#CFMEUForever : COVID-19, Construction & COVIDIOTs

Posted on October 14, 2021 by @ndy

On September 20, the Melbourne office of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) was attacked by a group of angry anti-vaxxers and their allies: a motley assortment of malcontents, including union members, fueled by far-right myth-makers on social media. I wrote a little about what happened for Overland (‘Constructing a narrative: the CFMEU protest and the far right’, September 23, 2021), provided links to a few more articles of interest in a blog post and last week responded to a critic of the Overland article in another.

One immediate effect of the protest was an announcement by the Victorian state government of a two-week suspension of all construction work: work resumed on Tuesday, October 5. A longer-term impact was dozens of COVID-19 infections among CFMEU officials, staff and their families.

Work stoppages and infections weren’t the only fallout from the protests of mid-September, however, and not all CFMEU members are happy to dance to the tune being played by Avi Yemini — to put it mildly. According to one group:

The CFMEU is one of Australia’s last fighting unions. This amazing institution is a living memorial to all the workers who made it what it is today.

In September 2021 a group of Alt Right[ists], fascists, white supremacists and Trump lovers attacked our union office, its members and staff. They were supported by a handful of CFMEU members.

Our union will never stand with the Alt Right. They seek to destroy the working class and its institutions and we must never back off from fighting this scourge.

‘CFMEU Forever’ has published a website and Facebook page, is ‘not endorsed by the union’ and ‘would like to identify all members and others who participated in recent attacks on our union or stood side by side with those that did’.

Interesting times …

See also : ‘Tyranny’: US rightwingers portray nightmare vision of Australia’s Covid response, Jason Wilson, The Guardian, October 10, 2021 (‘The feedback loop between US conservative media and Australia’s fringe right has intensified as New South Wales and Victoria have struggled with outbreaks’) | Neo-fascists exploit ‘no-vax’ rage, posing dilemma for Italy, Frances D’Emilio, Associated Press, October 14, 2021 (‘Italy is wrestling with how to deal with a neo-fascist party that has violently exploited anger over the government’s anti-COVID restrictions’).

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Deconstructing a criticism : A reply to Jeremy Salt

Posted on October 7, 2021 by @ndy

[A few weeks ago I wrote something for Overland titled Constructing a narrative: the CFMEU protest and the far right (September 23, 2021). Last week, Jeremy Salt offered some criticism of the piece and, because my reply is so long, I thought I’d publish it here instead of there. I don’t expect it to be of much interest to others but, having inflicted myself with the task of responding, I figure it’s okay if others are provided an opportunity to share in my distress.]

I obviously don’t know what Mr Salt’s experience of the last eighteen months in Melbourne has been like, but I certainly didn’t mean to infer that it’s been sunshine, lollipops and rainbows for the millions of Melbournians who’ve been subject, willingly or unwillingly, to what is now the world’s longest lockdown. As amply documented elsewhere, things have been especially difficult for the precariat, and for those who weren’t already paying attention, the pandemic has brought into sharp relief the consequences of growing economic and social inequality for public health management. Further, the longer lockdown has persisted, the more the limits of public endurance have been tested. When combined with a bungled vaccine rollout by the federal government on the one hand and an enormous fountain of dis- and mis-information about COVID-19 generated by social media on the other, I think it’s fair to say that the general conditions of life for many have degraded to the point that, notwithstanding the potentially disastrous consequences, protest of the sort witnessed recently was likely inevitable.

In examining these protests, however, I didn’t intend to provide a comprehensive or even partial account of the economic, political and social effects of the pandemic or to make an assessment of the adequacy of the policy responses implemented by the Australian federal and Victorian state governments. Nor did I intend to canvass media reportage of these matters, embark upon a comparative analysis of the global anti-lockdown movement, or explore in any detail the ethical and legal dimensions of mandatory vaccination. Rather, I was invited to offer some thoughts on a subject much more limited in scope: the protest outside the CFMEU office, unions, and the far-right.

For the record, then, I don’t believe that the response of the Andrews government to the pandemic or the policing of recent protests are beyond criticism. I also flatly reject Mr Salt’s assertion that the article is entirely shaped towards undermining the authentic nature of the street protests against mandatory vaccination, and I simply disagree that this is what it does.

More specifically:

Insofar as I have concerns about public assemblages, they’re informed by the potential of such events to help spread a deadly virus and the health impacts this would have on vulnerable segments of the population, including but not limited to the elderly, people with disabilities and the immunocompromised. The risks of such mobilisations are heightened when, as in this instance, they involve individuals who inter alia chant ‘Fuck the jab!’, sing ‘You can stick your fucking vaccine up your arse!’, shout ‘Come outside and fight you fucking dogs!’, hurl debris at and smash the windows of the John Cummins Building, and otherwise demonstrate a remarkable disregard for OH&S. In other words, what happened outside the CFMEU office was not merely that some workers directed a few naughty words (injuriosum retines verba) at Mr Setka, calling him a ‘dog’, a ‘rat’ and ‘Dan Andrews’ bitch’: as unpleasant as this experience may have been, I’m almost certain that Mr Setka’s been exposed to curse words before and — with the support of his colleagues — I’m confident he’ll survive this latest one.

Sadly, however, the fact that on September 29 the CFMEU Melbourne Office was declared a Tier 1 and 2 exposure site and [t]he union said four positive cases had been recorded to date and a number of staff and officials had been forced into two weeks’ quarantine, suggests that Mr Setka and other CFMEU staff and officials have more serious concerns. More recently (October 6), the union claimed ‘dozens’ of COVID-19 cases now linked to Melbourne construction protest.

In terms of semantics, I suppose ‘putative’ would be preferable to ‘nominal’ construction workers, but otherwise: when, over a century ago, Luigi Fabbri complained of bourgeois influences on anarchism, one key feature he identified was the tendency of the literati to celebrate its alleged sociopathy: The most curious thing is that the literary types had a propensity to most approve those acts of rebellion which anarchist militants least approved of because of their extremely obvious antisocial character.

The day after smashing the office windows of a building dedicated to his memory, the mob paid further tribute to Mr Cummins, once a member of The West Gate Bridge Memorial Committee, by dancing about and singing ‘Horses’ from the Bridge’s heights. The day after that, the vox populi didn’t sing ‘The Internationale’ but ‘Advance Australia Fair’, and if they chanted a name, it wasn’t ‘Cummo’ but ‘Avi’, a self-proclaimed former Israeli Army sniper and right-wing grifter. When parading through the streets, the Red Ensign was considerably more popular than the Red Flag, and MAGA hats were more numerous than those paying tribute to Mr Marx.

Are such actions ‘authentic’? If so, what do they authentically express? Probably, not a shared commitment to the realisation of communism (omnia sunt communia).

