In 1995 anarchist-communists formed Class War in Grey Lynn, Auckland. For the next 12 years it was closely tied to the house in Grey Lynn where some of them lived. As well as a residence for many anarchists, the house served as a film theatre, printing press, library and micro-brewery. Visitors were welcomed with a glass of beer (if they indulged) and were encouraged to view the 16mm film collection on vintage projectors. The liquor tax (NZ$43 to the litre as of 2008) was avoided by the residents almost religiously. Discussions about anarchism and other subjects were held, Egyptology in particular was in vogue.
The printing press was housed in the lower quarters, where the majority of anarchist and fellow-traveller literature was to be produced. A glut of free paper and ink resulted in a stream of printed material. Books were printed and bound right there, in hard cover. Stickers were reported from as far afield as London. Stamps, which lampooned politicians, commemorated historic moments, celebrated the work of Dr. Seuss and honoured the printer’s cats, went even further. Business cards provided us with a number of occupations and professions. Letters were posted to many of the neighborhood’s residents, in support of community and political initiatives. Booklets and zines were distributed, including free copies of Albert Meltzer’s Anarchism: Arguments For And Against.
By 1998 Class War was actively intervening in the major social struggles. The campaign for free education was gaining strength at universities, with several radical groups supporting the students. Our position was that direct action was the only effective strategy. Student demonstrations brought out thousands to the streets, and several hundred of us took part in building occupations. Auckland University’s registry was successfully captured, giving the cause national media coverage. The occupiers received a great deal of public support, including a delivery of free pizza from a sympathetic pizzeria. Similar occupations were to happen in Auckland, Victoria and Massey Universities until March 2000. Free education, sadly, remains a thing of the past in Aotearoa.
A fight for affordable housing reached its climax in July 1999. As Housing New Zealand introduced market rents for all its properties, thousands of tenants rent was increased by 400% or more. Len Parker, an elderly man living in a state house, barricaded himself inside in protest. Class War was in full support of Len’s occupation, with a benefit concert held by local punk groups to raise funds. A month after the occupation started, the police made their way inside by cutting a hole in the roof to remove Len.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was hosted in Auckland in September 1999. As the security was being prepared for the summit, members of Class War worked to undermine official plans. The National government with Jenny Shipley as PM spent millions on cleaning up the Auckland CBD of all eyesores, in particular homeless and other undesirable persons. Manholes were checked for bombs and sealed with security tape, Class War activists removed or damaged the tapes to force re-checking and set back preparations. As the summit took place, a number of activists occupied Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill Domain to draw attention to loss of sovereignty, environmental devastation and social injustice promoted by the architects of APEC. Groups that were represented included Maori sovereignty activists, Wild Greens, Feminist Action and of course Class War. The Mayor of Auckland, Chris Fletcher, met with the representatives of the occupation (including erstwhile anarchist and Wild Green Nandor Tanczos) and agreed to a native planting programme in the Domain.
By early 2000, the wave of radical activism seen in previous years was on the wane. A change of government in late 1999 with a Labour, Alliance and Greens – including 2 ex-anarchists among them – coming to power seemed like a breath of fresh air, but we remained skeptical. Class War itself experienced a decline in numbers, and a period of diminished activity. Liberal activists dominated left-wing social movements, bringing with them an aversion to anything except placard-waving or slogan-chanting. Direct action in general and anarchists in particular were considered to be a loony fringe, misguided at best and counter-productive at worst. Actively fighting back was something that supposedly drove people away from participation. In spite of these problems, we continued our propaganda work and our efforts to articulate ourselves politically. Much inspiration was gained from a growing anti-capitalist movement world-wide, and in particular the Black Bloc anarchists targeting major summits around the world.
Slowly as events turned in 2001, a 30 year campaign to stop logging native forests on the West Coast was victorious. The forests managed by Timberlands were finally saved from clear-cutting. Though Class War played a relatively small role overall, we supported the campaign by the way of media and word of mouth. Further anti-capitalist protests at major summits, such as the G8 at Genoa served as further inspiration and generated much publicity for the global anarchist movement. A more serious impact was made by the events of September 11th, radical groups coming under suspicion as terrorists. Class War was one of the few groups to unconditionally oppose the US military campaign in Afghanistan, with or without UN sanctions. In this way we came to play a major role in the anti-war movement that developed over the next year.
The looming threat of war in Iraq through 2002 helped turn public opinion against US intervention. Class War was particularly active in publishing media, organising youth and radical action. Anarchist presence in the anti-war protests accounted for hundreds of individuals around the country. The moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was due to be lifted that year, which was itself the cause of much public discontent. It was revealed by Nicky Hager in his book Seeds of Distrust that the government had imported genetically modified corn and proceeded to cover it up. The Greens backed down from attacking their Labour partners too fiercely, struggling to maintain their legitimacy in the eyes of some environmentalists. In the run-up to the election, they were nonetheless called “Goths and anarcho-feminists” [sic]. There was a grain of truth in this: Metiria Turei was in the past affiliated with the anarcha-feminist movement and was involved in the anarcho-punk venue, social centre and infoshop “The Black Lagoon”.
Foray 48B was another major event of the year. This toxic pesticide spray was used over populated areas of West Auckland for pest control. To protect corporate interests, the Labour government refused to disclose its ingredients. When these ingredients were pieced together by independent researchers, they were found to contain chemicals and bacteria that have never been trialed for safety. The experimental pesticide was widely reported to cause respiratory problems, fevers, inflamed skin and many other side effects. Some residents were sprayed as many as 40 times. Class War was particularly active in the campaign against aerial spraying, which was finally halted after much community pressure. Health monitoring was not provided for the victims, and requests for an official review were denied.
The beginning of 2003 saw some of the biggest public protests in New Zealand history. In February as many as 40,000 Aucklanders turned out to protest the impending invasion of Iraq. Public opinion was overwhelmingly against the war, as many as 92% in opposition according to contemporary polls. In typical disregard for notions of democracy, the Labour government committed combat support troops to the invasion force. In March a group of anarchists and radical activists stopped traffic in the middle of Auckland CBD for several by completely blocking Queen St…
Only a fraction of those punished were given help to pay essential bills, with 23,234 left to survive on their own with no benefits for the two months. Declaring himself alarmed at the “extraordinary spike”, Mr O’Connor said he was seeking advice on why it had happened and what impact it was having.
She grew up in a world of exclusive private schools, plummy English accents, yacht clubs and parties with guest lists of all the right people, household name tycoons, politicians and celebrities. She knew that as an adult she would be incredibly wealthy. Yet, when Deborah Bryant came into the family fortune, it plagued her. Being among Australia’s super rich was a burden – a burden few people would understand.
Now is the time for every dirty lousy tramp to arm himself with a revolver or a knife and lie in wait outside the palaces of the rich and shoot or stab them to death as they come out. ~ Lucy Parsons
According to reports in The Australian (Jewish groups want hate crimes squad, Richard Kerbaj, March 11, 2008; Police target Jewish attacks, Richard Kerbaj, March 13, 2008), Victoria Police has bowed to pressure from Jewish lobbyists and agreed to devote more resources to investigating anti-Semitic attacks. Naturally, this fact has sparked outrage on the part of local anti-Semites on Stormfront.
Wewelsberg
Join Date: Feb 2008
Re: Jewish groups want hate crimes squad
The Victorian Police need an Einsatzgruppen Unit not a Mossad Unit.
Λευκός εθνικιστής -100% Right
It Always Comes Back To ‘The Jewish Question’
How dare the Goyim.Look at what we’ve done for them.
mithar
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: At the surrender of the West to barbarians (Crux Australis)
Re: Jewish groups want hate crimes squad
Jews are the biggest shylock criminals of them all, they should arrest themselves for ‘hate crimes’ to the gentiles.
Et cetera.
Stormfront itself has a rather chequered history, at least recently. Formerly moderated by Emma Peterson, she and her partner David Innes were kicked off the Forum (July 2007) following a falling out with its owner, former Ku Klux Klown and KKKonvikted KKKriminal (he tried to launch a coup!) Don Black. Following their departure, the reins were passed on to a teenaged Novocastrian, Rhys McLean. Rhys resigned from the position following his exposure (January 10, 2008) in an article in The Daily Telegraph. Now the position of Moderator is being fulfilled by Paul Innes, David Innes’ beanie-wearing brother. How long his tenure will last is anyone’s guess.
Other key members of the SFDU Forum who have left the ship over recent weeks and months are:
a tennis-playing, penis-wielding John Drew; Darrin Hodges (formerly a confessed admirer of Hitler’s and currently the Anglo-Australian National Community Council);
members of the unashamedly, late and unlamented neo-Nazi White Pride Coalition of Australia (Peter Campbell and Jim Perren); Dr James Saleam (Australia First Party fuehrer and also a convicted criminal);
and over a longer period of months and even years, a sprinkling of other members of far right organisations, including:
At this stage, it appears that Nathan (‘nafe’) remains on stage, but despite the continued presence of Nathan and others (such as Martin Fletcher, the Administrator of Downunder Newslinks, and ‘Reverend’ Patrick O’Sullivan) the number of SFDU members appears to have decreased significantly in recent times, with an equally significant number leaving it for the Australia New Nation Forum, expertly-administered by the useful Kiwi idiot Alex Fogerty. On the sunny side, former resident Nazi Dävid Palmer (Imperial Wizard of the Australian Ku Klux Klan, National Socialist Defence of Australian People) has been ably replaced by Carl D. Thompson, an odd fellow who boasts a love for Hitler, a desire to assault teenagers, and is a member of both SFDU and ANN.
