antifa notes (march 14, 2017) : One Nation Party too sophisticated for WA; UPF Go To Court; boneheads

sophistication

The One Nation Party proved to be a bit too sophisticated for the electorate in Western Australia on Saturday, March 11, averaging just under 5% of the vote in the legislative assembly (about 8% in the seats the party ran candidates in). While vote-counting is ongoing, of the 30+ candidates ONP ran, the best performing (10%+) were in Central Wheatbelt, Kalgoorlie, Mandurah, Moore, Murray-Wellington, North West Central*, Pilbara, Swan Hills and Warnbro (*Dane Sorensen was kicked outta ONP after his nomination). The party fared much better in the legislative council, however, where it appears that Our Pauline will have anywhere from one to three allies once the final votes have been tallied. (Note that the gerrymander in WA means that the 3/4 of the WA population what live in the Perth area elect 18 MLCs, while the other 1/4 what live outside Perth elect the same number, giving the Nationals and rural constituencies a disproportionate influence in the legislative council.)

Despite these rather meagre results (preceded by a shambolic election campaign), ‘Liberal puppet’ and party ‘dictator’ Pauline Hanson has declared that the election results ‘fantastic’, and Malcolm Turnbull has refused to rule out the Tories once again directing preferences to their parliamentary allies in ONP.

legislation

On Monday, March 6, Blair Cottrell, Neil Erikson and Chris Shortis appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for a mentions hearing. While all three were members of the United Patriots Front (UPF) at the time of their alleged offences (October 2015), in late 2015/early 2016 Erikson departed the UPF (but continued to be a Facebook warrior under various labels) while Shortis joined the Australia First Party in early- to mid-2016. Currently, the UPF is reduced to Cottrell and Thomas (Tom) Sewell in Melbourne and Dennis Huts and Kevin Coombes (‘Elijah Jacobson’) in Perth, along with a smattering of fanboys and fangirls across the country and a small army of Facebook fans.

The Campaign Against Racism & Fascism organised a small rally outside the court, which Erikson attended dressed in Muslim drag alongside George Jameson of the Party For Freedom. The boys were joined by several dozen supporters of AFP and UPF; the next scheduled court hearing has been set for May 23. Also attending court were the Million Flag Patriots, the most prestigious, unbashable & patrioty neo-patriot group in Australia. (See : United Patriots Front members’ court appearance sparks rally in Melbourne, Cameron Best, ABC, March 6, 2017.)

This week, the Victorian government has announced the introduction of a bill meaning that Rioters who wear face coverings while taking part in violent protests could face up to 15 years behind bars (ABC, March 13, 2017).

The proposal follows State Government talks with Victoria Police after violent clashes between anti-racism and anti-Islamic activists in Coburg last year.

Attorney-General Martin Pakula said the legislation, which will introduce a new offence of violent disorder, will be introduced to Parliament next week.

“Too often we see at these events people turning up with masks and face coverings to try and hide their identity or to shield themselves from the effects of capsicum spray,” he said.

So: protecting your identity and shielding yourself from capsicum spray are now to be criminal offences.

bonehead

This bonehead was spotted in Ballarat Daylesford on the weekend: chill out, bro.


antifa notes (june 9, 2016) : australian far right + #ausvotes

[Updated June 30, 2016]

With the federal election rolling around soon, I thought I may as well take note of the electoral efforts of the far right. A mixed bunch, common themes are opposition to Islam, denial of anthropogenic global warming, and a mAd love of flag-waving (‘Australia for Australians’).

(Dr Jim Saleam’s) Australia First Party : AFP is standing several candidates, including party leader Dr Jim Saleam in Lindsay (NSW), Susan Jakobi in Lalor (VIC), ex-ONP candidate John Kearney in Solomon (NT) and Victor Waterson in McMahon (NSW). Saleam will be running against ex-Tory and Penrith councilor Marcus Cornish and Stephen Roddick of the Australian Liberty Alliance. One Nation in WA — ie, that faction not aligned with Pauline Hanson — appears to have merged with AFP for the purposes of running two losing candidates (Lyn Vickery and Brian McRea) for the Senate under the AFP banner. (The WA branch was chucked out of One Nation a few years ago.)

