A useful introduction to neo-Nazism is The Beast Reawakens (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1997) by Martin A. Lee. The ‘Introduction’ to the book is available online here. Otherwise, a brief guide to local (Australian) neo-Nazi reich ‘n’ roll can be read elsewhere on my blog, while Czech antifa have recently produced a handy guide to ‘Rock Against Communism’ here.
‘Kill Baby Kill’ is one of several bands mentioned in the guide, and it’s worth noting that KBK toured here several years ago (2008). In order to avoid a prison term for assault, Dieter Samoy, the lead singer, committed suicide upon returning home to Belgium. I should also add that the neo-Nazi KBK is no relation to the band from Alabama. Otherwise, local nazis recently celebrated their superior status on the Gold Coast, and will Carry On Sieg Heiling in Melbourne come September.
Finally, note that various neo-Nazi groups will be marching across Europe, including the Czech Republic, on May Day — not without resistance, of course, and a massive police escort. (Although in Germany it appears that the NPD has opted to organise for April 30.) For their part, Czech antifa have organised a gathering for May Day which includes speakers such as John Holloway and bands like Heaven Shall Burn, who done wrote covered the following ditty:
There is only one thing worse than be taken as an enemy of News Limited, St Oscar might have written, and that is to be taken up as their friend. Take the case of Bess Price for example. Price is an Alice Springs-based indigenous activist, about whom opinion tends to divide quite markedly. Some see her as a truth teller; others as someone who speaks for communities — such as Yuendumu — that she doesn’t live in.
She was a strong supporter of the Howard government Northern Territory intervention, and is much-feted by the Bennelong Society, the pro-assimilationist lobby group. She speaks several languages, holds a science degree and has worked in a wide variety of fields. Oh, and she’s also worse than having s-x with a horse.
Yeah well anyway, in New Jersey a coupla Hollywood Nazis belonging to the “We’re-not-racist” National Socialist Movement paid an unscheduled visit to the hospital on the weekend (apparently the result of an attack by ARA activists) though others still managed — with the assistance of ZOG’s police forces — to hold a rally the following day, and possibly even a pop concert later that night (*ing household names such as Empire Falls and Zyklon B). Police arrested two men who’ve been charged and given 50K bail. The event is sure to provoke a lot of Internet drama… but whatever. (See also : Laurence Hammack, Judge postpones decision on neo-Nazi Bill White, The Roanoke Times, April 5, 2011.)
On the Gold Coast, Australian nazis gathered together to listen to some patriotic hymns/odes to the Third Reich. Sadly, the opportunity to stage a rap battle with Snoop Dogg and his entourage was not realised. On the other hand, as the boneheads will almost certainly be back next year, and as “Mr Dogg” is seeking Australian citizenship, the future looks promising.
Otherwise, Sydney band T.H.U.G. has been gaining some attention recently, for reasons of both music but also, sadly, neo-Nazi politics. SeeT.H.U.G. – T.H.U.G. LP (Rock’N’Roll Disgrace) by Chuck Foster (The Big Takeover, April 14, 2011), ‘Sunday Night Safran’ (JJJ, March 27) and elsewhere.
In the UK:
Egos, money, factionalism and more egos seem to be the order of the day for the far right. The English Defence League has been riven by the inevitable splits over regions, football teams and the political differences that seem to characterise most of the far right organisations in the UK.
In Russia, antifa are training hard, and Australian punk rock is their soundtrack.
Apparently.
Comrades! I bring you this special report on the Russian Antifa movement with a translation from a friend:
Man: “Some people discuss or even laugh about prejudices but others still use them for hate and this can have a bad ending.”
Woman: “For example in Russia xenophobia is rising yearly and every year there are up to 600 racist attacks registered. Now there is a countermovement which declared war on the Moscow neo-Nazis – and both sides are armed.
2. Then the report starts. “Firing practice in a forest close to Moscow. The members of the radical left wing movement Antifa declared war on the nazis.”
Interview: “Most of the serious nazis wear guns on them and therefore we mustn’t be worse equipped. They were the first ones who used knives and then we did as well. Same thing with the guns, it was necessary.”
3. Report: “This video was uploaded by Russian neo-Nazis. 37 people were killed because of xenophobia and more than 400 have been wounded. “Blacks”, that’s what they call the people from the Caucasian and Asian region. Their lives aren’t safe in the streets of Moscow.”
4. Interview: “In the past years some of our friends have been killed by the fascists. It’s clear to us that there is no way back and that this can happen to all of us. Formerly you could speak about animosity between adolescents but now it’s about surviving.”
