GREEK School of Plato hosts groundbreaking for new, three-story multi-purpose community center

On Sunday, September 10, the GREEK School of Plato broke ground on its new community center, 670 92nd Street, the home stretch in an expansion ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT brooklynreporter.com

Why Columbia's GREEK Festival is so popular

We romanticize the GREEKS, drool over their beaches and their pastries, tell the ancient tales of their gods and goddesses, eat up those movies about ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thestate.com

How finance has shaped human history since the beginning of civilization

[cuneiform]Department of Justice What is finance, where does it come from, and why does it matter? William N. Goetzmann, of the Yale School of Management, addressed these questions in his presentation at the 62nd Annual Financial Analysts Seminar. He led participants on a tour through financial history, illuminating distinctive artifacts that demonstrate the critical role finance has played in the development of human civilization and laying out a hopeful vision of how it will continue to propel human progress. “Finance is a technology,” Goetzmann, the author of _Money Changes Everything_, explained. “The simplest kind of financial technology is a loan. I borrow money today and I pay it back tomorrow. But if you don’t have that dimension of time, it’s not finance. Finance really requires that there be some passage of time between the beginning of a contract or agreement and the fulfillment of the agreement.” As a concept then, finance is quite simple. But in practice, how do you build systems to codify trust and assess the value of time and risk? It turns out, humanity has been working on that for 5,000 years. One of the first recorded financial contracts comes from ancient Mesopotamia. It looks like a “big blob of clay,” in Goetzmann’s words, and has cone-like shapes and other carvings that set out the terms of the contract. “These clay balls were agreements that were designed to prevent falsification just in the way blockchain does,” he said. “They didn’t even have writing. They needed to use symbols to represent quantities.” These forms of finance helped to create complex urban societies, Goetzmann explained. “When you had people living in cities where not everybody could go and farm, you had to have a way of planning very carefully for delivery of things in the future,” he said. “You had to have a system of accounting to figure out how many farmers do you need to bring in enough food to feed everybody every day. And so that’s the role that finance began to play as cities needed this tool to grow.” Indeed, writing, when it first developed in ancient Sumeria, was invented for financial contracting and accounting, Goetzmann said. And as cities grew, they devised more varieties of financial instruments. An example of one of these financial tools: a Sumerian vase tablet, about the size of a pineapple, that was made about 2,500 BCE. The tablet is actually a reparations document, Goetzmann explained, in fact, the first-known extant reparations document. “This is the first document that has compound interest,” Goetzmann said. “The first one that had this notion of money making money. Three little dots are how they express this vast number.” Beyond money making money, finance was also critical to the creation of representative government. [PERICLES FUNERAL ORATION]PHILIPP FOLTZ [PUBLIC DOMAIN], VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONSCOINAGE AND DEMOCRACY IN ANCIENT GREECE Coinage developed in Greece as part of the foundation of Athenian democracy. A requirement for building a representative government is establishing a sense of belonging among the citizens of the state. “One way of getting a lot of buy-in from the people that comprised the tribes of ancient Athens was to put them all on the public dole,” Goetzmann explained. “There’s nothing that makes you buy into being part of an organization, nothing like getting a salary.” How did Athens pay its citizens? By having them serve on juries — big, 500-person juries — in exchange for payment in coins. “Why did they have a jury that large?” Goetzmann asked. “This was a way of bringing people together and getting a commitment to a state. The money was a crucial part of forging a new kind of political entity.” For Athens, building that collective identity was imperative to its survival. But it wasn’t enough. Other financial tools had to be created to ensure the city’s future. Athens could not grow enough food in its immediate vicinity to feed itself. “The way it solved that problem: It became a center for contracting in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Goetzmann explained. Grain ships would travel across the Mediterranean from Egypt all the way up to the Black Sea and bring their wares back to Athens. To facilitate this trade, Athens constructed a system of merchant courts to codify and litigate the various arrangements. The Athenian court systems also adjudicated financial contracts. “Athens is the first place where we actually had surviving contractual records of these maritime voyages that had specific conditional clauses,” Goetzmann remarked. Sailing to the Black Sea, for example, was riskier during certain times of the year. So contracts were developed to pay investors for that added risk. “There was very clear recognition that risk is something that had to be compensated with an extra amount of return,” Goetzmann said. CHINA: CURRENCY AND CASH Around the same time that the Greeks started minting coins, halfway across the world, the Chinese were doing the same thing. Goetzmann highlighted a Chinese copper coin from the city state of Qi. Shaped like a knife, the coin has a hole in it so that string could be threaded through and a number of coins carried around on one long loop. “The reason I show you this: This ancient city had a philosopher,” Goetzmann said. “His name was Master Guan Zhong. Guan Zhong was the first economist.” Guan Zhong came up with an elaborate theory about money and how it served the economy. His theory had practical applications, helping to determine when a state should mint more coinage or less and also how to weaponize the currency in conflicts with rivals. “So money became an instrument for controlling the economy and waging monetary war on Qi’s neighbors,” Goetzmann said. “And that’s pretty sophisticated for 400 BC.” [Ming dynasty China bank note]By Chris55 [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsA thousand years later, China minted another critical financial tool. “China’s great innovation is paper money,” Goetzman said, as he displayed an image of Chinese cash money from the Ming Dynasty, circa 1370 AD. The Chinese first printed money with wood