Racial vilification in WA

Posted on September 15, 2006 by @ndy

‘WA court dismisses charges over racial insult’
AM – Friday, 15 September, 2006
Reporter: David Weber

TONY EASTLEY: In Western Australia the Attorney-General Jim McGinty has endorsed a court’s decision to dismiss a racial vilification charge against an Aboriginal teenager.

The Kalgoorlie Children’s Court dismissed charges against the 16-year-old girl, who allegedly called a Caucasian woman a “white slut”, among other things, as she attacked her in the street.

The Magistrate hearing the case found the remarks were made but she said racial vilification laws were intended to deal with severe abuse, and not petty name-calling.

[The relevant legislation appears to be available here as the Criminal Code Amendment (Racial Vilification) Bill 2004; a WA Government Consultation Paper (August 2004) is also available online.]

Jim McGinty supports the decision, saying Kalgoorlie police were wrong to proceed with the racial vilification case.

David Weber reports.

DAVID WEBER: The girl had pleaded guilty to the assault charge and the Magistrate handed down a four-month intensive supervision order. But Magistrate Kate Auty said the racial slur was not substantial enough to be punished under racial vilification laws.

Penalties under the laws were substantially increased after a spate of racist graffiti attacks in Perth. The graffiti targeted Jewish, Chinese and African people and it was attributed to the Australian Nationalists Movement.

[And the persons responsible? Damon Paul Blaxall, Daniel Tyrone Klavins, Frank James Lemin, Shannon Mark Post, and Ben Weerheym.]

In this case, the maximum penalty available was six-month’s detention…

DAVID WEBER: Melissa Blackney was the woman who was assaulted. She’d told the court she likened the Aboriginal girl’s comments to schoolyard insults. She said she was concerned about the physical assault, not the verbal one, and that’s why she went to the police.

But the prosecutor Amanda Forrester says the victim doesn’t need to hear racial abuse, or even be offended by it, for someone to be charged.

AMANDA FORRESTER: One would understand that the complainant might not have necessarily been upset before she was assaulted but when she’s on the ground and racial slurs are being used while she’s being kicked that, I would have thought, would have been an entirely different story to most people.

If she’d heard those particular insults while she was being assaulted, one might think that she would have taken them slightly more seriously.

DAVID WEBER: The person involved doesn’t have to hear them?

AMANDA FORRESTER: Well our case was certainly that. This is new legislation and it hasn’t been tested in any other case that we’re aware of and the fact is that in this case it hasn’t been tested either because the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the facts which it said based the charge.

DAVID WEBER: Was this charge brought for the intention of this being a test case?

AMANDA FORRESTER: No.

[Although, having never previously been enforced, it was, by definition, a test case!]

DAVID WEBER: This decision has been welcomed by the Aboriginal Legal Service.

The Chief Executive Dennis Eggington.

DENNIS EGGINGTON: For a person who is ethnically or culturally different [that is, from the white norm, presumably], that suffers some serious or substantial abuse or is severely ridiculed, is a different thing altogether and we always thought this was a case of a little bit of aggro, [a] bit of name calling and it wasn’t the right one to bring to court and it seems that we were right in that assumption…

Posted in State / Politics | 16 Comments

Goodbye, Mr. Campbell

Posted on September 15, 2006 by @ndy

Peter Campbell* of the White Pride Coalition of Australia — and NSW sales representative for Heinemann Electric — reckons that I’m a “gutless little worm”, a “schoolgirl” (July 20) and a “snotty nosed little dweeb” (September 13: interested readers may google ‘Victor Whitelaw’ to find his blog). According to Greg Roberts writing in The Australian, however, Campbell is a neo-Nazi and vicious anti-Semite responsible for circulating bomb-making instructions similar to those used by David Copeland to murder and maim innocent civilians in London in April, 1999:

Copeland’s first attack, on Saturday, April 17, 1999, was in Electric Avenue, Brixton, part of the so-called “frontline”, a street made famous in the UK by the 1981 Brixton [race/class] riots that took place there [See also Albert Meltzer’s account].

