Jacob Hersant : An Antipodean Resistance Lad

Posted on April 13, 2018 by @ndy

In September last year I published a post titled ‘Who Are Antipodean Resistance?’. It gave a brief outline on the neo-Nazi group’s origins on Tumblr and its development by way of ‘Reclaim Australia’ and, moreover, the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF). It included a photo of a young man who had been spotted distributing Antipodean Resistance propaganda in Collingwood and Fitzroy. That man’s name is Jacob Hersant.

In addition to palling around with Antipodean Resistance, Jacob is also an active member of another neo-Nazi grouplet, ‘The Lads Society’. Here he’s pictured at the Society’s headquarters in Cheltenham with James ‘REGISTER COMMUNISTS NOT FIREARMS’ Buckle — President of gun lobby group ‘Firearm Owners United’ — and Lads’ founder Tom Sewell (ex-UPF):

‘The Lads Society’, which has taken the place of the now-defunct UPF, is intended to fulfill the dreams of its founder Tom Sewell and ex-UPF fuehrer Blair Cottrell: to create a fascist cadre. This has met with some success: a joint meeting with members of the Bendigo- and Melton-based ‘True Blue Crew’ in January in order to discuss the formation of a vigilante patrol to police African yoof was promoted by Channel 7, while the ‘Lads’ have also attracted participation by goons working in the security industry (including Avi Yemini’s sidekick, Daniel Jones). Thus, last weekend Stuart Von Moger conducted a training workshop for The Lads on How To Get Into The Security Industry:

You may remember Stuart from such events as MILO’s appearance at Melbourne Pavilion in Kensington last December:

When he’s not busy securing the existence of Milo Yiannopoulos and a future for paedophile apologists, Stuart may also be found protecting former Premiers, playing with guns, and going for bushwalks to terrible destinations:



Of course, bush-walking is a pastime beloved of many, including Antipodean Resistance:


As for the Hitler Yoof Down Under, a few more notes:

• Since the group first emerged in late 2016 it’s received enormous media attention, almost none of it in the least bit useful. (Recent items include: Anti-Semitism on campus condemned, Australian Jewish News, March 9, 2018; Police investigate neo-Nazi material at VU Footscray campus, Benjamin Millar, Star Weekly, February 27, 2018.) An editorial in The Australian (March 16, 2018) claims that, while excising section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act is laudable:

Inciting violence against individuals or groups is an entirely different matter. It has been overlooked for too long and warrants the attention of politicians. In a recent Weekend Australian column, Janet Albrechtsen highlighted the problem of fringe groups such as the neo-Nazi Antipodean Resistance inciting violence towards Jews, gay people and others. The group is responsible for posters depicting a Nazi holding a gun to the head of a man on his knees wearing a Star of David. “Legalise the execution of Jews,” the caption says. “Join your local Nazis.” The poster appeared outside schools in Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast. Another poster featured a gun pointed at a man with a bullet in his head. He was wearing a “gay and proud” T-shirt. “Get the sodomite filth off our streets,” it blared. A poster featuring a swastika and proclaiming “REJECT JEWISH POISON” was glued to the window of federal Labor MP Mike Kelly’s office in the seat of Eden-Monaro in NSW. Mr Kelly’s wife is Jewish.

• As noted previously, Antipodean Resistance’s kameraden in the US (Atomwaffen) and the UK (National Action) have also been making headlines, albeit for killing people and doing terrorisms. VICE UK has recently published a series of articles on the far-right under the collective title of ‘Hate Island’; it includes one examining ironmarch dot org, a/k/a ‘The Obscure Neo-Nazi Forum Linked to a Wave of Terror’ (James Poulter, March 12, 2018):

Ironmarch.org was not the kind of website to hang out on if you knew what was good for you. A swastika-plastered forum which took its users on a shared journey of extreme radicalisation, it kickstarted an international wave of Nazi terror.

Users of Ironmarch.org have attempted a mall shooting; murdered two young men; attempted to hack a Sikh dentist to death with a machete; and have been found to be in possession of illegal weapons and materials to make bombs, among other crimes. While these acts of violence mostly took place in North America, the forum had plenty of fans in the UK.

One of Ironmarch’s administrators founded the banned British Nazi terror group National Action (NA), while an infographic produced by the site lists NA among its “affiliated groups”, under the heading “Ironmarch members in the global fascist struggle”.

Curiously, along with National Action (banned by the UK government as a ‘terrorist’ organisation), Atomwaffen and Skydas (Lithuania), Antipodean Resistance is the only other group listed as an affiliate of IronMarch.

Meanwhile, antifa in Eugene, Oregon have been doing a bit of digging into Atomwaffen: Mr. and Mrs. Maci: The Atomwaffen Division Implodes (March 8, 2018).

See also : YouTube Belatedly Bans Neo-Nazi Group Atomwaffen, Melanie Ehrenkranz, Gizmodo, March 2, 2018 | Read the Chilling Texts of Nazis Celebrating the Murder of a Jewish Teen, A.C. Thompson, Ali Winston and Jake Hanrahan, Mother Jones, March 1, 2018 (‘When Samuel Woodward was charged with killing Blaze Bernstein last month, other Atomwaffen members cheered the death’).

TO BE CONTINUED …

Posted in Anti-fascism, Collingwood, History, Media, State / Politics, Student movement, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Blair Cottrell : Emo-Hitler

Posted on April 5, 2018 by @ndy

For the record, from The Department of Crying Nazis:

United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell tells court of media-caused stress
Wayne Flower
Herald Sun
April 4, 2018

UNITED Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell has poured his heart out in an effort to have his County Court appeal over a hate crime delayed.

Cottrell was convicted and fined $2000 last September for knowingly engaging in conduct with the intention of inciting serious contempt for or revulsion of a class of people, namely Muslims, under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.

He immediately appealed the decision, but has been delaying the hearing ever since.

The burly frontman told Judge Mark Dean today that he wasn’t ready to proceed because of the media attention he had suffered since being charged with the offence.

Cottrell claimed he had been labelled a neo-Nazi by various media organisations, which he was planning to sue for defamation.

He further claimed the stress had caused him problems with his employer, forced him to relocate and ended his relationship.

Cottrell was among the first to be convicted of the crime since the Act came into force in 2001.