The public exposure of a number of these individuals has largely been carried out by Australasian anti-racist network FightDemBack!. So too, the creation of chronic dysfunction within associated groups. For example, the WPCA is, sadly, no longer with us, but while it lasted it comprised members of Jack Van Tongeren’s Australian Nationalists Movement (“Simple! Erect! Severe! Austere! Sublime!”), the World Church of the Creator, the Imperial Klans of Australia, the New Zealand National Front, the National Socialist Party of Australia and assorted other “Patriots”. It also left behind a really neat archive of nutty materials.
Note that Java Jack’s ANM was founded on Hitler’s birthday (April 20), 1985; whereas Dr James Saleam‘s National Action was founded on Anzac Day, 1982.
One of the better things about the WPCA was its republishing The Nationalist, a madcap look at the madcap world of the far right. On the subject of Welf Herfurth, for example, reviewing the state-of-play in 2001, an ‘anonymous’ thinker writes:
Mr. Wolf played at being the hard bastard and informed and sabotaged his way “into the scene” with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. Needless to say, you could fit his fan club into a phone box and still have room for The Mormon Tabernacle Choir! The sooner he f**ks off back to dear ol’ Deutschland and cops his lumps from some former colleagues in the Nationalist Movement the better for us real people in Oz!
Oh yeah, a later addition to the WPCA mob was the Australian Patriots, who surely had one of the best call-to-arms produced by the WPCA, viz: “Death to tree hugging greenie, homo, bleeding heart, commie, socio-parasitic, democratic, race-mixing, cosmopolitan, globalist, pseudo-intellectual, pinko, trendy yuppie scum!”
Rahowa!
Anyway, on a still slightly cr|ack|ed, but more serious note, the following is an extract from Jack Van Tongeren’s autobiography, detailing events 20 years ago in Perth, and the manner in which he and his comrades succeeded in destroying a student-based anti-racist campaign that emerged in response to the ANM. Aside from the local Asian community and anti-racist activists, the main victim of the ANM was David Locke. Accused of being an informer, in 1989, ANM member Wayne Robert Napier used a concrete pole to beat Locke to death.
STRIKE BACK
However, towards the end of 1988 we began to have problems with the posters being painted over. This had been going on for a month or two and, unlike earlier campaigns by the enemy to counter our posters, this one was continuing and it was far better organized. We had tracked down one team operating from a house in Victoria Park, not far from our Victoria Park staging point. This took a fair bit of patient waiting at certain signs we knew would eventually be painted over. It also involved tapping into the services of a bunch of street kids staying at a nearby foster home. They staked out the whole general area of Victoria Park where the posters were being painted over. They reported to us the description of people they saw doing the painting and they gave us a description of a number of the vehicles including the registration numbers of the vehicles these people were using in their painting operations.
This information was vital in tracking down the address from where they operated from. Through certain well placed people in various positions in the system we were able to pinpoint the exact house where the nest of Commos operated from. A bit more personal surveillance on foot, where we sneaked into the place and actually listened into them talking about their plans and operations against our posters fully verified all our intelligence. We now knew one place to strike at. But we had to strike at the main organizer first.
Tracking down the main organizer of the painting up campaign was a more difficult task. Initial intelligence told us about the home address of a certain Jew who was the main organizer of a lot of the typical Commo street actions, like demonstrations in support of the ANC etc. We kept a careful eye on his house for a while, and followed his movements. In due course he led us to the place where the main organizer met the people in the teams who painted over the posters. So far so good.
The next step was to infiltrate the whole Commo organization to find out everything we could about them and the enemy in general. We wanted to know enough to be able to effectively neutralize the whole organization in one quick series of strikes. The actual infiltration was done by John Bain and Peter Rhodes. Both of them were totally unknown to the enemy. We supplied Peter with enough background information for him to pass himself off as a “lefty” leaning anti-Australian. We also supplied Peter with a good enough story to as to how he learned about where to contact them.
John and I had actually already done an earlier reconnaissance on the Commo Headquarters. We had seriously thought about breaking into the place, stealing their records, then burning the place, to cover up the stolen records and generally destroy the enemy’s ability to counter our poster campaign. We decided against it because the building was also occupied by a number of other businesses who were quite innocent of the enemy in their midst, and did not deserve to suffer in case the whole damn building burnt down. There was every chance the old building would burn down. Anyway we knew a fair bit about the place where Peter would meet the main organizer.
We were quite well aware that the Commos in general do not get all that much real support from people. They are hard put trying to merely maintain the bit of support they already have. We expected that they would be suspicious of new people joining up with them with the express intention of painting over ANM posters. We were quite prepared to take our time and play whatever game that was necessary to properly infiltrate them, then destroy their ability to counter our posters. The overall plan was to knock them out of action just before the new 1989 poster campaign began. In due course we did pretty well do just that.
I rehearsed with Peter just where to meet the Commos and where I would be hiding and observing his movements by telescope, just in case he got into trouble. I also showed him where the rendezvous spot would be if he did not do any good and had to leave soon, as well as the rendezvous spot to meet him just before the last train left Perth Railway station.
The first attempt to meet the main organizer was not successful, however, he knew where to meet a certain Nick the next night. This Nick fellow seemed to know more about painting over ANM posters than anybody else. There was a coffee shop in the same building as the Commo Headquarters; this was on William Street, just north of the Perth railway station.
So far our special surveillance team was performing well. Now they got top priority to support Peter, then later on John Bain to infiltrate the Commos. If need be we could specially poster up certain areas so that when the Commos were actually painting over them we could observe them and our people with them. In due course we did just that. We were quite well aware that even when the entire Commo organization was actually destroyed, another could well take its place and thus it was most important to learn about the internal operations, strengths and weaknesses of such organizations and groups so that we could smash up any further opposition far sooner and far more effectively. Luckily the special surveillance team was kept secret from most of the members and activists. Their identities remained secret, even after the mass arrests, when they quietly went underground again when we gave them the word to do so from the jails. History is full of dramatic twists and turns of fate and fortune, for the Goddess of Fortune is a fickle bitch indeed, uniquely feminine in testing for strength and determination and only rewarding the strong with success. And always in any sort of conflict, the old saying in the Infantry is so true: “Time spent on reconnaissance is time never wasted.”
John and I would meet up with the various people involved in the operation at different times at different locations to receive information and pass on instructions. We needed a false address for Peter and John Bain to operate from and if necessary, entertain the main Commo organizer so that Peter and John were not the only people listening in to him. In due course we did just that.
The next afternoon we took Peter into town. We parked at the first rendezvous place, then we observed him by telescope as he made his way into the coffee shop. When he actually met Nick he quietly gave us the signal. So far so good. For the rest of us our job that night was to simply wait and watch. Peter’s job was to win the confidence of the enemy. That was all he had to do this night. The time came and went for the early rendezvous, then he quietly gave us the signal that all was going well. Not long after that he went upstairs into the Commo Headquarters. So far so good. This would mean a midnight rendezvous at the Perth railway station.
Come midnight and there was Peter wandering around the near deserted Perth railway station. I quietly called out to him from the shadows and we slunk away from the place without being seen. On the way back to the Headquarters we had an immediate debrief. Long ago in action in Vietnam I had learned that the sooner the debrief the better. It is amazing just how much you can easily forget in a very short time, while trivial details you only remember for a short time can sometimes prove to be very important in the grander intelligence gathering operation. I had already prepared my own set of points to be answered. These were all written down. I got Peter to fill in the answers as we talked about them. This was very important. There were also other points that he remembered as well, that proved to be significant in the grander scheme of the developing radical propaganda campaign. There were other aspects about the enemy that we simply had no idea of.
One of them was just how pathetically badly organized they really were. Their general level of morale was very low. Their tenacity of purpose was near non-existent, and their discipline and planning was something out of a Monty Python movie. Their overall efficiency in relation to the amount of money and material they received was what you would expect from a bunch of rank amateurs. Their method of putting up their own posters was just plain primitive. It was little wonder that they put so few of their own posters up and that those posters simply fell off in the first lot of rain. We estimated that just one of our poster teams could put up in one all night poster run, the entire output of the entire Commo opposition for a whole month. However, in two areas they were reasonably efficient. One was the way that they had some people who kept an eye out for recently postered up areas and passed that information on to the Commo Headquarters. The other was the way that they simply spray painted over our posters rather than trying to scrape them off. They also received money from the Multicultural office for the paint. Thus they were tapped into a pretty formidable source of money.