Copeland made his bomb using explosive from fireworks and taped it inside a sports bag before priming it and planting it outside the Iceland supermarket on the corner of Electric Avenue. The market traders became suspicious of it and moved it several times before it detonated just as the police arrived, at 5:25 in the evening. Fifty people were injured, many of them seriously because of the four-inch nails Copeland had packed around the bomb. One victim was a 23-month-old toddler who had a nail driven through his skull into his brain [above], though he is believed to have made a full recovery.

Copeland’s second bomb, on the following Saturday, April 24, was aimed at Brick Lane, the centre of the Bengali area in the east end of London. There is a famous Brick Lane street market on Sundays, but Copeland mistakenly tried to plant the bomb on Saturday, when the street was quiet. Unwilling to change the timer on the bomb, he left it instead in Hanbury Street, where it exploded injuring 13 people.

Copeland’s third bomb was planted and exploded on the evening of Friday, April 30, in the crowded Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, the centre of London’s gay village, killing Andrea Dykes [below], Nick Moore, John Light, and injuring 79, many of them seriously, with four people requiring limb amputations.

There are no words for my contempt.

Neo-Nazi ‘circulated bomb-making manual’
Greg Roberts
The Australian
September 15, 2006

A POLICE anti-terrorist taskforce is investigating detailed bomb-making instructions distributed to Australian [boneheads] by a prominent neo-Nazi.

The Victoria Police security intelligence group has been told the material was distributed by Peter Campbell, the national head of the White Pride Coalition of Australia.

Mr Campbell is a senior sales representative with Melbourne electrical parts group Heinemann Electric – the company at the centre of a row over the HoWARd Government’s workplace laws. Material given to police includes bomb-making instructions published in an article titled “How to build a David Copeland special”. Copeland, a white supremacist dubbed the Soho bomber, was responsible for a series of bombs in London in the late 1990s.

The instructions include advice to keep nails and other projectiles, which are packed in bombs, in horse manure so that “when embedded in the burnt flesh, the shit will poison the blood”.

The instructions recommend bombs be disguised by placing them in traffic cones.

Muslims are referred to in other material being examined by police.

One document includes this rallying call: “Kill, murder, burn and butcher our enemies and become a hero!”

Some of the documents under investigation by Victoria Police were used in the successful prosecutions in London last year of five neo-Nazi British men for inciting racial hatred.

Mr Campbell declined to comment when contacted by The Australian yesterday.

He sells installation products made by Heinemann subsidiary Slegers, a job that gives him access to items mentioned in the bomb-making instructions.

Mr Campbell uses the WPCA pseudonym of Kromlek of Asgard, which is derived from figures in Viking mythology.

Another alias he uses is ZyklonB, the poisonous gas used by Nazis to kill Jews in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In a posting on a WPCA website, Mr Campbell referred to Jews when he said: “The sooner we White Men are rid of these vile, loathsome bloodsuckers, then the sooner we can get on with the task of re-establishing White homelands for our people that are free from contamination!” Mr Campbell said in another posting: “We White Nationalists must be physically armed as well as ideologically and spiritually prepared!”

Cam Smith, a campaigner with the anti-racism group Fight Dem Back, said the WPCA should be outlawed as a terrorist group.

“These are people who openly promote the use of violence against minority groups they don’t like,” he said. “Thugs like this should not be allowed to promote their messages of hate in a civilised society.”

The WPCA has been implicated in race-hate campaigns against Sudanese refugees in western Sydney and in the Darling Downs city of Toowoomba in Queensland.

Heinemann general manager Richard Ross said Mr Campbell was a good employee, and he knew nothing of his background that suggested he should not have been hired.

Heinemann is at the centre of a row over the federal Government’s industrial relations laws for docking a week’s pay from 46 workers who stopped working overtime.

The Australian revealed this week that WorkSafe Victoria has issued eight notices instructing Heinemann Electric to improve health and safety standards.

In other news, convicted neo-Nazi criminal Ben Weerheym (see Francis de Groot Brigade entries) has declared his intention to journey from Perth to Melbourne “soon”; presumably in order to attend the neo-Nazi Blood & Honour Ian Stuart is Dead celebration next Saturday (September 23rd):

I’m coming to Melbourne soon, I might check out the Barricade bookshop to see if your [wimpy] arse is there. Not too many Morgans in the Torquay area mate, not too many in Melbourne either[.]

[S]ee ya later, red scum[.]

Not big. Not clever.

