Tagged with Luke Phipps

2018 True Blue Crew Aussie Pride / Flagwit Parade : All Aboard The Failboat — Toot Toot!

tl;dr : LOL

In Melbourne on Sunday, a small group of racists and fascists, assembled under the banner of the ‘True Blue Crew’ (TBC), undertook a rally and march, ostensibly in order to celebrate ‘Aussie Pride’. The flagwit parade is an annual event, inaugurated in 2016. Thus, this was in fact the third occasion that the TBC has rallied: you can read about last year’s event here and the 2016 event here. Most estimates place the number of participants at around 60-80, with numbers varying somewhat over the course of the few hours that the TBC occupied the CBD. In comparison to 2016 and 2017, this represented a small but significant drop in attendance, and confirms that, while the TBC, its numerous patriotik equivalents, and the various personalities that constitutes the movement’s leadership, can command hundreds of thousands of followers on facebook, this does not translate into actual mobilising capacity.

Touted by Timmeh! of AltRight upstart The Unhinged as being the biggest event on the nationalist calendar, participants assembled outside the Exhibition Building a little after midday, performed an execrable rendition of the national anthem (‘boundless plains to share’ — lol), and then, reinforced by a sizable police contingent, they marched: via Exhibition Street, to the corner of Bourke and Spring Streets in the CBD. Upon arrival, the ultra-nationalists milled about, exchanged pleasantries with the opposition corralled by police on Spring Street, then listened to speeches by local neo-Nazis Blair Cottrell and Tom Sewell of ‘The Lads Society’.

After about 20 minutes of this no-doubt electric speechifying, the group — which at this stage numbered around 50 or so — were again marched away by police (via Spring Street) to Carlton Gardens, whereupon the event more-or-less ended. Fittingly, Cottrell ended his speech by declaring Melbourne to be a ‘shithole’; I suspect he may have been a tad upset that, after three years of self-promotion, only a tiny number of gronks were prepared to follow their fuehrer into battle on Bourke Street. In any case, some of the Lads reassembled for a drink at Transport Bar in Fed Square (see below) and then at Y&J’s.

Naturally — what with Melbourne being a shithole and all — the rally and march was also the subject of a counter-rally, organised by the Campaign Against Racism & Fascism (CARF) and allied groups. Their accounts of the day are also worth reading, and hopefully some lessons have been learned. In this context, it should be emphasised that, while the combined numbers of people taking part in the rally and counter-rally was several hundred, this was possibly exceeded by the number of police mobilised in order to contain them: as ever, it’s the state that determines the terrain. Be that as it may, here’s some links to media reportage, and below these are a few further notes for those interested. See : ‘They can’t summon as much violence as I can’: Leader of far-right ‘true blue crew’ vile boast as his supporters clash with anti-racism supporters at Melbourne ‘flag pride rally’, Cait Kelly/Australian Associated Press, Daily Mail Australia, June 24, 2018 (NB. To the best of my knowledge, this is one of the only media reports that actually labels Cottrell correctly as a neo-Nazi.) /// Far Right Group Host Rally In Melbourne But Were Outnumbered By Counterprotestors Three-To-One, Max Koslowski, Junkee, June 24, 2018 /// Far-right and counter protesters scuffle in Melbourne CBD, Rick Goodman, The New Daily, June 24, 2018 /// Far-right and anti-racism protesters trade verbal barbs in CBD clash, 9News, June 24, 2018 /// TRUE BLUE CREW AUSSIE PRIDE MARCH (AAP).

With regards to the political complexion and very brief history of the TBC, Tom Tanuki provides the following colourful, but basically accurate account:

The True Blue Crew are rallying tomorrow in the city, holding a vague kind of ‘flag worship’ event. It marks two years since an event in Coburg when the TBC got popular for punching on with lefties. Are you going to counter them or to wave a flag alongside them? Either way, it’s important to know what exactly the TBC is. Let’s recap and go through what we know in brief.

The TBC were formed after a few of their original core crew got into a scrap with some Antifa kids after a 2015 rally. ‘Never again,’ they said! So, the TBC were originally meant to be a patriot answer to black bloc Anteefa contingents.

Their red letter day came in May 2016, when they took part in an organised attempt to have the far-right march through Coburg. Their brief, televised fights with masked lefties were a big popularity boost for them. TBC started charging membership fees – $20 a week, $10 for ‘casual’ members. At one point, they were earning tens of thousands of dollars in just a few months! The money was being managed by TBC ‘President’ Kane Miller’s partner and her sister and all of that money was going to Kane. He was largely spending it as he liked.