Still, while mandatory vaccinations for construction workers was obviously a key concern of those who protested outside the CFMEU office, the Victorian government’s failure to provide a reasonable timeframe for workers to actually get vaccinated, along with the sudden closure of crib rooms, was also germane. So too, the longer-term effects of the pandemic on the construction industry and the consequent loss of jobs and incomes for many. With regards who attended, then, I repeat: the CFMEU claimed a minority were members, Ben Schneiders writes many were, and — from my perspective — whatever the exact proportion, many if not most are receptive to and informed by conspiracist and counterfactual ideas promoting Covid-19 disinformation.

Mr Salt writes: Mr Fleming refers to the occupation of the Shrine when no protestors appeared to be inside. They were sitting on the steps outside or strolling on the grass, peaceful until the police charged at them and almost all peaceful even after that except for the occasionally flung water bottle.

I’m not sure what Mr Salt’s point is. Yes, no protesters were literally inside the Shrine. It was closed, after all, and to enter the building would have required not only a little more ‘Freedom!’ but also a little B&E (as a treat). Obviously, then, the occupation was of the site surrounding the building. It’s possible, I suppose, that the RSL is simply unaware of the critical distinction between ‘occupying the Shrine’ and ‘holding a political rally on its steps’. In which case, if brought to its attention, the RSL might conclude that it was utterly wrong to claim that the ‘mob’ was being in any way disrespectful by merely assembling at (not occupying!) the Shrine. It’s also possible that the Shrine’s CEO, who claimed protesters pissed on it, would himself be massively relieved to discover that, according to Mr Salt at least, urine never touched it. That said, the many hundreds of thousands of people who’ve attended dawn services over the years would likely be surprised to discover that, having failed to be ‘inside’ it, they were never really at the Shrine in the first place.

Be that as it may, I didn’t attempt to give a fulsome account of what transpired on Wednesday any more than I did the events of Tuesday or Monday, but to summarise it as protesters occupied The Shrine of Remembrance and were violently dispersed by police is, I think, both concise and accurate. If I was to recommend an account, it would be that provided by Ben Hillier in Red Flag.

Mr Salt says both he and I have no idea how many fascist agitators were out and about at the recent protests, and that therefore such talk is simply a means by which the mainstream media, for its own reasons, can unfairly tar those who participated with the fascist brush.

By way of response, I’ll note the following:

• In April 2014, Martin McKenzie-Murray wrote a profile of me for The Saturday Paper. He quoted a hostile critic as follows: That guy’s anti-white. And there’s no Nazis in Australia. Get your fucking facts straight, mate. If you mean right-wing people who care about their culture and don’t want blacks turning it into a Third World shithole, then yeah.
• In October 2015, inre ‘Reclaim Australia’, I wrote in The Guardian about how it was important that others Don’t get sucked in by the hijinks of far-right activists: active neo-Nazis are welcome and hold leadership positions in a movement gaining in appeal.
• In August 2017, ‘United Patriots Front’ leader Blair Cottrell tweeted: I’ll never run around wearing the ‘nazi’ tag. It’s like diving into sewerage then wondering why the public is avoiding you.
• In December 2017, Chip Le Grand, writing about anti-fascism for The Australian, claimed: A problem for the Australian antifa, and indeed for anti-fascist groups in Europe and the US, is that few people and organisations they oppose here have much to do with Nazism.
• In November 2018, Barnaby Joyce initially expressed skepticism regarding the infiltration of the NSW Young Nationals by neo-Nazis, declaring: I’ve seen Prince Harry in a Nazi uniform, I’m pretty certain he’s not a Nazi. Joyce quickly changed his tune, and 22 individuals were eventually banned for life from the party.
• In January 2019, when Fraser Anning held a beach party in St Kilda, Alan Sunderland was moved to declare that it would be unfair to label a man photographed brandishing a motorcycle helmet with the SS flag on it a neo-Nazi. At the same time, Mr Sunderland failed to detect the presence of Tom Sewell and a dozen or so neo-Nazis belonging to ‘The Lads Society’, perhaps because none of them were wearing Nazi helmets or chanting ‘Heil Hitler’.
• In August 2021, following his public exposure, a member of the ‘National Socialist Network’ told The Standard in Warrnambool: I don’t hold any neo-Nazi or national socialist views, nor do I want to be part of any [K]lan activity. I just see myself as patriotic.

A few weeks ago, when Rukshan Fernando interviewed former UPF member Linden Watson outside the CFMEU office, he didn’t ask Linden if he was a neo-Nazi, but if he had, I’d be surprised if Mr Watson answered in the affirmative.

In summary, while I confess to being unfamiliar with Mr Salt’s scholarship on the contemporary far-right in Australia, based on my own observations, I think it reasonable to claim that some, at least, have demonstrated a degree of political acumen. As a result, their tactical repertoire extends beyond having swastika tattoos, wearing jackboots and screaming racial abuse at strangers on a train. Given also the unavailability of detailed surveys into the exact political opinions of protest participants (perhaps of the sort undertaken by a formal workers’ inquiry), we must, for the time being at least, rely upon other sources of information. In the article I wrote: The influence of far-right actors on such events is typically more indirect than it was alleged in this case. Whatever the exact number of ‘right-wing extremists‘ were on the streets this week, their influence was chiefly expressed via social media platforms such as Telegram. Days later, an article by Plus 61j identified 24 groups, with nearly 100,000 followers, that espouse antisemitic or neo-Nazi views [and] pursue a political agenda with endorsements of right-wing politicians; on October 1, Nick Bonyhady in The Age wrote that A set of “fake unions” with links to current and former Liberal and National party figures are capitalising on anti-vaccination fears to recruit doctors, teachers and nurses and exploit dissent within the labour movement about mandatory vaccinations.

Mr Salt may be right to claim that the problem with ‘the left’ is as he describes it, but I would suggest that a broader perspective is necessary. In either case, a thorough diagnosis of the state of the left in Victoria is not something I intend to undertake here.

Like Mr Salt, I’m aware of the fact that there have been many protests in many cities in many countries about COVID-19, vaccines, lockdowns and related matters, and while rightwing participation may or may not be ‘convenient’ for the reason he claims, insofar as it’s real, I think it should be taken note of. As for quoting Sally McManus here, again, is what I quoted: An upper house member of the Victorian Parliament attended Monday’s protest and gave vocal support to the extremists, a federal Senator tweeted his approval of the violence. If I ‘approve’ of this quote, then, it’s because I agree with the ACTU head that An upper house member of the Victorian Parliament attended Monday’s protest and gave vocal support to the extremists, a federal Senator tweeted his approval of the violence. Mr Salt is of course at liberty to interpret it as meaning something other than An upper house member of the Victorian Parliament attended Monday’s protest and gave vocal support to the extremists, a federal Senator tweeted his approval of the violence, but I think a more reasonable interpretation is An upper house member of the Victorian Parliament attended Monday’s protest and gave vocal support to the extremists, a federal Senator tweeted his approval of the violence.

