Tagged with Patriot Blue

Cronulla 2.0? : Racist assembly @ St Kilda Beach, Saturday, January 5, 2019

[Update (January 8, 2019) : Rather than compose another post, I thought I’d update this one with some more infos arising from Saturday’s hate-rally. The first segment concerns police deployment of capsicum spray and use of rubber pellets; the second, the employment by NITV and SBS of neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell on the renovations to their centre at Federation Square in Melbourne.]

Capsicum & Pellets

Among all the media reportage on events at St Kilda on Saturday, one thing that caught my eye was the following (St Kilda beach rally: far-right and anti-racism groups face off in Melbourne, Lisa Martin, The Guardian, January 6, 2019):

In one heated confrontation a rightwing protester broke through police lines and tried to grab a banner from three anti-racism campaigners.

Police sprayed capsicum spray and used rubber pellets before arresting the rightwing protester.

It caught my attention partly on account of what others related to me about the incident. This is their account:

The incident occurred when the anti-racist contingent went out on to the road at Beaconsfield Parade and the fascists were on the embankment leading up to The Esplanade. A few of the fascists started running down the hill and Beaconsfield Parade. At this point, most of the remaining fascists followed them, and the main contingent of the anti-racist rally did as well. This meant that the police followed the main groups (and the fastest-moving parts of those groups) down the road. This left the back of the anti-racist rally completely exposed to both the slower-moving fascists and the ones staying on the embankment.

As there was no police line separating the back end of the rally from the fascists, three anti-racist activists held a banner as a first-line of defence. At this point, a member of the fascist rally approached the three activists holding the banner and tried to rip it out of their hands. The three anti-racists pulled the banner, back but at this point police entered from behind the anti-racists and pepper-sprayed the three of them. As the pepper spray was deployed, the three anti-racist activists and another witness heard at least three loud ‘pops’ in quick succession.

No one was injured from whatever was shot (pepper-ball pellets or rubber pellets) and no-one was marked with dye. However, the OC spray was quite severe. Two women required medical treatment (the pepper spray was mainly levelled against the defensive position of the anti-racists). They were decontaminated on the side of Beaconsfield Parade, initially by other anti-racists, and eventually by paramedics. Those who had just been attacked by the fascists, and then by police, were left exposed as their injuries were treated and as fascists walked past, filmed them, mocked them, and called the women ‘bitches’ and ‘scum’.

We all believe that the police deployed their new weapons, as well as the usual OC spray, and then immediately left the area, without accounting for their behaviour.

Blair Cottrell, NITV, SBS, & Federation Square

According to a source, neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell, in addition to leading the hate-rally in St Kilda on Saturday, has been working as a sub-contractor on the renovations to the building in Federation Square which houses SBS and NITV. As of (very) recently, he’s been re-deployed elsewhere, but was working at the site throughout the Christmas period, in December and January: the precise date on which he commenced working there is unclear.

Cottrell is on the record as advocating the execution of ‘leftist’ media workers. In November 2015, he — along with Neil Erikson, Chris Shortis, Linden Watson and Andrew Wallis — staged a brief occupation of community radio station 3CR. While there, they took notes on staff and stole photographs (and, it seems possible, other d0x).

On that basis, it seems reasonable to conclude that, during the weeks he spent working on site, African, Muslim and Indigenous staff members were potentially exposed to an unsafe work environment. Further, Cottrell has potentially had access to sensitive information; certainly, he’s had the opportunity to put faces to names, acquire detailed knowledge about access to and egress from the building, the comings and goings of particular staff members, and so on.

For the record, nobody much cared about the invasion of 3CR. It’s a small, community-based organisation, targeted on account of my involvement in hosting a radio show there. SBS and NITV, on the other hand, are large media organisations, with many employees and sizable budgets, so it’s possible that Cottrell’s employment there, and seemingly ready-access to its staff and layout, may prompt more serious reflection. At this stage, it remains unclear if the site was a union job, and who exactly was responsible for his employment in the first place. Thus, while members of his extended family run a company called ‘Cottrell Constructions’, via which he’s apparently obtained work, I dunno if this company or some other was contracted to undertake work at Federation Square.

All of which sounds like lines of inquiry that a journalist might like to pursue eh.

[Update (January 7, 2019) : See also : St Kilda rally: A fascist movement can only be kept small if we call it by its name, Jason Wilson, The Guardian, January 7, 2019.]

[I’ve briefly revived the blog in order to write the following. I’m still gonna be taking a break in January, and unpublishing the facebook page. I may add to the post in the next few days as further infos comes to light.]

Aiming to capitalise upon media-driven panic over African youth crime, on Saturday, January 5, serial pest Neil Erikson joined with neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell to organise a racist rally at St Kilda Beach. While estimates vary, and numbers fluctuated during the course of the afternoon, somewhere around 150 people attended their rally, the great majority men and almost all white/’of Anglo appearance’. A larger crowd of perhaps 2-300 attended two anti-racist events on the same strip of beach: one a community picnic, and the other an anti-racist rally organised by the Campaign Against Racism & Fascism (CARF). Both the picnic and rally were scheduled to kick-off at midday, with Erikson and Cottrell’s event due to start at 1pm.

