slackbastard

Far-right fringe raises profile by reclaiming immigration debate [John Lyons, The Australian]

Posted on August 8, 2015 by @ndy

[I may add some comments over the course of the next few days …]

Far-right fringe raises profile by reclaiming immigration debate
John Lyons
The Australian
August 8, 2015

When James Gilhome turned on his computer on May 28 he was alarmed by what he saw. Across the following three days, the more he saw the more concerned he became.

Gilhome, although sitting at his home in Tasmania, was watching over social media a plot being hatched: a plan about how to smuggle weapons into an upcoming protest in Melbourne.

Gilhome had joined the newly formed Reclaim Australia movement because he was concerned about Islamic fundamentalism. But somehow he had been included in a discussion by a small Facebook group of supporters from the United Patriots Front, an offshoot of Reclaim Australia and Australia’s newest far-right group.

They were discussing how they could get weapons past police cordons. One idea was to use wheelchairs, as police would assume any metal detectors had been set off by the chair rather than the guns.

“In the conversation, they talked about plans to sneak weapons past police, plans to bring pistols along and plans to provoke the Left into reacting violently, which is exactly what happened,” he tells Inquirer. Gilhome notified police.

As well as Islamic State-inspired terror threats, Australian authorities now have to deal with the so-called “Reclaim Australia” movement. The group, which held rallies in Australian cities last month, formed in February in response to the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney in December last year and the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in January.

But exactly who is involved in Reclaim Australia is hard to discern — some of this obfuscation is deliberate; many of those driving the movement do not want to be identified.

Beneath the surface of Reclaim Australia is a fierce and nasty battle on social media, where threats and counter-threats are traded.

Within Reclaim Australia there are two intense battles taking place: the first is between those who want to protest against Islamic extremism and others, including neo-Nazis, who are trying to make it about Muslims and Jews.

The second is over who runs the movement. As one intelligence source tells Inquirer: “The ideology is there, but so far a leader has not risen through the pack, unlike similar movements in Europe.”

Layered over these internal battles is a larger external struggle between the far Right and the far Left, with members on both sides threatening to reveal the home addresses and personal details of each other.

From some on the Right, or Reclaim, side, Melbourne blogger “Andy Fleming” is public enemy No 1 — except they don’t know who he is.

For 10 years, Fleming — a pseudonym — has been writing about the far Right. Recently, Reclaim Australia activist John Oliver set up a false Facebook account to try to find out. He tells Inquirer he did this because he did not want his real Facebook account to be closed and he knew that anyone trying to out Fleming would have their account closed quickly.

Within 24 hours, Oliver believed he had discovered Fleming’s identity. In response, a call went out — Oliver says it was not from him — for people to “hunt” the person named as Fleming.

One person posted: “Time to go on a good old-fashioned hunt, I reckon. Drag this piece of shit out of his house by his nuts and cut the f..kers off and sew them to his forehead.”

But Oliver’s site had named the wrong person. Police were called to the home of this person who, according to one source, was “terrified” that neo-Nazi vigilantes might turn up on “a good old-fashioned hunt”. Police contacted Oliver and told him of his error.

This is the new world of the far Right in Australia, a world in which online vigilantism is in danger of spilling over into real-life violence. Oliver says he wanted to unmask Fleming because of “the hypocrisy of the Left”. Fleming, maintaining his anonymity, tells Inquirer the emergence of Reclaim Australia has given a significant boost to far-right groups in this country. “Since its emergence at the beginning of 2015, far-right groups have supported Reclaim Australia and it has succeeded in mobilising several thousand people,” he says.

“This mass (of numbers) constitutes a market for far-right ideas and has been viewed as such.”

Fleming says a strategy of the far Right is to identify issues concerning race and nation of concern to a wider public and to try to capitalise on them.

“One of these issues is the place of Islam in Australia,” he says, “which is understood to embody a threat to the health and wellbeing of the Australian nation and which must therefore be eliminated.

“For some on the far Right, the Cronulla ‘riot’ of December 2005 is a touchstone and interpreted as a ‘white civil uprising’. The attitude to ‘multiculturalism’ is generally one of hostility and the policy is understood to be the culprit for a range of social problems, sometimes understood as being religious in nature but just as often ethnic or racial.”

As an illustration of the fear in this shadowy world, the woman who runs Reclaim Australia refuses to be identified. She operates on Facebook under the false name Catherin Brennan and identifies herself to the media as “Liz”.

“We personally have dealt with many threats and as the majority of us have families we are not willing to put them at risk,” she tells Inquirer. Liz says she wants to make clear to the Muslim community that the movement is not anti-Islam but anti-Islamic extremism. She is due to meet the Muslim Women’s Association soon to convey this.

Whatever soothing words Liz may speak, reports this week that a Reclaim Australia supporter had been charged with threatening to cut the throat of a prominent Sydney lawyer and campaigner against Islamophobia, Mariam Veiszadeh, will only heighten fear among many Australian Muslims that they are under threat.

The woman who allegedly made the threat, a mother of three, allegedly told Veiszadeh, a “Welcome to Australia ambassador”, that she would “hunt you down”.

An investigation by Inquirer has found that the groups that have gravitated into the Reclaim Australia movement include: Party for Freedom, Squadron 88, United Patriots Front, the Rise Up Australia Party, Q Society, Golden Dawn, One Nation Party, the Australia First Party, the Australian Defence League, Nationalist Alternative, Patriots Defence League of Australia and Restore Australia.

Last week, the Q Society registered the Australian Liberty Alliance, an anti-Islam political party to be launched in Perth on October 20 by Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders, who has called for a ban on the Koran because, he claims, it urges Muslims to kill non-Muslims.

Fleming says Reclaim Australia is a movement driven by social media. “On Facebook there has been a rapid proliferation of pages devoted to alerting the Australian public to the alleged dangers Islam poses to Australia,” he says.

“On my reading there are tens and more likely hundreds of thousands of Australians actively reading and sharing such material on social media.”

According to Fleming, Reclaim Australia has undergone a recomposition during the course of this year, but there are two broad core constituencies: Christian fundamentalists and secular, right-wing ultra-nationalists.

Scores of groups, ranging from neo-Nazi groups to more mainstream groups, are jockeying for a place under the Reclaim Australia umbrella.

Some of the groups are potentially dangerous, says Fleming, “although the question is to whom and what kind of danger”.

“One potential danger is the re-creation of an extra-parliamentary or largely extra-parliamentary radical, right-wing movement, of similar size and shape to parallel movements in parts of Europe.

“The UPF, in particular, has expressed political solidarity with Golden Dawn in Greece and numerous other European fascist and neo-Nazi parties and projects.

“Reclaim Australia, on the other hand, cleaves to what might otherwise be described as the right wing of the Liberals. The participation of (federal Coalition MP) George Christensen in a Reclaim Australia rally in Queensland suggests that there’s a good deal of common ground in the political concerns of segments of RA and those of segments of the LNP.

“The ‘danger’, in this case, is the shift in political debate further to the right and the adoption by establishment figures of some ideas previously relegated to the political margins.”

Many in Reclaim Australia were boosted by the fact a member of the Abbott government had lent support.

Last month, Christensen spoke at a rally in north Queensland and his office says it received “hundreds” of congratulations. His staff member David Westman says there is “massive” support for the movement in Queensland. “It’s the most decisive thing we’ve seen,” he says.

“In the messages we’ve been getting they’re saying things like ‘It’s good that we have got somebody who’s got the balls to say what the rest of us are thinking.’ ”

Christensen tells Inquirer he decided to address the rally after he read that Legal Aid NSW was training “CALD” — culturally and linguistically diverse — mediators to facilitate culturally specific consent orders that could be signed off before cases reached a Family Court hearing.

One of those mediators is Sheikh Hassim Farache, a lawyer and Sydney imam.

In February, The Point Magazine, an online, federally funded publication, reported: “For Sheikh Hassim Farache, the role of mediators formally recognises what he’s been doing for years: applying sharia to arbitrate family disputes and avoid a long and painful journey through the court system.”

Farache did not return phone calls and Legal Aid NSW tells Inquirer it did not apply sharia law processes or principles.

“All the qualified family dispute resolution practitioners who undertake contractual work for Legal Aid NSW, including Mr Hassim Farache, do so in accordance with principles of the Australian Family Law Act,” a spokeswoman said.

Despite his keenness to address the rally, Christensen says he was worried about some associated groups, specifically the United Patriots Front and Squadron 88.

“But most of the people at the rally I spoke at were cane farmers, sugar-mill workers, teachers, everyday people,” he says.

He did not seek approval from the Prime Minister before he spoke at the rally and had heard nothing from the PM about the rally afterwards.

Tony Abbott declined to answer Inquirer’s questions about Reclaim Australia or Christensen’s attendance.

Instead, his office emailed an interview Abbott did with ABC radio in April in which he said one of the fundamental principles on which Australia was based was “live and let live”.

“Let’s never forget there was quite a lot of ethnic and cultural diversity on the First Fleet because Britain in the late 1700s was a pretty polyglot society,” Abbott said.

“So we were a very diverse country really from the beginning. We weren’t the monochrome Anglo place that is frequently assumed. It is one of the greatest strengths of our country, is our diversity, but it is also our unity in that diversity.”

While the April 4 rallies around the country began the process, it was the rallies on July 18 that raised the stakes; violence broke out at several between Reclaim Australia supporters and those opposing their movement, the worst violence being in Melbourne.

A bus trip from Sydney to Melbourne highlighted the way neo-Nazi elements are trying to infiltrate the Reclaim Australia movement. Just after 9pm on Friday, July 17, a mixed group of activists — including four neo-Nazis — turned up at Sydney’s Central station to board a bus organised by UPF. But police were waiting for them. They sought out Oliver, the man who had tried to reveal the identity of Fleming, who was carrying a gun. Oliver tells Inquirer he had notified the police firearms registry that he was transporting the gun to Melbourne but, nonetheless, police did not want the gun on that bus.

Oliver says he was taking the gun to Melbourne so over that weekend he could combine sports shooting and the rally. “Maybe I made an error of judgment to think that I could do the two things on the one weekend,” he concedes.

