2007 Sydney Forum : Phantasy vs. Reality

Uh-oh, spaghetti-o.

This year’s Sydney Forum — Australia’s premiere gathering of teenaged fascists, middle-aged white supremacists, elderly neo-Nazi pensioners, anti-Semitic lunatics, conspiracists, cranks and “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” racists of all ages — is shaping up to be a corker, a ding-dong battle between the various mobs that comprise the far right milieu, all of whose beady eyes will be fixed on the one, glittering prize: control of the Australia First Party!

Well, that and the thermos.

Founded in 1996, the Australia First Party functions as a political refuge for those on the racist fringe who want to go ‘straight’; that is, to contest, and perhaps even win, an election to public office. Thus far, however, the results have not been terribly encouraging: only one member of the party, Bruce Preece, has won an election — and then only to a local council, in Adelaide, and all the while maintaining silence over his membership of and support for a racist party.

A further complicating factor for the party has been the sudden emergence of Pauline Hanson, the rise of her party One Nation, and the equally rapid decline of both. The effective demise of One Nation, then, has opened up some small space in the political market for Australia First. Moreover, the explosion of racist sentiment in Cronulla in December 2005 was widely expected to trigger at least some resurgence in the party’s ranks, however modest that surge might be. The fact that no such resurgence has taken place has put a great deal of pressure on the leadership of the party, and tensions within it, and among the far right generally, have been building since then. This year’s seventh annual Sydney Forum — planned for the last weekend in August — is therefore widely tipped to experience a blowout.

The Establishment

Control of the Australia First Party is concentrated in the hands of the National Council, and the incumbents are centred around the Old Man of fascist politics in Australia, Dr. James Saleam. Saleam has had a political stranglehold on the party for some years now, one which commenced after Graeme Campbell ditched it upon its creation in 1996. Since then, while Diane Teasdale, the racist country bumpkin from Shepparton, Victoria, has been President — and hence the formal leader of the party — Saleam has functioned as the de facto Fuehrer from his bunker in Tempe, Sydney (the same location from which, prior to his imprisonment in 1991, Saleam controlled the precursor to Australia First, National Action).

Saleam’s closest ally, at this stage, appears to be his old mate Ross ‘The Skull’ May, another jailbird — one without a doctorate — but, unlike Herr Doktor, one still happy to prance about Sydney town dressed in swastikas. Indeed, it’s partly as a result of May’s continuing close association with Saleam that many Australia First members — who aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed — have begun to question the wisdom of having Saleam continue to function as de facto leader and spokesperson. Adding weight to the bid to unseat Saleam is the ongoing saga surrounding his ethnicity (one occasioning his banishment from Stormfront for being not-quite-white), and, most recently, President Teasdale’s decision to re-assert her control over the party’s Internet presence.

‘A woman scorned’ and all that.

East Coast vs. West Coast

    Yes I rips up the West, I’m the best, I’m no jokin’
    I run up shit creek and freak the backstroke
    So Baron freak it, provide the funk alligator
    Yo I’m out but “I’ll be back” like Schwarzenegger

    ~ MC Jamahl

The other drunken fool directly competing with Saleam for possession of the bag of shit that is Australia First is David Innes, known on Stormfront as ‘Baron Von Hund’. He’s from the West Coast and, given the recent incarceration of leading figures from the Australian Nationalists Movement — and the retirement from political activism of other, lesser figures such as Ben Weerheym — Innes, together with his partner (and Stormfront moderator) Lilith Peterson and brother Paul (‘Steelcap Boot’), as well as a small circle of others, have become the public face of White supremacy in West Australia. The group gathered around the Innes brothers base their ideology on the teachings of David Duke, and are the chief proselytizers of Don Black‘s model of racist organising, a model of organising which seeks to ‘mainstream’ white supremacy and shed the neo-Nazi imagery long associated with it. In this endeavour, Innes has also formed an alliance with members of the party in Newcastle.

