Tagged with Welf Herfurth

antifa notes (november 2, 2018) : milo & mcinnes; lads, proud boys & natzis

Update (November 3, 2018) : Nationals ban 22 members for life after investigation into neo-Nazi links, Michael Koziol, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 3, 2018.


Above : On L, alleged killer Robert Bowers announcing his intention to GTKRWN; on R, Brisbane-based neo-Nazi and member of The Lads Society Beau Maverick. Neither man cares greatly for ‘optics’.

* The massacre at the synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27 was reportedly the worst such event in US history. Unfortunately, given current political trends, that record may not last very long. In any case, Julie Nathan of the ECAJ has written ‘As the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre shows, fears of “White Genocide” are incitement to murder’ (ABC Religion & Ethics, October 29/31, 2018), while CEO Alex Ryvchin reckons ‘Synagogue slayings not a shot in the culture wars’ (October 31, 2018 — for a contrary view, see : Jews Against Fascism).

I may add some more thoughts at a later date, but in the meantime I think it worthwhile highlighting the fact that the rehabilitation of anti-Semitism and its increasing centrality to extreme-right perspectives in the United States is echoed Down Under as an increasingly larger segment of younger right-wing activists not only adopt a fascist outlook but place anti-Semitic conspiracy theories at the heart of their worldview. By way of example, the AltRight media platforms ‘XYZ’ and ‘The Unshackled’ (AKA ‘The Unhinged’ — which, to its credit, has been authorised by Google as a trusted media source) have drifted over the course of the last year or two from fairly conventional arch-Toryism to an open embrace of white nationalism. Leaving aside David Hilton (‘Moses Apostaticus’), fellow XYZ contributor Ryan Fletcher has accounted for this shift in an essay titled ‘Trading HEMP for Hitler’ (a text which comes highly recommended by editor David Hiscox). Fletcher is also a YUGE fan of James Mason’s Siege — required reading for members of local neo-Nazi grouplet Antipodean Resistance.


Above : Tim Wilms of The Unhinged wearing his Proud Boys ‘Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong’ shirt. Note that the arm reads RWDS (‘Right Wing Death Squad’). Under the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990), tens of thousands of Chileans were raped, tortured, murdered and forced into exile by his death squads. (Coincidentally, this weekend, LASNET has organised a gathering on Autonomy & Resistance at Trades Hall in Melbourne.)

See also : Pittsburgh shooting extends wave of conspiracy-minded rightwing violence, Jason Wilson, The Guardian, October 27, 2018 | George Soros: Why Are Australians Flirting With This American Conspiracy Theory?, Alex Bruce-Smith, 10 Daily, October 31, 2018 | Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe (March 9, 2012).

1) Dan Spiller/Future Now Australia Presents: Milo Yiannopoulos & Ann Coulter

Queensland businessman Dan Spiller (AKA ‘Future Now Australia’ AKA ‘AE Events’) has recently announced the cancellation of the upcoming tour by Infowars-supplements salesman and paedophile apologist Milo Yiannopoulos (accompanied by fellow wealthy blabbermouth Ann Coulter). This is the second time Spiller has tried and failed to organise a tour by ‘foreign radicals’: back in April, Spiller announced that he’d be bringing both Yiannopoulos and ‘Proud Boys’ founder Gavin McInnes to Australia. That effort collapsed in a heap within a few days, but Spiller’s latest production took several months to fall apart … which I suppose could be considered either an improvement or a degeneration (depending on your perspective). In any (non-)event, the decision to cancel the tour has been compounded by Spiller’s decision not to refund buyers but instead offer them tickets to go and see two other ‘foreign radicals’ — Gavin McInnes and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — when they tour in December.

Fingers crossed, Mr Spiller’s seemingly chronic inability to successfully profit from foreign hate-merchants will not deter him from attempting to do so and being similarly adept in future. The silver lining on this grey cloud of failure, however, is perhaps the new book by Milo, which is apparently All About Australia:


Above : An extract from Yiannopoulos’s upcoming book on Australia. It’s unclear at this stage if Janet Albrechtsen has accepted an invitation to write the foreword.

