¡ALERTA! Stop fascists rallying @ LGBT Holocaust Memorial, Sydney : Saturday, September 23, 2017

This post is dedicated to the memory of Willem Arondeus, the gay Dutch resistance member executed by the Nazis in July 1943 and Righteous Among the Nations.

This Saturday in Sydney, Nick Folkes and his Party for Freedom (PFF) are holding an anti-marriage equality rally (‘Straight Lives Matter’) at Green Park (corner of Victoria & Burton Streets), Darlinghurst. Folks in Sydney have organised a counter-protest for which there’s a Facebook event page here.

Green Park is the site of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Holocaust Memorial and just a hop, skip and a jump to both the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Jewish War Memorial and Museum. Fitting, then, that the list of attendees at the hate rally includes anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. According to a report on news.com.au (Far right nationalist Party for Freedom to hold ‘Straight Lives Matter’ anti-same-sex marriage rally, Benedict Brook, September 20, 2017):

The party’s leader, Nick Folkes, told news.com.au being gay was a choice and called people who didn’t identify with their biological gender “retards”.

Provocatively, the protest is being held in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst, famous for its large LGBTI population and metres from a memorial to murdered gays and lesbians.

The group was unapologetic for holding the rally next to a monument mourning gay people executed by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

“We want to make a strong point — I don’t feel we’re provoking anyone, we can hold a rally anywhere,” Mr Folkes said. He said “yes” campaigners could hold a march in a “straight area”.

NSW Police confirmed they would be in attendance at the event.

(Police in Gothenburg, Sweden will also be providing an honour guard for a neo-Nazi march less than 500 feet from a synagogue on Yom Kippur.)


(Above : PFF placard featuring Nazi Totenkopf on L and Sydney Gay & Lesbian Holocaust Memorial on R.)

For those of you coming in late, the PFF developed as a split from the Australian Protectionist Party — itself created as a split from the Australia First Party — in mid-2012, following the APP leadership’s rejection of the Sydney branch’s organisation of a public rally demanding that the Australian government ‘Torpedo the Boats’ carrying asylum seekers to Australia. The unregistered micro-party has a history of organising publicity stunts. In April 2016 its members disrupted a church service in Gosford on account of the Gosford Anglicans’ support for human rights, while in December 2015 the party celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Cronulla pogrom. Most recently, members of the party, along with a handful of others including Neil Erikson, disrupted a meeting of Yarra council in Melbourne in order to protest its decision to cancel celebrations of Australia Day on January 26. Martin Fletcher, the (former) Vice Chairman of the PFF and its IT Guy, once made the video game ‘Muslim Massacre’ available on his now-defunct website: the aim of the game is to kill all Muslims that appear on the screen. Prior to this, his site was used to promote anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and carried neo-Nazi propaganda.

Among the few dozen who’ve indicated that they’ll be joining Nick Folkes and fellow PFF members Toby Cook, George Jameson and Penny Louise/Tridgell at the hate rally are Sukith Fernando and Simeon Boikov. Sukith is a Tory student activist at the University of Sydney, a contributor to The Spectator (Australia), a Holocaust denialist, and a bit of a Hitler fanboy. (He also got into a spot of bother last week for these views.) Simeon, on the other hand, is a Putin fanboy, a Cossack, and a close ally of both the local branch of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn and the Australia First Party.

As xbops notes:

… it is important to be aware that Party for Freedom are a fascist organisation with a long record of campaigning against sexual and ethnic minority groups – including refugees – and in support of reintroducing the ‘White Australia’ policy … [The PFF are also] growing more brazen in their willingness to display fascist, Nazi, and white nationalist symbolism. In the wake of the events in Charlottesville, Virginia last month, and the emboldening of the US far-right under Trump, it is imperative, now more than ever, to put an unequivocal check on the transnational growth of fascist (and) homophobic movements.

The willingness of the PFF to more openly espouse fascist and White supremacist ideology should also be considered in terms of its re-incorporation of the remnant members of neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Squadron 88’, who attended PFF rallies in Newtown and Lithgow in July. To date, S88 is best-known for shoving shitty anti-Semitic tracts into the letterboxes of folks (many Jewish) in Bondi in August 2014 and more recently for throwing up racist posters in Petersham in July 2017.

Enough is enough!

STOP FASCISTS RALLYING AT THE LGBT HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
WHEN : 1pm, Saturday, September 23
WHERE : Green Park, Victoria and Burton Streets, Darlinghurst
infos : antifa-au.tk

Posted in Anti-fascism, Sex & Sexuality, State / Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A further note on Avi Yemini’s fascist and neo-Nazi friends …

Yeah well anyway, I thought I might just note in passing some of Avi Yemini’s fanbase among the extreme-right.

To begin with, unhappy with the media reportage of his hate rally on Sunday, Avi instead recommends everybody read the report on the ‘altright’ website ‘The Unshackled’ (2016–) by Tom Pirrone. According to Tom, ‘hundreds’ attended Avi’s shindig — which is about as accurate as most of the reportage on the site, which otherwise reflects the preoccupations of the Tory yoof which constitutes its audience.

