A (very) brief guide to the Australian far right (December 2016 Edition)

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In June 2015 I wrote A (very) brief guide to the Australian far right, a summary of most (but not all) of those groups and projects which I think could reasonably be placed in this category. Eighteen months later and as 2016 draws to a close, I thought it appropriate to update it. New entries are marked with an asterisk, and where appropriate old entries have been updated to take into account developments since mid-2015. Otherwise: Facebook is awash with hundreds of pages and groups dedicated to propagating racism, fascism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and White nationalism and I’ve not bothered to detail any but a handful of these; a few articles have appeared in the interim which provide some insight into the far right and White supremacist milieu in Australia, including: Extremism taking us to dark places, Paul Toohey, news.com.au, June 18, 2016, Far-right fringe raises profile by reclaiming immigration debate, John Lyons, The Australian, August 8, 2015 and Inside the strange dynamic of Reclaim Australia’s rallies, Martin McKenzie-Murray, The Saturday Paper, July 25, 2015.

*Adelaide Institute

A long-running project centred on Gerald Fredrick Töben and based, as the name suggests, in Adelaide. The Institute promotes Holocaust denial and (a very specialised form of) ‘historical revisionism’.

Anti-Antifa Australia (AAA)

Anti-Antifa Australia was a project of neo-Nazi skinhead and Brisbane resident Chris Smith. Smith has a criminal record for robbery and assault and was a key figure in the now dissolved bonehead gang Volksfront (see below). AAA was an attempt to monitor and expose anti-fascists in Australia, details of which were published on Smith’s blog. The AAA blog ceased updating in March 2015 and its Facebook page, after a few twists and turns, was eventually turned over to Geelong neo-Nazi (and ex-PUP candidate) Buddy Rojek.

*Antipodean Resistance (AR)

A new kid on the neo-Nazi bloc, AR evolved on tumblr and made a splash in October when the boys claim they plastered the Hawthorn campus of Swinburne University in homophobic propaganda. In early December, they threw up racist posters at the University of Melbourne. Modelled on National Action in the UK, and closely associated with other boys on the altright in Melbourne, it will presumably seek further publicity through staging similarly provocative stunts. Member/s attended a number of nationalist rallies in 2015–2016.

*Aryan Nations (AN)

With its origins in the US, in Australia Aryan Nations is (was) chiefly an Internet phenomenon. It distributed some racist leaflets in Perth but achieved its real moment in the spotlight when in May 2016 two of its members, Robert Edhouse and Melony Attwood, were arrested and charged with murder. AN played host to the UPF when it attended a Reclaim Australia rally in Perth in late 2015 and Edhouse was once a guest of the AFP. See also : Murder shines spotlight on Australia’s white supremacist subculture, news.com.au, May 23, 2016.

Australia First Party (AFP)

AFP is the largest and most well-established of the far-right groups, one dedicated inter alia to the resurrection of a White Australia policy. Founded in 1996 by former Labor MP Graeme Campbell, AFP is a registered political party and in 2016 the AEC also confirmed the Eureka flag as its official logo. Dr James Saleam is the party’s current leader, a position he assumed a few years after being let out of prison for organising a shotgun assault upon the home of Eddie Funde (then the African National Congress representative in Australasia). Previously, Saleam was the leader of neo-Nazi group National Action and in the late 1960s/early 1970s a member of the Australian Nazi Party. The party regularly contests elections, with generally meagre results, and its HQ is in Tempe in Sydney — where it has the largest following. Two AFP members have been elected to local council (Bruce Preece in Adelaide and Maurice Girotto in Penrith – both resigned their memberships following their elections). Saleam and other party members frequently post on Stormfront (the world’s leading neo-Nazi/White supremacist website) and occasionally on Daily Stormer (another US-based neo-Nazi site). In 2015, AFP absorbed the rump of the One Nation Party in WA.

*Australian Coalition of Nationalists (ACON)

The formation of the Australian Coalition of Nationalists was announced in October 2016. It consists of the Australia First Party, Australian Protectionist Party and Nationalist Alternative; the Eureka Youth League and the Hellenic Nationalists of Australia are considered ‘associate’ groups. The coalition represents an attempted reconsolidation of White nationalist and national socialist organisations in Australia.

Australian Defence League (ADL)

The ADL formed within the space of a year following the establishment of the English Defence League in 2009. Gaining only a fraction of the support the EDL did, the ADL has undergone numerous splits, fractures and changes in leadership, but of those who’ve nominated themselves its leader Martin Brennan and Ralph Cerminara – along with Nathan Abela – are probably the best-known, along with Shermon Burgess (‘The Great Aussie Patriot’). There have been dozens of Facebook pages created by and for the ADL and it exists as a very loose network of anti-Muslim activists. Sporadic public rallies in Melbourne and Sydney have been poorly-attended but the group has been very active on social media. See : Who Are The Australian Defence League?, New Matilda, January 29, 2014. As of December 2016, the ADL remains a moribund institution.

Australian League of Rights (ALOR)

The Grand Old Man of Australian fascism, the ALOR has been around for a very long time, successfully defending God, Queen & Country from the ravages of International Communism. The group’s weekly newsletter may be read online and is useful for gaining some insight into the ‘Lunar Right’ and the many … er … ‘interesting’ characters which populate its ranks.

Australian Liberty Alliance (ALA)

A creation of the Q Society (see below), the ALA was formally registered with the AEC in July 2015. Modelled on Geert Wilders’ Dutch party — Wilders attended the ALA’s official launch in Perth in October 2015 — it fielded a number of candidates at the 2016 federal election but failed to attract much support, with the anti-Muslim vote largely being attracted to ONP. In September 2016 the ALA announced it would be going into a temporary hiatus.

Australian Patriots Defence Movement (APDM)

Established by Darren Beatle Bailey-Morris, the APDM is (was) a short-lived, Brisbane-based project very similar to the ADL and PDLA. The APDM is largely defunct but may continue to eke out an existence online and has most recently been invoked as a supporting organisation to the UPF. As of December 2016, it remains defunct.

Australian Protectionist Party (APP)

The APP formed as a split from AFP in 2007 when one of its Sydney branches – the two most prominent members of which were Nicholas (Hunter) Folkes and Darrin Hodges – elected to defect. It was active for a few years, producing propaganda and holding events, but is now largely moribund. Tasmanian Andrew Phillips is its leader.

In 2016, the APP joined the AFP, NAlt and Golden Dawn (AKA Hellenic Nationalists of Australia) in forming the Australian Coalition of Nationalists. Hodges has retired from political activity while Folkes split from the APP to form the Party for Freedom (see below).

*Australian Settlers Rebellion (ASR)

In essence, the Facebook page of Shermon Burgess and Neil Erikson. Launched in August 2016, the ASR is yet to organise any activities in meatspace and is mostly dedicated to promoting the pair’s views and opinions.

*Australians Resistance Network (ARN)

Originally established by Neil Erikson as ‘Generation Identity Australia’, ARN is one of many Facebook pages dedicated to anti-Muslim, anti-leftist and White nationalist propaganda.

*Battalion88

A tiny neo-Nazi grouplet based in Bundaberg (QLD), largely active online and seemingly consisting of Damien Pearce, Wil Herbener and a handful of other boneheads.

Blood & Honour (B&H)

B&H is a neo-Nazi musical network, originally established in England in the late 1980s, and has been operating in Australia for over 20 years. Activities are generally confined to selling neo-Nazi muzak and merch (via 9% Productions) and holding gigs. It functions essentially as an adjunct to the SCHS (see below).

Christian Identity (CI)

CI is a tiny sect on the fringes of the far right with a handful of adherents and a minuscule social media presence. One, James Lawrence, popped up at the May 31, 2015 UPF rally and attended subsequent nationalist rallies. According to the ECAJ (Report on Antisemitism in Australia 2016): Christian Identity churches, unlike almost all other denominations of Christianity, place the concepts of race and racial purity high on their priorities. They are expressly anti-Jewish from a medieval Christian theological perspective. There are several Identity type churches. The one with the most prolific and popular website is Bible Believers.