Along with the nature of the ideological and repressive state apparatus, Mr Salt obviously has much to discover about Mr Fleming. Pro-tip: Just as the ‘so-called liberal media’ have been engaged in propaganda for much longer than the past 18 months, so too have the police (including the Soldiers of God) been engaged in repression. If Mr Salt has nothing to say about this history, it would be wrong to assume on that basis that he neither knows nor cares. By the same token, if the use of the VKS Pepper Ball firearm makes an appearance in his statement of concerns, but the deployment of the BearCat does not, this should not be read as evidence of any underlying lack of concern over police brutality.

I’m unsure why Mr Salt believes that mismanagement of the government’s hotel quarantine program caused no outrage. When Health Minister Jenny Mikakos resigned in September 2020 it was following criticism from the state Opposition, health workers and unionists. While the December 2020 inquiry concluded the decision to hire private security guards was not made by an ‘individual’, it nonetheless identified a range of serious failures on the part of the state government.

Like the failings of the left and the allegedly devastating effects of Dictator Dan’s rule over Victoria (Mr Salt claims There is no longer a Victorian community. Family and friends have been turned against each other), I’m unsure why Mr Salt believes that most Victorians obey Andrews’ decrees without question providing that by doing so Dear Leader doesn’t render them penniless. I think such hyperbole is unhelpful and does little to engage with the issues he raises or, alternatively, the ones I chose to address.

I didn’t know Stephen Murray-Smith, and I confess to having limited familiarity with Melbourne’s literati (though I can boast of once having joined Christos Tsiolkas on a bus trip). But whatever reaction Murray-Smith may have had to recent events, I hope he wouldn’t join Mr Salt in deliberately conflating his production of ‘What Andrews Has Done To Victoria And Its People’ with my rather more modest attempt to analyse the protest outside the CFMEU office and the far-right. I should also add that while I didn’t consult with an editor or a writer, along with reading the accounts of other workers, I did take the opportunity to speak to a friend from the CFMEU before I wrote the article. He was in quarantine at the time, having worked at one of the growing number of construction sites at which there have been outbreaks. He had much to say on the subject of the protest outside his union’s office, labour organising, working-class solidarity in the face of far-right attacks, and more besides. It’s my hope that his will be one of many voices that take these matters seriously, and responds accordingly.

Finally(!), news of my excommunication from anarchism — on the basis of my being a Dan stan — will no doubt come as a shock to many comrades here in Melbourne. Perhaps, at some point in the future, Mr Salt will see fit to allow me re-admittance? Then again, his status within the anarchist community is not at all obvious, and neither is his role as gatekeeper. Certainly, comrades can respond to Mr Salt’s news as they see fit.

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Yeah Nah Pasaran! #089 w Alex Mendela on The Q Origins Project : October 7, 2021

Posted on October 5, 2021 by @ndy

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah Pasaran! we talk to Alex Mendela [Twitter], the so-called ‘fancy lad’ of The Q Origins Project: ‘A close look at the earliest days of QAnon, showing Q’s origins in, and relationship to, broader 4chan culture.’

See also : The Q Origins Project on bellingcat.

4.30pm, Thursday, October 7, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

• 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! #088 w Cristina Moreno-Almeida on Memes and the Moroccan Far-Right : September 30, 2021

Posted on September 28, 2021 by @ndy

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah Pasaran! we talk to Cristina Moreno-Almeida, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow researching Digital Cultures in Morocco and the author (with Paolo Gerbaudo) of Memes and the Moroccan Far-Right (The International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 26, No.4, October 2021).

4.30pm, Thursday, September 30, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

• 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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CFMEU, broken windows, grifters, plague rats, workers’ solidarity …

Posted on September 23, 2021 by @ndy

[Update (September 29) : The plague rats have today obtained a qualified victory, as CFMEU outbreak: President tests positive, Setka in isolation, Michael Fowler and Ben Schneiders, The Age.]

… and more besides.

Just a brief note to let you know that I wrote something for Overland titled ‘Constructing a narrative: the CFMEU protest and the far right’ (September 23, 2021). I may add a little more detail here when I can, but also of interest are:

• Understanding the right wing attack on the CFMEU, Tommy Lawson, Red & Black Notes (September 22)
• Against capitalism, against the pandemic: our stance on the current crisis, Black Flag Sydney (September 22)
• Inside three days of rage in Melbourne, Ben Hillier, Red Flag (September 23)
• Melbourne anti-lockdown protests are a disorganised mess, Tom Tanuki, Independent Australia (September 23)

*September 24, and a few more articles of interest:

• Has solidarity succumbed to the rise of rage?, Waleed Aly, The Age
• Covid, the Left and radical democracy, Jeff Sparrow, Overland
• Far-right throws up new challenges for unions, Sue Bolton, Green Left Weekly
• Just 1pc of workers on major building sites are anti-vaxxers, David Marin-Guzman and Patrick Durkin, Australian Financial Review (September 23)
• I’m a construction worker—the protesters don’t speak for me, Ryan Stanton, Red Flag

*September 25:

• Nazis prey on the disenfranchised and angry. So does News Corporation, Dave Milner The Shot (September 24)
• Workers’ rights or the far right: who was behind Melbourne’s pandemic protests?, Michael McGowan, The Guardian

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Yeah Nah Pasaran! #087 w Sophie Bjork-James on White Evangelicalism : September 23, 2021

Posted on September 22, 2021 by @ndy

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah Pasaran! we talk to Sophie Bjork-James [Twitter], an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University and the author of The Divine Institution: White Evangelicalism’s Politics of the Family (Rutgers University Press, 2021), which ‘provides an account of how a theology of the family came to dominate a white evangelical tradition in the post-civil rights movement United States, providing a theological corollary to Religious Right politics’.

4.30pm, Thursday, September 23, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

See also : What is the Narnia-inspired Caldron Pool and is it fomenting ‘Christian nationalism’ in Australia?, Tory Shepherd, the Guardian, September 22, 2021 | Sins of the Father: ‘The investigation into the dark past of Frank Houston doesn’t stop. There’s much more digging to do.’, David Hardaker, Crikey, June–September, 2021 | Scott Morrison Is a New Kind of Australian Prime Minister: An Evangelical Christian, Rick Rojas, The New York Times, August 27, 2018 | Voting for Jesus: Christianity and politics in Australia, Amanda Lohrey, Quarterly Essay, No.22, June 2006.

• Please note that the podcast version of this episode contains a longer discussion with Sophie.
• 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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A Brief Guide To The Australian Far Right (September 2021 Edition)

Posted on September 16, 2021 by @ndy

aw geez

I last updated this guide in July 2020. At the time, I declared 40 different groups and projekts — holdovers from April 2019 — effectively defunct, though it should be admitted that at least one of these — the blog/Facebook page ‘Australian Protectionist Party’ (AKA Taswegian Andrew Phillips) — continues its zombie shuffle, and while the racist dogs of ‘The Convict Report’ were put down following nazi shenanigans inside the NSW Young Nationals, happily, the podcast has been replaced with another, ‘The Racer’s War on Everything’ (sponsored by YouTube).

