From a person not in certain positions of authority in some educational establishments

Posted on June 19, 2021 by @ndy

Dear All,

A couple of years back, while I was in bed because I’m slack, a ‘United Patriots Front’ stunt was held at 3CR with a very smol crowd of nazis holding “Jews Will Not Replace Us” and “The Great Replacement” beliefs. I know this because I wrote about ’em for The Guardian a week or two before the stoopid and, scrolling through my social media feeds later that night, a handful of people mentioned the incident.

It was a beautiful Melbourne morning, clear blue skies and bright. Following speeches, an imaginary drum, a tambourine and horns marked time as the group gained entry, 3CR later reporting that they ‘filmed throughout the building without permission. In an effort to intimidate the station and its programmers, they then posted the video on their Facebook page.’ I admit it was a strange feeling when—sitting in my shitty Melbourne rental, catching up on the day—I realized that 3CR, even when empty, is an activatable ideological site. Not-so-strange to hear, for the umpteenth time, in a short video clip of the group walking around 3CR offices, my own name in an angwy rant by a man previously convicted of anti-Semitism (and, in June 2021, one just recently released from prison after being convicted following a further, Islamophobic stunt carried out in the wake of the Christchurch massacre).

You don’t have to be much of a queer theory maven to understand wage theft, but ‘the complexities of the interpellative moment that hails into being what it purports only to recognise’ is, I suppose, one way of saying ‘nazis gonna nazi’. I’d heard, of course, previous rallying cries against ‘Zaky Mallah’, whose cadences were maintained in the more recent switch to ‘Critical Race Theory’, so I didn’t take personally my own name being set down to a familiar marching-beat rhythm: ‘Andy, get out. We know what you’re all about.’ But while taking up the clear-eyed, all-knowing, hermeneutically suspicious position of the nazi thug who sees through the spin to the real core of (((managerial corruption)))), this chant also made an insinuatingly racialised recourse to my broadcasting.

I’m not the first person to note that, while the authority of the nazi thug is augmented by platforming him via the ABC, Channel 7, or Sky News Australia, the authority of media pundits is undermined by ignorance. In January 2019, when Alan Sunderland was attempting to comment on a rally organised by Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning in St Kilda, for example, it was notable that he wrote: ‘Personally, I wouldn’t call them Nazis. That implies a formality and consistency of belief that is not warranted by the facts. I’d call them people making nazi salutes. Accuracy matters.’

Or perhaps in my case, some uncertainty hangs over my surname—the relative exoticism of which causes some to hark back to the semi-legendary Melbourne anarchist John William ‘Chummy’ Fleming (1863–1950), described as having been a ‘gentle man, affectionately regarded by later generations, [who] looked forward to a millenium in which happiness and brotherly love would prevail’ and who, for ‘his part in the growing militancy of the unemployed … was beaten up by paid thugs and isolated from mainstream politics’. Hard to shout convincingly through a megaphone when you’re bruised and bloodied. (For the record, the emphasis remains on class struggle.)

But either way, wage theft is bAd, mmmkay?

Regards,

Andy.

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“That’s not Balwyn calling!” Soup But No Bail for Tom Sewell

Posted on June 10, 2021 by @ndy

TLDR : Charged with numerous offences following an alleged incident at Cathedral Range on May 8, a bail application by neo-Nazi leader Thomas (Tom) Sewell was refused yesterday. He remains in custody, and his next scheduled court date is August 2 — a committal hearing stemming from an earlier incident when it’s alleged Tom assaulted a security guard outside the offices of Channel 9.

See : Thomas Sewell to remain behind bars after being bail denied on armed robbery, assault charges, Danny Tran, ABC, June 9, 2021 | Neo-Nazis leader Thomas Sewell refused bail over alleged attack on hikers, Adam Cooper, The Age, June 9, 2021 | Neo-Nazi Tom Sewell denied bail over alleged Victoria state park attack, Michael McGowan, The Guardian, June 9, 2021 | Police tell court neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell is ‘prepared for and expects confrontation’, Sam Cucchiara, Channel 9 (A Current Affair), June 9, 2021 | Self-confessed white supremacist Thomas Sewell denied bail over alleged armed robbery and assault, SBS (AAP), June 9, 2021.