The Unhinged editors of The Unshackled are Tim Wilms and Sukith Fernando. Like many other #altright yoof, Sukith is a card-carrying member of the Liberal Party, and it was while campaigning for student elections that Sukith got into some hot water at the University of Sydney last week. Thus according to Honi Soit (Holocaust denying student confronted on campus, Kishor Napier-Raman and Aidan Molins, September 15, 2017): ‘Fernando was confronted on Eastern Avenue by members of both Stand Up (Labor) and Switch (Grassroots/independents) who questioned him about his beliefs. Fernando repeatedly claimed that he “didn’t know” whether the Holocaust happened.’ He is also reportedly a member of multiple right-wing Facebook groups, including one called ‘Holocaust Revisionism’.

As was the case with University of Queensland student David Hilton (‘Moses Apostaticus’), being an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier is no barrier to being adopted by more mainstream publications, including The Spectator. Thus in July Sukith contributed a sterling essay to the site (Goodbye Yassmin and #PrayForLondon, July 13, 2017) celebrating Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s decision to leave Australia for London, while also deriding her for her alleged apostasy and racism. For its part, the Liberal yoof who’ve assembled behind the ‘Vanguard’ banner to contest the election have denounced Sukith for his public expressions of racism, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and informed the world that, if elected, Sukith will not hold office. On the other hand, Sukith’s brave stand against The Jew at his university did at least win the approval of neo-Nazi and former Grand Poobah of the KKK, David Duke, so that’s something eh.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Leaving aside Sukith, as noted previously, the main body of supporters at Avi’s rally on Sunday were drawn from pre-existing extreme-right street gangs, especially the Soldiers of Odin and True Blue Crew. Funnily enough, apart from ignoring actually-existing laws and legal processes, the implementation of the rally’s demands — minimum sentencing for violent offenders (including minors), no bail for persons charged with violent offences, no parole for those convicted for violent offences, minors to be incarcerated in adult jails and the deportation of immigrants convicted of violent offences — would actually decimate his support base.

See also : TheDingoes.xyz /// The Convict Report /// DingoCon (July 8, 2017).

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Avi Yemini flops in Melbourne

It was a lovely day for a stroll in the city today.

Oh yeah!

A few dozen racist gronks (Party for Freedom, Soldiers of Odin, True Blue Crew and various other fascist zombies) attended a rally organised by tabloid favourite Avi Yemini (above); several hundred others attended a counter-protest. Otherwise, apart from the shouty, not much happened: one person was detained by police and issued a move-on notice for wearing a face covering; Neil Erikson tried to gatecrash Die PARTEI but was told to shoo.

That’s about it, really.

(Oh, and props to everyone who rocked up to tell Avi and his fascist mates to bugger off.)

See also : MEDIA BACKGROUNDER: Much more than an ‘anti-crime’ protest, Police Accountability Project, September 16, 2017 | The curious case of Britain First: wildly popular on Facebook, but a flop in elections, Nigel Copsey, Democratic Audit UK, July 17, 2017. Campaign Against Racism & Fascism /// Jews against fascism /// Melbourne Antifascist Info.

Below : Fascists receive the traditional Melbourne salute.

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Avi Yemini ~versus~ APEX : “Make Victoria Great Again” LOL (September 17, 2017)

This Sunday, September 17, Avi Yemini has organised a rally to castigate the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, for failing to stop African yoof from slaughtering Victorians.

Or something.

According to Avi:

The government has failed us.

Violent crime in Victoria is out of control and we refuse to wait until the next elections [sic] to demand safety and security for the good people of our great state.

We will be demanding:
1. Minimum sentencing for violent offenders, including teenage ‘minors’.

2. NO bail for violent offenders.

3. NO early release for violent offenders.

4. Adult jails for offenders over the age of 18. No matter their sob story.

5. Deportation of violent immigrant offenders.

6. Empowering the community through the legalisation of defensive tools, such as pepper spray.

Avi has previously stated that ‘[t]here’s no question that Melbourne is currently under siege’, and that those besieging it are APEX (‘APEX: How to end their reign of terror’, July 16, 2016). On APEX, see : In defense of the “Apex gang”, Kieran’s Review, November 7, 2016; on crime in Victoria, see : FactCheck Q&A: is violent crime getting worse in Victoria and do people feel less safe than ever?, The Conversation, February 18, 2017.

Joining him on the day will be All The Usual Suspects, drawn from A26A, Asolate Security Group, Patriots Defence League of Australia, Reclaim Australia, Soldiers of Odin, True Blue Crew, United Patriots Front and various other right-wing satellites.

Well, actually, lvl boss of the TBC, Kane Miller, announced on Tuesday that the boys from Bendigo and Melton will not be joining Avi on Sunday. According to Kane, this is because of the unfortunate fact that, while they too regard African yoof as being suitable only for deportation, Avi simply failed to respond to their messages to him about the event.

This is very sad news.