*See also :

Peter Campbell // ‘Kromlek of Asgard’ & the WPCA (January 16, 2006)
K2 (January 18, 2006)
Cowardly neo-Nazi THUGs on di attack? Balls to that! (May 31, 2006)
Goodnight, Mr. Campbell (July 21, 2006)

Posted in Anti-fascism, War on Terror | Leave a comment

“You will submit!” US court says to Wolf

Posted on September 14, 2006 by @ndy

While the Australian corporate / state media maintains its silence.

‘Freelancer held in contempt for refusing to testify’
David Kravets
(AP Legal Affairs Writer)
San Francisco Chronicle
September 11, 2006

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the contempt of court citation against a San Francisco freelance journalist who is refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigating an anarchists’ protest he videotaped.

A federal grand jury subpoenaed Joshua Wolf to acquire the 30 minutes of unpublished material, but he refused and he was ordered jailed Aug. 1. He was released a month later as he appealed his case.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that 1972 Supreme Court precedent requires everyone, including journalists, to appear before grand juries if they have been summoned.

“The Supreme Court has declined to interpret the First Amendment to ‘grant newsmen a testimonial privilege that other citizens do not enjoy,'” a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appeals court wrote.

Wolf, 24, videotaped a July 2005 protest during the G-8 economic summit where anarchists were suspected of vandalizing a San Francisco police car. One city officer was struck during the rally and his skull was fractured.

Wolf sold some of the footage to San Francisco television stations and posted it on his Web site, but refused to turn over unpublished material. U.S. District Judge William Alsup found him in contempt of court and ordered him jailed, and he was released Sept. 1 pending the outcome of his appeals.

“It’s pretty preposterous,” Wolf said, adding that the decision “essentially echoes” the lower court’s ruling that found him in contempt.

The freelance journalist is the outreach director for the Peralta Community College District cable television system. He also instructs students preparing for the Scholastic Assessment Test.

Jose Luis Fuentes, Wolf’s lawyer, said he would ask the appeals court to allow him to remain free while he petitions the court to reconsider the issue with a larger panel of 15 judges.

Theodore Boutrous Jr., a lawyer for the California First Amendment Coalition and other journalism groups, said he would support those efforts.

Although the incident Wolf caught on video involved San Francisco police, federal authorities are investigating because it involved destruction of federally funded property.

Wolf claimed the federal grand jury shouldn’t have been involved because the destruction of a city police car is not a federal concern.

The appeals court, however, ruled Wolf falsely suggested he could have refused to turn over his footage to a California grand jury because of the state’s shield law protecting reporters from having to reveal unpublished material. However, there’s no shield law protecting reporters from federal grand juries.

The court wrote that California’s shield law protects journalists “connected with or employed upon a newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication, or by a press association or wire service.”

The appellate panel said “Wolf produced no evidence this videotape was made while he was so connected or employed.”

[In other words, if you’re a freelancer like Wolf, and don’t enjoy the patronage of an employer, you do not receive the same legal protection as do employees. The repercussions this ruling has for the hundreds and thousands of independent journalists in the US — especially those engaged in documenting social protest and struggle — should be obvious. And is precisely why Wolf is being targeted.]

The case is Joshua Wolf v. United States, 06-16403.

[Read Wolf’s reply here.]

___

Editors: David Kravets has been covering state and federal courts for more than a decade.

See also : Reporters Without Borders statement (July 31) on Wolf’s prosecution; The Free Josh Wolf Wiki; The Revolution Will Be Televised (Josh’s blog)

P.O.W.

By Josh Wolf

My pen is a knife
Stabbing at the bitter truth
My camera is a gun
Shooting reality at 30 frames-per-second.
And my voice is a cannon
Booming into the night, a rallying cry.

I am a prisoner of war.
Captured in the campaign to destroy the press.
A political prisoner accused of no crime,
Another casualty in a civil war for civil liberties.

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, Media, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

Kenny…

Posted on September 14, 2006 by @ndy

…is brilliant.

Part philosopher, part comedian and all heart, Kenny is one of the cogs in society’s machinery; a knight in shining overalls taking care of business with his faithful “Splashdown crew”. Kenny juggles family tensions, fatherhood and sewage with charm, humour and unflinching dignity…

*****

Go see it!

