What Chip Le Grand gets wrogn about the Australian ‘alt-right’

On the weekend The Australian published an article by Chip Le Grand titled ‘Inside Australia’s own fractious alt-right’ (September 9, 2017) in which the ‘alt-right’ (which is left undefined) is represented by the dynamic duo of Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson. The pair, along with Chris Shortis, were earlier in the week convicted of inciting hatred for Muslims; all three were at one stage members of the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF). The article is interesting but incomplete and what follows is my attempt to flesh out some of Le Grand’s account.

Cottrell the (neo-)Nazi

As Blair Cottrell tells Inquirer, “If you dress up as a brownshirt you are setting yourself up to be laughed at.’’

Cottrell first emerged into the public spotlight at the Reclaim Australia rally in Melbourne on April 4, 2015. On that occasion he gave a brief speech, accompanied by his cousin Christopher and several other members of neo-Nazi grouplet Nationalist Alternative (NAlt). The grouplet emerged during the course of anti-mosque activism in Williamstown several years ago, and until recently met under the auspices of the English-Speaking Union of Victoria at its headquarters in Toorak Road, South Yarra. The leader of the group, Mark Hootsen, was exposed as such by fellow member Neil Erikson in mid- to late-2014 following a dispute between the pair.

Cottrell’s political views may be established by reference to his online commentary, on sites like Facebook and YouTube. I documented these views from May 2015, when he announced the formation of the ‘National Democratic Party of Australia’:

There’s another kid on the fascist bloc: the ‘National Democratic Party of Australia’ (which is neither national, democratic nor a party). The group had a rather inauspicious beginning, ripping off a WA design company (and the WA RSL) to produce NDP agitprop. A convinced racialist, its chief spokesperson, Blair Cottrell, has some association with the Australia First Party and Nationalist Alternative, both of which had a presence on April 4 and are also committed to returning on July 18/19.

Not surprisingly, the Australian version of the German NDP constituted a mere blip on the political radar, and Cottrell soon moved on to the United Patriots Front, “a coalition of neo-Nazis, fundamentalist Christians belonging to the Rise Up Australia Party (RUAP), and a handful of semi-pro Islamophobes”. His views were more exhaustively documented in Quotations From Chairman Blair Cottrell (July 27, 2015). As I noted at the time, “The content below is sourced from comments by Blair Cottrell (AKA ‘National Democratic Party of Australia’), Melbourne organiser and spokesperson for the United Patriots Front, on Facebook, YouTube and Google. Almost all of the comments have since been deleted as part of Cottrell’s efforts to erase his neo-Nazi political commitments.” Some of this content was later reported in ‘Blair Cottrell, rising anti-Islam movement leader, wanted Hitler in the classroom’ (Michael Bachelard, Luke McMahon, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 17, 2015).

In other words, Cottrell’s anxiety not to be portrayed as a neo-Nazi is both rational — being known as a neo-Nazi is the political kiss of death — and commonplace — most neo-Nazis lie and dissemble about their political commitments and Cottrell is no exception. Finally, it’s worth noting that his former kamerad Shermon Burgess claims that, when he met Cottrell for the first time in Melbourne in May 2015, Cottrell had a copy of Mein Kampf in his ute, and when asked why he travelled with a copy of Mister Hitler’s book, referred to it as ‘The White Man’s Bible’. In any event, even if Le Grand chooses to ignore it, there’s certainly no shortage of evidence of Cottrell’s neo-Nazi views.

Erikson the (neo-)Nazi

There are certainly Nazis on the fringes of Australia’s underground alt-right. Neil Erikson, one of Cottrell’s co-accused, used to be one, although he has in recent years disavowed them. He dismisses the emergence of Australia’s newest neo-Nazi group, the Antipodean Resistance, as uni kids playing dress-ups on Twitter and describes his own renunciation of National Socialism as a case of growing up.

“I used to admire Adolf Hitler years ago but since then I have woken up and seen a different side to it. I used to think that all Jews were evil. Now I see that the racist stuff comes from the left. I used to be anti-Israel, now I’m pro-Israel. You can’t be a nationalist and be against Israel.’’ He once accused Cottrell of being a Nazi. He now says he’s not. “There are Nazis out there but they are clowns,’’ he says. “We all think they are clowns.’’

LOL.

By his own admission, Erikson became a ‘Nazi’ as a teenybopper; he first renounced ‘Nazis’ and ‘Nazism’, however, after he and his kamerad Shermon Burgess left the UPF in late 2015, precisely on the basis that the UPF was considered by them to be irredeemably ‘Nazi’. As well as being a member of NAlt, Erikson was also a ‘Crazy White Boy’, a short-lived gang of boneheads whose main claim to fame was the attempted murder of Vietnamese student Minh Duong in Ascot Vale in June 2012. In December 2012, several nazi yoof were convicted of the crime, which is worth recalling in some detail:

Wayne O’Brien, aged 20, and Shannon Hudson, now 21, committed a deplorable and unforgiveable attack on their smaller victim who they jumped as he was walking home alone from a Moonee Ponds 7/Eleven store where he worked.