Not everyone is happy with this development, of course. For example, according to Jim Perren, Innes is responsible for alienating a large number of boneheads from online forums such as Stormfront, and — especially given the short-lived White Pride Coalition of Australia‘s supposed coinage of the term — to have done so in the name of ‘White nationalism’ is an even worse crime. Perren also alleges that Innes has acted as an informant, providing information on the membership and activities of far right groups and individuals to the anti-racist network FightDemBack! In fact, Perren draws an explicit comparison between Innes and FightDemBack!, arguing that they should be regarded as roughly equivalent threats to the cause of ‘White nationalism’.

It is unclear, at this stage, to what extent Perren’s problems with Innes are shared by his kameraden, especially those clustered around groups such as Australian New Nation (a kind of successor to the WPCA). So too, the success of Innes’ attempts to establish a willing coterie of followers in Australia; his attempts to milk some of them of their money — ostensibly so that he and the missus might travel from Perth to Sydney for the Forum — met with some degree of success, but merely sparked derision in others. The monthly BBQs he holds at his house in the Perth foothills gather together a small number of the willing, but even these events, it should be noted, were — according to Perren anyway — originally the result of the efforts of members of the WPCA, a coalition Innes derided.

Extras

We Are… the League

Oddball Queensland racist, Wagnerite and tennis player John Drew is all that remains of the ‘Patriotic Youth League’, an abortive attempt by Australia First to establish a youth wing. Drew has declared his hostility towards the Victorian grandmother, as well as his desire to help unseat her from her Presidency, but whether this means he’ll throw his meagre weight behind Saleam or Innes is unknown at this stage. Success at establishing a branch of the party in Brisbane before the gathering in August would add to his puny muscle, but being widely regarded as something of a crackpot — even among racists — does little to instill confidence.

    Note that one of the casualties of Innes’ purges of the more openly neo-Nazi elements has been the Brisbane bonehead contingent, who have withdrawn en masse (well, all three(?) of them) from Stormfront. Whether this is truly a loss for von Hund’s tendency is uncertain, however, as what the small group contributed in terms of militancy was perhaps cancelled out by its general incompetence, quasi-criminal status, and — not coincidentally — very limited appeal to the masses.

Free snags, no tabouli

Cronulla videographer Martin Fletcher, one of the younger, Sydney-based members of the party, has also denounced Saleam’s involvement in Australia First, and shares the seemingly widespread opinion that it would be far preferable for the party to continue to wander in the political wilderness unburdened by his peculiar form of guidance. Also wandering in the wilderness is Darrin Hodges, or the ‘Anglo-Australian National Community Council’ as he prefers to be known. In news that has rocked fascist trainspotters, Hodges has recently been expelled from the party — according to him, because some posts on his blog ‘may bring the party into disrepute’. Which just goes to show that even fascists have a sense of humour.

Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Gestapo.
Gestapo who?
Ve vill ask ze questions!

One of the wildcards at The Forum will be MC Welf Herfurth. Herfurth has enjoyed strictly disciplining these sometimes slightly haphazard annual gatherings of Australian fascists for six years now, and during this period has developed a close relationship with Herr Doktor, the principal organiser. On the other hand, Herfurth is also a close acquaintance of Innes, and together the two are struggling, in a manner befitting Aryan Übermensch, to establish a New Reich in Australia and New Zealand (Aotearoa). And which way the Holocaust-denying German jumps may have a crucial impact on the final outcome.

See also : A Neo-Nazi Field Trip to the Met, “White supremacists from across the country gather in New Jersey and New York for barbecue and culture”, Maria Luisa Tucker, Village Voice, June 12, 2007

    Hitler visits a lunatic asylum. The patients give the Hitler salute. As he passes down the line he comes across a man who isn’t saluting.
    “Why aren’t you saluting like the others?” Hitler barks.
    “Mein Führer, I’m the nurse,” comes the answer. “I’m not crazy!”

