian regimes, since the military caudillos of the 19th and early 20th century, and the various military juntas who took on power during the Cold War. Military intervention in politics has been common since the independences in the 1820-1830s, and most of these juntas were thus qualified as traditional military dictatorships. However, insofar as some of these regimes profided clandestine refugee after WWII for several former Nazis (Adolf Eichmann, etc.), and supported in other cases neofascist movements (e.g. the Argentinian Triple A), some have qualified them as neofascists. For example, Luis García Meza Tejada's regime, whom took power during the 1980 "Cocaine Coup" in Bolivia, with the help of Italian neofascist Stefano Delle Chiaie, Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and the support of Buenos Aires' junta, has been accused of neofascist tendencies and of admiration for Nazi paraphernalia and rituals. Hugo Banzer, who preceded him, also displayed admiration towards Nazism and Fascism.

Argentina (1946-1955 and 1973-1974) - Juan Perón admired Mussolini and established his own pseudo-fascist regime, although it has been more often considered a right-wing populist. After he died, his third wife and vice-president Isabel Perón was deposed by a military junta, after a short interreign characterized by support to the neo-fascist Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (la Triple A) terrorist group. Videla's junta, which participated in Operation Condor, supported various neofascist and right-wing terrorist movements; the SIDE supported Meza Tejada's "Cocaine Coup" in Bolivia and trained the Contras in Nicaragua.

Augusto Pinochet's Chile (1973-1988) is considered by some a neofascist dictatorship because it wiped out opposition, left-wing intellectuals and activists, and any kind of criticism, often kidnapping and murdering people considered "enemies", even abroad. Pinochet's regime was supported by the more traditional elements of the Vatican. Six months after the September 11, 1973 coup, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the founder of the Opus Dei, visited him in Santiago.

In September 1976 Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in former President Salvador Allende's cabinet, was killed by a car bomb in Washington, D.C. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor as army commander — who had resigned rather than support the moves against President Allende — had died in similar circumstances in Buenos Aires, Argentina, two years earlier. Pinochet set up Operation Condor, a wide intelligence operation throughout Latin America, coordinating efforts with neighboring dictatorships as to get rid of all possible enemies. According to the "terror archives" discovered in 1992 in Paraguay, 50,000 persons were murdered, 30,000 "disappeared" (aka "desaparecidos") and 400,000 incarcerated. As it was considered by some right-wing American politicians like Henry Kissinger a barrier against communism, he got wide favour from American government first, and later by the British, who saw him as an ally when recovering the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) from the Argentine invaders; the Plan Condor benefited from a "US communication base" in the Panama Canal zone . Pinochet was therefore widely supported with weapons, logistics, and media silence until 1988. Furthermore, Pinochet hosted some former Nazis such as Paul Schäfer who founded the Colonia Dignidad, which worked with the DINA intelligence service. However since Pinochet didn't set up a rigid unique mass party which mobilized the population, several historians argue that it was a more traditional authoritarian regime.

Neo-Fascism and Italy

Main article: History of Italy as a Republic

Organizations that have been described as 'Neo-Fascist' include;

Italy was broadly divided into two political blocs following the World War, the Christian Democracy, which remained in power until the 1980s, and the Italian Communist Party (PCI), very strong immediately after the war but which was expulsed from power in May 1947, a month before the Paris Conference on the Marshall Plan, along with the French Communist Party (PCF). Despite attempts in the 1970s towards a "historic compromise" between the PCI and the DC, the PCI didn't take part in the executive power until the 1980s. In December 1970, Junio Valerio Borghese attempted, along with Stefano Delle Chiaie, the Borghese Coup which was supposed to install a neofascist regime. Neofascist groups took part in various false flag terrorist attacks, starting with the December 1969 Piazza Fontana massacre, for which Vincenzo Vinciguerra was convicted, and usually considered to have stop with the 1980 Bologna railway bombing. A 2000 parliamentary report from the center-left Olive Tree coalition concluded that "the strategy of tension had been supported by the United States in order to impede the PCI, and, in a lesser measure, the PSI from reaching executive power".