SHANE JACOBSON: The cameras would just roll. They would honestly just roll. And interacting with people in real situations, you know? I’d be there at the festivals, and things would just happen. Honestly, the film crew – if you follow anyone long enough, you’ll find an interesting story. And they filmed me for two years. I don’t know if that makes me dull, Margaret. You could probably film someone else for a week and get a full feature.

So people kept saying, “That’s exciting”. And I thought, “They filmed me for two years to get enough interesting stuff to get a movie out of it”. In a lot of films people go to cinemas and they get to see… at the end of the film, they win Tattslotto, they get the good-looking girl and they drive off in a sports car and they get off on a boat that none of us could ever wish to afford. And that’s how it all happens.

But life’s not like that, you know? And life is small victories, you know? And I think for all of us if… I’ve got a son, and I could live to be 700 years old and not experience anything as fantastic as witnessing the birth of him.

And life is small victories, I think. It’s not about winning Tattslotto. If we all wait for that and it doesn’t happen, should we be disappointed? But if you can sit on the beach with a partner or your children and have a wine or a picnic with the kids, I mean, that’s as good as it gets, you know?

And the people who get bedridden with illness, or people who find themselves on death’s doorstep, you know, or people that find themselves in jail, they soon realise the things they miss are the things they ignored, which is all the simple stuff around us, you know?

See also : The Age review by Jake Wilson (August 16, 2006)

Posted in Film | Leave a comment

Heinemann : No pay, no safety, and no respect

Posted on September 12, 2006 by @ndy

‘Safety fears at overtime row firm’
Ewin Hannan
The Australian
September 12, 2006

THE Melbourne company [owned by another, South African-based company which is, in turn, owned by a TNC] that docked 56 employees a week’s pay for not working overtime has been served with eight notices for alleged breaches of health and safety laws.

WorkSafe Victoria, a division of the state’s WorkCover Authority, also found that bullying was likely to occur at Heinemann Electric, in the outer suburb of Mulgrave.

Unions are considering Federal Court action after the electrical parts company refused to pay employees for a week’s work. The company said the federal workplace laws allowed it not to pay the workers, who imposed the bans in support of an enterprise bargaining claim.

Documents show WorkSafe has issued eight separate notices since November last year instructing Heinemann Electric to improve health and safety conditions.

WorkSafe cited a range of concerns, including switchboards being tested in an “uncontrolled environment” and “inadequate control measures” relating to asbestos. Electrical cords and appliances were being used without ensuring there was no risk of electric shock or electrocution.

The WorkSafe inspector criticised the “inadequate” emergency evacuation procedures and the fact that health and safety meetings had not been held for eight months.

WorkSafe issued notices saying it reasonably believed the company was in breach of occupational health and safety laws. The notices led to a further inspection on January 30. Some issues had been addressed but the company had still not complied with four of the notices.

On July 28 WorkSafe issued another improvement notice after finding that bullying was likely to occur at the workplace.

WorkSafe found the company did not have appropriate policies or procedures to deal with bullying; that there was uncertainty about job requirements; and that workplace communication was poor. Heinemann was instructed to develop a no-bullying policy and instigate a confidential reporting system and an adequate system to deal with bullying behaviour.

Heinemann general manager Richard Ross denied bullying had occurred. He said WorkSafe had given the company extra time to address the issues.

Dean Mighell, Victorian secretary of the Electrical Trades Union, claimed employees were “frightened” of management.

The workers imposed protected industrial action in the form of overtime bans from August 22 before stopping work for 24 hours on August 25.

In a statement last week, Mr Ross said the company wanted to negotiate with employees about what hours they worked, but the union wanted to control the level of hours.

But Mr Mighell said the company was trying to “average out” working hours.

[Hat tip : Dr. Cam Sexenheimer]

Posted in State / Politics | 2 Comments

Blackburn Sth Sharps!

Posted on September 12, 2006 by @ndy

A Skins ‘n’ Sharps Exhibition will be held from Sunday 4th of July 2010 @ The Kustom Lane Gallery, 8 Luton Lane, Hawthorn.

Googled “Blackburn South Sharps” and found this grouse site!

Larry Jenkins, aka ESOTERIC, is the photographer responsible for the now infamous “Sharpie” photos recently [sic] exhibited at ACMI / Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia.

