Tagged with Lauren Southern

On Right-Wing Trolls Touring Australia in 2018

Update (December 3, 2018) : Hope Not Hate provide a potted summary of Milo Yiannopoulos’ financial and legal situation in Milo Yiannopoulos’ debt crisis (December 2, 2018).

In so many ways, Milo Yiannopoulos is unremarkable. He is just one of a long line of conservative grifters making hay in Australia. ~ Richard Cooke, Australia’s welcome mat for right-wing trolls, The Saturday Paper, October 21, 2017.

See also : Age-old hate, The Monthly, July 2017 | Alt wrong, The Monthly, April 2017.

Gavin McInnes : CANCELLED

This week, the Australian Minister for Immigration, David Coleman, decided to refuse to issue a visa to Gavin McInnes on the basis of his ‘bad’ character. His decision follows closely upon the tabling of a petition to the Australian Parliament with over 80,000 signatures calling upon the Minister to do just that (and — no doubt coincidentally — a mere week after the Victorian Liberals got trounced in the state election after running a race-baiting law-and-order campaign).

See : Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes denied visa to tour Australia with ‘The Deplorables’, Matthew Doran, ABC, November 30, 2018 | Australia rejects far-right Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes’ visa application, Riley Morgan, SBS, November 31, 2018 | Founder of US far-right group denied Australian visa: ABC report, Al Jazeera, November 31, 2018 | Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes denied entry to Australia for ‘Deplorables’ speaking tour, Travis Gettys, Raw Story, November 30, 2018.

As for the Proud Boys, in addition to having most if not all of their Facebook pages closed, yesterday it was announced NYPD Arrests Two More Proud Boys As Hate Group Grapples With ‘Cuckery’ (Jake Offenhartz, Gothamist, November 30, 2018). See also : Scary Clowns, Brendan O’Connor, The Baffler, November 21, 2018 ~and~ follow AntiFash Gordon and Rose City Antifa for d0xx.

Milo Yiannopoulos ~versus~ AE Media

For those of you coming in late, back in April ‘Future Now’ (AKA Queensland businessmen Ben & Dan Spiller) announced that Milo Yiannopoulos and Gavin McInnes would be touring the country in May, accompanied by serial pest Neil Erikson (and possibly disgraced Sky News presenter Ross Cameron). Almost immediately upon it being announced the tour collapsed in a heap.

Undeterred, in September ‘Future Now Australia’ announced that they would be touring Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning, Ann Coulter, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’) and Milo Yiannopoulos in November/December. That, too, collapsed in a heap, with Yaxley-Lennon withdrawing and the tour being promoted as ‘Ann & Milo’. Not long after, the organisers announced that this tour too was cancelled, and ticket-holders would instead be issued tickets to see Gavin McInnes. That tour, organised by Damien Costas (Penthouse Australia), would later add Yaxley-Lennon to the bill. Intended to kick-off in December, the tour has now been delayed until February 2019, will not feature McInnes and — given his extensive criminal and political record of racist agitation — there’s a serious question mark hanging over the likelihood of Yaxley-Lennon being admitted to the country.

In any case, there’s no love lost between ‘Future Now/Australia’ — now re-badged as ‘AE Media’ — and Milo Yiannopoulos, which has come to a head in the last few days with d0x being released by Erikson which purport to detail financial shenanigans by Milo. One is titled Milo-Event-Facts-Press-Version and the other Dan-helping-milo-with-bills-email-chain-PRESS-1. For his part, Yiannopoulos published a YouTube video (streamed live on November 28, 2018) and issued a statement:

MILO JOINS PENTHOUSE AUSTRALIA’S “THE DEPLORABLES” TOUR WITH GAVIN AND TOMMY

Sydney, Australia.— Milo Yiannopoulos is joining Penthouse Australia’s “The Deplorables” Tour, alongside Gavin McInnes and Tommy Robinson, following the cancellation of his previously slated tour in December by original promoters AE Media.

Ticket-holders for the original “Milo and Ann” tour will have their tickets honored and they will see Milo, Gavin McInnes and Tommy Robinson live in Australia in February 2019. Ticket-holders will be contacted via email by Penthouse in the coming days.

Damien Costas, publisher of Penthouse Australia, said: “Milo’s record-breaking Australia tour remains the standard by which conservative speaking tours are judged. And now we’re adding him to an already brilliant line-up. The three of them together promise an absolutely spectacular show—not to mention terrific value for money.”

Yiannopoulos said: “I’m delighted to be rejoining Penthouse for another tour in Australia in 2019, after my sellout runaway success with them last time. I’d like to thank Penthouse for honoring the tickets sold under my previous promoter, who unfortunately could not meet their financial or logistical obligations. I’m delighted my fans will not lose out and can’t wait to be back in Australia.”

Yiannopoulos has delayed the release of his forthcoming book, Australia, You’re My Only Hope!, to coincide with the rescheduled Deplorables tour. The book will now be released in February 2019. VIP ticket holders will receive a free signed copy.

“For those of you who want to know what went down with my last promoters, well. It’s an ongoing drama, and I need your help,” Milo added. “I’ll be doing a stream today, November 28, for fans, live on YouTube. Look out for notices on Facebook and Instagram for a link to the stream.”

The Deplorables Tour Enquiries: [email protected]

Ticket-holders seeking refunds from the previous promoter should contact: Daniel Spiller, Seagate Services Pty Ltd, [email protected] and Benjamin Spiller, Seagate Services Pty Ltd, [email protected]

*Presumably, Milo didn’t get the memo that Gavin won’t be coming.