But wait! There’s more! On Friday, Kane informed the world that he and his Crew will indeed be attending on Sunday, because while they don’t support Avi or his #BFF Neil Erikson (who has previously denounced the TBC as the ‘True Meth Crew’), they rlly do hate African yoof as much as any other flag-waver.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In any case, the Soldiers of Odin — y’know, the mob founded by a Finnish neo-Nazi, Mika Ranta (Finnish Resistance Movement) — will mos def be present, including its President Jason (‘Jay B’) Moore, and Swiss member Jan Herweijer. Jan was recently in the news (August 22, 2017) because he ‘was issued with a letter from the immigration department last month informing him he had failed a character test. The letter, seen by nine.com.au, informs Mr Herweijer the department is considering cancelling his current bridging visa and refusing his partner visa application because of his online activity and affiliation with Soldiers of Odin (SOO).’ Note that in August:

Three men with ties to the [Nordic Resistance Movement] were sentenced on Friday to up to eight and a half years in prison for bomb attacks in western Sweden over the past year. Viktor Melin, 23, received the longest sentence for carrying out bomb attacks on a left-wing bookstore and an asylum center and an attempted bombing of a second asylum center. The attacks took place in November and January. Nobody was killed but one man was seriously wounded in the asylum center attack.

The Soldiers’ cousins in Sweden are also organising a march on a synagogue on Yom Kippur (Neo-Nazis Get Green Light To March Outside Swedish Synagogue On Yom Kippur, Aiden Pink, Forward, September 11, 2017).

Joining the Soldiers Of Odin will be whatever remains of the PDLA, which in this case seems to be Damian/Damien Kourevellis (Court told violent man not detained, Steve Butcher, The Age, March 26, 2009):

A man arrested and then released from hospital hours after threatening “suicide by police” was shot and wounded months later by an officer in a second violent confrontation. A court heard that father of three Damien Kourevellis left Sunshine Hospital on March 24 last year after police sought his involuntary detention under the Mental Health Act. Kourevellis that day had assaulted his partner, threatened to blow up her house with petrol bombs and then armed himself with a knife. But he was not charged for seven months.

Kourevellis later ‘pleaded guilty to nine charges from both incidents that included reckless conduct endangering serious injury to police and manufacturing an explosive device’, crimes which bring to mind both Blair Cottrell’s criminal record and of course my good friend Phill Galea, who if he wasn’t awaiting trial on terrorism charges would also be joining Avi outside Parliament.

One grouping that will not be present on Sunday will be Chris Shortis of the Australia First Party. Despite being a confirmed anti-Semite and White supremacist, Avi found time last week to congratulate Chris on his brave defence of the crime of inciting hatred for Muslims. This is a heartwarming tale and one which demonstrates that Avi and Chris can at least bond over their mutual fear and suspicion of Muslims and Africans.

Certainly, the extreme-right and neo-Nazis have nothing to fear from Avi, whose main concern is to combat those opposed to the extreme-right. Thus: The media love to highlight the stereotypical mad-dog, right-wing, “neo Nazi”-looking crew, but they’re not the real problem. The real problem is the so-called “anti-fascists” who claim to be standing against hate (ironically in a very hateful way). (‘Burning the flag: A hate crime every time, The Times of Israel, June 28, 2016).


ABOVE (L to R) : George Jameson (Party for Freedom, Sydney), Chris Shortis (Australia First Party, ex-United Patriots Front), Neil Erikson (ex-UPF, ex-Nationalist Alternative), Blair Cottrell (UPF, ex-NAlt), Ricky Turner, Garry Hume, Luke Phipps.

Finally, the state government passed the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Public Order) Act 2017 this week, which:

essentially bans face coverings during protest events where OC (capsicum) spray is commonly deployed by police (often in inappropriate, excessive and potentially unlawful circumstances). This means journalists, photographers, street medics and legal observers, as well as protestors will not be able to protect themselves from the effects of direct spraying or by-spray. This is despite numerous recent incidents where journalists, medics and legal observers (along with dozens of protesters posing no threat to police whatsoever), have been directly sprayed by ill-disciplined, under trained or over-zealous police.

The CBD has also been declared a ‘designated zone’ between 8am and 8pm on Sunday.

See also : AJDS Statement on Avi Yemini and the rise of far-right racism, September 14, 2017 | Counter Fascism Action: Join the Jew Bloc (Hosted by Jews against fascism) | From Charlottesville to Melbourne: Unite to fight the far right (Hosted by Campaign Against Racism and Fascism): 11.30am, Sunday, September 17, 2017 @ State Library of Victoria.

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What Chip Le Grand gets wrogn about the Australian ‘alt-right’

On the weekend The Australian published an article by Chip Le Grand titled ‘Inside Australia’s own fractious alt-right’ (September 9, 2017) in which the ‘alt-right’ (which is left undefined) is represented by the dynamic duo of Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson. The pair, along with Chris Shortis, were earlier in the week convicted of inciting hatred for Muslims; all three were at one stage members of the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF). The article is interesting but incomplete and what follows is my attempt to flesh out some of Le Grand’s account.

Cottrell the (neo-)Nazi

As Blair Cottrell tells Inquirer, “If you dress up as a brownshirt you are setting yourself up to be laughed at.’’

Cottrell first emerged into the public spotlight at the Reclaim Australia rally in Melbourne on April 4, 2015. On that occasion he gave a brief speech, accompanied by his cousin Christopher and several other members of neo-Nazi grouplet Nationalist Alternative (NAlt). The grouplet emerged during the course of anti-mosque activism in Williamstown several years ago, and until recently met under the auspices of the English-Speaking Union of Victoria at its headquarters in Toorak Road, South Yarra. The leader of the group, Mark Hootsen, was exposed as such by fellow member Neil Erikson in mid- to late-2014 following a dispute between the pair.

