Dimitra-Dora Teloni and Regina Mantanika their best as individuals, using defence strategies to cope with the stress and accepting workplace constraints. Consequently, a ‘culture of silence’ developed gradually while the alienating working conditions has put more pressure on practitioners. The absence of social work in public dialogue is rooted in a series of factors, such as: • • • • • the above-mentioned working conditions; the state’s abandonment of the welfare sector; the low status of social work; the historical evolution of social work in Greece as a conservative profession (Ioakimidis, 2008); the individualistic approaches that dominated in social work education in previous years. Delivered by Ingenta IP : 94.67.166.95 On: Thu, 17 Oct 2019 07:25:18 Copyright The Policy Press However, the dominant culture of silence has consequences for both the human rights of service users and also the ideology of social workers. In the local elections of May 2014, two social workers ran as Golden Dawn candidates. As Dedotsi et al (2015: 9) claim: Such an involvement is considered incompatible with the profession; the Greek Association of Social Workers (SKLE) is not a regulatory body with powers to intervene, for example there is no official register of social workers from which these candidates could be struck off, nor any system to make accountable or challenge the suitability of a social worker. SKLE issued an announcement listing activities that it viewed as incompatible with the values of the profession (SKLE, 2014b) and there were several reactions by social workers in social media. Such phenomena are shocking for a profession whose core values are clearly against racism and fascism. It is crucial for social work in Greece to have a decisive and unambiguous position against racism and fascism.The murders of immigrants and one Greek, the racist attacks and the constant violation of human rights do not permit a profession that acts for the rights of the people to maintain a position of ‘neutrality’. It is important on an institutional level but also in social work education and practice to ensure that antioppressive and anti-racist social work is part of the agenda. Social workers can tackle oppression and racism in their workplaces by being aware of the context of as well as the legislation on their clients’ rights; by advocating for the rights of their clients; by uniting their voice with that of the service users’ movements, etc. In achieving this, the role of education is essential, as is providing support to practitioners for demanding their rights in coalition with their clients’ rights, which after all, as discussed earlier, are now shared more than ever in the Greek context. However, it seems that in Greece there are signs of a gradual politicisation of social work on various levels. In terms of combating racism and fascism, the Greek branch of the Social Work Action Network (Greek SWAN, 2014) has published press announcements and articles on its blog while its members participate in the antiracist movement. More specifically, the members of Greek SWAN have attempted to apply radical approaches in practice through their systematic intervention in both grassroots welfare structures as well as poor communities. Additionally, they have developed anti-racist programmes for children in the community and more recently, 200