Behind closed doors, the ‘President’ was abusing his partner. He even broke her back. He wasn’t the only woman-bashing TBC member, either – and when photographic evidence of another member’s brutal assault on his wife was made public, Kane avoided the increasing media spotlight on TBC by kicking Mark out. Members knew that decision made Kane a bit of a hypocrite, for the abovementioned reasons… So they started leaving the TBC. Kane’s abused partner finally left him too and the money management side of TBC went down the drain. The things she revealed about the abuse meant even more TBC members left the group – and they took their membership fees with them.

Kane went quiet for a long while, feeling defeated. TBC ‘club meetings’ dwindled after a time to little more than 12 unemployed blokes sitting around sucking cones in Kane’s mum’s living room. But the lure of conning working class Aussies out of their hard-earned wages still called to Kane. So TBC returned somewhat with an Australia Day BBQ in St Kilda (a genius idea he came up with after a sesh watching the new Romper Stomper). And he had some stupid fucking idea to wander around parks with a bunch of other losers looking for Sudanese children to fight. A meeting he held at Tom Sewell’s Cheltenham clubhouse was televised, with Channel 7 airing a description of the TBC’s initiative as being ‘like a Neighbourhood Watch’ – and it seemed to the world like the TBC were back!

It was not like a Neighbourhood Watch. It was just more hare-brained, shard-addled fantasy garbage from a man who was desperate to be given more membership fees to enjoy himself with. He says it’s for a ‘clubhouse’ but it isn’t and it never will be. TBC only have about 5-10 people contributing membership fees and they get most of their cash from merch. It’s not enough. Kane just wants to siphon more money out from poor, angry, confused Aussies.

That money won’t do anything but fund the TBC ‘President’ and his lifestyle. This is a man who gets cash-in-hand from his Muslim boss (serious!) and has membership fees go into his mates’ bank account so child support can’t take it. This is a man with convictions for domestic violence (he was also violent to his last ex, who also dumped him), multiple AVO breaches and firearms charges who won’t pay for his own child. Money given to TBC is fleeced money, and it pays for a shit fucking dude.

Hey. Put the culture wars down for a moment. Are you a right-winger intending on going tomorrow? Don’t. Pick your battles, and more importantly, pick your allies. These are bad ones. Spend your petrol money on beer, yeah? Enjoy your Sunday.

Are you a left-winger going tomorrow to counter? Fuck yeah! I can’t come coz I’m interstate. I wish I could. I’d love to yell at them. Of course you should show these egomaniacal arseholes they can’t march through the city uninterrupted. Go and yell at racist dogs!

Just remember, y’all – the filmed fights at Coburg were the best thing that ever happened to these guys. So, be careful. And don’t lose on camera!

While the bulk of those who attended the event were members of and/or sporting TBC merch, also present were members of neo-Nazi grouplet Antipodean Resistance, Cooks Convicts (Neil Erikson, Rino ‘Bluebeard’ Grgurovic and Ricky Turner), The Lads Society (‘Troy Bloodstone’, Blair Cottrell and Tom Sewell), Soldiers of Odin (Jay B Moore) and, for some reason, Daniel Purton/A26A (AKA ‘The Crew’).


They were joined by a handful of budding AltRight media creators — a teenybopper calling himself ‘The Young Conservative’, Some Guy called Bayden Mottee and his sidekick Lee/Leon Taylor (who travelled from NSW for the event) — while most of the rest were faces familiar from previous rallies. The nipsters below were in the company of Jacob Hersant:


Finally:

• According to spotters: police worked closely with TBC throughout the course of the event and relations between the two were friendly and relaxed — one might even say that they worked hand-in-glove. This was no doubt a good and useful thing, as several TBC members were wearing gloves that were steel-reinforced. Police conducted a handful of body searches on rally-goers but were rather more thorough in the case of anti-fascists; upon completion of the event, participants were invited by Cottrell to join he and the other neo-Nazi Lads at their club house in Cheltenham.

• Having journeyed to Transport Bar at Fed Square upon completion of the rally, Cottrell and a number of his followers took the opportunity to engage in some cultural criticism. Spying a street performer, ‘Dandyman’, dressed in pink, and possibly imagining himself in the role of head of an Antipodean Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Cottrell & The Gang vocally objected to the performer’s pink costume. This, apparently, was sufficient reason to demand that he remove himself from the Square, and sufficient evidence for the performer to be accused of being a paedophile(!). Requesting assistance from police, they merely oversaw the cancellation of Dandyman’s performance and their removal from the Square. Granting de facto recognition of the authority of Cottrell & The Gang to decide who comes to Fed Square and the circumstances in which they come is a bold move by police, but is perhaps in keeping with the generally amiable relations between the two forces. In any case, it also reminded me of another brilliant piece of cultural criticism Cottrell mounted back in June 2015 as the poor boy struggled to come to terms with the suburb of Northcote:

… The drive into the heart of the city from the northern suburbs was not without drama. I was among our two carloads of eager souls traveling from the north inbound and I have never experienced such appalling traffic conditions.