blocks, but those wore out, so they converted to copper plates, Goetzmann said. And since not everyone could read, the currency depicted what it was worth through imagery. China printed paper money for over 300 years, from roughly 1100 AD to about 1425, he said, but gave it up as something of a “failed experiment,” and didn’t start printing it again for about 400 years. “Why?” Goetzmann asked. “Because the government couldn’t help itself from just printing too much. So China also invented hyperinflation.” VENETIAN BONDS From China, Goetzmann returned to the Mediterranean, to the Rialto Square in Venice, where traders and bankers used to buy and sell bonds. Bonds emerged in Venice in the aftermath of a dispute with the Byzantine Empire. When the emperor confiscated Venetian goods and arrested Venetian merchants in what was then Constantinople in 1171, Venice built a fleet to recover its people and property, paying for the ships with tax money that it promised to pay back after the successful conclusion of the war. Unfortunately, the fleet was decimated by the plague and the seized goods were never recovered. Unable to pay back what it owed, the city instead pledged to pay interest — 6% a year — on the loans until the principal could be returned. Of course, the principal could never be paid back, but those who held the bonds liked receiving that 6% a year, and soon a bond market emerged and evolved. “It was a new technology for saving,” Goetzmann said. “They could sell these promises, they could sell these bonds, they could trade them. You could buy a bunch of them and make sure that your child, for example, who might not be able to work, would be able to have an income into the future.” Soon other European states started emulating the Venetian example, and fixed income grew into a pillar of finance. STOCKS: THE NEXT GREAT FINANCIAL REVOLUTION Stocks were the next major innovation in finance, Goetzmann explained. Most tend to point to the Dutch East India Company as the first corporation with equity stakes. But Goetzmann focused on two mill companies formed in Toulouse, France, in 1372 and 1373. The companies were each the product of a merger of a series of smaller mills that, once consolidated, could better share the costs and risks. The companies kept records that date from 1372 to 1946 when one of the mill corporations was nationalized in the aftermath of World War II. Annual meeting reports, stock prices, information about dividends, grain prices, etc., were all recorded and set down for posterity. The merger documents laid out rules the company had to follow to maintain shareholder trust. As these companies grew over time, they encountered new problems and devised solutions. They hired independent auditors to look at the books and separated the CEO function from that of board members. All of these procedures came down to addressing “problems of trust,” Goetzmann said. “In order to aggregate capital into a company to do amazing things, you had to solve problems of trust.” And that structure was then used to finance the pricey and uncertain voyages of discovery that followed in the ensuing centuries. AND WITH STOCKS COME STOCK BUBBLES But the tools of finance are not always applied well and stocks proved no different. Goetzmann displayed a Dutch book, _The Great Mirror of Folly_, from 1720. That year was a tough one for finance. The South Sea Bubble had burst, spreading stock market turmoil throughout Europe. “Twenty-seven different countries in total had a feverish explosion in stock market conditions,” he said. In one print Goetzmann showed from the book, the artist evoked a behavioral explanation for the bubble, one that alluded back to the tulip mania of the 1600s. “The central image is a theory about why stock prices or, in this case, commodities prices would go up,” Goetzmann said, pointing to the hat of one of the characters depicted. “Not only is it the hat of a fool, it’s hollow. It’s saying, ‘Look, people have lost their minds.'” The print also depicted the cause of the insanity. Toward the edge of the print looms a devil with horns and wings. In its hands is a fishing pole with a document hanging on the end of it as bait. “The document is a contract,” Goetzmann said. “It’s a futures contract, for tulips. The whole idea is that the devil is trying to hook people with this strange financial instrument.” [thomas malthus]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_MalthusDespite the excesses of the South Sea Bubble, tulip mania, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, or any of the innumerable panics and crashes that have troubled history, Goetzmann stressed that finance has largely served as a force for good. To emphasize the point, he concluded his talk with two prints and a comparison of the two economic thinkers they depicted, Thomas Malthus and the Marquis de Condorcet. The former had a gloomy take on human progress, inspiring the term “dismal science” to describe the study of economics. Malthus theorized that when people have enough to eat they will inevitably reproduce themselves to the point of starvation, that food production can only expand arithmetically whereas human demand increases exponentially. Condorcet had a different take. In _The Progress of Human Kind_, he explored how finance could actually ease these burdens, proposing that the rational tools of finance and economics could be applied to solve humanity’s biggest dilemmas. “He had this vision of essentially a social security fund,” Goetzmann said. “He was a mathematician so he said, ‘Look, let’s do the math. If you grow at a certain rate and you contribute this amount, you’re going to have enough. Time will help solve the problem.’ And so that was his proposition.” “When people get more money, they have fewer children not more children,” Goetzmann observed. “As their financial risks go down, the number of children they have goes down. So the Malthus calculations don’t make any sense at all.” “I’m on Condorcet’s side,” he concluded. So returning to the questions posed at the outset: “Why is finance important?” Goetzmann asked. “The invention of writing, the invention of mathematics — those two things count for something.” But beyond that, he alluded back to Condorcet’s conception of finance as a vehicle of human progress. “This vision of finance being a tool for us to solve the fundamental problems of humankind,” he said,” I think we’re moving in that direction.” IF YOU LIKED THIS POST, DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE _ENTERPRISING INVESTOR_. ------------------------- _All posts are the opinion of the author. As such, they should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute or the author’s employer._ NOW WATCH: Why you won't find a garbage can near the 9/11 memorial