But he insists that those in Reclaim Australia are mainstream Australians opposing extremism. He says he was concerned there were four neo-Nazis on the bus. “The first thing I saw when I sat down was the guy in front of me draw a swastika on the mist on the window,” he says. “Two of the neo-Nazis were kicked off in Yass and two made it to Melbourne.”

One of those forced off the bus was Ross “The Skull” May, who has become the figurehead of Squadron 88, Australia’s newest neo-Nazi group.

Squadron 88 draws inspiration from US-based neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, which has taken its name from the former Nazi regime’s newspaper, Der Sturmer — The Attacker.

The name gives away its identity — the “8s” stand for the eighth letter of the alphabet — HH, or Heil Hitler. In June, Squadron 88 distributed anti-Semitic leaflets in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Some of the recent stories on The Daily Stormer’s website make clear the anti-Semitism. The site has a section called “Jewish Problem” and recently included an article headlined “Abraham Lincoln, Jew Lover”, which discussed “Lincoln’s role in paving the way for acceptance and inclusion of Jews in America”.

The publisher of Daily Stormer, Andrew Anglin, tells Inquirer he believes the Reclaim Australia rallies began “both because the rate of immigration is rapidly intensifying and because the hordes are becoming increasingly aggressive, both on the media-spectacle level of terrorism and on the personal level of individual interpersonal interactions.
“The same thing is happening in all white countries, at the same time.”

Anglin reacts badly when Inquirer asks how his description of Australia as a white country accorded with the original inhabitants, Aborigines, not being white. “Is that supposed to be a joke?” he replies by email.

He also responds tersely to two other questions.

Inquirer: Given your own country, the US, has had people from all around the world for hundreds of years, in your view are they equal citizens to white Americans?

Anglin: No.

Inquirer: On your website you carry an article about “devious Jew vermin Abe Foxman” — on what do you base your view of Jews as “vermin”.

Anglin: Their behaviour.

The biggest split within the Reclaim Australia movement is between those prepared to allow neo-Nazis to be part of the movement and those who will not.

Fleming says the extent of infiltration of Reclaim Australia by neo-Nazi elements has been “large but not complete”.

“RA has denounced neo-Nazism and in general it (neo-Nazism) commands little support. This is complicated by the fact that many of RA’s most active promoters are in fact neo-Nazis who have re-cast themselves as simple ‘patriots’ intent on saving Australia from Islam and ‘leftism’, whether these leftist formations are understood as Labor and the Greens or more obscure political formations.”

Nick Folkes, who runs the Party for Freedom, a key group within Reclaim Australia, is one of those campaigning to sideline neo-Nazis. When key figures in Reclaim Australia attended a barbecue at his Sydney home last Sunday someone from Squadron 88 turned up. Folkes denied him entry.

The Party for Freedom grew out of the Australian Protectionist Party. In June 2013, the Sydney branch of the Party for Freedom, run by Folkes, organised a “Torpedo the boats” rally.

“This is the time for patriotic groups to rise up,” Folkes tells Inquirer at his Sydney home.

“I’ve never seen so much anger. The Aussie battler has been totally disconnected. I hope this movement can grow.

“By getting more people involved we can grow an understanding: don’t vote for the major parties.”

Asked to outline the vision of the Reclaim Australia group, he says: “Our vision is to reduce Third World immigration, abandon multiculturalism and bring in assimilation by promoting Australian culture.”

Folkes, an industrial painter, wants governments in Australia to stop funding schools and language and other programs for migrants.

He insists he is not racist — “I’m married to a Japanese woman” — and argues that Asian countries would not allow the levels of immigration Australia does.

While he considers carefully his language during our interview, the language of the party’s brochures is emotive: “The ‘Aussie dream’ has been shattered due to the greed of government, foreign speculators and invaders who are colluding to ethnically cleanse suburbs of Australian families.”

As is common to most of these far-right groups, Muslims are a prime target. The party’s website states: “A rough estimate shows that close to half of all Muslims in the world are inbred.”

Attached is a photo of a semi-naked girl born horribly deformed, with as many as five legs, under a headline:

“Muslim Inbreeding: Impacts on intelligence, sanity, health and society.”

The article states: “Massive inbreeding within the Muslim culture during the last 1400 years may have done catastrophic damage to their gene pool.”

Challenged about this material, Folkes concedes: “I like to use the articles or images that are most politically incorrect.”

He wants his and other “patriotic parties” to take the place of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, which, he says, had sound policies but poor management.

The Party of Freedom’s “10-point plan to save Australia” is: Stop our genocide by stopping the Third World invasion, abolish the divisive state-sanctioned policy of multiculturalism, deport foreign nationals on welfare and foreign criminals in our jails, abolish the Human Rights Commission to protect free speech, cease all taxpayer funding of Islamic schools or mosques, deport all asylum-seekers and remove Australia from the UNHCR protocol on refugees, end all foreign aid, abolish 457 visas for temporary workers, restrict foreign ownership of Australians homes, farms and land, and promote Australian values, culture and assimilation.

The party is preparing to run candidates at the next federal election and will campaign on concerns among Australians about the high cost of housing, blaming this on “the Chinese real estate invasion.”

Its website says: “Australia is under attack from greedy foreign intruders who are rapidly acquiring Australian residential property pricing locals out of the market.

“Aussie battlers are being pushed to the fringes of our cities while foreign intruders are reaping the benefits of hard working previous generations.”

The website continues: “The new disposed or forgotten people will one day be remembered as the ‘stolen generation’ priced out of the market by invading overseas Chinese colonising our suburbs and cities.”

Another of the groups behind the rallies is the United Patriots Front, which describes itself as “a nationwide movement opposing the spread of left-wing treason and spread of Islamism”.

Some people monitoring Reclaim Australia are concerned about the lack of public statements by political leaders condemning the hardline elements.

Far-right watcher Fleming says: “I believe that political leaders play an important role in shaping the political context in which RA operates, and a failure to address its ideology is read by RA’s supporters as giving them licence to carry on their crusade against Islam.”

Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane says: “I’m surprised more hasn’t been said by political leaders to date.”

Posted in Anarchism, Media, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged Andrew Anglin, Australian Protectionist Party, Daily Stormer, George Christensen, James Gilhome, John Lyons, John Oliver, Nick Folkes, Party for Freedom, Reclaim Australia, Squadron 88, The Australian, United Patriots Front | Leave a comment

George Christensen & Team Australia ~versus~ Flag-Burning Socialist Ratbags*

Posted on August 6, 2015 by @ndy

Poor old George Christensen — who can boast that he is the only federal or state MP to have accepted an invitation to address a Reclaim Australia rally (Mackay, July 19) — has had his complaint to the Human Rights Commission re opposition to Reclaim Australia — specifically, the burning of the Australian flag at a protest in Melbourne on April 4 — dismissed. According to Christensen:

The clowns who burned three Australian flags at a protest on the Easter weekend, protected by a wall of socialist ratbags, have been reported to the Human Rights Commission.

I have been contacted by a number of people who were offended by protesters burning the national symbol during aggressive Socialist Alternative and Socialist [A]lliance protests in Melbourne. Many people were surprised it is not against the law to burn the Australian flag in such a manner and they feel offended and threatened when they see these actions taking place in Australia and broadcast on the news.

I have asked the Racial Discrimination Commissioner to investigate the protests to see if they are unlawful under Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. According to the Act, it is unlawful to perform any action in public that is likely to offend people of a particular race, religion, or national background. If sections of the Act can be applied to one race or nationality it must apply to all, whether a minority or the majority.

Burning of flags, physical violence, and placards and chants labelling people “racist” were part of a counter-protest attended mostly by university students and members of the Socialist Alternative in response to organised rallies by Reclaim Australia.

Reclaim Australia organised rallies in at least 16 cities around Australia, including Mackay and Townsville, voicing concerns about the rise of Islamic extremism, a push to introduce Sharia law into Australia, and the connections between Halal certification and funding for terrorist organisations.

These were legitimate concerns that were not targeting individuals or a specific religion. Radical Islam is an ideology that has more to do with politics than any religion and certainly has nothing to do with race, but professional protesters have tried to make it about race and engaged in extremely racist and intolerant actions.

It is a shame the Socialist ratbags took such aggressive and racist action to shut down any free speech that doesn’t agree with their own ideology. According to the Left, free speech is a right – as long as you agree with the Left.

The ‘clowns’ in question — aka Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance — released a media statement following the flag burning. See : Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance burns butcher’s apron in defiance of racist ‘Reclaim Australia’ rally, Green Left Weekly, April 9, 2015. The action made the Reclaimers very upset, but this was not the first time WAR had burned the Australian flag as an act of resistance to colonialism and racism. See : Why WAR burned six Australian flags – MEDIA RELEASE, November 20, 2014.

George Christensen: Anti-Reclaim racism claim rejected
The Australian
August 6, 2015

A complaint by government backbencher George Christensen that protesters opposed to a Reclaim Australia rally sought to incite racial hatred has been dismissed by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Mr Christensen — the only federal Coalition MP to speak at a Reclaim Australia rally — alleged that a group called Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance in April burnt three Australian flags “which, as an Australian, I find to be particularly racist behaviour”.

The Queensland politician argued that the counter-protest breached section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, in that the flag-burning targeted Australians of European descent and was intended to cause offence, insult and humiliation, and dissuade people from joining the rally.

In a letter to the commission, Mr Christensen pre-empted any suggestion the Reclaim Australia rally was racist, saying the movement did not target individuals nor any particular racial group. “As we have seen, Islamic extremists … are not represented by a single race, nor can radical Islam be considered only a religion as it is ideological and as much a political movement as it is a religion,” he wrote.

In response, one of the commission’s case officers acknowledged Mr Christensen’s concerns, but said: “It is unclear how it could be argued that the burning of the Australian flag was done because of your race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, or that of other Australians of European descent more broadly.” No action was taken.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane last week warned of “organised racist movements” such as Reclaim Australia causing disharmony and urged anyone offended to “seek the protection of laws that prohibit such hatred”.