Curiously, while The Dingoes starred George Christensen and Mark Latham, The Racers can boast an interview with The Syrian Girl AKA Maram Susli, ‘the Damascus regime’s biggest fangirl on social media—at least in English language social media’.

Recent changes to the rules governing party registration (via the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration Integrity) Act 2021) require that, inter alia, political parties without parliamentary seats must treble their membership lists from 500 to 1,500 to remain officially registered. This may endanger the registration of Jim Saleam’s ‘Australia First Party’ and Kim Vuga’s ‘Love Australia Or Leave’ party. And while ‘Yellow Vest Australia’ (YVA, née ‘Australian Liberty Alliance’ or ALA) was de-registered in September 2020, its Facebook properties have simply re-branded as Canadian propagandist network ‘Rebel News’ and redeployed to boost the career of convicted spousal abuser and serial pest Avi Yemini.

In general, while the milieu/gutter/swamp out of which Reclaim et. al. emerged in 2015 has remained a pool of glistening, principally online talent, its membership has evolved, with some leading elements embracing neo-Nazism and explicit White supremacist doctrines. Others — especially following the collapse of ALA/YVA, Cory Bernardi’s Conservatives and Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party (CNP) — have returned to the PHONy and Tory fold. For a useful summary of some critical aspects of this (d)evolution, see : The Rise of the Fascist Cadre: Shifts in Far-Right Organising in Australia, C-REX – Center for Research on Extremism, May 18, 2021:

Jordan McSwiney examines the state of the far right in Australia today, tracing its evolution through three recent phases of organising. Beginning with a series of protest mobilisations and followed by a period of electoral growth, the Australian far right is today increasingly coalescing around more extreme and potentially terroristic neo-Nazi cells, raising significant concerns for Australian security.

In terms of media and propaganda, while The Unshackled and XYZ blogs, among numerous other right-wing propaganda outlets, continue to generate a smol number of clicks, the decision by NewsCorpse management to make Sky News Australia an Antipodean Fox News has to some extent eclipsed their appeal among local racists. On the other hand, just as Sky (and NewsCorpse properties generally) shift further to the right, political activists and propagandists on the fringes are blessed with opportunities to assume increasingly ‘extreme’ positions.

Of course, the other critical development affecting the far-right in Australia is the COVID pandemic. Oodles has been published on this subject and there’s little of value I can add to it, but briefly, the general attitude has been one of extreme skepticism and denial, the encouragement of various forms of conspiracist claims regarding the origins and effects of the virus, and opposition to the various public health measures state authorities have implemented in response. In this, rather fertile environment, numerous grifters have been at work, armed with varying degrees of ideological coherence but frequently lending themselves to far-right perspectives. (See : Tom Tanuki @ Independent Australia.)

Finally: I’ve paid less attention to the important role of various forms of Christian fun-da-mentalist thought in informing, supporting and advancing reactionary politics in Australia; post-Christchurch, there’s been a smol explosion of academic interest in the far-right. This work is often (though not always) an extension of state-centric ‘counter-terror’ discourse from the ‘religious’ to the ‘ideological’ domain and proceeds, almost invariably, from some underlying — sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit — commitment to ‘liberal democracy’, with a strong emphasis (frequently under-theorised) on ‘social cohesion’. Not exactly my cup of tea, then, but still important.

Anyway …

Please note that while this list aims to be reasonably comprehensive, it is not exhaustive.

Adelaide Institute
A leading source of Holocaust denial, following the death of Fred Töben in March 2020, earlier this year the Institute website went kaput, and it appears far from certain that the corpse can be re-animated.

Australia First Party (AFP)
Still the central avenue for White nationalism in party-political form, the AFP remains firmly ensconced in the Tempe HQ belonging to its leader, Jim Saleam. Always at pains to distance himself and his party from allegations of ‘nazism’, a war of words has been going on between Saleam and the ‘National Socialist Network’ (NSN), which is viewed as being a potential ASIO honeypot. Consequently, while imprisoned NSN fuehrer Tom Sewell previously sought counsel from The Old Man, there’s little love lost between the pair or their followers. The AFP regularly contests elections, with little success and, given recent legislation, would seem to be in danger of de-registration. Their next electoral bout takes place in December, when Lili Orrock will be joined by Michelle Burgess in a ding-dong battle for a seat representing the East Ward of Penrith City Council.

Australian Council of Nationalists (ACON)
ACON is the successor organisation to (and to be confused with) the ‘Australian Coalition of Nationalists’, and was formed in late 2019 as a grouping comprising the AFP, ‘British Israel World Federation’ (BIWF), ‘Love Australia Or Leave’ and several blogs (Ironbark Resources, National Independent and New Australian Bulletin). A notable departure between times was ‘Nationalist Alternative’ (NAlt), which was instead largely incorporated into the AFP’s enimies in ‘The Lads Society’/NSN. Since last year, Ironbark Resources blog would seem (?) to have departed the Council, while Matthew Grant’s ‘Australian Natives Association’ has joined it.

Australian League of Rights (ALOR)
The ALOR (1960–) remains the cranky and somewhat daggy aunt and uncle of the Australian far right. “God, Queen & Country!” is its slogan — and it’s very dubious about the role of (((You Know Who))) in world affairs — but it otherwise remains within the orbit of (more) mainstream reactionary politics, with a strong emphasis on the doctrine of ‘Social Credit’. It used to have a bookshop in Russell Street, Melbourne but its centre of gravity is now in Adelaide. (Moving to 126 Russell Street in 1975, The Theosophical Society — an unrelated organisation — relocated to its current home at 234 Flinders Lane in 2021.) See also : Eric Butler.

Australian Natives Association (ANA)
Last edition, I got an angwy email from Some Guy castigating me for not including the ANA — Matthew Grant’s new project after the ‘Eureka Youth League’ collapsed — and so here it is. Like AFP and as its name suggests, ANA recycles Australian labourism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with a strong emphasis on its white nationalist dimensions. While Grant is based in NSW, the ANA claims members in Melbourne and elsewhere.

(The) Australian Vanguard
He’s a very cranky man, but I thought I may as well give a shout-out to Raymond Foster last time around and will do so again. Armed with a terrific beard and a devotion to nazi politics, Foster would appear to be quite dedicated to building a small White kvlt by way of merch and as part of the YouTube Nazi Army. Last year, Foster made a special guest appearance in Serious vilification and hate crime: The need for legislative reform, published by the Cohesive Communities Coalition (which bases its account on an ECAJ Anti-Semitism Report). One of numerous cooked units inhabiting the extreme-right fringe.

Blood & Honour (B&H)
The neo-Nazi muzak network is still carrying on … and on … and on. Tightly-bound to the Southern Cross Hammerskins, this dynamic duo organises a gig every year in Melbourne to commemorate the good nazi Ian Stuart Donaldson. 2019’s gig got some attention in the media, and an article in The Age declared, somewhat bizarrely, it never happened (but it did). The 2020 celebration of the dead bonehead was delayed by the pandemic, and 2021’s too. See also : 9% Productions.