Since the 1990s, Alleanza Nazionale, led by Gianfranco Fini, has distanced itself from Mussolini and fascism and made efforts to improve relations with Jewish groups, with most die-hards leaving it; it now seeks to present itself as a respectable rightwing party. Alessandra Mussolini, grand-daughter of Mussolini, hence splitted to form Fiamma Tricolore. Lega Nord led by Umberto Bossi is primarily a regionalist secessionist movement, but has often been accused of xenophobia and racism; however, it has also lately presented its goals as a more moderate quest for local autonomy.

Neo-Fascism in Greece

See also Neo-Nazism in Greece

Organizations that have been described as 'Neo-fascist' include:

Neo-fascism in Greece has been present in Greek politics since the authoritarian regime of Ioannis Metaxas, though with limited popularity among the public. During the 50's and 60's, Greek neo-fascists composed extremist fractions, one of which was responsible for the killing of politician Grigoris Lambrakis. In 1967, the Greek military Junta of George Papadopoulos found inspiration in the Metaxas period (Greek fascism) of 1936-1941 and gathered many Greeks of a neo-fascist mentality to power.

After the restoration of democracy in 1974, former Junta leader George Papadopoulos founded and leaded EPEN, a party supporting, if not neo-fascism, at least authoritarian views and the ideal of "Ellas ton Ellinon Christianon" (Greece of Greek-Orthodox Greeks).

The Greek neo-fascists were greatly alienated thoguh, but continued to existed in fringe minority parties, very rarely achieving parliament seats. In the early 80's Nikolaos Michaloliakos, a former Greek Army parachutist and youth leader of the Greek neo-fascist party EPEN founded Hrisi Avgi, an extreme Neo-Nazi party.

Another important neo-fascist party was the 4th of August Party, later named Proti Grammi (First Line), headed by Kostas Plevris. Plevris is a former Greek secret intelligence agent and a die-hard admirer of Metaxas and Hitler, a renowned Hellenic supremacist, revisionist and Holocaust denier with close ties with other European revisionists.

Neo-Fascism in Turkey

Alparslan Türkeş' Grey Wolves movement, the youth organization of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) founded in 1969, claims to be inspired by Italian fascist Giovanni Gentile's "Actual Idealism" theory. It is a pan-Turkish party which advocates the creation of the Turan, the "Great Turkish Empire", including all Turkish (sometimes referred as Turkic) peoples mainly in the successor Central-Asian countries of the former Soviet Union as well as China (the Uyghurs of East Turkestan). Alparslan Türkeş thus went to Baku (Azerbaijan) in 1992 to support Abulfaz Elchibey, who openly described himself as sympathiser of the ultranationalist group, during the presidential election. Once elected as president of Azerbaijan, Abulfaz Elchibey chose as ministry of Interior İskender Hamidov, a member of the Grey Wolves who plead for the creation of a Greater Turkey which would include northern Iran and extend itself to Siberia, India and China. İskender Hamidov resigned in April 1993 after having threatened Armenia with a nuclear strike. The Grey Wolves share a racist and supremacist ideology, and have taken part in murders and other violent attacks, including false flag attacks aimed against the Kurdish PKK. Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Grey Wolves member who would try to assassinate the Pope John Paul II in May 1981, had for example assassinated Abdi İpekçi, editor of Milliyet newspaper, in 1979. He escaped from prison with the help of Abdullah Catli, who himself has been in contact with Stefano Delle Chiaie among other international terrorists; Alparslan Türkeş and Abdullah Catli have both been accused of being prominent members of "Counter-Guerrilla", the Turkish branch of Gladio, NATO's stay-behind anti-communist organizations set up during the Cold War officially to counter an eventual Soviet invasion .

Neo-Fascism and the United States

See also Neo-Nazism in the USA

Movements identified as neo-fascist include the American Fascist Movement. Arguably neo-Nazi groups include the National Alliance, and the American Nazi Party.