See also : Milo Yiannopoulos Fans Are Pissed His Aussie Tour Got Cancelled, And It’s Extremely Funny, Tom Clift, Junkee, November 1, 2018 | Milo Yiannopoulos’ Australian Tour Has Been Cancelled And Fans Want Refunds, Josh Butler, 10 Daily, October 31, 2018 | Milo Yiannopoulos’ Australian tour cancelled with no refunds, SBS, October 31, 2018 | Milo Yiannopoulos’ Aussie Tour Has Been Cancelled, Disappointing Dozens, Ben McLeay, pedestriantv, October 31, 2018 | Milo Yiannopoulos tour cancelled; Gavin McInnes visa debate continues, Kieran’s Review, October 30, 2018.

2) Gavin McInnes & Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’)

Damien Costas, publisher of Penthouse Australia, is planning on bringing Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and ex-BNP member and founder of the English Defence League Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA ‘Andrew McMaster’/’Paul Harris’/’Tommy Robinson’) to Australia in December. As usual, venues will be made public 24 hours prior to the event, but it’s not unreasonable to expect previous venues, including Festival Functions in Findon (Adelaide), Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne Pavilion in Flemington/La Mirage in Somerton, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre and Le Montage/International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) to again provide a platform for race-hate. The dates for the tour are as follows:

• ADELAIDE : WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5
• PERTH : FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7
• MELBOURNE : TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11
• GOLD COAST : THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13
• SYDNEY : SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16

Of course, the possibility of either McInnes or Yaxley-Lennon being able to enter the country is entirely dependent upon Mr Potato Head’s feels on the subject. On Robinson, and in particular his current legal troubles (which may also see him prevented from coming), see : David Renton and Barrister Blogger.

With regards McInnes, he and his ‘Boys’ have been getting into some bother of late. Just a few weeks ago (Friday, October 12) in New York, McInnes was invited by the Metropolitan Republican Club to celebrate the anniversary of the assassination of Japanese socialist Inejiro Asanuma on this date in 1960. Following the event, some of McInnes’s fanboys went on a bit of a rampage, and some got arrest. An awful lot of ink has been spilled on the subject of the event and its aftermath, but as ever New York City Antifa (Twitter) is an xclnt resource. See also : The Proud Boys, The GOP And ‘The Fascist Creep’, Christopher Mathias, Huffington Post, October 18, 2018 (‘Gavin McInnes spoke at a GOP club, then his followers violently attacked leftist protesters. Modern American fascism finds its foot soldiers’) | NYPD arrests 14 Jewish protesters outside Republican club where Proud Boys brawled, Rex Santus, Vice, October 31, 2018 (‘The protesters outside the Club on Tuesday were there to call on the Republican Party to denounce white nationalism after the Saturday shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue where 11 worshippers were murdered by a man who’d shared anti-Semitic and white supremacist comments online.’).

Closer to home, Melbourne lawyer Nyadol Nyuon has launched an online petition, calling on the Minister to deny McInnes a visa. For their part, both Facebook and Instagram appear to have removed a large number of (official and unofficial) Proud Boy accounts from their sites. ‘The crackdown came slightly more than two weeks after members of the group reportedly attacked and beat activists protesting at an event in Manhattan. It also follows the massacre of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue — the worst anti-Semitic attack in recent US history.’ The gab.ai webshite (AKA ‘Twitter for nazis’) is also experiencing technical difficulties at the moment …


Above : Melbourne-based neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell tweets a dank meme about killing socialists. Note that Asanuma’s teenybopper assassin, Otoya Yamaguchi, killed himself a few weeks later.

See also : Australia should be wary of the Proud Boys and their violent, alt-right views, Kaz Ross, The Conversation (ABC), October 30, 2018 | Proud Boys Founder Gavin McInnes: ‘We Need More Violence from the Trump People’, gritpost, October 18, 2018 | The New Nazis: How the meme-rich world of the internet is a threat in Australia, Kaz Ross, ABC, October 14, 2018.

3) Young Natzionals

The recent revelation that the Young Nationals in NSW have been targeted for infiltration by neo-Nazis and White supremacists created some mild embarrassment for the party over the course of the last few weeks. On Wednesday, it was announced that 15 members of the party — including Thomas Brasher, Michael Heaney, Clifford Jennings and Oscar Tuckfield — had resigned, while something like another 20 have had their membership status questioned, and may yet leave or be forced out of the party. See : Nationals members resign en masse amid investigation into neo-Nazi ties, Michael Koziol, The Age, October 31, 2018 | Young Nationals resign after after ABC investigation reveals alt-right push, Alex Mann, ABC, October 31, 2018.