The victim, a 21-year-old Vietnamese international student, was listening to music on his iPhone when attacked unawares on June 27 this year.

During the ferocious 10-minute bashing he was called names including a “yellow dog”, but Supreme Court judge Justice Betty King today said the bashing robbery was only partially racially motivated.

The victim was punched in the face and, after toppling over a garden fence, was pinned down and punched and kicked.

After he handed over his phone, O’Brien and Hudson dragged him down and bashed him again.

“He was terrified and believed he was going to be beaten to death,” Justice King said in sentencing.

The victim was dragged by his legs into the street and punched and kicked some more, and was also stabbed with a sharp weapon.

“Eventually (he) lost consciousness and lay in the gutter,” Justice King said.

“Despite that, it would appear that the assault continued.”

In what the judge described as a “particularly chilling episode of violence”, Hudson picked up a loose brick from the ground and, after raising it above his head in both hands, brought it down on the man’s head.

“The brick itself broke in half,” Justice King said.

The victim was left lying unconscious and shirtless in a pool of blood.

According to Erikson, after the assault his ‘Boys’ asked him to help dispose of Duong’s body. Whether they did or not (Erikson states that he declined their invitation), it’s curious that Le Grand avoids connecting Cottrell and Erikson to NAlt, and Erikson to the Boys. Of course, Le Grand also avoids reference to the ‘Aryan Nations’ (AN) in Perth. According to Erikson, when the UPF travelled to Perth to attend a rally in November 2015, they stayed with fellow UPF (Perth) member Melony Jane Attwood. Attwood, along with fellow neo-Nazis Robert Wayne Edhouse and Corey Joshua Dymock, are currently on trial for the murder of Alan Taylor, bashed to death with a hammer as he slept at his Girrawheen home in April 2016: barely six months after Attwood/Taylor hosted Cottrell and Erikson (and Cottrell’s sidekick, Li’l Tommy Sewell) at her home in Perth.

In summary, while choosing to focus upon Cottrell and Erikson as the most familiar faces on the ‘alt-right’ in Australia makes a degree of sense, for unknown reasons the fact that both men have emerged from the neo-Nazi milieu is significantly downplayed.

Finally, a few brief notes on some other aspects of Le Grand’s reportage:

• On Facebook kicking the UPF and others off the platform, see : antifa notes (may 10, 2017) : United Patriots Front kicked off Facebook &c. Note that for a brief period the UPF spawned another page titled ‘UPF Media’, which also claimed at one point the title of ‘Alt Right Australia’;
• The nü neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Antipodean Resistance’ — ‘a group that openly proclaims its adherence to National Socialism’ (ie, Nazism) — was spawned by the UPF and NAlt. Formed last year and inspired by the (now-banned) UK group ‘National Action’, members of the group attended various rallies organised by the True Blue Crew and UPF in Melbourne, including the anti-leftist/anti-Muslim/anti-immigrant rally in Coburg in May 2016 and the ‘Blue Lives Matter’ counter-protest in the CBD (along with a superbly-disguised Blair Cottrell) in July 2016.

There is, of course, a lot more to say about AR — and last week the media embarked on a publicity campaign on behalf of the boys — but that will come in good time;
• Finally, the alt-right’s favourite Australian Jew, Avi Yemini, is indeed organising a rally next weekend in Melbourne. While his attempt at organising hate rallies in Melbourne in December 2016 and in Sydney in August 2017 were not entirely successful, for its part the ‘Campaign Against Racism & Fascism’ has organised a counter-protest ‘From Charlottesville to Melbourne: Unite to fight the far right’.

Coburg 1 /// Fascists 0; Or: The neo-Nazi rally that brought anti-fascists to the streets of Coburg

Huh.

There’s been rather a lot of media attention paid to the events in Coburg on Saturday. Below are a few scattered thoughts and links to some reportage. I may add some more in the next few days …

• Most of the reportage has been poor, and frequently incorrect. Thus, in terms of chronology, several months ago Moreland City councillor Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance) organised a rally for May 28 titled ‘Moreland says NO to Racism’. It was to take place outside Coburg Library and then to march to Bridges Reserve for a picnic. Weeks later, members of the Melton and Bendigo-based ‘True Blue Crew’ (TBC) decided to organise a counter-rally at Bridges Reserve: the endpoint of the proposed march. They were soon joined by their comrades in the neo-Nazi grouplet ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF).
• Bolton’s event proposed to gather support to ‘Stop the forced closure of Aboriginal communities – Treaty now’, to ‘Let the refugees in – Close Manus and Nauru’ and to say ‘No to Islamophobia’. The TBC (and UPF & Co.) intended to ‘Stop the Far Left!’, to ‘Support the Australian Government[‘]s Use of the Offshore Detention Centers That Protect Our Nation’ and to stop the Islamisation of Coburg (and presumably, by extension, Melbourne and Bendigo).
• The organisation by neo-Nazis, fascists and racists (ie, ‘ordinary mums and dads’) of a rally in a suburb like Coburg — one which also intended to shutdown a ‘left’ event — naturally drew the attention of local anti-fascists.