Christian Separatist

A tiny, bizarr0 White supremacist kvlt. ‘Pastor’ Ken Cratchley is its chief propagandist in Australia.

Citizens Electoral Council (CEC)

The CEC is the name under which the LaRouchite kvlt travels Down Under. Seemingly most active in Melbourne, the group presents a range of entertainingly batshit theories about the world Lyndon LaRouche inhabits. It contested the 2016 Australian federal election and gathered a tiny fraction of votes.

Combat 18 (C18)

C18 is another foreign import, having its origins in England in the late 1980s. The group was established in order to protect B&H gigs and other fascist events from disruption by anti-fascists and has a rather bloody history. It’s widely suspected that it was infiltrated by British intelligence on account of the close relationship between C18 and Ulster paramilitaries. In Australia, the ‘brand’ has been adopted by a number of different neo-Nazis including in WA, where C18 was responsible for a poorly-executed attack upon a mosque (see Bradley Trappitt). AFAIK, its only active ‘branch’ currently is in Melbourne under Patrick O’Sullivan. As of December 2016, O’Sullivan seems to have been joined by a handful of others, media has reported on various instances of C18 propaganda appearing around Melbourne and several boneheads in the orbit of C18 have attended various nationalist rallies during the course of 2015–2016.

Creativity

A bizarre, White supremacist ‘religion’ established in the US some decades ago. It’s undergone numerous, often violent splits: its main exponent in Australia is Colin Campbell (Adelaide) and Patrick O’Sullivan (Melbourne). Scott Harrison was a ‘Reverend’ in the ‘church’ for many years before joining the Young Liberals.

Eureka Youth League (EYL)

The EYL is AFP’s putative youth wing and its ideology mirrors that of the AFP. It’s largely inactive, and is currently presided over by (and may only consist of) a right-wing youth from Canberra, Matthew Grant. Grant is a Presbyterian, a White nationalist, an anti-Semite, and spoke at an anti-Muslim rally in Bendigo in October 2015.

European Australian Civil Rights League (EARL)

A one-man band established a few years ago by Melbourne-based neo-Nazi activist Neil Erikson. EARL later morphed into NRG (see below). Erikson has a criminal conviction for harassing a Melbourne rabbi and was close to the ‘Crazy White Boys’, a short-lived neo-Nazi group responsible for badly beating Vietnamese student Minh Duong in 2012. As of December 2016, EARL remains defunct.

*Expel the Parasite

A neo-Nazi website run by 30-something Brett Light. Light identifies with Christian Identity and there are no prizes for guessing who he believes the ‘parasites’ are.

Full Blooded Skips (FBS)

A White yoof gang based in Melbourne which emerged shortly after the SCS (see below), the FBS was closely-linked to NRG and a shifting network of neo-Nazi skinheads. Several FBS members were present at the April 4 Reclaim Australia rally in Melbourne and the May 31 UPF rally in Richmond. As of December 2016 it remains moribund.

Golden Dawn (GD) / Hellenic Nationalists of Australia (HNA)

Golden Dawn is the Australian branch of the Greek neo-Nazi party. Its chief spokesperson in Australia is Iggy Gavrilidis while other organisers include Christos Cakouros in Adelaide, Christina Tsimtsirids and Sofia Krokos in Melbourne, Elias Vamiakis in Sydney, Peter Poulos in Queensland and Nikolaos Mitsakis in Tasmania. GD has a very small support base, chiefly concentrated in Melbourne and Sydney, and over the last few years has raised funds for its parent body and organised a handful of protests in conjunction with AFP and a smattering of local neo-Nazis and fascists. In December 2015, GD registered in NSW as an incorporated association named Hellenic Nationalists of Australia. GD held its first national conference in Sydney on October 28, 2016 at which over a hundred supporters attended along with Saleam of AFP and a handful of Russian fascists.

Klub Nation/Klub Naziya

A bizarr0 groupuscule based in Sydney. At one point KN attempted to infiltrate and take over the Humanist Society of NSW. It didn’t work, but the nazis had a red-hot go. Presumably, its membership continues to be active but not publicly.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

With an obvious indebtedness to the US, in numerous, generally short-lived permutations and combinations, the KKK has been a minor player on the far right for decades. In one form or another, it continues to generate occasional stories and the image of the KKK is regularly invoked in various rural and regional settings, but the organisation itself is largely moribund.

*Love Australia Or Leave (LAOL)

The creation of TV personality Kim Vuga (Go Back To Where You Come From, SBS), the party achieved registration in October 2016. Vuga attended and spoke at many nationalist rallies in 2015-2016. Contesting the 2016 federal election as a Senate candidate in Queensland, Vuga received 172 votes (0.01%). LAOL is unlikely to challenge ONP for hegemony over the (White) nationalist vote.

Nationalist Alternative (NAlt)

NAlt is a neo-Nazi group which has its origins in anti-Muslim agitation in Melbourne. Its leader is Mark Hootsen, who has travelled to the US in order to receive political training with Stormfront. NAlt was present at the April 4 Reclaim Australia rally in Melbourne. As of December 2016 its activities are largely confined to the keyboard, though the group can boast of having produced figures such as Blair Cottrell and Thomas Sewell of the UPF (see below) and Neil Erikson.

National Democratic Party of Australia (NDPA)

NDPA was launched by UPF activist Blair Cottrell following the April 4 Reclaim Australia rally. Based in Melbourne, the group is tiny and as of December 2016 inactive. Cottrell is a neo-Nazi who believes in a Jewish conspiracy to control the world, is a Holocaust denialist, recommends Mein Kampf be read by every Australian school student and has a violent criminal record. Not long after its Facebook launch, the NDPA was eclipsed by the emergence of the UPF and then by the UPF’s attempt to establish a(nother) political party called ‘Fortitude’. The UPF failed to register the party and its chief financial backer, Chris Shortis, departed the UPF to join the AFP in early to mid-2016. Cottrell’s political views are documented in Blair Cottrell, rising anti-Islam movement leader, wanted Hitler in the classroom, Michael Bachelard and Luke McMahon, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 17, 2015 and Quotations From Chairman Blair Cottrell (July 27, 2015), while his criminal record is detailed in United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell details violent criminal past in video, Geir O’Rourke and Angus Thompson, Herald Sun, June 11, 2016 and Blair Cottrell : ” … and I started getting arrested after I did that.” #Fortitude /// #UnitedPatriotsFront (February 23, 2016).

Nationalist Republican Guard (NRG)

NRG is EARL rebranded and since the beginning of 2015 worked closely with Reclaim Australia, UPF and Shermon Burgess in order to produce agitprop promoting these groups and individuals.

NRG has now essentially collapsed and forms one iteration among many centred on Erikson. Other stillborn projects include Generation Identity Australia (now known as Australians Resistance Network), Aussie Patriot Army (deceased) and United Patriots Front – Originals (defunct).

New Right (/National Anarchists) (NR)

The New Right emerged in the mid- to late-2000s as a project of Sydney-based fascist Welf Herfurth – Herfurth envisaged NR as the theoretical expression of ‘national anarchism’, a tendency on the far-right with origins in the UK fascist movement. It has produced some propaganda, staged a few publicity stunts, and attracted a handful of neo-Nazis (eg, Bradley Trappitt) and other fascists to its banner but is currently largely inactive. As of December 2016, it remains a dead horse in Australia.

One Nation Party (ONP)

See : Pauline Hanson. Initially a deeply attractive formation for the far right, the history of ONP since the late ’90s is long and complex. Its activists belong to a broader far-right milieu, with some degree of overlap with groups like AFP. The possibility of a reconsolidation of the far right in AFP remains, though is somewhat complicated by Hanson’s periodic political revivals.

ONP’s success at the 2016 federal election, when it won four Senate seats — Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts (QLD), Brian Burston (NSW) and Rod Culleton (WA) — has helped revive its fortunes. By the same token, ONP’s success has meant failure for the ALA, and ONP is now the primary expression of politically-organised anti-Muslim sentiment. Finally, despite a deserved reputation for harbouring anti-Semites, ONP was invited to hold a meeting in Caulfield (Melbourne) in December 2016. In the face of local Jewish opposition, the two Senators invited to speak — Pauline Hanson and Malcolm ‘Jew World Order’ Roberts — elected to cancel the circus.