I specifically remember crawling slowly through the suburb of Northcote and I have never in my life witnessed such a putrid expression of civilized humanity; not even in Dandenong is there such a profoundly visible depression of the buildings, the atmosphere, and the people themselves. I found myself staring open-mouthed out of the car window; for some moments, I was in a state of disbelief and felt as though the surrounding depression was creeping through my car window and licking at my sentiments of hope. The contagious despair of the place threatened to engulf my person after only a few minutes of being there.

Had the people living here really begun to believe such conditions were normal?

The walls of the buildings were literally caked in vulgar graffiti – and not the kind which had any creative or admirable aspect to it. Peeling and faded old advertising posters for music shows long since passed, mold and rot which would take the local business owner perhaps 30 minutes to remove with a high pressure hose, yet none anywhere seemed to have bothered. Even the smell of the place quickly quelled a painful hunger for breakfast I had been feeling hitherto.

And the propaganda there was all anti-racist material.

Posters, graffiti, and even large banners hanging from old public buildings of British-Australian architecture read “racism-free community”, “smash racism”, and so forth.

A structural dedication to past Australian military services, a building of some sort with architectural dedications in the front gardens, was the only decent looking building in the area, however, not even it was spared by the local graffiti bandits who had ‘tagged’ the walls and panels with some unintelligible scribble.

Was this suburb of Northcote the ultimate expression of so-called anti-racism? If so, the cultural degeneration of this place speaks absolute volumes of the philosophical and moral backwardness of these self-abnegating plebeians: today’s Marxistic Left-wing.

Had these pioneers of cultural decay gained any knowledge of our intentions on this particular day, you can rest assured they would have flocked to the area in formidable numbers to “smash the fash”, as they put it …

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

PS. TBC gangs in Perth and Sydney also held flag-waving rallies. In Perth, approximately a dozen or so boofheads assembled in order to be laffed at by scores more; in Sydney, Kokoda veteran Bill Ryan took the opportunity to denounce racism, but received little if anything in the way of support. Sydney eh?

BONUS! DandyMan versus nazi goons

This article by Richard Watts provides a good breakdown of Cottrell & The Gang’s harassment of Dandyman and the heartening response of the Melbourne community: Street performer reclaims Fed Square after far-right threat, ArtsHub, June 26, 2018. See also : Dandyman to perform this afternoon despite right-wing attack, Javier Encalada, The Northern Star, June 26, 2018 /// Melbourne street performer abused with homophobic slurs, Jesse Jones, Star Observer, June 26, 2018 /// What Happened When A Far-Right Group Bullied A Street Performer?, The Project, Channel Ten, June 26, 2018 /// Blair Cottrell and the problem of male aggression, Clementine Ford, The Sydney Morning Herald, June 26, 2018.

Cottrell was accompanied by at least thirteen others during the course of his artistic cleansing of Fed Square:

1: Luke Phipps; 2: Bayden Mottee; 3: Ian Sayer; 4: Max Towns; 5: Lee/Leon Taylor; 6: Jacob Hersant (Antipodean Resistance); 7: TBC; 8: Kane Miller; 9: ‘Troy Bloodstone’ (Lads Society); 10: TBC; 11: Rino ‘Bluebeard’ Grgurovic; 12: Steven Hansford; 13: TBC.

See also : We give you Melbourne’s thug Taliban, DYVRS, June 26, 2018.

Police Arrest and Charge Four Right-Wing MILO Supporters With Assault in Melbourne


Above : ‘Patriot Blue’ & Co having a laff after The Three Stooges got convicted for inciting hatred for Muslims (L to R : George Jameson (Party For Freedom)*, Christoper Shortis (Australia First Party)**, Neil Erikson, Blair Cottrell (The Lads Society), Ricky/Rikki Turner, Garry Hume, Luke Phipps).

Briefly:

Over the course of the last week, police have arrested and charged four men in connection to alleged offences committed at the Milo Yiannopoulos event at Melbourne Pavilion in Melbourne on December 4.

The four are Neil Erikson (33, Wonthaggi), Ricky/Rikki Turner (28, Sunbury), Garry Hume (48, Eltham) and Richard Whelan (33, Surrey Hills); their trials commence on June 8.

See : Two Victorian men charged after Milo Yiannopoulos riots, Melissa Cunningham, The Age, December 30, 2017 /// Two more charged after violent protests outside Milo Yiannopoulos’ Melbourne event, Melissa Cunningham, The Age, January 2, 2018.

Neil has a long history as a far-right activist, while Ricky seems to have come on board the ‘Patriot Blue’ hate bus only last year. As for Garry, the Instant Australian has, like Ricky/Rikki, taken part in several Patriot Blue publicity stunts, including the boys’ racist abuse of Labor MP Sam Dastyari, and various local council disruptions. Back in November 2016, Garry was also one of the Complainey Janeys who took part in the protest — organised by the Sydney-based Party for Freedom and Bendigo- and Melton-based True Blue Crew — against the settlement of refugee families in Eltham.

