Who you calling a Nazi, Nazi?

Posted on February 11, 2009 by @ndy

In Oslo, two Norwegian SHARPs, 22 and 26, were found ‘not guilty’ of assault after breaking the nose of some bonehead who called them “Nazi whores”.

Apparently, the court found this to be a very strong provocation.

Knuste nesen på offeret –frifunnet (February 10, 2009).

In the 1990s, Dan Sabater (co-founder of RASH-USA, and founder of RASH-NYC) and some fellow fans of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (Red Bull New York) had an altercation with some boneheads after a match, who ‘Hailed Victory’. By way of background, according to Dan: “In March 1990 a punk rocker was killed by right-wing skinheads just up the street from Sabotage [an anarchist infoshop in New Yawk]. On July 4, 1990 an anarchist picnic was attacked by this same mob of right-wing skins.” The skinheads were charged; the boneheads were not.

Funnily enough, I’ve been called a Nazi… among other things.

    Doug Smith (Bulldog Spirit, Marching Orders):

    He thinks his identity is secret but he has a shop called 1+1=3=8 [sic] on Sydney Road in Brunswick that prints leftist t-shirts with spelling errors and stuff. I fronted him about the shit that he talks on the internet … but he denied it.

    Ben (Bulldog Spirit, Marching Orders, Napalm Hearts):

    …fuck you commies and fuck you stupid fucking anarchist pieces of shit. Fucking die already.

    Doug’s mate “Mark Bastard”:

    Give me your name, address, daytime and night time contact phone numbers, and I promise you I will beat the fucking shit out of you and then make a black man take a shit in your face.

    @ndy you’re a fucking idiot mate and you better watch your back because when me and my mates are out and about, if we see you, ur dead.

    @ndy im still going to bash you, fukn gooknigger scum.

If things turn nasty, I’m gonna haveta pray for a Jewish judge I guess…

And I asked them what they meant by anti-social,
Was he flooding the estates with low-paid jobs?
Did he make a million pounds knocking public housing down,
And making space for yuppie flats for smart-arsed yobs?

Speaking of boneheads, two local neo-Nazi franchises — Blood & Honour Australia and the Southern Cross Hammerskins — are organising a gig in Perth on ANZAC Day to drunkenly celebrate the deaths of Australian and New Zealand soldiers in WWII. Expected to attend is Pioneer Little European Paul Innes, a plasterer and the current moderator of The World’s #1 White Supremacist Website Stormfront.

Appearing live on stage will be refrigerator repairman Murray Holmes, warbling toons on behalf of local band Quick & the Dead. Making the trip up from Melbourne will be Ravenous, which features the proudly genocidal Jesse. Not making the trip will be former Ravenous/Bail Up!/Death’s Head drummer Joel — now busy tubthumping for Bulldog Spirit.

For the curious, Tom Metzger (White Aryan Resistance) provides some ideological clarification on the subject of blacks vs. gays:

And for a little historical clarification…

SPLITTING HAIRS SOME SKINHEADS HATE MINORITIES. OTHER SKINHEADS HATE SKINHEADS WHO HATE MINORITIES.
Linda Yglesias
New York Daily News
February 18, 1996

THE BONEHEADS and Mutant Mongrels would snatch out each other’s hair if anybody had much, but nobody does. Everybody’s a skinhead.

And that perception a grave misconception, both neo-Nazi Bones and anti-Nazi Mongrels say is the petrol for a brawl between white supremacist skinheads and bigot-bashing skinheads.

They are warring for the souls of the closely cropped.

“The largest nonracist skinhead scene in North America exists in New York City now, and it’s very racially mixed,” said Dan Sabater, a Brooklyn skinhead and founder of RASH (Red Anarchist Skinheads), whose aim is running racist skins off the streets. “Boneheads are not skinheads, they are racist aberrations, a particularly stupid bunch. . . . You can’t drive that message home without a 2-ton brick, a thump on the noggin.”

“You have skinheads who want to bash everybody’s heads in for being anyone who isn’t white,” explained Floyd Cochran, who heads Education and Vigilance, a national hate-group monitor. “And then you have skinheads who bash racist skinheads.”

They number at least 1,000, locally, Sabater said. “Race traitors” and “mutant mongrels,” the enemy Boneheads call them. Nobody here is a choirboy.

RASH first sounded the Bonehead alarm when Sabater, 22, and his cell of 12 began their handiwork out of city apartments three years ago. They hung out at Moon Ska Records, E. Second St. off Avenue A, a headquarters for Jamaican ska the original skinhead music, sullied, they say, by the neo-Nazi frauds.

“Everything we have is strictly nonracialist,” said Noah Wildman, the store’s Jewish skinhead manager. “We don’t sell racist records, swastikas, iron crosses.”

With bygone tunes in tow, they dressed in original skinhead togs. Between their Chelsea-cut heads (shaved backs, fringed sides) and Doc Martened feet (oxblood or black), Fred Perry shirts and Arnold Palmer golf jackets decked their torsos. Their arms bore the crucified skinhead, the vintage skin tattoo.

Their logic to this is clear: “The most loyal supporters of ska have been the real skinheads, traditionalists,” said Tom Burns, who moved here from Seattle. “It wouldn’t make sense for racists to support Jamaican music.”

Their words are clearer: “We dress like Richie Cunningham and we can kick your ass,” said Sabater, a bread deliveryman.

Their beef is based on history: White supremacists hijacked the British-spawned, working-class skinhead life of brawls and Jamaican music.

“The original skinhead movement was not racist but a working-class British phenomenon in the 1960s,” said Cochran. “The idea that skinheads were the front-line soldiers of God began with the white supremacist Aryan Nations in the 1980s.”

Soldier, they did. Numbering fewer than 1,000 nationally in 1988, they now approach 3,500, Anti-Defamation League figures tally. In the last eight years they have been linked to at least 40 homicides, 34 since 1990.

In New Hope, Pa., site of a neo-Nazi Gaybash in 1993, RASH first tested its powers of persuasion. “There were 300 of us assorted anti-racists, who went to stop 75 Nazis and the Klan and assorted other hillbillies,” said Sabater. “But 400 riot cops stopped us.”

Locally, on Staten Island in December, six skinheads were collared in a slugfest when neo-Nazi skins disrupted an anti-hate rally.

“A lot of working-class people are being shoved out with things like NAFTA,” said Sabater. “The far-right saw these white, working-class kids, angry and isolated, and turned them from being just a bunch of gang kids to an organized political movement of thugs.