On Monday the story — the origins of which may be traced back to some reportage in The Australian back in May, but which was given flesh by Alex Mann for the ABC — provoked the following front-page treatment in The Daily Telegraph:

Oddly enough Sharri’s father, Max Markson, has been doing his bit to promote racism and fascism in Australia by way of Penthouse and in his capacity as Milo’s Australian publicist. Sadly, the relationship between Costas and Markson has broken down in the wake of the paedophile apologist’s December 2017 tour: ‘ … Mr Markson called Mr Costas a “lying conman”. Mr Costas, the publisher of Penthouse Australia and owning a company alongside one of Australia’s biggest drug dealers, convicted ice importer Sean Dolman, retaliated by calling Mr Markson “a very naughty boy” who “had his finger in the till”‘ (Private Sydney: Markson sparks up in court in dispute with Penthouse publisher, Andrew Hornery, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 6, 2018).

See also : “I’ve had pictures of the Florida school shooter posted on my door”. UTAS’s Dr Kaz Ross says she has had death threats since exposing young Nationals alt-right supporters, On Mornings with Sarah Gillman, ABC, November 1, 2018 | NSW Nats clear key player in Nazi scandal, SBS (AAP), October 31, 2018 | White Nationalists Plan to Infiltrate Mainstream Australian Politics, Paul Gregoire, Sydney Criminal Lawyers, October 22, 2018.

4) The Lads Society

As noted a year ago, the neo-Nazi grouplet ‘The Lads Society’ has a clubhouse in the Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham. The nazis also have a training facility in Sydney, which is located at 34 Thomas Street, Ashfield. The Lads certainly have a sense of humour, with the lease on the property being signed with Colemon Property Group on Hitler’s birthday (April 20).

The chief organiser of ‘The Lads’ in Sydney is a Kiwi called ‘Mark McDonald’. Previously, Mark was the lvl boss of another short-lived neo-Nazi grouplet called ‘Squadron 88’. It attracted some media attention by way of stuffing letterboxes in Jewish areas of Sydney with anti-Semitic tracts. McDonald is also widely-believed to be responsible for the distribution of some racist posters in Sydney in mid-2017. Most recently, McDonald and several other Lads attended Adelaide barrister John Bolton’s batshit rally in Wiley Park:


Above : Partially-obscured, joining Cottrell on the right is Adelaide barrister John Bolton; standing between Cottrell and Tuckfield is Mark McDonald, founder of defunct neo-Nazi grouplet Squadron 88 and current lvl boss of The Lads Society in Sydney.

Finally, ladsleaks has published an interesting discussion drawn from The Lads’ private Facebook page. The list of participants in the discussion reads like a Who’s Who of neo-Nazism Down Under, including both founders Blair Cottrell and Tom Sewell, Mark McDonald (‘Tyler Winchester’) and Stuart Von Moger, David Hilton (‘Moses Apostaticus’), Jim Perren (Australia First Party/’Whitelaw Towers’/United Patriots Front), Welf Herfurth and more. Much of the discussion revolves around The Lads’ shared hatred for Jewish neo-Nazi Nathaniel Jacob Sassoon Sykes. Based in Sydney, Sykes was until a few years ago a prolific contributor to the world’s leading neo-Nazi webshite ‘The Daily Stormer’. A member of the Australia First Party, Sykes uses his blog ‘United Nationalists of Australia’ to take aim at the party’s rivals on the right — including, of course, The Lads.

The post which triggered Tom can be read here — I’ll post other commentary from ladsleaks here laters.

5) … of note

• Guns, fascism, infighting and couch-surfing: Researcher Serena Tarr recounts a year studying the alt-right, Emma McClatchey, Little Village, October 8, 2018;
• Here Is a List of Far-Right Attackers Trump Inspired. Cesar Sayoc Wasn’t the First — and Won’t Be the Last., Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept, October 28, 2018;
• We Must Pressure Mainstream Forces to Stop Downplaying the Far Right, Spencer Sunshine, truthout, October 29, 2018;
• Three Months Inside Alt-Right New York, Jay Firestone, Commune, Fall 2018 (‘An undercover antifascist descends through all nine circles of the alt-right inferno.’);
• Twilight of the Racist Uncles: How Facebook is melting the minds of our elders, Ed Burmila, The Baffler, October 30, 2018;
• After Last Week, There’s No Hope That the Media Will Ever Abandon False Equivalencies With the Far Right, Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, October 31, 2018;
• Engedaw Berhanu Remembers His Nephew—Brought to Portland, Then Forever Lost, Jason Wilson, Willamette Week, October 31, 2018;
• Punching On With Patriots: How To Tackle Gavin McInnes And His Proud Boys’ Promise of Violence In Australia, Tom Tanuki, New Matilda, October 31, 2018.