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
This entry was posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, State / Politics. Bookmark the permalink.

26 Responses to 2007 Sydney Forum : Phantasy vs. Reality

  1. Darrin Hodges says:

    Actually it’s the ‘Anglo-Australian National Community Council’ not ‘Anglo Australian National Civic Council’. And apparently Teasdale doesn’t seem to think there is a problem with the party being represented by a criminal lunatic who thinks Saddam was a top bloke.

    Apparently he has brokered some deal with Jim Cassidy (NSW state president of ON) who will bring the tail of ON into the AFP fold and will become the NSW State Councilor. Jimbo will be moving on to the role of ‘National Organiser’, which in his own words, will allow him to ‘circuit Diane’. Jimbo’s Phantasy or Reality? Who knows?

    http://voiceoftheshire.blogspot.com/2007/06/saleams-lot-part-one.html

  2. @ndy says:

    I’ll correct the post to read Community. Must’ve had Santamaria on the brain.

  3. KinkyBoy says:

    You sound like an Oliver CromWellian Kollaborator with your deference to Jewish causes Darrin, the most pressing of them all being the deconstruction of European communities through indiscriminate immigration of any and all who want to come. This suits both starry eyed Anarchist classists and Internationalist global slavers who value a body only by its ability to perform tasks that profit the slaver.
    The Jew and his Masonic Noahides want you and us all to despise the Muslim because he wants us to approve or fight a war in the Middle East for Greater Israel while they sit it out safely on the sidelines. You must know this, but still peddle the same Islamo-Fascism shit that would have been doing the rounds pre WWII but with a Germanic flavour.
    Too often, stupid Whites swallow these ideological turds and share them around with friends. Meanwhile immigration policy remains unchanged and the deconstruction continues unabated while we’re all distracted by the carefully crafted Islamic threat.

  4. Lets just bomb the fare right. It makes it easy to deal with it if we just kill Darrin and put him in a cage in Africa. Why get up John Drew he is a great man and I like his ideas.

  5. Darrin Hodges says:

    Whatever ‘kinkyboy’, I don’t have a ‘deference’ to ‘Jewish causes’, I’m simply not interested in them. What I am interested in is the future of this country, not somebody elses. The ‘carefully crafted Islamic threat’ has been running for the last 1400 years, I suppose you’re one of those who believe the Muslims will become all ‘peaceful like’ if only those pesty Jews would just surrender?. If you do believe that, perhaps you care to explain what the Muslims were doing in France in 732AD and later in Vienna, 1683 ?, Keysar Trad reckons they were there to spread ‘justice’ to everybody, why do you think?.

  6. Darrin Hodges says:

    Peter, I seriously recommend you seek help from a mental health professional.

  7. @ndy says:

    “Oliver CromWellian Kollaborators.”

    “The Jew and his Masonic Noahides.”

    Muslims in Vienna in 1683.

    “Lets just bomb the fare right.”

    Ah, the Interweb…

    Gotta love it!

    PS. “elses” = else’s; “pesty” = pesky(?); “you care” = you’d care; “why do you think?” = what do you think?

  8. Darrin Hodges says:

    “Oliver CromWellian Kollaborators” — that’s my fav.

  9. The only reason why the arabs are so mard at the west is because the west has treated the arabs like crap. The west has used the arabs so many times and made promises to them and than let them down.

    Ha Darrin you idiot, may be you should think about why the arabs and others are useing terrorism. May be it is because of poor living standards, high unemployment, poverty, exploitation, and of course imperialism.

    One mans freedom fighter is anothers terrorist. Just like a North Island.

  10. @ndy says:

    Peter,

    Three strikes and you’re out. I’ve no desire to allow my blog to become any more densely populated by cranks than it is already. Pathological anti-Semites, Mummy’s little skinheads and punk poseurs shouting idiocies is bad enough without teenaged Stalinists — or people posing as teenaged Stalinists — joining the chorus. If you wish to pursue some kind of dialogue with Darrin, please do so on his blog, not mine… mmmmmmkay?