Larry was the leader of the notorious street gang the “BLACKBURN SOUTH SHARPS” from 1972-1977 when the Sharpie sub-culture was at its peak and the working class suburbs of Melbourne were a tough and violent place to grow up. These photographs represent a period from 1975-1976 in Australian sub-cultural history and are one of the few photographic records of that time. Larry began taking photos at the age of 16 using a pocket camera, when he started working as an apprentice motor mechanic and spent his weekly wage developing his shots…

See also :

::: Sharpies – A Unique Australian Subculture

“The recent fascination with Sharpies leaves you wondering – when did a spotted past in suburban Australia become an object of fascination rather than derision?”

::: The Sharpies – Cult Gangs of the Sixties and Seventies

In the 60’s and 70’s the streets of Melbourne were full of gangs but it was the Sharpies, enemies of the Hippies and Mods that held the power on the street. For a mean bunch of kids they were extremely fashion conscious with their crest-knit black shirts and personally designed cardigans. But as Saturday night fever exploded the Sharpies started to conform until the gang slowly faded away.

::: Blackburn South Sharps on Wikipedia :

The Blackburn South Sharps were the most prominent of the 1972-1977 Melbourne ‘sharpie’ gangs. The Sharpies were unique [?] to Melbourne and are an important element of Melbourne’s history in that their clothes were not a copy of US or UK fashion and they listened to Melbourne rock bands. Sharpies were an early precursor to the Australian phenomenon of bogans.

[On ‘bogans’, see also Michelle Griffin, ‘Bogansville: meet the new in-crowd’, The Age, July 16, 2002. NB. The lexicographers at the ANU claim that the earliest trace they can find for the term is 1985, but I can recall its use in 1983.]

Posted in Art, History | 372 Comments

September 11 / S11 / 9:11

Posted on September 11, 2006 by @ndy

1973 :

‘Chile’s Pinochet victims testify’
Clinton Porteous
BBC News, Santiago
May 13, 2004

Human rights groups say Pinochet’s regime killed thousands

More than 30,000 Chileans have said they were victims of torture or political detention under the 17-year Pinochet regime that ended in 1990.

The public was invited to testify to a government commission that is examining human rights abuses.

There were many reports from men and women of sexual abuse, with about 10% of the testimonies coming from women.

Most said they were victims in 1973 – soon after the military coup that brought [hijo de puta] General Augusto Pinochet to power.

Sexual torture

Testimonies were collected from 30,000 or so people from all over Chile, many of them speaking for the first time about their experiences.

Commission lawyer Cristian Correa said a substantial number of victims spoke of sexual abuse.

“Men and women victims of sexual torture – we have received a lot of testaments of that kind of things.

“These kind of perversions are fairly common if you feel there is no limit on what you can do.”

One torture centre in Santiago was known as “Venda Sexy” – or Sexy Blindfold – and was notorious.

More were victims

The commission is the first in Chile to examine torture and detention under Augusto Pinochet’s military government.

Other enquiries have examined the number of dead and concluded more than 3,000 political opponents were killed.

Human rights groups have criticised the commission for only hearing testimonies for six months.

They believe more than 100,000 people were tortured or detained during the military government…

2000 :

MEDIA RELEASE from Legal Response Team…

Media Release
Legal Support Team

Brutal police attack on WEF protest

7.40PM: Tuesday, Crown Casino
Melbourne, Australia

Lawyers and members of the legal support team were shocked and outraged by brutal police assaults on protesters at the World Economic Forum, last night.

Witness statements and observations by the legal support team documented the following account of the police brutality, including the use of potentially lethal force.

Without warning or any attempt at negotiation police attacked a peaceful blockade outside Crown Casino this evening.

The ferocity and violence of the attack was the worst seen so far in WEF protests marred by police violence.

Police charged through and over the protesters wielding long PR-24 side handled batons, striking protesters over the head and body.

Protesters were kicked, punched and dragged behind police lines.

Protesters trapped between lines of police horses and the Casino fence were beaten and prodded through the fence with batons.

One man was beaten by police, while lying prone, and possibly unconsciousness, behind police lines. He was subsequently taken to hospital by ambulance with suspected spinal injuries.