Another aspect about their operations was this. They were only reacting to our operations. They had no sense whatsoever of ever taking the initiative and then embarking on a new campaign of their own. They had a total lack of imagination here. Because of this our special surveillance team could easily set trails for them to follow, for them to be jumped on later. They had no overall long term objectives of their own. They were committing the most cardinal mistake of any combatant in any conflict situation. They were ignoring the most basic rule of conflict: HE WHO MERELY DEFENDS WILL ULTIMATELY LOSE.
We now channelled the enemy into painting over our posters in certain areas where we had the support of gangs of street kids who then supplied us with information on the movements, actions, methods of operation, numbers involved, vehicles and vehicle registration numbers. Bit by bit the special surveillance team was putting the picture together. In one incident where the street kids were waiting for the Commos to turn up to paint over the posters, things got a bit nasty. The street kids decided to get a bit violent and physically stop them from painting over our posters. One of the kids actually had an axe in his hand when he came running out towards the Commos. The Commos then promptly took to their heels and ran. This particular incident was the cause of another somewhat amusing incident later on during the undercover operation. Mind you things often got rough for our people out on the streets as well. Our people often encountered physical violence out on the streets as we postered up. Early in 1987 a group of Skinheads were attacked by a large screaming mob of Asians wielding machetes and a Samurai sword. The Skinheads were outnumbered by about 20 to 3, so about all they could do was flee. The mob of Asians then broke into the Skinheads house and ransacked the place, chopping the television in two and smashing up other furniture as well.
The next lot of sessions Peter spent with Nick he found out more about the Commos. He also managed to get John Bain introduced to them and accepted by them as another anti?Australian Commo, hell bent on painting over ANM posters. So the next logical step for them was to go painting over our posters with the Commos. Well there was no great problem here. The special surveillance team simply postered up some sections of town that were ridiculously close to the Commo Headquarters. This was done so that even these slack characters had no excuse to not bother about painting them over. It was only a few minutes drive away from the coffee shop where they would be actually talking about the new batch of ANM posters which they could not have avoided seeing on their way to the coffee shop. Peter and John made it their business to get Nick, themselves, and the rest of them out painting over ANM posters. This they did; quite convincingly.
The next step was a bit more difficult. By this stage Nick was freely talking to Peter and John about more and more of their operations and a lot of other subjects as well. It was somewhere along the line here that Peter and John found out about Nick being a drug pusher who also had an illegal handgun in his house. Having handguns in the house should be everyone’s basic right as far as Nationalists are concerned, the only thing that concerned us here was that we would not be able to confront Nick in his house without risking getting a bullet through our heads. He had to be confronted away from his house. The more our people found out about Nick the lower our opinion became of him. He being a Commo of course, that did not surprise us one bit.
We next set up a bogus address for Peter and John to bring Nick back to after a painting out session, when they had completely won over the confidence of Nick. This they did one night. In the meantime Peter was actually caught by the Police in the act of painting over our posters. This was quite bizarre, when you consider that the same Peter came close to getting caught by the Police when he was out plastering up posters with our teams earlier on, before he was selected for the undercover operation against the Commos. Luckily he was not charged that night. Anyway it all looked pretty convincing to Nick. The story that Peter and John told the Commos was that they had only recently arrived from Queensland, and as such they were staying at a caravan park. That caravan park, of course, just happened to be in Kelmscott, not too far away from our Headquarters. This was very convenient.
In all intelligence gathering operations, patience, persistence and a certain degree of intuition is essential. In due course Nick was lured to the caravan park one night and spent the greater part of the night telling Peter and John just about everything he should never have told them. We were getting a clearer and clearer picture of the nature of the radical Commo opposition ? the only opposition that could become a real threat to our street campaign if it was ever utilized effectively. At this point in time the special surveillance team were seeking out the personal background information of Nick himself. We had to find out his strengths and weaknesses in order to be able to most effectively neutralize his activities against us. We would only get one chance at this, and it had to be good. In all political activities effects and results are what counts…
In due course the special surveillance team uncovered the personal background and address of Nick. His name was [NS]. His whole character and general makeup was so typical of the sort of low down characters who are actively destroying Australia. He was a typical upper middle class pampered brat, who had never suffered or known privation or struggled against a hostile environment. Until he started to actively paint over ANM posters, he was the typical lazy long haired selfish, inconsiderate bum who hardly ever did any productive work, but instead just lay around in bed until midday before going off to get bombed on drugs again. He was also a drug pusher to boot. This was also verified by some of the children he sold hard drugs to. The whole general setup also utterly sickened us all for another very good reason.
The money for our street campaign came mostly from the hard up struggling workers, who really could not afford the money that they so generously, so faithfully donated, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out. These open faced good hearted Aussies are the muscle and bone and sinew of our Aussie Nation. They are already being bled white by the Zionist parasites running the banks and multinationals, now another parasite was trying to prevent them achieving natural justice. This selfish pampered brat was deliberately going out of his way to make their hard lives even harder. The rank injustice of it all galled us all. It was not enough for this selfish overgrown pampered brat to poison the children of good hearted Aussies with hard drugs, he had to go out of his way to prevent those children from having any sort of chance for a decent future. It was our hard honest labour versus his wanton destruction. Our people, through their hard honest toil produced the wealth, while parasites like [NS] only destroy and steal, and sicken.
We now knew pretty well all that we needed to know about the Commos painting over our posters. The next step was to neutralize their activities, and do this at the very time that our new 1989 campaign began. This would give us a clear run on the streets again. So we waited while 1988 ended and 1989 began. Peter and John kept in pretty regular contact with Nick during this time. We also let the nest of Commos in Victoria Park have a pretty easy run while they dropped their guard. We now knew that we would only have to strike against Nick and the nest of Commos in Victoria Park to effectively neutralize the opposition to the poster campaign.
Meanwhile we printed up the next lot of posters for 1989 (2742 AR). We also prepared for the 1989 State Election campaign, where I would be contesting the seat of Helena. This was deliberately done because it was the electorate of Gordon Hill, the Minister for Ethnic Affairs. He was one of our committed enemies. The election would certainly cause a controversy.
Early in 1989 we struck at the Commos and effectively neutralized their campaign to counter the ANM posters.
The plan was this: First off the special surveillance team postered up the general area around [NS’s] house and the surrounding suburb of Kardinya. Then we rehearsed the operation with John Bain. As well as this we got hold of some artificial blood from an amusement shop. This was to be used on John Bain to make him look all bloodied up after I had gone through the motions of giving him a good and proper hiding.
The actual operation would be in two quick actions, within days of each other. The first action would be to physically catch [NS] in the act of painting over our posters, then give him a good and proper hiding so that he would not feel like painting over posters again. Within days of this we would fire bomb the car of the main organizer of the Victoria Park Commo nest. The delay between the two actions was so that the second group would have learned about what had happened to [NS] when he got caught painting out posters. That way when the fire bomb was hurled, they would all know exactly why this happened. Just in case they did not already know, we had some street kids to quietly tell them why.
These two actions were all that was required to neutralize the anti?ANM poster campaign. All the rest of the various people were far too disorganized to be any real threat to our poster campaign. As well as this when word got to them about what had happened to [NS] and the nest in Victoria Park, they would have second thoughts about going out onto the streets themselves. The Commo opposition are NOT brave or determined, and certainly not totally committed.
On a warm summer night early in 1989 we assembled the team together. They were John Bain, John Van [Blitterswyk], Chris [Bartle], Russell Willey, Justin and myself.
The first action [January 13, 1989] was carried out in this manner. John Bain rang up Nick and told him about the posters plastered up around Kardinya. Then he talked Nick into going out and painting over the ANM posters. He said that he would be dropping into Nick’s house with the paint to do so. Talking Nick into going out painting out the posters was somewhat difficult for John for the simple reason that Nick was engaging in his usual favourite pastime ? getting bombed out of his evil selfish little brain on acid. Politics always came a very lousy second to the general drug scene as far as Nick was concerned. We had two cars, which were in CB radio contact with each other. We drove up to Nick’s place and dropped John Bain off.
One car was parked only a 100 metres away from Nick’s house and carefully watched John go into Nick’s house then watched and waited for John and Nick to walk out together to go painting over our posters. The other car was parked a few streets away. We had to wait around for about an hour before John and Nick came walking out, then we followed them in the cars, taking it in turn, so that the same car would not be seen all the time. We managed this by keeping in contact with the CB radios. There was already one unforseen factor we now had to contend with. Nick had his dog with him. That dog could well get savage, and would have to be dealt with. I told Chris to take a stick along with him to wallop the dog with, should the need arise. John Bain was doing his job well. We silently followed their progress as they painted out the posters along the main road leading into the main Kardinya shopping centre. John was luring Nick right into the shadows behind the shopping centre. We then parked the cars in the car park, put on our balaclavas, then quietly followed them on foot. Sure enough, when we caught up with the two of them behind the shopping centre, the dog stood snarling between them and us. It was my job to make a dive at John Bain and tackle him to the ground, however, the snarling dog stood between John Bain and I. So up came Chris with his stick and gave poor old Fido a good hard wallop. Being a typical cowardly Commo dog, old Fido gave a heart rending howl and ran away.
