Andy Fleming

Secondly, the UPF is defunct, having been replaced by 'The Lads Society'. TLS has a social centre in Cheltenham in #Melbourne, another in Ashfield in Sydney (see @ActionAshfield), & is in the process of est itself in BRIS, CAN & PER. The principal reason that the UPF is defunct >

> is because, after several years of pumping out a constant stream of racist propaganda, @facebook eventually decided to shut its page. Again: #Facebook has been utterly critical to the development of the far-right in AUS over the preceding period, & remains so.

Case in point: it was reported a day or two ago that the event page for the racist rally in #StKilda was shut-down (after FB was no doubt deluged w complaints); problem being, it was removed AFTER the event itself, rendering the exercise more-or-less pointless.

That aside, inre applying the term 'Nazi' to the rally: to begin w (& I understand that I'm repeating myself, but it appears to be necessary), the key organisers & promoters -- Blair Cottrell & Neil Erikson -- both have long histories of involvement in neo-Nazi orgs.

Principally, in the case of both meatheads, w 'Nationalist Alternative', a chiefly Melbourne-based groupuscule which, as it happens, has its origins in anti-mosque agitation in Williamstown. Otherwise, it's also worth noting that, at one point in early 2016, Erikson denounced >

> both Cottrell & the UPF *precisely* on the basis that they were a bunch of nazis -- this was *after* he left/was expelled from the grp. Fast-fwd to 2018 &, for his own reasons, Erikson was back on board w Cottrell & ex-UPF (ie, TLS). & his prev denunciation disappeared >

> along w much else, down the memory hole. Being a semi-professional liar & a fabulist as well as a serial pest, this back-and-forth is not surprising, & reflects a general tendency on the part of the milieu. Thus, it's half-right, imo, to not take the ideological positioning >

> of the var chancers & spivs attracted to this proto-movement *too* seriously; otoh, it would be mistaken to discount such factors entirely. To put it another way: Cottrell is indeed a neo-Nazi, & this assessment is not based on his fashion sense, or preparedness >

> to chuck up Hitler salutes a la a handful of meatheads on Saturday. Rather, this can be est by ref to: a) his stated political positions and; b) his public advocacy. In which context; Cottrell now lies about the fact that he's stated all the nazi stuff I've documented >

> on the blog & which has formed the basis of subsequent media reportage (esp that SMH article of late 2015). Further, anybody actually familiar w Nazi philosophy will easily recognise its influence upon Cottrell in all his public posturings (his rhetorical style, fwiw, is >

redolent of his dead hero's). Also, *not* being an absolute fucking cretin, Cottrell understands -- & has openly said so -- that to be tarred w the Nazi brush is to be given the political kiss-of-death. He wants to avoid that tag like the fucking plague, *precisely* because >

it's accurate but, moreover, because it jeopardises his attempts to appeal to a broader layer of potential recruits. If Cottrell is understood as being someone who's actually capable of acting rationally, much else falls into place. This is one of the issues w portraying him >

> & some others as simply deranged or even psychotic. However grotesque his Weltanschauung, his political activity is, generally-speaking, rational & considered. This applies more generally to the smol following he's accrued over the last four years. So, to return to the UPF >

> at its inception, its core membership consisted not of 'The Babysitters Club for racist incels', but middle-aged, married blokes w kids: Dennis Huts in PER, Kris0 Richardson & Chris Shortis in MEL, & Scott Moerland in BRIS (along w Burgess, Erikson, Sewell & Kevin Coombes).

In terms of nazi participation at the rally itself, again, if commentators are prepared to recognise the poss that smart nazis -- for entirely understandable & easily-explicable reasons -- try to avoid the tag, then assessments can be made in terms of ideology, not fashion.

> weren't chucking up Hitler salutes or waving Nazi flags. But: they're neo-Nazis. Note: McDonald is the former fuehrer of short-lived nazi grplet 'Squadron 88' (88 = HH = Heil Hitler). They briefly got some airplay a coupla yrs ago for stuffing anti-Semitic flyers into >

> letterboxes in predominantly Jewish suburbs in SYD. Another fella present was Alex Annenkov. He wore a plain white tee on Sat, but has made his allegiances known on other occasions. (I couldn't be arsed right now but suffice to say it's documented.)

More broadly, notwithstanding the almost-indescribable horrors Nazi Germany inflicted upon EUR & European Jewry in particular, the OG Nazis were on the whole rational political actors; further, Nazi elites were happy to listen to Bach (& ofc Wagner) & otherwise conform >

> to the stereotype of the educated, respectable bourgeois while they set about undertaking war & committing genocide. The fact that the Nazis committed monstrous crimes should not obscure this fact (& indeed, they're hardly unique in this sense, as even a rudimentary >

> examination of the history of, say, var European imperialisms over the course of the last 500 years or so would, I suggest, confirm), or prevent a rational assessment of contemporary fascisms. Finally -- there's a truckload more I could add, but TBH a lotta this blah is --

> easily-accessible on the blog -- it's important to understand, I think, that fascism's appeal has never been reliant on its intellectual coherence or theoretical weight. Which is to say, like others, fascist demagogues (& mini- or aspiring-demagogues like Cottrell) >

> aim for the heart & the guts, more than they do the head. The St Kilda rally was intended to capitalise upon a media-driven panic over #AfricanGangs, recast as a potential 'Cronulla 2.0', & the so-called mtg was, rather obviously, & rather like the vituperations of >

> the usual suspects in the tabloid media on the subject, a world away from any sober assessment of whatever issues there are w yoof & crime in Melbourne. Apart from that, Melbourne is home to both the @JHCMelbourne & a considerable no of terrific scholars, as is AUS >

> generally, whose work is of great relevance to anybody wanting to come to grips w Nazi, neo-Nazi & fascist ideology, history & mvmt, & ofc numerous related phenomena (see also, eg, @acrawsa), not least that of the AUS colonial-settler state. END. #FCKNZS