“Somebody’s got to say, ‘Yes, there are problems, but you are blaming the wrong people.’ We just try to show them that they have more in common with Hispanics, Jews, blacks and immigrants than with old white men like Newt and Dole.”

But even as Sabater and his friends dole out anti-racist literature, they land many punches for the cause.

With their badge-covered jackets atop their dweeb daywear, they down Guinness and Newcastle beer.

Sunday is for soccer.

They gather weekly for Indian food and hand-to-hand self-defense taught by an anti-rape, anti-mugging instructor.

They reap and sow intelligence information with skinheads from Anti-Fascist Action in Britain to Anti-Racist Action in Columbus, Ohio.

Then they head downtown to music spots or suburban ska shows. Local, multi-racial bands winning anti-racist favor include The Templars, New York Metropolitan Area, Those Unknown, Broken Heroes, the Wretched Ones, the Stubborn All-Stars, the In-Steps, Oxbloods.

“I’m not going to lie,” said Sabater. “Skinheads have always been violent. There’s that gang mentality. We do in fact carry weapons for self-defense. I do in fact fight a lot.”

Back at Moon Ska recently, Dan and Tom and a skin named Abby were remembering poundings past. “We just drove to a Bonehead show in Jersey where White, Straight and Proud was playing,” said Abby, soft-spoken, 6 feet tall. “But there weren’t enough of us. ”

Abby did, however, break a nose. “I can throw a friggin’ swing,” she said, “and I do.”

BONUS!

How to Troll Nazis

* Talk about your happy and successful interracial relationship. Be sure to post pics.
* Talk about your happy and successful homosexual relationship. Be sure to post pics. (Doesn’t count if you’re not white.)
* Mention that the fact that all White girls have a innate, insatiable craving for a big Black cawk that no White man can satisfy.
* Ask their opinion on Barack Obama. Bonus points if you get them arrested for making terrorist threats!
* Mention that Hitler is one of the most despised and hated figures of all time, and the fake propaganda they spread isn’t going fool anybody to think otherwise.
* Say that it would be helpful to learn Spanish/Arabic/Chinese in Today’s Changing Society.
* Ask how the weather is in Russia. Bonus points if they’re actually Russian and you mention how true Nazi ideology holds Slavs as inhuman beasts.
* Suggest that their problems in obtaining gainful employment might not have so much to do with Jews and/or niggers and/or illegal immigration but perhaps may have more to do with the word HATE being tattooed across their forehead.
* Tell them that Arabs, not Jews did 9/11.
* Mention that traditional African music is filled with rhythmic counterpoint comparable to a Bach fugue. Also, remind them of the fact that Rock, Metal, and every other genre that neo-Nazi bands ape is ultimately derived from Black American folk music.
* Say that Night by Elie Wiesel is a powerful and magnificent work of literature that everyone in the whole world should read.
* Tell them about your love of the Dead Kennedys, Rage Against the Machine, and The Oppressed.
* Ask their opinions of Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Kurt Cobain and other rock-stars.
* Ask why there are mass graves scattered across Eastern Europe full of Jewish bodies and German bullets.
* Remind them that the estimated six million dead Jews is only a very rough estimate and that the number may be as high as over eleven million.
* Ask them to explain the sudden complete disappearance of traditional Eastern European Jewish culture after World War II.
* Discuss the finer aspects of Heinrich Himmler’s speech at Poznan. Bonus points if you mention that Himmler was a total Aspie who eschewed figurative language!
* Kindly remind them that Fred Leuchter has only a BA in history (not science), has no engineering license, and has been proven wrong by experts with actual engineering degrees.
* The Holocaust really happened and is one of the most widely documented events in history. So get over it, fuckwit.

ADDED BONUS!

For Dion, Melbourne Dumb Punx and Skin Heads Neither For Nor Against Racial Prejudice.

Anti-fascist Attitude (Russia, 2008)
Director, producer, and cinematographer: “Children of Bakunin” Collective
Length: 76 min.

Anti-fascist Attitude is the first ever documentary on the emerging Russian anti-fascist movement made by the activists themselves. The film features both ‘moderate’ NGO activists and ‘radical’ grassroots activists and anarchists from three cities — Moscow, St. Petersburg and Irkutsk. It also features the lawyer Stanislav Markelov, murdered in Moscow on January 19, 2009. (Stanislav was killed alongside anarchist journalist Anastasiya Baburova.)

The documentary is available under a Creative Commons License.

Torrents: http://onebigtorrent.org/torrents/4583/Antifascist-Voice or
http://thepiratebay.org/search/antifascist%20attitude/0/99/0

Please seed them and spread this message!

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Film, History, Music | Leave a comment

God Hates Fags (and Victorians)

Posted on February 10, 2009 by @ndy

Update : Costello tries to hose down Catch the Fire connection, Bernard Keane, Crikey, February 11, 2009: “What an appalling hypocrite Peter Costello is… It was only a fortnight ago that Peter Costello was happily sharing his own deeply-held religious views (including that the Ten Commandments* forms the basis of Australian civic life) with this mob, with no apparent qualms about their views on Islam, homosexuality, the Holocaust, race war or raising people from the dead. But as soon they say something likely to offend regular voters, he turns on them in a moment, as if he would never have suspected they held such absurd beliefs. At least Nalliah is happy to display his fundamentalist lunacy for all to see.”

*”The Ten Commandments”: God gaves Moses nearly six hundred — not ten — commandments on Mt. Sinai. Thus God instructed Moses that no altar to God should have steps; people ascending steps might expose their genitals (Exodus 20:26). God also told Moses that a man who beats his servant or maid should be punished only if the victims dies. If the victim is only incapacitated for a day or two, no punishment is necessary. After all, God notes, it’s his money (Exodus 21:20–21).

Update : Pastor’s abortion dream inflames bushfire tragedy, Rick Feneley, The Sydney Morning Herald, February 11, 2009: Asked by the Herald if he did not believe most Australians would regard his remarks as being in appallingly bad taste, [Pastor Danny] said today: “I must tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.” He said it was no use “molly-coddling” Australians. Asked if he believed in a God who would take vengeance by killing so many people indiscriminately – even those who opposed abortion, Mr Nalliah referred to 2 Chronicles 7:14 to vouch for his assertion that God could withdraw his protection from a nation. “The Bible is very clear,” he said. “If you walk out of God’s protection and turn your back on Him, you are an open target for the devil to destroy.” 2 Chronicles Chapter 7: Fire from heaven consumes the sacrifices. The solemnity of the dedication of the temple. God signifies his having heard Solomon’s prayer: yet so if he continue to serve him.