“Michael Schmidt is a white nationalist trying to infiltrate the anarchist movement.”

Update (October 30) : Alexander Reid Ross and Joshua Stephens have finished publishing their exposé on Schmidt. It is serialised. About Schmidt: How a White Nationalist Seduced Anarchists Around the World (Chapter 1) | About Schmidt: How a White Nationalist Seduced Anarchists Around the World (Chapter 2) | About Schmidt: How a White Nationalist Seduced Anarchists Around the World (Chapter 3) | About Schmidt: How a White Nationalist Seduced Anarchists Around the World (Chapter 4) | About Schmidt: How a White Nationalist Seduced Anarchists Around the World (Chapter 5).

Update (September 29) : The Institute for Anarchist Theory and History (IATH) (Instituto de Teoria e História Anarquista (ITHA)) — of which Michael Schmidt is a member — have published a ‘Statement on AK Press versus Michael Schmidt Case / Declaração sobre o caso AK Press versus Michael Schmidt’ | (September 30) : Statement from Anarkismo on the AK Press accusations against Michael Schmidt.

Briefly:

Anarchist publisher + distributor AK Press has issued a public statement on the subject of Michael Schmidt, among other things the co-author of Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (AK Press, 2009). According to AK Press, Schmidt, while posing as a revolutionary anarchist, is in reality “an undercover fascist” and “a white nationalist trying to infiltrate the anarchist movement.”

importantunpleasant

As I see it, until such time as AK Press publishes its evidence — and Schmidt is given an opportunity to respond — it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to make a reasonable assessment of the situation. Nevertheless, some discussion has floated the possibility that Schmidt was moonlighting as a ‘national anarchist’. If so, this would be a case of ‘deep entrism’.

In any event, in Australia at least — and despite the best efforts of its chief promoter, Sydney-based businessman Welf Herfurth — ‘national anarchism’ appears to have been a largely abortive political project. Thus, other than arrange a handful of media stunts (see : When White nationalists attack! New Right @ Gaza solidarity rally, Sydney, November 24, December 7, 2012), ‘national anarchism’ has failed to establish itself as even a minor grouping on the far right. Indeed, one of Herfurth’s former acolytes, Scott Harrison, after taking a detour thru Creativity, eventually wound up as a Young Liberal (much to former Victorian premier Dennis Napthine’s embarrassment).

Obviously, there’s much more to come, but in the meantime note that ‘national anarchists’ are organising a conference to take place somewhere in Europe in 2017, at which Herfurth along with Troy Southgate, Keith Preston et al are scheduled to speak.

namcon

See also : ‘Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction’ by Graham D. Macklin (May 30, 2009) | Rebranding Fascism: National-Anarchists, Spencer Sunshine, PublicEye.org, 2008 | Rising Above the Herd: Keith Preston’s Authoritarian Anti-Statism, Matthew N. Lyons, New Politics, April 29, 2011.

Geert Wilders in Australia, February 2013

Update (February 19) : The venue for Wilders’ trouble-making in Melbourne on Tuesday, February 19 is La Mirage Reception & Convention Centre, 210 Hume Highway, Somerton. The venue can be contacted on (03) 9305 4855. A picket is being held at the venue from 6pm.

Update ( February 8 ) : Wilders’ tour appears almost certain to attract protest and it also seems that the venue originally booked by the Q Society in Sydney has cancelled its booking. Note that one of Wilders’ most recent project is an initiative intended to stop the construction of any further churches synagogues supermarkets mosques in the Netherlands.

Not that he’s got anything against Muslims: it’s teh Muslamics what done it.