He and supporters Neil Erikson and Christopher Neil Shortis were charged in 2015 after they made a video protesting the construction of a mosque in Bendigo in which they beheaded a dummy with a toy sword and spilt fake blood on the footpath outside Bendigo City Council offices.

In finding the men guilty, Magistrate John Hardy condemned their behaviour, declaring they had each “crossed the line”.

Crown prosecutors opposed the application to adjourn today’s hearing, declaring the case was ready to be put.

The opposition saw Cottrell change tack, claiming the personal distress caused to him by the media had delayed him finding adequate legal representation for his appeal.

He told the court his legal defence needed to be “reformed” as his matter was now being heard individually.

Cottrell said he believed the media attention in his matter had subsided since his conviction and he hoped to now be able to concentrate on obtaining a barrister to represent him.

Prosecutors agreed he should be allowed time to find a barrister and Judge Dean obliged.

Cottrell smiled for a photo as he left the County Court.

He will reappear in court in July.

See also : Quotations From Chairman Blair Cottrell (July 27, 2015) /// Blair Cottrell : ” … and I started getting arrested after I did that.” #Fortitude /// #UnitedPatriotsFront (February 23, 2016) /// #7SummerOfNazis : The True Blue Crew & Co. Go Hunting Blacks While Channel 7 Cheers (January 16, 2018) /// The ‘crying Nazi’ from Charlottesville now says he’s an FBI informant, Luke Barnes, Think Progress, March 28, 2018.

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Conservative Forum 2018 /// Future Now & Steve Irwin Predicted Apex

Posted on April 3, 2018 by @ndy

[Update (April 3, 2018) : 1) The whole thing has collapsed in a heap.

2) smdh — Despite Daniel S being a YUGE fanboy of his, Milo Y has also apparently cancelled his virtual appearance. It also appears that Neil E may not be speaking (though not because he’ll be in prison or in violation of his bail conditions).]

How excitement.

In May, a Queensland-based businessman named Daniel Spiller has organised a series of events titled ‘Conservative Forum 2018’, which promises to ‘take you on a journey with music, entertainment and inspirational speakers’. Scheduled to take place in Brisbane (May 4), Sydney (May 10), Melbourne (May 19) and Perth (May 25), the list of speakers is rather short: ex-One Nation Party turned independent Tory MP Fraser Anning, ex-Tory MP and Sky News blabbermouth Ross Cameron, Milo Yiannopoulos (via a livefeed) and er, convicted racist and stalker Neil Erikson.

No rlly.

Not speaking will be New-Yawk based Gavin McInnes, founder of AltRight groupuscule ‘Proud Boys’. Though initially promoted as a speaker (also via livefeed), McInnes has stated that he will not be participating in this world-historical event. This decision has not been received well by keynote speaker Neil:


Otherwise, Daniel and the Conservative Forum (organised under the auspices of some thing called ‘Future Now’) embrace all the usual tropes: Africans, Islam, Multiculturalism and Political Correctness are Bad; Colonialism is Good; Feminism is Cancer; Homosexuality is Pathological; ‘Steve Irwin Predicted Apex’.

Ho hum.

Daniel also came into bat for Neil when TOLL took him to court.

LOL.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, State / Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

antifa notes (march 21, 2018) : nazis, patriots, drama, murder … the usual

Posted on March 21, 2018 by @ndy

Yeesh: talk about drama.

Party for Freedom /// Neil Erikson

Nick Folkes’ micro-‘Party for Freedom’ (PFF) has undergone some settling of contents over the course of the last few months. Gone is George Jameson and Penny Louise/Tridgell, along with a number of PFF placards, which George has apparently refused to return to Nick. The placards made a brief appearance at a ‘True Blue Crew’ (TBC) anti-Muslim rally in Belmont on February 24. (Note that, in reality, it appears as though there is no application before the local council for the construction of a new mosque in the area.) Incensed by this traitorous act, Nick has been going off on Facebook, taking aim not only at George and Penny but also the TBC (in both NSW and VIC), the Australia First Party, its leader Dr Jim Saleam (who he accuses of playing spin-the-bottle), and one of Jim’s QLD-based flunkeys, Jim Perren (who notably helped organise the United Patriot Front’s (UPF’s) doomed party launch in Toowoomba in February 2016 — describing it as ‘a Nuremberg rally minus the swastikas’). Oh, he also accused Melbourne local Paul ‘Guru’ Franzi of drug abuse(!), and more besides. Further, Nick’s sidekick Toby Cook has recently gone full Nazi, and the day after the TBC rally in February attended Jura Books, where he and two others — Matt Lowe and Christopher Grantham — proceeded to make arses of themselves. To top it all off, Nick invited valour thief and serial pest Ralph Cerminara to act as mediator between the TBC methgoblins and whatever remains of the PFF in Sydney in order to arrange the return of the preciousss to Nick.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In any event, here’s a sampling of the sparkling prose coming from the patriotik camp:













Last week, serial pest Neil Erikson was in court again, on this occasion to be sentenced for contempt: see : Judge scolds far-right activist Neil Erikson as ‘childish’ for wearing uniform to court, Karen Percy, March 13, 2018 | You’re talking ‘rubbish’, judge tells far-right activist Neil Erikson, The Age (AAP), March 13, 2018. While sentencing has been reserved, Neil and his dickhead mates — Garry Hume, Ricky/Rikki Turner and Richard Whelan — are due back in court in June to face charges of riot, affray, assault etc arising from the MILO stoopid of last year.

Oh, Neil also acted stoopid outside Northcote Town Hall on election day in Batman and in the company of two other men later stalked Greens leader Samantha Ratnam.

True Blue Crew

Notwithstanding the angwy words with Folkes and Freedom, the TBC is making money thru selling memberships and merchandise — seemingly, with a plan to open a gym in Melton along the lines of their kameraden ‘The Lads Society’ in Cheltenham. Last month, the TBC’s number one fan, Phill Galea, was declared fit to stand trial for alleged terrorisms:

Anti-Islam extremist Phillip Galea to stand trial on alleged bomb plot
Tessa Akerman
The Australian
February 6, 2018

An anti-Islam extremist accused of plotting bomb attacks has been ruled fit to stand trial by the Victorian Supreme Court.

Phillip Galea is charged with collecting or making documents to prepare for terrorist acts between 2015 and 2016.

Police allege Mr Galea talked about bombing the headquarters of Melbourne’s anarchists.