Over 30 people were taken by ambulance or had to attend hospital for treatment. Several protesters have serious injuries, predominately to the head and neck. Some remain hospitalised.

Several hundred police and at least 40 police horses were used to cordon off the intersection of Power St and Queensbridge Rd, to allow several buses carrying WEF delegates to leave the Casino.

Some people were arrested, but shortly after released.

Earlier in the day the legal support team had called on the Victorian Ombudsman to investigate police actions at the protest.

Damien Lawson said today, “The Victorian Ombudsman must intervene as a matter of urgency to prevent further unlawful action by the police and serious injuries to members of the public exercising their right to protest. If protesters have breached the law they can be dealt with by the courts, rather police have acted as judge and jury circumventing the justice system by meting out their own arbritary brutal and dangerous punishment.”

Pauline Spencer said today, “Which ever member of police command who authorised this premeditated use of potentially lethal force should resign. These actions were unjustifiable and parallel human rights abuses seen in some of the worst repressive regimes in the world.”

Dedicated to the cowardly police officer who fractured my girlfriend’s cheekbone… you only strengthened our resolve.

2001 :

Q: “The world will never be the same after 11.09.01”. Do you think so?

Chomsky: The horrendous terrorist attacks on Tuesday are something quite new in world affairs, not in their scale and character, but in the target. For the US, this is the first time since the War of 1812 that its national territory has been under attack, even threat. Its colonies have been attacked, but not the national territory itself. During these years the US virtually exterminated the indigenous population, conquered half of Mexico, intervened violently in the surrounding region, conquered Hawaii and the Philippines (killing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos), and in the past half century particularly, extended its resort to force throughout much of the world. The number of victims is colossal. For the first time, the guns have been directed the other way. The same is true, even more dramatically, of Europe. Europe has suffered murderous destruction, but from internal wars, meanwhile conquering much of the world with extreme brutality. It has not been under attack by its victims outside, with rare exceptions (the IRA in England, for example). It is therefore natural that NATO should rally to the support of the US; hundreds of years of imperial violence have an enormous impact on the intellectual and moral culture.

It is correct to say that this is a novel event in world history, not because of the scale of the atrocity — regrettably — but because of the target. How the West chooses to react is a matter of supreme importance. If the rich and powerful choose to keep to their traditions of hundreds of years and resort to extreme violence, they will contribute to the escalation of a cycle of violence, in a familiar dynamic, with long-term consequences that could be awesome. Of course, that is by no means inevitable. An aroused public within the more free and democratic societies can direct policies towards a much more humane and honorable course.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Film, History, State / Politics, War on Terror | 2 Comments

Darrin Hodges… Again. And for the last time.

Posted on September 11, 2006 by @ndy

One of the few good things about the neo-Nazi porn salesman Darrin Hodges — apart from his handsome face: yeah, that’s him up there — is his conviction that he’s quite a clever fellow. The fact that he’s actually quite a daft bugger makes his pathetic attempts at critique all the more amusing. Thus, Hodges writes:

Friday, September 08, 2006

Andrew Morgan of Melbourne, aka ‘@ndy'[,] is a liar.

Yes, I’m sure you would all be surprised at the fact that [a] fightdemback.com forum member could be a liar, but I’m afraid it’s true. You see, in his blog… Andrew does in fact tell a porky:

Seriously though: I can only assume that your reference to my “brother” is a result of something Ben Weerheym claimed on his now deleted blog ‘Leftywatch’. To cut a long story short: any and all information regarding my “brother” was provided to Ben by aketus, posing as ‘cricket guy 88′ (or something similar). The story aketus relayed to Ben revolved around my having a non-existent brother, who was described as being both an ex-bikie, an ex-con, and as having a great deal of love for his family. Anyway, the ‘evidence’ for this “brother” was to be based on the non-existent minutes taken at a non-existent meeting of a non-existent group, the ‘Geelong Anarchist Group’… or ‘GAG’ for short.