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com

Rescued Sea Bird becomes the symbol of Salamina oil spill

A young sea bird was rescued by a photographer covering the oil spill in Salamina on Tuesday. The kingfisher or Alceonida  – Alkioni as we call these birds in Greek – was trapped in what it used to be the sea. It was stuck in the black sticky masses covering the sea and the shore … The post Rescued Sea Bird becomes the symbol of Salamina oil spill appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com

Greek Names For Boys & Girls

There are plenty of lovely Greek names out there, inspired by Greek gods and goddesses, as well as the long, storied history of Greece. Keep reading for a few of our favorites. A consistent top 10 favorite, Alexander means “defending men,” and it was ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.momtastic.com

Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesting Eldorado Workers

Greek police fired tear gas at dozens of Eldorado Gold workers rallying outside the energy ministry in Athens on Wednesday to protest against potential job losses, after the Canadian company threatened to suspend investment at its Greek mines. Eldorado Gold Corp announced the potential suspension on Monday, blaming delays in getting permits, only days after […]

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Greece Secures 15 Prizes at World Luxury Spa Awards 2017

Greece won fifteen awards at the 2017 World Luxury Spa Awards;  a division of the World Luxury Hotel Awards, which highlights the world’s finest spas. Among this year’s global winners was Greece’s Costa Navarino Spa, which won two more regional distinctions. The World Luxury Spa Awards gives recognition and thanks to the luxury spa industry. Awards […]

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

GREEK government approves Eldorado Gold to run gold-silver-lead-zinc mine

Eldorado Gold has received the go-ahead from the GREEK government to operate its Olympias mining project for three years, the Canadian miner said ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.metalbulletin.com

NKU GREEK Organizations Raise Record Amount for Breast Cancer Nonprofit

A sorority and fraternity at Northern Kentucky University raised big bucks for a good cause. Delta Zeta sorority and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity joined ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.rcnky.com

MEP files complaint over censorship of GREEK cartoonists

SYRIZA MEP Stelios Kouloglou has filed a complaint with European Parliament President Antonio Tajani claiming that several sketches by GREEK ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com

Ancient Greeks built cities over earthquake fault lines

… of the Aegean Sea in Greece and Turkey - were built … ' in some ancient Greeks. WATER IN GREEK RITUAL Natural springs played … high number of ruined settlements. Greece sits at meeting point of … every sacred site in ancient Greece was built on a fault …

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com

Greece: Factsheet July 2017

… ■ UNHCR supports the Government of Greece who coordinates the refugee response … cash assistance in Greece from UNHCR, and the UNHCR-funded Greece Cash Alliance … a consortium of municipalities in Crete.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com

'Suspicious' package in Greece not dangerous, lock-out lifted

GREECE, N.Y. -- What was initially deemed "a suspicious package" turned out to be nothing more than a tool box with some wires hanging out of it. Greece Police were in the area of Maiden Lane for an investigation into a suspicious package. As a precaution ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.twcnews.com

Greece Lose 74-69 to Russia for Eurobasket Semis Qualifier

They came closer than ever before to a historic qualification against powerhouse Russia, but the Greek players were too tired to take their 25-minute-long predominant game all the way to the end. For 25 minutes Greece was in control, but when Alexey Shved ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Mosaic Depicting Legendary Greek Gods Uncovered By Amateur Archeologists

A mosaic depicting some of history's most iconic heroes was unearthed by archeologists in Great Britain. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland).

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.msn.com

Greece’s Mandatory Milk Labelling Plan Meets Opposition from Dairy Industry

Greece’s plan to make country-of-origin labeling on milk mandatory from 2018, has led to a backlash from some of the bodies of the dairy industry. Greek Agriculture Minister Evangelos Apostolou announced the plan on September 7, and the bill is due to be ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Greece lead Russia (37-31) in Eurobasket quarters (1st half)

Teams play for a spot in semi finals

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.protothema.gr

Russia beat Greece (74-69) in Eurobasket quarter-finals

Greece rue bad free-throw percentage

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.protothema.gr

Protest to Save Greek-American Flagship Diner

JAMAICA, NY – Queens residents, including elected officials, participated in a protest on Tuesday, September 12, expressing their support for the popular Flagship Diner, which […] The post Protest to Save Greek-American Flagship Diner appeared first on The National Herald.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

Absurd overtaxation: Low-incomers, unemployed taxed 3 times their income

Thousands of unemployed taxpayers with no income at all or very low one have been called to pay disproportionately high taxes between 2,000-4,500 euro. Why this? Blame the so-called deemed income criteria that calculate a fictitious tax according to living conditions and not real income. The absurdity of this taxation measure goes back to an … The post Absurd overtaxation: Low-incomers, unemployed taxed 3 times their income appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com

Many to celebrate Greek culture during festival

Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) (Source: GreekFestTN.com) KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Greek Fest is ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT wate.com

Greece Police investigate suspicious package

Greece Police are investigating a suspicious package on Maiden Lane. Police say a package was brought to their Maiden Lane precinct on Wednesday. Longridge Elementary has been placed on lock out as a precaution. Barnard Park and Precinct 2 are closed for ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.whec.com

'Suspicious' package found in Greece, nearby school on lock-out

GREECE, N.Y. -- Greece Police are asking people to avoid the area around Maiden Lane for an investigation. The police department tweeted that they are looking into a suspicious package near Barnard Park. As a precaution, the park is closed and Longridge ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.twcnews.com

