slackbastard

Some months ago, my profile was added to a blog called Leftywatch. Leftywatch is modelled on the UK’s Redwatch, and is maintained by convicted criminal and former member of the Australian Nationalist Movement Ben Weerheym of Perth, Western Australia.

Weerheym, a Dutch immigrant, first came to the Australian public’s attention in 2004 when — having abandoned his ‘wigger’ status in the tiny Perth rave scene (for reasons which remain somewhat obscure) — Weerheym started acting like a big tough fascist. Namely, he formed a gang with other racist losers, and called it the White Devils. The story of the White Devils, like the story of other fascist gangs, is a tragicomedy: the gang engaged in vandalism; the gang got caught; the gang went to jail.

Well, with one exception: Ben Weerheym. In order to avoid a custodial sentence, Weerheym lied to the court about his previous associations with fascist groups such as the ANM, denying that he’d ever been a member. Ironically, Weerheym’s most recent brush with fame occured when he was interviewed by Western Australian police in connection to the disappearance of his former leader, Jack van Tongeren.

Weerheym is rather stupid — even for a fascist — so his turgid prose is often quite painful to read, let alone comprehend, and doing so is leavened only slightly by the unintentional humour of his otherwise retarded scribblings. ‘Leftywatch’, then, consists of little more than run-of-the-mill attacks on gays, ‘leftists’, ‘multiculturalists’, and any other person, place or thing that refuses to accomodate Weerheym and his paranoid world vision. Such antics have naturally come to the attention of groups like Fightdemback, and it’s in response to their success at monitoring ‘hate crimes’ that Weerheym decided to establish Leftywatch.

According to Weerheym, Leftywatch exists in order to ‘fight far-left bigotry in Australia and Aotearoa / New Zealand’. He claims it’s the work of ‘nationalists’ and ‘patriots’, who want to ‘put names to faces’ of those who, such as myself, allegedly fight fascism by using ‘slander’ and by making ‘threats of violence’ towards ‘nationalists’ and ‘patriots’ such as he. He’s even got a name for this motley (and largely imaginary) bunch of racist malcontents: the “Patriot Alliance Down Under”.

PAD, we are informed, has set itself the modest goal of ‘counter-acting’ “…the lies and deceit championed by the… [Jewish] controlled media and leftist intelligen[t]sia“. PAD also allegedly strives to “defend our heritage, culture, customs, traditions, morals, and values, as well as our blood itself, against hostile alien elements that destroy all that we are and all that we as a race hold dear.”

In a word: barking.

While focusing on Mat Henderson-Hau, spokesperson for the trans-Tasman anti-racist network Fightdemback, Leftywatch includes profiles of dozens of Australian and Aotearoan anarchists, leftists and other anti-racist groups and individuals. In a typically twisted ‘Disclaimer’, Weerheym claims that, among other things, he does not feature the relatives of those he profiles. Quite how this squares with his alleging that I have a brother who lives in ‘Mitchum’, I don’t know. He also claims that: “I do not promote violence or any other illegal activity”. Again, quite how this squares with the fact that Weerheym has a criminal conviction for racist vandalism, I’ll leave it up to others to decide.

My Life As A Loudmouthed Anarchist

Name : Andrew Morgan
Location : Torquay, Victoria
Occupation : Student, occasional “volinteer” at Barricade Books / Infoshop
Blog : slackbastard, “webmaster” Australian Anarchy Bulletin Board

So, let’s “meet Andrew”. According to Ben, I:

1) am a run-of-the-mill loud-mouthed anarchist;

Granted.

2) am associated with and possess a very similar personality to ‘Dr Cam Sexenheimer’;

…and a fine fellow he is too!

3) am a left-wing extremist crackpot (confirmation of which may be found by examining my writings);

…is there any other kind?

4) love to “proudly” tell anybody who will listen exactly what I think about… well, anything;

It’s called having a dialogue Ben. You should try it sometime.

5) am a hypocrite because I want to keep my identity secret;

Yeah, from a bunch of violent sociopaths!

6) commonly take random postings and put them in the “mouthes” [sic] of whatever “fascist” I find most convenient;

When Ben writes that I mis-attribute quotes, what he’s actually referring to is this. (How do I know Weerheym made such comments? I logged his IP.)

