Tagged with Stephen Jolly

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.

antifa notes (september 15, 2016) : united patriots front ~versus~ unions +++

1) Blair & Thomas Go To East Melbourne Collingwood

The United Patriots Front (UPF) staged another dingbat stunt on Saturday night, on this occasion targeting Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly. The event the UPF attempted to gatecrash was titled ‘Re-elect Stephen Jolly – Vote socialist for Yarra!’ and was held at Collingwood Gallery in Smith Street, Collingwood; Jolly is hoping to be re-elected to council on October 21.

Like almost all their stunts, this one was filmed and the footage uploaded to the UPF Facebook page. In a subsequent video, UPF fuehrer Blair Cottrell states that the UPF had considered assembling 50 boys to go to the event and shut it down, but in the end decided on sending just 5 (including Cottrell and his sidekick, Thomas Sewell). As the few minutes of footage reveals, Cottrell & Co enter the campaign launch and start to shout questions at Jolly, who is one of several to ask the men to leave. Eventually, the UPF are forced from the venue, campaigners and supporters joined in their efforts removing the annoying gits by several workers from the CUB site, currently on strike/locked-out of their jobs in Abbotsford. Jolly has spoken in support of the strikers’ claims, which has attracted widespread support among unionists, including the AMWU.

In any case, this is not the first time that the UPF and other fascists have objected to Jolly’s presence on council. Indeed, about 70 or so went to the UPF’s first public action in Richmond last May. Cottrell even promised to physically remove Jolly from office if, for some mysterious reason, their protest rally failed to do so. Otherwise, the failed disruption is another moment in a long line of attention-seeking stunts, from roasting a pig outside ABC studios in Melbourne last June to beheading a dummy outside Bendigo council offices last October; attending MAC and 3CR the following month to April’s foolish banner drops at the footy. Before proclaiming himself an opponent of Black Lives Matter (July), Cottrell and the UPF tried jumping on the dairy farmers’ bandwagon — only to be told to bugger off.

Whatever the immediate impact, all these performances are really for the camera, producing footage intended to capture the attention of like-minded individuals, almost exclusively via Facebook. Thus the UPF page recently celebrated gaining 70,000 likes; IRL, it can (still) barely gather together 70 boys to act like fascist boofheads in public. Saturday’s stoopid is rather ironic, however, as the UPF made a whole lotta noise about the political blitzkrieg Fortitude would become, and yet in September 2016, where is Fortitude? Rather than speaking from the floor of the House, Fortitude is a shambles, its supposed Senatorial candidate, Chris Shortis, has decamped for the Australia First Party, and the UPF is reduced to whining disingenuously at the campaign launch for a goddamn Commie. As for unions, they’re generally regarded, alongside Muslims, as Teh Enimy — the one, partial exception being UPF lackey Kris0 Richardson, who’s proudly worn CFMEU gear while touting the virtues of a White Australia. Before joining the UPF, Kris0 established the ‘United Australian Front’ (UAF) website and Facebook page. In-between noting the UAF’s development (August 18, 2016) into a straightforwardly neo-Nazi project, the Facebook page has been closed re-badged as ‘Order 15’.

2) Ralph Choo-Chooses The AMWU

Serial pest Ralph Cerminara was in Melbourne a few weeks ago to join the True Blue Crew (TBC) at an anti-Muslim protest in Melton. When he returned to Sydney, Cerminara drunkenly declared himself to be the Grand Poobah of the TBC in Sydney — which came as a surprise to the TBC in Melbourne …

This week, Cerminara has stated that he’ll be attending the AMWU office in Sydney on the weekend, presumably to film himself muttering and cursing outside its closed doors. In addition to documenting the nefarious influence of unions on Australian politics, the valour thief has been keeping busy filming himself muttering and cursing at socialist students. See : Right wing bigots and extremists exposed 1, September 2, 2016; note also that WordPress has deleted Cerminara’s blog.

ralfamwu

LOL.

3) STRAYA First Goes To The Polls

The Australia First Party ran several candidates in the local council elections in NSW on the weekend. In Blacktown, Cassie Orrock (AKA Lili Chel), Terry Cooksley and Thomas Bell did reasonably well to collectively gain 2,184 votes (8.30%) but seem unlikely to gain a seat. In the Blue Mountains, Matt Hodgson, Mark Slater and Gordon Gilroy fared less well, receiving 343 votes (2.95%). Finally, in Wagga Wagga, Lorraine Sharp, Robbie Williams, Jean Williams, Chris Sharp and Jean Hughes got 1,302 votes (4.03%). In Hawkesbury, a former Australia First Party activist and serial candidate Tony Pettitt ran on the Liberal Democrats ticket.