Anti-Fascist Self-Defense: From Mussolini's Italy to Trump's America

National fascism often begins with a few white supremacists in town targeting marginalized and poor people who are not deemed important enough to protect by the whole mainstream society, says historian and author Mark Bray. This is why antifa seek to confront fascists and white supremacists at every turn, working as firefighters to address the most immediate threats to targeted groups. [Hundreds of anti-racist counter-protesters converge on MLK Jr. Park on August 27, 2017 in Berkeley, California. (Photo: Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images)]Hundreds of anti-racist counter-protesters converge on Martin Luther King Jr. Park on August 27, 2017, in Berkeley, California. (Photo: Elijah Nouvelage / Getty Images) _Since election night 2016, the streets of the US have rung with resistance. People all over the country have woken up with the conviction that they must do something to fight inequality in all its forms. But many are wondering what it is they can do. In this ongoing "Interviews for Resistance" series, experienced organizers, troublemakers and thinkers share their insights on what works, what doesn't, what has changed and what is still the same. Today's interview is the 72nd in the series. Click here for the most recent interview before this one._ Today we bring you a conversation with Mark Bray, a political activist, historian and a lecturer at Dartmouth College and author of _Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook_. SARAH JAFFE: TO START, HOW WOULD YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE ANTIFA? MARK BRAY: Antifa is an abbreviation for anti-fascist or anti-fascism. Anti-fascism is a movement that goes back a hundred years, but when we talk about antifa today, we are talking about modern militant anti-fascism, which predominantly grew out of movements in, especially, Great Britain and Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, of leftist immigrants and punks and all sorts of people who were targeted by a neo-Nazi backlash, a xenophobic wave that spread over these countries and others. It is essentially a pan-socialist radical politic of collective self-defense against the far right. I THINK ONE OF THE THINGS THAT PEOPLE DON'T KNOW IS THAT THERE IS A VERY LONG HISTORY OF THIS KIND OF SELF-DEFENSE. CAN YOU GIVE US A COUPLE OF SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS IN ANTI-FASCIST FIGHTING HISTORY? Going back to the beginning, we can certainly look to the Arditi del Popolo, The People's Daring Ones, which was an anti-fascist militia formed by various kinds of leftists in Italy in 1921 to fight back against Mussolini's Blackshirts. These were anarchists, socialists and communists who took up rifles and defended small villages and towns from fascist attack. It was sort of too late by the time they were formed, because much of the left movement had already been destroyed by then. Then, the Socialist Party and then the Communist Party pulled out of it. So, it ended up being mostly anarchists and rank-and-file leftists. It wasn't up to the task of stopping Mussolini. In the 1920s and 1930s, there were several different left formations in Germany. The Red Front-Fighters' League is one of the more important ones. The Iron Front, formed by the socialists, and Anti-Fascist Action, formed by the communists, were more oriented toward electoral work than anti-fascist confrontation, though the popular impression of them were that they were a paramilitary formation. There was a wave of conflicts between Nazis and left forces across the spectrum in Germany in the 1920s into the 1930s. Many were killed on all sides of this. But the Socialist and Communist Party leadership didn't really take Hitler especially seriously, or at least not as seriously as in retrospect they wish they had. This is evident in the Communist Party slogan "First Hitler, Then Us" whereby they believed that Hitler would get into power, do such a poor job that he would be out quickly, and then they would take over government. Of course, that never happened. The first moment of conflict where the European left realized that they were facing an existential threat in the fascist menace was 1934 in Vienna, when socialists rose up against the right-wing government. From that point onward, the anti-fascist struggle in Europe was seen as not just street fighting, but a war for survival for the left. That fed into the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. The International Brigades are maybe the most iconic anti-fascist image in history. The Spanish Republic did fall. Then, you have World War II. In the book, I focus on anti-fascism when fascist regimes are not already in power. There is plenty to be said about Italian and Yugoslav partisans and all sorts of resistance in France and the Netherlands all through World War II. Certainly, there was armed resistance to Franco in Spain. But as far as a militant antifa model in the post-war period, maybe the prototypical example was the 43 Group in London that organized commando units to shut down fascist speakers and meetings on street corners around London in the 1940s. Perhaps the next biggest moment is the Battle of Lewisham in 1977, when the National Front organized an anti-mugging march in an immigrant neighborhood. All sorts of immigrant groups and left groups and feminist groups showed up to block their path and successfully shut it down and prevented the National Front from intimidating the community. Some of the participants of that action likened it to the earlier Battle of Cable Street. Other examples, the Battle of Waterloo in 1992, when Anti-Fascist Action in Britain confronted some skinhead groups and essentially had a battle in a train station. Then, you can also look at the blockades of different white supremacist marches: Dresden in Germany, Salem in Sweden, Roskilde in Denmark are also examples of how – at least over the past 20 years -- over time, through repeated pressure, these marches were essentially stopped. I WANTED TO ASK SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ANTIFA AND FIGHTING ORGANIZED WHITE SUPREMACY IN THE US, THE KLAN, THINGS LIKE THAT. Resistance to white supremacy and resistance to the Klan goes back much further and is much broader than can be encompassed within the banner of anti-fascism. Obviously, resistance to white supremacy goes back to 1492. It goes back to resistance of slavery. It goes back to John Brown and Ida B. Wells, and so forth. It also has a tradition in the radical elements of the labor movement, the IWW having battled against the Klan in the 1920s. You can look at the Deacons for Defense and the Black Panthers and other kinds of militant opposition to white supremacy. We can see that to some extent the boundaries get a little blurrier, starting around the 1970s when there is more of a cross-pollination between the Klan and neo-Nazi groups, when there is an emergence of what some have called a Nazified Klan. The nexus of those two elements was responsible for the Greensboro Massacre in the late 1970s. I briefly touch upon the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee in the 1980s, which espoused an antifa perspective before that kind of politics was "officially" brought to the US. They helped organize confrontational counter-protests against Klan events and other similar formations around the country. So, it is a broader lineage and sometimes it is not entirely clear where to parse the differences between anti-fascism and a broader anti-racist movement. I think it is important to think in terms of how these groups identify, the message they use, and try to tease apart differences, but not get so obsessed with definitions that you can't see that there is some grey area. THE REVIVAL OF ANTIFA IN THE '80S, '90S AND 2000S, ESPECIALLY IN THE US, COMES UP THROUGH THE PUNK SCENE. I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO TALK ABOUT THAT IN MORE DETAIL. It follows on the trend that developed even a little earlier in Europe. I knew that an important part of this story was around contestations over the punk scene, over skinhead culture, more specifically. But the influence of white power British skinhead culture, which of course, was a lamentable deviation from the original multicultural anti-racist skinhead culture, that really did spread across Europe. It did spread to North America. The origins of a lot of national white supremacist revival or fascist revival incidents and anti-fascist responses to them in a lot of countries had a lot to do with the white power skinhead scene spreading. That certainly was the case in North America. The interviews I did with anti-racists from the late 1980s and early 1990s were unanimous in citing the origins of their organizing in contestations over the local punk scene. A lot of Europeans talk about anti-fascism as kind of a gateway drug for politics or as a first exposure to radical politics because of the immediacy of the white power threat in social scenes, community centers, punk shows, everyday life for youth. People that I spoke to in the US from a number of different places talked about this being a