In the video which accompanies the statement, Yiannopoulos variously describes AE Media and the Spiller brothers as inter alia ‘fraudulent’, ‘insane’, ‘incompetent’, ‘liars’ and ‘cunts’. For their part, the Spillers have contracted the services of fellow Queenslanders Rose Litigation in order to sue Yiannopoulos for monies allegedly owed them. The video also contains some discussion around Australia and the upcoming publication of his book, Australia, You’re My Only Hope!. Note that the conception of Australia as ‘The Last Great (White) Hope’ has been a trope among White nationalists for quite some time.

Be that as it may, Yiannopoulos, while bemoaning the awful sacrifices he’s made in order to write the book, also expresses concern that it might contravene Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Given that the racist commentary he provided on his December 2017 tour (organised by Costas/Penthouse) triggered no such prosecution; that his fanbase includes such luminaries as Richard Wolstencroft and Kate Langbroek and Janet Albrechtsen (an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation); that a number of the venues at which he performed both celebrate their Indigenous art collections while profiting handsomely from Milo’s anti-Indigenous hate-speech; that, in October, Indigenous Affairs minister Nigel Scullion was one of the 23 members of government who voted to support Pauline Hanson’s motion decrying ‘anti-white racism’; and given that the (to-date unsuccessful) campaign to amend or indeed scrap altogether Section 18C has won broad support from Tories, it may be that his angst is unfounded.

More broadly, Yiannopoulos notes that while anti-fascists in the US have had some degree of success in de-platforming and marginalising him, Australia is a very ‘safe space’. Thus (52:00), ‘I’m kind of mainstream in Australia. You know, I’m kind of like a ‘normal’ conservative in Australia … if you tone down the language a little bit, I’m kind of like safe for public consumption in Australia. I’m just worried about the book …’. Further (2:24:36), ‘I only engage with you because you were going to pay me a shit-tonne of money, and I was going to have fun in Australia … Australia? I like the country, but I was, you know, I’m fundamentally touring because I like the country and because I’m very popular there, and it pays a lot.’ Finally, with regards the Spiller brothers, his invitation (2:07:40) to examine their correspondence is introduced by way of stating ‘Let’s just have a quick window into the insane world of the Spiller brothers.’

Yiannopoulos on Australian Indigenous life, art and culture

The following is an extract from Yiannopoulos’s December 2017 speech at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre:

Because newsflash [Aboriginal art] really is shit … Now Australians in this sort of bizarre form of middle-class guilt have decided to pay obeisance to a culture that failed to invent the wheel — and whose signature musical achievement is a big stick … The ugly truth that they don’t want you to say out loud is that history has winners and losers. The progressive left wants to turn Western countries into the only developed civilisations in the history of human society that shit on their own accomplishments in favour of vastly inferior civilisations for no apparent reason. Hence we’re confronted with the ugly spectacle of your own nation and ‘welcome to country’ … and the desperate, pathetic attempts to pretend that didgeridoos represent a beautiful and historic cultural achievement, and not a punchline to a joke. Now you might not know this, but there are absolutely no Aboriginal people left alive in Australia — the last ones died in the ’60s and ’70s, and since then George Soros has been shipping over Black Lives Matter activists, giving them tubs of white-out, and telling them to just daub themselves and make all the White people feel bad. Your politicians in a symbol of how intelligent they are have been falling for it for half-a-century.

Milo Yiannopoulos ~versus~ Axiomatic Events

The other bit-player in the Australian foreign troll circuit is ‘Axiomatic Events’. As Axiomatic Events, Dave Pellowe and Luke Chandler toured Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern in July. They also hired neo-Nazi grouplet ‘The Lads Society’ to provide security for the tour. Of the tour, Yiannopoulos notes (54:58) that ‘Their promoters really fucked them … [Axiomatic Events is an] equally amateurish, disastrous outfit… I don’t even know if they’ve [Molyneux and Southern] been paid yet, their audiences were tiny …’.

See also : Dave Pellowe & Axiomatic Events ~versus~ Daniel Spiller & Future Now +++ (June 6, 2018) | Stefan Molyneux & Lauren Southern’s hate-speech tour kicks off in Cairns (with a little help from the AFL) (July 16, 2018) | Stefan Molyneux & Lauren Southern @ La Mirage, Somerton : Friday, July 20, 2018 (July 20, 2018).

Kermit The Flog

Jordan Peterson’s March 2018 tour was organised by ‘True Arrow Events’ (Sam McClelland); his upcoming 2019 tour by TEG Dainty & Nice Events.

Saturday, February 9 : Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, Riverside Theatre
Monday, February 11 : Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre
Wednesday, February 13 : Plenary, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Friday, February 15 : Llewellyn Hall, Canberra
Saturday, February 16 : Sydney Opera House
Sunday, February 17 : Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

• 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’). See also : 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.

antifa notes (september 28, 2018) : Anning, Coulter, Fortress, Palmer, Yaxley-Lennon, Yiannopoulos et. al.

1) More planeloads of racist dickheads on their way

Ann Coulter, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon & Milo Yiannopoulos

‘Australia’ was founded as a dumping-ground for the shit of British Empire. Over two centuries later, it’s now a lucrative market for other forms of animae viles. Thus, Milo Yiannopoulos returns to our shores in November, on this occasion bringing with him another wealthy right-wing blabbermouth, Ann Coulter. If all goes to plan, the pair will be accompanied by Senator Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (assuming he’s not back in prison and/or in breach of his bail conditions by leaving E-E-England) and other speakers yet TBA.