British Israel World Federation (BIWF)
Another crankypants organisation whose heyday was back in the early 1900s. TLDR : ‘The people of the British Isles are “genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants” of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel.’ Apparently, there’s a bloke in Victoria and another in Queensland what believes this stuff. And in terrific news for British-Israelites, the Victorian mob is organising a gathering at Grace Chapel in Archies Creek on the weekend of September 23–25 this year!

Christian Identity (CI)
Last year I wrote that CI are ‘obscure religious cranks what I assume are still kicking, but could possibly be scratched’. It remains much more of a thing in the US, where according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, CI is ‘a unique antisemitic and racist theology that rose to a position of commanding influence on the racist right in the 1980s’. According to Charlotte Mears, ‘… the Kingdom of Heaven ministry, a branch of the Christian Identity movement … bases their views on Eve as seen through the ‘Seed Theory’, a racist doctrine that claims only white humanity was created by the union of Adam and Eve.’ (See : ‘The Far Right and Women’s History’ in Far-Right Revisionism and the End of History, Louie Dean Valencia-García (editor), Routledge, 2020.) Note that this particular seed is unrelated to the recent crop of Starseeds, but is about as broeken.

Christian Separatist
AKA Ken Cratchley. An obscure crypto-religious crank that I assumed last time was still kicking, but could possibly be scratched. 2021 : Cratchley is still kicking, and even, it seems, tweeting.

Citizens Electoral Council (CEC)
The name given to the local branch of the La Rouche kvlt, the CEC recently changed the name of its electoral vehicle to the ‘Australian Citizens Party’ (ACP). Largely confined to Melbourne, and with a spot on Channel 31, the CEC/ACP reckons The Queen sells drugs and very fast trains are ace. Or something. 2021 : Still here.

Combat 18 (C18)
More a label than a formal grouping, C18 is (still) responsible for distroing shitty quality B&W stickers around Melbourne town, as it has for umpteen years now. Occasionally, the racist nature of the stickers attracts media attention and more recently one of its members, Dan Newman, allegedly threatened some not-White-enuff-for-his-tastes women outside a stupormarket in Footscray. 2021 : Newman, James Lawrence and Patrick O’Sullivan all got a guernsey in recent reportage about The Nazis Next Door (NSN).

Creativity
AKA a bloke in Adelaide called Cailen Cambeul, who’s ‘presently single and lives alone with his dog, N*gg*r’, along with one or two other losers. Creativity in Australia was once repped by Patrick O’Sullivan, but he’s C18 now apparently, and Cailen and Patrick are no longer frens. Oddly, when Pontifex Maximus Matt Hale was in trouble with the law in the US, Glenn Greenwald was his lawyer; Cambeul was The Creative Pope for a while but in 2021 he is no longer.

Expel the Parasite
South Australian Brett Light continues to pump out nazi propaganda of the entertainingly batshit variety. 2021 : Like erry other nazi, Light reckons COVID Is A Hoax and vaccinations are A (((Communist))) Plot. Ho hum.

Golden Dawn Australia (GD)
In 2021 the political activities of GD in Australia have been much reduced, courtesy both of the pandemic and the organisation being declared criminal in Greece. GD’s Australian franchise continues to distribute their nazi propaganda in Sydney, and has won some support among other Greek communities. In 2020, a formal alliance between GD and AFP appeared to be inert, but they maintain close, fraternal relations, and in 2021 have been joined at various events by Putin fanboy Simeon Boikov and other goons. The Australian GD franchise, like other fascist groupuscules, has also been active in opposing the COVID ‘hoax’ and public health measures.

The Lads Society (TLS)
Following the collapse of Fraser Anning’s CNP, in organisational terms The Lads were more-or-less the logical culmination of Reclaim Australia and the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF), and its leading figure was ex-UPF leader Tom Sewell. In 2021, however, The Lads, having lost their headquarters in Melbourne and Sydney, have basically dissolved into Sewell’s NSN.

Love Australia Or Leave (LAOL)
In 2021, SBS star Kim Vuga has definitely proven to be a stayer, and her course has now naturally brought her (and her hundreds thousands of dingbat followers) fully into the orbit of White nationalism by way of ACON. That said, like AFP, Vuga may struggle to find 1,500 members, even if just 10% of her Facebook followers take advantage of FREE! party memberships and join her in her ongoing quest for more guns and less Muslims.

Nationalist Alternative (NAlt)
Another Melbourne-based groupuscule, NAlt is one of the more enduring fixtures on the far right, and produced Blair Cottrell, Sewell and various other personalities. NAlt’s leader, Mark Hootsen, is (or rather was) also a member of TLS. In 2021, Hootsen & Co. continue to spruik White nationalism, kinda, but like others have largely been eclipsed by the NSN, and Hootsen himself now has A Very British Career to pursue …

National Socialist Network (NSN)
Memorably described by the AFP as being comprised of gangly teens whose entire knowledge of the world comes from social media. Except for the one book they’ve almost all read more than halfway through, Mein Kampf, in August 2021 the NSN starred in an exposé by 9Fairfax (see also : “The NSN is dead! Long live the NSN!”, September 9, 2021). As noted previously, the NSN formed in late 2019/early 2020 after some internal debate over whether to go ‘full nazi’ or stick to pretending to being civil rights advocates for White dudes (see : ‘European Australian Movement’) and thereby maintain some relationship with Ordinary Mums & Dads/The Quiet Australians of tabloid/Tory myth. Since then, its fuehrer Thomas ‘Tom’ Sewell has been imprisoned and awaits trial for assault and various other offences. So too, apparently, does his temporary replacement, Jacob Hersant.

Apart from being publicly exposed, the other potential difficulty facing these budding génocidaires is the proscription of the NSN as a ‘terrorist’ entity: this partially explains why some of the boys have resumed employing the EAM label. They’re also very shirty about the arrests of their kameraden. A recent missive (September 14, 2021) tearfully declares:

Mitchell Priest appears to be guilty of having views that the ruling class hates and little else, just like Thomas Sewell, Jacob Hersant, Simon [‘The Nazi Sparky’] Hickey and Tyler Jakovac. Literally nobody would know about so-called far-right “terrorism” without the lies and synthetic hysteria of system pigs in journalism, police, intelligence agencies and establishment politics. Who has been killed by the far-right? What has been damaged by the far-right? It’s totally artificial and solely aimed at the further disenfranchisement of the masses.

Of course, leaving aside the mass murder committed by their ‘Saint’, whether or not Mitchell Priest — just like Thomas Sewell, Jacob Hersant, Simon Hickey and Tyler Jakovac — are indeed guilty of criminal activity will presumably be determined by the courts; certainly, none have been accused of merely having stoopid ideas. (See also : Bail refused for third man charged after counter-terrorism operation on NSW South Coast, Jessica Clifford, ABC, March 23, 2020.) As to whether or not knowledge of far-right terrorism (outside of the NSN) is critically dependent on meanies in (((The Establishment))): yeah nah.