“At these rallies, far-right, racial-supremacist agitators have been visibly present,” Dr Soutphommasane told an audience at Australian National University. “People with xenophobic political agendas have also been present. Pictures and footage of the rallies clearly show that people sporting Nazi tattoos and other insignia have been openly parading their extremist sympathies.”

He said the “corrupted national pride” that emerged during the Cronulla riots had returned in “a strain of patriotic expression that is tainted with the stain of aggressive nationalism”.

“It is time that we reclaim patriotism,” he said.

For a contrary view on patriotism and nationalism, see : A G A I N S T N A T I O N A L I S M, totaltantrum, April 19/July 19, 2015. See also : Reclaiming (White) Australia? Talk about a redundant exercise, Senthorun Raj, August 6, 2015 | Banal Nationalism | The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism, Fredy Perlman (1984).

“So we say, we always say in the Black Panther Party, that they can do anything they want to us. We might not be back, I might be in jail, I might be anywhere. But when I leave, you can remember I said with the last words on my lips that I am a revolutionary and you’re going to have to keep on saying that. You’re going to have to say that I am a proletariat. I am the people, I’m not the pig. You got to make a distinction.”

~ Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969), executed by the Chicago Police as part of the US federal government’s COINTELPRO. See also : Noam Chomsky & Kathleen Cleaver on Race, Gender and Class Issues – Black Panthers (1997).

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Art, Broken Windows, History, Media, Poetry, State / Politics, Student movement, Television, That's Capitalism!, Trot Guide, War on Terror | Tagged George Christensen, Reclaim Australia, Socialist Alliance, Socialist Alternative, Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance | 5 Comments

Reclaim Australia, Shermon Burgess & violence …

Posted on August 5, 2015 by @ndy

UPDATE (August 6, 2015) : Police have charged a 38-year-old Moe man with threats to kill, threats to inflict serious injury and stalking related matters. The threats were allegedly made to Stephen Jolly (see below).

Yesterday news.com.au published a story about Shermon Burgess, AKA ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’, his role as the public face of ‘Reclaim Australia’ and, since May, of the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF). Also yesterday, Fairfax carries an item re alleged threats by a Reclaim Australia supporter to ‘slit the throat’ of Muslim lawyer Mariam Veiszadeh. See : ‘Some of us still have balls left’: Shermon Burgess claims to be standing up for Australia, but who is he?, August 4, 2015 | Reclaim Australia supporter charged with threatening to slit the throat of prominent lawyer, Rachel Olding, The Sydney Morning Herald, August 4, 2015.

It’s important to note that violent rhetoric has been Burgess’s stock-in-trade for some years now, first as an ‘Australian Defence League’ (ADL) member and then as a member of the God-awful studio band ‘Eureka Brigade’. news.com.au notes that Burgess ‘was a reputed member of the extreme-right Australian Defence League before becoming one of Reclaim Australia’s chief spokesmen’. In reality, Burgess’s membership of the ADL was not merely reputed but actual. Indeed, you can find a number of videos on YouTube uploaded to an ‘Australian Defence League’ account featuring both Burgess and Ralph Cerminara — sometime ‘President’ of the ADL and still one of Burgess’s closest comrades — doing their best to agitate Muslims and to attract support for the ADL’s campaign to rid Australia of their presence by distributing anti-Muslim propaganda at mosques.

Burgess’s contribution to Eureka Brigade makes both his relationship to the ADL and his position on Islam crystal-clear: The song ‘Ralph Cerminara ADL Leader’ speaks of the band’s love of the ADL President, while ‘ADL Killing Machine’, ‘Border Patrol’ and ‘Shit On A Mosque’ spell out the band’s militant opposition to Islam, desire to exterminate Muslims and to eradicate any trace of Islam in Australia. Sample lyrics: Ralph Cerminara he’s our man/The Leader of the ADL klan … Punch us a Muslim/Have a good time/Ralph Cerminara will show you his might (‘Ralph Cerminara ADL Leader’). Warriors of the ADL/Heed the call now/No fucking surrender/Ralph Cerminara’s gonna send the Muzrats [sic] back to the Sahara … It’s time to join the ADL/Send the Muslims back to Hell … No sharia, no halal/Time to get the .50 cal … A towel is not a fucking hat ya fucking sandmonkeys/And the fucking burqa/You’re not ninjas/Fuck off/Cunt/Go back to Arabia/Fuck you/Dirty fucks (‘ADL Killing Machine’). The Navy is here/So have no bloody fear/Sink Islamic boats/It’s time to have a beer/Australian Navy/Oi oi oi/A Stinger missile is what we’ll deploy/Your boat will fucking sink/The sharks’ll get the rest/HMAS Aussie Pride is the fucking best … We’re sick of your sharia/Burn your fucking mosques/It’s time to show you Muslims/We’re the fucking boss/You thought you had it easy/But you surely lost/Cronulla was Australia’s Muslim Holocaust (‘Border Patrol’).

And so on and so on and so on. See also : Who Are The Australian Defence League?, New Matilda, January 29, 2014.

The weeks prior to and following the July 18/19 RA/UPF rallies also generated several stories regarding the allegedly violent intentions of its followers, from allegations that the UPF planned to bring arms with them to the rally in Melbourne, the re-appearance of RA organiser James Gilhome (armed with similar tales), the publication of a video by UPF Melbourne leader Neil Erikson celebrating the stabbing death of a teenage anti-fascist in Madrid, death threats sent to Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly and an alleged incident in which Burgess and some of his supporters assaulted at least two other individuals they identified as being ‘anti-fascists’. In this incident, which took place on July 18 in Melbourne, Burgess further alleges that he stole a student card from the unconscious body of one of his victims, with the card and the person’s name and photograph being prominently displayed in a video he later published proudly informing the public of his magnificent victory. In-between these events, Victoria Police managed to deploy pepper spray upon an estimated 100 counter-protesters in Melbourne (the effects of which rendered one man unconscious) in a move widely celebrated by Burgess and his followers. See also : Medics’ Statement on July 18 anti-racist/fascist Demonstration, Melbourne Street Medic Collective, July 18, 2015.

Beyond this, the UPF has indeed claimed ‘solidarity with the Greek Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, which was founded by Holocaust denier Nikos Michaloliakos’ (news.com.au), as have Shermon Burgess and Eureka Brigade. By the same token, Iggy Gavrilidis, spokesperson for Golden Dawn in Australia, has expressed support for RA and the UPF (though numbers on the ground have been fairly thin). In any case, Holocaust denialism is present in the UPF by way of Erikson and Blair Cottrell, the leadership of the UPF in Melbourne. Both Erikson and Cottrell have, inter alia, expressed such denialism, with Erikson having attended the 2010 Australian tour by Canadian denialist Paul Fromm and Cottrell having outlined his views on ‘The Jews’ in a series of comments on YouTube and elsewhere (see : Quotations From Chairman Cottrell).

In summary, the ADL, RA and the UPF have been steeped in violent (and often quite demented) rhetoric, with each aiming to eradicate Islam and ‘the left’ from Australia. Obviously, the task they have set themselves is not something they have the capacity to accomplish. Thus it’s not very surprising that as the movement — such as it is — has developed, and as its activities have been successfully countered — in brief, as it has become evident that the movement is in fact failing — so a recourse to further such rhetoric and even actions becomes that much more likely. In addition, as Guy Rundle and others have noted, ‘Jew-hatred/anti-Semitism is on the march again in Australia … channelling all the obsessions of the last century.

Talk to bikies — not all bikies by any means — at a Reclaim Australia rally, and you’ll hear the old Jew-hatred, anti-Semitism, the “socialism of fools”, all the old tunes: how sneaky the Jews are, how they run things, how an ordinary bloke can’t get ahead, 9/11, Building 7, the works. Then ask them about Israel, and you’ll find they’re Zionists to a core. Why? Well anti-Semitic Zionism has a long history, but in this case it’s about plain sight. Israel is “the good Jews”, i.e. landed, nationalised and not a tribal presence in Christian society, who are the “bad Jews”.

As Reclaim Australia fades, one of the things it may leave in its wake is a revitalised radical, right-wing movement, one in which neo-Nazis play a critical role. And that story rarely ends well …

The pressure told and the Nazis turned on each other as deeply repressed suspicions and rivalries burst through to the surface. Everybody seemed to accuse everyone else of being police spies and sexual deviants. The final slide into ignoble collapse was marked by the gunshot murder of Wayne ‘Bovver’ Smith in [National Action’s] headquarters at Tempe a few years later. It was an almost perfect example of the hapless farce which so often attended the adventures of Sydney’s neo-Nazi elite in the 1980s. Bovver, twenty-five years old and already weighing 108 kilos thanks to the three or four stubbies of beer he’d consume for breakfast each morning, was shot eight times with a sawn-off .22 rifle by Perry Whitehouse, ten years his senior but less than half his size, during a drunken, confused and basically pointless argument. When Whitehouse blew him away, Bovver was wearing a singlet bearing the message: Say No To The New Gun Control Laws.

Bonus anti-racist lulz

How I Infiltrated a White Pride Facebook Group and Turned It into ‘LGBT Southerners for Michelle Obama’, Virgil Texas, Vice, August 3, 2015.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Broken Windows, Death, History, Media, Sex & Sexuality, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged Australian Defence League, Blair Cottrell, Eureka Brigade, Mariam Veiszadeh, Neil Erikson, neo-Nazism, Ralph Cerminara, Reclaim Australia, Scott Moerland, The Great Aussie Patriot, United Patriots Front | Leave a comment

antifa notes (august 2, 2015)

Posted on August 2, 2015 by @ndy

G’day Aussie patriots how ya goin’?

• No Room For Racism have organised a SPEAK OUT @ City Square Melbourne for Friday, August 8 (5.30-7pm):

With racist and neo-Nazi groups like Reclaim Australia and the United Patriots Front rallying openly on our streets, it’s time for anti-racists to unite and speak out against rising racism and Islamophobia.

Come along and hear from different communities about how racism is used as a tool to divide us and how we can unite to stop the growth of far-right movements in Australia.