Cottrell’s political views may be established by reference to his online commentary, on sites like Facebook and YouTube. I documented these views from May 2015, when he announced the formation of the ‘National Democratic Party of Australia’:

There’s another kid on the fascist bloc: the ‘National Democratic Party of Australia’ (which is neither national, democratic nor a party). The group had a rather inauspicious beginning, ripping off a WA design company (and the WA RSL) to produce NDP agitprop. A convinced racialist, its chief spokesperson, Blair Cottrell, has some association with the Australia First Party and Nationalist Alternative, both of which had a presence on April 4 and are also committed to returning on July 18/19.

Not surprisingly, the Australian version of the German NDP constituted a mere blip on the political radar, and Cottrell soon moved on to the United Patriots Front, “a coalition of neo-Nazis, fundamentalist Christians belonging to the Rise Up Australia Party (RUAP), and a handful of semi-pro Islamophobes”. His views were more exhaustively documented in Quotations From Chairman Blair Cottrell (July 27, 2015). As I noted at the time, “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.” Some of this content was later reported in ‘Blair Cottrell, rising anti-Islam movement leader, wanted Hitler in the classroom’ (Michael Bachelard, Luke McMahon, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 17, 2015).

In other words, Cottrell’s anxiety not to be portrayed as a neo-Nazi is both rational — being known as a neo-Nazi is the political kiss of death — and commonplace — most neo-Nazis lie and dissemble about their political commitments and Cottrell is no exception. Finally, it’s worth noting that his former kamerad Shermon Burgess claims that, when he met Cottrell for the first time in Melbourne in May 2015, Cottrell had a copy of Mein Kampf in his ute, and when asked why he travelled with a copy of Mister Hitler’s book, referred to it as ‘The White Man’s Bible’. In any event, even if Le Grand chooses to ignore it, there’s certainly no shortage of evidence of Cottrell’s neo-Nazi views.

Erikson the (neo-)Nazi

There are certainly Nazis on the fringes of Australia’s underground alt-right. Neil Erikson, one of Cottrell’s co-accused, used to be one, although he has in recent years disavowed them. He dismisses the emergence of Australia’s newest neo-Nazi group, the Antipodean Resistance, as uni kids playing dress-ups on Twitter and describes his own renunciation of National Socialism as a case of growing up.

“I used to admire Adolf Hitler years ago but since then I have woken up and seen a different side to it. I used to think that all Jews were evil. Now I see that the racist stuff comes from the left. I used to be anti-Israel, now I’m pro-Israel. You can’t be a nationalist and be against Israel.’’ He once accused Cottrell of being a Nazi. He now says he’s not. “There are Nazis out there but they are clowns,’’ he says. “We all think they are clowns.’’

LOL.

By his own admission, Erikson became a ‘Nazi’ as a teenybopper; he first renounced ‘Nazis’ and ‘Nazism’, however, after he and his kamerad Shermon Burgess left the UPF in late 2015, precisely on the basis that the UPF was considered by them to be irredeemably ‘Nazi’. As well as being a member of NAlt, Erikson was also a ‘Crazy White Boy’, a short-lived gang of boneheads whose main claim to fame was the attempted murder of Vietnamese student Minh Duong in Ascot Vale in June 2012. In December 2012, several nazi yoof were convicted of the crime, which is worth recalling in some detail:

Wayne O’Brien, aged 20, and Shannon Hudson, now 21, committed a deplorable and unforgiveable attack on their smaller victim who they jumped as he was walking home alone from a Moonee Ponds 7/Eleven store where he worked.

The victim, a 21-year-old Vietnamese international student, was listening to music on his iPhone when attacked unawares on June 27 this year.

During the ferocious 10-minute bashing he was called names including a “yellow dog”, but Supreme Court judge Justice Betty King today said the bashing robbery was only partially racially motivated.

The victim was punched in the face and, after toppling over a garden fence, was pinned down and punched and kicked.

After he handed over his phone, O’Brien and Hudson dragged him down and bashed him again.

“He was terrified and believed he was going to be beaten to death,” Justice King said in sentencing.

The victim was dragged by his legs into the street and punched and kicked some more, and was also stabbed with a sharp weapon.

“Eventually (he) lost consciousness and lay in the gutter,” Justice King said.

“Despite that, it would appear that the assault continued.”

In what the judge described as a “particularly chilling episode of violence”, Hudson picked up a loose brick from the ground and, after raising it above his head in both hands, brought it down on the man’s head.

“The brick itself broke in half,” Justice King said.

The victim was left lying unconscious and shirtless in a pool of blood.