• On the day, the police strategy was to facilitate both rallies and to keep participants from clashing. In practice, this meant attempting to confine ‘anti-racists’ to the Coburg Mall and ‘patriots’ inside Bridges Reserve. Media report that something like 500 police were mobilised/available for the occasion.
• The ‘Moreland says NO to Racism’ rally proceeded but organisers did not join with others who marched from the Library up Sydney Road to Bell Street. On Bell Street, outside the Reserve, the ‘patriots’ assembled on the road but were prevented from marching up it, and then down Sydney Road, by two lines of police and a crowd of anti-fascists.
• Something in the order of 50-100 people rallied with the TBC and the UPF. A large number of these rally-goers were from Bendigo and Melton and travelled from Bendigo on a bus specially hired for the occasion.

• The last time the UPF organised a rally in Melbourne was about six months ago, in late November. See : #UnitedPatriotsFront fails to rise in #Melbourne. Again., November 28, 2015. Around 40 or so attended. This suggests that there’s been little if any growth in the UPF’s ability to attract a crowd, at least in Melbourne. The UPF has, however, established a small base in Bendigo and a smaller one in Perth. NB. As elsewhere in the country, the UPF has attracted the support of neo-Nazis in Perth. Several of them, belonging to neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Aryan Nations’, were recently arrested and charged with murder; the Aryans in Perth played host to the UPF when they travelled to that city to attend the Reclaim Australia rally last year. See : Murder shines spotlight on Australia’s white supremacist subculture, news.com.au, May 23, 2016.
• The UPF’s first rally in Richmond was rather similar to this, their latest public outing. Like the May 28, 2016 rally, the May 31, 2015 rally was directed at a socialist councillor (Stephen Jolly). See : #UnitedPatriotsFront sent packing in Richmond, May 31, 2015. It failed to unseat him, triggered a bizarre UPF letter-writing campaign to the Governor-General — His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) — demanding that he remove Jolly from office, and witnessed clashes as the UPF (with police assistance) tried and failed to occupy the Town Hall steps.
• A small number of neo-Nazis known to have attended previous ‘patriotic’ rallies were out and about on Saturday. These apparently (according to ex-UPF member Neil Erikson) included Mark Hootsen (Nationalist Alternative), Joey Edwards and Dan Newman (Combat 18). Toby Cook (Party for Freedom, Sydney) waved a silly sign and wore Golden Dawn merch, while former UPF lackey Linden Watson also made an appearance. Oddly, UPF supporter Warren Broadhead waved an Israeli flag, while a neo-Nazi (name unknown), who’s previously served as a minder to young bonehead James Lawrence, was also present. Visible neo-Nazi markings were relatively rare, though three or four men sported Nazi Werwolf insignia.

• Speaking of flags, the UPF left a number of theirs behind.

• Despite some media reportage to the contrary, the anti-fascist action on Saturday witnessed the participation of a relatively high proportion of locals.
• Melbourne Antifascist Info provides the following account of events:

The United Patriots Front (stealing the thunder of the True Blue Crew, who were happy to ride their big brothers’ coat tails) assembled a fascist gathering of about 150 in Bridges Reserve Coburg around 10am (some in Nazi regalia), making to march down and disrupt Moreland Says No to Racism. A small contingent of antifascists comprising a large nunber of locals managed to head them off on Bell Street and disrupt their progress. In the ensuing mayhem, notorious methgoblin Zane Chapman and True Blue Crew leader Kane Miller were arrested and OC sprayed respectively. Both ended the day in tears (see photos).

Police officers on the scene found the love in the air too much to handle, and had a bit of a weep themselves. Officers deployed OC foam repeatedly against antifascists and fascists, and many unlucky Nazis went home with untreated chemical burns. At least four non-hostile photojournalists were directly capsicum sprayed by officers, one in the lens of his camera.

For the next couple hours, the UPF and TBC failed spectacularly to mobilise on multiple occasions, and were moved in a kettle back and forth until they unceremoniously gave up. Their every move, and indeed their tail-between-the-legs extraction, was carefully facilitated and managed by hundreds of police, without whose indulgence they wouldn’t have been able to leave the carpark, but even with whose concerted support they were still unable to march. Meanwhile, Moreland Says No to Racism’s rally proceeded unopposed and was a roaring success, moving freely through the streets and celebrating Coburg’s unity and diversity in the face of racist fearmongering. The TBC’s stated aim, of making the No to Racism rally unviable, was not only not achieved, it didn’t even barely get off the ground. Fascist symbols were seized, chucked in the bin and used as doormats by enthusiastic Coburgers.