While scheduled to end at 4pm, as it happened the racist rally didn’t last that long and, after perhaps an hour or so of (no-doubt electrifying) speeches — including an address by Senator Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning — it abruptly ended. Those who’d assembled then turned their attention to the anti-racist contingent, which by this point had formed one grouping around the picnic, the CARF contingent having marched the very short distance from Catani Arch to join the picnickers. The next hour or two saw various attempts by the racist mob to break the police lines that had formed around the anti-racist contingent. While generally unsuccessful, the mob was free to roam around the police kettle, and continued to harass anti-racists, including when they attempted to leave the area. (For whatever reason, when CARF initially tried (unsuccessfully) to leave the area by crossing Beaconsfield Parade to the Esplanade, the anti-racist assembly was split in half, with the picnickers left behind, and only later being able to leave — either along the Parade, and eventually rejoining CARF — or by another route.)

At various points during this protracted exit from the area, there were brief clashes involving the two sides. In this sense, policing of the event mirrored to some extent that witnessed at the Milo stoopid of December 2017. On that occasion, police were content to allow a small group of fascists to occupy the intersection outside the venue (Melbourne Pavilion) for several hours. On Saturday, the racist mob assembled on Beaconsfield Parade to taunt anti-racists. At one stage, during the (at first) static confrontation between the kettled anti-racists in the park and their loyal opposition (located between it and the road), Some Guy driving a sound system along the Parade paused alongside the racist mob, and two adventurous lads from within the crowd stole a generator from the vehicle. (I understand that they later abandoned the equipment, which was collected by police.) Or as the ABC reported: The conflict spilled onto the road when far-right demonstrators attacked a car which was carrying a loudspeaker broadcasting “Sudanese are welcome, racists are not”.

As the afternoon progressed, there were multiple opportunities for clashes between the two sides, and I’m mildly surprised nobody was seriously injured in these encounters: police reported just three arrests, possibly including that of Rino ‘Bluebeard’ Grgurovic (above). As media have noted, the police presence was massive on the day, with many hundreds mobilised for the occasion, including regular police, uniformed and plainclothes, dog and horse, PORT, undercover, community liaison and specialist media. They also had a helicopter — and a boat!

    1) The racists assembled in the area outside Encore Restaurant near the car park. (It’s been reported that Erikson & Co were getting their drink on from relatively early on at the restaurant.)
    2) The general area in which the racist assembly gathered on Beaconsfield Parade.
    3) The brown lines indicate the movements of the racist mob during the course of the day, walking to the rally along the foreshore and trailing anti-racists as they left the picnic area, eventually reaching Luna Park; the blue line is where several hundred onlookers gawped at the spectacle from the Esplanade.
    4) CARF assembly point.
    5) Community picnic.

In terms of who attended, many were known faces and/or drawn from the various groups which have sprung up in Melbourne in the last few years. So Cottrell and Erikson were joined by former United Patriots Front supporters, Kane Miller and the True Blue Crew, Jason Moore and a handful of Soldiers of Odin, half-a-dozen Proud Boys, Tom Sewell and members of The Lads Society from Melbourne and Sydney (and possibly elsewhere), including its Sydney organisers Alex Annenkov and Mark McDonald (the latter of which was the chief organiser of defunct neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Squadron 88’), and so on. Most were not flying colours on the day, however, and most who attended would seem to have been drawn from the wider white nationalist, anti-African and anti-Muslim milieu, the principal platform for which is facebook. Sewell and The Lads arrived a bit late in the piece, and at first appeared to want to march through the anti-racist crowd, but eventually decided not to. Their arrival did, however, appear to be the trigger for the racist rally as a whole to begin to move to surround the anti-racist picnic and attempt to find ways around police lines to attack.

Finally:

• Senator Fraser Anning’s attendance at the racist rally has been noted. Laughably claiming that the nazi contingent was leftists-in-disguise, his trip was, according to the Senator, official business (ie, The Taxpayer footed the bill for his expedition to St Kilda), and in solidarity with the Vietnamese community. One of the fellas pictured above does a very good line in racist rhetoric directed at African-Australians, and promoted the event on facebook by way of terming it ‘Romper Stomper 2.0’, seemingly (and presumably blissfully) unaware that the 1992 film pitted boneheads against Vietnamese-Australian workers.

• One racist meathead in attendance at the rally sported an SS helmet and a Cosmic Psychos tee. The Cosmic Psychos issued a statement in response to the meathead’s use of their merch. Note that the dickhead was pictured in the company of Kane Miller, the lvl boss of the TBC: Miller and the TBC have worked in close collaboration with nazis for several years now.

• The anti-racist and anti-fascist contingent was on the whole poorly-coordinated. At best, this is a good opportunity for those involved to reflect upon what happened, and think about ways in which to improve upon Saturday’s outing. In this context, I’d suggest that, inter alia, a better understanding of the nature of the opposition is required, as is having a very clear idea of what the purpose of attendance is, along with movement within, to and from the event and the area as a whole. In other words, it’s not just a matter of rocking up, but having an exit strategy. That said, there was relatively little time to prepare for the event, it only being announced about a week prior to its occurrence, so there was always going to be some limitations.