Party for Freedom (PFF)

Modelled on Geert Wilders’ Dutch party, PFF is what happened when the Sydney branch of APP decided to hold a public rally in mid-2012 demanding that the Australian government blow up refugee boats. APP disavowed the action and so the Sydney branch of APP decamped to form PFF. It holds regular events in Sydney but has little discernible support outside of it. Is chief and seemingly only spokesperson is Nicholas (Hunter) Folkes, a publicity whore who delights in provocative stunts (see : Cronulla). In April 2016 the PFF travelled to Melbourne to protest outside a halal expo and got a clip around their ears for their troubles; in November 2016 they returned to Melbourne and the suburb of Eltham to protest a refugee housing project. Joined by the SOO and TBC (see below) they were again defeated by a combination of butterflies and unicorns.

Patriotic Youth League (PYL)

The PYL was established in the early 2000s as the yoof wing of AFP. It was not a successful venture and collapsed a few years later to be replaced by the EYL.

Patriots Defence League of Australia (PDLA)

An ADL splinter, the PDLA is largely a Facebook creation, with numerous, very small branches across the country which hold semi-regular, private meetings. In its latest incarnation, the PDLA was established as an incorporated association (Australian Defence League) which later changed its name to PDLA. Mark Lenthall, TJ (Torin) O’Brien and Daniel Sutcliffe are its current office bearers. Also prominent is John Oliver of Newcastle, who helped organise and spoke at the Reclaim Australia rally in Newcastle on April 4. In November 2016 its Melbourne organiser, Shannon Wallace, deaded.

Q Society

The Q Society is an anti-Muslim propaganda group which functions as the ideological ballast for the anti-Muslim movement in Australia and largely consists of educated, middle class, bigots. See : International guests Q up for bigotry, Andy Fleming, Overland, March 10, 2014.

Reclaim Australia (RA)

Largely the brainchild of online activist and (former) ADL member Shermon Burgess (‘The Great Aussie Patriot’), RA was the first anti-Muslim project of its kind to generate anything more than minimal public interest and to successfully mobilise anti-Muslim networks. Its April 4, 2015 rallies attracted several thousand supporters who attended over a dozen rallies across the country — to which the largest and most effective opposition was in Melbourne. Following April 4, RA split and Burgess established the UPF (see below). RA’s next series of anti-Muslim rallies took place on the weekend of July 18/19 while a third and final round of protests organised by RA took place in November 2015. In general terms, RA attracted every Tom, Dick & Harry ‘patriot’, (White) nationalist, racist, fascist, neo-Nazi and xenophobe in the country, but experienced a good deal of internal difficulties, with a rump faction led by John Oliver eventually going on to establish itself as an incorporated association in NSW in January 2016. The majority faction intends on rallying in Sydney on January 26, 2017.

Restore Australia

Another one-man band, Restore Australia is the political vehicle of Queensland-based anti-Muslim activist Mike Holt. Holt/Restore Australia is part of a shifting network of anti-Muslim activists, largely active online on sites like Facebook. Last year Holt wrognly claimed that I was a man named Robert Godino (with predictable results).

*Right Wing Resistance (Australia) (RWRAU)

With origins in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the Australian branch of RWR has a very patchy record, assembling a mere handful of neo-Nazi skinheads under its banner; Kyle Chapman, a veteran neo-Nazi activist, was RWRNZ’s fuehrer until his resignation in September 2016. Members of RWR in Australia have distributed propaganda and attended a small number of nationalist rallies over the course of 2015–2016, but its only real claim to fame was in September 2016 when its putative 2IC, Ricky White, was arrested and charged with the arson of a church in Taree (NSW).

On RWRNZ, see : Deranged but Dangerous- Right Wing extremists in Aotearoa and the dangers they pose., leftwin, December 6, 2015 | Pride & Prejudice – the worried world of white pride, Michael Botur, March 25, 2014.

Rise Up Australia Party (RUAP)

RUAP is the political vehicle of Christian fundamentalist Pastor Danny Nalliah (‘Catch the Fire Ministeries’), a man who is perhaps best known for blaming the Victorian bushfires of 2009 on the state government’s decision to decriminalise abortion. In 2015, RUAP entered into a loose alliance first with RA and then the UPF, the Christian fundamentalists happily joining neo-Nazis on stage to promote hatred of Muslims and refugees. Other than Nalliah, deputy leader and Casey councillor Rosalie Crestani has been very active in promoting bigotry (see : Rosalie Crestani really is deplorable, Kieran’s Review, November 28, 2016).

*Soldiers of Odin (SOO)

Founded by Finnish neo-Nazi activist Mika Rata in late 2015, the Soldiers of Odin formed a branch in Melbourne in early 2016 and the organisation claims support in a number of other cities, though none seem to be especially active. Its President is Jason Moore, a former activist with the PDLA. See also : Who are the Soldiers of Odin?, Kieran’s Review, October 10, 2016.

Southern Cross Hammerskins (SCHS)

SCHS is the Australian franchise of neo-Nazi skinhead gang the Hammerskins. It was introduced into Australia 20+ years ago via Scott McGuinness, the lead singer in neo-Nazi band Fortress (now defunct). The Hammerskins last came to world attention when in 2012 one of its members, Wade Michael Page, shot dead six worshippers at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. The SCHS organises several social events a year.

Southern Cross Soldiers (SCS)

A short-lived yoof gang from Melbourne which came to public attention following the police killing of Tyler Cassidy in 2008. The name of the group was re-invoked by Shermon Burgess in 2015 as a supporter of the UPF but as of December 2016 it remains deaded.

Squadron 88 (S88)

S88 was a tiny neo-Nazi group based in Sydney. Its titular head was Ross ‘The Skull’ May, an ageing bonehead and one of Dr Jim Saleam’s closest allies. S88 organised a protest against the construction of a mosque in Penrith and obtained some small media traction via stuffing letterboxes in Sydney with badly-composed anti-Semitic tracts.

*True Blue Crew (TBC)

The True Blue Crew formed during late 2015 and early 2016, largely in response to anti-Muslim campaigns in Bendigo and Melton. Building upon pre-existing social networks, the TBC made its formal debut in Coburg in May 2016, where it attempted but failed to disrupt an ‘anti-racist’ rally. It organised two further rallies — a flag-waving event in Melbourne in June and an anti-Muslim rally in Melton in August — but most recently has been subject to internal dissent following the conviction of several of its members for ‘domestic violence’ and allegations of abuse and financial impropriety by its leader, Kane Miller. Its most infamous supporter is alleged ‘terrorist’ Phill Galea. See also : Galea intended to bomb “left wing premises” according to police, Kieran’s Review, November 1, 2016.

United Australian Front (UAF)

The UAF was a new player on the far right bloc in July 2015, bringing together a number of the leading organisers of RA and UPF. Its members were present at the RA rally on April 4 and UPF rally on May 31 in Melbourne sporting UAF merch. The establishment of the UAF was largely the responsibility of UPF member Kris0 Richardson; the UAF was eclipsed by the emergence of the UPF when it formed in early- to mid- 2015. Around mid-2016, the UAF Facebook page re-badged itself as ‘Order 15’ and now promotes neo-Nazism and White supremacism. (Richardson states that he is no longer responsible for the page.)

United Patriots Front (UPF)

Established in April/May 2015, the United Patriots Front emerged as a splinter group within the network of anti-Muslim activists known as ‘Reclaim Australia’, bringing together neo-Nazis, fascists, White supremacists and Christian fundamentalists and conceiving of itself as the Antipodean expression of various European fascist parties and movements. It organised an unsuccessful rally in Richmond on May 31, 2015 to protest socialism which attracted around 50-70 participants. On June 27 2015, the UPF staged a tiny rally outside ABC HQ in Melbourne to protest Islam and the presence of Zaky Mallah on the previous week’s episode of Q&A. Members present were Troy Bloodstone, Warren Broadhead, Blair Cottrell, Neil Erikson, Kris0 Richardson, Chris Shortis, Thomas Sewell and Linden Watson.