On a sadder note, the Melbourne Street Medics Collective was left to fend for themselves as Nazis charged their triage area, beat up casualties and Medics and unbelievably attacked the ambulance and paramedics attempting to evacuate a severely injured protestor. As comrades, we are sorry that the Medics were not better protected and we implore all activists to place these invaluable people highest on their list of solidarity priorities.

Mad props to all involved, you’ll always lose in Coburg.

In which context: both fascists and police have targeted MSMC previously, most notoriously at the joint Reclaim Australia/UPF rally in Melbourne on July 18. Future events will obviously require a more concerted effort on the part of anti-fascists to protect the MSMC from attack. By the same token, legal monitoring and support for the arrested as well as the injured will likely be a priority.

• In general, given the circumstances, the day went about as well as could be expected. Importantly, and despite fascist, police and media agitation in favour of its cancellation, the ‘Moreland Says NO to Racism’ rally was neither stopped nor attacked. Further, the TBC, UPF & Co were prevented from marching through Coburg. This was only as the result of the determined action of the hundreds who gathered on Bell Street to stop it.
• Media report that 7 (seven) people were arrested on the day: ‘Police said two people were arrested for riotous behaviour, one for assaulting police and one for hindering police. Another was arrested for robbery. Two people were arrested before the rally for weapons offences.’ It seems likely that these will not be the only people to be arrested and charged in connection to Saturday’s events.
• Capsicum foam has again been confirmed as a now-routine part of policing ‘public order’ situations.
• Predictably, media and police have seized on the fact that some people wore masks to the protests. Apart from anything else, there are actually laws on the books which police can utilise if they feel the need. As lawyer Rob Stary has pointed out, s49c of the Summary Offences Act makes ‘Being disguised with unlawful intent’ a crime. Otherwise, see : Masks up (Andy Fleming, Overland, December 15, 2015); Why Masks? (Melbourne Antifascists, September 8, 2015); Why Wear Masks? (Nerve Magazine, May 10, 2016).

• Socialist media coverage: Moreland says NO to Racism rally succeeds in peaceful rally against racism, Green Left Weekly (Socialist Alliance), May 28, 2016; Fascists driven out of Coburg, Corey Oakley, Red Flag (Socialist Alternative), May 28, 2016.

• Other media: Anti-Islam protests descend into violence in Melbourne, Krystal Johnson and AAP, Yahoo7 and Agencies, May 28, 2016 | Police launch task force to investigate violent anti-racism and anti-Islam rally in Melbourne, 9NEWS, May 29, 2016 | Coburg rallies: Seven arrested as police separate anti-racism, anti-immigration protesters, ABC, May 28, 2016 | Australia immigration: Rival Melbourne rallies spark clashes, BBC, May 28, 2016 | Violence erupts at Australia immigration rallies, Deutsche Welle, May 28, 2016 | Coburg rally: Police out in force as anti-Islam, anti-racist groups face off, Wes Hosking, James Dowling, Herald Sun, May 28, 2016 | Cowards blamed for violent Melbourne rally, SBS (AAP), May 28, 2016 | The anti-racism rally that brought Nazis to the streets of Coburg, Bianca Hall, The Age, May 29, 2016 | Melbourne protests: seven arrested as clashes erupt between opposing rallies, Calla Wahlquist, The Guardian, May 28, 2016.

See also : Outlawing anti-fascism, Corey Oakley, Red Flag, May 31, 2016 | Fascism, Anti-fascism, and a coffee shop full of white liberals, George K, Secretagoo, June 2, 2016.

Bonus!

MSMC STATEMENT ‪#‎Coburg‬, May 28 – “Solidarity is not just a word”

Many of our comrades have provided thorough and well-articulated accounts of what transpired and how events unfolded in Coburg on Saturday, when due to being left without the support of the bulk of people who were initially on Bell Street, our medics and the casualties they were attending ended up behind police lines, open to not one but two attacks by the racists and fascists. For those wanting a detailed chronology and report, we would direct you to Slackbastard’s rundown as well as this timeline outlined by Melbourne Antifascist Info.

As many of our supporters will be aware, there has been much coverage and debate already about the unfortunate situation that the Melbourne Street Medic Collective (MSMC) found itself in, when our triage space on Bell Street was left inadequately protected and was subsequently charged and attacked by members of the far-right. It is true that both casualties and those of us who support the injured were attacked. To this we would like to point out the nauseating cowardice of those members of the True Blue Crew, United Patriots Front and the affiliated crew of motley thugs and neo-Nazis who seized the ‘opportunity’ to attack those most vulnerable on Saturday and ask all readers to consider this as part of a mounting case of evidence that the far right were doing anything but merely defending the supposed instigation of violence from antifa, despite their bleating insistence to that effect.