• On the whole, I think that the far right had a good day on Saturday. Able to roam about with relative ease, being much more mobile and appearing to be both more able and willing to engage with the enemy, was certainly an advantage. As a result, I’d be very surprised if they don’t take advantage of the relative momentum generated by the event, and will be organising similar events in the near future.

Select media reportage

(January 5, 2019) : Huge Crowds In St Kilda As Police Separate Far-Right And Anti-Racist Groups, Josh Butler, ten daily | St Kilda Beach far-right rally draws hundreds of Melbourne police, rival protesters, Loretta Florance and Jean Edwards, ABC | St Kilda beach rally: far-right and anti-racism groups face off in Melbourne, Lisa Martin, The Guardian | Here’s Senator Fraser Anning Hanging Out With A Bunch Of Far Right Extremists, Tom Clift, Junkee | Arrests and violence as rival protests clash in St Kilda, The New Daily/AAP | Extreme right-wing ‘patriot’ rally in Melbourne: Nazi salutes and scuffles, police on high alert, Shannon Molloy, news dot com dot au | Race Discrimination Commissioner condemns far-right rally in Melbourne, SBS/AAP.

(January 6, 2019) : Scott Morrison Condemns ‘Ugly Racial Protests’ At St Kilda, But Not Fraser Anning, Emma Brancatisano, ten daily | Australian senator attends far-right rally in Melbourne as protesters perform Nazi salutes, Lizzie Dearden, The Independent | Australian PM condemns ‘ugly’ Melbourne rallies involving right-wing extremists, anti-fascists, tvnz/AAP.

(January 7, 2019) : Fraser Anning billed taxpayers thousands to attend two more far-right events, Max Koslowski & Michael Koziol, The Sydney Morning Herald.

(January 8, 2019) : Fascists Rallying over a Fallacy: Nazi Sentiment Seen as Acceptable by Some, Sydney Criminal Lawyers.

See also : Quiet riot: The race to ‘another Cronulla’, Benjamin Millar, medium, January 3, 2019.

antifa notes (may 21, 2018) : anti-semites goto church in gosford /// bigly league politics

Briefly:

‘Cooks Convicts’ ~versus~ Jesus Christ


L to R : Neil Erikson; Paul Exley; Rino ‘Bluebeard’ Grgurovic; Danny Peanna/Parkinson.

‘Cooks Convicts’ — on this occasion, being repped by Neil Erikson, Paul Exley, Rino ‘Bluebeard’ Grgurovic, Danny Peanna/Parkinson and Lachlan/Logan Spalding — disrupted the 6pm service at Gosford Anglican Church on Saturday night. Dressed as Jesus(?!), the convicted anti-Semite and racist Erikson talked shit thru a megaphone while the priest, Father Rod Bower, asked them to leave and to stop harassing the dozen or so old people who’d joined him in prayer. Exley and Peanna/Parkinson were members of the now-defunct micro-Party for Freedom (PfF), which in August 2016 staged a similar disruption. On that occasion, Exley and Peanna/Parkinson were also present. (See : Anti-Islam group ‘Party for Freedom’ disrupts Sunday service in ‘racist stunt’ at Gosford’s Anglican church, Danuta Kozaki, ABC, August 2016.) Note that the PfF has recently completely fallen apart, and the remnants — including Nick Folkes, Toby Cook and Matt Lowe — have gone ‘full nazi’. Also: oddly, ex-PfFer George Jameson didn’t take part in Erikson’s latest stunt but was in Melbourne, where he joined Avi Yeminem and a tiny clutch of ‘Australian Liberty Alliance’ members in a counter-rally the ALA organised in response to a Palestinian solidarity rally outside the State Library. As for Erikson, on May 11 he got another slap on the wrist for contempt of court. See : Neil Erikson, who ambushed Sam Dastyari on video, avoids jail for contempt of court, James Oaten, ABC, May 11, 2018.

See also : The priest whose blunt billboards have gone global, Frances Mao, BBC, May 19, 2018 /// Right-Wing “Terrorists” Interrupted An Evening Mass To Scare And Intimidate Church Goers, Brad Esposito, Buzzfeed, May 21, 2018 /// “Neo Nazis” Allegedly Intimidate Gosford Church, Triple M, May 21, 2018.

BIGLY League Politics

Huh. That was weird. On Friday, I received a message from some body called Pete D’Abrosca, who asked ‘Whatever happened to the old Melbourne Antifa page that caimed [sic] the Vegas shooting?’, to which I replied ‘I assume it got deleted.’

Pete D’Abrosca: ‘Is there a way to know for sure that it was a hoax? Or do I have [to] trust “real antifa” and Snopes?’
slackbastard: ‘Well I reckon it was a hoax. And I should prolly know.’
Pete D’Abrosca: ‘How?’
slackbastard: ‘For a no of reasons: I live in Melbourne; I’ve been participating in anti-fascist activism for years; I know other anti-fascists in Melbourne; I read it; like other fake pages, it was a garbagefire; it appeared along w a slew of other such pages.’