Update : Fairfax has an article on Wilders’ tour titled ‘White supremacists ready for fight’ (Natalie O’Brien, The Age, February 2, 2012). It refers, inter alia, to the ‘Australian New Nation’ website — established several years ago in order to replace the White Pride Coalition of Australia site — and the Internet radio show ‘Australia Calling’. ‘Australia Calling’ is produced by Brisbane nazi Carl D Thompson, who briefly came to public attention some years ago when, after publishing some anti-Semitic material, he lost his job editing the One Nation newspaper.

Muslim-hating Dutch rightist Geert Wilders is gonna be touring Down Under in a few weeks. The Flying Dutchman’s tour is being organised by an anti-Islamic group known as the Q Society, and Wilders is scheduled to speak in Melbourne on the 19th, Perth on the 20th and Sydney on the 22nd of February, with the venues only being announced a day or two prior.* Unsurprisingly, having already roused controversy, Wilder’s tour is expected to generate some opposition, but also a good deal of support, especially among the far-right fringe. To that end, a number of individuals drawn from racist and fascist groups will be attending Wilder’s events :– some ostensibly in order to protect them from disruption.

Or were . . .

Within 48 hours of declaring that it was the sacred duty of White racialists to attend Wilder’s event in Sydney — largely in order to show the dastardly Reds who’s boss — Welf Herfurth — the leader of the minuscule forces of the New Right (NR) in Australia — changed his mind, and declared it to be a positively dreadful idea, one which risked aligning the NR with Zionists (ergo Jews).

Well, kinda . . .

Actually, the former NPD, ON and Democrats (!) member was admonished by his master, Troy Southgate, to pull his head in and think a li’l moar about the implications of aligning his handful of followers with The Jew. Thus:

Note that Herfurth’s mob last reared its head in Sydney back in November, when police provided them a platform at a Palestine solidarity rally; Herfurth himself is a Holocaust denialist and strong supporter of his kamerad Uncle Fred Toben.

Australian Protectionist Party & Conservative Islamophobia

Of course, support for Wilder’s message also extends deep into the conservative heartland, and includes prominent Muslim-baiters in the Tory party as well as handsomely-paid hacks in the corporate and state media. Further, the conservative embrace/promotion of paranoid fears over Muslamics has stolen a good deal of oxygen from a number of racist, right-wing fringe-dwellers, including Anders Breivik’s friends in the Australian Protectionist Party (APP). Just five short years after its foundation as a more ‘moderate’, less anti-Semitic version of the Australia First Party (AF), the APP has undergone its first major crisis, with the entirety of its Sydney branch decamping in order to establish yet another marginal bunch of kooks, this time modelled on Wilder’s Freedom Party (the APP modelled itself on the BNP). Whether or not the handful who spat the dummy can actually assemble another party remains to be seen, but given that they were the only active members the APP possessed the Protectionists seem doomed to disappear back into oblivion.

Or perhaps not.

Andrew Phillips, APP National Chairman, has relocated himself and his PO Box to Tasmania, while the party continues to nominate two others as contacts for NSW and VIC. Having lost perennial losers Darrin Hodges and Nicholas Hunter-Folkes, Phillips is now begging someone — anyone — to nominate themselves to undergo the humiliation of losing another popularity contest. Those interested can write to P.O. Box 170, Dover, Tasmania 7117 (which also functions as the postal address of Meals On Wheels in that part of the world).

*According to Q, “Details will be advised to paid-up patrons 48 hours prior to event. Expect a function centre within easy reach of the CBD. Photo ID is required to enter; only one small handbag per patron permitted into the venue.” Paul Sheehan writes for the defence here and you can read more about the Q Society on their webshite.

(More) Bloody Foreigners Making Trouble

Overseas: Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka ‘Tommy Robinson’ aka ‘Paul Harris’), the leader of the E E EDL, has been sentenced to 10 months jail for ‘possession of a false identity document with improper intention’, viz entering the US to attend an anti-Muslim gathering using a false passport. (Tommy’s troubles mirror those of Martin Brennan, another whinging Pom and the former leader of the A A ADL, forcibly expelled from Australia in August 2011 for immigration offences.) Also in attendance at the gathering in New York in September last year was Yanqui crackpot Robert Spencer. Spencer is described as ‘VP Islamic Scripture and History’ for the Q Society and runs a loon website called jihadwatch; the Coordinator for Victoria/Tasmania and Secretary of the Society is Ralf Schumann; Andrew McDonald is their Administrator in NSW while in Perth Debbie Robinson Coordinates teh stoopid. Anyway, here’s a picture of the patriotic sheila from Perf (Debbie Robinson) and two foreign loons (Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer) holding the Strayan flag at SION:

More on Geert’s tour later maybe . . .