This is a peaceful speak out organised by the #NoRoomForRacism campaign. All anti-racists are welcome.

• The fascist groupuscule the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF) claims to have had an application to hold an assembly in Cronulla denied by local authorities. This has been interpreted by Shermon Burgess (‘The Great Aussie Patriot’) as meaning that Muslims have taken over the Shire. See also : Reclaim Australia rallies ‘fuel racial tensions to Cronulla riot levels’, The Guardian, Shalailah Medhora, July 20, 2015.

• UPF leader Neil ‘Nazi Boy’ Erikson is in the news again, this time for allegedly conspiring to ‘manually remove’ Socialist Party councillor Stephen Jolly in Richmond (the site of the UPF’s dismal debut in May). See : Police investigate kill threats against Councillor Stephen Jolly, Bianca Hall, The Age, August 2, 2015.
• Erikson denies authorship of the messages on Facebook referred to in Hall’s article. The messages in question seem to have originally appeared on the Facebook page Team Idiot’s – Stupid Things Bigots Say and are republished below:

Verification of the above would presumably require a statement to police by whoever was on the other end of the conversation.

• Rather pathetically, Erikson similarly denied authorship of the video he made celebrating the stabbing death of 16yo anti-fascist Carlos Javier Palomino in Madrid in late 2007. See : ‘Anti-Islamist’ rally organiser shown laughing at death footage, James Dowling, Herald Sun, July 16, 2015. In 2009, the neo-Nazi killer, Josué Estébanez, was sentenced to 26 years jail for murder and attempted murder.

• Since its formation in May as a split from Reclaim Australia, the UPF has been consistently stating that ‘smashing the left’ (in Melbourne, but also elsewhere) has been a key goal and a necessary step towards their longer-term goal of ridding Australia of Muslims. Its failure to smash the left ‘on the streets’ has seemingly resulted in the employment of increasingly aggressive (and quite demented) rhetoric online. The actions of police on July 18 in Melbourne — specifically, the widespread deployment of capsicum spray — was met with undisguised glee by the UPF, but praise for VicPol seems to have terminated with news of the confiscation of a firearm from one patriot by NSW police before he hopped on board the hate bus.
• The UPF has determined that Jolly, along with fellow SP members Anthony Main and Mel Gregson, is the mastermind behind all ‘antifa’ activity in Melbourne; by the same token, Erikson has alleged that deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek is bankrolling opposition to Reclaim Australia, so it’s sometimes difficult to determine quite how serious or stoopid Erikson & Co actually are, whether they believe the propaganda they produce or they’re simply feeding the chooks who follow the UPF.
• In the days immediately following July 18, Burgess posted a video in which he confessed to assault and named fellow ‘patriot’ Liz Carlsen as also having committed assault. To date, I don’t believe the alleged incident has received any media attention.

• The ‘Australian Liberty Alliance’ (ALA) registered with the AEC on July 29, and Geert Wilders is scheduled to tour Down Under in October in order to launch the Alliance.
• The ALA is the bRaneschild of ‘The Q Society’.
• Erikson was present at a tiny counter-counter-protest at the Wilders appearance at La Mirage Receptions in Somerton in Melbourne in February 2013.

• Today Kim ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’ Vuga attended a function in Nick Folkes’ backyard. Folkes is the leader of the Party for Freedom, established as a split from the ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ after Folkes and fellow Sydney branch member Darrin Hodges organised a public rally in Sydney in June 2012 demanding that the Australian government ‘Torpedo the Boats!’ carrying asylum seekers to the northern shores of the country.

• The Party for Freedom is explicitly modelled on Wilders’ PVV but has been effectively snubbed by Wilders in favour of the (allegedly) far more competent Q Society. See also : What’s behind the Australian Liberty Alliance?, Patrick J. Byrne, News Weekly, February 14, 2015.

Posted in Anti-fascism | Tagged Australian Liberty Alliance, Cronulla, Geert Wilders, Go Back To Where You Came From, Kim Vuga, Liz Carlsen, Neil Erikson, Nick Folkes, No Room For Racism, Party for Freedom, Q Society, Reclaim Australia, SBS, Shermon Burgess, Stephen Jolly, Tanya Plibersek, United Patriots Front, Yarra Council | Leave a comment

A message from some #Sydney anarchists re #Suruc : ‘We stand with #Kobanê’

Posted on July 28, 2015 by @ndy

UPDATE (July 30, 2015) : See also : Jamie Williams remanded in custody after attempting to travel to Iraq to fight with Kurdish forces against Islamic State, Dan Oakes and James Oaten, ABC, July 28, 2015 | Suruç Massacre: Solidarity from Melbourne, Insurrection News, July 27, 2015 | Families of Australians fighting against Islamic State in Syria want loved ones to be granted amnesty, Donna Field, ABC, July 27, 2015.

See also : Turkish activists killed in likely IS attack, Deutsche Welle, July 20, 2015 | Turkish airstrikes ‘very damaging’ to Kurdish peace process, Martin Kuebler, Deutsche Welle, July 27, 2015.

A message from some Sydney anarchists [28-07-15]

With sadness and anger, people demonstrated at Turkish consulates in Sydney and Melbourne Australia yesterday 5pm to condemn the Turkish state’s complicity in the Suruc massacre and commemorate those fallen in the attack.

We stand with those fighting both the overt and covert state sponsored terrorism of the Turkish state, with Kurdish liberation fighters, and with all who are brave enough to resist in the face of such repression. Let it be known, as our banner read ‘We stand with Kobane’ and are inspired and strengthened here by the resistance over there, thank you.

In Sydney attempts by local police to intimidate us on social media, demanding forms be filled out to determine our protest ‘legitimate’ were ignored, supposedly justifying the heavy policing on the day. We do not recognise the authority of the white colonial state known as Australia.

Standing with the Aboriginal flag, we remind ourselves of the historical and ongoing state violence against First Nations people here. With its bloody and racist policies, we are disgusted by the hypocrisy of the so-called Australian state attempting to tell us what is ‘legitimate’ or not. Decolonise now- full sovereignty for Aboriginal communities! Kurdish liberation now!

‘We stand with Kobane’

‘Turkish state = terrorist state’

‘Solidarity from Sydney’

… an img of those murdered in Suruc …

Posted in Anarchism, Death, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged Kobanê, Kurdistan, Melbourne, Suruc, Sydney | Leave a comment

Quotations From Chairman Blair Cottrell

Posted on July 27, 2015 by @ndy

The content below is sourced from comments by Blair Cottrell (AKA ‘National Democratic Party of Australia’), Melbourne organiser and spokesperson for the United Patriots Front, on Facebook, YouTube and Google. Almost all of the comments have since been deleted as part of Cottrell’s efforts to erase his neo-Nazi political commitments.

See also : Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe (March 9, 2012) [Martin Jay] | The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler [Robert G.L. Waite] (November 16, 2009).

On Jews, Marxism, Jews, National Socialism, Jews, Adolf Hitler, Jews, Mein Kampf, Jews:

Zionists … I’m sick of hearing that coward word. Get some guts people and just say Jews, they are all Jews or Jewish servants. For thousands of years these Jews have been expelled and chased out of European Nations for the same shit. Napoleon and Hitler were the last to stand against them (please don’t reply to this comment with ‘muh holocaust’ bullshit, cause that is a load of crap too). I[‘]m fed up with all the tiptoe words like [I]lluminati and [Z]ionist … I’ve found that all these so-called ‘truth-seekers’ delve into free information until they hit the plateau of the real truth; that point at which they must admit that there is no [I]lluminati or [Z]ionist conspiracy, only a Jewish conspiracy. Very few people make it past that plateau, they are too pacifist and too egalitarian to accept the reality of the Jewish nature and so they become weird peace & love people who forever talk about the ‘universe’ because they failed to acknowledge the reality of racial dispositions of the Jews. There is no “new” conspiracy with an “[I]lluminati” or “Zionist” foundation, there is only Jews; the same old Jews from a thousand years ago practicing the same old shit, only now they are actually succeeding.

Has it ever occurred to your brilliant mind that Jews get more nobel [sic] prizes because Jews award the nobel [sic] prizes? You do not appreciate the profound level of influence beheld [sic] by Jewish intellectuals. The first line of your comment was interesting, the rest of it was incredible; “jews actually bring generally a good improvement in every environment they live?” Please present to me one single example justifying this statement. You will be hard pressed to find one unless you consider sodomy to be a good improvement to social life. Actually, every environment Jews have ever lived in have been the counties [sic] of other races, and they have worked collectively and actively to morally support that host country; they have introduced and normalized Communism, adultery, homosexuality, atheism (which is a good thing for you I suppose), egalitarianism resulting in bastardization and race-mixing in the host people, economic disasters with the introduction of central banks based upon debt and the list goes on. I would consider the Jews of today to be a much deadlier enemy than the violent Islamic pillagers, who just kill and maim openly and seldom attempt to infiltrate and subvert entire generations of other nations in a bid for world power.

A race once lost cannot be resurrected. And all culture of a Nation; architecture, tradition and religious-moral structure is a product of the race responsible for is [sic] creation; a nation depends on the solidarity and health of its founding race in order to maintain and advance itself. Many races did not shape Europe, and sacrifice for its cultural preservation and advancement. Europe belongs only to a handful of races responsible for its cultural superiority over the rest of the world. Negroids, Mongoloids, Arabs, Asians, Hispanics, Islander natives, Aboriginals and various other tribal and wandering races had nothing to do with the cultural, traditional and religious-moral development of Europe, though today they enter into it and call it their home. They claim a special right on the grounds of ‘humanitarianism’ to reap what has been sown by thousands of years of European generations, and they are granted this right by political corruption and pacifistic weakness in the Democratic realm. If you cannot see this and the genocidal danger it poses or rather, do not want to see it then congratulations, you are just like the other 95% of common consuming masses. The news starts at 6, don’t miss it.