The Bad News is that police now fear that as many as 300 people may have perished in Victoria’s bushfires.

The Good News is that those responsible for starting the fires have been found: the bushfires have come “as a result of the incendiary Victorian abortion laws which decimate life in the womb”.

    The Abortion Law Reform Bill 2008 received its Royal Assent on 22 October 2008 and is now legislation. See Abortion reform clears last hurdle, Paul Austin and David Rood, The Age, October 11, 2008. The Bill passed 23 to 17.

Or at least, that’s what Pastor Danny Nalliah of Catch the Fire Ministries believes. You may say he’s a dreamer, but God spoke to Danny in a dream he had last October:

Dear Friends and Family in Christ,

On Wednesday the 22nd of October 2008 at the Catch the Fire weekly fasting and prayer meeting in Melbourne, Pastor Danny shared with his core team of around 40 intercessory prayer warriors, a dream of serious warning that he received from the Lord the night before!

Pastor Danny stated, “I saw a man firing randomly with a weapon at people on the streets and many were falling dead. I was very disturbed and was crying. Then the scene changed and I saw fire everywhere with flames burning very high and uncontrollably. With this I awoke from my dream with the interpretation as the following words came to me in a flash from the Spirit of God, ‘My wrath is about to be released upon Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of the innocent children in the womb. Now, call on My people to repent and pray!’”

Quite.

In any event, after having condemned the dead for their sins, CTFM has bravely announced that they “will be collecting … relief items on Wednesday the 11th of February from 10am to 8pm at the church located at 23 Melverton Drive, Hallam (Melways ref. no.96 G2)”.

One of the more prominent supporters of CTFM is former Treasurer Peter Costello. In a very special Australia Day message to his very special friends at CTFM, Peter said:

There are many people today that are telling us that religion is all a lot of superstition, that the laws that have been laid down, of respect for individuals, property and for our creator are all a load of nonsense, that don’t respect life. If we fall for that trap, if Australia falls for that trap then the very basis of our society and its order will be threatened. That’s why we need Christian people to pray for our country, we will never understand the way in which God moves. But we know that if his people pray, He will hear that they will be a light to the nation and the nation will be covered and protected by Godly people who are giving direction and standing for it in prayer. And I thank you for what you are doing today and can I encourage you to continue in it.

Which kinda complicates matters. I mean: should the blame for the fires now be sheeted home to the Christians who simply haven’t prayed long and hard enough? Or perhaps even Peter must shoulder some of the blame for not imploring vigorously enough his fellow Christians assembled at the Australia Day United Prayer Celebration?

And how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

As for God Himself…

    Cain killed Abel because God liked Abel more than Cain. Why? Cain was a farmer and all he could sacrifice to bloodthirsty God was plants. Abel was a herdsmen and he could slaughter animals ~ Genesis 4:2–5

    God tells Noah that He intends to kill nearly every living creature on earth because the world has become too violent. ~ Genesis 6:13

    God proclaims that none of the people of Israel can as much as touch Mount Sinai while He’s on it. “Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death”, God decrees. “They shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or human being, they shall not live”. ~ Exodus 19:12–14

    “You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live.” ~ Exodus 22:18 (also Leviticus 20:27)

    “Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death.” ~ Exodus 21:17 (also Leviticus 20:9)

    “Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death.” ~ Exodus 22:19 (also Leviticus 20:15–16)

    “Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.” ~ Exodus 31:15 (also 35:2)

    “One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death.” ~ Leviticus 24:16

    God learns about the golden calf and is angry. Moses has to talk Him out of killing all the people of Israel. Instead, Moses suggests that those who didn’t worship the golden calf prove their loyalty by killing those closest to them — neighbours, friends, relatives, children — who did. Roughly three thousand are butchered. God still isn’t appeased; He unleashes a plague on the survivors. ~ Exodus 32:7–14, 25–35

    “If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God…” ~ II Corinthians 5:13

Posted in !nataS, State / Politics | 16 Comments

“If a bunch of fags or muslims can organise a march or a rally, then surely we can do the same.”

Posted on February 10, 2009 by @ndy

Awesome!

March 21 is White Pride World Wide Day.

http://www.wpww.com/WPWWDay.htm

It also happens to be the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid “pass laws”. Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

Alternatively, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is International Day for the Multi-racial Supremacists Who Support Minority Groups. And it’s an Aussie invention! Appalled at ZOG’s machinations:

…in the early years of 2000 [sic] there were some small groups of White nationalists around Australia who had already been holding social meetings and regular BBQs for White nationalist Stormfront.org members. At one such [event] it was suggested [White nationalists] organize there [sic] own social meetings to escape the multi-racial oppression that would be experienced on that day in particular… several staunch White nationalists were discussing how to bring about awareness to the sleepers and cut through the mindset of individual White nationalists who feel they are unable to [do] anything [to] assist White victims by being outspoken [sic].

“If the United Nations can have this “Harmony Day” to get their ideology out there every year, then White people [can] have “White Pride World Wide Day” to get there message out there every year!” one stated.

White Pride World Wide Day is conceived.

And — like Stormfront BBQs — stillborn. (See Scumfront Brisbane : Comedy Central, September 7, 2006; I’d love to go for a walk outside now…, November 13, 2005.)

The walking abortion was, however, eagerly endorsed by the nutzis belonging to Canadian group the Aryan Guard, perhaps 40 of whom strolled about Calgary on WPWW Day last year.

This particular division of the Master Race has been profiled — extensively — by OPP, and Anti-Racist Canada has also published a three-part series on the boneheaded wankers. In addition, Anti-Racist Canada has details of the Guard’s plans for 2009. Local nutzis have become terribly excited about also stepping out this year, but Perth Pioneer Little European Paul Innes advises caution, not to congregate in groups, and perhaps merely sticks up one or two pieces of of his Fat Yanqui Controller Mister Don Black’s propaganda.

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=569125

These foots were made for walking…

Posted in Anti-fascism | 2 Comments

Moaron Andrew Bolt ~versus~ reality

Posted on February 10, 2009 by @ndy

Scientists plan emergency summit on climate change
David Adam
The Guardian
February 9, 2009

Scientists are to hold an emergency summit to warn the world’s politicians they are being too timid in their response to global warming.