politics that was immediate, that mattered in their everyday life. I interviewed an anti-fascist from Denmark who emphasized that as a young person, combating capitalism was such a huge task, it was a global task. But being able to push a dozen neo-Nazi skinheads out of the scene was something that was achievable and tangible and immediate and super important in everyday life in a way that young people could feel like they were making a difference. The people that I spoke to said that by the mid-1990s, by the late 1990s, anti-racist organizing in North America had largely been successful in marginalizing white power skinheads and pushing them out of the scene. To me, that is a huge accomplishment that needs to be on the record. If this were all laid out for mainstream pundits, I think they would still be dismissive of the importance subcultural scenes, in general, but I think that the whole anti-fascist politics takes seriously subcultural spaces as a way that they can promote politics more widely. ONE OF THE THINGS YOU MAKE CLEAR IN THE BOOK IS THAT ANTIFA ORGANIZERS SEE NO GROUP OF FASCISTS AS TOO SMALL. I WONDER IF YOU COULD TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING THAT SPRINGS FROM. The historical lineage of that perspective comes from the fact that the original fascist and Nazi movements and parties and regimes grew out of very small nuclei. Examples include the fact that Mussolini's initial fascist group was a hundred men. When Hitler attended his first meeting of the German Workers Party, before he later changed it into the Nazi Party, there were 54 members of that group. More recently, looking at Golden Dawn in Greece, which was a micro-party for several decades before the financial crisis of 2008 and then ballooned into the third largest party in Greece, launching attacks on migrants and leftists and so forth. The historical argument being, small fascist and white supremacist groups don't always stay that way and it is simply easier to organize against them when they are small and marginal, when popular opinion is clearly against them, when they don't have connections to the halls of power and they don't have popular basis of support. We have seen, historically, that sometimes they do grow, even if quite often they don't. Then, of course, the more immediate experience for immigrant communities, for left scenes, for anyone who is marginalized or who comes under attack by fascists or white supremacists, the presence of even a small group in a neighborhood or city makes its presence felt. There are plenty of documented cases of when a fascist social center sets up in Italy, when a punk house is established for white power skinheads in London, when a Nazi house is set up in Denmark, or in the US when these kinds of milieux are allowed to breathe easy, there is an inevitable violence that comes out from that in a very immediate sense, but it often targets people who are not "important" enough for the whole mainstream society to care about necessarily. Having a few dozen boneheads in your town makes a huge difference and is a huge struggle even if, from a macro-sociological perspective, it is not important. I read one historian talking about the threat of fascists in post-war 1940s London as being marginal, but there are all these cases of synagogues being vandalized and Jews being assaulted. For them, it wasn't marginal, even if it was marginal to society. That way of looking at politics is often lost in this conversation when you hear people say, "Well, just ignore them. They will go away." Even if they do go away in five years, the damage they have done is really important. I THINK THAT IS A REAL POINT THAT GETS LOST, THAT MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WRITING THE SAME EXACT COLUMN IN EVERY MAJOR NEWSPAPER AND A LOT OF MAJOR MAGAZINES, ARE NOT THE ONES WHO ARE UNDER THREAT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Right. Politics, and really, life, is all about positionality, is all about one's direct experience with these kinds of issues, and that is evident in politics, in general, but maybe more evident around questions of anti-fascism or self-defense against white supremacy and fascism than in many others. YOU POINTED OUT VERY WELL ONE OF THE BIG PROBLEMS WITH THE "JUST IGNORE THEM" ARGUMENT. BUT THE MEDIA HAS PAID A LOT OF ATTENTION TO PERSONALITIES LIKE RICHARD SPENCER AND MILO YIANNOPOULOS THIS YEAR. THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF PAYING TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO THESE PEOPLE, ALTHOUGH I THINK THAT IS MOSTLY A QUESTION FOR MEDIA AND NOT FOR ORGANIZERS. I WONDER IF YOU HAVE SOME THOUGHTS ON HOW PEOPLE NAVIGATE THAT TENSION OF NOT WANTING TO MAKE THE FAR RIGHT SEEM BIG AND DANGEROUS, EVEN AS THEY ARE TRYING TO COMBAT THEM WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY COULD BE. To some extent you answered the question in the question. It is different for media versus for organizing. But, you are also right that you can't 100 percent divide the two. Meaning, attention sometimes is attention. So, if there is going to be a large counter-protest to a fascist mobilization, that will necessarily draw media. It is not entirely distinct, but it is somewhat distinct. What I will say about this issue that I think is one of the most important things that is lost in the public conversation about it is that attention in and of itself is not in and of itself fuel for political movements to grow. One of the common arguments that is made is that if XYZ, fill-in-the-blank fascist group gets attention, that is how they will grow and therefore, by organizing to shut them down, and therefore attracting media, you are giving them attention and therefore, they will grow. While there is a kernel of truth in the sense that these far-right speakers and these groups do want attention, of course they do want people to know what they are about. But if the organizing that brings them attention also short-circuits their path to capitalize on that attention by expressing their message, by forming links with communities, by being able to present themselves as family-friendly and normalize their presence, and doing all the kinds of things that movement building requires -- if those avenues are shut down but in shutting them down they get a little more attention in the long run, I don't see evidence to suggest that that is a successful path for organizing. To rephrase, I don't know of any examples where successful organizing attempts against fascists have given them a little more publicity but shut down all of their opportunities for organizing, [it] has resulted in a successful growth for a fascist movement. Part of this assumption derives from the fact that, as you subtly suggest with your question, there is a focus on individuals and not groups and that there is a focus on the level of profile of individual personalities in the media. How famous is Richard Spencer? How famous is Milo Yiannopoulos gauged in terms of book sales and media appearances? That is a conversation to have, but if the groups that they are connected to or the groups that take inspiration from them are not able to grow, and these ideas that they espouse are not able to take root in any kind of substantive public collective way, then that really defangs them. I do think it is incumbent upon journalists to think about how they cover these figures and not do it just in terms of trying to capitalize on the scandalous nature of who they are and write puff pieces about how they are charismatic. I agree with that. But giving them more attention is not the entirety of the political conversation, I guess you could say. IN THE US, WE HAVE SEEN THE GROWTH OF ANTIFA SINCE TRUMP'S ELECTION AND ITS SUBSEQUENT EMPOWERING OF ALL THESE WHITE SUPREMACISTS WHO ARE COMING OUT OF THE WOODWORK. I WONDER IF YOU COULD TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE TACTICS THAT FOLKS ARE USING, BECAUSE MOST OF THE MEDIA COVERAGE FOCUSES ON THESE COUNTER-RALLIES. The role of public opinion in this is one of the more interesting topics to talk about. I think what bears focusing on here is [that] one of the greatest weapons that anti-fascists/anti-racists have is that, at least to some extent, most of society is opposed to racism and fascism and overt white supremacist politics. That comes into effect most visibly with doxxing, where some of the greatest success perhaps in recent anti-fascist organizing has come from doxxing individuals. For example, Cooper Ward, one of the co-hosts of The Daily Shoah podcast. He was apparently living below the radar in Nebraska, and the local antifa group in Nebraska doxxed him and forced him to drop out of school and move and relocate his whole life. That is just one example of how simply by doing some research online and posting some flyers these kinds of hubs of organizing can be thoroughly disrupted. So, research is super important. Looking at Charlottesville, for example, and looking at the coverage of who the different groups were that were organizing the Unite the Right rally, who their leaders were, how they had been in touch with each other, what they were saying on social media, all of this