5. Report: “And therefore they train every day. They’re between 16 and 30 years old – about 1000 young people call themselves Antifa. The journalist Dimitry has been there for 5 years. He thought that only writing wasn’t enough when he realized that the police were barely doing anything against the growing neo-Nazi scene.”
6. Interview: “Now we have a large amount of fascists here and we have them because not too long ago they could organize their shows without any problems. Concerts, seminars, demonstrations – and this is how they attracted new people. Now things have changed because we’re here. Nowadays they don’t let everybody enter their concerts.”
7. Report: “With attacks like this one the people of the Antifa want to scare other adolescents and prevent them from joining the nazis. They followed this neo-Nazi in the city in order to beat him up in the subway.”
8. Interview: “It comes to fights regularly. We often do this in the wagons because these are closed rooms and nobody can escape – often things go on brutally.”
“ALTERTA, ALERTA, ANTIFASCISTA” is what the Antifa protesters shout. They try to make headlines with a riot.”
9. Interview: “A big part of our work consists of education. we try to spread our standpoint over the internet. We distribute fliers or organize our own events like festivals, presentations or movies.”
Report: “Punk rock is their music. They sing about the fight against the racists.”
10. Interview: “The nazis immediately tried to inhibit our events. They attacked us. Some of us were killed at those concerts. For example some nazis came before the beginning of the concert and stabbed the young people.”
Report: “The band No One Else is one of the most famous ones in the scene. The musicians don’t want to be recognized in the fear of nazi attacks.”
11. Interview: “The government hasn’t done anything against the nazis. They turned away. This was then the task of other people who understood that something has to be done, that you cannot keep the things the way they are.”
Report: “Loudly they announce their message, the Russians are responsible for the problems in their country, not the foreigners.”
This one’s all about the track. Sure, you can still go here and “become an M&M,” but is that really what stuck in your head about this ad? Sure, the clever anthropomorphic candies are all types of jocular fun, but really, it was the song, that catchy accordion-and-violin-laden 80s jingle with the baritone vocals and uplifting message. Classic.
Company / Product: M & Ms Ad: Inner M Agency: BBDO New York Year: 2007 Music: The The – This is the Day
note that the international bolshevik tendency maintains that “The [Workers’ Solidarity Movement’s] anti-imperialism is confused in theory, and inconsistent in practice.”
but then, aren’t we all?
antifa
michael c. tuggle in right-wing smarty-pants taki’s mag has a crack at The Antifa Fad: Totalitarian Anti-Fascism . in germany, meanwhile, police have launched a crackdown on violent baristas. also in germany, veteran fascist gottfried kuessel has been arrested for internet nastiness. yeah, that gottfried kuessel:
Gottfried Kuessel was a wealthy Viennese Nazi who was more willing to compromise with mainstream rightwing political parties. He spoke with ease to all kinds of people and was once seriously considered a possible future prime minister of Austria. His apartment, in one of Vienna’s more exclusive neighborhoods, featured life-sized authentic models of SS men, a giant caricature of a Jew from the Nazi years (used as a dartboard at lighter moments), and a toilet with a large blue star of David painted inside the bowl.
blogs
angry news from around the world is what it says on the label: a laundry list of angry (political) actions from around the world. North of Nowhere is a a blog by an australian writer currently living in accra, ghana (a city i will never visit)… or maybe melbourne, australia (a city from which i cannot escape). SnitchWire‘s latest report, meanwhile, reveals the fact that key elf informant jake ferguson has been busted for drugs.
A little more than a year ago, well-known conservative political commentator Andrew Breitbart called Brandon Darby and thanked him for saving his life during the 2008 Republican National Convention. “You have an ally for life in me,” Breitbart told him.
Darby, once a leftist radical who by 2008 was an informant for the FBI, had notified authorities of an anarchist plot to hurl Molotov cocktails at the conservative gathering. Federal agents arrested two young radicals before the attack could be carried out…
This is the transcript of the seminar “From Tute Bianche to the Book Bloc: the Italian movement and the coming European insurrection”. [italian version]
It seems a century has gone by since the political season of the Tute Bianche (White Overalls), but it was only a little over ten years ago. Ten years in which much has happened. Despite the historical shifts that have taken place in these past ten years, rebellious students in Rome and in London last autumn endorsed the experience of conflict invented by the Tute Bianche: shields and helmets for body protection; violation of the red zones and of the headquarters of institutional political power, barricaded behind their edifices, with no democratic relationship with society.
