RRTAA!
Two weeks ago in Sydney, a small group of White-nationalists-in-anarchist-drag rocked up to a rally against the latest Israeli attack on Gaza (aka ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’, November 17). Armed with banners, Anonymous masks and bizarro political merch (branded tees and the like), the 10 or so wingnuts were soon identified as hostile by members of the crowd, who proceeded to isolate them outside the Town Hall. Reportedly, an attempt was made to confiscate one of their banners, which was unsuccessful. The White nationalists were then surrounded by police, and remained silent and stationary at the Town Hall for the duration of the rally.
So, who were these wEiRd0eS?
Their propaganda proclaimed them to be ‘national anarchists’. While the term may seem oxymoronic, ‘national anarchism’ is in fact an ideological development on the far right, one whose immediate origins can be traced back to the late 1980s and early 1990s and attempts by racists and fascists to find a place for their activities among anarchists in England. The standard account of this fringe and its evolution during this period is ‘Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction’, Graham D. Macklin, Patterns of Prejudice, Vol.39, No.3, September 2005.
Despite having some initial success (fooling a handful of leftists, including the recently-deceased Terry Liddle, into collaborating with them), Southgate and his followers found little real political purchase among radicals. (Of course organising, from the mid-2000s, a talking-shop in London, calling it ‘New Right’, and inviting various extreme-right wing loons — including Holocaust-denialists and other mentalists — to talk shit to other wEiRd0eS doesn’t help any.) In any event, Southgate & Co have sensibly turned to the online world for support and in this realm they’ve been reasonably successful, the milieu specialising in virtual political expressions, seemingly on the basis of Ein Volk, Ein Blog (my favorite being a Hitler-worshipping Afro-punk).
In Australia, the national anarchists (hereafter referred to as gnats) announced their existence back in 2007, when a group of around 20 or so right-wing loons of diverse origins — including Darrin Hodges (above), the (former) leader of the anti-Muslim ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ in NSW, and disgraced academic and White racialist Andrew Fraser — gathered at the APEC counter-protests, also in Sydney. (See : Anarchist statement on the New Right, October 21, 2007.) As in the more recent incident, at APEC the racist wankers were isolated and protected by a large number of police.
The principal exponent of ‘national anarchism’ in Australia is a Sydney-based small businessman named Welf Herfurth (above, with Adelaide-based Holocaust denialist Fredrick Töben, together holding an NPD flag belonging to German neo-Nazi Horst Mahler), who has been joined in the past by a handful of Victorians (including a young Creatard from Geelong named Scott Harrison), a student from Perth named Nicholas Cole, and more recently several boneheads. Thus for reasons best known to themselves, the members of the Australian franchise of the US-based neo-Nazi Volksfront gang cultivated close links with Herfurth & Co in Sydney; following its formal dissolution in October (seemingly as a result of US pressure on the group in the wake of neo-Nazi skinhead Wade Michael Page’s murderous spree), it would seem reasonable to expect former VF members to increase the level of their activity on behalf of the gnats/New Right. As it stands, it’s difficult to gauge the seriousness with which the gnats in Sydney intend to continue to provoke the left, but a source in Sydney’s Chinatown reckons former VF member Steev Levings [?] is keen, and Steev’s political loyalties find graphic expression on his body:
The recent Gaza intervention is one of just a handful of public manifestations by gnats, who for whatever reason seem to be concentrated in Sydney (as is the Australia First Party and Australian Protectionist Party), while Melbourne can boast of being the centre of B&H and Hammerskin activity and the tiny groupuscule Nationalist Alternative. Further afield, the gnats appear to have only been able to maintain a temporary presence on The Streets of San Francisco — in the shape of a bunch of BANANAs. A beat-down on BANANA leader Andrew White (‘Andrew Yeoman’) on May Day a coupla years ago — and his subsequent denouncement by ideologue Southgate as a psychopath and race traitor — put paid to White’s dream of a Bay Area purged of non-Whites, but not before the racist loser paid a visit to Australia to address AF’s annual conference the (2009) Sydney Forum (at which his kamerad Welf Herfurth performs as MC).
Otherwise, the gnats may be located within a wider attempt by the far right to re-articulate a form of racist nationalism, one which has taken on increasing significance, especially in Europe, over the last few decades. See, for example: Czech Republic : The Big Neo-Nazi Crib (antifa.cz) | Germany : German city battles elusive new-look neo-Nazis (Reuters) | Italy : CasaPound’s First Big Outing in Rome Was a Snooze-Fest, (Giuseppe Pisani, Vice).
Finally, as Durruti put it:
You couldn’t have used a better photo of me? Nice write-up though, @ndy. Shame you don’t have your facts straight. Have a wonderful day, may your Christmas be full of cheer, and your new year safe for you and the family.
G’day Steev,
Sorry but I think you look cute in that photo (I mean the one without the swastika, of course) — and so does the dancing Chinese grrl. If I have any facts wrogn, it’s probably deliberate. Anyway, thanks for the kind wishes.
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“an attempt was made to confiscate one of their banners”
You mean steal their property.
“remained silent and stationary for the duration of the rally”
Ooh, how evil! They’re out of control!
“Fascism is not to be debated, it is to be smashed.”
Problem is (a) they’re not fascist (b) your kind confuse smashing the idea and smashing the *people*.
You presume there’s only one definition of anarchism: yours.
And only one definition of “fascism”: any agenda remotely ethnocentric/tribalist, even when it’s anti-statist and consen[s]ual.
