antifa notes (june 16, 2010)

newchum replied to Brad of Bentleigh
Mon 17 May 10 (03:31pm)

Hmm … just a few thoughts on Howes being labelled a ‘former Trotskyite’. The quote comes from that authoritive [sic] site, ‘slackbastard’, a left of anything-logical site that would normally be derided by followers of St Andrew (and rightly so, the lad who runs it seems unencumbered by reasoning), but which today we take as gospel, because it has a quotation that suits us…

Australia

Jock Palfreeman is a 23-year-old Australian serving a 20-year term in a Bulgarian prison after being convicted, in December 2009, of the crimes of murder and attempted murder. Jock has always maintained that he acted in self-defence when, in December 2007, he witnessed two Roma men being violently assaulted by a group of fascist hooligans and intervened on their behalf, resulting in the death of one attacker and injury to another. His sentence is currently subject to an appeal. In Sydney, an action and film screening in support of Jock took place during the past week. Several days ago, on June 15, it was announced that last Thursday (June 10), Jock was, after many months, released from solitary confinement, and into the general prison population.

News of Jock’s case is slowly reaching a broader audience, and generating interest among sympathetic groups within and outside Australia and Bulgaria. There is also evidence of increasing concern among the Bulgarian public regarding the incidence of racially-motivated violence in the country, and the need for action.

Bulgarian trial ordeal worsens
Boel Eriksson
North Shore Times
June 10, 2010

JOCK Palfreeman, serving 20 years in Bulgaria for murder, could die in prison if prosecutors go ahead with a planned appeal.

The former Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview, student was found guilty in December of murdering Bulgarian law student Andrei Monov, 20, and wounding Anton Zahariev, 19, in a fight in 2007.

Palfreeman’s lawyers lodged an appeal within a week of the December verdict, saying it was based on incorrect evidence.

His brother Spencer Palfreeman said the family was expecting an appeal for a life sentence without parole from the prosecution, after the newly-released written judgement showed Palfreeman had been found guilty of murder by hooliganism.

Spencer said this had led the prosecution to claim the 20-year sentence had “not been harsh enough”, but they were yet to get a formal confirmation of an appeal.

“We’re not even angry, it’s just laughable,” he said. “We haven’t even had a chance to translate the statement from Bulgarian to English yet.”

Palfreeman’s lawyers would seek an amended verdict because the trial and documentation had been faulty, Spencer said.

He said police statements from Monov and Zahariev’s friends who witnessed the fight, some of which had initially supported Palfreeman’s story, had been changed twice.

A list of identically-written statements from each one of them claiming Palfreeman was guilty had been presented at the trial, and prosecution had refused to allow the initial statements to be shown, Spencer said.

“The verdict was not based on the truth to begin with,” he said. “Complete changes were made in statements.”

For moar infos on Jock’s case and how you can help secure justice for Jock, please see freejock.net.

See also : ACTION ANTIFASCISTE PARIS [French] (Source: Il sauve la vie d’un Rom : 20 ans de prison…, Eric Simon, basta!, juin 4, 2010) | Bristol ABC | You can read moar about Jock’s case in German @ the Syndikalismus.tk site, FAU Stuttgart blog and in the February 2010 edition of the ABC Berlin news bulletin. An Italian translation of Eric Simon’s article is available here.

RaHoWa!

In local (and much more amusing) news, teenage fascist Scott Harrison has formally abandoned his short-lived attempt to pose as an ‘anarchist’ online, and instead thrown in his lot with the bizarros belonging to the Church of Creativity. The shift has proven to be an enormous boon to the Church in Victoria which, with the addition of Scott’s girlfriend, has catapulted its membership from 0 to 2. Sadly, Creativity’s gain is national anarchism’s loss, with another teenager, this one from Hamilton, left holding the bag. Undaunted by this setback, ‘National Anarchists AUS/NZ’ have recently taken to the kitchen to extoll the revolutionary potential of baking bread: “The more we take power away from government, corporations, and other outsiders, the more that our folk and community can benefit.” Or: “We must secure the existence of our bakeries and a future for White bread” [nationalanarchistausnz.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/bread/].

Of course, by siding with one of the two tiny splinters in the Church in Australia, Scott has effectively alienated its most vocal proponent, fellow/rival Reverend Patrick O’Sullivan. Fortunately perhaps, given O’Sullivan’s habit of sticking knives into other racialists, Scott is in Geelong, while Patrick stalks Melbourne. (See also : antifa notes (march 29, 2010).)

Speaking of knives — well, guns, actually — one of the three men police have accused of involvement in ‘Combat 18’ (and shooting at a mosque in Perth) is Bradley Trappitt. Bradley is innocent until proven guilty, obviously; curiously, he’s also friends with Welf Herfurth, the ‘leader’ of the dwindling ranks of ‘national anarchists’ in Australia. Like seemingly ever other Jew-hatin’ Australian, Trappitt (‘Aussie_Knight’) posted on the White supremacist website Stormfront (joining in November 2004), contributing some very moving poetry [stormfront.org/forum/t206672/] while also taking the opportunity to riff on some neglected aspects of modern German history: “You want to know who started the War… THE JEWS[!]” [stormfront.org/forum/t162628-6/#post1470826].