When White nationalists attack! New Right @ Gaza solidarity rally, Sydney, November 24

RRTAA!

Two weeks ago in Sydney, a small group of White-nationalists-in-anarchist-drag rocked up to a rally against the latest Israeli attack on Gaza (aka ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’, November 17). Armed with banners, Anonymous masks and bizarro political merch (branded tees and the like), the 10 or so wingnuts were soon identified as hostile by members of the crowd, who proceeded to isolate them outside the Town Hall. Reportedly, an attempt was made to confiscate one of their banners, which was unsuccessful. The White nationalists were then surrounded by police, and remained silent and stationary at the Town Hall for the duration of the rally.

So, who were these wEiRd0eS?

Their propaganda proclaimed them to be ‘national anarchists’. While the term may seem oxymoronic, ‘national anarchism’ is in fact an ideological development on the far right, one whose immediate origins can be traced back to the late 1980s and early 1990s and attempts by racists and fascists to find a place for their activities among anarchists in England. The standard account of this fringe and its evolution during this period is ‘Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction’, Graham D. Macklin, Patterns of Prejudice, Vol.39, No.3, September 2005.

Despite having some initial success (fooling a handful of leftists, including the recently-deceased Terry Liddle, into collaborating with them), Southgate and his followers found little real political purchase among radicals. (Of course organising, from the mid-2000s, a talking-shop in London, calling it ‘New Right’, and inviting various extreme-right wing loons — including Holocaust-denialists and other mentalists — to talk shit to other wEiRd0eS doesn’t help any.) In any event, Southgate & Co have sensibly turned to the online world for support and in this realm they’ve been reasonably successful, the milieu specialising in virtual political expressions, seemingly on the basis of Ein Volk, Ein Blog (my favorite being a Hitler-worshipping Afro-punk).

In Australia, the national anarchists (hereafter referred to as gnats) announced their existence back in 2007, when a group of around 20 or so right-wing loons of diverse origins — including Darrin Hodges (above), the (former) leader of the anti-Muslim ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ in NSW, and disgraced academic and White racialist Andrew Fraser — gathered at the APEC counter-protests, also in Sydney. (See : Anarchist statement on the New Right, October 21, 2007.) As in the more recent incident, at APEC the racist wankers were isolated and protected by a large number of police.

The principal exponent of ‘national anarchism’ in Australia is a Sydney-based small businessman named Welf Herfurth (above, with Adelaide-based Holocaust denialist Fredrick Töben, together holding an NPD flag belonging to German neo-Nazi Horst Mahler), who has been joined in the past by a handful of Victorians (including a young Creatard from Geelong named Scott Harrison), a student from Perth named Nicholas Cole, and more recently several boneheads. Thus for reasons best known to themselves, the members of the Australian franchise of the US-based neo-Nazi Volksfront gang cultivated close links with Herfurth & Co in Sydney; following its formal dissolution in October (seemingly as a result of US pressure on the group in the wake of neo-Nazi skinhead Wade Michael Page’s murderous spree), it would seem reasonable to expect former VF members to increase the level of their activity on behalf of the gnats/New Right. As it stands, it’s difficult to gauge the seriousness with which the gnats in Sydney intend to continue to provoke the left, but a source in Sydney’s Chinatown reckons former VF member Steev Levings [?] is keen, and Steev’s political loyalties find graphic expression on his body:


The recent Gaza intervention is one of just a handful of public manifestations by gnats, who for whatever reason seem to be concentrated in Sydney (as is the Australia First Party and Australian Protectionist Party), while Melbourne can boast of being the centre of B&H and Hammerskin activity and the tiny groupuscule Nationalist Alternative. Further afield, the gnats appear to have only been able to maintain a temporary presence on The Streets of San Francisco — in the shape of a bunch of BANANAs. A beat-down on BANANA leader Andrew White (‘Andrew Yeoman’) on May Day a coupla years ago — and his subsequent denouncement by ideologue Southgate as a psychopath and race traitor — put paid to White’s dream of a Bay Area purged of non-Whites, but not before the racist loser paid a visit to Australia to address AF’s annual conference the (2009) Sydney Forum (at which his kamerad Welf Herfurth performs as MC).