Briefly, then:

• Sewell is variously described as a ‘neo-Nazi’ ‘leader’, a ‘self-confessed’ ‘white supremacist’, ‘the national leader of the European Australian Movement [EAM], and … heavily involved in the National Socialist Movement’. In which context: while there is a rudimentary ‘national socialist’ movement in Australia (one that is linked to its counterparts in other countries), the NSM is a US organisation and Sewell is the leader of the National Socialist Network (NSN). Inre the relationship between the EAM and the NSN, the EAM was ‘officially’ launched at the beginning of 2020, and was intended to function as a ‘front’ group for the NSN: a public-facing, less-obviously neo-Nazi project which would provide a political space for White supremacists not yet prepared to ‘Go Full Nazi’. In other words, the two organisations should be considered as being basically synonymous. As I wrote in June last year:

For a brief period of time after the establishment of its new bunker in Rowville, [The Lads Society] engaged in a discussion about establishing a front group. Thus at the start of 2020 TLS rebranded itself as the ‘European Australian Movement’, and even managed to obtain a website for the projekt … For reasons, EAM was junked in favour of a more straight-forwardly nazi project: the NSN. This is an interesting development insofar as The Lads are no longer pretending not to be what they are: neo-Nazis. This also has the benefit of making it a little more difficult for members of the commentariat to pretend otherwise (though they will of course try). Beyond this, in being more honest about their politics, The Lads have abandoned any real attempt to ‘go mainstream’ while wrapped in the national flag, and the semi-mythical Ordinary Mums & Dads™ have similarly been abandoned in favour of recruiting from among Angry Young Men. The explicit embrace of neo-Nazism also seeks to draw upon the teenyboppers who’ve been radicalised by way of Iron March, Fascist Forge and other, more obscure forums …

TLDR : EAM is NSN is EAM is NSN; Sewell is/was the leader of both but, while incarcerated, responsibility has been handed over to his sidekick, Jacob Hersant, the 22-year-old ‘veteran’ of defunct nazi grouplet ‘Antipodean Resistance’.

• According to Cucchiara’s report, the prosecution claimed that ‘Mr Sewell had links to bikies, being “close friends” with a Finks member’ — which is interesting. In general, there are often informal links between OMCGs and nazi gangs in Australia, but such relationships are typically much more pronounced in Europe (see, for example : Hells Angels in Germany and Portugal) and North America. Thus when Mr Sewell and his comrades in the ‘United Patriots Front’ decided to launch their abortive political party ‘Fortitude’ in Perth, they did so at the ‘headquarters’ of the Aryan Nations, a short-lived branch of the ‘Aryan Nations Sadistic Souls MC’ (Illinois), and there are several individuals in the orbit of defunct groups like the UPF, the ‘Soldiers of Odin’ and the ‘True Blue Crew’ who’ve drifted in to and out of bikie gangs. Certainly, any ongoing association between nazis and bikies is guaranteed to generate interest on the part of law enforcement. See also : ‘Neo-Nazi’ who claims he was discriminated against in Canberra’s jail loses tribunal bid for anonymity, Harry Frost and Michael Inman, ABC, May 26, 2021.

• Supposedly, Sewell and his kameraden believed that the hikers allegedly attacked by them were anTEEfas, but there’s ‘no evidence the six hikers had any connection to Antifa or any other left-wing organisation’. That said, given rampant paranoia about anTEEfas in Sewell’s gang — see, for example, Jarrad ‘Jaz’ Searby stalking an old-age pensioner after he made an unkind comment about ‘Hard Knocks’ on The Facebooks — this reaction is understandable. This paranoia was further reinforced by way of subsequent commentary by Sewell’s kameraden David Hiscox and Matthew Roebuck (XYZ) and Searby’s #BFF Timmeh Wilms (The Unhinged). According to Timmeh! (‘Timmeh!’s News Explosion’, YouTube, May 17, 2021), the subjects of the alleged assault were likely either anTEEfas or, possibly, infiltrators. According to Hiscox and Roebuck, those allegedly assaulted were likely degenerate Communists (in which case, their testimony may be safely disregarded).