Climate experts from across the world will gather in Copenhagen next month to agree a stark message to policy makers, which they hope will break the political deadlock on efforts to curb rising temperatures. The meeting follows “disturbing” studies that suggest global warming could strike harder and faster than expected.

Katherine Richardson, a marine biologist at the University of Copenhagen, who is organising next month’s event, said: “This is not a regular scientific conference. This is a deliberate attempt to influence policy.”

The meeting will publish an update to the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Richardson said the IPCC report was “wishy-washy” on issues such as sea level rise. “The IPCC talks of a 40cm sea rise this century. Well, if the consensus now is a rise of a metre or more then they need to know that.”

…

Fires the deadly inevitability of climate change
Freya Mathews
The Age
February 10, 2009

The disaster challenges the Government to accept evident truths.

IT IS only a couple of years since scientists first told us we could expect a whole new order of fires in south-eastern Australia, fires of such ferocity they would simply engulf the towns in their path. And here they are.

The fires we saw on Saturday were not “once in a thousand years” or even “once in a hundred years” events, as our political leaders keep repeating. They were the face of climate change in our part of the world.

…

The third and fourth filters — sourcing and flak — have also strengthened as mechanisms of elite influence. A reduction in the resources devoted to journalism means that those who subsidize the media by providing sources for copy gain greater leverage. Moreover, work by people like Alex Carey, John Stauber, and Sheldon Rampton has helped us see how the public relations industry has been able to manipulate press coverage of issues on behalf of corporate America. The PR industry understands how to use journalistic conventions to serve its own ends. Studies of news sources reveal that a significant proportion of news originates in the PR industry. There are, by one conservative count, 20,000 more PR agents working to doctor the news today than there are journalists writing it.

…

Topsy-turvy temperature, Jennifer Marohasy, November 27, 2008: “It snowed where I live, in the Blue Mountains, and again last weekend as far west as Orange.”

…

A great deal of global warming hysteria is superstition parading as science, Arthur Herman, CIS Executive Highlights No 654, August 4, 2008: “No amount of empirical evidence will overturn what has become not a scientific theory but a form of religion.”

…

[Andrew Bolt] In the hysteria to “save” Earth from a warming that’s actually halted, we ignore a true and growing threat to children. Those who died last week were in less danger from global warming than from the deadly incompetence of green governments trying to “stop” it. At least 36 Victorians die in bushfires, and Bob Brown sees [an] opportunity to preach politics.

…

Is the global warming crisis over? Was it ever really a crisis? Tens of thousands of scientists now say the media and environmental advocacy groups have it all wrong, that global warming is not a crisis. They point to a cooling trend in global temperatures since 2000, past warming and cooling cycles that were not man-made, and new evidence that carbon dioxide is not a very powerful greenhouse gas. On March 8-10, 2009, the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change will provide a platform for scientists and policy analysts from around the world who question the theory that global warming is a crisis. For more information about this exciting conference or to register online, please visit www.heartland.org or www.globalwarmingheartland.org, or call 312/377-4000. Audio and video recordings of presentations made at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change are also available online at both Web sites.

…

corporate resources / influence + market ideology + public relations + political mobilisation = corporate political power

Posted in !nataS, Media | Leave a comment

Zapatista Film Fest : Friday February 20 — Sunday February 22

Posted on February 9, 2009 by @ndy

The Zapatista uprising in Chiapas was one of the most dramatic and important recent examples of a genuine grassroots movement against oppression. Their words, ideas and actions continue to inspire new generations of activists to realise that it is possible for ordinary people, without wealth (or advanced weaponry), to challenge state power, and to do so successfully.

All films are being screened @ the International Workers’ Club, 62 St Georges Road, Northcote.

Entry is $15 for all three days or $8 for a single day.

All proceeds from this Festival will support the Third Latin American Solidarity Gathering “Focus on Colombia and Chile” in July 2009, and the Lake Cowal Gathering in April (Easter 2009).

Zapatista Film/Doco Festival Schedule

Friday February 20

6:00pm Zapatista: The Movie — a production of Big Noise, 48 minutes
10 minutes open discussion
7:00pm Dinner (Food Not Bombs)
7:30pm Bolivia, the indigenous from the Andes — a report from England, 30 minutes
8:15pm The Militarisation of Guerrero — Chiapas Media Project/Promedios (CMP/P), 35 minutes
10 minutes open discussion
9:00pm We are equal: Zapatista women speak — CMP/P, 19 minutes
9:30pm Festival first day close

Saturday February 21

4:00pm Roots — MST (Landless Movement, Brazil) struggles for dignity, 42 minutes
20 minutes open discussion
5:15pm Oaxaca: Images of Repression in Oaxaca, 51 minutes
20 minutes open discussion
6:30pm Voice of the Voiceless — a direct production of communities in resistance, 12 minutes
15+ minutes open discussion
7:00pm — Dinner (Food Not Bombs)
7:30pm A very big train called the Other Campaign — productions audiovisual caracoles Zapatistas, 40 minutes
20 minutes open discussion
8:30pm “You are saying that we can’t pass”, 12 minutes and Letter for our words, CMP/P, 13 minutes
9:30 pm Festival second day close

Sunday February 22

2:00pm Switch Off — documenting Mapuche peoples’ struggle against an electricity multinational in Chile. Mapuche are the majority indigenous population in Chile, and support the Zapatista struggle, 65 minutes
10 minutes open discussion
3:40pm On the Edge: The Femicide in Ciudad Juarez, 57 minutes
20 minutes open discussion
4:55pm Guatemala: Coffee Justice, 14 minutes
10 minutes open discussion
5:30pm Water and Autonomy — in Zapatista communities, CMP/P, 15 minutes,
20 minutes open discussion
6:30pm Food and refreshments
7:00pm The Last Zapatistas — and their impact on the EZLN, 48 minutes
20 minutes open discussion
8:30 Zapatista Film Festival ends

[PDF]

“We are sorry for the inconvenience, but this is a revolution.” ~ Sub Marcos, EZLN

Posted in Film | Leave a comment

Revolutionary Communist Party. Watch.

Posted on February 9, 2009 by @ndy

Hmmm…

A new blog has emerged: “RCP/LM watch, an occasional blog keeping an eye on the activities of the organisation that used to be known as the “LM Project”, and before that the Revolutionary Communist Party (UK)”. It notes that George Monbiot has recently asked ‘How did Marxist class warriors end up fighting for the bosses’ right to fly?’ (The Guardian, January 13, 2009). Funnily enough, the RCP/LM’s former leader flew to Australia recently to address the neo-con Centre for Independent Studies.