Since then, the UPF has staged a number of other media stunts, harassed left-wing activists and institutions, and organised a number of rallies. While the group’s Facebook page has a relatively large number of likes (as of this date, over 83,000), in terms of its mobilising capacity it seems to have peaked in late 2015, when two anti-Muslim rallies in Bendigo in August and October attracted many hundreds of supporters. In February 2016, the UPF embarked upon a tour of Toowoomba (QLD), Orange (NSW) and Bendigo (VIC) in order to recruit members to its political party, ‘Fortitude’. The tour failed to attract sufficient interest and members and the party remains stillborn.

Subject to many ups and downs over the course of its existence, the UPF in Melbourne is now largely reduced to its neo-Nazi leader, Blair Cottrell, his sidekick, Thomas Sewell, and a small number of hangers-on. It also has a presence in Perth, where Dennis Huts and Kevin Coombes (AKA ‘Elijah Jacobson’) constitute its leadership. Formerly prominent UPF members Shermon Burgess, Neil Erikson and Chris Shortis have all left the organisation, Burgess and Erikson currently constituting the ASR with Shortis joining the Australia First Party in mid-2016. Cottrell, Erikson and Shortis are all due in court in March 2017, charged with a number of offences including racial and religious vilification. The charges were laid as a result of a stunt in Bendigo to promote a UPF rally.

*United Nationalists Australia (UNA)

A blog and Facebook page that has taken on the functions of the defunct AAA and WLT blog and Facebook pages. Closely-aligned to AFP, it features the writings of AFP member and Daily Stormer writer Nathan Sykes (AKA ‘Hamish Patton’) and a handful of others.

Volksfront (VF)

VF is (was) another neo-Nazi skinhead organisation, a US import which was active for several years. Its parent body in the US was declared dissolved after the massacre at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin by VF associate Wade Michael Page. Its principal activist is (was) Chris Smith (Anti-Antifa Australia) and while active VF worked closely with the NR (Welf Herfurth). As of December 2016, VF remains defunct.

White Pride Coalition of Australia (WPCA)

Chiefly of historical interest, the WPCA was established in the early 2000s as a coalition of neo-Nazi and White supremacist groups. It was eventually disbanded but briefly re-emerged in 2014 as a Facebook page before disappearing again. Prominent members include(d) neo-Nazis Peter Campbell (Sydney) and Jim Perren (Brisbane). Both men were responsible for the ‘Whitelaw Towers’ blog.

Women for Aryan Unity (WAU)

In Australia, WAU is a tiny group very closely associated with the SCHS. Recently, it raised funds to support the Azov battalion in the Ukraine, to which many neo-Nazis and other fascists across Europe have been drawn.

*Whitelaw Towers (WLT)

A long-running blog that shut up shop at the beginning of 2016, shortly after wrognly declaring that this blog was authored by a Monash academic, Rob Sparrow. Its two principal authors were Peter Campbell and Jim Perren, later supplemented by the efforts of Nathan Sykes. Campbell died a few years ago while Perren had a brief association with the UPF and Fortitude, helping them to organise a rally in Toowoomba and even being assigned a role by the UPF in Queensland: Perren has since repudiated the UPF.

*XYZ

Established in May 2015, XYZ is a website posing as a news organisation and is explicitly pitched against the ABC, which is understood to be a purveyor of ‘Cultural Marxism’. Its contributors are young Tories who share similar concerns with the altright and partisans of ‘Traditionalism’.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

I’ve not examined the emergence of the so-called alt-right in Australia, local expressions of neo- and paleo-conservatism, Traditionalist political formations or the relationship between far right ideology and the fringes of the LNP and related institutions. I may do so in future. In the meantime, Australia Has An Alt-Right Movement And It’s Called #DingoTwitter, Mark Di Stefano and Brad Esposito, BuzzFeed, October 26, 2016 provides a glimpse into one local expression of the alt-right, and The Dingoes also feature in The Dingoes claim to be ‘growing’ part of Australian alternative-right political scene, Victoria Craw, news.com.au, December 5, 2016. In which context, see also : New York’s Alt Right (Part I), NYC Antifa, November 29, 2016 | Hate speech by another name: Why the term ‘alt-right’ should not be legitimised, Celeste Liddle, The Age, November 28, 2016 | Keyboard warriors of the alt-right have Australia in their sights, Daniel Flitton, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 26, 2016 | Calling them “alt-right” helps us fight them, Matthew N Lyons, Three Way Fight, November 22, 2016 | The Rise And Rise Of The Political Troll From The ‘Alt-Right’, Max Chalmers, New Matilda, August 30, 2016 | SPLC on Alternative Right. Note that for a very short period, the UPF media page touted itself as ‘The Offical AltRight of Australia’.

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2017 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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11 Responses to A (very) brief guide to the Australian far right (December 2016 Edition)

  1. @ndy says:

    ‘Extremism taking us to dark places’
    Paul Toohey
    news.com.au
    June 18, 2016

    AT THE Bush Pig Inn, a rustic Aussie-themed drinking hole in bush just out of Bendigo, the inner-circle of the United Patriots Front, the public face of Australia’s most far-Right “racialists”, are holding court.

    Some 40 people, mostly men decked out in black with nationalist insignia, have come from around the state and beyond to hear today’s seminar on the white genocide facing Australia.

    The UPF claim to be great patriots, who feel a deeper love and concern for this country than the general population. Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” plays in the background, summing up their view of Australia.

    THE MAIN PLAYERS

    The main man is Blair Cottrell, 27, leader of the UPF and its so-called political wing, Fortitude. He was sentenced to four months jail in 2012 for torching a man’s garage in a jealous rage, and has convictions for burglary and trafficking testosterone.

    Tall, well-built and V-shaped, bringing to mind the guy from Despicable Me, Cottrell talks with scrupulously controlled diction, to provide the impression that he is intelligent — which he is.

    Even Cottrell’s most furious detractors admit he has charisma. He offers tea, because even though the bar is open and some guests have started drinking, this is not meant to be a piss-up: frivolity is frowned upon by these intense men.

    At his side is Chris Shortis, 45, who like Cottrell has short, chiselled hair. Of English-Irish descent, Seventh-Day Adventist by faith, Shortis says he found an outlet for his thoughts when he finally discovered like-minded people on Facebook, in late 2014. Prior to that, he thought he was alone.

    He will address the crowd on how white Australia is being overrun.

    And there’s Thomas Sewell, early 20s, taciturn, watchful and mildly seething. The best guess is that he’s an adviser and tactician.

    A former Australian soldier, he’s the one who decides after two minutes that enough photos have been taken. Sewell can be seen on video, brawling at a UPF rally last year.

    The UPF rejects Islam, but also Christianity. They especially despise multiculturalism. “We’re modern-day heretics,” says Cottrell, who once said a portrait of Hitler should hang in every Australian classroom.

    It is likely, according to a reformed white supremacist source who once planned to hit the streets of Sydney with a small army to gun down Asians, but these days assists authorities in infiltrating Right-wing extremist groups, that someone in this crowd is reporting back to federal agents.

    Far-Right groups are now everywhere on social media, mostly using Facebook sites with no links to web sites or organisers. Unchecked, the fear is they could attract exactly the same sort of disaffected young man who, on the extremist scale, is no different from those they despise most: the loose-wheeled young Muslim.

    I. SURGE IN ONLINE EXTREMISM

    The concern is that the UPF, which six months ago broke away to take a harder line from the more mainstream “mums and dads” anti-Islamic group, Reclaim Australia, has begun engaging some angry young minds.

    There is an unnamed young white extremist on remand for weapons charges, but News Corp understands he was plotting actions that were far more organised than anything Man Haron Monis planned for the Lindt Café.

    Andre Oboler, who leads Australia’s only monitoring site for online extremism, the Online Hate Prevention Institute, says interest in patriotic groups is surging, with 200,000 Australians now actively following hate sites.

    He reveals that neo-Nazis out of the US have been using pro-Islamic State forums in Australia “to incite them to attack targets within Australia”.