Mr Galea is currently represented by Legal Aid after he sacked his first law firm, which commissioned a psychiatric report that found he was unfit to stand trial.

Barrister Tim Marsh today told the Supreme Court two subsequent psychiatric reports found his client able to explain the role of judge and jury and the difference between pleas.

Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said it appeared as though the author of the first report was trying to determine Mr Galea’s beliefs and whether they were “radical”.

The Magistrates Court has previously heard Mr Galea has links to anti-Islam groups and had allegedly made an order for potassium nitrate, which can be used to manufacture explosives.

Mr Marsh this morning said the additional reports covered whether Mr Galea would be able to participate in a trial, and he and the commonwealth prosecution were in agreement that Mr Galea was fit to stand trial.

Justice Hollingworth remitted the case back to the Magistrates Court, where Mr Galea’s case is listed for committal in April.

Otherwise, the methgoblins cancelled a proposed meeting in Tarneit to organise anti-African vigilantes, but on the plus side have declared that, in-between court dates, they’ll be having another flagwit parade in June in Melbourne (see : June 26, 2016 : True Blue Crew & Co ~versus~ Melbourne and Australian Pride /// Flagwit Rally, June 25, 2017 : Recap), and will be joined by dozens of racist gronks in Sydney and elsewhere.

Aryan Nations /// Antipodean Resistance

In Perth, Aryan Nations members Robert Wayne Edhouse and Melony Attwood were convicted of murdering Attwood’s partner, Alan Taylor, seemingly in order to obtain his life insurance. See : Robert Edhouse and Melony Attwood convicted of murder in Nazi ‘death squad’ killing of Alan Taylor, Tim Clarke, The West Australian, March 12, 2018 | Perth murder scene reveals desperate attempts to conceal what really happened, Phil Hickey, WA Today, March 13, 2018 | Melony Attwood made distressed triple-0 call over murder with Aryan Nations boyfriend, Joanna Menagh, ABC, March 15, 2018.

While this may suggest the end of Aryan Nations in Perth, at least some of the handful of boneheads associated with the brand have instead decided to re-badge as ‘Combat 18’. Oh, I should also add that the site of the murder was also the site of Blair Cottrell’s announcement in November 2015 that he would be forming a political party (‘Fortitude’); he and other members of the UPF Melbourne having been guests of the Aryan Nations’ murderers for that weekend’s ‘Reclaim Australia’ rally.

As for Antipodean Resistance, they’ve been carrying on chucking up posters and going for walks and doing some other stuff. Their kameraden in the US (Atomwaffen) and the UK (National Action) have also been making headlines, albeit for killing people and doing terrorisms. VICE UK has recently published a series of articles on the far-right under the collective title of ‘Hate Island’; it includes one examining ironmarch dot org, a/k/a ‘The Obscure Neo-Nazi Forum Linked to a Wave of Terror’ (James Poulter, March 12, 2018):

Ironmarch.org was not the kind of website to hang out on if you knew what was good for you. A swastika-plastered forum which took its users on a shared journey of extreme radicalisation, it kickstarted an international wave of Nazi terror.

Users of Ironmarch.org have attempted a mall shooting; murdered two young men; attempted to hack a Sikh dentist to death with a machete; and have been found to be in possession of illegal weapons and materials to make bombs, among other crimes. While these acts of violence mostly took place in North America, the forum had plenty of fans in the UK.

One of Ironmarch’s administrators founded the banned British Nazi terror group National Action (NA), while an infographic produced by the site lists NA among its “affiliated groups”, under the heading “Ironmarch members in the global fascist struggle”.

Curiously, along with National Action (banned by the UK government as a ‘terrorist’ organisation), Atomwaffen and Skydas (Lithuania), Antipodean Resistance is the only other group listed as an affiliate of IronMarch.

Meanwhile, antifa in Eugene, Oregon have been doing a bit of digging into Atomwaffen: Mr. and Mrs. Maci: The Atomwaffen Division Implodes (March 8, 2018).

See also : YouTube Belatedly Bans Neo-Nazi Group Atomwaffen, Melanie Ehrenkranz, Gizmodo, March 2, 2018 | Read the Chilling Texts of Nazis Celebrating the Murder of a Jewish Teen, A.C. Thompson, Ali Winston and Jake Hanrahan, Mother Jones, March 1, 2018 (‘When Samuel Woodward was charged with killing Blaze Bernstein last month, other Atomwaffen members cheered the death’).

Jordan Peterson

Kermit The Flog was in town recently. The following reviewers give his latest tome on 12 Rules For Life Big Ups:

Postmodernism Did Not Take Place: On Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, Shuja Haider, Viewpoint, January 23, 2018 | A Messiah-cum-Surrogate-Dad for Gormless Dimwits: On Jordan B. Peterson’s “12 Rules for Life”, Houman Barekat, LA Review of Books, March 11, 2018 | The Intellectual We Deserve, Nathan J Robinson, Current Affairs, March 14, 2018 | Jordan Peterson & Fascist Mysticism, Pankaj Mishra, The New York Review of Books, March 19, 2018.

*US propagandist Daniel Pipes was also recently in the cuntry: see : Daniel Pipes Comes to Melbourne: Are Australian Muslims Right to be Outraged?, Chloe Patton, ABC Religion and Ethics, March 8, 2018.

Mr Potato Head

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has extended the white hand of friendship to white farmers in South Africa and informed them that STRAYA has indeed ‘boundless plains to share’ (with white men). According to Jason Wilson, Peter Dutton’s offer to white South African farmers started on the far right (The Guardian, March 16, 2018) — which seems about right. According to Jon Piccini, Peter Dutton’s ‘fast track’ for white South African farmers is a throwback to a long, racist history (The Conversation, March 19, 2018) … which again, seems about reich. (See also : Drawing The Global Colour Line, Henry Reynolds, Marilyn Lake, Melbourne University Press, 2008.)

Dutton’s kamerad, the Very Ethical Jim Molan, was angwy and upset (presumably) when Little Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen were jailed for hate crimes a few weeks ago; worse yet, the hate criminals had their Facebook page deleted. Oh, and Golding was attacked in prison and had his nose broken last week.