Ok gentlemen, here is what this video fails to explain, National Socialism and Marxism are the same in means but opposites in ends, meaning they use the same methods to achieve a completely different ambition; an opposite ambition in fact. The goal of Marxism is to eliminate Europe’s highborn; members of the nobility, royal families and aristocrats as these people represent the greatest opposition to world Jewish powers which are the governing life force behind Marxism. Marxism murders the best of the European races (their kings and aristocrats) by inciting the masses of peasantry into a hysteria of rage and then proceeds to equalize the remaining masses through ‘republican’ aims and thereby organizing them into a stock of human slavery which serves the centralized Jewish world-government. But Marxism can only ensure a lasting dominion over the Nations of Europe and their extensions (Australia, America, ect [sic].) if it convinces the members of these Nations of equality between the races. Marxism is ultimately a world-view that forces a fallacy of an idea onto the masses of these Nations that all the races of the world are equal and therefore should all live and mix together -the Jewish masters of Marxism promote this theory in massive propagandist force still today while they themselves breed only with members of their own racial group, so they may therefore remain the pure-blood masters of the world. Every other race inter-breeds gradually and loses its original identity and creative force while the Jewish race stays pure and therefore stays in control.

Now National Socialism still indeed tried to force the world view onto the masses through propagandist methods and early indoctrination however National Socialism represents the opposite world view; the ‘Naturalist’ view, which is more of a law than a view. It operates from the standpoint that all the races are not equal but unique and ought to be preserved in their purest form. It places the cultural advancement of the species as the highest judge of right and wrong; the most culturally advanced race which in the case of the early 1900’s [sic] and long before-hand was the English, the French and Germans, these cultures were viewed by the National Socialists as the highest races of humanity with a God-given ability to create and sacrifice for the sake of creation. National Socialism also harbors the highborn of its creative racial elements; it does not wish to kills its most gifted people in order to remain in power but rather, it finds and guides them through advanced institutions of education aimed at channeling the best racial elements into the service of the advancement of the whole world race and consequently; its culture.

The simple reality is, Marxism is a socialist clique of Jewish intellectuals and finance peoples which seek to and have usurped the leadership Europe and have gathered up all the power of influence over the masses into their own hands. It is also in its disguise a world view which convinces the masses of racial and sexual equality thereby demoralizing the integrity of Nation they dominate and prolonging their subversive despotic rule over such a Nation. Marxism = Jewish world power with massive influence and the disguise of equality.
National Socialism is or was represented by the intellectuals of the German race which created a bulwark against Marxist power and instead created their own Nationalist influence over their people, essentially inoculating them against Marxist influence by teaching them about it, about race, love of the Nation, advancement of the culture ect [sic].
Marxism is Jewish world power in the pretty disguise of equality.
National Socialism is a leadership of Nationalists who try to advance their own Nation and its culture in spite of Marxism.

Honestly, I am that sick of seeing so-called ‘enlightened’ people and their comparisons between communism and national socialism; trying to make them out to be the same. Please shut up and take a week off the internet to read Mein Kampf. The basis for national socialism is race, which exists, it is real and important. The basis for communism on the other hand is a set of abstract ideals hidden within a mendacious global (yes Jewish) agenda. No more bullshit please, just read the book. If you can[‘]t understand the book, or if you can[‘]t summon the mental energy to try, stay out of politics, you were not made for it. off you go now[.]

They [Jews] will give off the impression that they are done by, complain and create imaginary adversity for themselves in order to pass new legislations [sic], which make it illegal to speak out against or question Jews. Such as the “global anti-semitism [sic] declaration” that the Australian Prime Minister just signed. It all contributes to their ambition of international dominion over non-Jews.

Note : PM signs global anti-Semitism declaration, Joshua Levi, The Australian Jewish News, April 26, 2013 | The London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism | This Is Not How You Fight Anti-Semitism, David Shoebridge and John Kaye, New Matilda, May 28, 2013.

lol @ the immediate and incredibly prejudiced claim that Hitler was “the most nasty and evil person in history”. the scumbags producing this film made sure to open it up with that statement probably to keep their funds rolling in.

Note: The documentary film is God & Hitler, produced by the Christian Broadcasting Network (2012).

There should be a picture of this man [Adolf Hitler] in every classroom and every school, and his book [Mein Kampf] should be issued to every student annually[.]

Scott is correct in every sense. Even if this women [sic] couldn’t call upon upon an impressive vocabulary to articulate her feelings, she is only reacting to the cosmopolitan disaster of multi-culturalism and racial diversity.

Every question of today is ultimately a question of race. Anyone who can’t see this or doesn’t want to see it can only be an unconscious Marxist, hiding under the veil of “democrat”. There is only Marxism and Nationalism. Anything is [sic] between is just a false state of political paralysis. You are either for your people or against them. And neutralism is worthy of death in a crisis such as the one we are currently in.

On women:

10)

As a young scamp, I did a year and a half in prison because I found out someone else had sex with my girlfriend so I set his house on fire. I suppose I am not much of an intellectual[.]

11)

I disagree. I have been to prisonin [sic] Australia for 19 months all up and yes there are a lot more female prison officers than male, but everything is actually tighter because of that. Women take the job way too seriously and abuse the authority. There is a lot more fear in the whole prison system with them around, can’t say this can’t do that. It’s not what you think. It’s the same as a feminist mother running a household. The husband shuts up just to keep her happy, she runs riot and the son ends up being a strange gothic [sic] bisexual or starts doing drugs. The point is, females being appointed to leadership roles of responsibility creates general chaos but due to those make believe sexism ideas, no one does anything about it, it’s the same in prison[.]

12)

In an ideal world, but women are not the puzzle modern times make them out to be. They are attracted to strength, so if you cherish them and pay all your attention to them they will think you’re just a little bitch and you’ll end up the cuck. To them what is strong is self-reliant, care-free and physically solid. Care less about them and even crack them around the ear every once in a while and this sort of thing never eventuates, I learned this the hard way. But beware the modern ‘careerist’ woman who doesn’t want kids and thinks she is equal to men, these women are delusional and extremely hard to handle.

13)

Women have manipulated me using sex and emotion; demoralization, and I have manipulated them using violence and terror. We use what we have to get what we want.

On the correct handling of anti-fascists and liberals:

14)

They get no payment. They are executed post revolution or sent to labour camps, along with all the liberal leaders. Their purpose is to prevent Nationalism, demoralize and pacify the most national elements and prepare the country for revolution via civil war. To them, what they are doing is alternative and cool, that’s the attraction.

BONUS!

Cottrell distinguishes between two kindsa Jews …

Those Orthodox Jews are much less dangerous than the the bergs [sic] and steins [sic] that dress like us and cut their hair like us and talk as though they were one of us; those atheistical intellectual Jews who pass themselves off as white or European and bury themselves into our financial and political realm, they are the enemy, these Orthodox Jews are just the lowborn; the lesser of their kin, they have no real power. If anything the crypto-Jews like Zuckerberg and Rothstein they want us to focus on and attack their lowborn religious kin because it intensifies the philosophical shield of anti-semitism [sic] and also helps them escape the microscope. Lowborn Orthodox Jews are like a decoy enemy which the highborn crypto-Jews will gladly sacrifice if it means the broadening and protection of their power.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, History, Media, State / Politics | Tagged Adolf Hitler, Anti-Semitism, Blair Cottrell, feminism, Mein Kampf, National Democratic Party, National Democratic Party of Australia, neo-Nazism, United Patriots Front | 2 Comments

Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad

Posted on July 26, 2015 by @ndy

The aftermath of the Reclaim Australia (RA)/United Patriots Front (UPF) rallies of July 18/19 has produced some interesting results.

• To begin with, the President of the UPF, Shermon Burgess (AKA ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’), has declared that the boys will be rallying again in Cronulla in a few months. How NSW authorities and especially Cronulla locals react to this news will be fascinating to watch. Burgess himself has previously boasted of his attendance at the ‘riot’/’White Civil Uprising’ in Cronulla. See also : Cronulla Anniversary: A Kiwi Perspective (December 27, 2006) | Communists on Cronulla (December 3, 2006).

• Somewhat remarkably, a few days after July 18, Burgess published a video confessing to having engaged in a group assault upon a group of ‘anti-fascists’ in Melbourne. An edited version of the video is below:

Given the intense media scrutiny surrounding the weekend’s events — and the considerable criticism to which police have been subject — it seems possible that police may be compelled to take a closer look at the alleged incident Burgess refers to in the video: time will tell.

• It’s also remarkable that Burgess has chosen to promote a song perfomed by defunct Belgian reich ‘n’ rollers Kill Baby Kill. KBK were a neo-Nazi band that split following the suicide of its lead singer, Dieter Samoy. His decision to kill himself apparently occurred after he learned that he would be forced to abandon his teaching career after being convicted of a racist assault. The band toured Australia several years ago in a tour organised by local neo-Nazi groups Blood & Honour and the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins. The Hammerskins gained some small notoriety in 2012 after one of its members, Wade Michael Page, shot dead worshippers at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. See also : Dieter Samoy : Still Dead Baby, Dead (January 15, 2012) | Dieter Samoy : Dead Baby Dead (January 20, 2010) | Wade Michael Page and the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins (August 15, 2012).

• A few articles of interest:

Inside the strange dynamic of Reclaim Australia’s rallies, Martin McKenzie-Murray, The Saturday Paper, July 25, 2015.

Trainspotters note: “At the top was a thick picket line of counter-protesters – largely a mix of anarchists and Socialist Alliance members, but not restricted to them.” A majority of socialists present were members/supporters of Socialist Alternative and the Socialist Party (though members of the Alliance were undoubtedly present).

Reclaim Australia: ‘concerned mums and dads’ or a Trojan horse for extremists?, Joshua Robertson, The Guardian, July 24, 2015.

Comment: Robertson’s article includes extensive quotes from John Oliver, described as an ‘RA spokesman’. Unmentioned is his role as the sometime President of the ‘Patriots Defence League of Australia’, a handful of whose members were present on July 18 in Melbourne. Several months ago, Oliver established a GoFundMe campaign in an attempt to obtain my d0x:

(Note that ‘Australians Against Islam’ is described as a splinter group from RA in Brisbane, est following the July 19 rally.) ‘Concerned dad’ John — whose staunch opposition to racism, fascism, neo-Nazism and to the intimate involvement of his patriotik comrades in neo-Nazi and fascist politics can surely never be questioned — also expressed the view that I should be hunted down like a dog, have my testicles removed and then attached to my forehead:

Top bloke, John.