Then it was on.
I tackled John Bain and brought him to the ground, just out of hearing distance from the rest of them who tackled the real target ? Nick. The first part of the action was for me to go through a pretty convincing show of bashing John Bain to the ground. This I did. Then while the two of us were out of hearing distance, I handed him the artificial blood, which he then splashed all over his face and on his shirt as well. This being done, we carried out the next step; John Bain broke away and ran. This was done with plenty of noise, so that Nick could actually see what had happened. This now left me free to join the rest, and have a few harsh words with Nick. Of course, all that John Bain did was hide in the shadows and watch proceedings, just in case he had to team up with Nick again and show Nick his “bloodied up” face.
While I was on my way to join the rest with Nick, Chris lost his cool a bit and bonked Nick on the head with the same stick that he walloped the dog with, in an effort to shut him up. Then John did manage to shut him up. By this stage Nick had copped quite a few blows and was thoroughly frightened, then Russell Willey did an utterly stupid thing. He dragged out a hunting knife, which he took along with him against our instructions, and threatened Nick with it. I promptly told him to put the knife away and stop being stupid. It was then that we told Nick that he copped the hiding because he was painting over ANM posters, and he could expect further hidings should he go out painting over any more posters. As it turned out that one good hiding put an end to Nick painting over ANM posters. Somewhere along the line while we were telling Nick what was what, we were suddenly caught in the headlights of a car, and the driver obviously saw what was going on. So we all had to clear out in a big hurry.
Somehow, in that mad rush to get back to the cars and get away, John and I were left behind in the Kardinya shopping centre when they drove off. This was real nice for John and I, because by this stage the Police would have been told about what had happened. As if that was not bad enough, John and I then lost contact with each other. Then sure enough, along came the police car cruising around looking for us. Oh hell! Both John and I were wearing the same clothes that we were seen in; the balaclavas we had already hidden. John slipped out of the shopping centre and walked far enough away from the scene to catch a taxi, then head home. Meanwhile I hid in the shadows while the police car cruised around, torchlights flashing around looking for us. I then noticed another car cruising slowly around. I reasoned that it could well be Chris’s car returning to the scene when they realized that John and I were missing. It was. I leaped out of the shadows in front of his car, jumped into his car and drove off, just moments ahead of the police car. Then we had to look for John.
That proved to be both time consuming and potentially dangerous, for now the Police were out looking for us, in the shopping centre and now the nearby streets. So we cruised around looking for him. We even followed a police van back to the Fremantle Police Station just to make sure that John was not in the back of that police van. After an hour of this we reasoned that John must have made it back to his home by taxi. Later on that night we did confirm this and were very relieved to discover this.
So much for the first action.
The second action was a lot easier. Chris took John Bain and another young activist around to the Commo nest in Victoria Park at night. They did one last reconnaissance of the place to make sure that the particular car was parked out in front of the place. It was. Chris then parked his own car in the shadows in a nearby street. The other two then slipped through the shadows to the house, lit the molotov cocktail and hurled it at the car. Once again the old familiar “Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…. WHOOMP!” reverberated around the still air of the warm summer night, and another bunch of anti?Australian Commo scumbags got the message loud and clear to let Aussie Patriots carry out their work unhindered. The team cruised past the burning car to make sure that the target had been lit, then headed back to the Headquarters for the debrief.
The streets of Perth were now clear for the 1989 poster campaign and State Election.
~ Jack Van Tongeren, The A.N.M. Story: The Pre-Revolutionary Years: 1970–1989, Chapter 25: Strike Back, 1991
After being found guilty of various crimes associated with his campaign to foment a race war in WA, and following a three-month long trial in August–October 1990, the following sentences were handed out to Java Jack & Co.:
Jack van Tongeren – 19 years & 9 months
John van Blitterswyck – 15 years & 9 months
Wayne van Blitterswyck – 11 years & 9 months
Chris Bartle – 8 years & 9 months
John Bain – 6 years
Mark Ferguson – 3 years
Judi Lyons – 3 years probation
Of course, it wasn’t long after his release (September 2002) that Jack got himself into trouble again, partly as a result of meddling kids. Thus it was in 2004 that Jim Kelly reported on ‘Mad Jack’ (Sunday Times, August 1, 2004):
CONVICTED race-hate terrorist Jack van Tongeren – wanted by police – yesterday broke his silence to claim he feared for his life. The Australian Nationalists Movement leader remained in hiding yesterday but contacted Channel 7 by phone to deny any involvement with recent racist campaigns targeting Asian and Jewish communities.
Reading a prepared statement, he said “monstrous” allegations were being made against him as an excuse for police to kill him. “Making this statement puts my own liberty and life in danger,” he said. “This present media hype is a police and media massive beat-up to engineer an excuse for ASIO to jail Australian Nationalists Workers Union members and kill me by using the ASIO Bill. There never was and never is any so-called paramilitary (unit). Those who know me well know than I am not a violent man.”
Attorney-General Jim McGinty yesterday said police had evidence linking Mr van Tongeren with the recent race attacks, including the firebombing of Chinese restaurants in February. Police charged four men aged between 17 and 21 with the attacks but at the time ruled out any link with Mr van Tongeren’s ultra right-wing movement.
“It now appears there may have been more to that story,” Mr McGinty said yesterday. “The trouble with Jack is that he manages to get people to do the stupidest things.”
Mr van Tongeren remained in hiding yesterday after it was revealed that police wanted to talk to him about a loosely planned terror campaign targeting Perth’s Asian community and public figures. Mr McGinty cut short a ministerial trip to Adelaide this week and flew back to Perth after police warned him about an alleged ANM plan to harm him.
Officers involved in the hunt for Mr van Tongeren raided a house in Gingin on Thursday and questioned his close associate Judith Lyons.
A gang response taskforce is also trying to locate a former ANM deputy and a present senior member. Yesterday, referring to the Gingin raid, Mr van Tongeren said: “Our once great Australia is fast becoming a Stalinist police state where an innocent defenceless woman just selling books is dragged away by shotgun-wielding guards. What is going on? Where are the death threats here? And yes, I called for those MPs committing treason against Australia to face a proper trial. But again, where are the death threats here?”
The threat against the Attorney-General was allegedly part of a wider ANM plot which was to culminate in the firebombing of Asian restaurants – a trademark of the organisation’s 1980s race-hate campaign.
Two years ago The Sunday Times revealed details of a threatening letter sent to Mr McGinty by former van Tongeren confidant Chris Bartle who warned that Mr van Tongeren was a trained gunman who knew Mr McGinty’s address and weak points.
The letter was sent shortly before Mr van Tongeren was released from prison after serving 12 years for masterminding the racist attacks two decades ago. “Jack van Tongeren was trained to shoot in the Royal Australian Army, he has been in actual combat, he has been shot at, he has used his rifle to kill the enemy he was ordered to kill,” Mr Bartle told Mr McGinty in the letter. “You must make certain that he does not feel threatened or give him any reason to go underground and declare war against you and your government.”
In reality, those responsible for the renewed acts of vandalism which occurred after Jack’s release were juvenile delinquents and members of the ‘White Devils’ gang, a number of whom (Damon Paul Blaxall, Daniel Tyrone Klavins, Frank James Lemin, Shannon Mark Post and Ben Weerheym), were later (December 2005) convicted of these crimes. Facing charges in relation to the antics of the young Vandals, Jack himself went on the lam in February 2006, only to be recaptured in April. As a result of apparent ill-health, both mental and physical, and a guilty plea tendered to the court in November 2006, Jack was released back into the public domain — on condition he leave WA. Eventually Jack found his way to Inverloch, where his paintings won approval at the local art show (Race hate fanatic tracked to sleepy town, Geoff Wilkinson, Herald Sun, March 30, 2007). For more on Jack, see the FDB! archive of articles, especially Notorious anti-Asian hate movement bites the dust, Cam Smith, Crikey, May 28, 2007.
Finally, note that there’s been a minor resurgence of neo-Nazi activism in Perth, both political and musical. On the political side of things, more later; recently, The Homicides gladly shared a stage with Murray Holmes (ex-Quick & The Dead, Skrewdriver), who’d previously travelled to Melbourne (last year) to perform at the Melbourne Croatia Social Club with a handful of other neo-Nazi bands. Curiously, The Homicides are planning a split release later this year with Sydney’s T.H.U.G., the vocalist for which (Chumley) and drummer (Simon) played in another seminal Australian RAC band called White Lightning (est.1988). T.H.U.G. still perform the White Lightning song ‘We Rule’, which was the title of their only official release (subsequently re-recorded and released as ‘Destiny’ on French RAC label Rebelles Européens (1987–1994) in 1990, RE332190). Although apparently collapsing in 1994, in 1995 Rebelles Européens made a short-lived recovery assisted by an Australian label, White League. White League released a handful of CD recordings before it too dissolved. In the meantime, T.H.U.G. will be playing with Sham 69 (minus Jimmy Pursey) Sin City and Toe to Toe @ The Corner on ANZAC Day (April 25).