See also : Debunking a Myth: The Irish Were Not Slaves Too, Liam Stack, The New York Times, March 17, 2017.

terrorisms

In Germany, a number of neo-Nazis have been jailed for attacks upon refugees: see : Germany: Far-right ‘terrorists’ jailed for attacks on refugees, Al Jazeera, March 8, 2018 (‘Dresden’s high court sentences seven members of the Freital Group to between five and 10 years for attempted murder’).

In Greece, alleged members of neo-Nazi group ‘Combat 18’ got arrest: see : Greek counter-terrorism squad arrests five suspected of neo-Nazi group involvement, Neos Kosmos, March 7, 2018 (‘The men are alleged members of far-right criminal group, Combat 18, and suspected of involvement in a series of arson attacks and explosions’).

anTEEfa

Arsenal Pulp Press in Canuckistan is publishing a cartoon guide: The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements Around the World by Gord Hill.

In Russia, police in St Petersburg have arrested a man allegedly responsible for organising the murder of antifascist Timur Kacharava in 2005 (St. Petersburg: Police arrests man behind antifa activist Timur Kacharava’s assassination, Crime Russia, February 23, 2018). Elsewhere, Russian authorities have been keeping busy repressing anarchists and anti-fascists; a useful summary of recent bastardy is available via avtonom dot org: Review of repressions against anarchists in Russia – 2017 and first months of 2018. In Sydney on the weekend, local anti-fascists held a smol rally outside the Russian consulate in solidarity with compañerxs in Russia.

Finally, two four recent articles examine the impact anti-fascist action has had on fascist organising in the US: Is Antifa Counterproductive? White Nationalist Richard Spencer Would Beg to Differ., Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, March 17, 2018 | The alt-right is in decline. Has antifascist activism worked?, Jason Wilson, The Guardian, March 18, 2018 | How Antifa uses no-platforming successfully to fight white supremacy, David Griscom, New Statesman, March 19, 2018 | Antifa Has Richard Spencer on the Run. Does That Vindicate Its Tactics?, Joshua Holland, The Nation, March 22, 2018 (‘There’s good reason to believe that antifa’s success has come despite violent tactics, not because of them’).

Speaking of which …

Heimbach, Spencer, & The Yanqui AltReich

Recently, in Michigan, both Richard Spencer and Matt Heimbach had A Very Bad Time: see : After Fights And Arrests, Richard Spencer Speaks To Tiny Crowd At Michigan State, Christopher Mathias, Huffington Post, March 6, 2018 (‘Spencer and his white supremacist buddies had a miserable two days in Michigan. Everywhere they went, anti-fascist protesters were waiting’). Worse was to come for Heimbach, after he was caught fucking his father-in-law’s (Matt Parrott’s) wife; Parrott also being the other key leader of the neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘Traditionalist Worker Party’. See : How a white nationalist’s family came to blows over a trailer tryst, Marwa Eltagouri and Avi Selk, The Washington Post, March 14, 2018 | Neo-Nazi Group Implodes Over Love Triangle Turned Trailer Brawl, Kelly Weill, The Daily Beast, March 14, 2018 (‘Matthew Heimbach and his spokesman came to blows after Heimbach was caught sleeping with the spokesman’s wife. What’s more, Heimbach is married to the spokesman’s stepdaughter’).

M A S T E R R A C E.

See also : Alex Jones is a menace to society. I’m suing him., Brennan Gilmore, The Washington Post, March 14, 2018.

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Broken Windows, Death, History, Media, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Firearm Owners United with neo-Nazis : What Could Go Wrogn?

Posted on March 8, 2018 by @ndy

I’ll add some things to this later, but in the meantime …

Gun lobby group that helped bankroll One Nation linked to anti-Islam group / Special report: Firearm Owners United founder James Buckle attended United Patriots Front rallies, Michael McGowan, The Guardian, March 8, 2018; Australian gun lobby invests in rightwing parties in push to weaken reforms / Exclusive: Cashed-up firearm groups are using ballooning memberships to flex their political muscle, Michael McGowan, The Guardian, March 7, 2018.

See also : ‘The Lads Society’ : A new neo-Nazi social club opens in Melbourne (October 28, 2017).

Posted in Anti-fascism, Death, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

It’s Okay to Be White @ The University of Melbourne

Posted on February 28, 2018 by @ndy

On Monday, two men gathered outside the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus in order to distribute leaflets reading ‘It’s OK to Be White’. They were soon accosted by students and escorted to another part of campus by security (see : “Neo-Nazis” Escorted Off Campus on First Day of 2018, Ashleigh Barraclough and Monique O’Rafferty, Farrago, February 26, 2018). According to a witness:

Yesterday I was outside the library when a person handed me a piece of paper. The A4 leaflet read “it’s okay to be white”. He then demanded to know whether I was white or Jewish!

The guy who handed me that leaflet was not a stranger to me. I’ve seen him and his friend around campus before—sieg heiling when I’m doing left wing stalls, handing out leaflets advertising Adolf Hitler, postering pro-Trump propaganda and threatening people who speak up with “physical force”.

While I’m unsure which of the two men the writer is referring to, it does appear to be the case that one of them, Alex Wojno (pictured above on right wearing sunglasses), is indeed a student at the University.

Alex — who is also known as Aleksander/Alexander Wojno/Wojnowski — travels under the name of ‘Sefir Malthus’ on Facebook, and has many, ah, interesting opinions, inter alia defending White nationalist and aspiring Senator Paul Nehlen from unfair attacks by You-Know-Who:

as well as expressing commonly-held views on refugees:

Oddly enough, Alex was born in South Africa in 1995, and only came to Australia as a child. It would also appear to be the case that Alex completed an undergraduate degree in science before enrolling in medicine at Melbourne.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In other news: the baby nazis of Antipodean Resistance distroed shite on the weekend at various University campuses (La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus, UTAS, and Victoria University’s Footscray campus) and at the offices of Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson in Launceston. Ho hum. More seriously, Atomwaffen, the kissing cousins of Antipodean Resistance in the US, have been killing folks and talking terror. See : Inside Atomwaffen As It Celebrates a Member for Allegedly Killing a Gay Jewish College Student, A.C. Thompson, Ali Winston, Jake Hanrahan, ProPublica, February 23, 2018. Finally, Aryan Nations were in court again yesterday (see : Aryan Nations leader accuses associate of murdering man with claw hammer and knuckle dusters, Joanna Menagh, February 27, 2018). Note that the accused killers played host to the ‘United Patriots Front’ when they visited Perth in November 2015 and that their residence was used by Blair Cottrell as the location for the announcement that the UPF would be forming a political party, ‘Fortitude’. (The UPF has since morphed into something called ‘The Lads Society’.)