Finally, Richard is an olde nazi mate of Neil’s who, for whatever reason, has also decided now is a rlly good time to pose as a patriot alongside Neil.

Silly bugger.


*There have been some ructions in the Party of late: allegedly, George and his partner Penny have been kicked out of the micro-party (for unknown reasons), leaving Toby Cook and Matt Lowe holding the bag.
**Chris Shortis has publicly demanded that Neil be charged for racial abuse over the Sam Dastyari incident, though authorities have so far refused to acquiesce to his angwy demand. Chris has also accused Neil of being a police informant … which I can state with complete certainty is untrue and also reassure patriots that Neil is a bloke they can trust.

antifa notes (november 29, 2017) : From MUFF to Romper Stomper

First, a few updates:

1) Dick & MUFF

Following his batshit, public, and VERY ANGRY reaction to the same-sex marriage ballot survey’s majority support, after first doubling-down on his defiance of the (((gay))) agenda and — not coincidentally — following MUFF’s sponsors, and a considerable number of its supporters, declaring MUFF to be FUBAR, Richard Wolstencroft announced his resignation as Director and handballed responsibility for it to his mate and MUFF patron, Frank Howson. Whether or not this means MUFF will continue remains an open question. In any case, Dick did find vocal support from at least one other filmmaker: Ian Nicholson of the Sydney Short Film School. Ian also decried the influence of ‘dumb, lefty cunts’ on Australian culture and society, and compared gay couples to motorbikes. True Story! Resembling Richard in more ways than one, after doubling-down on his original cray-cray and — not coincidentally — after the Australian Cinematographers Society announced that he was no longer welcome to use their facilities to run his skool, Ian made a public apology.

See : Richard Wolstencroft & MUFF ~versus~ Those Degenerate Gays, November 18, 2017.

2) Patriot Blue

‘Patriot Blue’ is serial pest Neil Erikson’s latest political vehicle, one into which he’s enrolled his stoopid mate, Ricky/Rikki Turner. (Other participants in the stoopid have included Paul ‘Guru’ Franzi, Pommy whinger Garry Hume, George Jameson and Penny Tridgell (Party for Freedom, Sydney), Luke Phipps, Lachlan/Logan Spalding, and a handful of others.) After having made a splash by disrupting council meetings and, most recently, racially abusing Labor MP Sam Dastyari at a pub, on Friday (November 24), Neil and Ricky/Rikki took it upon themselves to attempt to disrupt a solidarity rally with the men on Manus. Collective Action have published an account of what followed here: What happened in Melbourne yesterday? (November 25, 2017). Yesterday’s Manus solidarity rally in Melbourne did not “turn violent”, it was attacked first by a known fascist and then by the police. The racist violence of the Australian state, directed at Indigenous peoples, Muslims, and anyone who would dare seek asylum whilst non-white, continues to embolden far-right thugs …

Finally, in addition to clashing with STAN over their unauthorised use of ‘Patriot Blue’, Neil and Ricky/Rikki have also fallen foul of TOLL, which yesterday published the following statement on the boys’ use of TOLL uniforms during their dickheaded stunts:

3) FREE PHIL!

Old mate Phill Galea is slowly making his way through the courts — today he was again having his bRanes assessed. AAP:

Probe into accused Vic terrorist’s mind
November 29, 2017

A far-right anti-Islam extremist accused of planning to bomb left-wing groups in Melbourne may not stand trial for terrorism offences if a second expert finds him mentally unfit.

Phillip Galea, 33, faced the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday via video link for a brief directions hearing about his case, which is still before a lower court.

Galea is charged with making preparations for terrorist attacks against properties occupied by Melbourne anarchist groups between November 2015 and August 2016.

The 33-year-old is also charged with collecting or making documents to prepare for terrorist acts between September 2015 and August 2016.

A pre-trial committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court has been delayed amid concerns about his mental state.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers on Wednesday said they are waiting for a report by a second mental health expert before deciding if Galea’s fitness to stand trial should be determined in the Supreme Court.

Galea is due to see a psychiatrist on December 13 for a second opinion.

His case will return to the Supreme Court on January 29 so counsel can decide the next step.

Galea has been in custody since he was arrested in August 2016.

Police have accused Galea of preparing to target various locations inhabited by the Melbourne Anarchist Club and Melbourne Resistance Centre.

The Braybrook resident allegedly told an associate he wanted to cause as much devastation to his targets as possible in a coordinated attack, according to a summary previously released by the Magistrates Court.