  11. lumpnboy says:

    Oh @ndy, be nice – have you been to Peter’s linked blog? It is one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. I know his abilities with English seem remarkably poor, but the description of starting the revolution in his high school library and the struggles about videos of school kids on Youtube actually had me laughing out loud, which almost never happens.

    As you note, you have plenty of horrible and stupid people commenting on this blog – Kinkyboy is consistently revolting. By contrast, I find Peter endearing and sort of intriguing. Do you really think it is all a pose, that he isn’t really a teenaged stalinist?

  12. @ndy says:

    Ssshhh… you’ll only encourage him.

    And yeah, he’s an OddFellow. ‘Peter’ was a member of Stormfront at one point, and prior to his current blogging lunacy, had a blog with the following url:

    http://warwick-communist-movment.blogspot.com/

    In announcing the arrival of the aforenamed entity — a pivotal event, I’m sure you’ll agree, in the history of Australian Communism in Warwick — ‘Peter’, using the pseudonym “duhfuhrer2” wrote:

    “The ex nazi , ex nationalist and stupid communisy Peter Watson the founder and destroyer of the Australian Worker’s Party and founding member of the Communist Party of Warwick has started a blog called Fight For The Truth (FFTT).

    The FFTT fights for the truth in the battle between nationalism , nazism , communism , anrachism and socialism.

    FFTT has claimed that Fight Dem Back , Australia First Party , Patriotic Youth League , Patriotic Alliance Down under , One Nartion , Communist Party of Australia and Sociaist Alliance are all bias towards the truth. In other words all the groups are liers and twist the truth.”

    And ah, while this previous blog has now returned once more to the void from which it came, ‘Peter’ continues in his role as bank manager here:

    http://cpwcpw.wetpaint.com/?t=anon

    “The Bank is the official central bank of the Democratic Peter’s Republic. The SBDPR issues the national currency called the East German Mark and does normal bank opperations like bank accounts , credit cards , currency exchange etc.”

    Peter has been very active politically, seeking election by way of the following:

    “The candidates.

    Peter Watson: He is a long time revolutionary and a dadicated communist and freedom fighter. Peter is a the General Secretary / cofounder of the CPW. He is the editor of the party’s web site and helps finance , rights and edits The Red Star. He is the first Communist to be elected in the Student Council at Warwick High School and the first red to be elected as Vice Capitan at Glennie Heights. He is the author of the New Communist Manifesto and of the environmental policy. Peter is a good friend of Natasha and Matthew.

    Matthew Haidley: Matther is a member of Church of England. He is the President / cofounder of the CPW. He takes part in a lot of drama activities in school. Plays a lot of sport in and out of school. Very religious and laughs like a school girl. He has never been elected into any postion out of the Communist Party unlike comrade Peter. Plus he has never got many votes and properly has little chance in getting elected into the Student Council. But hopefully with a lot of hard work by the Coalition he will and so will Peter.”

    So yeah, he’s kinda funny… but… aaarrrggghhh!

    See also : http://www.ausfirstwarbranch.zoomshare.com/0.html

    PS. Another project:

    “Indroduction.

    The Australian Worker’s Party was created on the 12th of April 2006. It claimed to be a small party with some 100 members but some believe that it just has two or three. It is mainly based in Warwick Queensland Australia. It policies are neo-nationalist and far right. People have called it racist and a organisation of nazis. The party was formed in april by a group of members of the formal Communist Party of Warwick that was banned by the local council. The members were oppose to the way the party was hadding and was left or was kicked out by the Central Committee led by the President Stacey Murr. It was first called the Australian Worker’s Party but was split into fractions and over time the left wing fraction took control and renamed the party the New Communist Party of Australia. The party had this name in till it was re-establish in August 2006. During this time the governing fraction formed a Central Comittee and created a number of policies. Membership numbers fell and the party was abolish on the 2nd of July 2006.

