First, a few updates:
1) Dick & MUFF
Following his batshit, public, and VERY ANGRY reaction to the same-sex marriage ballot survey’s majority support, after first doubling-down on his defiance of the (((gay))) agenda and — not coincidentally — following MUFF’s sponsors, and a considerable number of its supporters, declaring MUFF to be FUBAR, Richard Wolstencroft announced his resignation as Director and handballed responsibility for it to his mate and MUFF patron, Frank Howson. Whether or not this means MUFF will continue remains an open question. In any case, Dick did find vocal support from at least one other filmmaker: Ian Nicholson of the Sydney Short Film School. Ian also decried the influence of ‘dumb, lefty cunts’ on Australian culture and society, and compared gay couples to motorbikes. True Story! Resembling Richard in more ways than one, after doubling-down on his original cray-cray and — not coincidentally — after the Australian Cinematographers Society announced that he was no longer welcome to use their facilities to run his skool, Ian made a public apology.
See : Richard Wolstencroft & MUFF ~versus~ Those Degenerate Gays, November 18, 2017.
2) Patriot Blue
‘Patriot Blue’ is serial pest Neil Erikson’s latest political vehicle, one into which he’s enrolled his stoopid mate, Ricky/Rikki Turner. (Other participants in the stoopid have included Paul ‘Guru’ Franzi, Pommy whinger Garry Hume, George Jameson and Penny Tridgell (Party for Freedom, Sydney), Luke Phipps, Lachlan/Logan Spalding, and a handful of others.) After having made a splash by disrupting council meetings and, most recently, racially abusing Labor MP Sam Dastyari at a pub, on Friday (November 24), Neil and Ricky/Rikki took it upon themselves to attempt to disrupt a solidarity rally with the men on Manus. Collective Action have published an account of what followed here: What happened in Melbourne yesterday? (November 25, 2017). Yesterday’s Manus solidarity rally in Melbourne did not “turn violent”, it was attacked first by a known fascist and then by the police. The racist violence of the Australian state, directed at Indigenous peoples, Muslims, and anyone who would dare seek asylum whilst non-white, continues to embolden far-right thugs …
Finally, in addition to clashing with STAN over their unauthorised use of ‘Patriot Blue’, Neil and Ricky/Rikki have also fallen foul of TOLL, which yesterday published the following statement on the boys’ use of TOLL uniforms during their dickheaded stunts:
Last week a video was circulated online featuring 2 men interrupting a rally in Melb, one of whom was wearing a Toll shirt. We can confirm neither of these people work for Toll. We do not condone the behaviour displayed in the video: we support a diverse and inclusive society.
— Toll Group (@Toll_Group) November 27, 2017
3) FREE PHIL!
Old mate Phill Galea is slowly making his way through the courts — today he was again having his bRanes assessed. AAP:
Probe into accused Vic terrorist’s mind
November 29, 2017A far-right anti-Islam extremist accused of planning to bomb left-wing groups in Melbourne may not stand trial for terrorism offences if a second expert finds him mentally unfit.
Phillip Galea, 33, faced the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday via video link for a brief directions hearing about his case, which is still before a lower court.
Galea is charged with making preparations for terrorist attacks against properties occupied by Melbourne anarchist groups between November 2015 and August 2016.
The 33-year-old is also charged with collecting or making documents to prepare for terrorist acts between September 2015 and August 2016.
A pre-trial committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court has been delayed amid concerns about his mental state.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers on Wednesday said they are waiting for a report by a second mental health expert before deciding if Galea’s fitness to stand trial should be determined in the Supreme Court.
Galea is due to see a psychiatrist on December 13 for a second opinion.
His case will return to the Supreme Court on January 29 so counsel can decide the next step.
Galea has been in custody since he was arrested in August 2016.
Police have accused Galea of preparing to target various locations inhabited by the Melbourne Anarchist Club and Melbourne Resistance Centre.
The Braybrook resident allegedly told an associate he wanted to cause as much devastation to his targets as possible in a coordinated attack, according to a summary previously released by the Magistrates Court.
He allegedly ordered potassium nitrate for smoke bombs, aligned himself with right-wing groups True Blue Crew and Patriots Defence League Australia, and researched how to make improvised explosive devices.