(Debbie Robinson’s) Australian Liberty Alliance : The ALA, the political project of ‘The Q Society’, is standing Senate candidates in every state, several lower house seats in NSW (Peter Kelly in Bradfield, Ron Pike in Farrer, Stephen Roddick in Lindsay, Carl Halley in Macquarie) and QLD (Tony Duncan in Bowman, John Spellman in Fisher, Shaun Spain in Forde, Matt Darragh in Griffith, Rob Windred in Hinkler, Caleb Wells in Longman) and one in WA (David Archibald in Curtin). They will be battling AFP leader Saleam in Lindsay and One Nation in Longman. Note that John Bolton (SA) was dropped from the ALA team and is now standing as an independent in Wakefield, while its most famous face is Gary ‘Angry’ Anderson (NSW). Along with Pauline Hanson, an ALA candidate seems the next most likely to win a Senate seat.

(Lyndon La Rouche’s) Citizens Electoral Council : The CEC is the Strayan expression of the LaRouchite kvlt (see : Lyndon LaRouche: Fascist Demagogue, PublicEye.org), deeply committed to stopping The Royal Family from selling drugs to The Kids. And stuff. They’re running losing candidates in the Senate (NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA) and also several Lower House seats (Michael Gough, Cowper, NSW; Lindsay Cosgrove, Hume, NSW; Peter Davis, Paterson, NSW; Peter Flynn, Lingiari, NT; Brigid McCullough, Solomon, NT; Chris Lahy, Mallee, VIC and; Jeff Davy, Murray, VIC). See also : The CEC Report on Channel 31.

(Blair Cottrell’s) Fortitude (United Patriots Front) : Despite gaining a good deal of media and public attention over the last 12 months, staging an ‘East Coast’ Tour earlier this year, and having conducted several successful media/publicity stunts, the UPF has seemingly failed to attract sufficient support to register with the Australian Electoral Commission. It’s unknown if any of the small clutch of fascists and ultra-nationalists who form the UPF’s inner core will bother sticking their hand up for the election — a ‘seminar’ conducted at The Bush Pig Inn in Jackass Flat on June 5 attracted around 20 or so participants. In January, internal UPF discussion acknowledged that party fuehrer Cottrell was unable to run for public office because of his violent criminal record, while UPF Perth lackey Dennis Huts also worried that his own imprisonment for an unspecified crime might bar him from running. The stench the UPF carries around with it was confirmed by the hostile reception party fuehrer Cottrell received when he tried to jump on board the dairy farmers protest in Melbourne in May. See : Watch: Far-Right Leader’s Effort To Hijack Dairy Farmer Protest Backfires, New Matilda, May 25, 2016.

kimnkev
Above : Kim Vuga with UPF Perth lackey Kevin Coombes (aka Eljah Jacobson).

(Kim Vuga’s) Love Australia Or Leave Party : Like UPF/Fortitude, LAOL appears to have failed to register for the election. Vuga, whose main claim to fame is appearing on a TV show, will be running as an independent for the Senate in QLD and is joined by Karen Street in Tasmania (in April, Street replicated, with a whole lot less fanfare, the UPF stunt at a match in Hobart), Elizabeth Power and Tony Robinson in NSW and Ian Felton and Jeffrey Simmons in VIC.

*Just as Vuga’s party failed to register, so Karen Street, Elizabeth Power, Tony Robinson, Ian Felton and Jeffrey Simmons do not appear on the ballot; another Tony Robinson is an ALA candidate in TAS (along with Susan Horwood).

(Nick Folkes’) Party for Freedom : On June 4, the PFF staged another desultory rally in Sydney, this time in the suburb of Blacktown. The Big Idea being celebrated on this occasion was Getting Rid Of All The African And Muslim Immigrants To Australia. Ho hum. (A crowd several times larger than the roughly 20 or so individuals the PFF gathered told the racist meatheads to shoo.) As he’s done on numerous previous occasions, Folkes will be losing badly in whatever ring he throws his hat into.