As for the PDLA, its ‘Eastern Victoria Charter’ was present on July 18, or at least its President, Damien Kourevellis, and its Vice-President, Some Other Bloke, were. (On Kourevellis, see also : Court told violent man not detained, Steve Butcher, The Age, March 26, 2009.) Here they are: a) pictured walking down an alley and; b) having a yarn with neo-Nazi Glenn Anderson:

[Above img via Wardenclyffe Photography.]

Reclaim Australia re-energises radical nationalism, Troy Whitford, The Conversation, July 24, 2015.

Trainspotters note: “Reclaim Australia’s position is probably best articulated through the propaganda arm, The Nationalist Alternative, which was established last year. It argues that the agenda of Australian nationalism is to promote Australia as ‘… an organic nation founded upon Western/European ideals, and created by it’s [sic] descendants primarily the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic ethnicity as well as fellow Europeans from northern, central, southern and eastern Europe.'”

While RA’s position may arguably be best expressed by or thru Nationalist Alternative (NAlt), it is not RA’s propaganda arm, nor was it established in 2014. Rather, NAlt was founded in 2008/9 in anti-mosque agitation in Williamstown. Further, from the time of the emergence of both RA and Burgess adopting ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’ persona, the principal propaganda arm for RA has been ‘Nationalist Republican Guard’ AKA ‘European Australian Civil Rights League’ AKA Melbourne-based neo-Nazi (and criminal anti-Semite) Neil Erikson. Erikson left the group last year, but not before he and some of his comrades outed Mark Hootsen as NAlt’s leader. See also : Nationalist Alternative throw their former Führer under the bus #antifa (December 14, 2014) | Nationalist Alternative : “just a bunch of students from Melbourne” (July 8, 2009).

• ReclaimWhat on Facebook maintains a close watch on the various shenanigans of RA and the UPF.

• Later today I’ll republish some of the comments of UPF leader Blair Cottrell on the subject of Jews, politics, Jews, nationalism and Jews.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Broken Windows, Death, History, Music, State / Politics, War on Terror | Tagged Australians Against Islam, Blair Cottrell, Blood & Honour, Blood & Honour Australia, Blood and Honour, Blood and Honour Australia, Dieter Samoy, European Australian Civil Rights League, Glenn Anderson, Hammerskins, John Oliver, Kill Baby Kill, Mark Hootsen, Martin McKenzie-Murray, Nationalist Alternative, Nationalist Republican Guard, Neil Erikson, Patriots Defence League, Patriots Defence League of Australia, Reclaim Australia, Shermon Burgess, Southern Cross Hammerskins, The Conversation, The Great Aussie Patriot, The Saturday Paper, Troy Whitford, United Patriots Front, Wade Michael Page | 6 Comments

Further notes on #ReclaimAustralia/#UnitedPatriotsFront rallies (July 18/19)

Posted on July 23, 2015 by @ndy

UPDATE : On tomorrow’s The SUWA Show (5.30-6.30pm /// Friday, July 24 /// 3CR 855AM) Dr Cam & I yarn w John Safran about his experiences on July 18 and review the protest that was/n’t.

See also : Gun found in bag of NSW protester, 9news (AAP), July 23, 2015 | Revealed: Firearm seized from busload of protesters heading to anti-Islam rally, 3AW, July 23, 2015 | Firearm found on Reclaim Australia rally bus bound for Melbourne from Sydney, Bianca Hall, The Age, July 23, 2015.

A few more notes re the Reclaim Australia/United Patriots Front mobilisations on the weekend.

• Barnesy has come out swinging against the use of his music to promote RA, causing Reclaimers to shed White hot tears. See : Reclaim Australia ‘deeply saddened’ by Jimmy Barnes’ request to not use songs at future rallies, ABC, July 22, 2015.
• … and Barnesy has now been joined by Farnesy! See : John Farnham Has Also Banned Reclaim Australia From Using His Music Because FUCK YES, STRAYA, Meg Watson, Junkee, July 22, 2015.
• One person extremely happy to join Reclaim Australia in kicking Muslim Australians is the extremely well-paid LNP troll and Federal MP George Christensen. Blogger Andrew Elder has opinions on Curious George and you can read them here.
• Jeff Sparrow had an article in yesterday’s edition of The Guardian, reminding folks that, despite the often comically grotesque nature of their activities, RA/UPF stands in a much longer and dangerous tradition of fascist and proto-fascist movements. See : If you oppose Reclaim Australia, remember fascism wasn’t always a freakshow, July 22, 2015.
• In Melbourne, it was mildly amusing to witness the UPF — who assembled at the Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens before a brief march — join with the RA rally, especially given the acrimonious nature of their split and the ritual denunciations of RA by the UPF as leftist traitors and weaklings. Numbers for both rallies — which police managed as the one event — were very low, with a combined total of around 150, a product both of the successful counter-mobilisation and the seemingly decreasing appeal of such displays of public idiocy. Indeed, across the country RA numbers were down while counter-protests attracted a larger number of participants than on April 4. As for the UPF, despite reinforcements from Sydney — a bus organised by Ralph Cerminara and the Australian Defence League — their numbers were roughly equivalent to those present on May 31. Note: Shermon Burgess’s seemingly defunct studio project ‘Eureka Brigade’ dedicated a song, titled ‘Ralph Cerminara ADL Leader’, to Mr Cerminara.
• The policing of the event in Melbourne (see below) has been widely applauded by Reclaimers/UPFers, who’ve taken great delight in the use of pepper spray upon the counter-protesters.

• A number of overly-enthusiastic patriots tried to make trouble for the counter-rally on Saturday, including the very patriotik yoof Corey Hadow and Zane ‘Chappo’ Chapman. The naughty boys weren’t xacly intimidated by the slap on the wrist they received from police …

Corey and Zane had a number of feels following their funs on Saturday too:

Note that supporters of the fascist bully-boys have established a Fundrazr campaign to help them pay their fines for being naughty and attacking the anti-fascist picket. (Currently, the campaign has been suspended.) Here they are having fun and throwing bottles at antifa (behind whom are located the street medics — see below).

Finally, a photo of two of the boys being detained by police.

• A local metalhead was keen to let the counter-protest know what he thought of them:

• There were a small number of known faces present on July 18, folks who’d previously attended on May 31 and April 4. One martial artist, Kyokushin practitioner Dane Carroll — whom I don’t know was present on previous occasions — is here seen in confrontation with a young woman:

• A handful of boneheads belonging to the ‘Patriots Defence League Australia’ (PDLA) were present early on in the day. They were told to shoo and did, it seems. Note that: a) The PDLA fraudulently registered as an incorporated association in Queensland; b) It seems likely that the PDLA boys present in Melbourne on the day have a very close affinity to neo-Nazism; c) They were allegedly working in close cooperation with Monika Evers’ sidekick Julie Kendall, who allegedly defended the participation of neo-Nazi skinhead Glenn Anderson/Androvski in the RA/UPF rally.

::: Above img via Wardenclyffe Photography :::

• Local right-winger — Codename: ‘Squeaky’ — was one of a few dozen unhappy campers to have attempted to break the picket in Melbourne. ‘Squeaky’ was also present on May 31 filming antifa. As ‘Squeaky’ is known to be hostile, it would make sense not to allow him to freely mingle with and to film antifa/antira protests in future I believe.

• Blair Cottrell, AKA ‘National Democratic Party of Australia’ and UPF leader, was of course present on July 18 and was very chummy with Christian Identity neo-Nazi James Lawrence. In the early part of this year — ie, slightly prior to his emergence as a political activist on April 4 — Cottrell made a series of comments on Facebook and YouTube denying the Holocaust, iterating a pathological hatred for Jews and a certain fondness for some bloke called Adolf Hitler. When I could be bothered I’ll transcribe these comments as a blogpost.

• On policing of the July 18 rally:

First, the police line: ‘Looking for confrontation': Police decry aggressive Melbourne protesters, 3AW, July 20, 2015; secondly, Reclaim Australia rally: Victoria police defend officer pictured with anti-Islamic protester, Melissa Davey, The Guardian, July 20, 2015.

Andy Fleming, who monitors extreme-right movements and chronicles them on his website, said it was unclear whether police had sprayed the volunteer medics deliberately, but said it was unlikely.

“Police use the spray to disperse a crowd, and it disperses indiscriminately,” he said.

“However, the police did not warn anyone they were about to use it, which is a problem because it can cause severe respiratory problems in some people and it can be lethal.”

The medics did not have the status or recognition of paramedics, Fleming said, so it was likely police acted without regard for their role.

Fleming said it was difficult to say what the motivation was of the officer who locked hands with the protester, but said it may have been a gesture to thank the United Patriots Front demonstrators for following police orders outside parliament house during their rally.

“They didn’t make a fuss like the rest of the crowd did, so I think it might have been a simple acknowledgement, a thanks,” Fleming said.

For the sake of clarity I would add the following remarks:

I don’t know if police deliberately targeted the medics qua medics — they obviously knew that, when the capsicum spray was deployed as it was, the medics (and the people under their care) would be affected;
It seems highly likely that, based on the frequency of its use and the fact that they had a plentiful supply, in planning for the event police decided that spray was a useful weapon to employ. Further, the use of snatch squads was sporadic and arrests relatively few — the crowd was suppressed through the use of a chemical agent;
In the normal course of events, medical attention at protests is provided by paramedics, whose status is recognised by police. Based on their tactics on the day, police viewed all counter-protesters as one mass, subject to the same treatment and without regard for their role. This includes both street medics and legal observers (see below);
Whatever thoughts happened to be in Sergeant X’s head when he clasped the hand of the UPFer are unknown and will remain so. The action derives its meaning from its context, which in the narrow sense was the departure of the UPF from Parliament and in the broader sense the police action in repressing the counter-protest, especially thru the use of capsicum spray;
Police are naturally inclined to be well-disposed to obedient subjects, which is what the UPF was. As subsequent reportage has made clear, police have concluded that the real ‘troublemakers’ on the day were the counter-protesters — the sergeant’s action provides vivid confirmation of this fact.