Note that, while the majority of his patriotik kameraden have run screaming from Galea, in Queensland one-man band Mike Holt is spearheading a campaign to #FREEPHIL. Launched in August, Mike’s petition has to date attracted over 1,000 signatories. According to the OAP, Phil Galea, Australian patriot, was arrested and accused of being a terrorist in August 2016 after he followed and filmed ANTIFA terrorist thugs at their headquarters. The police allege that he had “bomb making materials”, but Phil denies this and says he can prove why he had the chemicals for peaceful scientific experiments.
LOL.
More recently (November 16, 2017), Mike published a letter from Galea about a dead patriot called Shannon Wallace, in which Phillthy speculates that Wallace may have suffered an ‘unnatural’ death (possibly murdered by use of a ‘sonic gun’?). In early 2016 I visited Shannon Wallace in what was called The Compound by him and his father, writes Phil, before providing a garbled account of various persons and events and identifying Darren Norsworthy (PDLA and ‘Battalion 88’) and ‘Aaron’ [Dekeulenaer, presumably; a nazi dork from Ballarat associated with PDLA, ‘Battalion 88’ and RWRAU] as police informants. Phill also writes:
If I was murdered (or had an “accident”), Shannon was to use an internet café to sign into my e-mail account and send Blair Cottrell (UPF), Mike Holt (Restore Australia), and Liz Sheppard (Reclaim Australia) all of my recordings from a fake account. Then Shannon was to use the Linux computer I had given him to make dozens of copies of the discs and hand them out to all True Blue Crew Members who were on a list I had given him when he went to the Melton anti-mosque rally. Then he was to hand the discs directly to the press as well.
And so on and so forth …
See also : Will the Alt Right Produce the Next Timothy McVeigh?, Alex Reid Ross, AlterNet, November 27, 2017 (‘The history of white nationalism suggests we could be entering a period of violent upheaval’).
4) Pauline Hanson ~versus~ Queensland
Sadly, NASA and the United Nations successfully conspired to rob Malcolm ‘Jew World Order’ Roberts of his rightful place in Queensland’s state parliament on the weekend. Worse yet, it seems as though possibly only one ONP candidate, Stephen Andrew, will get the bump. On a brighter note, Pauline Hanson will be pocketing a cool million from the election, adding to the estimated six million dollarydoos she’s earned contesting numerous elections over the last 20 years.
5) Anti-Semitism
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has published its annual report on anti-Semitism in Australia. See : Antisemitic incidents in Australia up nearly 10% over year, study says, Helen Davidson, The Guardian, November 27, 2017; read/download a copy of the report here. Among those who get a guernsey are Hitler fanboys Antipodean Resistance, Mark Latham’s chums at The Convict Report (‘The Dingoes’), the Australia First Party, Nationalist Alternative, United Nationalists Australia and Blair Cottrell, David Hilton and even Brendon O’Connell. Speaking of O’Connell, it appears that he’s currently stuck in jail in New Zealand, presumably before Kiwi authorities deport him (see : Anti-semitic blogger detained for nearly six weeks, Radio New Zealand, November 21, 2017).
See also : Nazi-inspired vandals deface central Ballarat, damage house, Brendan Wrigley, The Courier, November 14, 2017.
Coming at things from a slightly different angle, the latest issue of the Australian Jewish Democratic Society’s zine ‘Just Voices’ (No.14, November 2017) is also dedicated to the subject of anti-Semitism, a broad topic that encompasses many different and related phenomena, past and present. It deserves our attention now no less than ever, especially since it is largely neglected in the Left, and concerns many developments within mainstream culture, including the American government openly spouting antisemitic views. It also contains, inter alia, an interview with the compañerxs of Jews against fascism. NB. Jaf are also organising a presence at the Milo Yiannopoulos show on Monday (December 4).
6) From Cootamundra to Cheltenham
Above : James Buckle of gun lobby group Firearm Owners United outside his neo-Nazi clubhouse in Cheltenham
Speaking of Nazis … back in September there was a by-election in the regional seat of Cootamundra in NSW, which the Nationals managed to retain (but experienced a big swing away from the party, rendering it nominally marginal). Australia First Party fuehrer Dr James Saleam ran (coming last on 453 votes or 0.99%), as did Matthew Stadtmiller of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers (who got just a few more votes than Dr Jim). Earlier, in January, Stadtmiller had described NSW MP (and Minister for Lands and Forestry and Racing) Paul Toole as a ‘Nazi’; this prompted an article in the regional Southern Cross newspaper in September about his faux pas, one which prompted a further contribution from former Cootamundra MP Katrina Hodgkinson. Weirdly, the article also included commentary from James Buckle of gun lobby group ‘Firearm Owners United’: “We expect this sort of thing from Greens candidates, not from outgoing Nationals,” group president James Buckle told the Herald on Thursday morning. “It’s just another sign the Nationals have abandoned their rural constituents and we’ll be actively lobbying against them in the Cootamundra by-election.” That’s wEiRd because, apart from anything else, Buckle is a Melbourne resident and one of those who, in addition to Blair Cottrell and Thomas Sewell, is part of something called ‘The Lads Society’: a clubhouse for neo-Nazis based in Cheltenham.