This was apparently sufficient for D’Abrosca to pen an article for a nü right-wing site called ‘Big League Politics’. Titled ‘FACT CHECK: Did Snopes Source an Anonymous Blogger to Challenge the Veracity of an Established News Source?’ (May 17, 2018), D’Abrosca writes:

Mr. slackbastard gave a number of reasons why we should believe him and Snopes’ version of the events.

He lives in Melbourne. (Obviously he knows everyone in Melbourne).
He’s been “participating in anti-fascist activism for years.” (One can only imagine the amount of brain damage caused by such activity, which actually tends to discredit his claims further).
He “knows other anti-fascists in Melbourne.”
Finally, the page was a “garbagefire.” (Garbage fire spelled as one word).

LOL. In any event:

• I pegged the ‘Melbourne Antifa’ Facebook page as an exercise in trollery six months prior to when The Daily Mail‘s Stephen Johnson used it as the basis of a fraudulent claim;
• ABC-TV’s ‘Media Watch’ program examined the avalanche of fake news generated by the Las Vegas shooting, including the idiot claim inre ‘Melbourne Antifa’, in the episode broadcast on October 9, 2017;
• There’s good reason The Daily Mail has been tagged as ‘unreliable’ by Wikipedia.

On ‘Big League Politics’, see : Roy Moore Consultants’ New Project: A Conspiracy-Theorizing Pro-Trump News Site, Lachlan Markay, The Daily Beast, February 28, 2017 (”Big League Politics’ editor in chief has called Alex Jones ‘my Walter Cronkite.’ Its new owners think the site is the future of journalism.’). See also : Did ‘Melbourne Antifa’ Claim Responsibility for the Vegas Massacre?, Kim LaCapria, Snopes, October 4, 2017 /// Hoaxes, fake news about the Las Vegas massacre, Louis Jacobson, Emily Tanaka, Miriam Valverde, Politifact, October 2, 2017 /// No Evidence Linking Vegas Shooter to Antifa, Saranac Hale Spencer, FactCheck, October 5, 2017. On Stephen Paddock, see : New documents suggest Las Vegas shooter was conspiracy theorist – what we know, Jason Wilson, The Guardian, May 19, 2018.

Antipodean Resistance

The local Hitler Yoof done a coupla banner drops over the Eastern Freeway today. More on them laters …

antifa notes (february 3, 2018) : STRAYA Day +++

STRAYA Day

Tens of thousands of people attended Invasion Day rallies across the country, with the rally in Melbourne attracting anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000. See : Invasion Day: the tide is turning, Lalitha Chelliah & Jacob Andrewartha, Green Left Weekly, February 2, 2018 | Invasion Day marked by thousands of protesters calling for equal rights, change of date, ABC, January 27, 2018 | ‘People are starting to understand’: huge Invasion Day protest stuns Melbourne, Calla Wahlquist, The Guardian, January 26, 2018 | ‘Invasion day’ rally draws crowds as agitator barred from ceremony, Tammy Mills, Gene Efron, Tom Cowie, The Age, January 26, 2018.

Apart from its size, the rally in Melbourne was fairly unremarkable — people assembled, listened to speeches, and marched. A comment by Tarneen Onus-Williams, however, enshrined her as the latest entry in STRAYA’s Hate Week:

“Fuck Australia. Hope it burns to the ground,” Onus-Williams said.

“If you celebrate Australia Day, fucker, you’re celebrating the death of my ancestors. All you fellas with the Australian flag should be so embarrassed with yourself. It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing that you celebrate people’s deaths, the people of this land’s death. You make me sick to my stomach.”

In response to the Melbourne rally, Warren Mundine’s Knee demanded that the ‘Koorie Youth Council’/KYC (for which Onus-Williams works as a volunteer) be immediately defunded:

I support moving Australia Day to 1 January. But this lot says “We don’t want to celebrate Australia Day at all.’’ They’re ashamed of Australia. They insult all Australians and Aboriginal people who campaigned for equality & inclusion. Koorie Youth Council should be defunded. I call on Daniel Andrews, Matthew Guy, Senator Richard Di Natale, Bill Shorten MP, Malcolm Turnbull and Senator Nigel Scullion to take all steps necessary to immediately defund KYC[.]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Note that the principal organiser of the rally was a group called ‘Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance’ (WAR), not the KYC; the KYC later issued a statement reiterating this fact and distancing itself from Onus-Williams’ remarks. See also : Australia Is Tearing Down Another Woman Of Colour For Daring To Have An Opinion, Osman Faruqi, Junkee, January 31, 2018 | The Audacity of Anger, Chelsea Bond, IndigenousX, January 29, 2018.

WAR issued its own response to the kerfuffle, which you can read here, while #IStandWithTarneen became A Thing, and Tarneen elaborated on her views in ‘Invasion day’ rally organiser says her comments Australia should ‘burn to the ground’ should not be taken literally, Melissa Cunningham, Adam Carey, The Age, January 26, 2018.