He allegedly ordered potassium nitrate for smoke bombs, aligned himself with right-wing groups True Blue Crew and Patriots Defence League Australia, and researched how to make improvised explosive devices.

Note that, while the majority of his patriotik kameraden have run screaming from Galea, in Queensland one-man band Mike Holt is spearheading a campaign to #FREEPHIL. Launched in August, Mike’s petition has to date attracted over 1,000 signatories. According to the OAP, Phil Galea, Australian patriot, was arrested and accused of being a terrorist in August 2016 after he followed and filmed ANTIFA terrorist thugs at their headquarters. The police allege that he had “bomb making materials”, but Phil denies this and says he can prove why he had the chemicals for peaceful scientific experiments.

LOL.

More recently (November 16, 2017), Mike published a letter from Galea about a dead patriot called Shannon Wallace, in which Phillthy speculates that Wallace may have suffered an ‘unnatural’ death (possibly murdered by use of a ‘sonic gun’?). In early 2016 I visited Shannon Wallace in what was called The Compound by him and his father, writes Phil, before providing a garbled account of various persons and events and identifying Darren Norsworthy (PDLA and ‘Battalion 88’) and ‘Aaron’ [Dekeulenaer, presumably; a nazi dork from Ballarat associated with PDLA, ‘Battalion 88’ and RWRAU] as police informants. Phill also writes:

If I was murdered (or had an “accident”), Shannon was to use an internet café to sign into my e-mail account and send Blair Cottrell (UPF), Mike Holt (Restore Australia), and Liz Sheppard (Reclaim Australia) all of my recordings from a fake account. Then Shannon was to use the Linux computer I had given him to make dozens of copies of the discs and hand them out to all True Blue Crew Members who were on a list I had given him when he went to the Melton anti-mosque rally. Then he was to hand the discs directly to the press as well.

And so on and so forth …

See also : Will the Alt Right Produce the Next Timothy McVeigh?, Alex Reid Ross, AlterNet, November 27, 2017 (‘The history of white nationalism suggests we could be entering a period of violent upheaval’).

4) Pauline Hanson ~versus~ Queensland

Sadly, NASA and the United Nations successfully conspired to rob Malcolm ‘Jew World Order’ Roberts of his rightful place in Queensland’s state parliament on the weekend. Worse yet, it seems as though possibly only one ONP candidate, Stephen Andrew, will get the bump. On a brighter note, Pauline Hanson will be pocketing a cool million from the election, adding to the estimated six million dollarydoos she’s earned contesting numerous elections over the last 20 years.

5) Anti-Semitism

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has published its annual report on anti-Semitism in Australia. See : Antisemitic incidents in Australia up nearly 10% over year, study says, Helen Davidson, The Guardian, November 27, 2017; read/download a copy of the report here. Among those who get a guernsey are Hitler fanboys Antipodean Resistance, Mark Latham’s chums at The Convict Report (‘The Dingoes’), the Australia First Party, Nationalist Alternative, United Nationalists Australia and Blair Cottrell, David Hilton and even Brendon O’Connell. Speaking of O’Connell, it appears that he’s currently stuck in jail in New Zealand, presumably before Kiwi authorities deport him (see : Anti-semitic blogger detained for nearly six weeks, Radio New Zealand, November 21, 2017).

See also : Nazi-inspired vandals deface central Ballarat, damage house, Brendan Wrigley, The Courier, November 14, 2017.

Coming at things from a slightly different angle, the latest issue of the Australian Jewish Democratic Society’s zine ‘Just Voices’ (No.14, November 2017) is also dedicated to the subject of anti-Semitism, a broad topic that encompasses many different and related phenomena, past and present. It deserves our attention now no less than ever, especially since it is largely neglected in the Left, and concerns many developments within mainstream culture, including the American government openly spouting antisemitic views. It also contains, inter alia, an interview with the compañerxs of Jews against fascism. NB. Jaf are also organising a presence at the Milo Yiannopoulos show on Monday (December 4).

6) From Cootamundra to Cheltenham


Above : James Buckle of gun lobby group Firearm Owners United outside his neo-Nazi clubhouse in Cheltenham

Speaking of Nazis … back in September there was a by-election in the regional seat of Cootamundra in NSW, which the Nationals managed to retain (but experienced a big swing away from the party, rendering it nominally marginal). Australia First Party fuehrer Dr James Saleam ran (coming last on 453 votes or 0.99%), as did Matthew Stadtmiller of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers (who got just a few more votes than Dr Jim). Earlier, in January, Stadtmiller had described NSW MP (and Minister for Lands and Forestry and Racing) Paul Toole as a ‘Nazi’; this prompted an article in the regional Southern Cross newspaper in September about his faux pas, one which prompted a further contribution from former Cootamundra MP Katrina Hodgkinson. Weirdly, the article also included commentary from James Buckle of gun lobby group ‘Firearm Owners United’: “We expect this sort of thing from Greens candidates, not from outgoing Nationals,” group president James Buckle told the Herald on Thursday morning. “It’s just another sign the Nationals have abandoned their rural constituents and we’ll be actively lobbying against them in the Cootamundra by-election.” That’s wEiRd because, apart from anything else, Buckle is a Melbourne resident and one of those who, in addition to Blair Cottrell and Thomas Sewell, is part of something called ‘The Lads Society’: a clubhouse for neo-Nazis based in Cheltenham.