At the heart of Street Medicine is an appreciation of the systems of domination & oppression that make us and our communities sick. Capitalism and its symptoms are indeed destroying our communities and laying waste to the health of generations. This could not have been clearer on Saturday and provided a timely reminder for us all to reject the scapegoats thrust forward by politicians and abetted by the mainstream media – refugees, queers, feminists and Muslims are truly distractions put forward to divert us from the true oppression of capitalism and its ability to isolate, disenfranchise and divide us.

So while we see the need to oppose fascist bullying and intimidation – especially in thriving multicultural centres like Coburg – the need to dismantle a system that turns disenfranchised working-class people against one another must be replaced.

Further, MSMC would like to take a moment to reflect on suggestions made that the matters of hate-speech and fascism are best handled by the influence of police. On Saturday Victoria Police, while exercising extreme force with an apparent lack of discrimination or mercy, showed no consideration to the injured and hurt. To this we call shame on Victoria Police and assert that we unequivocally cannot surrender responsibility for the defence and protection of our communities to their authority.

In contrast MSMC stands in solidarity with the brave paramedics who attended and were besieged and intimidated in their ambulance by aforementioned fascists, neo-Nazis and thugs. These individuals acted courageously in the face of utterly unreasonable circumstances.

Specifically, there are a number of things that we strongly encourage. We would encourage a respectful and open dialogue prior to actions. We acknowledge the differences in many groups’ political analysis and tactics, and on this basis we encourage more thorough, widespread and representative communication-sharing between groups and individuals during the course of rallies, in the spirit of comradely collaboration and to enable individuals and groups to make informed decisions about their actions and movements. We would encourage a respect for some baseline levels of safety, such as the needs of the Street Medics not being dismissed when we communicate these at actions – requesting extra people to provide support, or safety in numbers, and things as simple as helping to form privacy circles. We encourage people to buddy up, and not leave their friends and individual members of their groups and organisations behind if they require assistance with getting home due to OC spray exposure – particularly with roaming groups of racists and fascists around. We also encourage people at actions to be aware of those around them, and that for example things such as OC spray are imprecise weapons that are designed to spread to a radius of people. We have absolutely no desire to police people’s behaviour, but rather to provide support for our communities and to promote sustainable activism that works against burnout and trauma from police violence.

Finally, whilst we are still gathering our thoughts on all that transpired, we do look forward to the opportunity to engage in a continuing dialogue with various organisers and groups around solidarity and adequate support of all factions at future demonstrations. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better and we’re keen to now look towards an immediate future where mutual aid, care and respect get rapidly much better. Solidarity is action, not just a word.

antifa notes (february 14, 2016) : United Patriots Front and One Nation

United Patriots Front /// Fortitude /// Toowoomba

The United Patriots Front (UPF) held a meeting in Toowoomba yesterday at the Toowoomba Indoor Bowls Hall, the official launch of their political party ‘Fortitude’. From the one photo which has been published of the event, it appears that around 40 or 50 individuals attended –meaning that they were almost certainly outnumbered by the number of flags the UPF used for the occasion.

To celebrate their triumph, the UPF retired to the Burke & Wills Hotel. The manager of the pub later appeared in a video published by the UPF, stating: Hi guys I’m Nathan I’m at the Burke & Wills Hotel. I’ve just had a phone call — ah, an email — from head office, who is reporting having seen on Facebook, from a David Foster I do believe it was, that there was a group of neo-Nazis coming to my hotel here. I have responded, informing my reception staff to email back to head office, letting them know, that the 20-odd people that have come in for in meals and drinks tonight, are the leadership and members of Australia’s newest political party.

Leaving aside the fact that Fortitude is yet to register, Nathan may like to read a little bit more about UPF fuehrer Blair Cottrell, the Holocaust denialist who congratulates him on his support for the party. See, for example, Blair Cottrell, rising anti-Islam movement leader, wanted Hitler in the classroom, Michael Bachelard and Luke McMahon, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 16, 2015 and Quotations From Chairman Cottrell (July 27, 2015).

(The UPF is holding another meeting in Orange on February 20.)

Otherwise, former UPF member Neil Erikson continues to denounce the UPF as a (neo-)Nazi organisation and has vowed to continue to reveal ‘secrets’ about the UPF and other nazi meatheads for as long as they continue to dis him. Ho hum. There’s not a great deal of new information in the claims that he’s published thus far, though it was interesting to note that Cottrell’s association with and involvement in Melbourne-based neo-Nazi groupuscule Nationalist Alternative (NAlt) extends back some years (he appeared in their company at the April 4 Reclaim Australia rally in Melbourne). Further, that as Reclaim Australia was emerging last year Cottrell agreed with Erikson that explicit reference to The Jewish Problem was a Bad idea, and should be left to a later date when ‘patriots’ would be more likely to be able to share their anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi political convictions.

