International day against Fascism: Phrases, verses and writings that made history in Greece

The International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism, is celebrated every year on November 9, commemorating the state-directed pogrom of Jews in Nazi Germany in 1938 and is a good opportunity to remember the phrases, verses and opinions that made history in resistance against fascism in Greece.

By Mano Hadjidaki until Magda Fyssa, fascism has occupied many important public figures, who became more or less synonymous with the fight against fascism in Greece. See phrases, verses and quotes that put their… stone in the influence of public consciousness and action against fascism.

Historical phrases of Greeks against Fascism

► “Understand fascism deeply, it will not die alone, crush it”
Burning Oil1977 with lyrics given to Thanos Mikroutsikos and sung by Maria Dimitriadis

►“The fight against fascism has been vindicated, but it is not over”
Mikis Theodorakis2020, in his article in the newspaper “Ta Nea” about the characterization of Golden Dawn as a criminal organization

► “We defeated the defeated, Pavlos. My child. My damn child. In the arms of all”
Magda Fyssa2022

► “Fascism is not an ideology, it is a mentality. There are fascists and machos everywhere. Even an Anti-Authoritarian, an Anarchist, a Leftist can be a big fascist. You can be a fascist with your wife too. If you punch your wife, you’re a fascist, we’re not talking about it, you’re not going to be a SYRIZA front man. You are a fascist when you think that women are inferior to you”
Tzimis Panoussisin an interview with The Toc

► “Already, I told you. It is brutality. I see her coming in disguise, under lawless alliances and pre-agreed enslavements. It won’t be about Hitler’s furnaces, perhaps, but about a methodical and quasi-scientific subjugation of man. For his complete humiliation. For his dishonor”
Odysseus Elytis1979 on the occasion of the announcement of his Nobel Prize in Literature

► “The form of the monster is hideous. But when the face of the monster ceases to frighten us, then we must be afraid… because that means we are beginning to look like it.”
Manos Hadjidakis1978, from the book The Commentaries of the Third

► “And Evil lurks without precaution, without shame. Neo-Nazism is not theory, thought and anarchy. It’s a show. You and us. And Death stars”

and

►“Neo-Nazism, fascism, racism and every anti-social and anti-human phenomenon of behavior does not come from ideology, does not contain ideology, does not constitute ideology. It is the magnified expression-manifestation of the beast that we contain within us without an obstacle to its development, when social or political circumstances contribute, help, strengthen its barbaric and inhumane presence. The only antidote to fighting the beast we contain is Education”
Manos Hadjidakis1993 from his text in Eleftherotypia entitled “Neo-Nazism is not the others”

Newsbeast’s related post on Instagram:

►“We live in a country where hate speech is an ‘opinion’ and anxiety is the law”
Zak Kostopoulos2013

►“Prejudice is when they see you eating a potato pie and assume you’re fasting”
Zak Kostopoulos2018

► “The starting motto always stays with me
Whenever I hear an accordion since then
And it has marked my life like a stamp
FASCISM WILL NOT PASS”
Manos Loizos1974, from the song “The Accordion”

► “I don’t like that slogan (referring to ‘fascist scumbags, hangmen are coming’). The answer must be cool, it must be a product of sound thinking and above all we all need to pay attention every day to the fascism we hide inside us… Of course we do. Even in our everyday life. But violence cannot be the answer to violence. If possible. We must reach a civil society with intelligence and conscience. Generally we sing about our troubles… But today we sing about Pavlos”
Giannis Angelakas2013, in concert at the Vrachon Theater

► “Fascism is the power of poisoned souls and unfortunately it spreads from our pseudo-democracy and our pseudo-helplessness to the soapy hooligan. Woe to the youth”
Giannis Angelakas2022 for the murder of Alkis Kampanos

► “I want to tell him that I love him and that I would do it all over again if I had to. I want to tell him that I miss him and I’m proud of him because I know that in the question of “either with the people or with the fascists”, my child chose the right side while he was alive and that’s why he was murdered.”
Magda Fyssafor the murder of her son Pavlos, by fascists of the Greek Orthodox Church.

► “There is no cell that is not pierced. There is no prison you cannot escape from. There is no slavery to hinder your freedom. It’s all in your head. Break it and throw it away. The sky is vast. There is a corner waiting for you. Find her.”
Pericles Korovesisfrom his book “Guardians”

► “In a racist society that easily casts its human part that is ill on its Kaida, facing it with sadness and fear, we need to raise our stature. To be able to freely announce every problem we face because it is everyone’s problem. And at some point each of us can find ourselves in the same position”
Thanos Anestopoulos2016

Quotations against fascism by foreign writers and other eminent men of arts and letters

► “Nowadays only idiots make dictatorships with tanks, since there is television.”
Umberto Eco

► “Do not rejoice that you have killed the beast. The bitch that gave birth to it is alive and in orgasm again”
Bertolt Brecht (commenting on the celebrations after the end of World War II)

► “Fascism is cured by reading, and racism by travel”
Miguel de Unamuno

► “Fascism is not defined by the number of victims, but by the way it kills them”
Jean-Paul Sartre

► “Fascism begins with thinking that everyone else is stupid”
Paul Valery

What is Fascism?

What fascism is is a complex subject and one of the most difficult definitions to give although it is nevertheless a term that is used very often and mostly pejoratively. However, a significant number of scholars agree that fascist regime is primarily an authoritarian form of government, as wikipedia states, citing references from scholars and philosophers such as: Thomas W. Laqueur, Roger Eatwell, Roger Griffin, Eugen Weber, Stanley Payne, Peter Fritzsche et al. However, authoritarianism is not enough to call a movement fascist. Fascism is an ideology that began as a political movement in Italy in the 1920s under Benetto Mussolini.

Scholars of fascism report that historically fascism is opposed to communism, conservatism, and liberalism, drawing support primarily from what is called the “far right.” Fascists are general strongly anti-capitalist, subordinating individual rights, rights of profit and property to the State.

Some of the definitions given:

“The historical function of fascism is to crush the working class, destroy organizations and stifle civil liberties when the capitalists cannot rule and dominate with the help of democratic mechanisms,” states the Leon Trotsky.

“Fascism is right-wing, strongly nationalistic, subjectivist in philosophy, and totalitarian in practice,” and is identified with “an extreme reactionary form of capitalist governance,” according to the Encyclopedia of Marxism.

“The word ‘Fascism’ is almost completely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Faith, corporal punishment, fox hunting, bullfighting, the 1922 Commission, the 1941 Commission, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-shek, homosexuality , the Presley shows, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I don’t know what else.

Even the people who recklessly throw the word “fascist” in every direction still attach an emotional meaning to it. By “fascism” they mean, roughly, something cruel, ruthless, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-labour. Apart from the relatively small number of fascist sympathizers, almost every Englishman would accept “bully” as synonymous with “fascist”. This is about the closest to a much-maligned word’s definition,” aptly states George Orwell.

What is anti-Semitism?

Anti-Semitism is the hatred of Jews. This form of hatred is often based on stereotypes, prejudices and acts of discrimination against Jews. Anti-Semitism has appeared in many forms throughout history, including the anti-Semitism that prevailed during Nazi Germany and during the Holocaust, in which millions of Jews were systematically exterminated.