See : ‘The Lads Society’ : A new neo-Nazi social club opens in Melbourne, October 28, 2017.

7) Fascism in reality (and phantasy)

Romper Stomper returns to the (small) screen in the New Year. See : Geoffrey Wright on his Romper Stomper remake – and why Donald Trump inspired him, Tim Elliott, The Age, November 17, 2017.
• “Sweetman was a Melbourne neo-Nazi who axe-murdered a fellow bonehead at a party to celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday, which sounds ridiculous but is true,” Wright tells me. Wright read all the reports on Sweetman, and even talked to people who knew him, eventually drawing from his story the rudiments of Hando, the character at the centre of what would become the film Romper Stomper. Old Mate was released from Fulham prison on parole in October 2005, after serving 15 years of a 20-year sentence for the 1990 murder of David Noble; he then (briefly) settled in @ The Tote along with Patrick O’Sullivan. A former Creatard, O’Sullivan is now ‘Combat 18’; in 2002, O’Sullivan was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for stabbing another bonehead (also at a party) — which is where he became chums with Sweetman.
• The day I visit the Melbourne set, Wright is directing a scene in which Farron and Laila appear on No Quarter, ostensibly to discuss a clash that took place, at a recent halal-food festival, between Patriot Blue members and hard-left activists. The clash would appear to be based on an incident in Melbourne in April last year in which Nick Folkes and the Party for Freedom had its anti-Muslim rally gatecrashed by anTEEfa.
• Like Romper Stomper, the US film Imperium (2016) — which borrows its title from Francis Parker Yockey‘s 1948 magnum opus — also features anTEEfa, who are known as ‘The Anti-Fascist League’ (in Romper Stomper they’re called ‘anti-fash’ or something). At one point, Daniel Radcliffe and his nazi chums — Radcliffe plays the role of an FBI agent tasked with infiltrating the nazi group — assemble at a comrade’s haus to watch a TV show promoting an upcoming nazi rally. The hosts make reference to their opposition (The Anti-Fascist League) and then show some photos of the mob expected to rock up and try and spoil the party. Fuck me dead if it isn’t a photo of THE LEAGUE in action in Melton in November 2015.

See also : Dead fascist poets society: why CasaPound are no book club, libcom, November 10, 2017 /// I learned German with white supremacist Richard Spencer, Julie Hill, The Spinoff, November 12, 2017 /// A Contemporary Taxonomy of Britain’s Far Right, base, November 21, 2017 (‘Anti-fascists need to look at how the far-right has organised in the past and is currently organising if they are to halt the rise of a potentially resurgent far-right’) /// Andrew Anglin: The Making of an American Nazi, Luke O’Brien, The Atlantic, December 2017 (‘How did Andrew Anglin go from being an antiracist vegan to the alt-right’s most vicious troll and propagandist—and how might he be stopped?’).

8) anTEEfa!


Above : ‘Follow Your Leader’ by David Wilcox : Cover of Anarchist Studies (Vol.25, No.2), Autumn 2017

Finally, there’s been a blizzard of writings on anTEEfa this year. Here’s a sample:

The First Thing Colleges Must Understand About Antifa: What the Word Means, Nell Gluckman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 10, 2017.

Pro Anti, Angela Mitropoulos, The New Inquiry, August 20, 2017 (‘Antifa’s horizon is in toppling the legitimacy of extraction and ownership anchored in presumably natural foundations’) /// Antifascism: Pros and cons, Ross Wolfe, The Charnel House, August 20, 2017 /// The Forgotten Roots of Antifa, Kevin Mattson, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, September 19, 2017 (‘Although defenses of Antifa, like a recent one in The New Inquiry, are relevant, the movement may do well to remember its less romanticized intellectual roots, from Orwell to Camus’).

… and for #lulz, see : Alt-right Trump supporters and left-wing Bernie Sanders fans should join together to defeat capitalism, Slavoj Žižek, The Independent, November 25, 2017 (‘Class struggle is back as the main determining factor of our political life – even if the stakes appear to be totally different, from humanitarian crises to ecological threats, class struggle lurks in the background and casts its ominous shadow’).

BONUS! Slime

Avi Yemini ~versus~ APEX : “Make Victoria Great Again” LOL (September 17, 2017)

This Sunday, September 17, Avi Yemini has organised a rally to castigate the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, for failing to stop African yoof from slaughtering Victorians.