See : ‘The Lads Society’ : A new neo-Nazi social club opens in Melbourne, October 28, 2017.
7) Fascism in reality (and phantasy)
Romper Stomper returns to the (small) screen in the New Year. See : Geoffrey Wright on his Romper Stomper remake – and why Donald Trump inspired him, Tim Elliott, The Age, November 17, 2017.
• “Sweetman was a Melbourne neo-Nazi who axe-murdered a fellow bonehead at a party to celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday, which sounds ridiculous but is true,” Wright tells me. Wright read all the reports on Sweetman, and even talked to people who knew him, eventually drawing from his story the rudiments of Hando, the character at the centre of what would become the film Romper Stomper. Old Mate was released from Fulham prison on parole in October 2005, after serving 15 years of a 20-year sentence for the 1990 murder of David Noble; he then (briefly) settled in @ The Tote along with Patrick O’Sullivan. A former Creatard, O’Sullivan is now ‘Combat 18’; in 2002, O’Sullivan was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for stabbing another bonehead (also at a party) — which is where he became chums with Sweetman.
• The day I visit the Melbourne set, Wright is directing a scene in which Farron and Laila appear on No Quarter, ostensibly to discuss a clash that took place, at a recent halal-food festival, between Patriot Blue members and hard-left activists. The clash would appear to be based on an incident in Melbourne in April last year in which Nick Folkes and the Party for Freedom had its anti-Muslim rally gatecrashed by anTEEfa.
• Like Romper Stomper, the US film Imperium (2016) — which borrows its title from Francis Parker Yockey‘s 1948 magnum opus — also features anTEEfa, who are known as ‘The Anti-Fascist League’ (in Romper Stomper they’re called ‘anti-fash’ or something). At one point, Daniel Radcliffe and his nazi chums — Radcliffe plays the role of an FBI agent tasked with infiltrating the nazi group — assemble at a comrade’s haus to watch a TV show promoting an upcoming nazi rally. The hosts make reference to their opposition (The Anti-Fascist League) and then show some photos of the mob expected to rock up and try and spoil the party. Fuck me dead if it isn’t a photo of THE LEAGUE in action in Melton in November 2015.
See also : Dead fascist poets society: why CasaPound are no book club, libcom, November 10, 2017 /// I learned German with white supremacist Richard Spencer, Julie Hill, The Spinoff, November 12, 2017 /// A Contemporary Taxonomy of Britain’s Far Right, base, November 21, 2017 (‘Anti-fascists need to look at how the far-right has organised in the past and is currently organising if they are to halt the rise of a potentially resurgent far-right’) /// Andrew Anglin: The Making of an American Nazi, Luke O’Brien, The Atlantic, December 2017 (‘How did Andrew Anglin go from being an antiracist vegan to the alt-right’s most vicious troll and propagandist—and how might he be stopped?’).
8) anTEEfa!
Above : ‘Follow Your Leader’ by David Wilcox : Cover of Anarchist Studies (Vol.25, No.2), Autumn 2017
Finally, there’s been a blizzard of writings on anTEEfa this year. Here’s a sample:
The First Thing Colleges Must Understand About Antifa: What the Word Means, Nell Gluckman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 10, 2017.
Pro Anti, Angela Mitropoulos, The New Inquiry, August 20, 2017 (‘Antifa’s horizon is in toppling the legitimacy of extraction and ownership anchored in presumably natural foundations’) /// Antifascism: Pros and cons, Ross Wolfe, The Charnel House, August 20, 2017 /// The Forgotten Roots of Antifa, Kevin Mattson, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, September 19, 2017 (‘Although defenses of Antifa, like a recent one in The New Inquiry, are relevant, the movement may do well to remember its less romanticized intellectual roots, from Orwell to Camus’).