According to Erikson, after the assault his ‘Boys’ asked him to help dispose of Duong’s body. Whether they did or not (Erikson states that he declined their invitation), it’s curious that Le Grand avoids connecting Cottrell and Erikson to NAlt, and Erikson to the Boys. Of course, Le Grand also avoids reference to the ‘Aryan Nations’ (AN) in Perth. According to Erikson, when the UPF travelled to Perth to attend a rally in November 2015, they stayed with fellow UPF (Perth) member Melony Jane Attwood. Attwood, along with fellow neo-Nazis Robert Wayne Edhouse and Corey Joshua Dymock, are currently on trial for the murder of Alan Taylor, bashed to death with a hammer as he slept at his Girrawheen home in April 2016: barely six months after Attwood/Taylor hosted Cottrell and Erikson (and Cottrell’s sidekick, Li’l Tommy Sewell) at her home in Perth.

In summary, while choosing to focus upon Cottrell and Erikson as the most familiar faces on the ‘alt-right’ in Australia makes a degree of sense, for unknown reasons the fact that both men have emerged from the neo-Nazi milieu is significantly downplayed.

Finally, a few brief notes on some other aspects of Le Grand’s reportage:

• On Facebook kicking the UPF and others off the platform, see : antifa notes (may 10, 2017) : United Patriots Front kicked off Facebook &c. Note that for a brief period the UPF spawned another page titled ‘UPF Media’, which also claimed at one point the title of ‘Alt Right Australia’;
• The nü neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Antipodean Resistance’ — ‘a group that openly proclaims its adherence to National Socialism’ (ie, Nazism) — was spawned by the UPF and NAlt. Formed last year and inspired by the (now-banned) UK group ‘National Action’, members of the group attended various rallies organised by the True Blue Crew and UPF in Melbourne, including the anti-leftist/anti-Muslim/anti-immigrant rally in Coburg in May 2016 and the ‘Blue Lives Matter’ counter-protest in the CBD (along with a superbly-disguised Blair Cottrell) in July 2016.

There is, of course, a lot more to say about AR — and last week the media embarked on a publicity campaign on behalf of the boys — but that will come in good time;
• Finally, the alt-right’s favourite Australian Jew, Avi Yemini, is indeed organising a rally next weekend in Melbourne. While his attempt at organising hate rallies in Melbourne in December 2016 and in Sydney in August 2017 were not entirely successful, for its part the ‘Campaign Against Racism & Fascism’ has organised a counter-protest ‘From Charlottesville to Melbourne: Unite to fight the far right’.

See also : Who is Moses Apostaticus? (September 8, 2017) | TheDingoes.xyz /// The Convict Report /// DingoCon (July 8, 2017) | Depends What You Mean By Extremist : A Review (of sorts) (May 19, 2017) | Melbourne neo-Nazis celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday & ANZAC Day 2017 (April 26, 2017) | A (very) brief guide to the Australian far right (December 2016 Edition) (December 5, 2016).

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Who is Moses Apostaticus?

Back in July, The Spectator (Australia) published two articles by a writer known as ‘Moses Apostaticus’. After he was identified as elsewhere espousing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the articles were deleted, and the incident slipped down The Memory Hole (more-or-less, see : Rowan Dean, The Spectator, & anti-Semitism, July 14, 2017). Thankfully, you can still find Apostaticus’s (other) writings on Tucker Carlson’s site The Daily Caller and Adam Piggott’s site XYZ, read his magnum opus Civilizationism online, or receive a terrific education via his YouTube channel.

Rowan Dean’s decision to un-publish Apostaticus’s two contributions to The Spectator TRIGGERED the author, who composed an angwy response. Titled ‘The Far Left Terrorists Hiding in Plain Sight’ (XYZ, July 15, 2017), the article is chiefly dedicated to excoriating writer and broadcaster Jeff Sparrow for Cultural Marxisms and other alleged crimes. Apostaticus also claims that I’m Rob, Jeff’s brother, who is also a very bad egg(head):

Rob’s academic output is exactly the type of derivative, noxious bilge you see across the social sciences today. His papers include such significant and empirical topics as ‘Robots, rape, and representation’, ‘Queerin’ the PGD clinic: human enhancement and the future of bodily diversity’ and ‘Robots and respect: assessing the case against Autonomous Weapons Systems’. That first one is about whether it’s ethical or not to rape a robot. Seriously. Your tax dollars hard at work.

And Rob, only pretentious dicks still use the Oxford comma. Get over yourself.

Rob’s is the pierced and sallow face behind violent anarchist propagandist Andy Fleming, an online persona who writes hatespeech for the slackbastard blog. He writes regularly encouraging the university-age footsoldiers of Antifa to commit violence against anyone who disagrees with their neo-Marxist orthodoxy.

The close links between the slackbastard blog and Jeff Sparrow are not difficult to find. Slackbastard posted to Facebook the article attacking me, The Spectator and Mark Latham almost immediately upon it being published. Pretty sloppy fellas, even for Antifa.

Duh.

Note that the erroneous claim that I’m Rob Sparrow dates back to the end of 2015/beginning of 2016, and was first advanced by Neil Erikson on the one hand and the Australia First Party on the other. (See : Review : 2015 : Neil Erikson ~vs~ Rob Sparrow, January 2, 2016; you can listen to Rob being interviewed by myself and my ‘The SUWA Show’ co-host Cam Smith here.)