Or something.

According to Avi:

The government has failed us.

Violent crime in Victoria is out of control and we refuse to wait until the next elections [sic] to demand safety and security for the good people of our great state.

We will be demanding:

1. Minimum sentencing for violent offenders, including teenage ‘minors’.

2. NO bail for violent offenders.

3. NO early release for violent offenders.

4. Adult jails for offenders over the age of 18. No matter their sob story.

5. Deportation of violent immigrant offenders.

6. Empowering the community through the legalisation of defensive tools, such as pepper spray.

Avi has previously stated that ‘[t]here’s no question that Melbourne is currently under siege’, and that those besieging it are APEX (‘APEX: How to end their reign of terror’, July 16, 2016). On APEX, see : In defense of the “Apex gang”, Kieran’s Review, November 7, 2016; on crime in Victoria, see : FactCheck Q&A: is violent crime getting worse in Victoria and do people feel less safe than ever?, The Conversation, February 18, 2017.

Joining him on the day will be All The Usual Suspects, drawn from A26A, Asolate Security Group, Patriots Defence League of Australia, Reclaim Australia, Soldiers of Odin, True Blue Crew, United Patriots Front and various other right-wing satellites.

Well, actually, lvl boss of the TBC, Kane Miller, announced on Tuesday that the boys from Bendigo and Melton will not be joining Avi on Sunday. According to Kane, this is because of the unfortunate fact that, while they too regard African yoof as being suitable only for deportation, Avi simply failed to respond to their messages to him about the event.

This is very sad news.

But wait! There’s more! On Friday, Kane informed the world that he and his Crew will indeed be attending on Sunday, because while they don’t support Avi or his #BFF Neil Erikson (who has previously denounced the TBC as the ‘True Meth Crew’), they rlly do hate African yoof as much as any other flag-waver.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In any case, the Soldiers of Odin — y’know, the mob founded by a Finnish neo-Nazi, Mika Ranta (Finnish Resistance Movement) — will mos def be present, including its President Jason (‘Jay B’) Moore, and Swiss member Jan Herweijer. Jan was recently in the news (August 22, 2017) because he ‘was issued with a letter from the immigration department last month informing him he had failed a character test. The letter, seen by nine.com.au, informs Mr Herweijer the department is considering cancelling his current bridging visa and refusing his partner visa application because of his online activity and affiliation with Soldiers of Odin (SOO).’ Note that in July:

Three men with ties to the [Nordic Resistance Movement] were sentenced on Friday to up to eight and a half years in prison for bomb attacks in western Sweden over the past year. Viktor Melin, 23, received the longest sentence for carrying out bomb attacks on a left-wing bookstore and an asylum center and an attempted bombing of a second asylum center. The attacks took place in November and January. Nobody was killed but one man was seriously wounded in the asylum center attack.

The Soldiers’ cousins in Sweden are also organising a march on a synagogue on Yom Kippur (Neo-Nazis Get Green Light To March Outside Swedish Synagogue On Yom Kippur, Aiden Pink, Forward, September 11, 2017).

Joining the Soldiers Of Odin will be whatever remains of the PDLA, which in this case seems to be Damian/Damien Kourevellis (Court told violent man not detained, Steve Butcher, The Age, March 26, 2009):

A man arrested and then released from hospital hours after threatening “suicide by police” was shot and wounded months later by an officer in a second violent confrontation. A court heard that father of three Damien Kourevellis left Sunshine Hospital on March 24 last year after police sought his involuntary detention under the Mental Health Act. Kourevellis that day had assaulted his partner, threatened to blow up her house with petrol bombs and then armed himself with a knife. But he was not charged for seven months.

Kourevellis later ‘pleaded guilty to nine charges from both incidents that included reckless conduct endangering serious injury to police and manufacturing an explosive device’, crimes which bring to mind both Blair Cottrell’s criminal record and of course my good friend Phill Galea, who if he wasn’t awaiting trial on terrorism charges would also be joining Avi outside Parliament.

One grouping that will not be present on Sunday will be Chris Shortis and the Australia First Party. Despite being a confirmed anti-Semite and White supremacist, Avi found time last week to congratulate Chris on his brave defence of the crime of inciting hatred for Muslims. This is a heartwarming tale and one which demonstrates that Avi and Chris can at least bond over their mutual fear and suspicion of Muslims and Africans.

Certainly, the extreme-right and neo-Nazis have nothing to fear from Avi, whose main concern is to combat those opposed to the extreme-right. Thus: The media love to highlight the stereotypical mad-dog, right-wing, “neo Nazi”-looking crew, but they’re not the real problem. The real problem is the so-called “anti-fascists” who claim to be standing against hate (ironically in a very hateful way). (‘Burning the flag: A hate crime every time, The Times of Israel, June 28, 2016).