The tour kicks off on the Gold Coast on November 29, followed by a ‘VIP Yacht Cruise’ on November 30, and then proceeds to Sydney on December 2, with another v xpnsv boat trip on December 3, and performances in Melbourne (December 5), Adelaide (December 8) and finally Perth (December 11).

The tour is being organised and underwritten by Queensland businessman Dan Spiller AKA ‘Future Now Australia’.

Until very recently, twice-convicted racist Neil Erikson was Mister Spiller’s gopher, which role included paying a nocturnal visit to the family home of sometime-rival Dave Pellowe AKA ‘Axiomatic Events’ (the mob responsible for bringing Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern Down Under).

Presumably, Spiller’s deranged acolyte will now have more time to devote to his various legal defences.

As for the luminaries Spiller will be hoping to turn a hefty profit from, Infowars-supplements salesman Milo has been having a somewhat difficult time of late, whining on Facebook about being uninvited from a conference in October and castigating his fans for failing to shovel enough money in his direction: I have lost everything standing up for the truth in America, spent all my savings, destroyed all my friendships, and ruined my whole life, Yiannopoulos wrote: At some point, you realize it’s occasionally better to spend the money on crabs and cocktails.

Fortunately for him, Facebook remains committed to facilitating his batshit, he receives the red-carpet treatment in Australia, and is celebrated by Newscorpse, including The Australian columnist Janet Albrechtsen. When she’s not enjoying Milo’s anti-Aboriginal diatribes (a sample from his talk in Perth is below), Albrechtsen may be found promoting the work of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation (AIEF), where she serves as a brand ‘Ambassador’. Quite how Albrechtsen squares her support for Milo with her role as ambassador I don’t know: after I asked the AIEF for comment on Twitter, I was blocked.

Because newsflash [Aboriginal art] really is shit … Now Australians in this sort of bizarre form of middle-class guilt have decided to pay obeisance to a culture that failed to invent the wheel — and whose signature musical achievement is a big stick … The ugly truth that they don’t want you to say out loud is that history has winners and losers. The progressive left wants to turn Western countries into the only developed civilisations in the history of human society that shit on their own accomplishments in favour of vastly inferior civilisations for no apparent reason. Hence we’re confronted with the ugly spectacle of your own nation and ‘welcome to country’ … and the desperate, pathetic attempts to pretend that didgeridoos represent a beautiful and historic cultural achievement, and not a punchline to a joke. Now you might not know this, but there are absolutely no Aboriginal people left alive in Australia — the last ones died in the ’60s and ’70s, and since then George Soros has been shipping over Black Lives Matter activists, giving them tubs of white-out, and telling them to just daub themselves and make all the White people feel bad. Your politicians in a symbol of how intelligent they are have been falling for it for half-a-century.

So much for Milo. As for Coulter, while she’s been splashing about in the white nationalist pool for some years now, in April ‘Coulter gave a little more credence to those accusations [of white nationalist sympathies] by exposing her Twitter following of just under 2 million users to Mike ‘Enoch Peinovich’‘, a neo-Nazi blabbermouth from (((New York))).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

See also : When Mormons Aspired to Be a ‘White and Delightsome’ People, Emma Green, The Atlantic, September 18, 2017 (‘An historian looks at the legacy of racism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’).

Fraser Anning (and Clive Palmer)

Since his unexpected elevation to the Australian Senate following the disqualification of crazed pixie Malcolm ‘Jew World Order’ Roberts, Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning has been furiously competing with Pauline Hanson for the title of ‘Most AltRight 2018’. Thus his political obsessions have run in rough parallel with those of the baying KKKrowd, from the plight of White South African farmers to the dastardly conspiracy to commit White Genocide™, calling for the forcible eradication of Islam from Australian shores, Putin fanboydom and climate change denial. Recently, however, there’s emerged another contender: billionaire Clive Palmer. See : Alt-Right Memes and Clive Palmer’s Return to Politics, Jordan McSwiney, POP POLITICS AUS, September 27, 2018. Chumbawamba, however, are not down with the bloated idiot. See : Chumbawamba knock down ‘Trump-lite’ Clive Palmer over song use, Naaman Zhou, The Guardian, August 31, 2018.

*Anning’s Facebook page has been (temporarily?) DELed. See : Facebook Deletes Fraser Anning Over ‘Hate Speech’ Complaint, Josh Butler, ten daily, September 28, 2018 | Fraser Anning Has Been Banned From Facebook For Hate Speech, Sam Langford, Junkee, September 28, 2018 | Fraser Anning’s public Facebook page removed for reported hate speech, Jake Evans, ABC, September 28, 2018.

**Anning, along with Avi Yeminem (Australian Liberty Alliance), is scheduled to appear at a rally in Melbourne on October 6 in order to protest censorship by Facebook.

Gavin McInnes

Also touring Down Under is ‘Proud Boys’ founder Gavin McInnes. The chinless wonder is scheduled to be speaking in Melbourne (November 2), Perth (November 4), Adelaide (November 7), Gold Coast (November 8) and Sydney (November 11).