Select media reportage : John Safran reports from the Reclaim Australia rally, where things were even scarier than he expected, PerthNow, July 21, 2015 | POV: A Photographer Captures the ‘Reclaim Australia’ Protests in Sydney, Michael Zhang, petapixel, July 20, 2015 | Drone footage captures clashes between anti-Islamic and anti-racism protesters in Australia, Ryan Ramgobin, The Independent, July 20, 2015 | Junk Explained: What Exactly Went Down At The ‘Reclaim Australia’ Protests In Melbourne, And Why?, Sinead Stubbins, Junkee, July 19, 2015 | PHOTOS: Anti-racist protesters in Perth demonstrate against Reclaim Australia, Chris Jenkins, Green Left Weekly, July 19, 2015 | 18th July, No Room For Racism’s counter-rally against Reclaim Australia, Moon Tzu, AG News, July 18, 2015 | Fascists fail in Melbourne – again, Ben Hillier, Red Flag, July 18, 2015.

Commentary [NEVER READ THE COMMENTS] : The Far-Right Australians Fighting Muslims, the Left and Each Other, Royce Kurmelovs, Vice (UK), July 22, 2015 | How racists are co-opting multiculturalism, Ruby Hamad, Daily Life, July 22, 2015 [Note: To be read in conjunction with John Safran’s article.] | Racism and cynicism – a powerful blend, The Guardian [CPA], July 22, 2015 | Thoughts after #July18 – A defeat for the far-right, Kieran’s Review, July 21, 2015 | Why Reclaim Australia is on the rise and how we can stop it, Charis Chang, news.com.au, July 21, 2015 | ISIS’s war inside the West, Hussain Nadim, the interpreter, July 21, 2015 | Extremist groups wilt under public scrutiny, Van Badham, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 21, 2015 | Something I learnt at the anti-racism counter rally, Nicole Mousley, Red Flag, July 21, 2015 | Comment: A tale of two protests, Saman Shad, SBS, July 20, 2015 | Reclaim Australia is the product of rising rightwing extremism, Anne Aly, The Guardian, July 20, 2015 | Some Reflections on Reclaim Australia, July 18th, Tom, Anarchist Affinity, July 20, 2015 | Confrontation is justified when fascists take to the streets, Corey Oakley, Red Flag, July 20, 2015 | Large police mobilisation at right-wing Reclaim Australia rallies, James Cogan, wsws.org, July 20 2015 | Australian race relations suffering from a lack of political leadership, Jenna Price, The Canberra Times, July 20, 2015 | Reclaim Australia rallies: Racial cohesion facing its greatest threat in 30 years, says president of the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW, Angela Lavoipierre, ABC (AM), July 20, 2015 | A G A I N S T N A T I O N A L I S M, totaltantrum, April 19/July 19, 2015 | Right-wing extremism equal to Muslim radicalisation, say academics, Rachel Olding, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 17, 2015.

B O N U S L E G A L S !

PUBLIC STATEMENT – RECLAIM AUSTRALIA & COUNTER RALLIES
18 July 2015, Melbourne, Australia

On Saturday the 18th of July 2015 Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) fielded a team of eight (8) trained Legal Observers at the Reclaim Australia and counter rallies that took place near the intersection of Spring and Bourke Streets in Melbourne’s Central Business District.

Legal Observers monitored the actions of Victoria Police and recorded evidence throughout the 5 hour event.

We note that Victoria Police had a large presence and cordoned off the entire intersection in front of Parliament House. MALS acknowledges that Victoria Police efforts were directed at maintaining space between two opposing political groupings on the day in order to avoid physical confrontation.

Areas of concern:

Legal Observers noted several incidents of use of OC foam/spray by a specialist unit of Victoria Police at the event. According to the Melbourne Street Medics upwards of 100 people had to be treated because of the use of this spray. OC spray/foam causes severe burning for several hours, incapacitation and can affect the respiratory system causing breathing difficulties.

A particular area of concern was an incident that occurred at the corner of Spring and Little Bourke Streets at approximately 12:43 PM. An ad-hoc medic triage station had been set up on Little Bourke Street near the corner. One patient was semi-conscious on the ground and under the care of the Street Medics and waiting for the ambulance. A physical altercation between rival protestors began directly in front of the medic station when Police rushed around the corner and immediately and without warning sprayed into the crowd of 60-80 people present. Street Medics and other volunteers who were trying to keep the medic triage area clear were severely affected by the OC foam as were most people in the area (including journalists and bystanders). The injured person receiving care was again affected by the OC spray.

According to Legal Observers present the OC foam was not directed towards individuals who were threatening police or engaged in violence but instead was directed over and onto the entire crowd of people present. For this reason the MALS Legal Observer Team identifies the use of OC foam in this circumstance as indiscriminate and therefore unlawful.

MALS condemns the use of OC Foam against members of the public who were already injured and medical staff whose presence was made clear to police on a number of occasions before this incident occurred.

In the future as our group increases in capacity we hope to be able to provide more comprehensive assistance in such instances, however we would like to share the following information in the meantime:

We encourage people who want to take further action to immediately record all details from the event, including as much factual detail as possible, and to make duplicates of any footage of incidents depicting inappropriate use of force … [~ see the MALS website for moar infos ~]

Finally …

The UPF gathers to celebrate post-rally at The PumpHouse Hotel (128 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy).

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Media, Music, State / Politics, Trot Guide, War on Terror | Tagged Barnesy, Blair Cottrell, Corey Hadow, Dane Carroll, Danny Nalliah, Farnesy, Fundrazr, George Christensen, Glenn Anderson, Glenn Androvski, James Lawrence, Melbourne Activist Legal Support, Melbourne Street Medics, National Democratic Party of Australia, Neil Erikson, Patriots Defence League, Patriots Defence League of Australia, Pumphouse Hotel, Reclaim Australia, Shermon Burgess, The Great Aussie Patriot, United Patriots Front, Zane 'Chappo' Chapman, Zane Chapman | 2 Comments

Post-match review: July 18 #ReclaimAustralia/#UnitedPatriotsFront rallies #Melbourne

Posted on July 18, 2015 by @ndy

Above : Police spray counter-protesters /// A policeman and a United Patriots Front fascist shake hands.

Oh hai.

I thought I may as well post a few thoughts on today’s events here.

To begin with, I think it was noteworthy that the numbers attending the ‘Reclaim Australia’ rally — scheduled for 11am — were down on April 4 by a considerable margin. By my estimate, there were no more than 100 or so who managed to attend the rally and the speeches by Danny Nalliah and ~~Christine Sindt~~ Rosalie Crestani were largely drowned out by counter-protesters.

As for the ‘United Patriots Front’, like the Reclaimers they snuck into the area in front of Parliament accompanied by a massive police presence but didn’t stay long, being escorted by police away from the area by around 1.30pm. Presumably, this will be counted as a victory by the fascists, but only about 50 or 60 attended the UPF rally and a large number of these were seemingly from Sydney or interstate.

Regarding the policing of the event, the authorities did a reasonably effective job of ensuring that the motley assortment of bigots attending either or both rallies did so relatively unmolested. This was not the case with several score of their supporters, who were forced to attempt to break the picket lines (at the top of Bourke Street and near the corner of Little Bourke and Spring Streets) to gain access. Over the course of the four hours or so the rallies were taking place (between roughly 10am and 2pm), one or more ‘patriots’ would periodically attempt to break the picket, almost always being repelled.

These attempts to break the picket — especially that near Little Bourke and Spring Streets — sometimes triggered a reaction by police, who on several occasions forcibly disrupted the picket and also employed pepper spray in a somewhat chaotic fashion. Scores of counter-protesters required medical attention as a result. The Melbourne Street Medics — who deserve mAAAd props for their valuable work — describe these events as follows:

Medics’ Statement on July 18 anti-racist/fascist Demonstration
July 18, 2015

Today, antifascist protesters converged upon Spring Street in Melbourne near the Parliament of Victoria. They went there to counter racist rallies being held by Reclaim Australia and the fascist United Patriots Front.

As usual Victoria Police was also in attendance, and in the days leading to the protest it had promised a large presence and random weapons checks in response to rumours of fascists bringing weapons and intending violence.

Victoria Police’s goal for the day was to facilitate Reclaim Australia and the United Patriots Front holding their rallies out the front of Parliament House. In order to achieve this mounted officers and members of the Public Order Response Team (PORT) complemented uniformed officers on the streets, and OC (Pepper) spray was deployed against counter-protesters.

Amongst those affected by the OC Spray was a casualty who began to experience respiratory distress, a not uncommon side-effect of OC spray and other such “less-than-lethal” chemical weapons. In the course of attending to this casualty and decontaminating others who had been affected, members of the Melbourne Street Medic Collective (including one pregnant woman) were attacked by police with OC Spray and kettled in a small space at the top of Little Bourke Street.

Footage of the incident will be reviewed as it becomes available but at this point there seem to be only two explanations for the deployment of chemical weapons against the Street Medics: some witness reports have indicated that Victoria Police officers were spraying the crowd indiscriminately and did not check who they were attacking until after the fact. Others have said that police ignored the shouts of the crowd advising them that someone was receiving medical attention and with the decision to spray all medics this action should be seen as a deliberate attack upon medical personnel and their treatment space.

As one of our medics has since remarked:

“Possibly more than 100 people needed to be treated today as police indiscriminately fired pepper spray into the crowd, including onto an injured man who was struggling to breathe, was losing consciousness, and was awaiting an ambulance. They also sprayed the medics treating him. Someone had a seizure, two were taken to hospital and a few were sent home (by us as medics) due to the after-effects of the pepper spray (namely hypothermia-like symptoms of shaking and an inability to normalise body temperature). It was absolute fucking carnage and it was completely unnecessary and provocative. The racists didn’t cop any of the pepper spray at all as far as I know, and they got a three-line police escort away from the area.”