In any event, while I’m not Rob, ‘Moses Apostaticus’ is in fact an ex-high school teacher from Queensland called David Hilton (b.1979), who abandoned teaching history a few years ago to return to study for a PhD. (Or to put it another way: ‘Moses Apostaticus is a PhD student with a background in classics, history and literature. His years in education have made him a lifelong enemy of leftism’.) Thus before he was ‘Moses’, David was also known as @MisterHistory on Twitter (July 2009–April 2015), but despite having academic ambitions, poor old David doesn’t seem to have any great love for academics. Thus in ‘Academics: Smug High Priests of the Establisment [sic]’ (XYZ, May 5, 2017), he states:

Academic training is not training in wisdom, insight or even superior understanding of the problems of the human condition. It may have once been, but that was long ago. Academic disciplines today are training in the use of language as a weapon, as a means of social control. In ancient Greece, such fake intellectuals were called sophists. They are practiced at making the big seem small and the long seem short, but they know nothing. They are empty vessels.

They’re also not very smart. They are good with words to an extent, but even then the cronyism and careerism in academe these days selects for the most sycophantic, conformist and ruthless rather than the dedicated and brilliant. Many of them are rather dim. The only smart academics you’ll find in universities either come from outside the world of academe and have made careers in their fields first, or else are working in fields like medicine which require proven performance as a professional in the domain. Anything with ‘Studies’ after it is basically just cultural Marxist bulls—t.

Whether or not David regards his supervisor as being another empty-headed crackademic fulla cultural Marxist bulls–t is of course anyone’s guess.

Finally, it’s worth noting that, along with former Labor Party leader Mark Latham, sitting MP George Christensen and fellow XYZ contributors Adam Piggott and Ryan Fletcher, David has been a guest on neo-Nazi podcast ‘The Convict Report’; the talking-points he promotes are standard AltRight fare, concentrating upon the pernicious influence of (((Cultural Marxists))) on the education system in particular but also society as a whole, and otherwise developing a strand of fascist thinking dating back to Julius Evola.

See also : How the Alt-Right Trolled Triple J to Advance Their Agenda, Royce Kurmelovs and Rebecca Kamm, Vice, Aug 17 2017 (‘A few hours after the segment, a contributor to the far right site XYZ, writing under the name Moses Apostaticus, published a story titled: Triple J Rejects Multiculturalism, Embraces Alt-Right. Apostaticus, who runs the site RestoringAustralia.net, has a significant online presence.’) | ‘Dr Goebbels’ mastheads’: on antisemitism and News Corp, Jeff Sparrow, Overland, July 13, 2017 | Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe (Martin Jay), March 9, 2012 | Clinton Hits Alt-Right, While Old-School Rightbloggers Play ‘Real Racist’ With Kaepernick, Roy Edroso, Village Voice, August 29, 2016 (‘Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller ran an essay by some guy calling himself, I swear to God, “Moses Apostaticus” (I understand his real name is Biggus Dickus but his wife Incontinentia made him use a pseudonym) who advertised himself as “a PhD Candidate (Education) at a major Australian university and…a known voice in the alt-right sphere.” Dickus went on at length about how Hillary was, like, old and a “Cultural Marxist” and the alt-right is the new hip thing.’).

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Blair Cottrell, Neil Erikson and Chris Shortis found guilty of inciting hatred for Muslims

Briefly:

Yesterday, The Three Stooges (AKA ‘The Bendigo Three’) — Blair Cottrell, Neil Erikson and Chris Shortis — were convicted of serious religious vilification in Melbourne Magistrates Court over a publicity stunt the boys performed in October 2015, and fined $2,000 each. The trio has indicated that they intend to appeal the decision in the County Court.

See : Far-right nationalists found guilty of inciting serious contempt for Muslims after mock beheading video, James Oaten, ABC, September 5, 2017 | United Patriots Front trio found guilty of inciting contempt of Muslims, SBS (AAP), September 5, 2017 | Far-right trio convicted, fined $2000 each, over mock-beheading mosque protest, Adam Cooper, The Age, September 5, 2017.

The stunt — for which UPF lackeys ‘Farma’ John Wilkinson and Linden Watson acted as gormless witnesses — took place a few days prior to an anti-Muslim rally in Bendigo on October 10, which attracted as many as 1,000 bigots; the largest such demonstration to have taken place in Australia. Both Erikson and Shortis left the UPF in the months following the stunt, while Cottrell has remained the fuehrer of what is now largely a lame-duck organisation, and as of September 5 can add the crime of serious religious vilification to his list of priors. (Cottrell’s criminal record is detailed in a report by Geir O’Rourke and Angus Thompson in the Herald Sun (June 11, 2016). Of his offending, they write: ‘Cottrell, 26, was sentenced to four months in prison in May 2012 after being convicted of 13 charges, including seven counts of intentionally damaging property. County Court Judge Michael Tinney convicted the then-22-year-old of throwing a missile, stalking, failing to comply with a community-based order, and two counts of recklessly causing serious injury. In December 2013 he was fined $1000 and sentenced to seven days in jail by a County Court judge for aggravated burglary, property damage, arson, trafficking testosterone, possessing a controlled weapon and breaching court orders.’ Cottrell, as ‘Bruce’, appeared in a documentary about youth in the maximum-security Youth Unit at Port Phillip Prison in Truganina, in which he describes how he abused steroids, stalked his former partner and her boyfriend, tried to kill him, set fire to their house, and eventually got arrested, convicted, and sent to prison.)