As for Herfurth, he’s also a Holocaust denialist, and in September — as Aryan Master of Racial Ceremonies — plans on welcoming to Australia fellow denialist Paul Fromm. Fromm is a Canadian, and like Herfurth has a long history of involvement in fascist organisations: last year he marched alongside the neo-Nazi ‘Aryan Guard’. In the United States, Fromm has been welcomed as an expert by Fox News but, given the difficulties Herfurth’s German kameraden have had in the past in entering the country — as well as those experienced by British figures such as Nick Griffin and David Irving — whether or not Australian authorities allow Fromm into the country is an open question.

In either case, the meeting which Fromm has been invited to address is the Sydney Forum, organised by members of the Australia First Party (and a handful of other racist cranks). This year’s event will undoubtedly be an interesting affair, and besides the question of Fromm’s attendance, the main item of interest will be which Sydney RSL club will have the privilege of boasting it provides a platform for neo-Nazis? Last year, Petersham RSL claimed the prize (past winners have included Bexley and Eastwood RSLs).

Notwithstanding the above, congratulations must go to the ‘Australia First Party’ on achieving Federal registration. The party is participating in local elections later this month, and will now be able to participate in state and Federal elections under its own brand.

Russia

On May 23, in the city of Ryazan, 25-year-old anti-fascist activist Kostya Lunkin [Konstantin Lukin] was ambushed by a group of neo-Nazis outside of his home. Beaten into a coma, Lunkin died in hospital on May 31, never having regained consciousness. Despite the existence of witnesses willing to testify against local neo-Nazis, police have been reluctant to bring charges, or to recognise the murder as being political in nature. In this sense, the investigation of Kostya’s murder by police follows a similar pattern to that of others, although the situation is complicated by the apparent fact that the father of one of the accused occupies an important position in the Russian government.

Also on May 23 (or possibly May 24), 28-year-old Moscow resident Dmitry Kashitsyn was attending a birthday party when it was attacked by a large group of neo-Nazis, armed with bottles, knives and other items. One of several party-goers injured, Kashitsyn died after being repeatedly stabbed; his father died of a heart attack a few days later.

Kostya and Dmitry join a long list of victims of fascist violence in the last few years, including but not limited to anti-fascist activists such as Iván Khutorskoy, Stanislav Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Alexander Riukhin, Alexey Krylov and Feodor Filatov. The deaths of these men and women are in addition to an even longer list of immigrant and ethnic minority workers murdered by Russian fascists. In a statement expressing solidarity with Russian activists, antifascists in Spain note that:

One of the strongest international organizations in Russia is Blood and Honour. They possess a paramilitary structure, based on lessons taught to its leaders in the Balkans wars, and a large accumulation of weapons. Their modus operandi is the pursuit, capture and murder of ethnic, immigrant and related minorities and leftists. It has an action group called ‘Combat 18’. Recently, the group claimed that it would launch a wave of terror like that which occurred when a bomb was placed on a train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg… 39 persons died.

~ Solidaridad internacional con los antifascistas rusos, Coordinadora Antifascista de Granada, June 14, 2010

Deeply wary of the political possibilities presented by an emergent, militantly anti-fascist movement, the Russian state has responded by way of increasing prosecutions against selected fascist groups, while simultaneously cracking down on their opposition. Among the victims of this crackdown is the Moscow hardcore band What We Feel, which announced its dissolution in February, and blamed the government’s newly-enacted anti-extremism laws.

For moar infos on fascist crimes in Russia and neighbouring territories, please see Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union | avtonom.org. See also : Russia’s beleaguered anti-fascists, Vlad Tupikin, Open Democracy, September 2, 2009.

“¡Ay, ay, ay, no me gusta!” Boneheads on trial in Spain

In Spain, 18 (or possibly 19) members of the local Blood & Honour (Sangre y Honor) franchise are on trial, accused of inciting racial hatred and possessing illegal weapons. Last year, their comrades in the local Hammerskin franchise were unfortunate to have their association declared unlawful by the courts. (As in Australia, Hammerskins work very closely with B&H, who are holding their next mini-Nuremberg rally in Melbourne in September). According to the prosecution, inter alia, members of the group called for “seis millones de judíos más a la cámara de gas” (“six million more Jews to the gas chamber”) at a gig in February 2005. If found guilty, the boneheads face up to five years in jail for belonging to an association whose sole purpose is to ‘promote discrimination’ and to realise Hitler’s vision of a ‘White Europe’ (see : Blood and Honour es “violenta y peligrosa”, según la fiscal, El País, June 10, 2010).

Funnily enough, one of the accused, Jorge Vivar, is a police officer, who even posed for a police calendar! (See : El PP no abre expediente informativo a un miembro del grupo neonazi Blood and Honour que sigue trabajando de policía, elplural.com, June 17, 2010.) A key initiator of the legal action against B&H is the Movimiento contra la Intolerancia (see : Juicio al Odio Neonazi, May 24, 2010).