The far-left have responded to the Greek Golden Dawn's rise with more pretend heroism than LARPers. Comment is Free published articles like "Greece's Golden Dawn isn't a political party – it's more like a criminal gang." Counterpunch railed on about the "rise of facism in Greece." I share their loathing of GG but 'anti-imperialists' are effectively on the same side as the Greek brown shirts.
The left has a mythology of a proud history spent fighting fascism which is more fiction than fact. Their past predecessors were originally opposed to the second world. Left wing outlets responded to the Nuremberg laws by arguing that the US wasn't in any position to criticize Germany because of Jim Crow, whataboutery which is the leading tactic of outlets like counterpunch. CPUSA mocked people suffering under Axis occupation with songs like "the yanks aren't coming." The left only supported war against the Axis powers after the USSR was invaded, they were motivated by support for Stalin. Those on the left imagine fascists as nasty people who just hate non-Whites and welfare, they remain willfully ignorant of the commonalities they share with far-right ideologies.
In the aftermath of Communism's downfall the anti-imperialist left began supporting movements and states solely based on their opposition to the West. Were they motivated out of desperation or sheer hatred that their dreams were revealed to have been hollow lies blown apart by the winds of change? The motive though is irrelevant, if you try to understand the extremist mind you'll only die crazy.
Similarly he far-right became orphans in a world where fascism had largely been extirpated by the second world war. Like the extreme left the far-left had nothing but hatred of the west and a few regimes to support. The post-WWII brownshirt had Salazar and the neo-Stalinist has Castro.
The far-left and extreme right continued to develop shared opinions. Both because viciously anti-Israel in that respect the far-right has a little bit of high ground over leftists since they are at least honest about why they hate the Jewish state. Anti-Israel leftists prefer to dress up anti-Semitism in talk of national liberation, post-colonialism all steeped in the prejudice that holds that Jewishness is a foreign presence that must be cut out. Ali Abunimah presented his anger at the existence of Israeli currenty and Hebrew signs as opposition to 'colonialism' when really it was anger that Gaza was not fully Judenrein.
Of course shared viewpoints predated modern times. The extreme right and left wing ideologies were always deeply anti-American and anti-Semitic. Communists, socialists and other ideologues filtered anti-Semitism through their viewpoints portraying the Jews as oppressors of the poor. While the USA was reviled as the capital of capitalism responsible for exploitation of the working masses.
Right wing anti-Semitism doesn't require any explanation though its anti-Americanism is obscure. Fascism has always been consistently anti-American, the ideology depicts the USA as a corrupt, Jewish controlled foul state that produces the modernity they reject. Emilio Gentile described anti-Americanism as "very widespread in fascist culture." He wrote that Italian fascists believed they had to "wage a holy war against the American monster to save Italian civilization." With such vehement mutual anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, shared political views among the two sides became inevitable.
The extreme left and right continued to develop the same stances about middle east issues. Both came to support Hezbollah, Baathist Syria and other regimes because of anti-Israel extremism. Dinosaurs longing for the east bloc saw anti-Israel terrorism as third worldy heroic resistance guerrilla warfare. While the far-right correctly identified middle eastern dictators and terrorists to be continuations of European fascism.
Far-rightists trail blazed positions already held by modern left wing extremists. John Wright of sociality unity proclaimed that he is "with Assad." David Duke was pro-Assad before it was kkkewl. He traveled to Damascus in solidarity with Bashar Al-Assad, the extreme left shares a position on Syria with the Klan.
Iran apologia and blatant support for the regime has become common among 'anti-imperialists' but they're a little late to the party. Neo-fascists made up a great deal of Khomeini's early foreign support. The National Front were among the 1979 revolution's most vocal and devoted supporters, a position shared by the BNP. One Italian fascist explained that there are "groups of traditionalists [in Italy] that are great admirers of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. They say that Europe is in decadence and that the salvation of Europe can come from Islam. On many occasions in their publications they have paid tribute to Ayatollah Khomeini and to the Islamic Revolution, and some of the Italian converts come from this background."
http://hurryupharry.org/2012/06/27/the-islamic-centre-of-england’s-ex-fascist-on-anders-breivik-‘blame-zionists’/
Neo-fascists abandoned any enmity to surviving Communist states, gone were the days of socialist-fascist brawling in front of beer halls. David Duke expressed his support for North Korea and Cuba while After all aren't the Castro and Kim dynasties really just nationalists who are in the same boat? Le Pen expressed his view that Communism "has been replaced by another deadly utopia: Globalism, new internationalist ideology and materialism that has the sole aim to maximize the profits of big capitalists at the expense of the Nations and their peoples" clearly the man is a fan of Naomi Klein's work.
With that history in mind are the 'anti-imperialists' and the Golden Dawn and other similar cults enemies? The GD has a strong anti-capitalist policy mirroring leftist opposition to modern capitalism, GD's manifesto states enmity to "vast exploitative wealth, either locally or internationalist." Occupy Athens!
The GD has an obvious anti-American ideology with posters calling for the audience to "resist the USA." While the party is vehemently opposed to Muslim immigration they support a variety of Islamist entities due to the bond of shared anti-Western hatred. The Golden Dawn stated that they "stand in solidarity with Iran and their efforts to combat international Zionism, and also admire certain anti-corruption laws they have." The 'Freedom Road Socialist Organization' stated that they stand "in solidarity" with the "Iranian government" because of the Mullahs' anti-American and anti-Israel policies. Two very similar statements made under the exact same reasoning.
Support for Hezbollah continues to grow, take Max Blumenthal's self parodying defense of Nasrallah for example most praise Hezbollah for its social services. The Golden Dawn expressed a desire to "become like Hezbollah" and praised the services the hezis provide.
Like much of the left the GD hold that corporations and capitalists are responsible for much of mankind's misery. GDers believe that capitalism is a "god" and talk of "the kingdom of money, the domination of the economy over politics." Its impossible to detect any difference between that narrative and the leftist thesis of corporate controlled governments. Occupy Wall Street believes that "corporations will take over the world and destroy it."
The far-left, Golden Dawn and the general extreme right are de facto allies. Both have little vision and even moderate factions have failed to present viable alternative to western democracies as confirmed by OWS rape courts that were designed to protect rapists. Certain leftist extremists are naked about the common ground they share with the far-right and advocate alliances. Prominent leftist writers urged people to support Ron Paul because of his anti-war politics, ignoring his white supremacism. Even Black leftists have allied with those who fantasize about putting them in chains. Cynthia McKinney stated that she's "not afraid" to ally with White supremacists while Alice Walker endorsed David Icke's paradigm. (So much for the feeble defenses that there was nothing anti-Semitic about her refusal to have her books translated into Hebrew, still that could just an attempt to spare Jews from further suffering by reading her books Jews have been through enough.)
The two are motivated by hatred of the west in particular anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism veiled as opposition to Israel. The far-left and far-right are effectively one ideological entity who will ally with any monster opposed to the democratic world out of anger at a world that has left them behind.
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