As for Erikson, having already been convicted in February 2014 of stalking a local Melbourne rabbi — ‘Magistrate Donna Bakos said she had no doubt Erikson’s calls were motivated by prejudice and found he had little remorse for his crime’ — celebrated being given another slap on the wrist by the courts by disrupting a meeting of Yarra Council in order to harass councillor Steve Jolly. (See : Far right protesters storm Yarra City Council meeting over Australia Day ban, Melissa Cunningham, The Age, September 5, 2017 | Yarra Council meeting interrupted by far-right group protesting against Australia Day changes, ABC, September 6, 2017.) Among those who joined Erikson were George Jameson and Penny Louise/Tridgell of the Sydney-based Party for Freedom and locals Paul ‘Guru’ Franzi (sporting Soldiers of Odin merch) and UPF fanboy Luke Phipps. Note that the first public rally organised by the UPF took place in Richmond on May 31, 2015, and was called in order to demand Jolly be thrown out of office.

See also : Fascists flail in Melbourne race hate trial, Corey Oakley, Red Flag, September 11, 2017.

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antifa notes (august 22, 2017) : Charlottesville +++

Yeesh.

It’s been almost a month since my last post (July 25), so the following is just a few brief notes re some of the events that have transpired in the intervening period …

Charlottesville

Not surprisingly, the ‘Unite The Reich Right’ rally of August 12 has generated a great deal of discussion, which it would be impossible to summarise here. Certainly, a number of folks in the US and elsewhere have expressed varying degrees of shock and outrage, both at the sight of over 1,000 neo-Nazis, fascists and White supremacists (supplemented by small groupings of armed militants) staging a militant rally, and the murder of a counter-protester, Heather Heyer, by a nazi belonging to one of its constituent groups (‘Vanguard America’). FWIW, the CrimethInc podcast of August 14 provides what I think is the most useful accounts of events that I’ve encountered, while It’s Going Down continues to provide rolling coverage and analysis of the fallout from Charlottesville (and much more besides). Also useful reading is Jason Wilson in The Guardian — his recent interview with Corey Pein for Pein’s News From Nowhere podcast is also worth listening to — and Spencer Sunshine on Colorlines.

Closer to home, last week there was a minor brouhaha involving yoof radio JJJ and its news and current affairs program, Hack. Hosted by Tom Tilley, Hack decided to report on the events in Charlottesville by inviting one of its neo-Nazi organisers, ‘Eli Mosley’, on to the show to talk shit and to ensure that the ABC met its obligations to provide a platform for nazi propaganda (or something). Mosley — whose real name is Elliott Kline — has a brief history as a neo-Nazi organiser, and is one of thousands who’ve assumed this role in the wake of Trump’s becoming El Presidente. Writing for Andrew Anglin’s neo-Nazi Daily Stormer site regarding a Trump supporters rally in Philadelphia in March, Kline (Philly March Ground Report: Cops and Trumpenkriegers Work Together to Defeat Kikes and Antifa Faggots) writes that:

The boys are back in town.

On Saturday afternoon hundreds of marches took place across the Trumpenkrieg in support of Trump. In Philadelphia, the city of faggotry love, played out an alliance between the Nazi led marchers and local police departments against their oven-dodging enemies.

Up to their typical tricks again, not a single Shlomo-ran media outlet covered the event accurately. Of course. Luckily I was able to cover the event from on the ground to prevent the spread of fake news.

Spoiler, the Nazis won bigly.

A thinker as well as a doer, Kline concludes his examination of the bigly nazi victory as follows:

So what does this event mean in our struggle for total Aryan Victory? This is a sign that we have moved into a new era in the Nazification of America. Normie Trump supporters are becoming racially aware and Jew wise. They are willing to stick up for themselves side by side with Nazis without being adverse to violence. The police departments are begging for the return of law and order and love jokes about hooked-nose merchants, but need our help in getting strongmen elected so they can do their jobs. Antifa and the kike media are so dumb they can be tricked by a monkey in a police uniform. All of this while the media continues to cover antifa in a positive light while demonizing all Trump supporters and law enforcement, further pushing them into our arms.

So: is the neo-Nazi organiser of a neo-Nazi event, at which an anti-fascist protester was murdered by one of the neo-Nazis attending the event, really the best person for Australian yoof to gain a better understanding of the meaning and significance of Charlottesville? Apparently so. The stoopid was further compounded, however, when Hack put to air a call by a nazi troll, ‘Herschel from Brisbane’. So: not only did the episode feature an interview with a neo-Nazi organiser, it also put to air neo-Nazis posing as Jews (you can read some channers discuss the raid here).

Not everybody was opposed to Tilley’s decision to give a neo-Nazi platform to talk, however: Andrew Bolt thought he did a great job.

See also : How Triple J’s Hack presenter Tom Tilley became a far-right meme, Amanda Meade, The Guardian, August 18, 2017 | How the alt-right trolled Triple J’s Hack program over Charlottesville, Broede Carmody, The Sydney Morning Herald, August 17, 2017.