ABOVE (L to R) : George Jameson (Party for Freedom, Sydney), Chris Shortis (Australia First Party, ex-United Patriots Front), Neil Erikson (ex-UPF, ex-Nationalist Alternative), Blair Cottrell (UPF, ex-NAlt), Ricky/Rikki Turner, Garry Hume, Luke Phipps.

Finally, the state government passed the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Public Order) Act 2017 this week, which:

essentially bans face coverings during protest events where OC (capsicum) spray is commonly deployed by police (often in inappropriate, excessive and potentially unlawful circumstances). This means journalists, photographers, street medics and legal observers, as well as protestors will not be able to protect themselves from the effects of direct spraying or by-spray. This is despite numerous recent incidents where journalists, medics and legal observers (along with dozens of protesters posing no threat to police whatsoever), have been directly sprayed by ill-disciplined, under trained or over-zealous police.

The CBD has also been declared a ‘designated zone’ between 8am and 8pm on Sunday.

See also : AJDS Statement on Avi Yemini and the rise of far-right racism, September 14, 2017 | Counter Fascism Action: Join the Jew Bloc (Hosted by Jews against fascism) | From Charlottesville to Melbourne: Unite to fight the far right (Hosted by Campaign Against Racism and Fascism): 11.30am, Sunday, September 17, 2017 @ State Library of Victoria.

Blair Cottrell, Neil Erikson and Chris Shortis found guilty of inciting hatred for Muslims

Briefly:

Yesterday, The Three Stooges (AKA ‘The Bendigo Three’) — Blair Cottrell, Neil Erikson and Chris Shortis — were convicted of serious religious vilification in Melbourne Magistrates Court over a publicity stunt the boys performed in October 2015, and fined $2,000 each. The trio has indicated that they intend to appeal the decision in the County Court.

See : Far-right nationalists found guilty of inciting serious contempt for Muslims after mock beheading video, James Oaten, ABC, September 5, 2017 | United Patriots Front trio found guilty of inciting contempt of Muslims, SBS (AAP), September 5, 2017 | Far-right trio convicted, fined $2000 each, over mock-beheading mosque protest, Adam Cooper, The Age, September 5, 2017.

The stunt — for which UPF lackeys ‘Farma’ John Wilkinson and Linden Watson acted as gormless witnesses — took place a few days prior to an anti-Muslim rally in Bendigo on October 10, which attracted as many as 1,000 bigots; the largest such demonstration to have taken place in Australia. Both Erikson and Shortis left the UPF in the months following the stunt, while Cottrell has remained the fuehrer of what is now largely a lame-duck organisation, and as of September 5 can add the crime of serious religious vilification to his list of priors. (Cottrell’s criminal record is detailed in a report by Geir O’Rourke and Angus Thompson in the Herald Sun (June 11, 2016). Of his offending, they write: ‘Cottrell, 26, was sentenced to four months in prison in May 2012 after being convicted of 13 charges, including seven counts of intentionally damaging property. County Court Judge Michael Tinney convicted the then-22-year-old of throwing a missile, stalking, failing to comply with a community-based order, and two counts of recklessly causing serious injury. In December 2013 he was fined $1000 and sentenced to seven days in jail by a County Court judge for aggravated burglary, property damage, arson, trafficking testosterone, possessing a controlled weapon and breaching court orders.’ Cottrell, as ‘Bruce’, appeared in a documentary about youth in the maximum-security Youth Unit at Port Phillip Prison in Truganina, in which he describes how he abused steroids, stalked his former partner and her boyfriend, tried to kill him, set fire to their house, and eventually got arrested, convicted, and sent to prison.)

As for Erikson, having already been convicted in February 2014 of stalking a local Melbourne rabbi — ‘Magistrate Donna Bakos said she had no doubt Erikson’s calls were motivated by prejudice and found he had little remorse for his crime’ — celebrated being given another slap on the wrist by the courts by disrupting a meeting of Yarra Council in order to harass councillor Steve Jolly. (See : Far right protesters storm Yarra City Council meeting over Australia Day ban, Melissa Cunningham, The Age, September 5, 2017 | Yarra Council meeting interrupted by far-right group protesting against Australia Day changes, ABC, September 6, 2017.) Among those who joined Erikson were George Jameson and Penny Louise/Tridgell of the Sydney-based Party for Freedom and locals Paul ‘Guru’ Franzi (sporting Soldiers of Odin merch) and UPF fanboy Luke Phipps. Note that the first public rally organised by the UPF took place in Richmond on May 31, 2015, and was called in order to demand Jolly be thrown out of office.

See also : Fascists flail in Melbourne race hate trial, Corey Oakley, Red Flag, September 11, 2017.