information was available in the weeks leading up to Charlottesville on all sorts of alternative websites. It's Going Down, for example, had a very extensive article about it. Then, you pop on CNN on the day of the Charlottesville rally and the anchors are like college kids who rolled out of bed and came to class without doing their reading. They have no idea what is going on and they are saying, "Look, there are all these Trump supporters," or whatever. Simply labelling a white nationalist rally as Trump supporters is really doing a disservice to truth and journalism. Investigating information, research, doxxing, forming coalitions with other groups -- in some cases there are some anti-fascist formations affiliated with unions, like the General Defense Committees of the IWW in terms of thinking about the relationship between labor and capitalism and fascism, I think there is some important work done there that has been overlooked. Even thinking about the activities of Redneck Revolt, I interviewed one of their founders about how they have had success going to gun shows and having conversations with conservative white men, predominantly in more conservative regions of the country and talking about how their Italian American ancestors were treated similarly to immigrants today and working on an anti-racist angle through that, and winning some people over to the other side. Of course, organizing boycotts or campaigns of pressure to shut down white power punk shows in American Legions or VFWs [Veterans of Foreign Wars], contacting hotels to get meetings or conferences shut down that are being organized by Holocaust deniers or what have you. What you see is the great lengths that white supremacists and fascists have to go to just to do the basic political activities that leftists take for granted, like holding a meeting. Even in a private location they have to hide their identities. They have to come up with a fake name for the event. They have to be super secure with their means of communication, otherwise anti-fascists find out about it and shut it down. It makes politics so hard for them. For people who have been part of left groups, we know that it can be hard to maintain commitment among membership. It can be difficult to make sure that people follow through on tasks like organizing venues and publicizing events. But in situations where all of these little steps become 10 times harder, it seems evident from an organizing perspective that that just makes the whole thing harder. Those kinds of logistical and organizing details are not part of the public conversation because most of the people don't understand how hard it is just to organize an event, but these anti-fascist tactics, putting conflict out of the picture for the moment, make it so much harder. LET'S TALK ABOUT THE QUESTION OF FEMINIST ANTIFA. ONE OF THE CRITIQUES OF ANTIFA IS, "OH, THESE ARE JUST SORT OF A BUNCH OF MEATHEAD DUDES WHO JUST WANT TO GO GET IN FIGHTS IN THE STREET." COULD YOU TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE FEMINIST ANTIFA FOLKS THAT YOU HAVE TALKED TO AND SOME OF THE TACTICS AND THOUGHTS THAT THEY HAD ON THE ROLE OF FEMINISM IN ANTIFA? There have been problems in anti-fascism with patriarchal behavior, with machismo, and so forth. I asked everyone I spoke to to comment on those dynamics and most said, "Yes, there has been a problem, but it has also been a problem [on] the left, generally speaking and in society, generally speaking." I think that whenever confrontation is part of the repertoire, it is an extra concern. A lot of this organizing in Northern Europe, in Scandinavia, in Germany, developed in the late 1980s into the early 1990s. Some of it grew out of reclaiming the punk scene, to some extent out of certain football fan cultures and so forth. By the mid-1990s there was a step taken back and an attempt to address some of these problems. The Swedes that I spoke to were very clear that there were, for example, discussion groups about internal gender politics and discussion among women in the group about how the different men were doing and issues pertaining to them. There is a very clear effort in that movement to try and address that. From the 1990s, there were the Fantifa groups in Germany. There is an entire book written about that in German. In the US, certainly, I know that there were some very difficult conflicts within Anti-Racist Action in the 1990s around gendered issues. Speaking to some of the early organizers, they said similar things to the Europeans, "Yes, we had our problems, but it would be misleading to say that they were significantly worse than in the left, in general." It is interesting when it comes to the question of violence, I spoke to a number of women who, from their perspective, found anti-fascist confrontation to be, to some extent, liberating, given a society that doesn't consider women capable of that kind of political activity. Then, I spoke to some other anti-fascists from Oregon. I spoke to two women -- one currently of Rose City Antifa, one formerly -- who emphasized that a lot of the critique of the machismo of anti-fascism silenced their participation in the movement and homogenized what it was in a way that didn't recognize the diversity and plurality of who people are that do this and the kind of serious introspection and internal work around internalized oppression that some of these groups do. It varies. Some groups seem to be doing more about it than others, and to some extent, that has to do with the degree to which these are issues addressed in broader left movements. So, in countries where questions of feminism are at the forefront of the left, then you are going to see them more in anti-fascist struggles. In general, most people said the same thing, which is, "Yes, it has been a problem. We have made some efforts. We have made some advances, but it is still a problem." I didn't crack that as well as I would have liked, in part, because I think the actual reality of internal dynamics in a group, you have to be there to actually really know what is what. SOMEWHAT CONNECTED TO THAT IS THE QUESTION OF PUTTING FORWARD A POSITIVE PROGRAM, AS WELL AS SHUTTING DOWN FASCISTS. I WONDER IF YOU COULD TALK ABOUT THAT FOR A MINUTE. There is sort of a range of perspectives on anti-fascism. On the one end, focusing on the defensive activity and shutting down fascist groups. And on the other extreme, essentially, organizing left movements, because a lot of the anti-fascists I spoke to emphasized that really, the way that you stop fascism is you succeed in addressing people's needs, you make them see unions and social movements or political parties as being the legitimate vehicles for addressing their grievances and representing accurately their hopes for the future. Then, there are groups all across that spectrum that do some variation of both. I was especially struck by some of the organizing models I learned about in France and Spain where there would be these small antifa groups doing some of the more research-focused, stopping-fascist organizing-focused work often with a strong security culture where they didn't reveal their identities to society, but as individuals outside of that, also, participated in neighborhood and regional anti-fascist assemblies, were also part of unions and other political movements, and in that capacity helped organize anti-racist hip hop festivals and interfaced with society. One of the Spaniards I spoke to described this as the two faces of anti-fascism and saw them as working parallel to each other, even if they didn't necessarily intersect in an explicit sense. It is clear that you need a range of perspectives. Some of it has to be putting forward an alternative vision and has to be inoculating society to the appeals of fascism, which, of course, have always shined brightest at moments of economic crisis, of social turmoil, looking at the Great Depression, looking at the financial crisis of 2008, looking to the unease of traditional-minded ethnic majorities when there are waves of migration in North America, in Europe. Being able to present a positive anti-racist message, a message of plurality and unity and internationalism is the other side of the equation. I agree with those anti-fascists who see antifa, superficially, as kind of a firefighting operation. That was a metaphor I heard from several people: Antifa is firefighting. Putting out an immediate fire. Addressing an immediate threat of the sort of the tip of the iceberg of white supremacy. But not something that is capable of addressing racism in mass incarceration or broader economic trends. To do that, you need a broader social movement, a broader resistance. HOW CAN PEOPLE KEEP UP WITH YOU AND BUY YOUR BOOK? I am on Twitter. It is @Mark__Bray. The book, you can go to the Melville House website or it is on various book selling websites or it is in bookstores. I am doing book presentations around the country over the next few months. _Interviews for Resistance is a project of Sarah Jaffe, with assistance from Laura Feuillebois and support from the Nation Institute. It is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Not to be reprinted without permission. _