Beyond proscription, there’s also noises being made by the Victorian government and New South Wales Labor to criminalise the public display of the swastika, sounds which have at least stirred the Institute of Public Affairs to join the NSN/EAM in declaring, in typically understated prose, that such measures constitute ‘the most vicious attack on free speech ever contemplated anywhere in Australia’.

Finally, despite protests to the contrary, it’s hard to imagen that the NSN really appreciated its recent exposure. In any case, the nazis published the video below in response, in which they burn an Aboriginal flag while singing ‘We’ll Have Our Home Again’ (a song by nazi warblers The Mannerbund) and chant ‘Hail Sewell!’.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

New Australian Bulletin (NAB)
An online shitsheet for the AFP, the NAB blog replaced the now-defunct blog ‘United Nationalists Australia’. NAB regularly publishes cranky, tabloid-style treatments of subjects dear to its author(s) heart, and frequently takes aim at the AFP’s enimies on the far right, especially those belonging to a younger generation who’ve signally failed to appreciate Dr Jim Saleam’s political brilliance. 2021 : Nathan Sykes is still carrying on like a pork chop.

One Nation Party (PHONy)
See : Pauline Hanson. Along with former Labor Party leader Mark Latham and space pixie Malcolm Roberts, PHONy is a regular feature on tabloid media, and remains most popular in Queensland (with one member, Stephen Andrew, in the Legislative Assembly). Despite its fairly minimal support outside of The Sunshine State (two MLCs in NSW, Mark Latham and Rod Roberts, and — formerly — two in WA), PHONy plays a very important role in the Australian Senate, and is one of the key links in the chain of anti-environmental and reactionary politics in STRAYA. 2021 : At the May election in West Australia, the PHONy vote plummeted, and Robin Scott, (ex-PHONy) Charles Smith and Colin Tincknell all lost their seats in the Upper House.

Aside from generating sizeable incomes, shits and giggles for Pauline, Mark, Malcolm, Stephen and Rod, PHONy also plays a useful role as a political laboratory for the Tories. Thus, while a PHONy Senate motion in October 2018 to declare the 4chan meme ‘It’s OK To Be White’ the official position of the Australian Senate was narrowly defeated despite government support, in June this year another cracked PHONy attack on ‘critical race theory’ was successful.

And oh yeah: a PHONy candidate in WA was exposed as a recruit to the neo-Nazi terrorist organisation ‘The Base’.

Proud Boys (Australia)
The bastard children of Canuckistanian dingbat Gavin McInnes, the PBs were very soon imported to Australia, but seem to have largely subsided in the last year or two (McInnes tried and failed to mount a speaking tour of Australia several years ago). Given that the group’s presence on Facebook was recently Zucced, it’s unclear how much longer it will be before the Boys grow up, but in the US those who haven’t drifted off have typically drifted into more determinedly radical neo-Nazi and White supremacist groups. 2021 : Speak of The Devil, local Proud Boy Jarrad ‘Jaz’ Searby dumped the Boys in order to join the NSN and teach the Lads how to better punch black and brown faces. See : Gateway Extremism: How Australia’s neo-Nazis use combat sports to radicalize and recruit as ‘Karim Zidan delves into Australia’s far right National Socialist Network and how they weaponize combat sports for recruitment and radicalization’ (Bloody Elbow, August 26, 2021).

Southern Cross Hammerskins (SCHS)
One of the only remaining bonehead crews still kicking, and of some longevity. Associated reich ‘n’ roll band Fortress periodically reforms to play shows in Australia and to much larger audiences in Europe.

The Unshackled (AKA ‘The Unhinged’)
An AltLite/AltRight blog helmed by former Liberal Democrat activist Timmeh! Wilms of Melbourne. Wilms enjoys long walks on the beach at sunset, interviewing right-wing losers, and celebrating right-wing death squads. Indeed, Wilms has seemingly never met a fascist, reactionary or conspiracist kook he hasn’t wanted to talk to, and to that end he’s partnered with various other right-wing micro-celebrities in order to produce propaganda. This includes (or has included) Kiwi Dieuwe de Boer (in a regular feature called ‘Trans-Tasman Talk’), David Hiscox and Matthew Roebuck of XYZ blog (in a CANCELLED! series called ‘The Uncuckables’) and neo-Nazi goon Jarrad ‘Jaz’ Searby in another YouTube gem called ‘The Brawler and The Brain’. Of late, fascist filmmaker Richard Wolstencroft has become a regular feature on Timmeh!’s blog (‘Report From Tiger Mountain’). Wolstencroft is still trying to sell MUFF, but word is slowly (and politely) circulating that ‘The Melbourne Underground Film Festival is *not* a film festival you want your film screening at’.

Women for Aryan Unity (WAU)
A tiny neo-Nazi groupuscule mostly consisting of the wives and girlfriends of boneheads belonging to SCHS. These lovely Aryan ladies publish a zine, maintain a website, and raise funds for neo-Nazis overseas, mostly the remnants of defunct US terrorist grouplet ‘The Order’. 2021 : LL Cool A. Still.

XYZ
XYZ the blog was established several years ago as a political outlet for a handful of cranky local Tories AKA ‘Classical Liberals’. By 2020 it had developed into an antisemitic and White supremacist propaganda organ, featuring the incredible talents of editor David Hiscox, budding neo-Nazi terrorist Ryan ‘Only joking!’ Fletcher, failed journalist Matthew Roebuck and various other angry middle-aged losers. Years of racist and sexist invective on Facebook finally came to an end when Hiscox & Co. made the mistake of publishing some batshit ‘satire’ directed at beloved TV personality Waleed Aly, shortly after which its page finally got Zucced (June 23, 2020). YouTube, however, remains firmly in its corner. 2021 : Roebuck recently quit XYZ after a doctrinal dispute with Hiscox’s very funky and rational kamerad James Fox Higgins, while David himself both: a) featured in the exposé on the NSN and; b) had his YouTube channel — launched shortly after his tearful break-up with Roebuck — become another victim of Cancel Culture.

Sad!

PS. For discussion of QAnon and other, related matters not referenced above, see also : ‘Yeah Nah Pasaran!’. For a recent, Very Good examination of contemporary anti-fascism, see : Post Internet Far Right by 12 Rules for WHAT (Dog Section Press, 2021).

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Yeah Nah Pasaran! #086 w Pam Nilan on Young People and the Far Right : September 16, 2021

Posted on September 14, 2021 by @ndy

*Last week, Cam spoke with Steph Halmhofer about pseudoarchaeology, ancient aliens, Atlantis & the altright.

On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah Pasaran! we talk to Pam Nilan, author of Young People and the Far Right (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021). Pam is Honorary Professor in the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University, and Conjoint Professor (Sociology) at the University of Newcastle.