7) am webmaster and moderator of the Australian Anarchy Bulletin Board (which has 42 members of whom only around five are actually active);

As a half-wit, Ben naturally gets it half-right. I am the moderator of the AABB, not the “webmaster”; the Board currently has 48 members; 36 (2/3) of these have posted.

EIGHT) read Marx and spout leftist diatribes to anyone who will listen (see 4);

I confess to having read Marx. Nonetheless, I am an anarchist, not a Marxist.

9) label anyone who doesn’t tend to agree with me a “fascist”;

…just those who deserve it.

(Like Weerheym. The fascist.)

10) came to the forefront of Ben’s mind by acting like an “anti-fash” big man around late 2005 (online anyhow) and finally;

11) maintain a blog which contains my bitter sweet musings on life and politics.

Well, that last point is actually kinda sweet: thanks Ben, you bitter and twisted little fascist you!

Needless to say, Weerheym produces no evidence to support any of these claims, and such ‘facts’ as he does provide are wrong in any case.

Finally, Weerheym rounds off his slanderous attack with two quotes, the first from the Board, the second from this blog:

What I’m interested in to begin with is establishing some kind of network. By that I mean, basically, a way for students who are anarchists to hook up. That has two motivations. One is the fact that, as students, anarchists often feel isolated… Means of working together are either missing at present or extremely partial. So, I propose a semi-formal network to fill this gap, to be a means by which to get anarchist students together and to talk.

Open letter to the gangs of youths who have been torching cars in France.

Comrades! Well done! Give them hell! Do not be intimidated by the fascist police!

Love and solidarity, Andy.

Weerheym appears to believe that the first quote has something to do with my wanting to form a group, not a network; his speculation regarding what anarchists involved in such a network might discuss appears to be a projection of his own activities as a member of the extremist fringe group the White Devils (the consumption of alcohol and drugs and discussion of why the Jews are so evil). The second quote I’ve already discussed elsewhere on this blog.

Two final points. I’m not surprised Weerheym attempts to denigrate Yidcore for their kind offer to play the proposed FDB / Timur Kacharava benefit gig. After all, they’re Jewish, and Weerheym is a rabid anti-Semite. And if anyone is interested in the subject of anarchism and Che Guevara, they should read this.

Negras tormentas agitan los aires
nubes oscuras nos impiden ver
Aunque nos espere el dolor y la muerte
contra el enemigo nos llama el deber

El bien mas preciado
es la libertad
hay que defenderla
con fe y con valor

Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que llevara al pueblo a la emancipacion
En pie obrero a la batalla
hay que derrocar a la reaccion

A las Barricadas!
A las Barricadas!
por el triunfo
de la Confederacion

White supremacy in our backyard
The Weekend Australian

Australia First says publicly it’s not a racist party. Dan Box went under cover for months to get the real story

March 04, 2006

ONCE a month, the local branch of the Australia First party meets in the backyard of a small house in Tempe, inner-western Sydney, to drink beer, cook sausages and plot the triumph of the white race.

Last Saturday, however, was a “special meeting”, hosted at home by the party’s state co-ordinator, Jim Saleam.

Up for debate was how to turn the rollercoaster of publicity received after the Cronulla race riots into a legitimate political campaign.

While Australia First is commonly described as a neo-Nazi party, publicly the party claims it is not a racist organisation.

It says it is looking to legitimise itself, eyeing the next local council elections in Cronulla’s Sutherland Shire [in September 2008] as a starting point.

Privately, the backyard drinkers can’t help themselves.

Speaking to The Weekend Australian, which attended the meeting using an assumed name, Jeremy Costello recalled a recent drive to Bondi, where he saw a rabbi walking down the road.

“We leaned out of the window and shouted ‘Sieg heil! Sieg heil!’,” he said.

“Shit, these rabbis take things seriously.”

Mr Costello says the group is serious about its political agenda, and is more than just a group of like-minded souls. “We’re not a social club. We get together every week to try to do something,” he said.

Ultimately, Australia First hopes to emulate the political success of the British National Party and become the acceptable face of Australian racism.