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antifa notes (february 11, 2018) : The Radical Right in Australia / Aryan Nations On Trial in Perth &tc

Posted on February 11, 2018 by @ndy

1) ‘The Radical Right in Australia’

OUP has published an essay on ‘The Radical Right in Australia’ by myself and Aurelien Mondon which you can read online or download for free here. The chapter is one of many in The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right (edited by Jens Rydgren) which will be published in hard-copy in a few months and which is intended to provide the reader with ‘an authoritative state-of-the-art overview of the scholarship on the contemporary radical right’.

Compared to its European counterparts, Australia was for the most part spared the rise of powerful extreme right movements, and at times appeared immune to their appeal. However, rather than immunity, the absence of extreme right politics can be explained by the ability and willingness of mainstream politics to readily, openly, and officially absorb such values. This chapter discusses how, for most of the country’s history, Australian mainstream politicians suffocated the extreme right, not merely by borrowing some key ideas of the extreme right, but by negating entirely its ability to appear as an alternative to the power in place. It then turns to the 1990s and explores the rise of Hansonism and its impact on mainstream politics. The final part of the chapter is dedicated to the current state of radical right politics in Australia.

2) Aryan Fortitude

Members of the Perth-based neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘Aryan Nations’ were in court last week, charged with murder: ‘Robert Wayne Edhouse, 22, Melony Jane Attwood, 36, and Corey Joshua Dymock, 21, are on trial in WA’s Supreme Court accused of murdering Ms Atwood’s partner, 42-year-old Alan Taylor, at their Girrawheen home in April 2016’ (Aryan Nations white supremacist ‘death squad’ murdered man for insurance claim, court told, Joanna Menagh, ABC, February 8, 2018). See also : Aryan Nations Perth: FIFO worker Alan Taylor allegedly killed by Nazi ‘death squad’, Tim Clarke, PerthNow, February 8, 2018 | ‘Death squad’ on trial for brutal murder of Perth man, Tegan Sapwell, 9News, February 9, 2018.

Leaving to one side the horrific nature of the alleged crime, it’s worth noting that the Aryan Nations played host to members of the United Patriots Front (now known as ‘The Lads Society’) when they visited Perth in November 2015 in order to both attend a Reclaim Australia anti-Muslim rally as well as to announce the formation of their political party, ‘Fortitude’. Indeed, the announcement by Blair Cottrell — in the company of Melbourne-based UPF members Neil Erikson, Chris Shortis, Tom Sewell and Linden Watson and Perth-based members Kevin Coombes (‘Elijah Jacobson’) and Dennis Huts — would appear to have taken place in the same property which, just a few months later, was the site of the grisly murder by their Perth neo-Nazi kameraden.

3) Vigilantes R Us

Closer to home, local superhero Daniel Jones has been in the news, touting his business and the virtues of vigilantism.

Founder of Epping ‘community response group’ says they’re not vigilantes
Paul Shapiro
Whittlesea Leader
February 5, 2018

WHITTLESEA’s top cop has poured cold water on a crime-fighting “community response group” led by a martial-arts expert.

Daniel Jones, the owner of martial-arts school Tactical Force Combatives, is in the early stages of setting up a “community response group” to deal with thugs and criminals despite police discouraging the plan.

Mr Jones said he had no fear of being harmed physically while confronting offenders.

He denied the group would act as vigilantes but rather said it would provide a community service where people in “distress” could contact “interested parties in the local area that would be able to rush to their assistance”.

“We’re not vigilantes because we don’t want to hurt people, we just want to help people who are in danger,” Mr Jones said.

“I’d prefer to handle any situation verbally but it wouldn’t concern me if it did get physical because I’m more than capable [of] dealing with aggressive behaviour.”

Mr Jones specialises in Krav Maga, an Israeli military self-defence system, and has experience as a security guard.

He said anyone “smashing in a front door” would most likely flee when his team arrived.

However, Victoria Police were quick to discourage the plan …

Daniel certainly gets around the traps, sticking his face in at Reclaim rallies in 2015, acting as bodyguard to Avi Yemini at his rally against crimens in September and at the MILO stoopid in December 2017 and more recently palling around and conspiring with neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell at the nü neo-Nazi clubhouse in Cheltenham (at a meeting to talk about taking on #AfricanGangs).

4) On other islands …

In the United States, billionaires and their right-wing foot-soldiers on college campuses are stepping up attacks on academics and higher education.

• Far-right attacks on faculty hurt us all, Jessie Daniels, Clarion, February 2018: ‘The increasing attacks on faculty are part of a well-funded and orchestrated campaign by the far right. Their strategy is to use social media to discredit academics and thereby devalue higher education.’
• No Re-Turning Point, U.S.A., The Baffler, Maximillian Alvarez, January 26, 2018: ‘From the “Professor Watchlist” to Tariq Khan, TPUSA’s campaign to silence opposition.’
• The Eye of the Troll Storm: Tariq Khan Interview with It’s Going Down, Black Rose/Rosa Negra, February 10, 2018:

In November, PhD student of history in Illinois, father, and Air Force veteran Tariq Khan, found himself in the center of a whirlwind of controversy, and a punching bag for a variety of Alt-Right and Alt-Lite blowhards – from InfoWars, to Gavin McInnes, to Anthony Scaramucci. Tariq stood accused of getting into a verbal argument with other students following a Trump protest, and the video of the argument, which shows people yelling at each other and ends in a phone being dropped on the ground, surfaced on the website, Campus Reform, the media wing of Turning Point USA. TPUSA is a growing collection of paleoconservative and Alt-Lite Libertarian students on campuses across the US, is financially backed by massive foundations and billionaires like the Koch Brothers, and is most known for harassing professors and students, often leading to individuals receiving massive amounts of death threats.

