Following on from ex-blogger, proprietarian and 2016 Young Lolbertarian of the Year award-winner Senator James Paterson chairing an Inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia — born in December 2020, the Inquiry passed on, is no more, and ceased to be at the dissolution of the House of Representatives in April 2022 — a NEW! inquiry into Right wing extremist movements in Australia has entered into the discourse. Launched into Australian political airspace in December last year, this one is expected to crash back to Earth in December 2024. As I write, almost 30 submissions have been made available for the public to read — or, as is more likely, ignore. Most have been produced by relevant government agencies (AFP, ASIO) and departments (Attorney-General’s, Home Affairs), academic research centres (AVERT, CRIS) and NGOs (AMWCHR, MYAN).
I’m unsure how much attention the inquiry has gained thus far, but ‘active clubs’ gained some in an article by Josh Butler in The Guardian — Australian neo-Nazis must be monitored better, Senate inquiry told (April 4, 2024) — and there’s been a Rise in activity from rightwing extremists who want to trigger ‘race war’ in Australia, Asio warns (April 10, 2024). See also : Inquiry into far-right extremism in Victoria makes 12 recommendations to counter spread, ABC, August 30, 2022.
In other news, the very Active lads of the European Australian Movement/National Socialist Network (EAM/NSN) neo-Nazi Club secured another Total Aryan Victory in the Supreme Court yesterday as Victorian prosecutors lose bid to send neo-Nazis Thomas Sewell and Jacob Hersant back to jail (Kristian Silva, ABC, April 23, 2024). This was not an unexpected outcome. (See also : Thomas Sewell and Jacob Hersant: Neo-Nazis’ courtroom win after hiker attack appeal, Liam Beatty, NCA/news dot com dot au, April 23, 2024.)
Curiously:
There are a number of features which suggest that the offending [the young scamps took part in a group assault/’violent disorder’] was indeed serious in this case. Thus, there were in fact two groups which came together to constitute a larger group of some 10–15 black-uniformed males which ‘set upon’ the innocent hikers so as to intimidate them and force them to hand over their phones. The threat of unlawful violence was particularly serious in circumstances where members of the group were armed with knives, including a hunting knife.
And so on. FWIW, the EAM/NSN popped up again — also armed with knives — in September last year, but were chased away from the event they were actively trying to disrupt. Word on the street is that police are taking a keen interest in investigating those responsible for defending the space.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
See also : Neo-Nazi Who Threatened Journalist With Death Is Sentenced to Prison, Lola Fadulu, The New York Times, April 19/22, 2024 (‘The white supremacist, Nicholas Welker, was sentenced to 44 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in September to conspiring to make interstate threats, prosecutors said. At the time of the threat, which he posted in an online public forum in August 2021, he was the leader of Feuerkrieg Division, a neo-Nazi hate group …’). | Neo-Nazi to face trial in killing of former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein, Ali Winston, The Guardian, April 7, 2024 | Satanist neo-Nazi jailed over terror offences, Daniel De Simone, BBC, March 24, 2024 | Far-right Austrian nationalist banned from Germany after neo-Nazi meeting, Jon Henley, the Guardian, March 20, 2024.
Note that Martin Sellner was a stellar influence on the Christchurch killer and also good chums with Lauren ‘The Great Replacement’ Southern, whose 2018 tour (with Race IQ Guy Stefan Molyneux) was happily-promoted by local Murdoch properties and whose security detail was provided by EAM/NSN (née The Lads Society): YUGE fans of St Tarrant. By the same token, Feuerkrieg Division was one of many groupuscules generated by Iron March, which in Australia was where Antipodean Resistance (now folded into the EAM/NSN), was also born.
As for our budding Führer, when An Hero Mr Hitler was convicted of high treason in April 1924, sentenced to five years and declared eligible for parole in 6 months, it was one of the most productive periods in his life, during which he cranked out Mein Kampf. In which case, I expect Mr Sewell to at least produce a pamphlet or two containing his own dramatic Bildungsroman about surviving the tough streets of Balwyn.
Finally, The ethics of researching the far right: Critical approaches and reflections, edited by Antonia Vaughan, Joan Braune, Meghan Tinsley and Aurelien Mondon (Manchester University Press) has just dropped, while Genealogies of Antifascism: Militancy, Critique, and the Three Way Fight by D.Z. Shaw (Kersplebedeb) is released next month and Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism by Shane Burley and Ben Lorber comes out in June.