• More seriously: The court heard the alleged victims called police but since then some had been too afraid to make a statement to investigators. “We’re in discussions with these two victims but they are adamant that they are too petrified of persecution and not willing to provide sworn statements,” Senior Constable Taylor said. Further: Senior Constable Taylor told the court that since being in custody, Mr Sewell has been heard on prison phone calls urging his members to “investigate the victims to gather evidence”. “Sewell reinforced to those members that they read the witness statements and look for clues, stating, ‘It’s so important for you guys to keep researching and keep investigating,'” Senior Constable Taylor said. If so, this would not be surprising, and it’s certainly possible that, if the complainants were to be publicly identified, they would be the subject of harassment and/or intimidation.

• Finally, while a number of her protectors continue to work in the security industry, at this stage it does seem likely that Sky News Australia’s Lauren ‘The Great Replacement’ Southern will have to wait some time before Mister Sewell is able to once again to place himself at her disposal.

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Yeah Nah Pasaran! #072 w Alex Hinton on ‘It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US’ : June 10, 2021

Posted on June 7, 2021 by @ndy

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah, we talk to Alex Hinton [Twitter]. Alex is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention at Rutgers University, and the author over a dozen books including the award-winning Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide. He is also the author of It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US (NYU Press, 2021), which was the subject of this episode.

See also : We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief From a Crime of The United States Government Against the Negro People (1951) | Education After Auschwitz, Theodor W. Adorno (1966) | A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present, Ward Churchill, City Lights (1997) | Genocide in Australia, Nathan mudyi Sentance, Australian Museum (May 26, 2020) | Journal of Genocide Research.

4.30pm, Thursday, June 10, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

• Please note that the podcast version of this episode contains a longer discussion with Alex.
• You can listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’.
• I have a Patreon account which youse are also invited to support.

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Yeah Nah Pasaran! #071 w Bethan Johnson on Buddha, reich ‘n’ roll, tech & yoof : June 3, 2021

Posted on June 1, 2021 by @ndy
    Hi there folks! It’s Radiothon time at 3CR Community Radio and unfortunately as long as we are haunted by the spectre of capitalism we do need your filthy lucre to help keep radical radio pumping out across the airwaves.

    We reckon there is not much like Yeah Nah Pasaran! on Australian radio, so if you also like what we do, throw us a few coins – all of it helps.

    If you don’t like what we do, throw a few coins at us – the more successful this fundraiser is, the more we’ll be expected to make next year, which will STRESS US OUT. So go on, do your worst.

    All the best!

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah, we talk to Bethan Johnson [Twitter] about inter alia Buddhism, reich and/or roll, stock markets and yoof. Bethan is a PhD student in History at the University of Cambridge and her research interests include nationalism, political violence, radicalism/radicalisation and intellectual history.

4.30pm, Thursday, June 3, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

• Please note that the podcast version of this episode contains a longer discussion with Bethan.
• You can listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’.
• I have a Patreon account which youse are also invited to support.

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The United Patriots Front : Where Are They Now?

Posted on May 31, 2021 by @ndy

Six years ago today, the defunct fascist groupuscule the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF) made its public debut with a protest rally in Richmond. Called in opposition to “TeH LeFt” and to demand the resignation of local councillor Stephen Jolly, the 2015 event went about as well as you’d expect. Born and bred on Facebook, the UPF collapsed in May 2017 after the corporate juggernaut decided to remove it from its platform. But where are they now?

Rise Without Fear!

At its core, the UPF consisted of a relatively smol number of men: Shermon Burgess, ‘Perth Lieutenant’ Kevin Coombes (AKA ‘Elijah Jacobson’), ‘Chairman’ Blair Cottrell, ‘Prime Propagandist & Head of Media’ Neil Erikson, ‘Prime Representative — Perth’ Dennis Huts, ‘Brisbane Lieutenant’ Scott Moerland, ‘Prime Organiser and Head of Operations’ Kris Richardson, ‘Secretary’ Tom Sewell and ‘Melbourne Lieutenant’ Chris Shortis. (Pastor Danny Nalliah was also briefly a UPF member.)