Tom Switzer : Man of Letters (October 4, 2008):

Frank was in Australia in August [2008] at the invitation of the Centre for Independent Studies to address ‘The CIS Big Ideas Forum’, 2008 — on the theme of ‘Protecting the Legacy of Freedom: The Ideas of The Enlightenment in the 21st Century’. Frank spoke alongside Ayaan Hirsi Ali, currently a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Frank was also interviewed by Michael Duffy on ABC Radio (and prior to that, in 2004). Michael is a big fan of Frank’s, having previously described him, in the pages of The Australian in 2005, as “one of the most interesting thinkers in the humanities today”. Presumably, [Michael Durkin, producer of Swindle] is “one of the most interesting thinkers in the natural sciences today”. Of course, as well as being a most interesting thinker, close colleague of the barmy army at sp!ked, and a filmmaker, Durkin is also a writer. In an email to Simon Singh who questioned some of the science in Swindle, Durkin responded: “Why have we not heard [contrary facts] in the hours and hours of shit programming on global warming shoved down our throats by the BBC? Never mind an irresponsible bit of film-making. Go and fuck yourself.”

Go and fuck yourself.

Hmmm…

Speaking of nutty right-wing gutter cranks:

Nothing’s off limits for Bolt’s pompous point-scoring, Scott Bridges, Crikey [Grods], February 9, 2009:

In July last year a newborn baby, umbilical cord attached, was found dead in a rubbish bin in regional Victoria. The traumatised local community and a stunned nation felt sadness for the child and concern for the unknown mother. There is an unspoken understanding in the media that such tragic events should not be the catalyst for political or ideological point scoring, but that didn’t stop Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt from callously using this child’s death as an excuse to lay the boot into environmentalists because the body was inside a green shopping bag.

    Planet saved, baby dead

    Utterly tragic, but in some ways a grim metaphor.

    […]

    In the hysteria to “save” Earth from a warming that’s actually halted, we ignore a true and growing threat to children.

Two weeks ago Victoria suffered through its worst heatwave on record, with the mercury hitting at least 42 degrees each day for three straight days. The state’s infrastructure groaned under the pressure and residents had to cope with public transport meltdown and electricity failures. Over thirty people died due to the heat and Bolt happily used those deaths to beat another of his ideological drums.

    Killed in a green frenzy

    More than 30 Victorians died in last week’s heat in one of the great scandals of green politics.

    […]

    Those who died last week were in less danger from global warming than from the deadly incompetence of green governments trying to “stop” it.

And two days ago over one hundred people died and nearly a thousand homes were lost in Australia’s worst ever bushfire tragedy. Andrew Bolt saw red as Greens leader Bob Brown linked the fire to global warming, accusing him of using the tragedy to score political points.

    Preaching over the dead

    At least 36 Victorians die in bushfires, and Bob Brown sees on (sic) opportunity to preach politics…

And as if that wasn’t hypocritical enough, without drawing breath Bolt went on to try and score some counter-points of his own by linking to a graph and an article that he believes disprove the theory of global warming.

Then only two hours later, Bolt used the devastation of the Victorian fires and the preceding heatwave, along with the Queensland floods, to attack the government’s proposed stimulus package.

    The stimulus package for these times

    Here is some free advice to Kevin Rudd that will be good for him and good for the country.

    […]

    Prime Minister, announce that you’ve had a change of mind, forced on you by this terrible tragedy in Victoria, and the flood devastation in Queensland.

    You will now spend $1 billion of your package on rebuilding in Queensland. You will spend $2 billion more on restoring the devasted (sic) towns on (sic) Victoria. There will be $1 billion on fire research and protection. Another $1 billion on air-conditioners for the pensioners whose lives were at risk in the heat wave. There will be $2 billion for a new dam in Victoria to not just secure water supplies for a growing population, or even climate change, but from a fire in existing catchment areas that could endanger water quality. You will invest another $2 billion on schemes to bring water from the flood-prone north to the south, if feasible. Another another (sic) $5 billion for helping state power networks operate in high temperatures.

Clearly Andrew’s political points are more important that others’ political points, and no death is too tragic to prove them.

On the goons of the RCP, see also : It takes one to know one (November 25, 2008) | Boris gets Spiked (May 23, 2008) | Pssst. Wanna Manifesto? Awesome new front group for LM (March 5, 2008) | On Bolt: Whites not all right! Anti-White Conference bad! Exclamation marks good!!! (December 5, 2008) | Andrew Bolt : Ten Years of Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Journalistic Excellence (July 6, 2008) | Andrew Bolt & the ‘anarchist/s’ (March 28, 2007) | Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at Andrew Bolt on S11 (March 8, 2007) and Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at Andrew Bolt on S11 (Continued) (March 9, 2007) | G20: Bolt, the big girl’s blouse, at his brilliant best (September 22, 2006) | Robert Manne’s open letter to Andrew Bolt (July 3, 2006)

Posted in !nataS, History, State / Politics, Trot Guide | 1 Comment

Police monitor supremacist group in Perth Hills

Posted on February 8, 2009 by @ndy
    Update : Christ. Dickhead changed his tiny mind. Again…

    Apparently, there is such a thing as bad publicity. The appearance of ‘Steelcap Boot’ (Paul Innes) in the media, and his campaign to create a Whites-only enclave in the Perth foothills, naturally drew the attention of fellow anti-Semites on Stormfront Down Under. ‘RoadTrain’ comments:

    “It’s old Rupert and his crew of vipers again, remember the shadowy White Supremacist/Neo Nazi organisation that was hinted at in the Herald Sun at the time of the Tyler Cassidy shooting [a reference to the Southern Cross Soldiers]? Good on you SCB, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, now when curious people take a look at SF and see the forums on music, homemaking and theology sitting alongside serious and rational debate on all the current affairs issues of the day they might decide that White Nationalism is for them.”

    No longer, unfortunately, as Paul has decided to delete this thread:

    http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=6471633

    As for Paul himself:

    “This is not the first time they have done a write up. Though at least it has some good quotes taken from my writings. What do you think everyone? As [for] the police… have they actually stopped monitoring me? Waste of resources in my opinion… Though I guess the state has to go after anyone who does not digest the force fed multiracial policies set by a [sic] what I feel is a now [sic] corrupted government that I did not want to govern over me.

