I did an interview with vice. You can read it here.
A few comments:
• “Trolling” isn’t the most accurate term to describe my blogging and other activity aimed at the far right but hashtag whatever.
• FightDemBack! deserves some credit/blame for my blogging.
• A comparison of the the extreme right in Australia, the UK and US is a useful exercise, especially in light of the fact that Australia and the US are products of British colonialism. In the US context, the legacy of slavery plays a crucial role in shaping contemporary US politics, as does the White Australia policy in the Australian context. On race and politics, I recommend Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People (W.W. Norton & Co., 2010), The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen, published by Verso (Volume One (1994) is sub-titled ‘Racial Oppression and Social Control’; Volume Two (1997) ‘The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America’) and (for Australia) ‘The Power of Whiteness’ (1998) and ‘Whiteness and Blackness in the Koori Struggle for Self-Determination’ (1999) by Gary Foley and the work of Alana Lentin and The Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association (ACRAWSA).
Otherwise, Golden Dawn in Greece and Jobbik in Hungary arguably belong to another category of politics than do the ‘Tea Party’ phenomenon in the US or the Independence Party in the UK (or One Nation in Australia). On the far right, see : A tentative table on far-right radicalism, The Murphy Raid, December 9, 2012.
• On racism in Australia, attitudes have been shaped, crucially, by its status as a (former) colony, the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples, and a long history of commitment to Australia being a White outpost of British Empire in the Asia-Pacific region. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to understand racial discourses without reference to this history or its contemporary reality, whether expressed as bipartisan support for mandatory detention or the chronic incapacity of the state and its legal and political instrumentalities to recognise Indigenous sovereignty.
hey there,
ben bailey of asgardmusik.net put on two racist metal events here in tassie over the easter break. i had tried to stop them from happening but two silly excuses frustrated me to some degree:
1. neo-nazis have the right to free speech, and if we were to stop them from expressing themselves, then they would go further underground
2. there’s no substantial evidence to prove that these events are racist
i even directed sceptical people to the silly views of his band Kill the Kristiands on encyclopaedia metallum and also provided evidence of ben bailey expressing his angry racism on Nuclear War Now. he was pissed off after ‘someone’ had shut down his first website.
nevertheless, some people involved in social/enviro justice organisations were kind enough to listen me.
hope all is well with you and keep up the good fight.
ps you’re still a slack bastard
Quote: “He’s received countless threats and [racial abuse] from them…”
Disregarding that bit of comic relief I just read, aren’t you White, Andy? If you’re not, then someone knows who you really are. If you are then how can you be racially abused? It’s all very silly, Andy.
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