Neil Erikson

Blair Cottrell

What is somewhat disturbing is his claim that Cottrell has threatened to kill him(!): A lot of people are asking me why I’m trying to destroy Blair Cottrell. Well Blair Cottrell called me up in a fit of fucking rage, threatened to run through my house and kill me in front of my family. Given that Cottrell apparently has a criminal conviction for an arson attack upon the home of a person who previously crossed him, one can only hope that Cottrell was just very upset and has no real intention to commit murder.

(Above (L to R) : Chris Cottrell, Mark Hootsen, Blair Cottrell. Federation Square, Melbourne, April 4, 2015.)

Erikson also claims that the reason NAlt fuehrer, Mark Hootsen, was removed from his position as moderator of the Stormfront Downunder forum was because he had been found to have sent sexually graphic material to a teenage supporter. See also : Nationalist Alternative throw their former Führer under the bus #antifa (December 14, 2014).

One Nation /// Bendigo

Also on Saturday, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party held a meeting in Bendigo at The Shamrock Hotel. The small group who assembled to hear her and the party’s Victorian Senate candidate (and Bendigo councillor) Elise Chapman were also treated to a small demonstration by opponents. Chapman’s comrades in the UPF will be returning to town on February 27. A welcoming committee has been formed to oppose them then, too: MARCH AGAINST FASCISM AND BIGOTRY.

Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad

The aftermath of the Reclaim Australia (RA)/United Patriots Front (UPF) rallies of July 18/19 has produced some interesting results.

• To begin with, the President of the UPF, Shermon Burgess (AKA ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’), has declared that the boys will be rallying again in Cronulla in a few months. How NSW authorities and especially Cronulla locals react to this news will be fascinating to watch. Burgess himself has previously boasted of his attendance at the ‘riot’/’White Civil Uprising’ in Cronulla. See also : Cronulla Anniversary: A Kiwi Perspective (December 27, 2006) | Communists on Cronulla (December 3, 2006).

• Somewhat remarkably, a few days after July 18, Burgess published a video confessing to having engaged in a group assault upon a group of ‘anti-fascists’ in Melbourne. An edited version of the video is below:

Given the intense media scrutiny surrounding the weekend’s events — and the considerable criticism to which police have been subject — it seems possible that police may be compelled to take a closer look at the alleged incident Burgess refers to in the video: time will tell.

• It’s also remarkable that Burgess has chosen to promote a song perfomed by defunct Belgian reich ‘n’ rollers Kill Baby Kill. KBK were a neo-Nazi band that split following the suicide of its lead singer, Dieter Samoy. His decision to kill himself apparently occurred after he learned that he would be forced to abandon his teaching career after being convicted of a racist assault. The band toured Australia several years ago in a tour organised by local neo-Nazi groups Blood & Honour and the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins. The Hammerskins gained some small notoriety in 2012 after one of its members, Wade Michael Page, shot dead worshippers at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. See also : Dieter Samoy : Still Dead Baby, Dead (January 15, 2012) | Dieter Samoy : Dead Baby Dead (January 20, 2010) | Wade Michael Page and the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins (August 15, 2012).

• A few articles of interest:

Inside the strange dynamic of Reclaim Australia’s rallies, Martin McKenzie-Murray, The Saturday Paper, July 25, 2015.

Trainspotters note: “At the top was a thick picket line of counter-protesters – largely a mix of anarchists and Socialist Alliance members, but not restricted to them.” A majority of socialists present were members/supporters of Socialist Alternative and the Socialist Party (though members of the Alliance were undoubtedly present).

Reclaim Australia: ‘concerned mums and dads’ or a Trojan horse for extremists?, Joshua Robertson, The Guardian, July 24, 2015.

Comment: Robertson’s article includes extensive quotes from John Oliver, described as an ‘RA spokesman’. Unmentioned is his role as the sometime President of the ‘Patriots Defence League of Australia’, a handful of whose members were present on July 18 in Melbourne. Several months ago, Oliver established a GoFundMe campaign in an attempt to obtain my d0x:

(Note that ‘Australians Against Islam’ is described as a splinter group from RA in Brisbane, est following the July 19 rally.) ‘Concerned dad’ John — whose staunch opposition to racism, fascism, neo-Nazism and to the intimate involvement of his patriotik comrades in neo-Nazi and fascist politics can surely never be questioned — also expressed the view that I should be hunted down like a dog, have my testicles removed and then attached to my forehead:

Top bloke, John.