    Thought crime!…Thought crime!”

Ner-ner ner-ner!

Police monitor supremacist group in Perth Hills
Nick Taylor
news.com.au
February 7, 2009

SUPREMACISTS have re-ignited a campaign to set up a whites-only enclave in the Perth foothills.

They are urging other racists to join the Pioneer Little Europe project.

Police have been monitoring postings on the controversial Stormfront website, a white-supremacist forum that features a coat of arms with a Celtic cross, surrounded by the motto “White Pride World Wide”‘.

The idea for the project was started several years ago and promoted in Perth by a website contributor calling himself Steelcap Boot [Paul Innes].


Paul and Sue Bateman (One Nation Party, WA), pictured at a Stormfront BBQ in Perth. Paul is the moderator of the Stormfront Down Under forum, of which Sue was also once a member. He is wearing a t-shirt which features a Celtic cross, surrounded by the motto “White Pride World Wide”.

But just a week ago he wrote: “There has been a bit of international interest again over this last week from a couple of places…”

In earlier posts he wrote: “Stormfronts of the Street (aka PLEs) are urgently needed now. Seize a targeted PLE area for white people today!”

He claimed “white nationalists and national socialists” were becoming increasingly active in the foothills, especially in uniting WA boneheads.

He said Pioneer Little Europe first surfaced in 2001 to develop racially conscious white communities within existing and “culturally ineffective” white communities.

“A PLE occupies a targeted living area for white nationalists with different pro-white ideologies,” he wrote.

“It is suggested that any demand for proof about the existence of any given PLE project should be ignored … our opponents have actually made no provision whatsoever to account for something as unusual as the PLE strategy.”

Steelcap Boot, who said he is a white nationalist but had never been a bonehead, claims to have started increasing levels of pro-white legal “activism”, distributing literature and organising pro-white activities.

In one post he claimed there had been “a bbq, a couple of meetings and some international comings and going”. In another he said: “Numerous leafleting runs were completed … everything else is pumping along nicely.”

    NB. Paul’s efforts were preceeded by those of his brother David, and David’s former partner Lilith. In addition to promoting Stormfront, Paul also promotes the activities of the openly neo-Nazi Blood & Honour Australia and the Southern Cross Hammerskins, two bonehead gangs. Their next gig, to celebrate the deaths of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought Nazism in WWII, is scheduled to take place in Perth on ANZAC Day.

Other contributors to the forum use names such as Aussieknight, who claims to be a bonehead already living in the “PLE Area”, anglodane, whitenproud82, ozwarrior and Knightspirit.

Sen-Sgt Ray Butler of the State Security Investigation Group said: “Police have concerns for anyone espousing white supremacist views or views that are designed to drive a wedge through the community. We do not take groups such as this lightly. Community safety and security is of paramount importance.”

The Ethnic Communities Council of WA is aware of the website, but its executive officer Suresh Rajan said: “These people are not a group worthy of comment. However, our position is consistent in that we opposed the proposed Muslim enclave in Rivervale only three weeks ago and we would oppose the Little Europe concept as it does not promote integration.”

Opposition police spokeswoman Margaret Quirk said: “These things have the capacity and danger to extend from cyberspace into the community. We’ve said in the past that community safety can be under threat from these extremists. They present particular challenges to police who should be given the resources to deal with it.”

    In New Zealand/Aotearoa, a similar project is being spearheaded by Kyle Chapman, who posts on SF using the pseudonym ‘NZ Trooper’.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 15 Comments

THE QUEEN v ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA, et al

Posted on February 6, 2009 by @ndy

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary) is the fortieth monarch since William the Conqueror, and is also the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

She is Head of State of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms, including Australia.

The elder daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, she was born in 1926. She became Queen at the age of 25, and has reigned gloriously for more than five decades.

She is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and has four children and eight grandchildren.

Her Majesty is 38th in direct line of descent from Egbert (c.775-839), King of Wessex from 802 and of England 827 to 839.

On February 3, THE QUEEN had ~ a magnificent victory ~ over

ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA,
AIMEN JOUD,
FADL SAYADI,
ABDULLAH MERHI,
AHMED RAAD,
EZZIT RAAD and
AMER HADDARA

in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The seven men will now reside at Her Majesty’s Prisons for periods of between 15 (Benbrika) and 4 1/2 years, after having been found guilty by a jury of their peers of belonging to a terrorist group between July 2004 and November 2005.

So much for The Good News.

The Bad News is that Melbourne’s Moreland Council has become

a playground for professional multiculturalists of the far Left.

This follows its public condemnation of the “Israeli massacre in Gaza” (Moreland councillors blast Israel on Gaza action, Moreland Leader, February 2, 2009).

According to the Moreland Leader, only one of the eleven members of Council — John Kavanagh — opposed the motion. This means — I assume — that the Mayor, Lambros Tapinos, supported it. Which is odd, as Lambros is or was a member of Labour Unity, and Labour Unity is generally supportive of Israeli policy. (The council is dominated by the ALP, which has eight members (three Socialist Left [sic] faction, five Labor Unity faction) while The Greens have two and the DLP (Catholic right) one.)

Tapinos-the-professional-multiculturalist-of-the-far-left / Labour Unity member had his campaign for election in November 2008 subsidised by former MP Evan Thornley to the tune of two thousand dollars. Chump change for millionaire Thornley, but an investment which is paying handsome dividends for Tapinos:

Labor’s novice mayor for Moreland
Simon Craig
Moreland Leader
December 21, 2008

MORELAND’S Labor councillors headed off a bid by Greens councillors last week and installed newcomer Lambos Tapinos in the mayoral position.

Greens Cr Jo Connellan nominated experienced independent Cr John Kavanagh for the position at a special mayoral meeting on Monday evening, saying she wanted someone “whose sole purpose of being on the council is to work for Moreland”.

Her nomination was supported by fellow Green Toby Archer and Cr Kavanagh.

But Moreland’s eight Labor councillors followed the party line and voted for 29-year-old Cr Tapinos as mayor for 2009.

Cr Tapinos said he would quit his job with federal Labor senator David Feeney to take on the role full-time.

The mayor is set to be paid $77,300 a year, up from $57,500, after councillors voted at the same meeting to raise their annual allowance. The increases, subject to a 28-day public consultation period beginning in February, will also see councillor allowances rise from $18,000 to $24,200.