This book looks at how young people get attracted to the Far Right, especially young white men. We may never know why a young individual ends up there, yet two things are obvious. First, Far Right propaganda appeals to the fantasy imagination and to the emotions. Second, supporting the Far Right is a decision often made by digitally-networked 15-25 year olds looking for answers and wanting to express their anger. However, many later become aware of a yawning gulf between the ideal future they envisioned, and what happens in the here and now. Accounts of the Far Right often focus on terrorist events, plots or extreme acts of violence. However, the emphasis here is on rather ordinary young people and how they get involved in a social movement that promises adventure and belonging. The aim is to better understand how their hate practices are framed and channeled by the persuasive discourse of the Far Right.

See also : Young People and the Far Right.

4.30pm, Thursday, September 16, 2021 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

• 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 NSN is dead! Long live the NSN!”

Posted on September 9, 2021 by @ndy

See also : The UPF and Reclaim Australia aren’t ‘concerned parents’ or a bad joke, Andy Fleming, The Guardian, October 20, 2015 (‘Don’t get sucked in by the hijinks of far-right activists: active neo-Nazis are welcome and hold leadership positions in a movement gaining in appeal’).

Last month, 9Fairfax published an exposé of Australia’s nazi edgelords the National Socialist Network (NSN). It did a good job of not merely highlighting the fact that ‘Yes Virginia, Nazis Do Exist’, but also — crucially — identifying the NSN’s core membership and providing some detail about their lives and loves hates.

Below is some further infos on NSN members identified in the reportage, followed by some more general observations on the group and its current situation.

The NSN’s fuehrer, Thomas ‘Tom’ Sewell, currently languishes on remand in Port Phillip Prison in Truganina. Sewell returns to Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for committal hearings on October 10 and 27. NSN temp fuehrer Jacob Hersant — the Hitler Yoof given responsibility for the grouplet’s OpSec — was allegedly arrested and charged a few days before Nick McKenzie’s reportage dropped but if so, there’s no court listing that I can find. In any case, the dynamic duo are trying to raise funds from their nazi Telegram followers — ostensibly to pay Legal Aid lawyers (?) — but are continuing to experience various, ah, technical difficulties, in doing so.

Sad!

With the two leaders of the NSN rendered impotent, leadership of the group (and responsibility for continuing to pump out its nazi agitprop) has fallen to several of their flunkeys: viz, ex-Proud Boy Jarrad ‘Jaz’ Searby, keyboard worrier David Hiscox and ‘Truth Viking’ Bradley Ingram. Brad was dropping antisemitic troof bombs on the COVIDIOTs who assembled in Melbourne a few weeks ago, while his boofhead mate Brendan Maher was yelling racist abuse at serial pest Avi Yemini. The anti-lockdown/pro-COVID mob remains fertile recruiting grounds for neo-Nazism, but nazis have to battle a range of other grifters for a slice of the political pie.

Leaving aside Alice McNamara (AKA ‘Alice Spazzy’ of The Spazzys and KiddyRock — RIP), a number of other nazi schmucks were named in the reportage:

1) Ari Fink
Ah … apparently Fink is not a Fink, has links to OMCs, works for federal government agencies(!) … and is a seriously wEiRd unit.

2) Bradley Ingram
Along with Sewell and Hersant, Ingram was one of a handful of nazis who lived at the property that ‘The Lads Society’ leased around the corner from their closed bunker in Rowville. Seemingly evicted, Ingram presumably keeps busy plumbing and/or roofing, talking about the impending RaHoWa, and being wistful about apartheid South Africa.

3) Brendan Maher
Maher is a meathead who recently harassed convicted spousal abuser Avi Yemini at an anti-lockdown/pro-COVID rally in Melbourne.

4) Damien Pearce
Pearce’s name has been invoked in the context of shadowy nazi grouplet ‘Battalion 88’ (one of umpteen nazi social media projekts).

5) Dan Newman
A bonehead who now boasts of having links to a nazi prison gang, Newman is a:

senior Australian member of the ultra-violent and secretive international neo-Nazi terror group Combat 18, which has been banned in both Canada and the UK … [and] the National Socialists’ link to skinhead [sic] gangs in Victorian jails. Any network member who found themselves inside had been promised protection … The National Socialists also use Newman to recruit those fresh out of jail, including a fresh-faced young man who confides … that he’s spent years in youth detention.

Sounds legit.

Bizarrely, a veiled reference to Newman (and myself) may be found in ‘The Interplay Between Australia’s Political Fringes On The Right And Left: Online Messaging On Facebook’ (Cécile Guerin, Jacob Davey, Mario Peucker and Thomas J. Fisher, 2020), in which attention is drawn to the fact that Some Body suggested that Newman was a menace. Hence:

… a very small number of comments [on ‘far left’ Facebook pages] alluded to potentially violent acts of defence or retaliation. In one instance, a commentator responded to a post about a local member of a neo-Nazi group who had allegedly ‘intimidated women of colour’ in the local area of Footscray in Melbourne. Seemingly alluding to setting up a local vigilante force, a commentator asked: ‘Any other Footscray locals interested in organising to manage such situations?’

Anyway.

6) Daniel Todisco
Sadly, Crown Casino ‘launched an investigation into [Todisco] after it was revealed the man is part of a neo-Nazi group and boasted about “bossing around the f—g n—-rs” who are his subordinates at the Melbourne casino’. Along with his kingly jerb, it’s unclear if Todisco retains his security licence (582-665-81S). See also : Ben Simmons stands firm on claim of racial profiling at Crown Casino, The Guardian (AAP), October 24, 2019.

7) David Hiscox
The editor of XYZ blog, Hiscox has seemingly abandoned his career (teaching children to tinkle the ivories) in order to become a volunteer in The YouTube Nazi Army. For several years, Hiscox was joined at XYZ by other silly antisemites, including fellow teach David Hilton (now retired?) and — until recently — Matthew Roebuck. Sadly, Christian Soldier Roebuck had a doctrinal dispute with Hiscox’s colleague James Fox Higgins and was then forced to upload a YouTube vid ‘Responding to the Lies and Damnable Heresy of James “False Prophet” Higgins’.

Gosh!

As for Higgins, he’s being attacked by other nazis on the basis that his wife is allegedly Jewish (which is generally considered to be A Very Bad Thing in this corner of YouTube). Armed with a different variety of Christian woo-woo to Roebuck, Higgins has worked alongside PHONy Senator Mark Latham in order to “make libertarianism [sic] sexy”, written for The Spectator in defence of Lauren ‘The Great Replacement’ Southern, and at Liberty Fest 2018:

… James Fox Higgins, a 32-year-old born-again Christian who bemoans the fact that “You can be proud to be Asian or black, but being proud to be white means you’re a Nazi”. Higgins, who has previously accused feminists of “flagrant hypocrisy” for demanding the right to “slut walk” wherever they like without being responsible for their own safety, tells the audience that there is “nothing so powerful as a group of intelligent men with women and daughters they want to protect”.

Speaking of intelligent men with women and daughters they want to protect, Higgins also participated in the 2020 XYZ virtual conference (along with Sewell and Blair Cottrell).

