Anna Karakatsoulis in “A” / Far-right rhetoric turns into hegemony

At a time when far-right rhetoric poisons public debate both in the country and internationally, historian Anna Karakatsouli turns her attention to publishing production from the Post-colonial period onwards. In her new book “The sword of the spirit. Book, Cultural Hegemony and the Far Right in Greece after 1974′ (Gutenberg editions) documents this idiosyncratic, but entirely purposeful and instrumental relationship that the far right developed with publishing practice. “The catalogs of the far-right publishing houses, the titles and the authors speak for themselves. The main thing we read about our time from the catalogs of the specific publishing houses is that the Far Right is here,” says the well-known historian.

As we chat about her book, Anna Karakatsoulis leads us through the streets and networks followed by the specific publishing production, its instrumental use and also its modern versions and helps us to understand how the consciousness of a nationalist is gradually built using books as a vehicle, of a modern-day neo-Nazi. At the same time, he points out after a word of knowledge that “an informed democratic citizen must know how far-right rhetoric is formed in order to be able to confront it, that is, to know how their rhetoric turns into hegemony.”

With your book, you attempt the editorial mapping of far-right groups after the Junta and, by extension, their ideologies. So what and how sharp is the “Sword of the Spirit”?

With this book I wanted to record the publishing production that is part of the nationalist and far-right space as it appears in our country after the Post-colonialism. I wanted to understand and trace how they shape the consciousness of a nationalist today. You know, the catalogs of Far Right publishing houses, their titles and their authors speak and we researchers draw our conclusions. The main thing we read about our time from the catalogs of the specific publishing houses is that the Far Right is here. In terms of my research, what immediately emerged was that the Far Right is not one. There are different trends and deviations, which are reflected in publishing, and the dividing line that distinguishes the publishing houses of “Greek nationalism” from those of the extremist neo-Nazi Right is evident. For example, in the first group a publishing house with a central position in the field is Pelasgos by Ioannis Giannakenas, while among the neo-Nazi publishing houses, on the one hand, Eleftheri Skepsis, the first publishing house of the category founded after 1974, stand out on the one hand, and on the other hand, Thuli and Edelweis, which are still active today.

Where exactly is their theoretical and ideological interest focused immediately after the fall of the Junta?

Already in 1976, the publishing house and the bookstore were founded under the common name Eleftheri Skepsis by the group that had been publishing the magazine To Kinima since October 1975. Free Skepsis translates and publishes the speeches of the leaders of the Nazi period, such as Hitler, Goebbels and Ribbentrop, and works of the French New Right and expresses the far-right ENEP (Hellenic Youth of the National Party). After the split of the far-right space in 1979, ENEK (Unified Nationalist Movement) is founded and its own publishing house, Nea Thesis, appears, which focuses mainly on “Greek nationalism” and publishes everything by Pericles Giannopoulos and Ionas Dragoumis, abundance of pseudo-scientific antiquarian works as well as various conspiracy theories. This is how the two trends that we still recognize today are separated, with different editorial choices and a different ideological starting point.

Their audience is not large, nor is their publishing output. As you note in your book, they don’t even follow the rules of buying the book. How are they maintained? What they ultimately seek is their permanent and stable presence?

What they mainly seek is to feed their readers with the texts they consider important, whether they concern the Greek nationalist tradition or the fascist movements of the interwar period and neo-Nazism. Their common feature is extreme mistrust towards the established scientific community, which is why the works they publish are not written by specialist scientists. Antiquities books, for example, are written by civil engineers, physicists, mathematicians and journalists, who attribute all the scientific achievements of mankind to the ancient Greeks, support the “brotherly” character of the Greeks by denying Indo-European origin and project the Greek language as the “mother of all languages”. We must point out that their goal is not profit, they do not operate like a normal commercial business, however their books are not self-published. Publishers assume the risk of cost and publication with the understanding that they are fulfilling a lofty ideological mission.

Do we find similar publishing houses only in Athens and Thessaloniki?

No. On the contrary, their geographical dispersion throughout the territory is impressive. We find publishing units in Ioannina, Lamia, Kalamata… However, one element that is remarkable and indicates their publishing dynamism is that new forms are constantly emerging from educated young people, who today are far from the Junta, are informed about international developments and utter a modern theoretical discourse.

Have you come across such groups?