• Shermon Burgess, who for a few years dubbed himself ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’ and was briefly the UPF’s Chairman, left the group in tears when a fellow ‘Patriot’ made a video taking the piss out of The Great One. Upon exiting, a sensitive Shermon was soon joined by Neil Erikson, and the pair hatched numerous, short-lived front groups all while angrily denouncing the UPF as ‘nazis’. Funnily enough, after a few years of trying and failing to establish a support base (and generally being an embarrassment), The GAP between Shermon’s ears was filled with Nazi ideology, and disparaging remarks about ‘The Great German Patriot’ Adolf Hitler were replaced with An Hero Worship. Happily, Shermon’s volte face has been rewarded by Facebook, and ‘Shermon Valhalla Burgess’ now routinely uses Zuckerberg’s online kingdom to inter alia spread Coronavirus conspiracy theories and denounce Freemasons, The Illuminati and The Jew World Order.

• I’ve got no idea what Kevin Coombes is up to, but presumably he’s still ‘a mysterious but loyal man’ whose ‘tenacity and dedication are unparalleled’ and, possibly, he continues to ‘work under Huts in the Perth area’ — who knows?

• At one point, Blair Cottrell seriously fancied himself as Australia’s Next Top Fuehrer but, after Facebook rudely interrupted his career as an influencer, he briefly became a Lad, then a convicted racist, and now pouts and poses online. His antics won him a spot on Triple J’s Hack Live and Sky News Australia (proud sponsor of Lauren ‘The Great Replacement’ Southern), a smol legion of Ordinary Mum & Dad™ racist fans and, notably, elevated him to the status of ‘Emperor’ in the eyes of the Christchurch killer. Sadly, after a bad break-up, there’s no love lost between Blair and his former UPF sidekick Tom Sewell, especially after Sewell overthrew Cottrell to assume leadership of The Lads Society (the successor organisation to the UPF). While in the last year or two the pair have occasionally sniped at one another online, happily, there’s been no cage match. Already armed with a criminal record, in 2017 Cottrell was convicted of racisms, lost his appeal against that conviction in December 2019, and is back in court in December, seemingly charged with assault.

• Neil Erikson was and remains a serial pest, but after six years of IRL trolling and numerous legal escapades, earlier this month he was convicted of disrupting a Muslim prayer service (held a few weeks after the Christchurch massacre) and, having refused a community corrections order, was sentenced to four weeks in prison. Erikson’s refusal to bow down to (((the courts))) has rehabilitated his image somewhat among the local neo-Nazi milieu, and his doXXing of members of ‘Nationalist Alternative’ has, like so much else, disappeared down The Memory Hole. (Oh yeah: Erikson is back in court in July to face charges of disrupting a Christian gathering in May 2019.)

• Dennis Huts is a bad-tempered man who, like Neil, enjoys trolling IRL. Most recently (March 2021), an angwy Huts clashed with members of Extinction Rebellion in Perth, and Dennis The Menace was charged with common assault, obstructing officers and disorderly behaviour as a result.

• Dubbed ‘Potty Mouth’ on account of his expletive-laden propaganda videos, Scott Moerland was The UPF’s Guy In Brisbane. Scott bonded with the boys in Melbourne (and Perth) over their shared fear and loathing of Muslamic Ray Guns, fulminations over Teh dAstArdly anTEEfas, and joined Blair and Shermon in Canberra in February 2016 to raise the mighty banner of PEGIDA. After the UPF imploded, Scott Carried On his Online Crusade Against The Islams by way of the various remnants of ‘Reclaim Australia’ on Facebook, and in the 2019 Australian federal election ran as a candidate for Fortitude ‘Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party’ in the seat of Oxley. As a ‘Conservative National’, Moerland got over three times as many votes (1,474) than he did when he Rose Up for Danny Nalliah (and Australia) in 2013 (400 votes), so it’s not like he hasn’t made any progress.