Recently, after declaring his appreciation for NYHC band ‘Sheer Terror’, only to be rebuffed by the boys, McInnes’s followers have rather foolishly declared WAR! on skinheads, in particular RASH and SHARP (See : Hardcore Legends Sheer Terror Take the Proud Boys Down a Notch, Landon Shroder, rvamag, September 26, 2018).

McInnes is proudly-sponsored by Penthouse magazine and publisher Damien Costas, who in September was responsible for arranging Nigel Farage‘s tour of the colonies, and in December 2017 that of Milo Yiannopoulos. Following Milo’s tour, Victoria Police made noises about issuing an invoice to Costas for $50,000 for costs associated with their policing his tour but a savvy Costas told them to bugger off and, happily enough for him, they did.

See also : Rose City Antifa on Proud Boys | Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube, Rebecca Lewis, Data & Society, September 18, 2018 | Nostalgia for the empire and ‘identity politics’ for white people: Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern in Sydney, A Communist At Large (James Robb), August 2, 2018.

2) Brisbane nazi punks f*ck off

Speaking of nazi punks, one, ‘Angel Montague’, is currently running a Facebook page called ‘Brisbane city punks’. Allegedly, Montague has been banned from the pubs The Back Room (Chardons Hotel) in Annerley and The Jubilee in Fortitude Valley and possibly one or two others for drunken violence. Still, by most accounts Brisbane punx give short shrift to neo-Nazi shenanigans, so it would make sense if Montague and her handful of neo-Nazi mates were continued to be shown the door.

3) Fortress (Australia)

Pioneering Aussie reich ‘n’ rollers Fortress have recorded a new album: ‘Brothers of the Storm’. The release comes in the wake of renewed touring by the band in Europe, with the boys playing a Hammerskins event in Frankreich (FRA) on March 18 last year, the annual memorial to Skrewydriver Ian Stuart Donaldson in Melbourne (AUS) on October 14, 2017 and another bonehead gig in Queensland on July 21, 2018.

See also : A Brief History Of Neo-Nazi Music In Australia (December 2, 2010).

One neo-Nazi who probably won’t be making any more muzak is Marcel ‘Flubber’ Kuschela. Kuschela, who performed with ‘Kategorie C’, committed suicide in the German town of Moenchengladbach last week: ‘According to the German newspaper Bild and public broadcaster WDR, the victim is a known right-wing extremist and Hooligan who is part of the extreme right-wing band “Kategorie C” and co-founded a movement known as “Hooligans against Salafists” (Hogesa).’

4) Dick returns to MUFF

In an about-face that surprised no-one, Richard Wolstencroft has returned to the helm of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF). This follows a brief moment last year when, after having made a stoopid homophobic statement, he ‘resigned’ as organiser and handballed responsibility for it to a flunkey. But in June he returned.

The fascist meathead’s festival does have its supporters, but such is the stench emanating from Wolstencroft he’s having some difficulty finding a venue to screen his shite. Hence ‘Club Voltaire’ in North Melbourne was on-board, and then not, and now the main venue is Top Secret.

LOL.

You can read more about Wolstencroft’s shitty fascist politics in this blog by Tony Goodfellow — Richard Wolstencroft’s relationship to holocaust denial and Nazis (November 17, 2017) — and you can peruse some unanswered ‘Questions for Richard Wolstencroft’ (June 30, 2018) by SF Lyons here.

See also : After His Show Was Canceled Due to Alleged Neo-Nazi Ties, Boyd Rice Claims ‘Offers Are Coming In’ to Restage It, Sarah Cascone, artnet, September 13, 2018.

5) local and/or general

In AUS, 4Corner’s recent interview with jet-setting fascist shitweasel Steve Bannon is examined by The Guardian writers Nesrine Malik in Indulging Steve Bannon is just a form of liberal narcissism (September 13, 2018) and by Jason Wilson in The consequences of Steve Bannon’s ideas need to be interrogated, not just his words (September 5, 2018); writer Laurie Penny has written a piece in response to the decision by The Economist to provide Bannon another platform in ‘No, I Will Not Debate You’ (September 18, 2018) … which could also be read in light of her earlier adventures with Milo. In BENdigo, meanwhile, anti-Muslim campaigner Julie Hoskin has been forced to resign her position on council after being declared bankrupt — seemingly, in no small thanks to the efforts of lawyer Robert Balzola. See : Bendigo councillor Julie Hoskin, the centre of anti-mosque protests, declared bankrupt and resigns, Peter Lenaghan and Mark Kearney, ABC, September 26, 2018 | Julie Hoskin declared bankrupt one day before sending councillor resignation to City of Greater Bendigo, Adam Holmes, The Bendigo Advertiser, September 26, 2018.