Simon, Out of Order (Dutch RAC zine), 2000:
What is your best memory of White Lightning?
Best memory was playing a gig in Melbourne, in some pub, can’t remember which, full swing into it and about 30 Maoris drinking in the front bar… I’m sure you can picture what happened. Bedlam. We managed to protect all our gear however. Mic stands make magnificent clubs.
Chumley, The Stormtroop (Australian RAC zine), 1988:
Do you have any opinion on the current crisis in the West Bank between the Jews and the Palestinians?
As everyone can see the ever troublesome Jews are up to their old tricks by causing mass disorder. So we think that the Palestinians should wipe the Jews out and take back Palestine, then we should go in and wipe the Arabs off the face of the Earth.
What do you think of the Australian Nationalists Movement?
Anarchists in Indonesia have established an Anti-Authoritarian Network, and currently a number of members are being penalised by University authorities for their activities. Thus a number of students attending HKBP Nommensen, a Batak-Protestant Christian University (founded in 1954; slogan ‘For God & Country’) in Medan, North Sumatra, have been kicked out, and a number of others have been threatened with more severe penalties. Not coincidentally, the students who have been agitating for change on campus have also been protesting against the militarisation of the University (as well as military violence in northern Sumatra), and the Rector is a high-ranking military official.
In our network, there was a student organization, Semapur, that was involved through the years in farmers’ struggles. Our comrades on South Celebes (Sulawesi, different island), Makassar, were [recently] arrested because of graffiti and were accused of subversion. Luckily, there are no charges and they were released. The graffiti read “I Love You Sweetheart, Let’s Smash the State” (in Indonesian of course)…
Another anarchist collective, called, Affinitas, is in central Java, and is involved in the peasant struggle against the cement industry that is planned in a small village, Pati.
The story of the Nommensen students continues:
SEVEN OF NOMMENSEN STUDENTS WERE ARRESTED ACCUSED OF BURNING AND DESTROYING THEIR UNIVERSITY
WE DEMAND THEIR UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE!
It all started on August 2007 when PENMARU (new students orientation) were taken over by the rectorate. This causes anger on the behalf of students. When the student orientation were started, on Gelanggang Remaja Medan, around twenty students came in to boycott and taking over the microphone stating that the event are not legitimate because student were in no part in organizing it. After that, the rectorate decides to stopped the student orientation.
The frequent flows of boycott led to scorsing of twenty students and the firing of twenty-two students. According to Nommensen students, only twenty people were participating in the boycotting, so there are other students who don’t know anything about it and were accused of participating. When the rectorate issued this scorsing and firing letters, the students are getting anxious. Students starting to create a massive pressure and forced the rectorate to make statement. This time the statement is somehow doesn’t make any sense. The rectorate accused those students of impossibility for academia, gamblers, and drug addicts. And this statement held no connection with the boycotting of the student orientation that led the scorsing and the firing.
The occupation of HKBP University started on October and at the same time they continue to spread solidarity campaign among students and other campuses. On November, the parents of these students met with the rectorate, but the meeting ended up wasting their time. It’s getting more suspicious when they find out that there are no legal letters about the scorsing and firing. Until February 2008, fed up with the useless protests and compromises, the angry students started to destroy the university. On February 20th, seven of them were held into custody
and accused of “property destruction”.
Most of the students involved are student activists. They were part of Nommensen Discussion Group (KDN) who serve as a catalyst for student radicalization in their campus. These active students were disturbing the rectorate plan to militarize the campus. One of the fact is that the rector is a high military official. So it is obvious that these student group are a threat for the university. The reclamation of student orientation were a plan to militarise the campus and to cut student organization from having direct control to it.
Therefore, we, Solidaritas Anti-Otoritarian, urge you to express your solidarity with the arrested students and to demand the unconditional release of the seven accused students.
The students in questions are Jhoni Walinton Butarbutar, Chandra Manurung, Bernard Simaremare, Bernard Marpaung, Horas Simanjuntak, Joshua Nababan and Dian Sinulingga. Solidaritas Anti-Otoritarian urge others interested in supporting the seven to contact their local Indonesian Embassy or Consulate and demand that the seven are freed immediately and that all charges are dropped.
From the Department of Puppet Presidents Are Good; Inciting Hatred Toward the Authorities are Bad:
Update : According to a Russian-speaking comrade, the statement for which Terentyev is being prosecuted was possibly made by another party, Russian journalist Yulia Latynina — Savva merely re-published it on his livejournal blog. Meaning Savva is being held responsible for something someone else authored, and that he simply re-published… On the other hand, seeIn Russia, a Blogosphere Under Siege, Publius Pundit, August 17, 2007 and Annals of the Neo-Soviet Blog Crackdown in Russia, La Russophobe, August 15, 2007.
Savva Terentyev has the distinction of having dodgy politics and dodgy taste in muzak: he’s apparently also the first Russian blogger to have criminal charges brought against him for online “hate speech”: unkind comments he made about Russian police (and reproduced — in Russian — here). The comments were originally made on Russian journalist Boris Suranov‘s blog. The earliest reference (in English) I can find to his case appears on pravda (February 28): “In case proved guilty, Terentyev will be either charged the fine of 4 up to 12 thousand dollars or will have to pay off his 1 to 2-year minimum salary, or will be forced to obligatory work for 180 hours.”
In general, Russian authorities appear to be shitting their pants over the ability of bloggers to circumvent the ubiquitous censorship otherwise present in the corporate/state sector, almost all of which is bent to Putin’s will. According to an article in The Moscow Times (Incendiary Blogger’s Case Is Sent to Court, Natalya Krainova, March 13):
Reached on his cell phone Wednesday afternoon, Terentyev referred all questions to Ernest Mezak, a local human rights activist.
“We consider the prosecutors’ position illegal,” Mezak said. “There is no crime in Terentyev’s actions. Maybe he just violated moral or ethical norms.”
Terentyev would not comment on his case to prevent reporters from encountering problems with law enforcement authorities, which have questioned several journalists who have interviewed the blogger, Mezak said.
Er… actually… the Pravda article is not the first I can find; Robert Amsterdam has published an English translation of an article from August 13, 2007 and the Russian-language newspaper Kommersant, which is available here.
Moscow – A Russian blogger faces up to two years in prison for insulting the police on the Internet in the first case of its kind in Russia, a spokesperson for local prosecutors said on Wednesday. “The case was sent for trial today,” said Yury Knyazev, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office in the province of Komi in the far north of Russia. “It’s under article 282 of the Criminal Code for inciting hatred,” which can be punished with a large fine or prison, Knyazev said.
Savva Terentyev, a local musician, said he hated the police and called for officers to be burned alive in a comment left on an Internet blog last year, according to an official copy of his charges published on the Internet. He was charged under new Russian laws against hate speech on the Internet.
Terentyev, who is out on bail awaiting trial, has become something of a cause celebre on Russian Internet forums, with numerous expressions of support from fellow bloggers appear on his own blog terentyev.livejournal.com.
Human rights organisations have regularly criticised police for abuses.
Terentyev has denied his guilt and told Echo of Moscow radio on Wednesday that he would appeal against any court decision against him, saying: “I can’t hope to have the fairest trial in the world.”
Also :
Blogger Charged in Russia
Mike Eckel
AP
MOSCOW (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a Russian blogger who wrote on a popular Internet site that police should be publicly incinerated in what is believed to be the country’s first such case against a blogger.
Savva Terentyev said Wednesday he was charged with inciting hatred in a court in the northern city of Syktyvkar. The charges filed Tuesday stemmed from his posting on a Web forum in February 2007 that criticized police in the wake of a raid on an opposition newspaper.
“They’re trash – and those that become cops are simply trash, dumb, uneducated representatives of the animal world,” he wrote. “It would be good if in the center of every town in Russia … an oven was built, like at Auschwitz, in which ceremonially, every day, and better yet, twice a day … the infidel cops were burnt. This would be the first step toward cleaning society of these cop-hoodlum scum.”
The case comes at a time of growing concerns in Russia that authorities have begun to tighten control over the Internet.
Web logs, online newspapers, chat rooms and other Internet sites have emerged as a vibrant source of critical news and commentary in Russia, compared with much of the national media.
During outgoing President Vladimir Putin eight years in office, much of the once-critical mainstream media has been brought to heel. Major television stations have been taken over by the state, or by state-owned corporations. Reporters often resort to self-censorship fearing retribution by officials.
The RIA-Novosti news agency said Terentyev could face a $12,600 fine if convicted.
Internet experts say Terentyev’s case is the first time criminal charges have been brought against a blogger.
The Internet’s unfettered nature and people using it to challenge the government has long worried the Kremlin. Though access is still relatively uncommon in the country, Russians have quickly taken to using the Internet for sharing often biting commentary, or even to organize political demonstrations.
As a result, Russian lawmakers and authorities are discussing ways to tame the Web.
Galina Kozhevnikova, an expert at the SOVA center which studies hate crimes in Russia, said Terentyev’s prosecution stemmed directly from new legislation on allegedly extremist literature, which she said was seriously flawed.