• Kris Richardson was for a few years Cottrell’s gopher, was described by him as ‘ruthlessly efficient’, and even earned a special medal for his efforts. But as far as I know, it seems possible Mr Richardson has grown-up a little since then, and no longer needs the approval of neo-Nazi meatheads.

• Thomas (Tom) Sewell was once described by Cottrell as ‘a natural economist with great ability in writing, organisation and the practice of discipline’, which is just as well, as Sewell is currently on remand, and will need to keep busy as he awaits trial for ‘alleged armed robbery, robbery, theft, criminal damage, affray with face covering, affray, assault with a weapon, violent disorder, common law assault and committing an indictable offence whilst on bail’. The charges stem from a Nazi Boy Scout camping trip to Cathedral Range Sewell arranged for his followers in the ‘National Socialist Network’ (NSN) a few weeks ago. Just as The Lads Society formed following the collapse of the UPF, the NSN was created following the implosion of The Lads Society, and represents the chief legacy of the UPF. Tommeh! is also facing charges after allegedly assaulting a security guard outside Channel 9 studios in March: his next court dates are June 9 and August 2. While Sewell remains behind bars, his sidekick Jacob Hersant has assumed command of The Rowville Reich.

• An earnest, evangelical Christian from Melbourne, Chris Shortis invested heavily in the UPF — reportedly throwing tens of thousands of dollars at it when Chairman Cottrell had the, ah, brilliant, well thought-out idea of launching a political party and calling it ‘Fortitude’ — but all he really got in return for his investment was a criminal conviction for racisms, the loss of his gun licence, and an abortive career in the security industry. Undeterred by this experience, Shortis later joined Dr Jim Saleam’s Australia First Party, but otherwise keeps busy preaching his idiosyncratic interpretation of Christianity under the banner of ‘SOS Ministries REV 14:12’.

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Moda Kitchen and Bar (w BONUS! COVID-19)

Posted on May 31, 2021 by @ndy

Moda Kitchen and Bar, located at 140 Victoria Street in Seddon, is a family owned modern Italian restaurant with an emphasis on seasonal, locally sourced produce, an international wine list, a welcoming atmosphere — and plenty of space for plague rats, apparently.

Restaurant slammed over illegal anti-vaxxer lunch
Herald Sun
May 30, 2021

A popular Seddon restaurant is under investigation over claims it hosted an illegal feast for the ringleaders of a fiery anti-lockdown protest.

More than a dozen anti-vaxxers, including protest inciters Monica Smit and Morgan Jonas, were photographed at Moda Kitchen and Bar in Seddon on Saturday afternoon despite statewide coronavirus restrictions which have shut restaurant doors and banned public gatherings.

The photograph, posted on encrypted communication app Telegram, was deleted on Sunday as the restaurant faced huge public backlash and threats of customer boycotts.

A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokeswoman said the incident will be investigated by the government’s coronavirus enforcement team.

“This claim has been referred to the Victorian Government’s High-Risk Industry Engagement and Enforcement Operation for investigation – and it will take action as necessary,” the spokeswoman said.

Moda Kitchen and Bar denied opening its doors to the anti-vax group, despite police confirming they were called to the Victoria St restaurant over reports of “a group not wearing masks” about 4.30pm on Saturday.

“We were closed. We went there to clean but we were closed. I don’t know what people are talking about,” the restaurant owner told the Herald Sun.

The photo, posted to Telegram at 3.16pm on Saturday, shows 15 people celebrating with wine inside the restaurant with the caption: “Moda restaurant in Seddon. Getting on with business. Great hanging out with fellow freedom fighters”.

The same anti-vaxxer wrote: Loved having lunch with everyone afterward in Seddon. We were just finishing lunch when the business got a call the police were on the way. People who dob on business is such a low act in my mind. Let’s all continue to support these types of businesses.

Police responding to reports of a maskless gathering found no one inside the venue when they arrived at 4.30pm.

Businesses which breach coronavirus restrictions face a fine of $9913.

Ms Smit and Mr Jonas run Reignite Democracy Australia, which has been involved in several anti-lockdown rallies held in Melbourne since the pandemic began.