In FRA, two boneheads have been convicted of the murder of anti-fascist Clement Méric in 2013 (see : Two boneheads convicted over 2013 death of anti-fascist activist, The Guardian, September 15, 2018); in GER, Facebook Fueled Anti-Refugee Attacks in Germany, New Research Suggests (Amanda Taub and Max Fisher, The New York Times, August 21, 2018); in GRE, Kevin Ovenden has authored a ‘new study that documents the murderous activities of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn’ (The terrorist activity of neonazi organisations in Europe – The case of Golden Dawn, jailgoldendawn, September 18, 2018); last week in ITA, an MEP, Eleonora Forenza, and their assistant were attacked by members of neo-Fascist organisation Casapound after attending an anti-racist rally (MEP and assistant attacked by Italian far-right group, Lili Bayer, politico.eu, September 22, 2018); in the USA, Hope Not Hate ventured ‘Inside America’s biggest anti-Muslim organisation’ (Charlie Prentice, September 16, 2018); also in the US, Derek Black, son of White supremacist and Stormfront founder Don Black, stars in Renouncing Hate: What Happens When a White Nationalist Repents (Wes Enzinna, The New York Times, September 10, 2018), while Media Matters examines some of the white nationalists who write for FOX News’ Tucker Carlson’s batshit website The Daily Caller in ‘The Daily Caller has published white supremacists, anti-Semites, and bigots. Here are the ones we know about.’ (September 5, 2018); Billy Briggs for The Ferret writes that ‘YouTube provides a network for far right extremists such as Scot Colin Robertson, aka Millennial Woes, to promote white supremacist views and radicalise people, according to a new report’ (Far-right Scots vlogger named in report on YouTube extremist networks, September 23, 2018); the report — ‘Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube’ — by Rebecca Lewis for Data & Society (September 18, 2018), can be read here.

More generally: ‘Far right’ groups may be diverse – but here’s what they all have in common, Daphne Halikiopoulou, The Conversation, September 27, 2018 | The Religion of Whiteness Becomes a Suicide Cult, Pankaj Mishra, The New York Times, August 30, 2018 (‘A wounded and swaggering identity geopolitics puts the world in grave danger.’) | Against mirror world: fascists were not socialists, Comrade Motopu, libcom, August 26, 2018.

Finally, str8 outta Moscow, RUS, comes …

The (neo-Nazi) Lads Society : Blair Cottrell’s pro-tip : Wear Your Swastikas On The Inside

A problem for the Australian antifa, and indeed for anti-fascist groups in Europe and the US, is that few people and organisations they oppose here have much to do with Nazism. ~ Chip Le Grand, Antifa Australia goes for the jugular, The Australian, December 9, 2017

For those of you coming in late, ‘The Lads Society’ is a relatively new grouping on the radical right which evolved out of the now-defunct ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF). Spearheaded by ex-UPF fuehrer Blair Cottrell and his sidekick Tom Sewell, ‘The Lads’ opened a social centre in the Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham last year, have another in Sydney, and would appear to be keen to expand the franchise to Brisbane and other major cities.

Most recently, ‘The Lads’ — membership of which overlaps with ‘Antipodean Resistance’ — were hired by Axiomatic Events to provide security for Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern during their speaking tour. This fact went completely unmentioned in media reportage of the tour, as did the fact that when the Lads and members of the racist gang called the ‘True Blue Crew’ (TBC) organised a meeting in January to discuss the formation of vigilante squads to hunt African youth, they did so at the Lads’ clubhouse in Cheltenham.

Sadly, this is about par for the course for Australian jernalisms on the extreme-right, with the only article on the group appearing in June (Far right nationalists open private men-only clubs in Melbourne and Sydney, Rebecca Puddy, ABC, June 7, 2018) but with scattered references to the Lads’ participation in Sydney Watson’s ‘March for Men’ last month, an invitation the crackpot ‘Australian Jewish Association’ extended to Southern and the Lads to tour Bondi and Caulfield and, prior to this, members of The Lads Society in Sydney addressing a nationalist rally by the TBC in NSW. Note that: a) the TBC has been one of the most outspoken defenders of the neo-Nazi Lads and; b) its primary Facebook page has recently closed.

In any case, last week a new page appeared on Facebook: LadsLeaks LadsLeaks. The small amount of material thus far uploaded to the page revolves around two Lads — ‘Kingsley James Taylor’ and ‘Beau Maverick’ — being kicked out of a bar in Brisbane after making Nazi salutes, and then later one of them being detained (for unknown reasons, but presumably related to their Nazi behaviour at the bar) by police. The video appears to date from December 2017.

In and of itself, a pair of neo-Nazis acting like arseholes is not especially noteworthy; however, it’s the angry reaction of Der Fuehrer, Blair Cottrell, to this open display of neo-Nazi beliefs that’s most telling. Thus, after informing the Lads that his recent absence from the group’s activities is because he’s been fucking a lot of women, Cottrell makes it plain that such imagery is Bad.

Very Bad.

Why? Well, according to Cottrell …

    … from what I’m seeing, everyone’s doing nothing but praise them for it. Oh, good on them. Oh, the problem is society, the problem’s not us: we know the truth. Society are the ones who are bad. We’re good, so we’re gonna run around Roman-saluting people. Tell me, what was your goal? When you’re sitting in a fucking pub or you’re going into a public place, what’s your goal when you Roman-salute people and say Sieg Heil? What’s your fucking point? What are you trying to achieve? Come on, give it to me, give it to me in the comments. Tell me how that’s practical and what the fucking purpose is. Give it to me. Oh you’re raising awareness for the cause? What the fuck does that mean?