As The Age report notes, earlier in the day Neil Erikson and ‘Patriot Blue’ — which on this occasion consisted of Neil and a handful of his mates — assembled at Moreland Council chambers in the morning to protest against Creeping Shariah & Cultural Marxism outside a citizenship ceremony; proceeded to the CBD to briefly occupy the steps of Parliament (long after the Invasion Day rally had left the assembly point); before eventually making their way to St Kilda, where the methgoblins of the ‘True Blue Crew’ and the remnants of the ‘United Patriots Front’ — now known as ‘The Lads Society’ — had organised a celebratory BBQ. About 50 or so patriotik volk rocked up. See : No clashes as patriots party with flags, cricket and racist slurs, Tom Cowie, The Age, January 26, 2018 | Fascists frolic on the foreshore, Ben Hillier, Red Flag, January 26, 2018.

local &/or general

In Sydney, the micro-Party for Freedom would appear to be in pretty dire health, with ‘Patriot Blue’ boy George Jameson leaving the group and Nick Folkes handing over the reins to Toby Cook, who’s recently come out as a neo-Nazi:

Some recent articles of interest include:

• The neo-Nazi has no clothes: In search of Matt Heimbach’s bogus ‘white ethnostate’, Caitlin Dickson, Yahoo News, February 2, 2018;
• Antifa vs. Milo Yiannopoulos: Who won?, Mark Bray, Salon, February 1, 2018 (‘It’s been a year since anti-fascist protests shut down a Yiannopoulos gig at UC Berkeley, to much media criticism’);
• An Investigation Into Red-Brown Alliances: Third Positionism, Russia, Ukraine, Syria, And The Western Left, libcom/Ravings Of A Radical Vagabond, February 1, 2018 (‘… is a comprehensive summary of Third Positionist fascist currents old and new, and the successful insertion of their ideas into leftist milieus and alternative media outlets’ — but one which requires some editing for clarity);
• The Rise of Australia’s Activist Far Right: How Far Will It Go?, Julie Nathan, ABC Religion and Ethics, January 31, 2018;
• How the far right has perfected the art of deniable racism, Gary Younge, The Guardian, January 26, 2018 (‘Electoral successes in Europe and the US are the result of a process whereby bigotry is made palatable’);
• A Decade of Resistance, Gabriel Hershman, Eye On Bulgaria, January 24, 2018 (‘Not even 10 years inside has quashed Jock Palfreeman’s spirits. A lesser man might have crumbled. To most people the processes that jailed Palfreeman, and then upheld his conviction for the murder of Andrei Monov, were marked by blatant corruption and lies’);
• 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’).

Finally, in the US, Samuel Woodward, a member of neo-Nazi grouplet ‘Atomwaffen Division’, has been arrested and charged with the murder of a 19yo Jewish antifascist, Blaze Bernstein. The group has been linked to other murders as well. See : Suspects in five killings reportedly linked to macabre neo-Nazi group, Kyle Swenson, The Washington Post, January 29, 2018 | The Suspect in the Killing of Blaze Bernstein Belonged to a Neo-Nazi Group Allegedly Connected to Four Other Murders, Molly Olmstead, Slate, January 31, 2018 | 1 Neo-Nazi Group. 5 Murders In 8 Months., Christopher Mathias, The Huffington Post, February 1, 2018 (‘The Atomwaffen Division has emerged as one of the most disturbing and volatile hate groups in America.’) | What Is Atomwaffen Division, The Nazi Group Tied To The Murder Of Blaze Bernstein?, Sam Kestenbaum, Forward, February 1, 2018.

BONUS! Pepe

A very rare Pepe made an appearance at the Brisbane Invasion Day rally!

From Cronulla to St Kilda? Australia/Invasion/Survival Day 2018

This Friday, the racist methgoblins of the True Blue Crew, in conjunction with the neo-Nazi remnants of the United Patriots Front now known as ‘The Lads Society’, are holding a rally and BBQ at St Kilda Beach. This is both a patriotik event and, perhaps, a response to recent news that #AfricanGangs have been running amok. The fact that Romper Stomper also featured a similar party at the beach is no doubt a coincidence. In any event, joining the boys will be Neil Erikson and ‘Patriot Blue’ (see Romper Stomper); or at least, that’s what The Australian reckons:

Neil Erikson and far-right group want to ‘welcome’ new Australians
Richard Ferguson
The Australian
January 22, 2018

A Victorian far-right activist has defended his plans to disrupt a citizenship ceremony at an anti-Australia Day local council.

Neil Erikson says he and other members of his group Patriot Blue would be counter-protesting Moreland City Council, which voted last year to scrap Australia Day.

“We’re not here to scare anyone, we’re peaceful … we want to welcome the new citizens at Moreland City Council to know it’s not just January 26, it’s Australia Day,” he told The Australian.

“And to know that the councillors are a bunch of undemocratic, treasonous communists.”

Mr Erikson, a former neo-Nazi, also said he will attend an Invasion Day rally in Melbourne’s CBD on Friday where he and Patriot Blue members will counter-protest with Australian flags.