Well, it’s not quite true[.] [S]ee, way back in January 2005, Andrew posted this on his older blog:

Looking after my brother Jamie’s house this last week-and-a-half, I (re-)discovered an Australian rock classic: Dave Warner’s From the Suburbs! To be precise, Mug’s Game, from which the following, achingly [ha!] accurate lines are drawn…

But wait, [there’s] more, the trusty blog search also reveals an extra nugget of information:

Looking after my brother Jamie’s house in Mitcham this last week-and-a-half, I (re-)discovered an Australian rock classic: Dave’s Warner’s From the Suburbs! To be precise, Mug’s Game… [snip]

[So] he looked after the non-existent house of his non-existent brother?

[H]mmm, pants on fire.

Honestly, Darrin, you’re a very silly man. I mean, gee whiz, has it ever occurred to you that I have a family? Brothers? Sisters even? Shit, the way you blokes carry on about decreasing fertility rates among whites, you’d reckon mum ‘n’ dad deserved a medal, not harassment!

So, for the benefit of stupid buggers like Darrin: the fairy tale revolves not around the fact that — eeek! who woulda thunk it! — I have family, but that I have a brother as described. Of course, the supposed fact that I have a brother named Jamie who lives in Mitcham is not especially relevant… is it? Well, unless Darrin believes that this may constitute a possible means through which to embarrass or intimidate me.

Which is a very dangerous assumption: at best.

Still, when all’s said and done, it’s like what Jewish singer-songwriter Lou Reed‘s painter friend Donald said:

Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they’re done.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 12 Comments

Blood & Honour in Belgium… and Australia

Posted on September 10, 2006 by @ndy

While local (neo-Nazi) boneheads are preparing to gather in Melbourne on September 23rd to celebrate Ian Stuart‘s death — an event organised by Blood and Honour Australia, including such notables as Australia First‘s Welf Herfurth* and Cronulla videographer James Newman — in Belgium the International Herald Tribune (September 8, 2006) reports that:

The Belgian police said they seized more than 100 weapons and detained two new suspects Friday in an investigation into a neo-Nazi network that they assert involves soldiers and might have been capable of mounting terror attacks…

They also said they had seized illegal weapons during the raids, a homemade bomb, land mine detonators, large quantities of ammunition and neo-Nazi propaganda…

The raids brought to public attention an undercover two-year investigation of a soldier who prosecutors said had brought together a group of far-right sympathizers to spread neo-Nazi ideology.

(A process which — according to a report issued earlier this year by the Southern Poverty Law Centre — has been repeated within the US armed forces and — according to members of Scumfront Down Under — is also a strategy being pursued by local, Australian neo-Nazis.)

In addition, The Jerusalem Post (September 8, 2006) reports that:

Police said the suspects may have been members of the Flanders branch of the international neo-Nazi network Blood and Honour, and said the raids foiled a violent plot that was in the making. The ringleader, a soldier, is thought to have been planning to move the plot into action.

A story which is reinforced by another provided by Blokwatch.

Earlier, in May, one courageous Belgian bonehead shot to death two people: a two year-old (white) child and her (pregnant, black) nanny.

Perth-based racist David Innes, meanwhile, while having his website kicked from neo-Nazi pillar to neo-Nazi post, is happily having his racist outporings hosted by LoudCity: proving that some businesses (like DreamHost) will do absolutely anything for money.

* Welf Herfurth (currently a prominent member of James Saleam’s Australia First party) is one of Blood & Honour‘s main organisers in Australia, and has a long history, both here and in his previous home, Germany, of neo-Nazi militancy. When not discussing his exciting travels in Asia, Herfurth can be found working in close collaboration with Saleam, acting as MC at the fascist Sydney Forum (this year hosted by Sydney’s Estonian community — of which more later). Unfortunately for Herfurth, he was unable to extend a personal welcome to Gerd Finkenwirth of the German neo-Nazi National Democratic Party in 2005 as the Australian Government denied Finkenwirth a visa.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 8 Comments

Cheryl Sings the Heinemann Electric Blues

Posted on September 10, 2006 by @ndy

[Update : As far as bad bosses go you don’t get much worse than Heinemann Electrics. Heinemann have forced their workers on to the picket line by refusing to negotiate a decent agreement or to pay them for a whole week’s work. Show our brothers and sisters at Heinemann that they aren’t standing alone. Come to a solidarity breakfast on the picket line at 821 Springvale Rd, Mulgrave at 8.00am on Wednesday, 13th September 2006. You can also donate to the fighting fund for this dispute. Donations are being collected at the picket, or can be left with Linda or Jacqui at the ETU office at 516-520 Swanston St Carlton South. Receipts for donations can also be issued via the ETU office… BYO vegeburgers and sausages!]