Finally, the party has announced the formation of a United Nationalist Front or ‘Australian Coalition of Nationalists’, which at this point consists of the AFP, (whatever remains of the) Australian Protectionist Party and Nationalist Alternative, with the AFP Jnr. (AKA Eureka Youth League) and Hellenic Nationalists Australia Inc. (Greek fascists) nominated as ‘associates’ of the Coalition (as opposed to ‘partners’).

Coburg ~versus~ The True Blue Crew & United Patriots Front & Co

pfflulz

On Saturday, May 28, racist boofheads from a nü patriotik grouplet called the ‘True Blue Crew’ (TBC) have organised a counter-rally in the suburb of Coburg in Melbourne. On that date, Sue Bolton of the Socialist Alliance has organised a rally titled ‘Moreland says NO to Racism’:

• Stop the forced closure of Aboriginal communities – Treaty now
• Let the refugees in – Close Manus and Nauru
• No to Islamophobia

WHEN : 11am, Saturday, May 28
WHERE : Gather outside Coburg Library, Victoria St Mall. Then march to Bridges Reserve, Bell St, Coburg for community speakout and entertainment. Bring your lunch and join with other Moreland residents in saying our community supports a diverse and inclusive Moreland.

The rally has been endorsed by a dizzying array of groups, including:

• 3ZZZ Greek programme
• Australia West Papua Association (AWPA)
• Australian Jewish Democratic Society
• Australian Services Union, Victorian & Tasmanian Authorities & Services Branch
• Brunswick Baptist Church
• Brunswick Neighbourhood House
• Brunswick Uniting Church
• Campaign Against Racism & Fascism
• CERES
• City of Moreland
• Coburg Islamic Centre
• Community Radio 3CR
• Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union
• Cook Islander community group
• Didi Bahini Samaj (Victoria)
• Earthworker Cooperative
• Electrical Trades Union
• Fawkner Community House
• Federal Republic of West Papua (FRWP)
• Freedom Socialist Party
• Friends of the Earth
• Grandmothers against Children in Detention (Wills branch)
• Indigenous Social Justice Association
• Iranian Women’s Association
• Islamic Council of Victoria
• Jews for Refugees
• Kurdish Democratic Community Centre of Victoria
• Labor4Refugees
• Mariel Sudanese Cultural Forum
• Moreland Greens
• Mums for Refugees
• No Room for Racism
• Northern Interfaith and Inter-cultural Network
• North-West FM
• Political Asylum Comedy
• Radical Women
• Refugee Action Collective
• Robinson Reserve Neighbourhood House
• Socialist Alliance
• Sudanese Communist Party (Melbourne)
• Victorian Trades Hall Council
• Victorian Traditional Owners Land Justice Group
• Voices against Bigotry

As for the TBC, they’ve given their counter-rally the rather grandiose title of ‘Stop the Far Left! – Rally Supporting the Australian Governments Use of the Offshore Detention Centers That Protect Our Nation’, further whining that:

tbcmay28

So, basically, a rally against ‘Teh Left’. Note that the TBC is (currently) asking their supporters to assemble at Bridges Reserve at 10.30am — half an hour before the ‘Moreland says NO to Racism’ rally is scheduled to begin (at 11am at Coburg Library) and at the end-point of the march.

Joining the TBC will be the UPF, whose very first public rally in Richmond (May 31, 2015) targeted another socialist councilor, Stephen Jolly. Jolly was also the subject of a bizarre letter-writing campaign by the UPF in which followers were implored to write the Governor-General, Peter Cosgrove, requesting that he remove Jolly from office.

No rlly.

Obviously, neither the UPF rally nor the batshit letter-writing campaign met with any success; the possibility of a UPF member standing against Jolly for election was not an option, it seems, and remains a distant possibility given the failure of ‘Fortitude’, the UPF’s stillborn political party, to obtain the requisite number of members to register with the AEC. Indeed, times are tough for the UPF, with a number of departures from the grouplet in recent months and just a few supporters in Melbourne, Bendigo and Perth (and a handful of other locations). Dennis Huts, the leader (along with flunkey Kevin Coombes/’Elijah Jacobson’) of the UPF in Perth, has been spending his time harassing queer yoof (see : Perth fascists target teens, The Perth Voice, April 29, 2016). In any case, the UPF’s fuehrer, Blair Cottrell, remains determined to become Chancellor, so the UPF can be expected to trundle along for a while yet, latching on to the TBC in this case, the anti-Muslim mob in Narre Warren previously, and performing occasional stunts for the media.