… and for #lulz, see : Alt-right Trump supporters and left-wing Bernie Sanders fans should join together to defeat capitalism, Slavoj Žižek, The Independent, November 25, 2017 (‘Class struggle is back as the main determining factor of our political life – even if the stakes appear to be totally different, from humanitarian crises to ecological threats, class struggle lurks in the background and casts its ominous shadow’).
American democracy is facing an existential crisis – and that New York Times Nazi profile didn’t help
Jasmin Mujanović
The New York Times
November 27, 2017
[Jasmin Mujanović, a political scientist specializing in the politics of southeastern Europe, is the author of “Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans.”]
This past weekend, the New York Times published a profile of an American Nazi that rightly stirred up a major backlash. The article, which dwells at length on the apparent normality of Tony Hovater, its subject, casts a revealing light on U.S. intellectual elites, who persist in underplaying the existential crisis facing the American republic. Amid increasing neo-fascist mobilization, and during the tenure of a president who routinely peddles far-right talking points and policies and equivocates on condemning white supremacists, the Times has produced a soft-focus profile of one of the founding members of the country’s leading neo-Nazi groups.
In other words, one of America’s papers of record, whose writers and editors routinely interact with the most powerful people in the world, has published an article that treats the specter of far-right violence, an increasingly present reality for millions of immigrants and people of color in the United States, as just another voice in the marketplace of ideas. It is as though fascism, the 20th century’s most murderous ideology, has become an obscure, little-understood footnote in history.
The only way such a piece could have been produced — despite the Times’ rigorous editorial standards — is if, at a fundamental level, its staff did not understand the threat represented by Hovater. Or, more to the point, Times staffers are not afraid of Hovater, the way so many of us are — we who are Jewish, Muslim, black, brown or queer, and who have always known that behind Hovater’s dog whistle references to “tradition” and “normies” (i.e., normal people) lies a genocidal vision for America’s future.
Or perhaps Times staffers are simply insulated and figure (correctly) that, when the violence begins, it will not be directed at people like them: wealthy, white and mobile. Hovater and his extremist associates are far more likely to prioritize the murder and expulsion of static, poor, black and brown communities — those who are close at hand. The “coastal elites” in New York, Washington and San Francisco, although reviled by the likes of Hovater and Steve Bannon, the president’s former chief of staff, as “cosmopolitan elites,” are protected from the real consequences of their politics by geography and privilege.
That, in any case, is how it has always been. The primary targets of white terrorism in the United States have always been local. Klansmen lynched their black and brown neighbors; however much they may have claimed to despise them, they did not travel to Manhattan to purge New York of its literati. The Nazis, likewise, organized ordinary Germans and ordinary Europeans to exterminate their neighbors, to loot their homes, to erase the memories of their ever having existed at all. There is, therefore, nothing novel or unique about Hovater’s humdrum suburban life. He is an ordinary monster — but such monsters have always been ordinary.
If the Times felt that the memories of the Jim Crow period or the Holocaust were somehow too distant to instill in their readers coherent lessons about the dangers of fascism, then they need only have glanced at world headlines last week and reflected on the conviction of General Ratko Mladić. Now serving a life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity, Mladić was the wartime commander of the Belgrade-backed Bosnian Serb forces. In that capacity he presided over the rape, torture and murder of thousands, and the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands more, across Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995.
Mladić, at the direction of his political superiors Radovan Karadžić and Slobodan Milošević, actually enacted the ideas that Hovater and his cohort have now presented in the pages of the New York Times as the reasonable cry of middle America’s downtrodden white man. For that reason Mladić is, along with much of the 1990s roster of Serbian war criminals, a staple reference point on far-right forums and listservs across the Internet. To them, he is the man who was butchering Muslims before 9/11, a genocidaire ahead of his time, and who sought to create a “Greater Serbia,” much as those who seek to “Make America Great Again.”
Despite the handwringing in the immediate aftermath of November 2016, it is clear that much of the American media establishment has learned little from the unthinkable election of Donald Trump. Barefaced lies, disinformation and hate speech are all now routine and accepted parts of the U.S. media diet. The president is the chief architect and beneficiary of this new regime, but his march to the White House has clearly emboldened all manner of extremists.
If American democracy and constitutional government are to persevere — something that cannot be taken for granted — a full-throated defense of their norms and values will be required by citizens and the press alike. Unfortunately, with its glib profile of Hovater, the New York Times has failed its readers and emboldened the enemies of the republic.