“If the violent left want to attack us, that’s on them … we expect the police to protect us and protect Australia Day.”

Thousands of people, including children, are expected at Friday’s rally where they will demand [sic] Australia Day’s date is changed from January 26, which they consider offensive to Aboriginal people as it is the anniversary of the First Fleet and the start of colonialism.

Mr Erikson came to national prominence for ambushing former Labor senator Sam Dastyari in a Melbourne bar last year.

It was revealed last week in the Federal Circuit Court Mr Erikson had recently been charged with assault, affray and riotous behaviour in regards to a riot outside far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos’s Melbourne speaking gig last month.

Moreland City Council was targeted by a group including Mr Erikson last October for its decision to support a change to Australia Day’s date, when far-right protesters crashed a council meeting and brandished a fake coffin with the national flag painted on it.

But the council has only received a formal warning from the federal government over their anti-Australia Day stance unlike Yarra and Darebin Councils which had their citizenship ceremonies cancelled.

Sources close to the council said they had expected to fly under the radar of far right activists on Friday as their citizenship event clashed directly with the Invasion Day rally.

Mayor John Kavanagh said Moreland City has updated its security arrangements and had been working with Victoria Police in the run up to their Friday citizenship ceremony.

“It would be incredibly disappointing if such a joyous occasion was tarnished by individuals or groups protesting something unrelated to the ceremony,” he said.

Invasion Day rally organiser Tarneen Onus-Williams told The Australian she did not fear for the safety of her fellow protesters due to the large police presence she expects to be in the CBD on Friday.

“We also have legal observers and human rights observers coming who will be keeping watch over the rally,” she said.

Ms Onus-Williams said any violence would be a result of the “far right protesting against us.”

“This is a family event and people often bring children, our nieces and nephews and little cousins are there. This is not a violent protest,” she said.

Victoria Police told The Australian protesters and other Melburnians would note an “increased police presence” on Australia Day this year.

“Extensive planning has been undertaken with all relevant stakeholders including local councils … As always, police will not tolerate any anti-social or criminal behaviour,” a police spokesman said.

Note that Neil was angwy and upset at the popularity of last year’s Invasion Day rally in Melbourne, wishing that alleged killer James Gargasoulas — ‘accused of driving a car through the busy Bourke Street mall and along the footpath for several blocks on January 20, hitting and killing six people and injuring many others’ — had driven his car into the crowd:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Note:

• Along with Neil, Garry Hume, Ricky/Rikki Turner and Richard Whelan of ‘Patriot Blue’ are also facing charges in connection to the MILO stoopid of December last year;
• Both Garry (in blue jumpsuit) and Ricky/Rikki joined Neil in disrupting the Moreland Council meeting in October last year.

Never Mind The (White) Nationalist Bollocks, Here’s The Invasion Day Protests

2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the ‘Day of Mourning’: ‘a protest held by Aboriginal Australians on 26 January 1938, the sesquicentenary of British colonisation of Australia’.

Welcome To Country details a range of activities on January 26 in Melbourne, Meanjin (Brisbane), Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Darwin, Townsville, Hobart, Lismore and Bermagui; you can also celebrate Survival Day in Belgrave. The Melbourne (Naarm) event kicks off with a rally at 11am at Parliament; supporters are asked to bring flowers to lay on the steps if they’re so inclined. The Balit Narrun Festival commences at 1pm in Treasury Gardens. According to organisers, the ‘artistic direction for 2018 is about ‘strength in culture’ with the Songlines changing the name of the festival to Balit Narrun (Strong Spirit). Balit Narrun will feature cultural art, music, dance. It is family friendly, and will have food and children’s activities available’. See also : Survival Day events around Australia – What, When and Where?, NITV, January 23, 2018.

Indigenous X has published/is publishing a series of articles and reflections on Australia/Invasion/Survival Day, by Claire G Coleman, Tony Birch, Karen Wyld, Matt Hefferan and Eugenia Fylnn.

Finally, a note on history by way of Robert Hughes (The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding, 1986):

• The proposal to colonize Botany Bay with convicts was formally drawn up in an unsigned document titled “Heads of a Plan for effectually disposing of convicts” and was presented to the British cabinet in August 1786. Its emphasis was clear: The proposed colony would serve as “a remedy for the evils likely to result from the late alarming and numerous increase of felons in this country, and more particularly in the metropolis.” The secondary benefit of the region’s raw materials was presented at the end of the document: “It may also be proper to attend to the possibility of procuring… masts and ships’ timber for the use of our fleets in India, as the distance between the two countries is not greater than between Great Britain and America…”

• By 1837, hanging was mainly restricted to cases of murder, while crime after crime — forgery, cattle-theft, housebreaking — was relegated to the less terrible and magical status of a “transportable” offense. Slowly, the English authorities acknowledged the mistakes and fantasies that had led their predecessors to fetishize the death penalty. But the real rise of transportation began, not with the law itself, but with its new enforcers: the “peelers,” the English police, established by Sir Robert Peel in 1827 [see also : Origins of the police, David Whitehouse, worxintheory, December 7, 2014]. A police force meant a huge rise, not in gross crime, but in successful arrests and convictions. Likewise, the abandonment of transportation was not caused by any fall in crime, but by three other factors: the growing moral and political opposition to the System of transportation among English reformers in the 1830s, the growth of an alternative English penitentiary system and the Australians’ own opposition to a continuous dumping of fresh criminals on what, after 50 years of settlement, they had come to view as their own soil.