8) Dean Lynch
If nothing else, Lynch’s worship of Odin and A.R. Mills — Mills’ book The Odinist Religion, Overcoming Jewish Christianity ‘extolled a racial pagan view within the context of the British Empire which continues to be used by some neo-Nazi groups to the present day’ — is good for a laff.

9) Jacob Hersant
A racist teenybopper, Hersant soon came into the orbit of nazi groomers like Cottrell and Sewell, joining first Antipodean Resistance and The Lads Society (both now defunct) and then the NSN, where his superb OpSec skills have come in really handy.

10) James Greig
AKA James Jameson. Greig has had his fingers in many nazi pies, including ‘The Base’. Here he is with Queenslander (and former Lad) Grant Fuller:

See also : White supremacist who allegedly scouted abandoned Michigan jails for ‘hate camps’ ordered to stand trial, Steve Neavling, Detroit Metro Times, September 2, 2021.

11) James Lawrence
A troubled bonehead who’s also a member of Combat 18 (apparently). Several years ago, YouTube forced me to remove a phantastic video of Lawrence wishing Herr Hitler a very happy birthday.

12) Jarrad ‘Jaz’ Searby
A recent graduate to neo-Nazism, Searby first made a name for himself in mid-2020 when he tried to sneak across the New South Wales/Victoria border but, while he subsequently failed to raise half-a-million dollars to finance his batshit court case, he’s gone on to bigger and better things, detouring thru the Proud Boys to become a member of the NSN. Searby has even recently obtained a sidekick: Jimmy Mizzi (AKA ‘Jimmy Hittah’).

13) Joel Hawthorne
Another meathead from Queensland, Hawthorne once Marched for South Africa.

14) Michael Edwards
A crankypants nazi, blogger and amateur physicist (who’s inspired by the racist views of Crick, Pierce and Shockley), Edwards reportedly lives outside Bendigo in Goornong; at the 2016 census, Goornong had a population of 654, apparently.

15) Patrick O’Sullivan
A veteran bonehead (and one widely-despised by other boneheads), O’Sullivan is a former Creative turned Combat 18 booster, who’s spent the better part of the last two decades (after being released from prison) chucking up badly-photocopied nazi stickers around town. In 2002, O’Sullivan was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for stabbing another bonehead (also at a party) — which is where he became chums with nazi killer Dane Sweetman. Like his erstwhile kamerad Newman, O’Sullivan specialises in preying on vulnerable yoof to recruit to violent racism.

16) Rhys Morrison
Weirdly, the photo of Morrison used by 9Fairfax to illustrate him in their reportage excludes his face.

17) Ryan Ulf Lindfors-Beswick (AKA Ulf Lehmuskoski, Ulf Lindfors)
Unlike Fink, Lindfors-Beswick is a Fink, apparently. Ulf was also once employed by MSS Security on University campuses, but seems to have lost his security licence somewhere along the way. The extent to which nazis are recruiting from bikies has been the subject of some commentary, though as a rule OMCs have enough on their plate and are generally loathe to attract even moar attention from authorities for ‘political’ stoopid.

18) Steve Zoumis
Along with James Buckle, Zoumis was an officer holder with gun lobby ‘Firearm Owners United’. (And probably shouldn’t have access to guns, in my opinion.)

19) Troy Crockett
Another graduate of the UPF, as noted previously:

Crockett (b.1976) has been kicking it with the boys for some time. In June 2015, he joined the UPF outside the ABC’s offices in Melbourne to protest the appearance of Zaky Mallah on Q&A. Crockett was also one of a dozen men Victoria Police gave permission to force Dandyman to leave Fed Square after the True Blue Crew flagwit parade in June 2018. Crockett is ex-Army Reserve and like other Lads a (former?) member of [Nationalist Alternative].

Crockett currently run a window cleaning business called ‘Eagle Professional’.

20) Tyrel Cameron
A computer geek who may/not be employed by Australia Post (and studies at RMIT). Reportedly, the naming of Cameron caused some ructions within the RMIT Liberal Club.

21) Vinnie O’Neill
O’Neill was until last month employed by a meatworks in Warrnambool. He was reportedly ‘shocked and felt like vomiting when he saw his face on Sunday night’s episode of 60 Minutes‘, and further claimed that “I don’t hold any neo-Nazi or national socialist views, nor do I want to be part of any [K]lan activity. I just see myself as patriotic” — which is an oldie but a goodie. See : Man says he doesn’t hold neo-Nazi views, issues public apology to Warrnambool community, Katrina Lovell, The Standard, August 17, 2021.

*Among those who could have but — sadly — didn’t get a guernsey are Mark Hootsen and Max Wilson.

In general, the NSN continues to trundle along on Telegram, redpilling angwy teens and upset older men with Nazi and Nazi-adjacent news and views. Meanwhile, the ‘European Australian Movement’ (EAM), which was established at about the same time as the NSN, was ostensibly formed in order to provide a more palatable public face for neo-Nazism and the NSN, but in subsequent weeks the distinction between the two, always tenuous, has collapsed. Beyond this, while Tim Wilms of ‘The Unhinged’ blog formed a brief partnership with Searby in order to produce propaganda for YouTube, Hiscox — having separated first from Wilms and then Roebuck — has launched a NEW! smash-hit YouTube series called ‘The David Hiscox Show’.

Oh wait.

In news just to hand, YouTube has DELed David’s channel!

Oh well. There’s always BitChute, Gab, Minds, Odysee, Parler and ah … Slug.

Along with being targeted by (((ASIO))) for repression, another concern expressed by the NSN is proscription. Currently, the federal government’s ‘Inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia’ is considering a range of measures in order to quash ‘extremism’, including Very Angry Tories. Given that in the last few years Canada and the United Kingdom have proscribed various grouplets related to the NSN as ‘terrorist’, this is not unimaginable (though unlikely, in my opinion). Certainly, ‘Victoria is set to become the first state to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika as part of an expansion of anti-vilification laws’, though given that the NSN employs other symbols as substitutes for the swastika, this is unlikely to have any real effect on the groupuscule should it survive its current difficulties.

Of course, whether the NSN survives or not, the milieu which produced it persists, and will undoubtedly throw up further examples of deeply patriotik political associations.

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Help anarchists from Afghanistan escape the Taliban!

Posted on September 2, 2021 by @ndy

[Update (September 5, 2021) : You can donate to the WSF-IWA Afghan Rescue fund directly here.]

Dear comrades,

The seizure of state power by the Taliban has generated an enormous number of refugees: The United Nations has warned that up to half a million Afghans could flee the country by the end of the year and has called on neighbouring countries to keep their borders open. Anarchists in Afghanistan are among those fleeing the Taliban, and an international effort is under way in order to ensure their safe exit and to provide food, medicine and other necessities.

Please contact the sub-secretariat of the ASF-IWA — asia-pacific [at] iwa-ait [dot] org — for further information on how to donate funds to support ongoing efforts to help anarchists from Afghanistan escape the Taliban.

See also : EduPak – Pakistan anarchist education initiative | Workers Solidarity Initiative (Pakistan).

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