Singing the Heinemann Electric Blues
by Cheryl Cemeljic
Saturday September 09, 2006
clc73[at]optusnet[dot]com[dot]au

    Australians all let us rejoice; for we shall work for free?

    Presently I am spending my days standing outside Heinemann Electric Pty Ltd, the company that my mother has worked in for 18 years, my father and husband for 3 years, and though I left early this year, I was employed there for 13 years, working with my mother and husband in the Slegers Products division. Why am I standing on the outside of these gates? After months of workers and management negotiating an EBA, things came to a standstill when John HoWARd’s IR laws came into effect, and the company backflipped on many of their negotiated clauses, expecting no resistance. An imminent signing by all parties was looking promising, until the point where the company decided instead to offer a very different EBA than the one negotiated.

    To try to be heard in a hopeless situation and bring management back to the negotiating table, it was decided to apply a minimal amount of industrial pressure by putting a ban on overtime, and to choose one day only of strike action. Currently the company operates under a policy of voluntary overtime, though they are now claiming that the overtime hours are part of their normal continuous hours (bull!). While not expecting to be paid for the day of strike action, the company threatened that all employees refusing to do “voluntary?” overtime would not be paid for their normal hours of work either. It was advised on Tuesday, 22 August 2006, that employees would not be paid while an overtime ban was effective, and it wasn’t until Thursday, 24 August 2006, that this was proven with pay receipts. A minimum of 3 working days must be given of intended industrial action, so for 5 days normal hours were worked, and for more than 40 employees those 5 days have still not been paid.

    More than half the people effected have never been asked to work overtime by the company prior to the individual interviews held by Richard Ross on 22 August, 2006.

    This has been allowed to occur because the new interpretation of the law is that a company is not obliged to pay employees during industrial action, always interpreted previously as industrial “strike” action. This creative interpretation was advised to the company by Freehills, the lawyers who helped draft the WorkChoice laws, who initially claimed the clause was “overlooked” and the company found it themselves, but finally had to admit they lead the company to it. While the Industrial Relations Commission agreed the company should pay the employees, it seemed to have no power to force this action.

    Heinemann Electric is a national company, with its base of operations in Mulgrave, Victoria, and sales branches in each state.

    As a further slap in the face to the Australian people, the parent company in South Africa, CBI, which is part of the very successful Reunert group which also owns Mitsubishi Electric and GE Electric, refuses to guarantee the accrued entitlements of local workers. The only people who will give these workers anything if this poorly managed company goes belly-up is the Australian taxpayer through the Gears Scheme. We are supposed to be a first world country, but John HoWARd’s new WorkChoice laws are making it possible for third world ideas to become our practice.

    So if you pass me on Springvale Road in Mulgrave, and you’ll recognise me as the waving lunatic, please have a heart. I could be you one day. The only choices left are to give up all negotiating rights and accept a one-sided EBA; remain inside the factory working, not being paid; or take it to the streets and fight. Which will you choose?

    I would like to personally thank some very valued supporters who are helping boost morale in some very tough times. This list is growing daily, so please forgive me if you are not mentioned here.

    To those who wave and toot their horns in support, your voice is greatly appreciated. To the many people who have stopped to ask us why we are there, and have offered their words of encouragement and support, especially the beautiful lady who bought us coffee, thank you.

    Thank you to the builder’s union for our very handy shelter which was very timely, and to the many unions who are standing by us and providing much support and encouragement. To the fantastic guys at Amcor who have been so generous with their support, thank you.

    A very special thanks to the ETU organisers and members, who are standing by us daily, and supporting us when the fight seems too hard. We are proud to stand arm in arm and fight. Our forefathers’ blood, sweat, and tears gained us the rights we have today. Loading, annual leave, better wage conditions, protection of accrued entitlements, an eight hour day, these all had to be fought for. Today these rights stand precariously on a cliff made by little John. We can only hope that our fight will help you when it is your turn to fight, and believe me, we will all have a turn.

    HEINEMANN ELECTRIC PTY LTD – ALL WORK AND NO PAY? NO WAY!!!

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics | 3 Comments