On Saturday 14 protesters were arrested for offences including assaulting police, affray and breaching the chief health officer’s directions following the Flagstaff Gardens rally.

A total of 55 penalty notices were issued.

See also : Police tackle, arrest protesters at Melbourne anti-vaccination rally, Ashleigh McMillan and Michael Fowler, The Age, May 29, 2021 | Church breaches guidelines again, Danielle Kutchel, Berwick Star News, May 30, 2021.

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Yeah Nah Pasaran! #070 w Natasha Lennard on ‘Being Numerous’, Everyday Anti-Fascism & The Limits of Liberalism : May 27, 2021

Posted on May 25, 2021 by @ndy

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah, we talk to Natasha Lennard [Twitter]. Natasha is a Durruti columnist at The Intercept, a teacher at The New School and the author of Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life (Verso Books, 2021): At once politically committed and philosophically capacious, Being Numerous is a revaluation of the idea that the personal is political, and situates as the central question of our time: How can we live a non-fascist life? We spoke to Natasha inter alia about anti-/fascism, ghosts, the (neo-)liberal order, necropolitics, smooth-brained reactionaries and violence.

4.30pm, Thursday, May 27, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

• Please note that the podcast version of this episode contains a longer discussion with Natasha.
• You can listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’.
• I have a Patreon account which youse are also invited to support.

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Broken Windows, Death, History, Media, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Yeah Nah Pasaran! #069 w Christopher Mathias on (reporting on) the far-right : May 20, 2021

Posted on May 18, 2021 by @ndy

Above : In May 2020, while covering anti-racist protests, police arrested HuffPost reporter Christopher Mathias even though he showed his press pass.

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah, we talk to Christopher Mathias [Twitter]. We talked to Christopher about fascists in the military, Charlottesville and the January 6 Trumpist insurrection. Christopher is a Senior Reporter at HuffPost covering the far right, disinformation, and hate. His most recent articles include: Marine Corps Officer Arrested On Charges Of Assaulting Cop During Capitol Riot (May 14, 2021), Former U.S. Military Leaders Sign Bizarre Open Letter Pushing Election Lies (May 12, 2021) and The Fascist Face Of Charlottesville Joined The Military. Then He Got Kicked Out. (April 28, 2021).

4.30pm, Thursday, May 20, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

• Please note that the podcast version of this episode contains a longer discussion with Christopher.
• You can listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’.
• I have a Patreon account which youse are also invited to support.

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antifa notes (may 15, 2021) : Tom Sewell: Go directly to jail; do not pass go, do not collect $200

Posted on May 15, 2021 by @ndy

aww no

A Burg(h)er With The Lot

Yesterday Thomas Sewell, budding Führer und Reichskanzler of Australia and current leader of neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘National Socialist Network’ (NSN), got arrest. See : Australian neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell charged over alleged armed robbery, ABC, May 14, 2021 | Neo-Nazi leader to spend night in jail after facing court on armed robbery charges, David Estcourt and Nick McKenzie, The Age, May 14, 2021.

The alleged criminal incident occurred in Taggerty, when Sewell was taking his nazi boy scouts camping at Cathedral Range last weekend (Saturday, May 8). As a result, ‘Police said Mr Sewell faced charges of armed robbery, robbery, theft, criminal damage, affray with face covering, affray, assault with a weapon, violent disorder, common law assault and committing an indictable offence whilst on bail.’ Remanded in custody, Dear Leader faces court again on August 2. Note that in March, Tom was charged with the alleged assault of a security guard outside Channel 9 studios in Melbourne, and in January generated much commentary when he and his groupsucule went camping in The Grampians (Gariwerd).

Fantastic. Great move. Well done Thomas.

For those of you coming in late, the beleaguered Gauleiter from Rowville (by way of Balwyn) cut his politikal teef with Mark Hootsen’s ‘Nationalist Alternative’, then the defunct Facebook-sponsored ‘United Patriots Front’ and, after it collapsed, the similarly defunct grouplet known as ‘The Lads Society’. The Lads gained some smol notoriety after Sky News Australia regular Lauren ‘The Great Replacement’ Southern hired them to do security on her 2018 tour Down Under but, after having successfully re-assembled the remnants of the fascist core of the UPF, The Lads dissolved in favour of a front group known as the ‘European Australian Movement’ (EAM), behind which (and comprised of members of the same milieu) stands the much-better known NSN.