Thankfully, nobody is interested in anarchism or fascism.
So keep “smashing” baby. Nobody cares.
G’day Shonk,
Your upset, ignorance and indifference are duly noted.
I was led to your page via google search on N.Chomsky. “Fascism is not to be debated, it’s to be smashed.” Chomsky would certainly agree to disagree. A debate should arise about almost anything. There’s no way to really beat your opponent but in the “arena”.
Leftwinged greetings from Germany.
steev was scared shitless when one of our boys ran into him last time…
“I’m not a nazi” and all that crap…
Yeah I dunno about Steev: my informant in Sydney reckons he’s a duplicitous ‘faggot’; others who know him reckons he’s just a bit of a trendy wanker. Certainly, wishing my family well increases my interest in him. As for not being a nazi, I reckon talking racist shite, being a member of VF and getting a swastika tattoo kinda qualifies you for inclusion LOL. Anyway, here’s an img of Steev (courtesy Chinese Dancer) pretending to be intimate w a young bonehead. Note Steev’s tee.
FIRSTLY @NDY I’D LIKE TO SAY YOU HAVE BEEN EXTREMELY TARDY IN YOUR RESPONSE TO THE EVENT IN QUESTION. TSK! TSK! TSK! SLACK BASTARD INDEED!
FROM WHITELAW TOWERS
Saturday, December 01, 2012
National Anarchist ‘Gate Crashers’…ctd…
[snip]
WHO DID THEY ‘ATTACK’ @NDY? PRECISELY WHO, WHERE AND WHEN? WHY WERE THEY NOT ARRESTED?
IMPERSONATING DAVID PALMER ‘THE SPACE WIZARD’ WILL GET YOU NOWHERE!
HOW DO YOU KNOW THEIR EARS STUCK OUT @NDY? WEREN’T THEY WEARING MASKS?
HOSTILE TO WHO @NDY? THE STATE? AIN’T THAT COOL WITH YOU? WHO WERE THESE ‘EXPERTS’ WHO DETERMINED WHO WAS ‘HOSTILE’ OR NOT AND WHAT ARE THEIR QUALIFICATIONS?
AN ATTEMPT TO ‘STEAL’ ONE OF THEIR BANNERS, EH? IF THAT WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND YOU WOULD BE ‘OUTRAGED’ AND YOU KNOW IT!
YEAH! PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE, EH?
SO NOW YOU CALL OTHER PEOPLE ‘WIERDOS’?
WOW @NDY, HAVE YOU EVER READ ANY OF THEIR STUFF? SOUNDS PRETTY ‘BOLSHY’ TO ME.
…ZZZ…
WELL, WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS GOOD FOR THE GANDER, EH? THE LEFTIST MARXIST SWILL ARE ROUTINELY PROVIDED WITH PHALANXES OF BLUE BOOT BOYS TO PROTECT THEIR PRECIOUS NECKS FROM BEING SNAPPED BY ‘DEATH SQUADS’ OF ‘NEO-NAZIS’. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
…ZZZ…
…ZZZ…
…ZZZ…
DURRUTI? IS THAT ANYTHING LIKE A BURRITO?
YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! LIKE YOU COULD ‘SMASH’ ANYTHING OTHER THAN YOUR OWN EGG HEAD WHEN SLIPPING OVER IN THE SHOWER…
What a fickin [?!?] load of shit. You dicks need to learn your facts before posting slanderous bullshit about people you don’t even know. Do you honestly believe everything your tiny minds hear?
G’day Peter and Kaz,
Kaz, you fail to identify those facts which you dispute. Feel free to do so in the unlikely event you comment again.
Peter/Victor,
Yeah, it was a coupla weeks later. But I’ve been busy doing other stuff.
Otherwise:
No, the gnats didn’t assault anyone on November 24 (or at least not to my knowledge) but this merely confirms that they’re not completely insane as to do so would have been rather counter-productive (I imagine) and their main goal was to simply manifest (which they obviously succeeded in doing);
Equally obviously, the ref to ‘attack’ is a TV trope;
The gnats are hostile to non-racialist politics, White racial consciousness being the foundation of their own;
No, I’m not outraged by fascist provocation — in this instance I see it as another opportunity to publicly deride racist wingnuts;
Yes I’ve read gnat propaganda;
I dunno when police have provided leftists protection from fascist attack but you’re free to provide examples;
Big fat wet sloppy antifa kisses,
Andy.
In an interview with Attack The System Welf Herfurth stated that his small “collective” includes a non White comrade, that he is looking to work with like minded people regardless of their ethnic background and that he is no longer involved in what you’d describe as “Fascist” organising. In the last two years that whole Alt Right milieu has gradually moved away from White Nationalism, and since the second Obama election it’s explicitly rejected it, calling for the likes of Duke, Don Black, Covington, Linder and all to be no longer heard. Some have even gone as far as to declare that the concepts of White racial consciousness and a White race are void and simply another aspect of the universal belief system called Political Correctness.
Just thought I’d point that out, but in the end it’s not these fringe groups who matter, Huey Newton said he was never worried about the John Birch Society or the Minutemen, his enemies were the Pigs with the guns and the politicians who directed them.
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I’ve met steve and know a couple of his friends. The ones i know are nothing more than kids who seem confused and looking to be a part of an image/trying to fit in. Whether he preys on these types or hes just another confused kid im not too sure, however judging by how friendly he was and some of the comments he made when i questioned their racist leanings im going to go with the latter.