    The party today

    On the 14th 10th of August 2006 the party was re-created as the Australian Worker’s Party.The reason for the re-creation was that the Australia First Party like the formal Communist Party of Warwick kicked out all the far right wing members of the party and so these people formed the Australian Worker’s Party. It declared that it was not communist and did not believe in Communisim or any of its versions. The AWP is led by its President Peter Watson and its second in control is Matthew Haidley. Most people in and around Warwick where it is mainly based think that the party has links with neo-nazi and neo-right group like the National Socialist Movment in America and One Nation and also Australia First.”

    THE SPELLING! THE HORROR! THE HORROR!

  13. The Australian Workers Party (National Socialist Australian Workers Party) was just a cover to get the trsut of the enemy and get information from them to be used in the revolution.

    I was never a nazi or a nationalist. I hate them.

    The East German Mark is only used as a alternative currency because the Australia Dollar is not safe at school and so we use the Mark to gamble.

    BEING A TEENAGE STALINIST IS NORMAL AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT. STALIN IS THE GREATEST MAN SINCE LENIN. Trotskyist was a hamster in a cage. Ha, there is a science teacher at my school who looks like Trotsky and I tease him.

    I had to bring back teh Blog of the reds and Futurama Fans because there is so mush to right about.

  14. lumpnboy says:

    I know: amazing! And this history of the Stalinist League of Australia/Communist Party of Warwick, unself-conscious about these strange struggles filtered through the social relations of school:

    History of the Stalinist League

    The League was formed in April 2003 by a group of year five students in Glennie Heights State School. As it slowly grew to around five members and some of it’s members were elected into the school project club. It started to publish a weekly news paper called The Rat but only five additions were ever made in 2003 of The Rat and it wasn’t printed in 2004 or 2005.

    It was a free paper but it’s circulation rate was five copies per week. It’s influence was big on the students and their guardians and parents. The soon grew to five members and it’s influence grew and soon took control over many clubs and associations. It also became very popular.

    It’s influence and power worried the teachers and Mr. G the year six teacher. Plus it worried the than school captain who was a out right stupid capitalist hog. He was also a member of the Nationals Party. The teachers and the captain began to crack down on the party and Communism wants banned at one point. The Communists and the students didn’t give in and soon the rule was abolished. It soon grew to around seven members.

    It took part in political activities. Peter Watson was elected party president at the first League National Congress. The league met nearly every day to talk about the cold war and political issues. Note:- there was a cold war going on between the left wing forces and the fare right wing forces in Warwick at the time. Matthew was appointed by Peter Watson as secretary of the party but soon Matthew became president and Peter was fired in late July 2003.

    In late 2004 the League stood candidates in the vice sports captain election but lost. In the second month of that year Peter Watson was elected as president at the third League National Congress.

    He stood as the SLA candidate in the School Captain elections but lost but he was elected as Vice Captain of the school since he only got the second amount of votes. This was the first time that the League has gotten that position. In late 2005 Peter Watson was strip of his position in another crack down on Communism in the school. In the second term of 2006 Matthew and Peter Watson stood as Communist candidates in the student council elections. They lost for a second time. The party in 2006 got bigger and soon had 10 members and 3 supporters.

    Slowly the trotskyists led by Stacey slowly took over. Peter was replaced by Stacey as league President. The League was abolished at the 4th Party National Congress in May that same year.

    But people like Peter Watson and Matthew and many other still fight on in the name of Marxist-Leninism and of the worker’s movement. They fight for a end of capitalism and for a socialist worker’s paradise in Australia.