    I’ll tell you what you wanted, I’ll tell you what your purpose was. You wanted to stir people up. You wanted to go out and stir some fucking peasants up. And you did stir ’em up. And then when they got stirred up, they called the police. And then you cry victim. Oh, we didn’t do anything wrong. Whoop-di-fucking-do. What did that achieve? And then you’ve got somebody else on the page saying Oh, I’m a fucking skinhead, I have been for fifteen years. Now full respect to you, I don’t care what you do with your life. But trying to tell everyone else that they’re basically a … or to subordinate themselves to you, because you’re more experienced and you — quote unquote — earned your laces: what the fuck does that even mean? And you have done time for the cause? You’ve done time because you beat up some Pakis, probably. And is that what you want for us, for us to beat up some people who aren’t white, to earn our laces? You know, is that your plan? To bash some people who aren’t white, to do some jail time and then finally we can be considered highborn skinhead neo-Nazis? Really? Is that your plan to win the hearts and minds of the people? That’s a good fucking plan, well done. Cocksuckery! And why is everyone sticking up for it? Why am I the only one speaking sense? Jesus Christ! You start a new organisation, you get guys putting their balls on the line, putting a lot of money into this fucking club, into this new group, putting a lot of their labour into it, dedicating themselves to it, believing in it, and then someone sticks their big fucking red-lace skinhead boot in and says fuck you all, let’s go do some jail time, let’s earn our laces, let’s go Sieg Heil people in the street, that’ll get us some new members! Fucking clue on to it dickheads, Jesus Christ, is anyone gonna say anything … ?

    Fucking LARPers? Fucking oath they’re LARPers! We had one at the club last night. Now I don’t know if he’s in this group, I don’t know if he’s watching me now, but I don’t give a fuck, I can’t remember his name. But he was respectful of me, said Oh I love what you’re doing, I love the approach that you’re taking. But then later on, he was having a conversation — this guy who either was a skinhead or still is, I don’t fucking know — he was having a conversation with one of our newest members, who’s just a Christian; that’s it. He doesn’t know that much — I don’t think he does anyway — but he’s a good guy, and he’s open to sensible conversation. And this former or current skinhead guy, whatever he is, wants to start a fight with him, because he doesn’t know about the Jews, so let’s beat him up! Great fucking solution! Wow, how’d you think of that, fuckhead! Jesus fucking Christ! He ended up having to fuck off. I’m surprised that Christian kid stuck around, but he was good enough to.

    Seriously, just to wrap it up, too, just to wrap it up, the last fucking thing I’ll say is, do you really think that, if Adolf Hitler rose from the grave, if his spirit descended and stood beside you, put his hand on your shoulder, and he surveyed your jackboots with your red laces, and your fucking swastika tattoos, and your abrasive, fuck-the-world attitude, your little syndicate-separatist cult, do you really think he’d be proud of you? Do you really think he would say you’re a true national-socialist, well done? Do you think the man who said all great movements are popular movements and one must adjust himself to the times would be proud of you, would believe in you? Get a fucking clue! Anyway, suppose I’m just venting a little bit but, I reckon some of you needed to hear this. And don’t reply to this video with oh fuck you, you don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re the new guy on the block, we’re the real deal, you’re a poser, whatever the fuck you people say, don’t reply to me with that shit, take on some constructive criticism, yeah? Take it on board. Be a fucking man, take some criticism, on the fucking chin, and think, fuck maybe he’s right, maybe this guy’s got a plan, maybe he can sorta see what’s gonna happen in the future and maybe he’s trying to do the best that he can for this group, you know?

    So yeah — here’s my two cents.

Another video features imagery of the Cheltenham bunker, taken at its opening in October 2017, overlaid with a Nazi marching song, ‘Erika’, by the Nazi composer Herms Niel. Funnily enough, James Buckle, one-time President of ‘Firearm Owners United’, confirms his membership of the group in a comment on the video:

Bonus!

The Lads — Tom Sewell and Stuart Von Moger — celebrate the opening of the Cheltenham clubhouse with some fitting Nazi muzak:

Added Bonus!

Mister Cottrell discusses a proposal by Matt Doran of Channel 7’s Sunday Night to work together to create a segment on The Lads and their important work fighting African street crime. Mister Cottrell states that he was paid several hundred dollars by Channel 7 for the inconvenience. Sadly, the segment appears not to have been completed.

Who are Antipodean Resistance? (August 2018 Update)

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. ~ Heather Heyer (1985–2017)

Briefly:

‘Antipodean Resistance’ are a neo-Nazi grouplet which emerged out of the ‘United Patriots Front’ swamp in 2016. I wrote about the group in September 2017 and again in April 2018. Its members like to make a nuisance of themselves by covering skools, universities and synagogues in neo-Nazi propaganda and attending patriotik marches and rallies. RMIT University in Melbourne and the beachside suburb of Brighton have recently been blessed by their agitprop, which is regularly documented by the group via its account on the GAB social media platform (AKA ‘Twitter for Nazis’).

Most recently, members of the group were hired by Axiomatic Events in order to provide security for Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern during the course of their hate-speech tour. In doing so, the boys were joined by the members of another neo-Nazi grouplet, ‘The Lads Society’. Indeed, there is a strong cross-over in membership between the two groups, as future publications will detail. Thus last month, ‘The White Rose Society’ began publishing what will be an ongoing series of exposes of members of both Antipodean Resistance and The Lads Society. New entrants include Mathew Baston (L) and Nathaniel Anderson (R):

thewhiterosesociety blog is here and may be contacted via thewhiterosesociety[at]protonmail[dot]com.

While media reportage on neo-Nazis and fascists Down Under is generally poor, it’s a Good thing that independent anti-fascist researchers are active, and from what I can gather there’s a good deal more to come … 😉

Stefan Molyneux & Lauren Southern @ La Mirage, Somerton : Friday, July 20, 2018

Briefly:

Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern spoke at La Mirage in Somerton (210 Hume Highway) this evening.

You may remember La Mirage from when they hosted a similar event starring Geert Wilders back in February 2013.