    “We’re seeing the internet being used as a way of creating strange coalitions across borders, and through anonymity people are able to use others,” says Oboler. He will not publicly name the targets, which are now heavily guarded.

    He says his organisation, in conjunction with ASIO and the AFP, monitored “the content, the conversations and the planning right through to the final tweets from ISIS”. Neither ASIO nor the AFP will comment.

    “ISIS certainly would not have known they were being manipulated by neo-Nazis,” he says.

    II. DIVISIONS IN THE FAR-RIGHT

    UP IN Sydney, Ralph Cerminara, who encourages people to take and post video of lone Muslims to show “how out of place they look”, warns: “There will be another Cronulla II. There will be a backlash, eventually.

    “The police are aiding by not arresting the violent left wing, while scores of Muslims are getting slapped on the wrist with the coward-punch law. They get good behaviour bonds.”

    He says he’s currently on a court order that prevents him badmouthing Muslims after a dust-up in Lakemba. None of it slows him down. “I should be able to walk down here in a bikini and [eat] a bacon sandwich and not be attacked,” he says.

    Cerminara has also been savaging the current UPF leadership accusing it [of] associating with skinheads [sic], which he says damages the anti-Islam brand. “There is no such thing as a moderate Muslim, just as there is no such thing as a moderate neo-Nazi,” says Cerminara, 37, an IT worker.

    This is a divisive distraction from the rolling battles with the far-Right’s most hated enemy, Antifa, the masked anti-fascist movement of the extreme Left.

    Cerminara, who was allegedly slashed while shooting video of an anarchist bookstore in Newtown earlier this year, says anti-fascists have published his address and made home visits — where he lives with an Asian wife.

    He has a machine-gun response for every question, pausing only when pressed on what his wife thinks of his 24/7 obsession: Muslims and the extreme Left.

    Cerminara says she has received death threats and became dismayed when Nathan Abela, once a Cerminara lieutenant, had his home in Sydney sprayed with bullets in 2014. Abela has since then kept a very low profile.

    “My wife saw that and she got upset,” says Cerminara. “She wants me to stop it. She knows it’s right, but she wants someone else to do it.”

    On the UPF Facebook page, inviting people to the Bush Pig Inn, someone has urged Cerminara be attacked if he shows, due to his criticisms of the UPF’s skinhead [sic] element (Cerminara did not attend, and says he did not see the post).

    ‘IT’S APPEALING TO JOIN SOMETHING LIKE THAT’

    Melbourne man Neil Erikson, 31, was one of the founders of UPF who has since left the organisation for what he sees as a shift towards neo-Nazism.

    Talking on the steps of Federation Square in Melbourne, he tells how his mother-in-law recently received a cut-up photo of a foetus in the mail, which he thinks was meant to represent his young son.

    That letter came from within the far-Right, he guesses, but two weeks earlier he’d been bashed by Antifa activists who’d spotted him while attending a meeting of the Australian Liberty Alliance, which is fielding anti-Islam candidates in the federal election. Erikson, whose facial scars are only starting to fade, doesn’t feel too comfortable in public spaces.

    It’s tough out there being anti-Muslim.

    “I originally started out in the neo-Nazi movement when I was about 16, until about four years ago,” says Erikson, who in 2014 was sentenced to a community work order, and a visit to the psychologist, for phone threats to a rabbi. “If you wanted to show pride in Australia, there was no other place to go.

    “In hindsight, it’s appealing to join something like that. But there are darker sides to neo-Nazis — lost kids, lost people. Until this patriotic rise of Reclaim last year, there was no one to hang out with apart from neo-Nazis.”

    The neo-Nazis Erikson associated with were “in and out of prison all the time, for bashing some random Asian on the street.” Like the 21-year-old Vietnamese student from Pascoe Vale, severely beaten in an unprovoked attack by skinheads [sic] while walking home from work, in Moonee Ponds, in 2012.

    “I was there that night, just before,” says Erikson, who saw young neo-Nazis shaving their heads earlier in the day in anticipation of a random attack.

    “That’s when I started turning off that Nazi stuff. It’s not his fault he’s here,” says Erikson of the Vietnamese man. “He’s come here for a better life. It’s our government’s fault for letting him in.”

    He wants the public to march against Islam, but people are too scared after the first Reclaim Australia rally at Federation Square, in April last year, fell to violence, with a grandma — among others — getting hurt.

    Scenes of screaming, masked anarchists — whose contribution to the federal election campaign is street posters of party leaders dangling from nooses — and skinheads [sic] marching on the frontlines with the UPF has seen the public retreating from rallies, but not from its views.

    The Reclaim movement “woke everyone up and got them out of their houses,” says Erikson.

    “It’s now lost support. The neo-Nazi movement has scared people away. If Reclaim were to hold a rally now, they’d be lucky to get 20 people. It’s all gone online. They’re safer at home.”

    III. UNPLEASANT TRUTHS

    WORLDWIDE, says Andre Oboler, Australia ranks third or fourth for supporters of anti-Islam, anti-Semitic and pro-white sites.

    “When we consider the size of Australia’s population we see that a far larger portion of Australian Facebook users are actively joining such hate groups online than occurs in other countries,” he says.

    As a Jewish organisation, OHPI, which attracts no federal funding, has not been able ignore what has happened in the last 18 months: anti-Semitism has been replaced with anti-Islam. They are bound to report hate, whatever its flavour.

    “There’s an element of bigotry and racism that has [been] brought into the political sphere in the last few years at a much higher level than we’ve seen since World War II,” says Oboler.

    In Australia, online bigotry “has risen steeply over the past year”, and especially in the last six months with “a shift with more Australians starting to engage in a small number of significant Australian specific (hate/patriotic) groups.”

    Oboler tracks the rise of hate in Australia to the English Defence League, which began in 2009 with football supporters fighting anti-war Islamists on the streets of Luton. It eventually became controlled by white supremacists.

    The EDL’s argument was original and appealed to many: they weren’t racists because Islam is a religion, not a race.

    Oboler says the distinction is not legitimate. “No. It’s like saying, ‘I’m not racist, I’m just homophobic.’ Well, you’re still a bigot.”

    It was nonetheless a powerful argument that took the far Right a lot further than it had under the founding anti-Islam matriarch, Pauline Hanson, who first appeared in 1996 with her anti-multicultural agenda.

    It caught on with the Australian Defence League, “Fuck Off We’re Full” bumper stickers, anti-Halal and anti-Sharia movements, and then Reclaim Australia — formed partly in response a belief that the Lindt siege was created by favourable immigration policies to Muslims.

    Then came the extremist groups and the street clashes.

    There are up to 50 anti-Islam Senate candidates standing on July 2, but most — possibly with the exception of Hanson, who is running in Queensland — will have trouble under the new ballot system gaining preferences.

    Daniel Nalliah’s Rise-Up Australia has 11 Senate candidates. The Sri Lankan-born Victorian developed his antipathy for Islam while living with his Asian wife in Saudi Arabia, before coming to Australia as a migrant in 1997.

    Nalliah wants a 10-year moratorium on all Islamic migration to Australia.

    He says the concept of multiculturalism should be replaced by “multi-ethnicity”, meaning people retain their culture while complying and integrating with Australian life and law. Which is how it already is for the Muslim majority who reject militant Islam.

    “They can’t call me a racist because I’m black,” says Nalliah. “People laugh. It’s taken a blackfella to stand up for Australian culture.”

    At a Saturday morning Rise-Up election campaign in Bendigo, the town that has become the nation’s unwanted anti-Islam focal point for its no-mosque campaign, Nalliah’s group are shooed away from the Bendigo Marketplace, as they hand out leaflets.

    The security guard is at a loss when asked whether she would also order Malcolm Turnbull or Bill Shorten to leave. The Rise-Up people then congregate downtown outside a cafe, where the owner tells them to get lost or she’ll call the cops. They move, again.

    Oboler says anti-Islam political groups should be allowed their voice. Australia has limited constitutional free-speech rights, but the High Court says we have the right to open political communication to enable the democratic process.