“To prosecute a person for a private commentary written on a not-very-popular blog that no one takes seriously in any way whatsoever – this is clearly an abuse of the law and discredit to the law,” she said. “This is clearly a signal to the blogosphere, which in Russia people now read like the free press, for real information.”
Parliament’s upper house is considering legislation that would make Web sites with more than 1,000 readers daily subject to the same regulations as print media.
See also : Intervention to the 2007 OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting by the IHF and SOVA Center : Civil liberties under threat in the fight against “extremism” in Russia: The problem of hate crimes perpetrated by members of racist and nationalist groups in Russia is serious and requires effective and resolute measures by the authorities. However, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis (Russia) and the Moscow Helsinki Group are concerned that the current fight against “extremism” in Russia is not limited to counter-acting racist and nationalist violence, but is also exploited to stifle the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression and other civil liberties. With the December 2007 parliamentary and the March 2008 presidential elections drawing closer, the term “extremism” has been increasingly used to target those who criticize official policies, a development reminiscent of Soviet-era campaigns against “anti-Soviet” propaganda… | The Last Island of Freedom, The Other Russia, December 13, 2007
OK, so I think it’s about time I again reviewed the state-of-play on my blogroll, specifically all them trouble-makin’ anarchists. Oh, and as for my blog, it’s soaring up the charts, and is currently ranked #265,092 most popular site IN THE WORLD (while greenleft.org.au has slipped from #267,145 to #281,415)! In reality, I don’t really believe my blog is more popular than the Green Left site — and attribute the fact that Alexa thinks so to the enormous amount of spam (“Akismet has caught 151,434 spam for you since you first installed it”) I receive — but anyway… Wowee zowee.
* aketus
* An Australian Anarchist Weblog
* anarchafairy
* Anarchia
* Anarcho-Din
* Anarchy Alive
* Anarch[Oi]!
* Angry White Kid
* Anna Aniston
* another blog is possible
* Blogging the Middle East
* Bloggreen
* Bombs and Shields
* CrimethInc. Far East Blog
* Cruz Negra Anarquista de Venezuela
* Dole Diary
* insultadarity
* love @nd rage
* Mickey Z.: Cool Observer
* negations
* Noam Chomsky
* Orthodox Anarchist
* Our War
* Rad Geek People’s Daily
* Riot Porn
* schizoanarcho
* Sketchy Thoughts
* The Dark Age
* the Disillusioned kid
* three way fight
* uncarved
As noted previously, a number of blogs are now dormant or have disappeared altogether: aketus, Anarcho-Din, Angry White Kid, love @nd rage, Riot Porn and The Dark Age. Anna Aniston has abandoned blogsome, as well as blogspot for wordpress; Bloggreen has become the crafty Radical Cross Stitch.
An Australian Anarchist Weblog : Another local Melbourne anark waxes lyrical, in 2008 on the subjects of the meaning of those little words “sorry” and “Corey”. anarchafairy, on the other hand, writes on the subject of ‘Post-Anarchism and Social War’, Malthus and Kiwi @ project the Rebel Press. Anarchia discusses state repression, spies and another Kiwi @ press, Katipo Books. Anarchy Alive! by Uri Gordon concerns his (brilliant) new book called, appropriately enough, Anarchy Alive! (a complimentary copy of which will no doubt soon be winging its way to @ndy c/o PO Box 199, East Brunswick, Victoria 3057, AUSTRALIA… right Uri?). Chuck continues to demonstrate that another blog is possible, although blogging about personal matter is not necessarily advisable….
Anyway, skipping merrily from ‘A’ over to ‘T’ — and over the next dozen or so anarchist blogs on my list — brings me to threewayfight, which is dedicated to the fight the Carlton Blues, Essendon Bombers and Richmond Tigers, or in more “political” terms the state, capital and fascism. twf has alerted me to the existence of a recent article on The Baldies, a seminal (anti-racist) skinhead crew from Minneapolis, written in answer to the question, twenty years later, where are they now…?
Twenty years after their heyday, the anti-racist Baldies recount the rise and fall of a notorious Twin Cities scene
Dusk was descending as a dozen skinheads eyed their counterparts across Lagoon Avenue. The ragtag crew stood their ground, the rubber soles of their Doc Martens defiantly gripping asphalt.
Across the street stood a mirror image. They too had close-cropped hair, ample tattoos, and punk-rock piercings. But as they stood facing each other that day, a chasm much wider than a busy Uptown thoroughfare separated the crews.
The Baldies were “traditional skins,” which is to say leftist, anti-racist militants. They devoted their days to stomping out fascism, often quite literally. Any neo-Nazi spotted on their turf in Uptown was promptly treated to a “boot party”—three or more skins kicking the offending party mercilessly with steel-toed Docs.
Their boot-wearing rivals across the way represented a totally different breed of skinhead, a subculture much more familiar to the general public: nationalistic, far-right neo-Nazis.
The Baldies marched toward their rivals. Just as they were about to clash, a girl’s voice rang out.
“He’s got a gun!”
Pandemonium ensued. Gator—the boisterous young co-founder of the anti-racist skins—dove behind a car and braced himself for gunshots. None came. Instead, an adjoining parking lot became the scene of vicious hand-to-hand combat. The skinheads swung Louisville sluggers and ax handles recklessly into faces and bodies. Teeth fell to the asphalt like pearls from torn necklaces. Blood splattered the collars of flight jackets.
The riot had lasted more than two minutes when the neo-Nazis relented. “Let’s go!” one yelled, and they all jumped into a white pickup belonging to the guitarist of local white power band Mass Corruption.
As the racist crew sped down Lagoon, the Baldies pelted the pickup with rocks, sticks, and beer bottles, shattering a side window. The neo-Nazis covered their heads from the raining debris.
Gator searched the ground for a projectile and came across a cobblestone lying alongside the curb. When the vehicle was close enough for Gator to get a clean shot at it, he jumped into the middle of the road and hurled the brick through the front windshield. The pickup swerved, regained control, and sped off.
WITH HIS POINTY GOATEE, tattooed forearms, and a ratty pink Mohawk peeking out from behind his checkered beret, Gator, 38, still exudes a punk-rock vibe 20 years later. But ever since having kids—two sons and a daughter—he’s refrained from attending any boot parties.
“As you get older, shit changes, and you look at the world differently,” he says. “If I see a Nazi today, I’m like, ‘I don’t have time for this shit.’ If I fought every racist I saw, I’d be punching dudes all day.” He laughs, then adds, “But it was a very special time. It was a great thing to be a part of.”
The Baldies began as a small, insular group of friends hanging out, drawn together by a shared love of oi! music—working-class punk rock with unpretentious, street-level lyrics. Many were straight-edge—no drugs or drink—and all harbored a deep distain for racists, particularly neo-Nazis.
In the spring of 1986, Gator and his buddies Hugh, Danny, and Little Tim sat in a south Minneapolis basement and kicked around names for their newly formed anti-racist skinhead crew.
“How about the Undertakers?” suggested Danny, a scrappy blond kid with coal-black eyes.
“No,” the others protested. “Too metal.”
The foursome bantered back and forth. They needed a moniker to differentiate them from British skinheads.
“What about the Baldies?”
The crew brought together kids from all different backgrounds (most of whom requested that their real names be withheld in this article). There was Joe Hawkins, a stocky lad with pale blue eyes, often ribbed by his mates for being a “mama’s boy” due to his early curfew and general aversion to partying. Casanova Frankenstein was a prim, brown-eyed chap whose nickname reflected both his freewheeling antics and his suave way with the ladies. And, of course, Davey, a tall, lithe, black kid from Atlanta who trained as an amateur boxer and was generally regarded as the finest pugilist of the crew.
They took fashion cues from the original British skins: Dickies work pants, thin suspenders worn over Fred Perry polo shirts, and, most importantly, Doc Martens work boots. They spent their days hanging around Lake Street, tagging buildings, skateboarding, listening to music, and going to shows. They exchanged albums from bands such as the Redskins, the Cro-Mags, and Blind Approach, a St. Paul-based hardcore straight-edge band whose frenetic power chords provided a fitting soundtrack to the Baldies’ wayward lifestyles.
“They’d all come to Uptown and raise hell,” recalls now-retired MPD gang unit officer Mike Schoeben, who was assigned to keep an eye on the crew in the late ’80s. “They’d do stupid stuff. There’d be assaults once in a while. They seemed to me to be bored kids looking for attention.”
Their ranks swelled as assorted punk rockers, misfits, runaways, and young activists took notice of the fledgling crew and joined as “fresh cuts” (their term for newbies). A veritable scene was taking root in the heart of Uptown.
ONE FRESH CUT was a young, square-jawed activist with steely blue eyes named Ciaran. Well-read and socially conscious, the 16-year-old sought to introduce a more explicit political bent to the crew’s anti-fascist philosophy.
On a blustery day in the winter of ’87, more than a dozen Baldies packed an Uptown Rocky Rococo’s on Hennepin (now an Old Chicago pizzeria) to discuss how to broaden their influence.