Of course, The Boy From Balwyn is not the only neo-Nazi formerly belonging to NAlt or the UPF to have run into legal difficulties of late. Hence, last week Neil Erikson appealed against a four-week prison sentence imposed for disrupting a Muslim prayer gathering at Federation Square (a few weeks after the Christchurch massacre), while Blair Cottrell goes to court in December to face charges of assault.

Cottrell was formerly lvl boss of the UPF, and played a leading role in The Lads until his former sidekick Sewell forced him out. A nazi with smarts, Cottrell was able to capitalise upon his notoriety in order to enjoy a brief platform on ABC’s Hack Live in July 2017 and Sky News Australia’s The Adam Giles Show in August 2018, but a conviction for racisms in September 2017 — and John Bolton’s failure to overturn the conviction on appeal in December 2019 — has for the time being rendered his political aspirations moribund.

That’s not the case with his former #BFF who, unlike Cottrell, has bravely emerged from his political closet to proclaim his full-throated support for Nazi Germany. And while some neo-Nazis have denounced Cottrell for his intellectual and moral cowardice — Sewell recently declared him to be just another poser on social media — I think Cottrell’s obvious success in cultivating popular hatred for Muslims — and using this notoriety to achieve Internet fame — was the more sensible approach to Australian politics and media: Islamophobia and xenophobia remain marketable in a way that gross anti-Semitism is not. Still, Sewell’s unapologetic endorsement of Nazism and commitment to an Apocalyptic notion of RaHoWa has not only attracted the support of a small number of teenyboppers but a handful of older Proud Boys, including Jarrad Searby, who’s recently begun training Sewell’s soldiers in mixed martial arts. Searby also enjoys friendly relations with fellow COVIDIOT and retired MMA star Nick “Banjo” Patterson.

FreeDumbs

While a rally in solidarity with Palestine in Melbourne today attracted the support of thousands, Over 9,000 COVIDIOTs assembled at Batman Park to proclaim their commitment to freedumbs. A glittering array of talent addressed the crowd, including a ’90s pop star, a former TV personality, and Nick Patterson.

Patterson, who Searby recently treated to a chummy interview on his vodcast, was there to promote a NEW! volunteer Defence Force called ‘Australian PeaceMakers’. Like Searby, Patterson gained some media attention in mid-2020, but whereas the Proud Boy turned neo-Nazi got done for crossing a state border, “Banjo” detected communisms when a ‘protective service officer’ asked him to put on a face mask while riding the train.

Finally, shout-out to Jacob Hersant, the former face of defunct neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘Antipodean Resistance’ who’s now assumed the role of Unterscharführer after Sewell’s incarceration, and especially to his remarkable good fortune in being released without charge after several arrests. 😉

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Yeah Nah Pasaran! #068 w Shannon E. Reid on Alt-Right Gangs & Proud Boys : May 13, 2021

Posted on May 11, 2021 by @ndy

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah, we talk to Shannon E. Reid [Twitter], an Associate Professor at UNC Charlotte. Shannon is the co-author (with Matthew Valasik) of Alt-Right Gangs: A Hazy Shade of White (University of California Press, 2020):

Alt-Right Gangs: A Hazy Shade of White is the first text to conceptualize Alt-Right youth groups and situate their existence within the framework of street gangs. As gang researchers, guided by our interdisciplinary training, we synthesize research across an array of academic literature including criminology, sociology, communication studies, social movements, political science, history, cultural studies, religious studies, and computer science to stress the necessity to deal with Alt-Right gangs seriously and refrain from disregarding these groups as an extremist subculture or youthful phase.

4.30pm, Thursday, May 13, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

• Please note that the podcast version of this episode contains a longer discussion with Shannon.
• You can listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’.
• I have a Patreon account which youse are also invited to support.

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