    “There should be leeway for political parties,” says Oboler. “If you force them to code what they’re saying, people might vote for them accidentally.”

    The Bendigo mosque was last week cleared to be built, but Cerminara tells me plans are afoot to block it: “It will not be built. The Greens tie themselves to trees. We will do it as well.”

    IV. THE LANGUAGE OF HATE

    THE UPF leadership group sticks close to each other at the Bush Pig Inn, scanning faces, not sure of who is who among those who have arrived in response to its open Facebook invitation.

    They won’t let us take crowd photos, because “some of these people have jobs”.

    They nevertheless extend politeness to two members of News Corp. The UPF expects bad press, so doesn’t have much to lose.

    Asked to explain core beliefs, Cottrell says: “It is essentially racialism, but it’s not what you think it is. It’s not supremacist. We actually advocate for an exclusive existence for all the races of the world — not this blending, multiculturalism, egalitarianism nonsense.

    “We want to encourage different cultures to stay who they are to remain as they have always been. Every culture, every race, must have exclusive existence. Anyone who tries to take that away is an enemy.”

    Cottrell’s language sounds like one of white supremacy. He proposes that one race — the white one — controls Australia.

    The problem, says the former neo-Nazi source, is that UPF leadership — even if they are not themselves advocating terror — will attract kids, just as ISIS does.

    “If you’re an ISIS guy, the majority are not even believers in Islam,” he says. “Most of it is attachment problems, being bullied at school and mental illness. They get disaffected and have got to find somewhere where they belong.

    “It’s the same with white extremists. They don’t really believe in racial segregation, but they go along with it because they need something.”

    This man, himself a master indoctrinator, building a far-Right army of 150 people to attack Asians (whom he later went back to and tried to de-radicalise), explains how it works.

    “You say to the guy, ‘Come here, we’re your mates. Who was it who bashed you? We’ll get them.’” Then they’re hooked. But the real threat comes from those who are too unmanageable even for the white extremists.

    “The danger is the people on the fringes who might get rejected,” he says. “They’re going to be your lone wolves.”

    He says of the far-Right groups: “They want chaos in order to rebuild the nation. And they’re inviting everyone to join them. If Muslim kids look at this, how will they feel?”

    He says that the feds and state police are watching closely.

    ‘OUR FREEDOMS HAVE DIMINISHED’

    When the UPF are asked if they can channel patriotism into love of sport, they sneer. Asked about the first Australians, they trip up, because they are outranked. Questions become futile, because they have it all figured out.

    Shortis makes the extraordinary claim that Australia’s constitution is a “nationalist” document, which sets out a formula for a nation to be ruled on separatist lines. This is news. The Australian constitution does not use the words “nation”, “national” and especially not “nationalist”.

    The constitution creates a federation. Nothing in the document mentions race or exclusion. That is why Aborigines are fighting to get a brief mention in the preamble.

    “Israel has laws to preserve Israel as a Jewish state,” says Shortis. “Because they want to preserve their racial and cultural identity. I ask the question to the far-Left: why are we called white supremacists?

    “It’s far from the case. If anything, the white race is the most disgusting, self-loathing race on the face of the earth. How long does the white man have to pay for the perceived evils of our colonial history?”

    There is nostalgia here for a time before they were born. “Our freedoms have diminished in the last 40 years,” says Shortis. But do you diminish the freedoms of others? “This lie that we go out looking for Muslims to seek them out, I don’t know who invented that.”

    We take our leave. There’s a game on back in Melbourne at Etihad I’d like to see. Shortis says something about my “poor priorities”. But I’m not so sure.

    Later that day, departing the stadium with 28,000 people, mostly white but a whole lot more, you can’t help look at the little Asian and Indian kids at the game with mum and dad.

    Do they want to hear bad things about who they are, or where they come from? Do we want to make them [feel] hated? We do not. That is why most of us refuse to do it.

    Most who leave this stadium wear the tribal insignia of their teams. But all who leave the stadium pass untroubled, in peace.

  2. Thanks for keeping tabs on and exposing these people. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

  3. Sossle says:

    So only white people can be on the “Far Right” apparently? Or is it that the Anarcho-Leftists are more than just a little bit racist themselves? It would seem that you are missing a bunch of dangerous Australian groups here and have again simply exposed the base racist nature of your blog. The predominant connection between these groups that you have mentioned here is as per usual, their racial descent.

    I guess you could start by providing a definition of what you mean by “Far Right” which is sketchy at best and is up [there] with definitions of “Fascist”, which you are also so vehemently opposed to, but also struggle to adequately define?

    Anyway let’s just start by using a recent definition found here for “Far Right”.

    http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/the-rise-of-the-far-right/7858282

    Duncan McDonnell, from the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University, explains what the far right typically stands for:

    “The far right is a series of movements and political parties which tend to be extremely anti-immigration, and they tend to be very much against the elites – so political parties, media elites, banks, cultural elites – in society,” Duncan McDonnell explains.

    “They claim that the ‘real’ people in countries—the honest, hardworking silent majority of citizens—are not represented.”

    So it seems “Far Right” is:
    Anti-immigration
    Against the “elites”
    Claim that ‘real’ people are not adequately represented
    One of the key indicators is a tendency to racism

    That definition would cover almost any National Indigenous movement in Australia, especially those calling for the formation of an independent Indigenous state. Except for one thing, the colour of [their] skins.

    Take a look at this story regarding Michael Mansell’s call for an [A]boriginal independent state.

    https://newmatilda.com/2015/06/13/7th-state-michael-mansell-another-way-forward-first-nations-self-rule/

    Michael Mansell’s call seems to be clearly leaning to the Far Right as far as I can tell, yet you have excluded him from your little list here. I wonder why that is?

    I wonder what you would call a group based in Europe calling for a foundation of a ‘White’ state? A group like Pioneer Little Europe for example. How would you define them I wonder? As evil, Far Right, White supremacists? It’s obvious that forming communities within Europe to protect Indigenous cultural traditions is nothing more than blatant racism and white separatism at its best right?

    Rationwiki defines White separatism as:

    White separatism is a separatist political movement that seeks separate economic and cultural development for white people. White separatism is a form of White nationalism and can be a form of White supremacy.

    http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/White_separatism

    Hmm let’s change that statement a little to be relevant in this context changing nothing more than the racial tags. Let’s [change] “White” to “Indigenous Australian 7th State”.

    A call for an Indigenous Australian 7th State is a separatist political movement that seeks to separate economic and cultural development for Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australian 7th state is a form of Indigenous nationalism and can be a form of Indigenous racial supremacy.

    See what I did there @ndy[?] OK, clearly you can’t or won’t and of course I must simply be a clear cut racist to attempt to draw any kind of parallel in this case right? We all know that not being racist these days means acceptance that definitions apply differently to different racial groups. As in you must categorise individuals based on their racial profile not the actual concept. As in your race defines you and defines what rules you need to adhere to and whether or not what you do, believe or say is OK or not. As in White Pride = Evil Incarnate, Black Pride = Positive Belief. Right? Taking the racial identity out of the concept makes that concept rather illogical. Either racial pride is okay or it’s not okay. Black Panthers are social revolutionaries, right? And not extremist racial supremacists. Does [their] race [a]ffect which one is correct, I wonder?

    Strange that you do not have a single extremist Islamic group on your little list here. When according to Australian National Security the far majority of Australian Terrorist threats are related to Islam. Yet you do not see a single group as worthy of note? Are they not Far Right enough for you? Or is it just that they are not white enough that’s your issue @ndy?

    https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/Listedterroristorganisations/Pages/default.aspx

    Not a single mention of the APEX gang or The Company. Why is that I wonder???

    Of course Battalion88 is a bigger threat to every Australian th[a]n “The Company”, a coalition of international gangs flooding Australian neighbourhoods with Ice, violence and financing ruthless organised criminals on our shores.

    If [you’re] buying this people, you are simply being hoodwinked into tilting at windmills, designed to draw you into a Socialist agenda which gave the world the likes of Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot.