As for the PDLA, its ‘Eastern Victoria Charter’ was present on July 18, or at least its President, Damien Kourevellis, and its Vice-President, Some Other Bloke, were. (On Kourevellis, see also : Court told violent man not detained, Steve Butcher, The Age, March 26, 2009.) Here they are: a) pictured walking down an alley and; b) having a yarn with neo-Nazi Glenn Anderson:

[Above img via Wardenclyffe Photography.]

Reclaim Australia re-energises radical nationalism, Troy Whitford, The Conversation, July 24, 2015.

Trainspotters note: “Reclaim Australia’s position is probably best articulated through the propaganda arm, The Nationalist Alternative, which was established last year. It argues that the agenda of Australian nationalism is to promote Australia as ‘… an organic nation founded upon Western/European ideals, and created by it’s [sic] descendants primarily the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic ethnicity as well as fellow Europeans from northern, central, southern and eastern Europe.'”

While RA’s position may arguably be best expressed by or thru Nationalist Alternative (NAlt), it is not RA’s propaganda arm, nor was it established in 2014. Rather, NAlt was founded in 2008/9 in anti-mosque agitation in Williamstown. Further, from the time of the emergence of both RA and Burgess adopting ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’ persona, the principal propaganda arm for RA has been ‘Nationalist Republican Guard’ AKA ‘European Australian Civil Rights League’ AKA Melbourne-based neo-Nazi (and criminal anti-Semite) Neil Erikson. Erikson left the group last year, but not before he and some of his comrades outed Mark Hootsen as NAlt’s leader. See also : Nationalist Alternative throw their former Führer under the bus #antifa (December 14, 2014) | Nationalist Alternative : “just a bunch of students from Melbourne” (July 8, 2009).

• ReclaimWhat on Facebook maintains a close watch on the various shenanigans of RA and the UPF.

• Later today I’ll republish some of the comments of UPF leader Blair Cottrell on the subject of Jews, politics, Jews, nationalism and Jews.

antifa notes (june 6, 2015) : fascism consolidated

Zionists … I’m sick of hearing that coward word. Get some guts people and just say Jews, they are all Jews or Jewish servants. For thousands of years these Jews have been expelled and chased out of European Nations for the same shit. Napoleon and Hitler were the last to stand against them (please don’t reply to this comment with ‘muh holocaust’ bullshit, cause that is a load of crap too). I[‘]m fed up with all the tiptoe words like [I]lluminati and [Z]ionist … I’ve found that all these so-called ‘truth-seekers’ delve into free information until they hit the plateau of the real truth; that point at which they must admit that there is no [I]lluminati or [Z]ionist conspiracy, only a Jewish conspiracy. Very few people make it past that plateau, they are too pacifist and too egalitarian to accept the reality of the Jewish nature and so they become weird peace & love people who forever talk about the ‘universe’ because they failed to acknowledge the reality of racial dispositions of the Jews. There is no “new” conspiracy with an “[I]lluminati” or “Zionist” foundation, there is only Jews; the same old Jews from a thousand years ago practicing the same old shit, only now they are actually succeeding.

~ Blair Cottrell, leader of United Patriots Front (Melbourne)

Above : Leader of the Rise Up Australia Party, Danny Nalliah, chillin’ with the United Patriots Front leadership (Blair Cottrell on far right).

1) Der Führer (Shermon Burgess AKA ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’) has declared that ‘patriotic’ members of the far right will be entering into a Grand Coalition in order to smash the left in Melbourne on July 18 (the date of the next ‘Reclaim Australia’ rally). As of this date, Burgess has declared that the alliance consists of Reclaim Australia and the United Patriots Front (two groups already on board with July 18), the Southern Cross Soldiers (a defunct group of white teenagers), a Facebook group called ‘Aussie Brotherhood’ and the (remnants of the) Australian Defence League. He further hopes to enlist the Australia First Party, the Patriots Defence League of Australia and a handful of other Facebook groups what hate Mooselems. (It seems likely that boneheads belonging to the ‘United Australian Front’ and the ‘Full Blooded Skips’ will also be ‘smashing the left’ in Melbourne on July 18.)

Ho hum.

Beyond this, the UPF has begun to more solidly locate itself as the Antipodean expression of European fascism, being celebrated in a video which includes the Front National (France), Svoboda (Ukraine), Jobbik (Hungary), National Action (UK), Party of the Swedes (Sweden), Slovak National Party (Slovakia), Forza Nuova (Italy), Golden Dawn (Greece), The Immortals (Germany), Ataka (Bulgaria) and National Rebirth of Poland (Poland) — as well as Alianza Nacional (Spain), Britain First, British National Party, English Defence League and Party for Freedom (Geert Wilders’ mob, not Nick Folkes’).