In terms of the reaction by denizens of the local far right to the murderous adventures of their American kameraden, their glee-filled commentary is available on Facebook, in the comment threads on Andrew Bolt’s ‘blog’ and in all the usual places. Two notable examples (both since DELed by their authors) are the reactions of former ‘United Patriots Front’ leaders Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson:


Ho hum. The pair, along with Chris Shortis, are due back in court in September to face charges of serious religious vilification. Oh, and speaking of patriotik volk making appearances in court, Phill Galea had another a few weeks ago, and will be back again in November:

Delays in case for accused Vic terrorist
Amber Wilson (AAP)
August 10, 2017

A pre-trial court hearing for an anti-Islam extremist accused of plotting bomb attacks in Melbourne has been delayed while senior legal counsel is sourced.

Phillip Galea, 32, is accused of making preparations for terrorist attacks against properties occupied by Melbourne anarchist groups between November 2015 and August 2016.

Police allege Galea was preparing to target various locations inhabited by the Melbourne Anarchist Club and Melbourne Resistance Centre.

He ordered potassium nitrate for smoke bombs, aligned himself with right-wing and neo-Nazi groups and researched how to make improvised explosive devices, ballistic armour and firearms, prosecutors said.

Police arson and explosive experts raided Galea’s home in November 2015, allegedly seizing five cattle prods, 362.1 grams of mercury and computer equipment, the court has been told.

The case had been set down for a two-day committal hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, but on Thursday the court was told the matter would not go ahead while Victoria Legal Aid secured a senior counsel to act for Galea.

There was no application for bail and Galea was remanded in custody until his matter is listed again on November 13.

Otherwise:

• Michael Brull examines what happened when local boofhead (and tireless self-promoter) Avi Yemini tried to team up with fascists to organise a protest in Sydney in A Synagogue Beat-Up, Nazis In Bondi And The Strange Ambivalence From The Jewish Leadership (New Matilda, August 14, 2017);
• Among the mountains of dross in the state/corporate media re ‘antifa’, this article by Mark Bray stands out as one of the most useful: Who are the antifa?, The Washington Post, August 16, 2017;
• Some local nazis have jumped on board the hatewagon in opposition to same-sex marriage (Neo-Nazis Are On The Frontline Of The Campaign Against Marriage Equality, Osman Faruqi, Junkee, August 22, 2017). Note that, according to the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the nazi-produced and distributed ‘Stop the Fags’ posters are a legitimate part of the public debate on the question of marriage reform (#TrueStory);
• I’ve read but not finished reviewing Angela Nagle’s Kill All Normies (Zer0 Books, 2017) but following Charlottesville, Nagle has penned ‘Goodbye, Pepe’ for The Baffler (August 15, 2017), stating that:

But I believe now that Charlottesville marks the end of a significant phase of the alt-right. Their seemingly rapid growth was fueled—or at least bulked up—by an online culture of shared hatred for the cultural left. This collective reflex acquired an ironic, countercultural edge among a growing corps of transgressive shitposters and anti-PC trolls—and was duly amplified by a media infatuation with everything subcultural and extremely-online.

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A few notes on #J25Antifa …

To mark ‘International Day of Solidarity with Antifascist Prisoners’ (J25Antifa) I wrote a thing for overland which you can read here.

For more infos on J25Antifa, please see the NYC ANTIFA blog.

This coming Saturday @ The Coronation Hotel in Ipswich, QLD there’s a Riffs Against Racism gig. Get along to it if you can [Facebook event page].

See also : International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund /// Bulgarian Prisoners’ Association.

* This post is dedicated to the memory of murdered anti-fascists Alexander Ryukhin (April 2006, Russia); Alexei Krylov (March 2008, Russia); Anastasia Baburova (January 2009, Russia); Carlos Palomino (November 2007, Spain); Clément Méric (June 2013, France); Davide ‘Dax’ Cesare (March 2003, Italy); Fyodor Filatov (October 2008, Russia); Ian Kucira (January 2007, Czech Republic); Ilya Bondarenko (July 2007, Russia); Ilya Dzhaparidze (June 2009, Russia); Ivan Khutorskoi (November 2009, Russia); Jimi Karttunen (September 2016, Finland); Pavlos Fyssas (September 2013, Greece); Stanislav Markelov (January 2009, Russia); Timur Kacharava (November 2005, Russia) and to all the other fighters, known and unknown, who’ve left us.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Death, History, Media, Music, Poetry, State / Politics, That's Capitalism! | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair 2017 : Saturday, August 12

Just a quick note to let folks know that the seventh annual Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair is on again in three weeks.

WHEN : 10am–6pm, Saturday, August 12
WHERE : Brunswick Town Hall (233 Sydney Road, Brunswick)
COST : Free

The Bookfair sees thousands of people every year enjoying 40+ vendors sharing, selling and giving away zines, pamphlets, books, clothing, badges and all kinds of knowledge and information, and to partake in more than a dozen workshops and plenaries on anarchism, indigenous sovereignty, land rights and colonialism, sexism and gender, feminism, justice, sexual assault, workplace struggles, community spaces, environmental action and much more. Every year build on the ideas and networking, and welcome a broader audience and participation.

For more details, please see the MABF website, Facebook event page and Twitter account (#MABF2017). See also : Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair 2016 : Sunday, August 14 @ Brunswick Town Hall.

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