*Folkes has abandoned his campaign.

(Pauline Hanson’s) One Nation Party : Perennial chancer Hanson has good prospects of being elected to the Senate according to pundits. In the intervening two decades since Hanson made her maiden speech in Parliament, the party’s rhetoric has changed from Australia being in danger of being ‘swamped by Asians’ to being ‘swamped by Muslims’. (Note that the party itself is apparently in danger of being swamped by ‘Asian wives’.) The party’s main competitor for the bigot vote would appear to be the ALA. Joining Hanson in her quest for a seat in the Senate in QLD is Malcolm Roberts, Fraser Anning and Judy Smith; the party is also running Senate candidates in NSW, SA, TAS, VIC and WA. In QLD, candidates for lower house seats are Troy Aggett (Blair), Brenden Ball (Fadden), Robert Pasquali (Fairfax), Phil Baker (Flynn), Geoff Virgo (Herbert), Damian Huxham (Hinkler), Peter Rogers (Leichhardt), Michelle Pedersen (Longman), Lynette Keehn (Maranoa), Brad Trussell (Oxley), Elise Cottam (Wide Bay) and Rod Smith (Wright): in Longman, ONP will be pitted against ALA. In NSW, Carter Edwards will be standing in Dobell, Graham Burston in Paterson, while Neil Smith is running in Richmond.

(Danny Nalliah’s) Rise Up Australia Party : God has told the Reverend that he’s gonna win BIG this time. Presumably. The party — which has formed an informal alliance over the last year with the UPF — is a fundamentalist, multi-ethnic Christian project opposed to multiculturalism and Islam and wants Australia to remain Australian (as opposed to Austrian, presumably). Pastor Danny Nalliah and deputy leader Rosalie Crestani will take a break from talking on God’s behalf in an attempt to address the Australian Senate from VIC, while Brian Tucker and Maree Nichols in NSW, Anthony Hardwick and Sheila Mundy in WA, Paul Taylor and Neroli Mooney in QLD, Jan Pile and Jimmy Gimini in the NT and Sandie O’Connor and Jess Wyatt in the ACT will be losing elsewhere. The party will also be praying to Jesus to ensure that the following all go to Parliament (and/or Heaven):

VIC : Tran Tran (Ballarat), Sandy Caddy (Bendigo), Angela Dorian (Casey), Melanie Vassiliou (Chisholm), Nicholas Steel (Corangamite), Ash Puvimanasinghe (Corio), Lin Tregenza (Dunkley), Yvonne Gentle (Flinders), Peter Dorian (Gippsland), Colin Robertson (Holt), Peter Vassiliou (Hotham), Vincent Ferrando (Indi), Margaret Quinn (LaTrobe), Marion Vale (Lalor), Tim Middleton (Mallee), Jeff Truscott (McEwen), Norman Baker (McMillan), Yasmin Gunasekera (Murray);

WA : Philip Scott (Brand), Mitchell Sambell (Durack), Jennifer Whately (Forrest), Henry Barnard (Hasluck), Stephen Carson (O’Connor), Taffy Samuriwo-Vuntarde (Pearce), Alison Rowe (Stirling);

NSW : Brian Clare (Paterson), Tracey Bell-Henselin (Fisher), John Kelly (Leichhardt), Sherrilyn Church (Maranoa);

NT : Regina McCarthy (Lingiari), Silvija Majetic (Solomon).

Oddly, Nicholas Steel (Corangamite) has stood for both the Australian Protectionist (2013) and One Nation parties (2007) previously.

See also : Election 2016: How far-right politics crashed and burned in Australia, Daniel Flitton, The Sydney Morning Herald, June 5, 2016 | Psephos: Adam Carr’s Election Archive: Australian federal election, 2 July 2016 | Cate Speaks blog provides a nifty guide to all the micro-parties (there’s dozens) here.

Robert Edhouse & Aryan Nations & United Patriots Front

edhouse

Above : Robert Edhouse

aryannationsboneheads

Above : Edhouse and two teenage nazis

Strewth.