As for the TBC, a few of its boofheaded faces (Zane Chapman, Corey Hadow) popped up at the July 18 Reclaim Australia/UPF rally in Melbourne, in Melton on November 22, and were in amongst it again at the UPF rally in Bendigo on February 27 this year. (In Bendigo, the TBC waved Australian flags, wore Australian underpants and capes, and made a puny attempt to break police lines in order to attack the small counter-protest outside Bendigo railway station. You can watch video of the minor incident here.) Most of the TBC boys seem to be from Bendigo and Melton, and could be considered a (slightly) more grown-up version of the ‘Southern Cross Soldiers’. Well, sorta. They’ll be joined by the UPF on May 28, presumably along with most of the rest of the fascist mileu in Melbourne (Nationalist Alternative, PDLA, et. al.), Victoria and even interstate.

Finally, it’s been a while since the far right elected to hold a public rally in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. About 20 years, in fact, during the period in the late 1980s through to the mid- to late-1990s, when neo-Nazi grouplet National Action and various other boneheads held rallies and even established a bunker in Fawkner. See : Anti-fascism in Melbourne: 1990s (March 20, 2007). psyberimp writes: “We have driven Nazis out of Moreland on several occasions. We embarrassed them in Brunswick. Before they were hoarded onto a city bound train, a crowd of thousands chased about a dozen boneheads, including their fuehrer Michael Brander, down Dawson St where they took refuge in a warehouse.”

Still, when all’s said and done …

LOVE COBURG /// HATE RACISM

coburg1
coburg2

A PDF of the above can be downloaded here.

See also : Melbourne Antifascists [Facebook].

antifa notes (august 2, 2015)

G’day Aussie patriots how ya goin’?

• No Room For Racism have organised a SPEAK OUT @ City Square Melbourne for Friday, August 8 (5.30-7pm):

With racist and neo-Nazi groups like Reclaim Australia and the United Patriots Front rallying openly on our streets, it’s time for anti-racists to unite and speak out against rising racism and Islamophobia.

Come along and hear from different communities about how racism is used as a tool to divide us and how we can unite to stop the growth of far-right movements in Australia.

This is a peaceful speak out organised by the #NoRoomForRacism campaign. All anti-racists are welcome.

• The fascist groupuscule the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF) claims to have had an application to hold an assembly in Cronulla denied by local authorities. This has been interpreted by Shermon Burgess (‘The Great Aussie Patriot’) as meaning that Muslims have taken over the Shire. See also : Reclaim Australia rallies ‘fuel racial tensions to Cronulla riot levels’, The Guardian, Shalailah Medhora, July 20, 2015.

• UPF leader Neil ‘Nazi Boy’ Erikson is in the news again, this time for allegedly conspiring to ‘manually remove’ Socialist Party councillor Stephen Jolly in Richmond (the site of the UPF’s dismal debut in May). See : Police investigate kill threats against Councillor Stephen Jolly, Bianca Hall, The Age, August 2, 2015.
• Erikson denies authorship of the messages on Facebook referred to in Hall’s article. The messages in question seem to have originally appeared on the Facebook page Team Idiot’s – Stupid Things Bigots Say and are republished below:

neilthreat1
neilthreat2
neilthreat3
neilthreat4
neilthreat5
neilthreat6
Verification of the above would presumably require a statement to police by whoever was on the other end of the conversation.

• Rather pathetically, Erikson similarly denied authorship of the video he made celebrating the stabbing death of 16yo anti-fascist Carlos Javier Palomino in Madrid in late 2007. See : ‘Anti-Islamist’ rally organiser shown laughing at death footage, James Dowling, Herald Sun, July 16, 2015. In 2009, the neo-Nazi killer, Josué Estébanez, was sentenced to 26 years jail for murder and attempted murder.