The presence or absence of fascism or fascist elements in the United States since the Second World War has been a matter of long-dispute from a variety of political viewpoints. Some have argued though that American economic policies have had fascist elements since the New Deal. This is further discussed in the New Deal and Fascism and the United States articles.

Neo-Fascism and religion

See main article, Neofascism and religion.

List of organizations and movements

Organizations that have self-described themselves as 'neo-fascist,' or are categorized as such include:

See also

Endnotes

  1. ^ "During this period we have systematically established close contacts with like-minded groups emerging in Italy, Belgium, Germany, Spain or Portugal, for the purpose of forming the kernel of a truly Western League of Struggle against Marxism." Yves Guerin Serac, quoted by Stuart Christie, in Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist, London: Anarchy Magazine/Refract Publications, 1984. ISBN 0946222096, p.27)
  2. Website of the association of victims of the 1980 Bologna massacre
  3. On Operation Gladio, see Daniele Ganser, NATO's Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe, London, Franck Cass, 2005, ISBN 0714685003 (a quick resume available here) and Various documents (Report by the SIFAR (Italian Military Secret Service) on Operation Gladio; US Field Manual; Report by Giulio Andreotti; Parliamentary Investigation into the Swiss Defense Ministry; various FOIA requests to the CIA; Parliamentary Investigation report in Belgium & in Italy... on the ETH Zurich website
  4. ^ See the case of Stefano Delle Chiaie, involved in Italy's strategy of tension but whom also took part in Operation Condor, organizing the 1976 assassination attempt of Chilean Christian Democrat Bernardo Leighton. See also the case of Vincenzo Vinciguerra, who escaped to Franquist Spain with the help of the SISMI following the 1972 Peteano attack for which he is currently serving a life sentence . Along with Delle Chiaie, Vinciguerra testified in Rome in December 1995 before judge Maria Servini de Cubria, stating that Enrique Arancibia Clavel (a former Chilean secret police agent prosecuted for crimes against humanity in 2004) and US expatriate DINA agent Michael Townley were directly involved in General Carlos Prats' assassination. Michael Townley was condemned in Italy to 15 years of prison for having served as intermediary between the DINA and the Italian neofascists , thus displaying again connections between European neofascist elements and South-American dictatorships.
  5. "Turkey’s pivotal role in the international drug trade", Le Monde diplomatique, July 1998 Template:En icon
  6. Documents concerning attempted assassination of Bernardo Leighton, on the National Security Archives website
  7. 1978 cable published by the New York Times in 2001, which revealed the existence of this US communication base in Panama; on the National Security Archives website
  8. Template:Fr icon "Les liaisons dangereuses de la police turque", by Martin A. Lee, Le Monde diplomatique, March 1997

Further reading

  • The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee, (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997, ISBN 0316519596)
  • Fascism (Oxford Readers) by Roger Griffin (1995, ISBN 0192892495
  • Fascism in Britain: A History, 1918-1985 by Richard C. Thurlow (Olympic Marketing Corp, 1987, ISBN 0631136185)
  • Fascism Today: A World Survey by Angelo Del Boca (Pantheon Books, 1st American edition, 1969)
  • Free to Hate: The Rise of the Right in Post-Communist Eastern Europe by Paul Hockenos (Routledge; Reprint edition, 1994, ISBN 0415910587)
  • The Dark Side of Europe: The Extreme Right Today by Geoff Harris, (Edinburgh University Press; New edition, 1994, ISBN 0748604669)
  • The Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe by Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson, and Michalina Vaughan (Longman Publishing Group; 2nd edition, 1995, ISBN 0582238811)
  • The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis by Herbert Kitschelt (University of Michigan Press; Reprint edition, 1997, ISBN 0472084410)
  • Shadows Over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Western Europe edited by Martin Schain, Aristide Zolberg, and Patrick Hossay (Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition, 2002, ISBN 0312295936)

External links

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