ABC reported today that Robert Edhouse, President of the tiny neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Aryan Nations’ (Perth), has been arrested and charged with murder.

Girrawheen murder: Teenagers among four people charged over death of Alan Taylor
Graeme Powell
ABC
May 10, 2016

Four people have been charged with murdering a man in the northern Perth suburb of Girrawheen, with a 17-year-old boy making a brief appearance in Perth Children’s Court in connection with the alleged attack.

The body of Alan George Taylor, 42, was found beside his home in Arnos Way on April 22.

Police said the fly-in, fly-out worker died from serious injuries suffered in an assault with an unknown weapon.

The boy was the first to be charged with the murder and appeared in Perth Children’s Court on Tuesday morning.

He was not required to enter a plea and was remanded in custody to face court again next month.

Meanwhile two men appeared in Joondalup Magistrates Court charged with murder.

Corey Joshua Dymock, 19, and Robert Wayne Edhouse, 20, were not required to enter a plea and were both remanded in custody to face Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court later this month.

A 35-year-old woman also charged with the murder is yet to face court.

Mr Taylor lived at the property with his partner and three-year-old son, among others.

It appears possible that the others charged with murder — Dymock (19), a juvenile, and an unknown woman — are also associated with the Aryan Nations.

Edhouse first made contact with me back in November 2014, asking me to help promote his nu group: I wasn’t very interested.

Fast forward to early 2016, and Edhouse got his wish for publicity by appearing as a spokesperson for AN in WA media. Prior to this, in January, Edhouse messaged me to complain that anti-fascists failed to disrupt a United Patriots Front rally in Perth (which AN attended). The links between the AN and UPF are — or were — close but informal: allegedly, the UPF were housed by AN member Melony Jane Taylor when they travelled to Perth in order to attend a UPF rally last year. In any case, the UPF draws from the same right-wing swamp as AN does (or did). Certainly, Edhouse and AN keep up-to-date with the antics of the Australia First Party, whose leader, Dr Jim Saleam, also entertained Edhouse on one of his trips to Sydney (just as he did the UPF leadership when they were also in Sydney late last year).

jimanded

Above : Saleam, unknown nazi, Edhouse (@ The Bunker in Tempe)

audaciousrob

Above : Edhouse and fellow nazi (copy of AFP newsletter ‘Audacity’ on couch)

As for Edhouse’s partner(?) Melony Jayne Taylor, she makes her own political convictions pretty apparent:

beautiful

#UnitedPatriotsFront + #Fortitude : ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

Somehow or other, material published on the Facebook group “UPF & FORTITUDE ~ INNER CIRCLE” — comprising the ‘inner circle’ of the UPF/Fortitude — done got made public. It provides an interesting glimpse into the inner workings of the group of a dozen or so men who comprise the inner circle, and no doubt similar material will be forthcoming. Here’s a sample:

1. Chris Shortis (‘Chris Neil’) assures new member, Perth-based neo-Nazi Nic Genovese, that the inner circle is safe and secure.
noleaks

2. Fuehrer Blair Cottrell assures the inner circle that everything is safe and secure. Note that along with Christian fun-da-mentalist Scott Moerland, neo-Nazi Jim Perren, formerly of Toowoomba, is the UPF’s flunkey in Queensland.
structurelulz

3. Blair Cottrell makes a funny about Thomas Sewell’s dreams of being a little Nazi.
SwellAryan

4. Perth-based Elijah Jacobson asks who the man is what expresses ABSOLUTE UNWAVERING LOYALTY to his Fuehrer (Sewell provides the answer: Rudolf Hess).
loyalty

5. The boys have a discussion about who’s gonna be standing for Fortitude come this year’s federal election. The other UPF/Fortitude flunkey in Perth, Dennis Huts, like Cottrell, has done time in jail: thankfully, for less than 12 months, meaning he’s free to catapult himself into the Australian Senate.
prisonhuts

6. Cottrell quotes Hitler.
camelbliar