Despite being voted in only at the November 29 elections, Cr Tapinos said his experience in student politics, including a stint as president of the Victorian branch of the National Union of Students, had given him political experience.

“There’s a lot of similarities to the university councils that I have been on,” Cr Tapinos said.

In his mayor’s speech to 100 or so residents at Coburg Town Hall, Cr Tapinos said he would use his term in office to:

* “Develop an infrastructure program to make sure our local roads and footpaths are repaired and made safe for our entire community”.

* “Rebuild Coburg through the Coburg Initiative and start similar projects for Brunswick and Glenroy”.

* “Redevelop the Brunswick baths (and) renew the Oak Park Aquatic Centre and review the opening hours of all outdoor pools” and

* “Deliver more and better services, like Meals on Wheels and Home Help to assist you (seniors) maintain your independence and sense of community”.

See also:

EVERYNIGHT…EVERYNIGHT
Production Date: c. 1993
Release Date: 1994

Follows Australia’s (second, after Mark Brandon Read?) most notorious hit man, Christopher Dale Flannery’s (Field) time inside the infamous H Division of Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison. Dale, remand prisoner, is thrown into H division, where he’s subjected to relentless beatings, mind games and despair at the hands of sadistic warders, led by Berriman (Hunter). Remarkable story from playwright Mooney, whose original play is based on his own experiences inside H Division. Shot in gritty black and white, it’s amazing that this film isn’t more widely known: it tells an incredible, horrifying story of the disregard of basic human rights as recently as the 1970s. Field and Hunter are terrific in their lead roles – it is interesting to note that Field and director Tsilimidos teamed up again for the inferior but still impacting SILENT PARTNER seven years later. Films like these make you wonder what is really happening inside detention centres today. For those who are interested, LOUGHNAN v R [1981] VR 443 is a case in which the defendant sought to escape from Pentridge but was captured in the process (he broke both ankles jumping from the prison wall). He argued duress and necessity (both recognised defences to most crimes in Australia), saying that he had been threatened with death, and did not want to be placed under any prison protection scheme (which simply meant either solitary confinement, or being placed in H Division) because he believed his life would in even more danger there. The Full Court of the Victorian Supreme Court decided that the response of the defendant was not proportionate to the danger, and dismissed his action; interestingly, it was noted in a later case – ROGERS (1996) 86 A Crim R 542 – that had the defendant, upon escaping in fear of his life, immediately handed himself over to relevant authorities, he might be able to use necessity or duress as a defence. Rogers was never in Pentridge during the 70s or 80s, however, and, in any event, Loughnan broke both ankles and couldn’t have reported to any authorities anyway.

Posted in State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

British Workers Go Back to British Work (w/- BONUS! British Babes)

Posted on February 6, 2009 by @ndy

Striking UK refinery workers vote to end walkout
Jill Lawless

LONDON (AP) — Striking workers at a British refinery voted unanimously Thursday to end their wildcat walkout over the hiring of foreign workers. Staff at the Lindsey oil refinery in northeast England accepted a deal negotiated by their union, management and mediators that will create 102 new jobs for British workers. They will return to work on Monday. “We have now got the chance to go back to work but the fight does not stop here,” said Phil Whitehurst, an official with the GMB union. The strike was triggered by the decision of Italian construction company IREM SpA to use Italian and Portuguese workers for a huge project at a Total refinery in northeastern England. None of those workers will lose their jobs under the agreement. Hundreds of workers have been off the job for more than a week at the refinery, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of London. Employees at other energy facilities have staged sympathy walkouts. Under European Union rules, the Italian and Portuguese laborers have the same right to work in Britain as British citizens do — and Britons have the right to work in other EU nations. The Lindsey workers, however, claim British workers were unfairly excluded from applying for jobs on the project. The protests touched a nerve across Britain, reflecting concern about rising unemployment — currently at 6.1 percent — and fears of more layoffs as the global economic slump worsens. “There was an uprising here but I don’t think it’s going to stop,” said Whitehurst, the union official. “We have started it but I think it’s going to carry on elsewhere.” British government officials have said they understand workers’ concerns, but argue protectionism will make the economic downturn worse. But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that the construction industry had agreed on new guidelines that advised employers to “always consider whether there are competent workers locally” when hiring for a project.

WE’VE WON THANKS TO DAILY STAR
Gary Nicks
Daily Star
February 6, 2009

UNION chiefs last night praised the Daily Star for helping their jobs victory and declared: “We couldn’t have done this without you.” [“We couldn’t have done it without the support of the Daily Star and its readers ~ GMB union strike chief Phil Whitehurst.]

NICE PAIR OF STRIKERS

…THE Daily Star sent in our own strikers to cheer up the wildcat strikers yesterday. Page 3 babes Charlotte McKenna and Porchia Watson, both, 21, were welcomed by wolf-whistle at the Lindsey site. Striker Robert Robson, 26, of Glasgow, told the gorgeous Star favourites: “Thanks for coming all this way girls. It’s made our day.”

Discontents, wintry and otherwise
The Economist
February 5, 2009

Worries about Britain’s open labour market are growing

…Though case-by-case solutions may emerge, the underlying tension between openness and protectionism will endure. That the Tories and the Liberal Democrats have had little to say beyond lampooning Mr Brown’s foolish slogan underlines a shared view that Britain must back open markets while giving its workers skills superior to their competitors’. But challenges to this consensus may come from the protectionist far-left and the nationalist far-right. The cosy prosperity of the past decade was barren ground for political extremes; the coming years might not be.

ten days that shook new labour
an article on the refinery strikes by john mcdonnell mp
the commune
february 5, 2009

Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist

Workers take charge at Lindsey Oil Refinery

It has started, and not before time. Workers across the country are on the move. Construction, oil and energy workers in Grangemouth, Milford Haven, Aberthaw, Warrington, Southampton, Teeside, Darlington and elsewhere are walking out of their workplaces in support of Lindsey Oil Refinery construction workers in Lincolnshire… [PDF]

See also : British Jobs for British Workers?

Posted in State / Politics | Leave a comment

Everybody Knows

Posted on February 5, 2009 by @ndy

BISHOP ANTHONY FISHER, CO-ORDINATOR OF WORLD YOUTH DAY, 16 JULY, 2008: “Happily, I think most of Australia was enjoying [and] delighting in the beauty and goodness of these young people and the hope for us doing these sorts of things better in the future, as we saw last night, rather than dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds.”

23 ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay your tithe of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law-justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have practised, those not neglected.