“We have to organize ourselves,” stressed Ciaran, clad in a Public Enemy T-shirt. “We need to get non-skins involved, too—people who share our views, but aren’t necessarily into our music and style.”
“I got a cousin in the King’s Posse,” piped up Gator, referring to SLK Posse, a mostly black crew of hip-hop kids and graffiti artists. “We should get them involved.”
Ciaran was aware of Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), which had formed in the U.K. just two years earlier. “How about Anti-Racist Action?” he suggested.
ARA incorporated strains of left-wing, anarchistic ideology, incorporating anti-sexist and anti-homophobic stances into its platform. When neo-Nazis spray-painted a swastika on the Washington Avenue Bridge, ARA joined forces with the University of Minnesota Black Law Student Association to organize a demonstration on the University end of the bridge. One of the BLSA officers was Keith Ellison, who would go on to become the first Muslim elected to U.S. Congress.
“I remember he and the rest of the BLSA were friendly with us,” Ciaran laughs. “I think they were just intrigued because we were so young and because we were anti-racist skinheads, which was weird to them.”
That summer, two carloads of Baldies followed Blind Approach on their tour to New York City. For two weeks, the crew acted as the Johnny Appleseeds of the ARA, planting the seeds of what would become a national movement. They cruised the streets of Chicago; Milwaukee; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Rochester, New York, shouting the international skinhead greeting to any Doc Martens-wearing, close-cropped chap they passed.
“Oi!”
“Oi, yourself!”
By and large, the crews encountered by the Baldies were scattered and unorganized. “Some didn’t even have names,” recalls Ciaran. “After hearing about what we were doing with Anti-Racist Action, some decided to just call themselves ‘ARA’ and started their own chapters.”
A franchise was born. Soon after, West Coast punk fanzine Maximum Rock n Roll took notice of ARA and featured the burgeoning organization in an article. ARA became an intercontinental phenomenon. Today, it boasts over 200 chapters worldwide, and is considered one of the most influential underground anti-fascist groups in the world.
The Baldies had gone national.
MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE HOME FRONT in St. Paul, concerns flared that neo-Nazism was taking hold in the local skinhead scene.
“At first it was just rumors,” says Hawkins. “A lot of the guys we were hearing about being into white power were actually some guys who used to hang out with us.”
One night, Gator was cruising with friends Chasiu, a slight Thai kid, and Mic Crenshaw, a brawny African American member of the Baldies who’d just moved to Minneapolis from the south side of Chicago. They pulled into an empty parking lot on Humboldt Avenue just off Lake Street where a party was supposedly taking place. But there was no party–just a half a dozen figures silhouetted against the darkening sky.
As Gator, Chasiu, and Crenshaw approached the scene, they heard a familiar voice ring out. It was Little Tim. He was in the face of Paul Haulis, a short, stocky skinhead whose weathered face suggested an age beyond its 20 years.
“Say it to them!” Little Tim shouted at Haulis and pointed to the two newly arrived non-white Baldies. “Say it to them!”
Haulis remained silent.
“What’s going on?” asked Gator.
“This motherfucker’s a Nazi!” said Little Tim. He turned back to Haulis. “Tell them what you were saying! Tell them!”
Haulis stayed silent.
“Is this true?” Gator asked.
More silence.
As the Baldies were preparing to leave, a hot-blooded member named Hugh ambled up to Haulis and spat in his face. “Fascist!” Hugh yelled.
It served as the opening salvo of a yearlong war. Haulis formed the White Knights, a crew of neo-Nazi skins, in a blue-collar neighborhood of East St. Paul.
“The White Knights were chumps,” Gator says while shaking his head, still seething 20 year later. “We would talk to these guys until we were blue in the face about how full of shit they were, and they wouldn’t understand. But if there was one thing these guys could understand, it was an ass-whuppin’.”
On a bone-chilling, subzero day in the winter of ’88, members of the Baldies’ inner circle, including Gator, Davey, Crenshaw, and Casanova Frankenstein, entered the vestibule of the Uptown Theatre, hoping the warmth would restore feeling to their frostbitten hands. They had spent the afternoon wandering the neighborhood, their trademark wooden canes in tow. Unbeknownst to them, the White Knights had been watching.
As the four Baldies stepped out of the theater, they were greeted by nine White Knights, including an out-of-towner visiting from Washington, D.C.’s Hammerskin neo-Nazi chapter.
“What’s up, guys,” one of them said balefully.
“What, you wanna get your asses kicked again?” challenged Davey.
The White Knights exchanged confident looks. They had the numbers advantage and they knew it.
Meanwhile, Crenshaw was eyeing the Hammerskin. Seeing an opening, he leaped at him. The two fell to the frozen pavement, wrestling for position.
Members from both crews turned into a mass of limbs and fists
Well aware of their comrade’s fighting prowess, the Baldies shouted, “One-on-one! Let them go one-on-one!” The Knights agreed. “One-on-one!” they yelled. “One-on-one.”
Crenshaw gained position and started working over his adversary, delivering close-fisted blows to the skull. Looking to save his friend from a savage pummeling, one of the Knights lunged for Crenshaw. Seeing this, Davey cross-checked him with his cane and sent his target flying between two cars parked along the curb.
Suddenly, a flash of sizzling pain shot through Davey’s head and into his neck. He’d been hit in the back of the head with a railroad spike. Trying to ward off unconsciousness, he wheeled around just in time to see his friend Danny deliver a crushing punch to his assailant’s jaw. The railroad spike fell to the ground, followed shortly thereafter by its owner.
Danny and Davey turned their attention back to Crenshaw, 10 feet away, now being booted by two Knights. Davey hustled over and pushed one White Knight out of the way. Gripping the cane with both hands, he delivered a blow to the other’s head (“It felt and sounded like a really good line drive,” he recalls.)
Meanwhile, the Knight who had originally lunged for Crenshaw was attempting to get up and run away, but he was unable to find his traction on the icy sidewalk. Davey and Crenshaw cornered him in an alley next to Annie’s Parlor (now Chino Latino) on Hennepin. Davey pinned him to the wall with his cane across the Knight’s chest. Gator, Danny, and Casanova Frankenstein formed a semi-circle around Crenshaw and Davey, keeping watchful eyes on the rest of the Knights, who stood by helplessly and watched.
“I thought you wanted to go one-on-one,” growled Crenshaw to the pinned Knight, who looked frantically for assistance. Seeing none, he tried to kick Davey in the groin. Davey tightened the cane against his chest.
“Crush him,” said Gator.
Crenshaw unleashed a hailstorm of punches to his face, which came to resemble a crushed box of jelly donuts, a cloudy mix of mucus and blood.
Sirens began to wail. “Shit! Let’s go!” The Baldies fled. No arrests were made.
THEIR SUCCESSFUL BATTLES against the White Knights quickly turned the Baldies into legends within the local punk scene. On January 24, 1990, they were introduced to the Twin Cities at large when City Pages featured the crew on the cover. In the photo, a serenely self-assured Gator perches front and center, a half-dozen or so of his comrades lurking behind him.
The accompanying article, headlined “The Lost Boys,” captured the Baldies’ youthful idealism. They railed against “the system.” They lambasted cops. They ridiculed yuppies. Most notably, they defended themselves against the most frequent censure waged against them: that they were petty thugs who rationalized hooliganism.
“There’s a place and time for violence and it has to be righteous,” Hawkins told reporter Meleah Maynard. “But I don’t want normal people to be afraid of me. They’ve got nothing to fear from me. Except for Nazis, I give everybody respect that gives me respect.”
Yet as their name grew—by 1990, nearly 100 people identified themselves as Baldies—it became harder and harder to maintain a cohesive message and keep behavior in check.
“Guys who really didn’t understand the underlying message and ideals started joining up,” says Danny, looking back on it with 38-year-old eyes. “They just thought it looked cool. And some of them just wanted to fuck people up.”
Also, the Baldies’ reputation as invincible badasses made them frequent targets of non-aligned skins looking to make a name for themselves.
“A lot of guys just wanted to test their mettle,” says Hawkins “And what better way to do it than to take down the Baldies?”
A group called the Minneapolis Oi! Boys (MOB) arose as a consortium of non-aligned skins and punk rockers. While generally apolitical, MOB adhered to a nationalistic, right-leaning philosophy. Unlike the East St. Paul-based White Knights before them, MOB was operating on the Baldies’ turf.
“A lot of MOB were even former members of the White Knights,” says Gator. “And some of them were dudes who didn’t want to become white power, but were still sympathetic to it. And some guys just wanted to belong.”
When some Baldies spotted a MOB kid walking along Hennepin near Lagoon wearing a T-shirt featuring Screwdriver—a British white power band—Casanova Frankenstein approached the young Oi! boy and confronted him. The day ended without violence and was quickly forgotten.
But three days later, as Ciaran walked out of class at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, he noticed four MOB members waiting for him. He gleaned from their menacing faces that they had it in for him. Payback. “I still don’t know how they knew to find me there at that exact time,” he says.
Determined to keep his composure, Ciaran walked up to them and asked, “What’s the problem?”