• Neo-Nazi organiser Elliott Kline (‘Eli Mosley’) was the go-to guy for JJJ’s Hack current affairs program back in August, called upon to explain to The Kids what happened in Charlottesville; he’s now been featured in an article for The New York Times (How Our Reporter Uncovered a Lie That Propelled an Alt-Right Extremist’s Rise, Emma Cott, February 5, 2018) which calls into question a number of aspects of his biography. Fingers xed, JJJ will have him back on to explain How Jews Control The Media. Oh, and in California, police have been collaborating with neo-Nazis in order to bring about prosecutions of anTEEfa (and otherwise being a nanny-state to fascists). See : California police worked with neo-Nazis to pursue ‘anti-racist’ activists, documents show, Same Levin, The Guardian, February 9, 2018.

• Finally, in the birthplace of Fascism, things are once again looking promising for the movement as a recent fascist terrorist attack ‘has highlighted the growing threat of Italy’s far right in the lead-up to the March 4 elections’ (Italy’s New Racist Storm, Richard Brodie, Jacobin, February 9, 2018).

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Keyboard Warriors of the Australian #AltRight : XYZ & David Hiscox

Posted on February 5, 2018 by @ndy

XYZ dot net dot au (‘The XYZ’) is one of a small number of Australian ‘AltRight’ blogs/websites/podcasts that have sprung up in the last few years … but admittedly not one that I’ve paid much attention to.*

Collectively, these sites have dedicated themselves to battling ‘Cultural Marxism’, which in the case of ‘The XYZ’ finds its chief expression in ‘The ABC’. Of course, along with ‘The ABC’, ‘The XYZ’ regularly denounces The ALP, The Feminists, The Greens, The Leftists, The Muslims, The Queers, The Unions, ‘multiculturalism’, ‘political correctness’ and sundry other un-Australian forces. As such, it’s not unlike one of Uncle Rupert’s tabloids, and its ideological obsessions are typical of the Tory yoof who appear to be its chief market. Recently, however, the blog (‘online newspaper’) has been becoming increasingly batshit, seemingly under the influence of the US Alt-Right and following the triumph of God Emperor Trump.

Above : David Hiscox. ‘When I am not worrying about the fate of Western civilisation, I play the piano’ (‘Felix Mendelssohn and Germany’s proud Christmas heritage’, December 20, 2016).

‘The XYZ’ is the bRaneschild of David Hiscox, a local musician and music teacher. As editor, David is the most frequent contributor to the site, publishing around a third of its output, followed by Ryan Fletcher. (David Hilton, previously known as ‘Moses Apostaticus’, is another contributor.) Whether or not Ryan has pulled one too many cones, or perhaps simply received one too many knocks to the head, over the course of the last year or so he’s become increasingly open in his espousal of anti-Semitism and White nationalism. Further, the content on the site more generally has increasingly adopted more frank expressions of commitment to the AltRight than was present when David first began publishing it.

Previously content to describe itself as a ‘classical liberal’ platform committed to celebrating ‘free speech’, ‘free markets’ and ‘Western Civilisation’, the site has recently extended its mission to the defence of ‘cultural libertarianism’ from ‘cultural authoritarians’: ‘We also stand in opposition to cultural Marxism, which seeks to bring about socialism by attacking political, cultural, social, and religious norms and institutions – dismantling our national identity and the foundations of Western civilisation’. Shortly after launching its crusade in mid-2015, ‘The XYZ’ had also joined the fight against Islam which, like Cultural Marxism, allegedly poses an ‘existential threat’ to ‘Western Civilisation’.

In summary, David and ‘The XYZ’ have adopted wholesale the talking-points of the US AltRight and recent postings suggest that they’re finally beginning to (more openly) address ‘The JQ’. This is particularly in evidence in Ryan Fletcher and David Hilton’s contributions to the site but is also reflected in the commentary, which is increasingly beginning to resemble threads on ‘The Daily Stormer’. Below is just a few examples of the hundreds of barking-mad, anti-Semitic, and increasingly violent commentary by Mr Fletcher and others (the last being a reference to the murder of Heather Heyer and serious injury to others by a neo-Nazi in Charlottesville last year):



Still, in fairness to David, the laissez-faire comments policy which allowed for racist and anti-Semitic creeps to infest the site has recently been ended. Not because of the grotesque racism and misogyny, of course, but because two keyboard warriors were sniping at one another: ‘The line for me came when I saw two contributors engaged in what had degenerated from rugged debate into open civil war’ (‘A few comments on comments’, February 4, 2018).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

* Other sites/groups/projects include ‘The Australian Traditional Nationalist’, ‘The Convict Report/The Dingoes’, ‘The Lads Society’, ‘The Unhinged’, ‘Zero Filter’ and ‘Proud Boys Australia’. See also : Keyboard warriors of the alt-right have Australia in their sights, Daniel Flitton, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 26, 2016.

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antifa notes (february 3, 2018) : STRAYA Day +++

Posted on February 3, 2018 by @ndy

STRAYA Day

Tens of thousands of people attended Invasion Day rallies across the country, with the rally in Melbourne attracting anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000. See : Invasion Day: the tide is turning, Lalitha Chelliah & Jacob Andrewartha, Green Left Weekly, February 2, 2018 | Invasion Day marked by thousands of protesters calling for equal rights, change of date, ABC, January 27, 2018 | ‘People are starting to understand’: huge Invasion Day protest stuns Melbourne, Calla Wahlquist, The Guardian, January 26, 2018 | ‘Invasion day’ rally draws crowds as agitator barred from ceremony, Tammy Mills, Gene Efron, Tom Cowie, The Age, January 26, 2018.

Apart from its size, the rally in Melbourne was fairly unremarkable — people assembled, listened to speeches, and marched. A comment by Tarneen Onus-Williams, however, enshrined her as the latest entry in STRAYA’s Hate Week:

“Fuck Australia. Hope it burns to the ground,” Onus-Williams said.

“If you celebrate Australia Day, fucker, you’re celebrating the death of my ancestors. All you fellas with the Australian flag should be so embarrassed with yourself. It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing that you celebrate people’s deaths, the people of this land’s death. You make me sick to my stomach.”