• In their most sanguine moments, the authorities hoped that Australia would eventually swallow a whole class — the “criminal class,” whose existence was one of the prime sociological beliefs of late Georgian and early Victorian England. Australia was settled to defend English property not from the frog-eating invader across the Channel but from the marauder within. English lawmakers wished not only to get rid of the “criminal class” but if possible to forget about it. Australia was a cloaca, invisible, its contents filthy and unnameable. Jeremy Bentham, inveighing against the “thief-colony” in 1812, argued that transportation: “…was indeed a measure of experiment… but the subject-matter of experiment was, in this case, a peculiarly commodious one; a set of animae viles, a sort of excrementitious mass, that could be projected, and accordingly was projected — projected, and as it should seem purposely — as far out of sight as possible.”

#7SummerOfNazis : The True Blue Crew & Co. Go Hunting Blacks While Channel 7 Cheers

img via The Simpsons against the Liberals

[UPDATE (January 17, 2018) : See also : How do you solve a problem like the ‘African Gang Crisis?’, Cam Smith, Overland, January 17, 2018.]

For those of you coming in late, on Sunday in Cheltenham the ‘True Blue Crew’ (TBC) — a racist street-gang based in Melton and Bendigo — organised a meeting in order to discuss the establishment of a vigilante group, one tasked with tackling #AfricanGangs. According to reports, the meeting attracted several dozen people: members of the TBC, the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF), and several members of other tiny, radical right-wing satellites.

Announced some weeks ago, the TBC declared that the meeting would be held at a secret location, the details of which would be released on late Sunday morning to those who’d expressed an interest in attending and passed their stringent vetting procedures. This was arranged so that the meeting would not be subject to disruption. Within the space of a few hours of this information being distributed, however, it was also made public: the TBC would be meeting at 4pm at Eddie’s bar in Cheltenham. Not long after this, and seemingly as the result of inquiries from journalists and concerned members of the public, the bar’s management decided to cancel the group’s booking, forcing them to hold the event elsewhere.

That elsewhere was Unit 9, 158 Chesterville Road, Cheltenham, the site of something called the ‘Lads Society’.

The ‘Lads Society’ announced its existence in October last year. The property was leased by UPF líder máximo Blair Cottrell’s sidekick, Thomas Sewell, who is joined by, among others, James Buckle — the President of gun lobby group ‘Firearm Owners United’. In promotional material for the new project, Tom indicated that among the reading materials the ‘Lads’ could enjoy perusing at the Society was Mein Kampf, the text Blair Cottrell notoriously declared that he wants issued to all Australian school children.

Annually.

See also : White nationalists True Blue Crew vow vigilante action in Melbourne, Rachel Eddie, The New Daily, January 14, 2018.

While some media did attend the event, and police lurked, only one media organisation was granted ‘exclusive access’ to the meeting: Channel 7.

    First tonight, 7 News has been granted exclusive access inside a secret meeting organised by right-wing activists in response to Melbourne’s African youth crime crisis. Reporter Jodi Lee was invited into the True Blue Crew’s gathering and joins us live now. Good evening Jodi, what went on behind closed doors?

    Jodi Lee: Well good evening Jackie as we go to air tonight that meeting is still very much under way. 7 News was the only media organisation invited inside the meeting where more than 50 people, mostly men, gathered from all across the state. They came from as far as Cobram and Shepparton, Melton in the city’s west and Mornington along the peninsula. Now, they gathered at a meeting spot that belongs to the United Patriots Front but the men there hail from several different groups. They don’t say that they are right-wing activists, they call themselves patriots, and say they have come together to help average Australians deal with what they are calling an immigrant crime crisis. Now, they say they’ve been disappointed by the Andrews government and by Victoria Police who this group believes have been rendered unable to cope with rising crime. Take a listen to what their leaders tonight had to say.

    Blair Cottrell : Well nothing is being done. The government could be doing a lot more to combat this crime but police aren’t being given the powers they need to combat this problem we have in this country.

    Kane Miller : We have a few ideas we hope to put in place, it’s about time the community get involved because it’s clear to see that police can’t save us all.

    Daniel Andrews : People are free to meet and discuss whatever matters they want to. What I would say though is Victoria Police are best capable, best able and best equipped to fight crime and keep the community safe.

    Jodi Lee : Now this group hopes to harness the power of social media to protect both them and their families. They’re hoping to create a kind of ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ that will be able to quickly let people know when an incident, a robbery or an attack in fact, is occurring and hopefully help send locals there to help protect residents, Jackie.