    Try this if you doubt my claim, search the news for “Battalion88” and see what you find their, now try a search for “Ice drug Australia” and then tell me which you think is the biggest threat to the future of all Australians regardless of the colour of their skin. Why does @ndy see Battalion88 as a bigger threat to Australia than “The Company” or Islamic Extremism? I can tell you why, Battalion88 are white and it really is as simple as that. If they were not Caucasians, they wouldn’t get a mention here. A group with the same beliefs that’s not Caucasian would also not get a mention here.

  4. @ndy says:

    1)

    So only white people can be on the “Far Right” apparently?

    Evidently not. While most of the groups listed are committed to some form of White nationalism, some are not. For example, RUAP’s leader is a brown-skinned immigrant from Sri Lanka; both RUAP and its religious arm (Catch the Fire Ministries) have a diverse (ethnic and national) support base. ALA, APP, LAOL, ONP and PFF also welcome, to one degree or another, support from ‘people of colour’, their principal platform being opposition to Islam and multiculturalism.

    2)

    I guess you could start by providing a definition of what you mean by “Far Right” …

    As the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ suggest, these are positions on a political spectrum, originally derived from the seating arrangements in the National Assembly following the French Revolution. Wikipedia: The terms “left” and “right” appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president’s right and supporters of the revolution to his left. Sometimes, such designations are supplemented by another axis — authoritarian/libertarian. Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer provided one early example of such a political compass in their book Floodgates of Anarchy (1970).

    Re McDonnell’s definition, it’s an approximation, one of many.

    Generally speaking, words derive their meanings from their contexts. In other words, ‘far right’ in contemporary Australia has one set of meanings, while ‘far right’ in another time and place may have a slightly different one. Certainly, the contemporary Australian far right is characterised (inter alia) by: opposition to (sometimes ‘uncontrolled’) immigration; a generally conspiratorial understanding of ‘elites’ (however defined, and typically contrasted with ‘The Masses’ or ‘The People’) and; White supremacy (‘racism’). In terms of ‘fascism’, I think that Roger Griffin’s definition — fascism is a form of ‘palingenetic ultranationalism’ — is useful, if not exhaustive, and one which has been subject, of course, to criticism, on a range of grounds.

    3)

    Re Mansell’s proposal to create a seventh, ‘Indigenous’ state: Mansell is a member of the ‘Aboriginal Provisional Government’, which was established in 1990; its activities are fairly limited, but forms one part of a broader discussion inre the place of Indigenous peoples vis-à-vis the Australian state and society.

    The article by Mansell in New Matilda you link to states:

    One model worth looking at is the 7th State: A defined territory in Australia made up of Aboriginal-owned or native title lands; an elected Assembly with powers of State governments; having its own constitution; all Aboriginal people having a right to participate (by voting or standing for elections to the Assembly) regardless of where they live, plus any non-Aboriginal residents within the territory; and established by Commonwealth legislation. That summarises a new 7th State of Australia.

    In other words, the proposal concerns the establishment of another, seventh state — alongside NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC and WA — under the jurisdiction of the federal government (Commonwealth of Australia). It does not designate any policy inre immigration (which is a federal, not state, responsibility); it doesn’t specify any particular position inre ‘elites’ (though I assume Mansell himself has views on the subject) and; the proposed seventh state allows for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons to reside within its territorial boundaries (however defined) and to participate in the political process.

    4)

    I’ve discussed the ‘Pioneer Little Europe’ project on my blog previously. Its champion in Australia was, for a brief period, a bloke from WA called Paul Innes. The project didn’t seem to get very far.

    5)

    … you do not have a single extremist Islamic group on your little list here …

    Yes. I don’t regard the various Islamist tendencies as being ‘far right’ in the sense that I use the term, nor am I simply listing ‘terrorist’ organisations. By the same token, Apex is not a ‘far right’ grouping and neither is ‘The Company’. Finally, nowhere have I stated that I believe that Battalion88 is a bigger threat to Australia than “The Company” or Islamic Extremism.

  5. ablokeimet says:

    Sossle: “So only white people can be on the “Far Right” apparently?”

    The short answer is No – but it’s likely to mislead many people, especially such as Sossle.

    1. As Andy points out, there are people of colour in the Rise Up Australia Party – including its leader. I’d also like to point out that the Mayor of Casey, who has played a very Islamophobic role, is a Coptic Christian immigrant from Egypt.

    2. Looking overseas, we can see that Japan is an intensely racist society. Non-Japanese, especially Koreans, are treated abominably. The Japanese Government is called on this all too rarely.

    3. If one takes the definition of Left & Right according to its traditional origins (as I do), it can be seen that the supporters of Liberty, Equality & Fraternity are on the Left, while the upholders of the traditional social hierarchy and the sort of State apparatus necessary to enforce that, are on the Right. Accordingly, Anarchists are the extreme Left, while the extreme Right is composed of Fascists and absolute monarchists.

    On the global scale, it can be seen that there is not one, but several far Rights. The one that is usually referred to as “the extreme Right” in Australia is a Western far Right, which is composed of Fascists at its extreme edge and hard Right racist populists (like Pauline Hanson) at its more mainstream edge. One of the other far Rights is a Muslim one, composed of fanatical jihadis like Daesh & Al-Qaeda at its extreme edge and electoral Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood at its more mainstream edge. This Muslim far Right is tiny in Western countries, though it gets inordinate media attention due to the fear it generates in non-Muslim Westerners.

    4. Finally, a word on racism. Sossle seems to identify it as racial prejudice and the behaviours that exhibit it. This is a widely held misapprehension. It is actually essential to distinguish between racism and racial prejudice:

    (a) Racial prejudice is a mental attitude. It’s something that exists in people’s heads. It’s also something that has been around for ages, possibly since the first time two tribes argued over a waterhole. It’s a character flaw in people and most of us have it to some degree, though a majority of people in Western countries try to rid themselves of it. It should be noted that people from oppressed groups are far from immune to racial prejudice, in that they a quite capable of making unwarranted and prejudicial generalisations about people from other ethnic groups, whether the dominant group or other oppressed groups.

    (b) Racism is a system of power. It is a set of objective social relations that put one “race” in an oppressed place in society, by direct or indirect State action, or by the mobilisation of racial prejudice leading to informal, though often officially tolerated, actions. It is vital to note here that “race” is an imaginary and unscientific category, conjured up in the minds of racists and given material reality by the practice of racism. It is not necessary for these categories to have any intellectual coherence, but rather merely to allow most people in the oppressed “race” to be identified, ideally by sight.

    A couple of things follow from this. One is that racially prejudiced behaviour is racist when it reinforces the racist power structure (e.g. when someone from the dominant group speaks or acts in a racially prejudiced way towards someone from an oppressed group), but not when it doesn’t (e.g. when someone from an oppressed group speaks or acts in a racially prejudiced way towards someone from the dominant group). In the latter case, it’s still a character flaw, but it’s not racist.

    The other thing is that the people who engage in racist behaviour are not necessarily the people who reap the benefits from it. A classic case can be seen in the Southern States of the US. Statistics have been compiled of the average wages of White workers and the average wages of Black workers in a wide range of US States. I think it can be generally agreed that the difference between White workers’ wages & Black workers’ wages can be regarded as a pretty hard index of racism. The surprising thing to many (in the capitalist press and in many parts of the extreme Right) is that the States with the biggest gap between White workers’ wages & Black workers’ wages are the States with the lowest wages for White workers. What this means is that racism is not benefiting White workers – and that racist White workers are shooting themselves in the foot. Racism lowers wages all round, to the benefit of employers.

    There are many other things that can be said to take issue with Sossle’s nonsense, but I’ll leave it there for the moment.

  6. Sossle says:

    Speaking of nonsense:

    “3. If one takes the definition of Left & Right according to its traditional origins (as I do), it can be seen that the supporters of Liberty, Equality & Fraternity are on the Left, while the upholders of the traditional social hierarchy and the sort of State apparatus necessary to enforce that, are on the Right. Accordingly, Anarchists are the extreme Left, while the extreme Right is composed of Fascists and absolute monarchists.”

    Liberty, Equality & Fraternity such as http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/s21-victims.html, http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/ ?