In response to the Melbourne rally, Warren Mundine’s Knee demanded that the ‘Koorie Youth Council’/KYC (for which Onus-Williams works as a volunteer) be immediately defunded:

I support moving Australia Day to 1 January. But this lot says “We don’t want to celebrate Australia Day at all.’’ They’re ashamed of Australia. They insult all Australians and Aboriginal people who campaigned for equality & inclusion. Koorie Youth Council should be defunded. I call on Daniel Andrews, Matthew Guy, Senator Richard Di Natale, Bill Shorten MP, Malcolm Turnbull and Senator Nigel Scullion to take all steps necessary to immediately defund KYC[.]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Note that the principal organiser of the rally was a group called ‘Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance’ (WAR), not the KYC; the KYC later issued a statement reiterating this fact and distancing itself from Onus-Williams’ remarks. See also : Australia Is Tearing Down Another Woman Of Colour For Daring To Have An Opinion, Osman Faruqi, Junkee, January 31, 2018 | The Audacity of Anger, Chelsea Bond, IndigenousX, January 29, 2018.

WAR issued its own response to the kerfuffle, which you can read here, while #IStandWithTarneen became A Thing, and Tarneen elaborated on her views in ‘Invasion day’ rally organiser says her comments Australia should ‘burn to the ground’ should not be taken literally, Melissa Cunningham, Adam Carey, The Age, January 26, 2018.

As The Age report notes, earlier in the day Neil Erikson and ‘Patriot Blue’ — which on this occasion consisted of Neil and a handful of his mates — assembled at Moreland Council chambers in the morning to protest against Creeping Shariah & Cultural Marxism outside a citizenship ceremony; proceeded to the CBD to briefly occupy the steps of Parliament (long after the Invasion Day rally had left the assembly point); before eventually making their way to St Kilda, where the methgoblins of the ‘True Blue Crew’ and the remnants of the ‘United Patriots Front’ — now known as ‘The Lads Society’ — had organised a celebratory BBQ. About 50 or so patriotik volk rocked up. See : No clashes as patriots party with flags, cricket and racist slurs, Tom Cowie, The Age, January 26, 2018 | Fascists frolic on the foreshore, Ben Hillier, Red Flag, January 26, 2018.

local &/or general

In Sydney, the micro-Party for Freedom would appear to be in pretty dire health, with ‘Patriot Blue’ boy George Jameson leaving the group and Nick Folkes handing over the reins to Toby Cook, who’s recently come out as a neo-Nazi:

Some recent articles of interest include:

• The neo-Nazi has no clothes: In search of Matt Heimbach’s bogus ‘white ethnostate’, Caitlin Dickson, Yahoo News, February 2, 2018;
• Antifa vs. Milo Yiannopoulos: Who won?, Mark Bray, Salon, February 1, 2018 (‘It’s been a year since anti-fascist protests shut down a Yiannopoulos gig at UC Berkeley, to much media criticism’);
• An Investigation Into Red-Brown Alliances: Third Positionism, Russia, Ukraine, Syria, And The Western Left, libcom/Ravings Of A Radical Vagabond, February 1, 2018 (‘… is a comprehensive summary of Third Positionist fascist currents old and new, and the successful insertion of their ideas into leftist milieus and alternative media outlets’ — but one which requires some editing for clarity);
• The Rise of Australia’s Activist Far Right: How Far Will It Go?, Julie Nathan, ABC Religion and Ethics, January 31, 2018;
• How the far right has perfected the art of deniable racism, Gary Younge, The Guardian, January 26, 2018 (‘Electoral successes in Europe and the US are the result of a process whereby bigotry is made palatable’);
• A Decade of Resistance, Gabriel Hershman, Eye On Bulgaria, January 24, 2018 (‘Not even 10 years inside has quashed Jock Palfreeman’s spirits. A lesser man might have crumbled. To most people the processes that jailed Palfreeman, and then upheld his conviction for the murder of Andrei Monov, were marked by blatant corruption and lies’);
• Postmodernism Did Not Take Place: On Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, Shuja Haider, Viewpoint, January 23, 2018 (‘A specter is haunting North America — the specter of postmodernism. Or at least, that’s what Jordan Peterson would have you believe. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, has entered into an unholy alliance with all the powers of the alt-right to exorcise this specter. Though he calls himself a “British classical liberal,” Peterson’s appeal feeds into the most reactionary tendencies in contemporary politics’).

Finally, in the US, Samuel Woodward, a member of neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Atomwaffen Division’, has been arrested and charged with the murder of a 19yo Jewish antifascist, Blaze Bernstein. The group has been linked to other murders as well. See : Suspects in five killings reportedly linked to macabre neo-Nazi group, Kyle Swenson, The Washington Post, January 29, 2018 | The Suspect in the Killing of Blaze Bernstein Belonged to a Neo-Nazi Group Allegedly Connected to Four Other Murders, Molly Olmstead, Slate, January 31, 2018 | 1 Neo-Nazi Group. 5 Murders In 8 Months., Christopher Mathias, The Huffington Post, February 1, 2018 (‘The Atomwaffen Division has emerged as one of the most disturbing and volatile hate groups in America.’) | What Is Atomwaffen Division, The Nazi Group Tied To The Murder Of Blaze Bernstein?, Sam Kestenbaum, Forward, February 1, 2018.

BONUS! Pepe

A very rare Pepe made an appearance at the Brisbane Invasion Day rally!

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From Cronulla to St Kilda? Australia/Invasion/Survival Day 2018

Posted on January 23, 2018 by @ndy

This Friday, the racist methgoblins of the True Blue Crew, in conjunction with the neo-Nazi remnants of the United Patriots Front now known as ‘The Lads Society’, are holding a rally and BBQ at St Kilda Beach. This is both a patriotik event and, perhaps, a response to recent news that #AfricanGangs have been running amok. The fact that Romper Stomper also featured a similar party at the beach is no doubt a coincidence. In any event, joining the boys will be Neil Erikson and ‘Patriot Blue’ (see Romper Stomper); or at least, that’s what The Australian reckons:

Neil Erikson and far-right group want to ‘welcome’ new Australians
Richard Ferguson
The Australian
January 22, 2018

A Victorian far-right activist has defended his plans to disrupt a citizenship ceremony at an anti-Australia Day local council.

Neil Erikson says he and other members of his group Patriot Blue would be counter-protesting Moreland City Council, which voted last year to scrap Australia Day.

“We’re not here to scare anyone, we’re peaceful … we want to welcome the new citizens at Moreland City Council to know it’s not just January 26, it’s Australia Day,” he told The Australian.

“And to know that the councillors are a bunch of undemocratic, treasonous communists.”