Ticket-holders were instructed to meet at Broadmeadows train station to then catch a SKYLIGHT BUSINESS bus to the venue. The station was also the destination of a contingent from CARF (who’d earlier assembled in the city) and was heavily policed.

There was a counter-protest at the venue, and some enterprising individuals managed to sneak in to the venue and cause some minor disruption:


The ‘autonomous interrupters’ issued a media release regarding the action:

MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: 20TH JULY 2018
TIME: 8.20pm

Anti-Racist Protesters Interrupt Far-Right Speaker Lauren Southern at Melbourne Event
** ACTION CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS **

Pro refugee, anti-racist activists and members of the LGBT community have interrupted the speaking event of the far-right “celebrity” Lauren Southern.

Southern’s lecture was interrupted by non-violent protesters who chanted “Racism Off Our Streets” as they unfurled banners reading:

“This Is Our Free Speech” and “Muslims Are Welcome”.

A protestor revealed a t-shirt which read “it’s not ok to be racist”, alluding to a t-shirt worn by Southern on her arrival to Australia that stated “Its ok to be white”.

Spokesperson for the autonomous interrupters, Nita Habibi said, “Lauren Southern spouts an extremely Islamophobic rhetoric that is nothing short of hate speech. She is a dangerous individual whose false views on Muslims stir up polarisation and violence. We have come here tonight to peacefully object to the promotion of hate.”

The event is hosted by La Mirage Reception Centre in Somerton, Victoria. This centre also hosted the far-right Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, in Feb. 2013. The location was kept under wraps until this evening by the organisers who feared protest of their racist and hate-fuelled event by Melbourne’s anti-racist, anti-fascist community.

Southern was recently denied entry to the UK due to the unacceptability of her racist views. She was recently involved in a far-right group’s attempts to obstruct NGOs’ boat rescue operations that prevent drownings of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. Southern also denies the existence of transgender people, frequently mocking the idea of more than two genders, on social media.

Habibi furthered stated: “Southern’s dismissive attitude towards the LGBT community models a disrespectfulness to the public which we do not want replicated on our streets. She claims that she has the freedom to disseminate hate, so we are giving her a taste of her own medicine and exercising our freedom to disseminate a message of peace”.

Several hundred police were mobilised in order to ensure that the hate-speech went ahead uninterrupted and they deployed dogs, horses and capsicum spray.

For what it’s worth, the cream of Melbourne’s tiny neo-Nazi community put in an appearance, and members of both Antipodean Resistance and The Lads Society acted as the private security detail for the event. Naturally, among those attached to the security detail for the event was balding neo-Nazi Tom Sewell, previously sidekick to Blair Cottrell in the now-defunct ‘United Patriots Front’ but more recently the leaseholder for the neo-Nazi grouplet called ‘The Lads Society’ in Cheltenham:


According to Victoria Police, 500 officers were deployed at the event in order to facilitate the public expression of racial and religious vilification; Axiomatic Events were invoiced $60,000 for the privilege; there was one arrest (assault police); four people were ejected from the event by the private neo-Nazi security detail, one of whom was issued with a penalty notice for their troubles; one member of the private neo-Nazi security detail was cited for possession of a taser; approximately 328 persons were searched at Broadmeadows station, where three were pinged for carrying weapons (knuckleduster, flick-knife, knife).

The Australian:

Lauren Southern: protesters out to disrupt right wing commentator’s event
Rebecca Urban
The Australian
July 20, 2018

A protester has managed to jump on stage to disrupt the Melbourne speaking event of visiting conservative commentator Lauren Southern, as hundreds of anti-facist protesters clashed with police outside.

Nita Habibi was pounced on by security as she invaded the stage during Ms Southern’s presentation. She was quickly removed from the venue while shouting “I love Muslims”.

“I love freedom of speech,” she told The Australian after being evicted. “I wanted to interrupt the thing. I think it’s really dangerous what’s happening. Hate speech should be interrupted.”

Up to 200 anti-fascist protesters faced off with police while attempting to stop buses entering the reception centre in Melbourne’s northern suburbs [where] Ms Southern and her fellow speaker Stefan Molyneux are kicking off their nationwide tour.

At least one protester has been arrested by police, who have used pepper spray during the clash.

Officers wearing riot gear and carrying shields pushed protesters back from the gates of the La Mirage Reception and Convention Centre in Somerton, forming a line and shouting “move, move, move’’ as they advanced.

Mounted police and police dogs were used to help control the crowd which booed and swore at buses and cars bringing people to watch the event.

Protesters chanted “f … off” as the police approached.

Blair Cottrell, who once led the far-right United Patriots Front, attended the event and watched the protest before being told to go back inside.

“Apparently my presence is antagonising people,” he told The Weekend Australian.

Antifa protesters had earlier gathered at Broadmeadow’s station and targeted audience members who were to be bussed to the event.

Armed with megaphones, members of Campaign Against Racism and Fascism urged onlookers to let the departing buses know what they thought of them.

“There are bus loads of people off to hear about white supremism,” one shouted.

Organisers later altered the bus route to get the final two bus loads of passengers in from the south, while riot police held protesters off about a kilometre away on the Hume Highway.

More than 800 people have purchased tickets to hear Ms Southern and Mr Molyneux — both described as alt-right commentators — speak.