• Since its formation in May as a split from Reclaim Australia, the UPF has been consistently stating that ‘smashing the left’ (in Melbourne, but also elsewhere) has been a key goal and a necessary step towards their longer-term goal of ridding Australia of Muslims. Its failure to smash the left ‘on the streets’ has seemingly resulted in the employment of increasingly aggressive (and quite demented) rhetoric online. The actions of police on July 18 in Melbourne — specifically, the widespread deployment of capsicum spray — was met with undisguised glee by the UPF, but praise for VicPol seems to have terminated with news of the confiscation of a firearm from one patriot by NSW police before he hopped on board the hate bus.
• The UPF has determined that Jolly, along with fellow SP members Anthony Main and Mel Gregson, is the mastermind behind all ‘antifa’ activity in Melbourne; by the same token, Erikson has alleged that deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek is bankrolling opposition to Reclaim Australia, so it’s sometimes difficult to determine quite how serious or stoopid Erikson & Co actually are, whether they believe the propaganda they produce or they’re simply feeding the chooks who follow the UPF.
• In the days immediately following July 18, Burgess posted a video in which he confessed to assault and named fellow ‘patriot’ Liz Carlsen as also having committed assault. To date, I don’t believe the alleged incident has received any media attention.

• The ‘Australian Liberty Alliance’ (ALA) registered with the AEC on July 29, and Geert Wilders is scheduled to tour Down Under in October in order to launch the Alliance.
• The ALA is the bRaneschild of ‘The Q Society’.
• Erikson was present at a tiny counter-counter-protest at the Wilders appearance at La Mirage Receptions in Somerton in Melbourne in February 2013.

• Today Kim ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’ Vuga attended a function in Nick Folkes’ backyard. Folkes is the leader of the Party for Freedom, established as a split from the ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ after Folkes and fellow Sydney branch member Darrin Hodges organised a public rally in Sydney in June 2012 demanding that the Australian government ‘Torpedo the Boats!’ carrying asylum seekers to the northern shores of the country.
vuga
• The Party for Freedom is explicitly modelled on Wilders’ PVV but has been effectively snubbed by Wilders in favour of the (allegedly) far more competent Q Society. See also : What’s behind the Australian Liberty Alliance?, Patrick J. Byrne, News Weekly, February 14, 2015.

Stephen Jolly for Richmond

Yeah. Stephen Jolly of the Socialist Party — one of only two Socialist councillors in the country — is gonna be contesting the seat of Richmond in the Victorian state election (November 27). The official campaign launch is on Saturday, October 2, upstairs @ the British Crown Hotel (14 Smith Street, Collingwood — opposite 3CR).

Stephen is standing in one of four seats in which Labor faces a serious challenge from the Greens. The seriousness of this threat was reinforced by Adam ‘I’ll give a voice to the movements’ Bandt’s recent victory in the Federal seat of Melbourne. Bandt’s decision to support the Federal ALP has meant the Victorian branch is Not. Happy. Joolya. (Greens pact stirs Labor anger, Royce Millar, The Age, September 3, 2010). Still:

While sitting candidates and ministers Richard Wynne (Richmond) and Bronwyn Pike (Melbourne) are known to be squeamish about a full-blown war, Fiona Richardson (Northcote) and Jane Garrett (Brunswick) are keen to fight and are attracting strong financial support to do so.

Wynne and Garrett are members of the ‘Socialist Left’ faction of the ALP, Bronwyn Pike is nominally non-aligned, while Fiona Richardson is ‘Labor Unity’ (‘Right’). Wynne will be confronting Kathleen Maltzahn, Pyke will battle Brian Walters, while Richardson will face off against Anne Martinelli and Garrett Cyndi Dawes. The ALP currently holds Melbourne by a margin of 2.0% (v GRN), Richmond by 3.6% (v GRN), Brunswick by 3.6% (v GRN) and Northcote by 8.5% (v GRN).

The fight for inner-city Melbourne is a tough one for Labor, as appeasing ‘progressives’ likely to support the Greens has to be balanced against the need to placate a broader constituency. As in the case of the federal election campaign, and the battle for Melbourne in particular, unions (one of the sources of the “strong financial support”) will be pouring large sums of money into the campaigns to re-elect Labor. Presumably, they’ll be expecting a much better return on their investment this time around.

See also : Federal deal means nothing to Victorian Greens, Labor, Farrah Tomazin, The Age, September 2, 2010 | Victoria: the left-leaning state? (August 14, 2010) | In Studio: Mark Aarons on the hollow men of the NSW Right, SlowTV, July 2010 | What happened to the Left? (February 27, 2010) | Melbourne : ALP ~versus~ Greens (August 24, 2009) | Bump Me Into Parliament (July 2, 2009).

Bonus Joolya!