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.truth-out.org

Suspicious package at Greece Police building puts school on lock out

Greece, N.Y. (WHAM) - An elementary school in Greece is on lock out Wednesday afternoon as Greece Police investigate a suspicious package. According to police, officers are looking into the package that was brought to its Maiden Lane precinct. As a ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT 13wham.com

Greece issues Olympias operating, tailings installation permits to Eldorado

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold producer Eldorado Gold has confirmed on Wednesday that it has received the Olympias operating permit and the modified electromechanical installation permit for the tailings management facility at Kokkinolakkas ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.miningweekly.com

Transactions by National Bank of Greece (regulated information

… Transactions by National Bank of Greece (regulated information - Law 3556 … ;2007, that National Bank of Greece notified it that it carried … of the National Bank of Greece Executive Committee, while at the …

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com

Spirtzis: Fraport not Operating Greek Airports Better than CAA

… the 14 regional airports in Greece so far and for delaying … the German company and the Greek state over projects to upgrade … and all supervisory bodies.” The Greek minister stressed that if there …

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com

Canada presses Greece on ‘troublesome’ Eldorado Gold delays

… in a letter to the Greek Minister of Mines and Energy … to suspend investment at three Greek projects, demanding permits and clarifications …

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com

Bake with Lizzie: A taste of GREEK bread

Sheffield baker Lizzie Schofield is cooking up a new recipe for Star readers every Wednesday, to tie in with the Great British Bake Off. Her recipe ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thestar.co.uk

Ancient GREEKS deliberately built sacred sites on areas shaken by earthquakes because they ...