(On the Front National, see : Front National’s victory will have a serious impact on both France and the future of Europe, Aurelien Mondon, May 27, 2014 | On Svoboda, see : Who are Ukraine’s fascists?, Matthew N Lyons, threewayfight, March 4, 2014 | On Jobbik, see : Hungary heads to the right, Deutsche Welle, May 13, 2015 | On National Action, see : #hitlerwasright: National Action and National Socialism for the 21st Century, Paul Jackson, Journal for Deradicalization (2014) and Anti-Fascist Network (UK) on ‘National Action’ | Note: The Party of the Swedes — a neo-Nazi organisation — announced its dissolution in May 2015. In March 2014 the Party celebrated International Womens’ Day by attacking and stabbing a group of feminists. | On Forza Nuova, see : The BNP Partied with European Fascists in Rome This Weekend, Leonardo Bianchi, VICE, March 5, 2014 and Tear gas, clashes as anti-nationalist rally in N. Italy turns violent (VIDEO), RT, October 19, 2014 | The leadership of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party in Greece is currently on trial; in Australia, nominal XA Australia leader Iggy (Akis) Gavrilidis has expressed support for both RA and moreover UPF. See also : So who were these nazis anyway? Australia First & Golden Dawn in Brisbane, May 4, 2014 | On the (now-defunct) German neo-Nazi project “The Immortals”, see : YouTube Neo-Nazis: The Far Right Updates Its Online Image, Sarah Mühlberger, Spiegel Online, February 12, 2013 | On the National Rebirth of Poland (NOP), National-Radical Camp (Polish: Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR) and Polish fascism, see : The Rebirth of Radical Nationalism: Welcome back to the ’30s (November 17, 2012) | On Ataka, see : What’s left when you are (far) right in Bulgaria?, Nikolay Nikolov, Open Democracy, April 29, 2014.)

Burgess’s followers tend to be political illiterates so may only be expected to thrill at what they understand to be ‘patriotic’ movements in Europe. Those with some grasp of European politics will understand that the UPF consciously wishes to emulate extreme-right parties and movements. In any case, the context of Burgess’s declaration of unity is the following:

• The launch of the UPF on May 31 was not very successful. The UPF failed both to hold a rally outside the Richmond Town Hall and to ‘smash the left’ and attracted only a relatively small number of supporters (between about 50-70).
• The presence of the nazi (Glenn Anderson) in the t-shirt — and the failure not only to eject him from the rally but to instead welcome and march alongside him — has not played very well, either in the eyes of the general public or among a very small segment of the UPF’s followers.
• As a result, the UPF has been forced to revise its position on the groups (RA especially) previously denounced as weaklings and traitors. In other words, the UPF has demonstrated it has even more limited appeal than RA and to attract hundreds if not thousands of ‘patriots’ to rally in Melbourne on July 18 requires reconciling with RA as well as attempting to draw together the dregs of the ADL, PDLA and other, principally social media creations.
• The fact that the leadership of the UPF in Melbourne — Blair Cottrell and Neil Erikson — are neo-Nazis does not register with Burgess’s followers and has received zero attention in mass media reporting to this date.
• There’s ample opportunity — time and other resources — available to ‘the left’ in Melbourne to organise to oppose and disrupt the fascist rally on July 18. Whether it does so is an open question. See : RALLY AGAINST RACISM – Stop ‘Reclaim Australia’ – Melbourne and Melbourne Counter-Rally Against racism, Islamophobia and the far right.

2) In Perth, a small group (perhaps a dozen or so) of anti-Muslim activists gathered in order to … have a slave auction. Or something. Anyway, the rally was ostensibly called in order to express solidarity with persecuted Christian minorities in Muslim countries. I dunno who organised it but a large group of counter-protesters rocked up anyway.

3) In the northern suburbs of Adelaide, some bloke has been stuffing letterboxes with leaflets promoting neo-Nazi group ‘Blood & Honour’. It’s not clear from the Channel 7 news report which faction of B&H distroed the leaflet: one faction is aligned with the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins, the other ‘Combat 18’. In Melbourne, the principal propagandist for C18 is Patrick O’Sullivan, who in March was kicked out of a gig for distributing flyers promoting ‘Reclaim Australia’, but is mostly known for slapping up poor-quality B&W stickers around town denouncing Muslims and praising ‘White Power’.

Curiously, Neil Erikson — one of the leaders of the UPF in Melbourne along with Blair Cottrell — has links to both B&H factions, having attended gigs organised by SCHS/B&H in Melbourne as well as having “Aussie Aryan friends” in the loose network of boneheads that is C18 in the city.

4) Finally, a mysterious cat with the body of a man is suspected of having stolen political maverick Buddy Rojek‘s cap from him when he attended the UPF rally on May 31. Accordingly, Rojek has been making noises online about organising a protest at Channel 7 studios in Melbourne in order to castigate the media for failing to highlight this dread crime.

slackbastard

Anarchy and apathy battle it out on @ndy's blog.

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