The Greek state is falling apart. It is fragmenting, unable to perform its normal functions. It cannot exercise control of the territory or the population. The governing parties are barely cohesive, parliament isn't really functional. The policies imposed by the 'troika' can't be implemented, and the attempt to implement them will not be rewarded by the EU bosses. This is creating chaos. There is no alternative popular democratic structure, no working class structures of self-government to make up for the sudden collapse of capacity, the sudden devastating loss of services amid five years of deep recession.
Some of the apparatuses are increasingly attracted to the neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn. Half of the Athens police force voted for the Nazis. Now police departments are sending crime victims to Golden Dawn "
protectors". The Nazis are positioning themselves to appropriate certain state functions in other ways, for example staging propaganda exercises distributing free food to people provided they are 'indigenous'. These are not yet serious charitable efforts. However, historically, the propaganda component of Nazi charity organisations is complementary to the material incentive - it provides a framework through which their ideological claims can be implemented and demonstrated. It reinforces a conception of public (national, racial) need over private ('Jewish', 'foreign') greed, and permits welfare to be extricated from ideas of universal entitlement and equality and instead linked to other thematics such as eugenics, patriarchy, militarism, Christian brotherhood, and so on.
The neoliberal bourgeoisie responds to the Nazis with the usual half-hearted criticism and
complicity. The media coddles the Nazis while their leader, a former commando reservist, openly advertises what the party is - an armed Nazi movement out to murder opponents and crush democracy. Every day, it almost seems, one hears of another immigrant or leftist beaten or killed by the Golden Dawn. This is how they are building their organisation, generating internal cohesion and gaining popular support, with the complicity of a section of the state and of the bourgeoisie. So far, the dominant trend is still for the Left's support to increase. But the terror isn't reducing Golden Dawn's support. They feed off the chaos which they contribute to. They are presently the third most popular party in Greece. They aren't yet on the verge of taking power, but remember that they won't need a majority to do so. And remember that if they do, these people are to the right of most of Europe's fascist parties, to the right of the old Greek dictatorship, literally ready to physically obliterate immigrants, the Left, intellectuals, and other 'traitors'. That's what is being aroused in Greece, and it will take a Herculean effort to kill it.