The answer was a punch in the face. The foursome proceeded to kick him when he was down. Ciaran had just managed to pull one down with him when two campus security guards swarmed in and broke it up.
“I’m lucky those security guards showed up when they did, because I don’t know how I would have gotten out of that,” he says.
With that, the war intensified. Beat-downs became a daily occurrence. Members on both sides began brandishing weapons, usually baseball bats and ax handles.
“If I have one regret, it’s that we didn’t do more to reach out to MOB,” says Ciaran. “Things got out of hand.”
Other Baldies agree.
“Some of those MOB guys were cool,” says Davey. “Our pride got in the way. It turned into a vicious cycle of needless violence.”
By ’92, the skin scene was dying. Part of it had to do with the MOB war, but the simple fact was that the crew was getting older. Some Baldies were fathers. Some, such as Hawkins, went off to college. Others, like Danny, had joined the military.
In addition, the crew’s straight-edge ethos had worn thin. An increasing number of Baldies, particularly fresh cuts, were getting loaded.
“At that time there was a big culture of house parties in south Minneapolis,” says Ciaran. “You could show up anywhere and you’d be welcome.”
As the booze flowed, so did adrenaline, testosterone, and, all too often, blood.
“Things started getting out of control,” says Hawkins. “I’d often leave early, because I could see where things were going. It wasn’t fighting for principles anymore. It was just fighting for the sake of fighting.”
Other factors, such as illegal drugs, contributed to the scene falling apart. It was no longer about ideology. It was about money. And as the stakes rose, so did the danger level.
“Crack was becoming really prevalent,” says Crenshaw. “Things were fizzling out then—now there were guns involved. We wanted no part in that.”
THREE YEARS AFTER calling it quits, the Baldies got together for one last mission under the ARA banner.
In the summer of ’95, the St. Paul-based neo-Nazi band Bound for Glory, arguably the world’s biggest white power band at the time, planned a show in West St. Paul. Worried that their homecoming might incite the wrath of the ARA and what was left of the Baldies, the band arranged a gig at an undisclosed venue—their fans were told where to go upon purchasing tickets.
“We did some digging and eventually found out where they were playing at some old hall,” says Ciaran. “So we compiled a list of contacts—a lot of old Baldies and ARA guys—and tried to round up as many as we could.”
The goal was to assemble a group of 100. They succeeded in getting 90. The night before the show, the crew papered the neighborhood with flyers.
“Bound for Glory is a band that promotes hatred and racist violence,” the flyers warned. “Don’t allow them to invade your neighborhood.”
The next day, a caravan of anti-racist skins arrived from Uptown.
“You had several hundred activists and agitated community members surrounding the place,” says Martin, an ex-Baldie who speaks at a rapid clip. “And inside there were about a dozen guys setting up who were just shitting themselves.”
Fearing a full-fledged riot, the police arrived and told the placard-wielding mob they were shutting down the show.
“We weren’t sure we could believe them, so we had a neighborhood resident go with the cops inside to confirm that they wouldn’t be playing.”
Bound for Glory never played another public show in the Twin Cities again.
ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM January day, Hawkins, who, at 38, now works in law enforcement with at-risk offenders, sits in an Uptown Davanni’s on Lake Street and picks at his pita wrap apprehensively. A roadmap of colorful tattoos peeks out from under the sleeves of his muscle shirt. His short, graying hair clashes with his youthful sky-blue eyes, which turn thoughtful as he searches for the right words.
“Sometimes I wonder if what we did had the opposite impact of what we wanted to accomplish,” he says. “In some respects, we backed some people into a corner and made them get more into white power. It’s one of those things I always wonder about: Would East St. Paul have become a hotbed of white supremacy were it not for us?”
Just then, the entrance door swings open. Hawkins looks up and does a double-take. His pensive frown transforms into warm smile and he leaps to his feet to meet the tall newcomer.
“Davey!”
“Hey man, how have you been?” Davey asks, offering a hand.
Comically dissimilar—Hawkins is a short, stocky white dude, while Davey suggests a ‘roided out Don Cheadle—they embrace in a bear hug.
“I just got back from church, man,” Davey says as he eases into his seat. “Was eating brunch with the family. We’re heading off to TwinsFest later on.”
The words seem strange coming from a man heralded by his compatriots as one of the Twin Cities’ toughest street fighters of his day. Now the disarmingly mellow 38-year-old is pursuing his Master’s in social work from Met State while working as a counselor for drug-addicted kids.
Although they’re no longer bashing skulls, the guys who made up the core of the Baldies still keep tabs on one another. A tentative reunion is planned for August.
After struggling with addiction through the 1990s, Casanova Frankenstein cleaned up and now works with an outreach program for the homeless in the Twin Cities.
Ciaran has maintained his leftist radicalism as a union steward and activist for the Industrial Workers of the World, a militant international union.
Mic Crenshaw moved to Portland in the mid-’90s to teach public high school, and also performs as a hip-hop artist.
Danny works as a security guard in downtown Minneapolis. More than any other former Baldie, his political views have undergone a transformation since he left the scene. His blue V-neck sweater, crisp khakis, and round spectacles make him look like a chipper accountant.
“I was young and looking for something to grab a hold of to match the intensity in my heart,” Danny says. “I dealt with a lot of radical left-wing politics, which were close to my heart at the time. I think when I joined the Army, I kind of saw a different side of life. For me, it comes down to personal accountability. You’re not going to be your best unless you keep your own nose clean. I’m real, real conservative on some things and real, real liberal on others.”
Hawkins views it as growing up, rather than selling out.
“Now that I’m beyond my testosterone-fueled days, I see things differently,” he explains. “I was one of those kids throwing rocks outside the system. Then I realized I could make more changes inside the system.
“But do I regret my days as a Baldie? Not for a second.”
See also : ‘Rude Boys II Men’, another look at The Baldies and the skinhead scene in Minneapolis by Erik Farseth — also a chapter from a really interesting looking book by Erik on DIY culture in the US (1979–1999). He even quotes the almighty Killdozer — ‘Intellectuals are the shoeshine boys of the ruling elite’ — which pretty much seals the deal as far as I’m concerned.
Damn. A little birdy has apparently been feeding FDB! with more photos, presumably gleaned from the BBQs disgraced former SFDU members David (Innes) and ‘Lilith’ (Peterson) organised once upon a time in Perth. The latest batch features a rather plastered looking Paul Innes (the meanie in the beanie) and perennial losing One Nation candidate Sue Bateman posing provocatively for the camera.
Bateman is not only tipsy, but very tricksy, having denied outright that she was ever a member of the world’s leading white supremacist forum; presumably, she’ll also deny having appeared in a photo with the lovely Paul.
As it stands, Stormfront Down Under is becoming increasingly sad. Those who haven’t abandoned it for browner pastures are now being forced to contend with an influx of trolls, most spectacularly — and amusingly — a teenage ‘social nationalist’ (Stalinist). Otherwise, it’s the usual: complaints about Aborigines in the cashbox, blacks on the streets, Fabians in the Gub’mint, homosexuals in the skools, Indians in the universities, and of course ZOG — everywhere. Plans to combat the Aboriginal / black / Fabian / homosexual / Indian / Jewish menace include placing racist, anti-race-mixin’ stickers on cars, not-forming fascist clubs on campus, indulging teenage phantasies, and generally complaining about the state of the (white) world and how we’re all going to Hell in a multicultural handbasket.
Huh. vents told me The Iron Lady was unwell, and it seems that just yesterday she was released from hospital. Among the others expected to be dancing on the soon-to-be-dead Margaret Thatcher‘s grave are Class War:
Class War has called for a mass celebration in Trafalgar Square at 6pm on the first Saturday after Margaret Thatcher dies. Remember Trafalgar Square, I’ll Be There!
I expect that a few miners, among others, will be popping champagne corks too when Maggie finally pops her clogs. Her bouffant terrible on the other hand, will likely never die.
It began 16 years ago with a meeting of disaffected environmentalists in Brighton. Today the radical organisation they created – the Earth Liberation Front – is described as a decentralised al-Qaeda-style network and America’s No 1 domestic terrorism threat. It even provided inspiration for the villains in Michael Crichton’s 2004 thriller State of Fear…
The disaffection Ayres refers to was with Earth First! (Journal), a previous (and still-existant) incarnation of the radical, direct action environmental movement. For another account of the ELF, seePRIMITIVE DISSIDENTS: EARTH LIBERATION FRONT AND THE MAKING OF A RADICAL ANTHROPOLOGY by Jay Hasbrouck (PhD Thesis, December 2005). The comparison to al-Qaeda makes sense from the perspective of state and capital, but little sense from a human one. Also, the declaration that the ELF (and the ALF) was Public Enemy #1 was initially made some time ago, that is, prior to 9/11. Still, this hasn’t prevented the FBI from listing Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, Josephine Overaker, Rebecca J. Rubin, Daniel Andreas San Diego and Justin Franchi Solondz as among their Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists, all of whom are accused of belonging to or taking part in ALF/ELF actions.
Anyways, Bad people from Brighton also do things like Do or Die! and Schnews — both are worth reading.
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?"