Ms Southern, a Canadian activist, journalist and author, is well-known for her controversial commentary on feminism, free speech and immigration, sounding off on Nine’s A Current Affair this week about women being “not psychologically developed to hold leadership positions”. She was initially denied a visa to enter Australia. While Mr Molyneux is the equally controversial host of Freedomain Radio, a popular philosophy program.

Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, the group behind a similar protest against controversial British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos that turned violent last year, were expecting several hundred supporters to attend the protest to ensure that the pair “regret the moment they decided they would come here to try and spread their views.”

The far left-wing group was anticipating that far-right protesters might also attend the event — to protest against the protesters — as they did when Mr Yiannopolous spoke in Melbourne last December. However, no rival groups were observed at the train station.

Police billed the Yiannopolous event organiser $50,000 for extra police resources, which is reportedly yet to be paid, while Southern has been sent a $68,000 bill from Victoria Police for their resources to be used this evening.

A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said safety was the “number one priority” and confirmed that there would be a “strong police presence” outside the event.

“We are equipped and well-prepared to deploy resources, respond and intervene where needed. Individuals have the right to lawfully attend events and protest, however we ask that people do so peacefully and respectfully without impact on the rest of the community. The spokeswoman said under the Victoria Police (fees and charges) Regulations 2014, Victoria Police “has the right to charge any event organiser for the use of police resources”.

However she declined to confirm whether the union organisers of a large rally in Melbourne in April, which saw up to 100,000 supporters flock to the CBD and saw the closure of major roads and tram routes. A spokesman from the ACTU declined to comment, while Victorian Trades Hall Council did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

Tonight’s event was to start with the screening of Farmlands, billed as “the world’s first comprehensive documentary on South Africa and the looming options between genocide and civil war” after which Ms Southern and Mr Molyneux will give a speech. They will also visit Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane.

Herald-Sun:

Protesters rally against far-right commentator Lauren Southern in Broadmeadows
Genevieve Alison and staff writers
Herald Sun
July 20, 2018

LATEST: The Hume Highway is closed after more than 100 protesters gathered outside a Somerton venue where controversial alt-right commentator Lauren Southern will take to the stage tonight.

The demonstrators at the front gates of the La Mirage Reception and Convention Centre have spilt on to the road and blocking the highway, which has been closed to traffic by police.

The crowd charged at a bus of people arriving at the venue, surrounding it and throwing rocks at the vehicle.

Punches have been thrown and members of the crowd have also been shoving each other, with people pulled over the road’s rope barriers amid the melee.

The riot squad and mounted police are working to hold back the crowd, which includes people wearing face coverings.

United Patriots Front leader Blair Cottrell fronted the protesting group shortly after 7pm, smiling and waving to police and media.

Earlier tonight, protesters gathered at Broadmeadows train station, where ticketholders to the 23-year-old Canadian’s event were instructed to meet from 4.30pm.

They were bussed to the venue in a bid to keep its location a secret “for as long as possible”.

About 60 uniformed police lined the entrance to the train station in a bid to quell tensions between left-wing protesters and ticketholders attempting to get on the shuttle buses.

Mounted police were also present after Victoria Police yesterday served Ms Southern a bill of almost $68,000 for the extra police protection.

Protesters hurled abuse at shuttle buses as they departed, screaming “Nazi scum” and “unite to fight the right”.

In a email sent to ticketholders this morning, tour managers said the “fierce opposition to this event by the extreme left … has been breathtaking” and were co-operating with police and counter-terrorism units.

See also : Protesters at Lauren Southern event clash with riot police outside Melbourne venue, ABC (AAP), July 21, 2018.

An eyewitness:

Police were present at Federation Square and at Flinders Street station (especially on the train platforms going to Broadmeadows) from around 3:30pm. They filmed activists congregating at the Square and at various locations around the station, including platforms. We traveled to the venue separately to CARF and were therefore able to avoid being kettled at Broadmeadows station; police searched people at the train station.

I would estimate that there were approximately 200 antifascists at the venue, La Mirage. A helicopter was deployed by police at approximately 7:45-8:00pm and various police forces were present throughout: some on horse, some on foot. Most were wearing numbers, some were not wearing name badges. Roving police units took video footage.

Police found it difficult to hold back the counter-protesters and antifascists were able to enter the Highway and slow the passage of buses to the venue. Example: antifascists marched towards an incoming bus, surrounded it, and the bus had to stop. The Highway on one side had been totally shut down by this stage, and the potatoes on the bus were visibly angry. Police then tried to break the picket using horses and the riot police. They picked individuals off using batons. A line of antifascists surrounding the bus and banging on its sides were attacked by mounted police from behind, who tried to lift antifascists by the hair and/or backpack and to throw them aside. This tactic was relatively unsuccessful but it appears that police instructed the bus driver to go forward anyway (despite the real danger this presented to antifascists). Eventually, riot police were used to clear its passage, with counter-protesters picked up and thrown elsewhere onto the road.

At least one potato got off a bus and tried to walk into the venue, but was blocked from doing so and was eventually ordered by police to get back on. That bus could not enter the venue, and neither could a number of private vehicles. Most eventually entered the venue, on foot, with a police escort. On the other side of the block (the side closest to the main gate to the venue) police used pepper spray on comrades, who were treated at the scene.

Some folks were able to get into the event in order to disrupt it. They did a great job and we waited for them to come out, then went elsewhere to debrief. They estimated that around 800 people [!] attended, the vast majority men. The biggest group represented was older Australians, followed by the usual potatoes.