But baby steps first. A week from today, the party will begin campaigning on the streets of Cronulla for the 2008 council elections. Neil Baird – a former One Nation party treasurer and failed federal election candidate who now sees Australia First as his best shot – will try for local office.

Cronulla, they believe, is their big chance.

The party is proud of its role in what happened on December 11, when they called on “patriotic people” to join “this first great mobilisation of Australians against the terror of multiculturalist ideology and practice in this country’s history”.

It worked. After the riots, Mr Costello said, people started talking about Australia First.

“Before Cronulla we were nothing. That put us on the agenda. That was our breakthrough,” he said.

The Cronulla effect was also felt outside the party. That same Saturday, the city of Newcastle hosted the first Australian “Blood and Honour” white power gig in years, where a local band, Blood Red Eagle, played on a stage decorated with swastikas.

Australia First’s president Diane Te[a]sdale, from Shepparton, Victoria, denies the party is racist.

“Australia should remain predominantly white. That is party policy, but I don’t think that makes us racist,” she said.

Last Tuesday, Dr Saleam was invited to address a meeting of the Conservative Speakers Club in Strathfield, western Sydney.

After his speech, the first question from his audience was: “Jim, how long before we get a decent government, one that will bring back white immigration, national service and get these young punks into line?”

As well as campaigning in Cronulla, the party also hopes to set up branches in Port Macquarie on the NSW mid-north coast and Wollongong, south of Sydney, as well as sub-branches in Sydney’s western suburbs and Campbelltown. Existing branches operate in Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle and Brisbane.

Since the December 11 Cronulla riots, other more extreme groups have been torn about whether to get behind Australia First or stick to their own agendas. Australia’s racist community has been discussing whether to unite behind the party.

One of these is the White Crusaders of the RaHoWa, or Racial Holy War, run from an Oaklands Park post office box in South Australia by the organisation’s “Kommandant”, “Reverend” Colin Campbell III.

The White Crusaders are a religious movement based on the teachings of the self-titled “Pontifex Maximus” Ben Klassen, [not] currently serving 40 years in a US jail for soliciting the murder of a judge.

[Box is referring here to Matt Hale; and while Hale may be rotten, Klassen is decomposing.]

The group believes “the white race is nature’s finest”.

Its “Sixteen Commandments” state: “Remember that the inferior mud races are our deadly enemies, and the most dangerous of all is the Jewish race. It is our immediate objective to relentlessly expand the White Race, and keep shrinking our enemies.”

The church has its own wedding and “child pledging” ceremonies, while its website contains fairy tales to teach children “white racial pride”.

Like many other extremist groups, however, internal divisions both internationally and in Australia mean the Crusader’s numbers are limited.

While Mr Campbell claims to be the organisation’s second-in-command, he has authority over little more than a few scattered groups around the world. This same factionalism exists, too, within the more established parties.

Since February, Dr Saleam has been asked not to attend meetings of the NSW branch of One Nation.

Jim Cassidy, One Nation state president, said this was because of Dr Saleam’s past connections to “white supremacist” organisations.

“We’re not interested in going down that road and never have been,” he said.

The authorities, too, are cracking down on extreme right-wing groups.

The South Australian police are investigating whether the White Crusaders website breaches any laws.

After Cronulla, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation launched an investigation into a number of racist groups thought to have had a role in the violence.

Dr Saleam, jailed in 1991 for organising a shotgun attack on the home of the African National Congress’s Australian representative, Eddie Funde, now has to contend with stickers put up on his street calling him a pedophile.

Jeremy Costello has seen his phone number among graffiti near his home, along with a message saying he is available for gay sex.

When contacted by The Weekend Australian for this article, both Dr Saleam and Mr Costello refused to comment.

Despite this, Australia’s extremists still believe they have a political future in this country.

One, anonymous, posting on the “white nationalist” Stormfront Downunder internet forum, called for an end to the factionalism that has defeated the movement in the past.

“We must imitate those already in government in terms of appearance, manner, and promotion,” it said.

“(Our message) must be marketed, it must be refined, it must have the support of intellectuals, white- and blue-collar, the faithful and the faithless. The last two months have done more for Australian nationalism than the last 10 years combined.”