The ancient GREEKS may have built sacred temples on sites previously hit by earthquakes as they believed the land held spiritual powers.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dailymail.co.uk

St. Mark's GREEK Fest this weekend

St. Mark's Orthodox Cathedral of Westwood will present its third annual St. Mark's GREEK Fest on Saturday, September 16, and Sunday, September 17, ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.hometownweekly.net

Macedonia wants EU membership process, GREEK talks to run in tandem

In the long run it is also in the GREEK interest to have a law-governed neighbour to their northern border." (Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Robin ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dailymail.co.uk

Eldorado Gold receives two permits from GREEK government

VANCOUVER - Eldorado Gold Corp. (TSX:ELD) says it has received two key permits related to its operations in Greece, but that several issues remain ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ctvnews.ca

President Pavlopoulos: Welfare State is the Foundation of the European Union

ATHENS – Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos met with former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez on Wednesday, at the presidential mansion. Pavlopoulos stressed that the struggle for […] The post President Pavlopoulos: Welfare State is the Foundation of the European Union appeared first on The National Herald.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

Greek authorities race to clean up oil spill from sunken tanker at Saronic Gulf

ATHENS, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Greek authorities were racing against time on Wednesday to clean up an oil spill at the Saronic Gulf caused by a small tanker which sank off the island of Salamina on Sunday. Actions are being taken to limit the pollution and ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT english.sina.com

Conditions for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in GREECE

Any act of a judicial body of a foreign state that resolves a dispute of private law can be recognised and enforced in GREECE according to the relevant ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.lexology.com

Greek miners angry over delayed Eldorado permits

Greek miners fearing job losses scuffled with police during a protest outside the environment ministry, after a Canadian mining company warned it could suspend operations in Greece. Laura Frykberg reports.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.msn.com

Eldorado Gold Announces Greece Update

VANCOUVER, Sept. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Eldorado Gold Corporation ("Eldorado" or the "Company") confirms that it has today received the Olympias Operating Permit and the modified Electromechanical Installation Permit for the tailings management facility ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.prnewswire.com

Tanker Oil Spill out of control, reaches Piraeus and beaches in Athens Riviera

With every wind blow, with every wave the oil spill sails a bit further. The thick, oily, stinky, black carpet breaks into pieces that now sail independently, swept away by the winds, the waves and the sea currents. It is normally the penetrating smell of petroleum that has locals to go to the beach and … The post Tanker Oil Spill out of control, reaches Piraeus and beaches in Athens Riviera appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com

Censorship at the European Parliament rejects 12 Greek submissions at caricature exhibition

Member of the European Parliament, Stelios Kouloglou (SYRIZA), has denounced an unprecedented form of censorship by the European Union. The censorship was imposed on the caricatures of 12 Greek caricatures that were to participate in an exhibition on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. The exhibition with caricatures by Greek … The post Censorship at the European Parliament rejects 12 Greek submissions at caricature exhibition appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com

How migrants are struggling to cross Italy's border into France

France has pledged to take in 30,000 migrants, currently in Greece or Italy, by the end of 2017. But so far, fewer than 2,000 are believed to have been relocated to France. At the French-Italian border, police patrols have risen since the 2016 terror attack in Nice, making it very hard for migrants to reach France. Meanwhile, activists such as farmer Cédric Herrou, who received a suspended fine for helping migrants, are providing support. FRANCE 24’s Aurore Dupuis and Karim Yahiaoui report.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.france24.com

Greece to grant permits for Eldorado after miners clash with police

A group of Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD)(NYSE:EGO) workers clashed with Greek police Wednesday outside government buildings in Athens during a protest against potential job losses, following the Canadian miner’s decision to suspend operations and investments ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.mining.com

Ancient sunken city in Greece captured by drone

Enjoy a flight over the immersive Sunken City - the "Atlantis" of Argolida, situated close to the coast of ancient Epidaurus in Greece. Walls, foundations of buildings, amphorae of huge dimensions and paved sections are sunken just meters below sea level ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.msn.com

Ancient Greece: Massive Tomb Holding Treasure and Mysterious 3,400-year-old Body Uncovered

One of the largest ancient Greek tombs ever discovered has been found by a team of archaeologists near the mythical city of Orchomenus containing the body of one man and a trove of artefacts dating back to B.C. 1400. The burial tomb for the unknown ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.newsweek.com

Blame game in Greece as oil spill spreads in Athens' Saronic gulf

Athens (AFP) - Greek officials traded accusations Wednesday after an oil spill from a sunken tanker drifted to other parts of the Saronic Gulf in Athens. The 45-year-old vessel Agia Zoni II sank on Sunday near the island of Salamis while under anchor.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.yahoo.com

Lavish Living! A Modern Summer Home In Santorini, Greece By Kapsimalis Architects

Architecture is compelling, intriguing and inspirational. Today we get a look at a stunning home that is certainly inspiring, as well as incredible and unique to say the least. This unique, home A Modern Summer Home In Santorini, Greece By Kapsimalis ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT stupiddope.com

Crisis brings sea change to GREEK housing market

“What we are experiencing is the end of the era of home ownership in Greece as households can no longer save to buy property,” says Nikos ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com

GREEK businessmen helping in recovery of war-torn Iraqi city of Mosul

A GREEK businessman, who spoke to Kathimerini on the phone and asked that his name not be published for security reasons, was managing a quarry ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com

Salt Studio to showcase GREEK Hue and Nova collections in Chennai

CHENNAI: Young designer Diya John, who has been pushing the envelope in Kochi's haute couture scene, is out with two new collections - 'GREEK ...

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT timesofindia.indiatimes.com