Of course, I would single out the “Children of Antigone”, who publish the magazine To Enzymo and who in 2019 founded the cooperative publications Exodos. They are a group of young people with very organized nationalist theoretical thinking and they follow modern publishing methods. In 2019, they even won the third prize in the Greek Visual Communication Design Awards (EVGE) for the design of their magazine. These particular ones move away from the usual improvised publications of their space and to set up both the magazine and their publications, they turned to a professional graphic designer, with a very good result, as can be seen from their award. Mainly with this younger generation of nationalists, the barrier to foreign influences that existed in the older publishing schemes is being overcome. That is, while until the beginning of the 21st century Greek-centric publishers avoided translations, considering that “Greek nationalism” does not need foreign influences and models, now even intellectuals such as Max Weber and Zeev Sternhel are published by Exodos publications.

Do these publishing houses monitor the ideological currents, the contemporary debates in the area of ​​the Far Right in Europe, in America?

Greek-centric publishing houses reject, as we said, anything non-Greek as unnecessary and uninteresting. Those who systematically translate and enrich their catalogs with new titles belong to the neo-Nazi trend. They publish books by the pioneers of Nazism in the USA, the manifestos of the Scandinavian neo-Nazi movements, many works by the Italian fascist Julius Evola and the French founder of the New Right, Alain de Benoit. The extremist Right shows a very strong extroversion and develops relations and networks with the corresponding organizations in Spain, France, Italy – in the latter already during the dictatorship. Much later, Golden Dawn developed relations with Germany, which even tried to establish a branch there but did not succeed.

In your book you talk about the spiritual hegemony of this space. We experienced the acceptance that the heinous action of the Golden Dawn met. Obviously not due to her publishing path, but her publications are interesting. Where does this focus?

Golden Dawn first appears as a magazine. In December 1980, the first issue was published with the subtitle “National Socialist Periodical Edition” and in April 1981 it appeared as a publishing house with the same name and the translation of the “Third Declaration of Barcelona”, the neo-fascist and neo-Nazi pan-European coalition New European Order, which it is also its ideological frontispiece. It is a magazine full of Nazi slogans and symbols, in red, black and white colors, which directly refer to Nazism. Since Golden Dawn entered the Parliament in 2012 and received the state grant, it seems to be using this money – among other things – to multiply its publishing presence by establishing bookstores and different brands. The neo-Nazi criminal organization is behind Chrysi Avgi publications apparently, but also Heliophoros, Apollonio Fos, A.A. Store, Askalon, Trimorfos, Nea Sparti, Apion, AGNI, Popular Nationalist Publications, Diotima, Anti-Attise, Longhi, etc. and of course the luxurious publications of the parliamentary foundation AEGIS. But at the same time as this swelling of corporate forms, its publishing zeal is waning. The same titles are recycled between brands and their number is limited to about twenty per year in total.

Do you think that Golden Dawn’s editorial presence played a role in its path to the Greek Parliament?

Certainly. It is characteristic that in the “Political signpost” of Ionas Filippou, pseudonym of Golden Dawn co-founder Yiannis Perdikaris, published in 2013 by Constantinos Pleuris’ Electron publications, the period up to 2005 is dedicated to the “worldview formation” of the organization’s members and “political activism” and is accompanied by a correspondingly significant production of neo-Nazi works, while then the focus shifts to physical attacks against immigrants and leftists and intellectual production takes a back seat. It becomes clear that Golden Dawn’s publications are purely instrumental in order to achieve its goal, which was to project its positions and attract followers until it entered Parliament.

How does the current political presence of the Far Right align with the publishing space?

Today, and especially after the condemnation of the Golden Dawn and the pandemic, we observe the emergence of a new political trend that is close to the slogans of the American Alt Right, with the anti-vaccination movement at the forefront and issues of family, religious faith and gender identities. These trends are evident on the Internet, but they do not yet have a publishing body. It will probably follow.

Do you think that nationalist and far-right rhetoric is starting to become hegemonic?

Since their rhetoric is very often adopted by those in power and influences central policies of the country, I consider it a very possible prospect. The most disturbing thing, in my view, is that “nationalist conservatism” is prevailing all over the world, in the West as well as in India, erecting fences and preaching hatred of the other.

Aren’t you worried that with your study you are giving even more intense visibility to all these formations?

It’s not about visibility, it’s about awareness. All this space continues to exist and develop regardless of whether we engage with it. I believe that an informed democratic citizen must know how far-right rhetoric is formed in order to be able to confront it, that is, to know how their rhetoric is transformed into hegemony.