Such practices weren’t merely an imitation of the previous experiences of conflict, but in fact gave a whole new reading to them, an absolutely original one and a very effective one: shields were replaced by the book- shields, armour displaying the point that knowledge has become the means of physical protection for those protesting against the dismantlement of the public university, against job insecurity and unemployment. There are many more differences marking this new interpretation of the conflict. Let’s continue in order…
The Steve Austin Alliance is/was a Facebook group for homophobes serving (or having served) in the Australian Army.
Or, alternatively, a Facebook group for fans of Steve Austin who also happened to be homophobes serving or having served in the Australian Army.
In either case, the well-oiled killing machine has been slow to act against the alleged members of the group–harassment of the sort engaged in by the Alliance being against The Law or Morality or The Rules of War or something–and now The Pink Mafia has outed the unruly fans of the Texas wrestling icon (who also hate fags).
Or, alternatively, YouTube has failed to close down the channel which does. Note that the channel user claims makers of the vilificatory videos also don’t like The Jews and other minorities very much:
Early in 2010, a large group of Australian Army soldiers and ex-soldiers became friends of a gay hate website aiming to victimise gays in the Australian Defence Force, especially in the Special Forces commando regiment.
In doing so, they aligned themselves with the creator of associated videos.
The sequence of linked videos and comments contains extreme racist, anti gay, anti [J]ewish, anti democracy and pro terrorism content.
Some members of this group wore uniform and carried weapons in the photos associated with the site.
It appeared to be a public, united rebellion against Army and Australian laws.
In addition to the website, targets of this group were abused through associated videos, and intimidation at home and at work…
Of course, and on the other hand, if serving Australian soldiers want to engage in a violent, pornographic Internet hate campaign against their comrades-in-arms, why shouldn’t they?
THE Australian Defence Force has failed to fully investigate and punish dozens of serving members linked to an online social media campaign that publicly named and vilified homosexual personnel…
THE Australian Defence Force has failed to properly investigate and punish dozens of serving members allegedly linked to a social media campaign designed to expose and intimidate homosexual personnel…
Sadly, The Aussie Resistance is at a low ebb at the moment: the APP’s Nicholas Hunter FOLKES received just 208 votes of confidence from the citizens of Balmain, narrowly defeating some guy called SHAPIRO (who got just 147 votes) but failing to overcome Jane Ward (another Independent), whose passion for social justice translated into her getting 486 votes.
In Mulgoa, AF candidate Tony ROBINSON fared far better than did FOLKES, gaining 1,322 votes (3.9%), while his kameraden in Riverstone, Tony PETTITT, received 470 (1.2%).
Shazam! Left
In Keira, HARVEY Paola (SA) got 449 votes (1.4%), coming last. In Marrickville, SA’s HINMAN, Pip was pitted against the SEP‘s COGAN, James. Hinman defeated Cogan by 661 votes (1.9%) to 458 (1.3%). In Newcastle, the battle was between SA’s ALCORN, Zane and the SEP’s HOLT, Noel. Zane’s dope rhymes secured him 563 votes (1.7%) while Noel’s unswerving commitment to the principles of the International Committee of the Fourth International meant he got 139 votes (0.4%). Note that the presumed leader of the ‘Progressive Labor Party’, Rod Noble, won 1,016 (3.1%). Of course, the real story in Newcastle, as elsewhere in NSW, is the massive swing against Labor:
It is too early to say what will happen in the seat of Newcastle which is set to be decided on preferences but it is expected to fall to the Liberals for the first time in more than a century. Liberal candidate, Tim Owen attracted 36-per-cent of the primary vote, while Labor’s Jodi McKay held onto a primary vote of 31-per-cent.
D’oh!
In Parramatta–where there was a 26% swing against Labor–SA’s RODEN, Duncan, received 528 votes (1.6%); in Auburn, the SEP’s KENNETT, Carolyn, got 349 votes and in Bankstown her comrade PHILLIPS, Richard 613: both placed last of 7 candidates. Finally, in the race for the Senate, SA (7,761 votes) narrowly defeated the productivist mania of the BUILDING AUSTRALIA party (6,915 votes), thereby avoiding last place.
In summary, the results were pretty much as expected.
Further afield and against the odds, the Greens done look to have lost another opportunity to gain a seat or two in the Lower House, while predictions of Labor’s death are no doubt exaggerated: it’s a two-party system, stupid. Interestingly: “THE former Greens MLC Ian Cohen said the party’s support for a boycott of Israel may have contributed to disappointing results in Balmain and Marrickville.”
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
