International Karl Polanyi Society

Good news is rare in times of COVID-19 and fear, but it does, indeed, exist. Such good news was that in October 2020 the Greek court ruled that the neonazi party Golden Dawn is a “criminal organization”. The court sentenced to many years in prison not only the party’s boss, but also many of its members, who were found guilty for participating to various criminal acts such as the murder of an anti-fascist activist, a number of violent attacks on immigrants and trade unionists, possession of guns etc.

In many of his texts, Polanyi provided an economic theory of fascism and conceived the latter as a result of the tension between democracy and capitalism. Such a tension became evident in the Greek case: since 2010 the country’s creditors and domestic governments have imposed disciplinarian austerity and liberalization and attacked remaining institutions of social protection, a crisis management which led to the rise of Golden Dawn. The neonazi party was a Polanyian nightmare and a political trauma for democracy, but unfortunately traumas never end. Shortly after the conviction of Golden Dawn – a positive step for the democratization of political life and the safety of immigrants – a series of terrorist attacks by individuals inspired or guided by ISIS took place in France and Austria: asymmetric attacks spreading fear and insecurity. Can these horrible attacks be confronted with a new “war on terror” like the one initiated by G. W. Bush in 2001 after September 11 or policies reminiscent of religious wars operated by “Western” states following the reasoning about the “clash of civilizations”[1]?