Otherwise, the gnats may be located within a wider attempt by the far right to re-articulate a form of racist nationalism, one which has taken on increasing significance, especially in Europe, over the last few decades. See, for example: Czech Republic : The Big Neo-Nazi Crib (antifa.cz) | Germany : German city battles elusive new-look neo-Nazis (Reuters) | Italy : CasaPound’s First Big Outing in Rome Was a Snooze-Fest, (Giuseppe Pisani, Vice).

Finally, as Durruti put it:

Fascism is not to be debated, it is to be smashed.

Andrew Yeoman is Andrew White is Local Idiot to Burn the Koran is BANANA split with nuts

I’m not quite sure where to start.

Perhaps at the beginning.

“Andrew Yeoman” is the pseudonym used by San Francisco-based White supremacist Andrew White.

White is the subject of an article in the SF Weekly. To be precise, ‘Local Idiot to Burn the Koran’ by Lauren Smiley (April 22, 2011).

The article details White’s latest publicity stunt for his group, which he calls the ‘Bay Area National Anarchists’, but which is more commonly known as BANANAs.

As the title of Smiley’s article suggests, the stunt consists of Andrew’s burning a copy of the Koran in public — although precisely when and where this act will occur is uncertain at this stage.

As publicity stunts go, it’s not a bad one, and trades on the controversy surrounding mentalist Pastor Terry Jones’ attempt to organise a similar burning outside a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan. (At this stage, it appears that the Pastor’s protest may be aborted: Pastor Is Jailed in Michigan Over Planned March at Mosque, AP, April 22, 2011.) Politically speaking, the stunt’s utility is questionable. Otherwise:

Yeoman’s protests have been falling flat as of late. While last May, he got beat up by some anarchists, his Machete protest ended up just being him and a couple of supporters handing out pamphlets in Livermore with cardboard machetes.

Cue trombone: Waa waa waaaaaah.

See also : [Local Idiots] to Burn at Least One Koran, Lauren Smiley, SF Weekly, April 18, 2011.

On an even more bizarre note, White (aka Yeoman) has split with his former leader, Troy Southgate. Or rather, Southgate has denounced White for, inter alia, being censorious, dictatorial and of having had “a relationship with an anorexic Jewish girl he picked up from a website called Craigslist and … telling everyone that they were having sex without a condom. Yeoman is also said to be psychologically unstable and is in possession of a large number of firearms.”

Southgate also claims that White has recently been investigated by the US Secret Service for “making a juvenile online threat” against President O’Bama. Further, Southgate writes that White “turned up at the American Renaissance conference around the same time and then declined to testify against anti-fascists at his recent assault trial”.


Canadian Holocaust denialist Paul Fromm and White, pictured at the AmRen shadow conference, 2011. The Australia First Party arranged for Fromm to tour Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand late last year.

Southgate suggests that White’s recent behaviour may be explained by way of his having been “bought off” by authorities. (Note that the accusation of being a state asset has been levelled at Southgate in the past.) The accusation is a serious one, and indicates the poisonous nature of the once respectful relationship between student and teacher.

What does all of this mean for the ‘national anarchists’?

In Australia, the national anarchists are represented by two men: Welf Herfurth in Sydney and Nicholas Cole in Perth.

Herfurth is friends to both White and Southgate, but is also a member of the neo-Nazi skinhead group known as Volksfront, and a close comrade of Dr James Saleam and the Australia First Party. In his capacity as MC, he welcomed White to the Sydney Forum in 2009. It will be interesting to see which way the German neo-Nazi jumps and whether or not he remains loyal to Southgate, the person whom he credits for converting him to ‘national anarchism’.

As for Cole, he was once associated with the ‘Australian Protectionist Party’, and for this reason was outed by the blog ‘Whitelaw Towers’ (Jim Perren and Peter Campbell). Cole is also attempting to establish a network of fascist University students (but without much luck). An extremely marginal figure, it’s likely that Cole will stick with White.

And as for me, polling suggests that 30% of the population believe I work for The Great Old Ones. I say “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”.

[Hat tip to Those Who Know and You Know Who.]