Not unexpectedly, Channel 7’s promotion of the TBC African-hunting project, as well as its decision to put to air the views of a leading Melbourne neo-Nazi and his mate, has come in for some criticism. See : Oh Look, 7 News Gave The Spotlight To An Actual Neo-Nazi, James Hennessy, Pedestrian, January 15, 2018 /// Congratulations Australia, We’ve Successfully Normalised Neo-Nazis, Osman Faruqi, Junkee, January 15, 2018 /// Channel Seven ‘crossed a line’ with neo-Nazi interview, Broede Carmody, The Age, January 15, 2018 /// Channel Seven under fire over interview with far-right activist, Melissa Davey, The Guardian, January 15, 2018 /// No Channel Seven, Cottrell is no ‘right wing activist’. He’s dangerous, John Birmingham, Brisbane Times, January 16, 2018.

Who are the True Blue Crew?

As noted above, the TBC are a Melton and Bendigo-based street gang that emerged in late 2015 and early 2016. It’s one of numerous flag-waving groups that have appeared during the course of the last decade, from the ‘Southern Cross Soldiers’ to the ‘Australian Defence League’. Since its inception, the Crew, under the leadership of Kane Miller, has organised a number of events. Its first rally took place in May 2016 in Coburg. Titled ‘Stop the Far Left!’, the rally intended to disrupt an anti-racist rally organised by the Socialist Alliance, to express opposition to the ‘Islamisation’ of Coburg and support for the concentration camps on Manus and Nauru (see : Coburg 1 /// Fascists 0; Or: The neo-Nazi rally that brought anti-fascists to the streets of Coburg, May 31, 2016 /// More reflections on ‘solidarity’ after the Coburg protest, January 7, 2017). As on future occasions, the TBC were joined on this occasion by (the remnants of) the UPF and a small clutch of (other) neo-Nazis wearing Wolk’s Hook regalia (note that members of this grouping later went on to form ‘Antipodean Resistance’).

Having successfully cleansed Coburg of Muslims and leftists, the TBC’s next big event was a flag parade in the CBD in June. On this occasion, as well as the UPF and others, the TBC were joined by a large number of Christian fun-da-mentalists from Pastor Danny Nalliah’s ‘Rise Up Australia Party’ (RUAP); the event was given an even more bizarre tenor by their performance of the traditional Australian haka. Also present at the event was alleged terrorist Phill Galea, who thrilled to the corporal punishment handed out to Coburg locals by the TBC at their coming-out party in May:

Having successfully waved flags in the city, the next TBC event was a ‘Rally Against the Rise of Islam in Melton’ in August 2016. This was another bizarre set-piece, this time pitting the TBC methgoblins up against the ‘Soldiers of Odin’ and its leader, Jason Moore (formerly a member of the ‘Patriots Defence League of Australia’). Undeterred by such shenanigans, the criminal prosecution of several of its members for assault (both upon anti-racists and their own — female — partners), common sense or basic decency, as well as appearing at several other events, the TBC returned in 2017 with another flag parade (June 2017) and have now embarked upon the formation — along with their neo-Nazi comrades in the UPF — of a lynch-mob to target African yoof. Or, as Jodi Lee put it, ‘a kind of Neighbourhood Watch’.

vid via ‘The Socialist’

So much for the TBC. As for the UPF and Blair Cottrell, I documented his views — as expressed on Facebook and YouTube — back in July 2015 (see : Quotations From Chairman Blair Cottrell, July 27, 2015), while his violent criminal record is detailed (in his own words) in a documentary film (see : Blair Cottrell : ” … and I started getting arrested after I did that.” #Fortitude /// #UnitedPatriotsFront, February 23, 2016) and by Geir O’Rourke and Angus Thompson for 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.

Last September, Cottrell — along with former UPF comrades Neil Erikson and Chris Shortis — was also convicted of serious religious vilification and received a small fine (and is appealing his conviction).

Thus, while it should be obvious where the UPF, Cottrell and his sidekick Sewell are coming from, their reaction to the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville last year is telling:


As for Herr Cottrell’s attitude towards the (((media))):

Finally, Neil Erikson — who definitely did not attend the meeting on Sunday, as that would mean he was in violation of court orders not to associate with fascists — was in court again on Monday, facing a charge of contempt-of-court. See : A Dumbass Convicted Racist Almost Accidentally Swore On The Koran In Court, Cam Tyeson, Pedestrian, January 16, 2018 /// Anti-Islam activist Neil Erikson admits he breached court orders, The Guardian (AAP), January 15, 2018 /// Anti-Islam activist mistakes Koran for Bible in court appearance, Adam Cooper, The Age, January 15, 2018.

Note that Erikson was accompanied to court by several other ostensible members of ‘Patriot Blue’: Lachlan/Logan Spalding (also present when PB racially-abused Labor MP Sam Dastyari), Julian de Ross (who also attended the TBC meeting on Sunday) and George Jameson and Penny Louise, recently expelled from Nick Folkes’ micro-Party For Freedom in Sydney. Joining Julian was also Daniel Jones, previously employed as a bodyguard to Avi Yemini, but otherwise — like a number of the budding vigilantes — working in the security industry.