    In November 2006 the Stalinist League of Australia was re-created. It prints The Red Star and one of it’s members are a member of the Australia Worker’s Union and the Socialist Alliance. Here are the election results of the SLA over the years:-
    Election type of election seats or positions won
    2003 Project club 2
    2004 sport captain 0
    2005 Captain 1
    2006 Student council 0 2006 Student council 1

    The SLA doesn’t run candidates independently . The League is in the Socialist Alliance and run candidates under the name of the Communist Party of Australia. League members hand out how to vote cards in elections for the Australia Labor Party and being active in the Labor Party branch. Peter Watson handing out how to vote cards in the 2004 federal election.

    Oh, that Stacey! But most recent reports, I kid you not, speak of a merger between the Stalinist League and the Communist Party (i.e. the former SPA). This boy has a future (in which case ‘nerds’ and ‘goths’ beware, he’s coming for you…)

  15. @ndy says:

    Well, there is a Peter Watson at Warwick High School, so… I never suspected that Stalin was back in fashion among teenagers. Kids these days!

    DEBATING NEWS

    Our heroic debaters have emerged from yet another titanic struggle with the demons of public speaking, wearied, anxious, egos bruised, however relatively unscathed. As of the end of round three the table looks like this:

    Year Level 8

    Debaters Harriet Rolfe, Bernie-Anne King, Gemima Wixted, Kyle Waggener and Peter Watson

    Won 2 Lost 1

    [These results do] not accurately measure the growth in confidence and ability of some of our students however, who have wrestled valiantly with secret topics and limited research time. I would particularly like to mention the year 10 team who competed admirably in their last round, losing by only the slimmest of margins.

    Many thanks to all of these intrepid students who have contributed above and beyond the call of duty with extra hours of training, research and practise; they are deserving of our praise. They have acquitted themselves as befits students of Warwick State High School, and indeed it has been my pleasure to work with them.

    Of course these students would be unable to participate as favourably without the help, guidance and support of our fine teachers. To all coaches of Warwick High debating teams: a huge thank you from your students and me (co-ordinater), especially to Mrs Kiernan, Mr Watt and Ms Boland for their continued encouragement and visible support of their teams both here and in Toowoomba on those wintry Wednesday nights.

    Mrs Hefferan
    Debating co-ordinater (and bus-driver)

    THE NEWSLETTER OF WARWICK STATE HIGH SCHOOL, No. 10, Tuesday 6th June, 2006

  16. “BEING A TEENAGE STALINIST IS NORMAL AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT. STALIN IS THE GREATEST MAN SINCE LENIN”

    …where’re the ‘LOL’ emotion simples, because that one statement bought me to tears!

  17. You see comrades, I am not lieing. Stalin is becoming for popular and the goths and nerds are going to die like hell.

  18. Luke says:

    Stalinists?

    Just passing… wouldnt normally have commented… but Stalinists?

    I hope its a joke. One of the more endearing factors about the far left is the way it actually managed to expunge the dictators from the family tree… Unlike others… [rolleyes].

  19. @ndy says:

    Um… you may wish to peruse Peter’s blog before commenting further Luke. (Hint: He’s about 14 or 15 years old…)

  20. Cronulla videographer Martin Fletcher

    Now that s funny… I can t remember making any videos at Cronulla and posting them on the net, I do admit I m hosting nearly all of the videos which have ended up on the net, it s pass the blame game for you guys… Funny stuff.

  21. @ndy says:

    True that. I confuse you with JN. You all look same to me.

  22. Saleam's lot says:

    “You all look same to me.”

    RACIST!.

  23. Spat says:

    I’m afraid Comrade Watson’s political beliefs come from an online game called ‘cybernations.net’, where he is a high-ranking member of the fictional ‘Socialistic Empire’, a group modelling itself on the NazBols. Somehow ol’ Pete went a bit over the top and decided to export his revolution of ‘teh interwebs’.

  24. Asher says:

    You’ve all missed the funniest part, which is that his blog was called “The Blog of the Reds and Futurama Fans”! Awesome.

  25. The Blog of the reds and Futurama Fans was shut down by the Anti Normal Peoples Alliance. I bet you the nerds are behind it some how.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.