    Maybe it’s time to let go of your old world thinking and walk into the modern age with eyes open?

    “Left” and “Right” has become no better than terminology like “Us” the good guys and “Them” the bad guys. Perpetuating Left equals good and Right equals bad is quite simple minded and smacks of the usual propaganda found around here. Sorry but Antifa foot soldiers and the Deutsch Schutzstaffel have a lot more in common than you guys can accept. It’s amazing what the use of fear and violence can accomplish when you pull on some black gloves and take to the streets ready to crack skulls. Or for that matter the similarities between IS terrorism and the ‘propagande par le fait’ of the Anarchist movement. In fact you could almost say that Islamic Extremists and Left wing Anarchists/Extremists are of exactly the same gene pool. Both have no squirms about murdering others for the promotion of their own revolutionary ideology. Pushing myths that usually are realised as the blood of countless innocents and not as a glorious new age for all. This blog has numerous hyperlinks to communist propaganda sites, communism has been directly linked to how many millions of mass killings globally? I know irrelevant right? ‘They are not the real communists or we have since discarded those negative aspects and are now progressives that simply love unicorns and butterflies that could never happen again’…

    The “extreme left” is not only populated by violent Anarchists but by extremist authoritarians and are backed by a mass of incredibly naive individuals with beliefs that are up [there] with hugging lions because god loves you. Anyone can see that throughout history the glorious Left have engaged in just as much mass murder and racism as any on the “extreme right”. The Australian Left have a long history of racism in this country, such as the Lambing Flat riots and its banner that came to symbolise Australia’s racist face in the early days of federation, a banner made by members of the trade unions (http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/lambingflatsbanner/).

    Or maybe let’s talk about Sir Edmund Barton who introduced the ‘Immigration Restriction Act 1901’ (aka the White Australia Policy) who at the time was the leader of the Protectionist Party whose foundation was one of Social Liberalism. Sir Edmund Barton was also the President of University of Sydney Union, before his political career. Sure the Socialists have worked hard to repaint themselves, but the rust still shows through in many places for those willing to look beyond the typical propaganda being shovelled out from the source. Eventually the Protectionist Party slowly merged into what is now the Australian Liberal Party. This seems to be a bit of a trend globally. What generally starts as Left wing peoples/workers movements more often than not, when moved into any kind of positions of power, begin to lean swiftly to the Right and sadly it is often as far as right wing totalitarianism such as Stalin. Left and right are not opposites as you try so hard to establish here just different ends of the same beast. People/workers revolutions more often than not end in brutal dictatorships that feed on mass death and authoritarianism that enslaves people and does not free them as it claims it will.

    Don’t forget that the French revolutionary who coined the phrase “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” was also sent to the guillotine by the very same revolution he had helped create… On sentence he cried “You accuse me, who has given everything for the Revolution!” Hébertists of which Momoro was a patron have been described as. “Ideologically, their violent, anti-intellectual, and ultra-populist views centered chiefly on what historian Simon Schama describes as “an anarchic notion of popular government, always armed to impose the will of the people on its mandatories,” and took the form of support for “unrelenting surveillance, denunciation, indictment, humiliation, and death.”
    Catchy motto [there] mate…

    “This Muslim far Right is tiny in Western countries, though it gets inordinate media attention due to the fear it generates in non-Muslim Westerners.”

    Like in Berlin at the moment right, or in Nice in July where 90 people were murdered on Bastille day, the day that celebrates the French revolution and their belief in the principles of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”. Principles which are under attack globally but not by the groups represented here. Maybe these attacks are what’s drawing the scrutiny in these cases and not the evil racists? Or their religious food taxes, treatment of women, or … I know madness right …

    “We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn’t obey the rules.”

  7. Sossle says:

    “4. Finally, a word on racism. Sossle seems to identify it as racial prejudice and the behaviours that exhibit it. This is a widely held misapprehension. It is actually essential to distinguish between racism and racial prejudice:”

    I am fully aware of the meaning and common usage of the word “racism”. Though I am not sure if the Left is, and by default the meaning they accept is racially prejudice[d] itself and is used primarily as a weapon to shut down open discourse and openly attack their enemies who seem to be predominantly from a single descent.

    Declaring a racial group as a “First People” who then seek to reform the [C]onstitution to protect their own culture and traditions is either supported or not by the Left based on the race of the “First People” in question. Indigenous Australia[n]s seeking this are accepted and supported, whereas any Caucasian group would be seen as promoting racism, no matter where on the planet it occurred.

    “It is vital to note here that “race” is an imaginary and unscientific category, conjured up in the minds of racists and given material reality by the practice of racism.”

    So by declaring oneself an [I]ndigenous Australian or an Aborigin[e] would be by that definition participating in racism itself. And should be discouraged. As race doesn’t technically exist and we are all of the modern era there is no difference at all between a 7th generation white colonist and 1000th generation traditional owner of the land. Right? Somehow I thought not…

    If race is imaginary you could say the same of any attempt to define a group as a gathered lot, such as Left wing or Right wing tags or even the use of the label “Racist” itself. It is only the particulars that one imagines and then assigns to any given group that then goes on to in reality to define it in common language. Because of that, definitions will always vary from individual to individual but are always technically imagined. I think [you’re] also making a typical anti-intellectual blunder here by separating science and imagination. Science itself is at basis dependent on imagination and is a testament to our creative and logical thought processes as humans and is key to helping arrange our surrounding universe into coherent and cognitive thought. You know what else is imaginary? Mathematics, Language, Religion etc…

    “A couple of things follow from this. One is that racially prejudiced behaviour is racist when it reinforces the racist power structure (e.g. when someone from the dominant group speaks or acts in a racially prejudiced way towards someone from an oppressed group), but not when it doesn’t (e.g. when someone from an oppressed group speaks or acts in a racially prejudiced way towards someone from the dominant group). In the latter case, it’s still a character flaw, but it’s not racist.”

    So attacking white right leaning nationalists would be in fact racism if we had an African descent prime minister and the attack was performed by an individual of Asian descent. But it would only be racial prejudice if the prime minister was white, the nationalist was white and the attacker was of Asian descent? And if it was performed by a white person on a white nationalist with a white prime minister it would just be perpetuating hatred? Makes perfect sense now… Glad to see you guys are clearly against racism…

  8. Sossle says:

    Also your definitions of racism further discredits any attempt to label opposition of Islam as being racist in nature.

    Opposition to Islam if anything is anti-theism, atheists globally compared to theists are a minority group. Islam systematically discriminates against and suppresses atheists and other minority groups even as far as execution, maiming and imprisonment. Standing against any radical religion including Islam is a stand against authoritarian and totalitarian values. Supporting the supplantation of Islamic ideals over western values in western countries is an endorsement of that same radical thinking and more akin to being a Nazi sympathiser than a freedom seeking Anarchist.

    The Left/Anarchists supporting Islam is hypocrisy at its very best. Or at its worst what’s really behind that red balaclava is just another extremist seeking regime change for their own benefit and political affiliation. Just another little Hitler.

    Misrepresentation of Australia and Australians is par for the course for the Left, strange that Australia doesn’t appear on this list of racist countries. Though quite a few Islamic countries in it. Must be a coincidence right? Or maybe just those “racist” South Africans…

    https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/116644/the-most-racist-countries-in-the-world/

  9. a summary of sossle says:

    sossle,

    a few things:

    1 autism and ad nauseam are common themes in your writings.
    2 look up cognitive bias to help you overcome your ignorance.
    3 go to a muslim country and interact with muslims to see how they treat you – you’ll come back a little surprised.
    4 take time to actually read anarchist literature before committing yourself to lazy arguments – slackbastard has already called you out.
    5 varg vikernes intended to blow up an anti-fascist squat in norway, and he sent a letter bomb to an israeli band called salem, a band that were part of the second wave of black metal.
    6 ‘the Socialists have worked hard to repaint themselves, but the rust still shows through’ – sossle. are you a panel beater with a penchant for poetry?

    to reiterate, stop masturbating.

  10. Pingback: Media coverage of the far-right in Australia, 2015-2016 | Kieran's Review

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