Victoria Police should rightfully be condemned for the deployment of chemical weapons, the targeting of medical personnel, casualties and medical treatment spaces with such weapons and, most of all, doing this in order to facilitate a public rally of racists and overt fascists and neo-nazis. Any assessment of the actions of antifascist protesters will conclude that they were inherently defensive: against threats of violence and the use of weapons by fascists and nazis as part of the United Patriots Front, and against the violence of racism and systematic oppression on the parts of Reclaim Australia, the United Patriots Front and Victoria Police.

The officers in command of PORT and of the event should immediately be suspended from their duties and investigations launched into how and why chemical weapons came to be used, and used against medics, injured persons and in treatment spaces. These investigations should be conducted with the possibility of demotion, termination from employment and/or laying of criminal charges (such as for assault) as outcomes.

Melbourne Street Medic Collective encourages all witnesses and concerned persons to lodge complaints with Victoria Police’s Conduct Unit and the Police Minister.

The police account of the day’s events is recapitulated by The Age in Police condemn violence as protesters clash at Parliament House (Chris Vedelago, Deborah Gough, July 18, 2015).

A few more things:

• The hatriot bus from Sydney initially included both Shermon Burgess, Ralph Cerminara and Ross ‘The Skull’ May (along with members of Squadron 88 and the Australia First Party). After it was made public, the hatriots made a show of kicking poor old Ross off the bus.
• A small group of Burgess’s minders attempted to attack anti-fascists today but were unsuccessful (to put it mildly).
• There were a small number of arrests.
• The police are obviously committed to facilitating Reclaim and UPF rallies and to use some indiscriminate forms of violence to do so.
• A handful of neo-Nazis attended the protest, including Glenn Anderson/Androvski and Felicity Sharpe (of her, more later). Diane Teasdale, the former President of the Australia First Party, was present, as was fascist meathead Daniel Jones. There were of course a range of other fascists present but their identification will come later.
• It will be interesting to see if the UPF can bounce back from their second humiliating failure in Melbourne, or if the boys will instead simply drift away (as have so many similar such extreme-right projects in the past).
• Melbourne has re-affirmed its status as a city which is able and willing to combat public expressions of racial hatred, religious vilification and fascist politics.
• I was informed today that ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’ has: a) joined the ranks of the jobless and; b) moved to Sydney.
• Finally, many thanks to all the folks who attended the counter-rally: you rock my world!

See also : Reclaim Australia, No Room for Racism protests: Demonstrators clash as rival groups kick off nationwide rallies, ABC, July 18, 2015 | Police use capsicum spray at Reclaim Australia rally, protesters disperse, SBS, July 18, 2015 | Reclaim Australia supporters and counter-protesters clash amid violent scenes, Teh Grauniad (AAP), July 18, 2015 | Melbourne streets shut down as conflicting protests clash outside state parliament, 9News, July 18, 2015 | Fascists fail in Melbourne – again, Ben Hillier, Red Flag, July 18, 2015.

TO BE CONTINUED …

Posted in Anti-fascism | Tagged Australia First Party, Danny Nalliah, Diane Teasdale, Glenn Anderson, Reclaim Australia, Rosalie Crestani, Shermon Burgess, The Great Aussie Patriot, United Patriots Front | 33 Comments

Pre-match analysis: July 18 #ReclaimAustralia/#UnitedPatriotsFront rallies #Melbourne

Posted on July 17, 2015 by @ndy

H0la,

A few brief notes before match day tomorrow:

1) Things kick off early in Melbourne, with counter-rallies being called for 10am ahead of the Reclaim Australia rally at 11am and the United Patriots Front (UPF) rally at 1pm. See : RALLY AGAINST RACISM – Stop ‘Reclaim Australia’ – Melbourne /// Melbourne Counter-Rally Against racism, Islamophobia and the far right.

If you’re coming out to join the protests tomorrow — and I hope all my readers in Melbourne do — please take care of yourself … aaand each other.

See also : Drive Reclaim Australia Off the Streets, Honi Soit, July 17, 2015 (‘Tenaya Alattas and Christian Enright on shutting down Reclaim Australia’s upcoming rally’).

The hate bus from Sydney has left. It’s half-full and includes both Shermon Burgess and — as a special SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS! guest — one of Australia’s most notorious neo-Nazis, Ross ‘The Skull’ May, along with a complement of Squadron 88 and Australia First Party members.

You can download a copy of a neat li’l zine on the far right zine (readable) and zine (printable).

• There’s been some reportage on Reclaim and the (UPF) and inter alia some attention is being paid to the fact that a Tory MP, George Christensen, will be addressing Reclaimers in Mackay. It’s unusual for an MP to address a gathering of racists and fascists of this sort, though Tory MPs do occasionally address and have addressed meetings of the Australian League of Rights and Ustasha mobs. Typically, if drawn to public attention, the MP protests ignorance and the matter is soon forgotten — only to be repeated some years later. Obviously, this is not the case with Christensen, who remains unapologetic for his commitment to joining those who wish to rid Australia of Muslims. Crikey (Abbott must pick a side on radicalisation, July 17, 2015):

Liberal National MP Greg Christensen has said he will attend a Reclaim Australia rally in Mackay on Saturday, one of a number of rallies planned around the country. Reclaim Australia is an odious and obsessive cult, focused on an imaginary “Islamisation” of Australia. The group urges discrimination against Muslims, spruiks bizarre theories of a secret “halal tax”, and has members who are — as a dissident member noted on ABC radio yesterday — “anti-Semitic and misogynist”.

Christensen is no stranger to controversy himself, and since he is a backbencher and likely to remain so, his determination to attend the rally may not be a huge problem for Tony Abbott per se. But it does show up the utter chaos of Abbott’s opportunistic positions on free speech and radicalisation.

On the one hand, this is a government that affirms the “right to be a bigot”. On the other, it treats radical and bigoted speech as a virus that promotes radicalisation and must be socially managed. Free speech is sacrosanct — except when it occurs unscripted on the ABC and exposes government ministers to scrutiny, at which point they are barred from appearing on it.

To ban ministers from appearing on the ABC is bad enough; to refuse to impose discipline on an MP for speaking on the platform of a noxious xenophobic group shows the hypocrisy in full.

There’s a long tradition of political parties guarding their boundaries by limiting where and with whom their members speak. If Tony Abbott and Warren Truss do not enforce this now then they are guilty not of liberalism, but of cowardice. They will have de facto painted Reclaim Australia as more “Australian” than the ABC.

Furthermore they will have established what many of us have long suspected: in the views of the Abbott government, “radicalisation” is something brown people do, and their speech can be treated as violence to be controlled. Meanwhile, free speech is a white thing, which must be protected.

We think free speech, including odious speech, from all speakers must be permitted — but it does not need to be endorsed, and this is yet another test of Tony Abbott’s character. Or what remains of it.

See also : Julie Bishop fails to condemn MP George Christensen for plans to attend right-wing rally, Fergus Hunter, July 17, 2015.

• James Gilhome has publicly denounced the United Patriots Front for being ‘racist’ and ‘violent’, further claiming that the UPF has conspired to bring weapons along to the rally tomorrow in Melbourne (presumably in order to, ah, further reinforce the patriotik message). See : Former Reclaim Australia member tells of feeling duped by far-right ‘patriots’, Clare Rawlinson, 774 ABC Melbourne, July 16, 2015 (and elsewhere). Note that Gilhome is also the person responsible for naming another person as the author of my blog. See : Anti-Islam rallies across the country this weekend could be violent, former right-wing organiser warns, Tom Nightingale, The World Today (ABC), July 17, 2015.

Above : Neil Erikson pictured with Canadian neo-Nazi and Holocaust denialist Paul Fromm during his tour Down Under in December 2010.

Neo-Nazis Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson (UPF) have obtained some media coverage during the course of the week, in Cottrell’s case being invited on to 3AW to have a yarn with Neil Mitchell (Anti-Islam rally organiser cannot guarantee protest will be violence-free, July 17, 2015). Neil failed to ask Blair about the Holocaust or the Jews what run the world which is a pity I suppose, but pretty much par for the course. As for Erikson, he has rather comically denied authorship of a video in which he praises the neo-Nazi murder of 16yo Carlos Javier Palomino in Madrid in 2007 (‘Anti-Islamist’ rally organiser shown laughing at death footage, Herald Sun, July 17, 2015). Previously: Anti-racism protesters warned to stay away from anti-Islam rally, The Age, July 14, 2015.

• Other reportage (July 17, 2015):

Anti-Islam rallies planned Australia-wide, SBS | Should a backbench Coalition MP attend a Reclaim Australia rally? ABC (The Drum).

Moar broadly:

Right-wing extremism equal to Muslim radicalisation, say academics, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 17, 2015 | Reclaiming Australia? Liberalism’s role in Islamophobia, Irfan Ahmad, The Conversation, July 17, 2015 |

::: SEE YOU ON THE STREETS! :::

Posted in Anti-fascism | Tagged Blair Cottrell, James Gilhome, Neil Erikson, Reclaim Australia, Shermon Burgess, United Patriots Front | 13 Comments

slackbastard

Far-right fringe raises profile by reclaiming immigration debate [John Lyons, The Australian]

George Christensen & Team Australia ~versus~ Flag-Burning Socialist Ratbags*

Reclaim Australia, Shermon Burgess & violence …

Bonus anti-racist lulz

antifa notes (august 2, 2015)

A message from some #Sydney anarchists re #Suruc : ‘We stand with #Kobanê’

Quotations From Chairman Blair Cottrell

BONUS!

Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad

Further notes on #ReclaimAustralia/#UnitedPatriotsFront rallies (July 18/19)

B O N U S L E G A L S !

Finally …

Post-match review: July 18 #ReclaimAustralia/#UnitedPatriotsFront rallies #Melbourne

Pre-match analysis: July 18 #ReclaimAustralia/#UnitedPatriotsFront rallies #Melbourne

::: SEE YOU ON THE STREETS! :::

~jk~

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::: SEE YOU ON THE STREETS! :::

~jk~

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