Mr Erikson, a former neo-Nazi, also said he will attend an Invasion Day rally in Melbourne’s CBD on Friday where he and Patriot Blue members will counter-protest with Australian flags.

“If the violent left want to attack us, that’s on them … we expect the police to protect us and protect Australia Day.”

Thousands of people, including children, are expected at Friday’s rally where they will demand [sic] Australia Day’s date is changed from January 26, which they consider offensive to Aboriginal people as it is the anniversary of the First Fleet and the start of colonialism.

Mr Erikson came to national prominence for ambushing former Labor senator Sam Dastyari in a Melbourne bar last year.

It was revealed last week in the Federal Circuit Court Mr Erikson had recently been charged with assault, affray and riotous behaviour in regards to a riot outside far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos’s Melbourne speaking gig last month.

Moreland City Council was targeted by a group including Mr Erikson last October for its decision to support a change to Australia Day’s date, when far-right protesters crashed a council meeting and brandished a fake coffin with the national flag painted on it.

But the council has only received a formal warning from the federal government over their anti-Australia Day stance unlike Yarra and Darebin Councils which had their citizenship ceremonies cancelled.

Sources close to the council said they had expected to fly under the radar of far right activists on Friday as their citizenship event clashed directly with the Invasion Day rally.

Mayor John Kavanagh said Moreland City has updated its security arrangements and had been working with Victoria Police in the run up to their Friday citizenship ceremony.

“It would be incredibly disappointing if such a joyous occasion was tarnished by individuals or groups protesting something unrelated to the ceremony,” he said.

Invasion Day rally organiser Tarneen Onus-Williams told The Australian she did not fear for the safety of her fellow protesters due to the large police presence she expects to be in the CBD on Friday.

“We also have legal observers and human rights observers coming who will be keeping watch over the rally,” she said.

Ms Onus-Williams said any violence would be a result of the “far right protesting against us.”

“This is a family event and people often bring children, our nieces and nephews and little cousins are there. This is not a violent protest,” she said.

Victoria Police told The Australian protesters and other Melburnians would note an “increased police presence” on Australia Day this year.

“Extensive planning has been undertaken with all relevant stakeholders including local councils … As always, police will not tolerate any anti-social or criminal behaviour,” a police spokesman said.

Note that Neil was angwy and upset at the popularity of last year’s Invasion Day rally in Melbourne, wishing that alleged killer James Gargasoulas — ‘accused of driving a car through the busy Bourke Street mall and along the footpath for several blocks on January 20, hitting and killing six people and injuring many others’ — had driven his car into the crowd:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Note:

• Along with Neil, Garry Hume, Ricky/Rikki Turner and Richard Whelan of ‘Patriot Blue’ are also facing charges in connection to the MILO stoopid of December last year;
• Both Garry (in blue jumpsuit) and Ricky/Rikki joined Neil in disrupting the Moreland Council meeting in October last year.

Never Mind The (White) Nationalist Bollocks, Here’s The Invasion Day Protests

2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the ‘Day of Mourning’: ‘a protest held by Aboriginal Australians on 26 January 1938, the sesquicentenary of British colonisation of Australia’.

Welcome To Country details a range of activities on January 26 in Melbourne, Meanjin (Brisbane), Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Darwin, Townsville, Hobart, Lismore and Bermagui; you can also celebrate Survival Day in Belgrave. The Melbourne (Naarm) event kicks off with a rally at 11am at Parliament; supporters are asked to bring flowers to lay on the steps if they’re so inclined. The Balit Narrun Festival commences at 1pm in Treasury Gardens. According to organisers, the ‘artistic direction for 2018 is about ‘strength in culture’ with the Songlines changing the name of the festival to Balit Narrun (Strong Spirit). Balit Narrun will feature cultural art, music, dance. It is family friendly, and will have food and children’s activities available’. See also : Survival Day events around Australia – What, When and Where?, NITV, January 23, 2018.

Indigenous X has published/is publishing a series of articles and reflections on Australia/Invasion/Survival Day, by Claire G Coleman, Tony Birch, Karen Wyld, Matt Hefferan and Eugenia Fylnn.

Finally, a note on history by way of Robert Hughes (The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding, 1986):

• The proposal to colonize Botany Bay with convicts was formally drawn up in an unsigned document titled “Heads of a Plan for effectually disposing of convicts” and was presented to the British cabinet in August 1786. Its emphasis was clear: The proposed colony would serve as “a remedy for the evils likely to result from the late alarming and numerous increase of felons in this country, and more particularly in the metropolis.” The secondary benefit of the region’s raw materials was presented at the end of the document: “It may also be proper to attend to the possibility of procuring… masts and ships’ timber for the use of our fleets in India, as the distance between the two countries is not greater than between Great Britain and America…”

• By 1837, hanging was mainly restricted to cases of murder, while crime after crime — forgery, cattle-theft, housebreaking — was relegated to the less terrible and magical status of a “transportable” offense. Slowly, the English authorities acknowledged the mistakes and fantasies that had led their predecessors to fetishize the death penalty. But the real rise of transportation began, not with the law itself, but with its new enforcers: the “peelers,” the English police, established by Sir Robert Peel in 1827 [see also : Origins of the police, David Whitehouse, worxintheory, December 7, 2014]. A police force meant a huge rise, not in gross crime, but in successful arrests and convictions. Likewise, the abandonment of transportation was not caused by any fall in crime, but by three other factors: the growing moral and political opposition to the System of transportation among English reformers in the 1830s, the growth of an alternative English penitentiary system and the Australians’ own opposition to a continuous dumping of fresh criminals on what, after 50 years of settlement, they had come to view as their own soil.

• In their most sanguine moments, the authorities hoped that Australia would eventually swallow a whole class — the “criminal class,” whose existence was one of the prime sociological beliefs of late Georgian and early Victorian England. Australia was settled to defend English property not from the frog-eating invader across the Channel but from the marauder within. English lawmakers wished not only to get rid of the “criminal class” but if possible to forget about it. Australia was a cloaca, invisible, its contents filthy and unnameable. Jeremy Bentham, inveighing against the “thief-colony” in 1812, argued that transportation: “…was indeed a measure of experiment… but the subject-matter of experiment was, in this case, a peculiarly commodious one; a set of animae viles, a sort of excrementitious mass, that could be projected, and accordingly was projected — projected, and as it should seem purposely — as far out of sight as possible.”

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