24 You blind guides, straining out gnats and swallowing camels!

25 ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance.

26 Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that it and the outside are both clean.

27 ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of corruption.

28 In just the same way, from the outside you look upright, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the sepulchres of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the upright,

30 saying, “We would never have joined in shedding the blood of the prophets, had we lived in our ancestors’ day.”

31 So! Your own evidence tells against you! You are the children of those who murdered the prophets!

32 Very well then, finish off the work that your ancestors began.

33 ‘You serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape being condemned to hell?

Suffer the Children (December 6, 2008) | Ratso is funny… Pell… less so (July 8, 2008) | Alas for you George! | egg benedict dot org (July 9, 2008) | Ecce Homo (July 17, 2008)

Jews outraged by Holocaust-denying bishop
Victor L. Simpson
January 23, 2009

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s relations with Jews risked a new crisis Friday after an excommunicated British bishop — reportedly in line for rehabilitation — said that historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed” during World War II. Two Italian newspapers reported Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI planned to lift the excommunication of Richard Williamson and three other bishops punished for having been consecrated without papal consent 20 years ago by the late French conservative Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre…

Pope Lifts Excommunication of Four Bishops
Vatican Radio
January 24, 2009

…The decree concludes : “It is hoped that this step will be followed by the accomplishment of full communion of the entire Fraternity of Saint Pius X with the Church, thus, with visible unity testifying true fidelity and true recognition of the Magisterium and of the authority of the Pope”.

Vatican: Comments by Holocaust denier unacceptable
Nicole Winfield
January 26, 2009

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican said Monday that comments by a recently rehabilitated bishop that no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust were unacceptable and violate Church teaching. In a front-page article, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reaffirmed that Pope Benedict XVI deplored all forms of anti-Semitism and that all Roman Catholics must do the same. The article was issued amid an outcry from Jewish groups that Benedict last week lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop, Richard Williamson, who has denied that 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II. The Vatican has stressed that removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared Williamson’s views…

German Far-Right Hails Holocaust Denier Williamson
Peter Wensierski
Spiegel Online
January 27, 2009

Germany’s far right has welcomed the move by German Pope Benedict XVI to lift the excommunication of British bishop Richard Williamson, who denied the Holocaust in an interview last week. German Jewish leaders are appalled at the decision. In the churches and chapels of the Society of Saint Pius X, the incense burners at the holy masses have been swung with even greater vigor since the weekend in joy over the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to lift the excommunication of their founding father, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the bishops he ordained, among them Archbishop Richard Williamson. British bishop Richard Williamson denied the Holocaust in an interview on Swedish television. Germany’s far right is equally pleased with the decision and is hailing Williamson as a hero — because he has denied the Holocaust. He told Swedish television in an interview broadcast last Wednesday: “I believe there were no gas chambers.” He claimed that only 300,000 Jews perished in the Nazi concentration camps, instead of the 6 million figure that is widely accepted by historians…

Pope in bid to dampen bishop row
BBC
January 29, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI has expressed “full and indisputable solidarity” with Jews, distancing himself from a bishop who denies the Nazis used gas chambers. Briton Richard Williamson was among four bishops whose excommunications were lifted by the Pope last week. Bishop Williamson said recently [November 2008]: “I believe there were no gas chambers”…

German Jews Cut Contact with Catholic Church
Spiegel Online
January 29, 2009

Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said on Thursday that she was severing contact with the Catholic Church. Her move stems from the pope’s decision to void the excommunication of Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson…

A broad church after all
Christopher Pearson
The Australian
January 31, 2009

…It should be obvious to disinterested observers that the lifting of a canonical penalty for the four bishops’ breach of canon law is completely unrelated to the question of whether the church in any way endorses the offensive non-theological opinions of one of them. In fact the Pope has gone out of his way to make a pilgrimage to Auschwitz, reiterating his solidarity with the Jewish people this week while preaching on the lessons of the Holocaust. His primary responsibility is not to ingratiate himself with the Left-liberal press but to bring separated brethren – including the inconvenient and the barking mad as well as the mild-mannered conservatives – back into the church…

Holocaust-denying Bishop apologises to Pope
ABC [AFP}
January 31, 2009

The holocaust denier at the centre of a spiralling scandal after Pope Benedict XVI rescinded his excommunication voiced his “regrets” for causing the pontiff “unnecessary distress.” Bishop Richard Williamson referred to as “imprudent” remarks carried last week by Swedish television in which he said no more than 300,000 Jews died in the Holocaust, and none in gas chambers…

Pope promotes conservative cleric
David Willey
BBC News, Rome
January 31, 2009

Pope Benedict has made a controversial appointment, days after revoking the excommunication of a bishop who is a Holocaust denier. He promoted ultra-conservative cleric Fr Gerhard Maria Wagner to assistant bishop of the Austrian city of Linz… The bishop apologised for shaming the Church, but not for his views. Fr Wagner is also notorious for his extreme views – he has accused the popular Harry Potter novels of spreading Satanism, and described Hurricane Katrina as God’s punishment for the sinners of New Orleans. He wrote in a parish newsletter that the death and destruction caused by the hurricane in New Orleans was divine retribution for the city’s tolerance of homosexuals and permissive sexual attitudes…

Cardinal admits error over Holocaust denier
Kate Connolly in Berlin
The Guardian
February 4, 2009

The cardinal in charge of the Vatican’s relations with Jews has admitted that the Pope’s decision to rehabilitate an ultra-conservative bishop who denies the Holocaust was dealt with poorly and was the result of bad management in the Vatican hierarchy. In a frank interview with the German service of Vatican Radio, Cardinal Walter Kasper acknowledged that communication between decision-makers had been lacking. “There wasn’t enough talking with each other in the Vatican and there are no longer checks to see where problems could arise,” he said…

‘Holocaust bishop’ told to recant
BBC
February 4, 2009

The Vatican has ordered an ultra-traditionalist bishop to publicly recant his views denying the Holocaust. A statement said British Bishop Richard Williamson must “unequivocally” distance himself from his statements to serve in the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican also said that the Pope had not been aware of the bishop’s views when he lifted excommunications on him and three other bishops last month. Earlier, a senior cardinal acknowledged the Vatican had mishandled the issue…

Bishop Richard Williamson: Profile

Bishop Richard Williamson was born in 1940, the son of an Anglican vicar.

Posted in !nataS, History, State / Politics | 21 Comments