G20 Meeting, Melbourne, November, 2006

Posted on February 1, 2006 by @ndy

Just “chillin’ and drinkin’ da brews in my krib y’all” when “check dis shit”… At the end of the year, on the weekend of November 18/19, Melbourne will p(l)ay host to a meeting of yet another bloody neo-liberal institution, the so-called ‘G20‘:

The members of the G-20 are the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 [states]: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The European Union is also a member, represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank. To ensure global economic fora and institutions work together, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the President of the World Bank, plus the chairs of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and Development Committee of the IMF and World Bank, also participate in G-20 meetings on an ex-officio basis.

The G-20 thus brings together important industrial and emerging-market [states] from all regions of the world. Together, member [states] represent around 90 per cent of global [GNP], 80 per cent of world trade (including EU intra-trade) as well as two-thirds of the world’s population. The G-20’s economic weight and broad membership gives it a high degree of legitimacy and influence over the management of the global economy and financial system.

Translated from Newspeak into English, what this means is that in November in Melbourne, some of the world’s leading bean-counters from an assortment of twenty or so of the world’s most powerful states and global financial institutions will be gathering to discuss (better) ways of continuing to divide up the spoils of global capitalism among the world’s elites: — without simultaneously plunging the global economic system into another ‘crisis’ of the sort that prompted the group’s formation in Berlin in 1999. (NB. ‘Crisis’, like ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’, being another technical term meaning ‘seriously dysfunctional to continued profit-making’; not, say, ‘that which endangers the continued survival of the world’s impoverished masses’.) Better yet, the pointy-heads would like to cobble together a system that will function as a relatively more ‘stable’ means of securing ‘growth’ — that is, the continued accumulation of profitable things — while ensuring that the vastly inequitable global distribution of wealth remains just that… that is, assuming that inequality is not further entrenched (as most current indicators suggest is highly likely, if not certain).

Reclaim Globalisation, a group associated with Friends of The Earth, are holding an organising meeting to discuss possible responses to the G20 meeting this Saturday February 4th, from 2-4pm, upstairs @ Friends of the Earth, 312 Smith St (cnr Perry St), Collingwood. They make the following points:

The primary goal of the G20 is to discuss and develop policies that promote the “high and sustainable growth” of the global economy. It does this in part through promoting policies consistent with the G20 Accord for Sustained Growth agreed to in 2004. This Accord stresses a range of neoliberal policies, including:

– The elimination of restrictions on the international movement of capital
– Deregulation
– Flexible labour market conditions
– Privatisation
– Enforcement of intellectual and other private property rights
– Creating a business climate conducive to foreign direct investment
– Global trade liberalisation (through the WTO and bilateral free trade agreements)

In 2006 the theme of the G20 meeting will be “Building and Sustaining Prosperity”. The issues to be discussed will include domestic reforms to achieve “sustained growth”, global energy and resource commodity markets, ‘reform’ of the World Bank and IMF, and the impact of demographic changes due to an ageing population…

The 2004 Chairperson of the G20, Hans Eichel, stated that “it is not without reason that many observers accord the G20 an important role – for some, even the most important role in the future – in global governance”.

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“What’s a Stormfront?”

Posted on January 31, 2006 by @ndy

It appears that David Innes’ days of hate-mongering while remaining in relative anonymity are — finally — over.

As noted at Fightdemback, both The Advertiser and The Australian today contain reports on the foreign white supremacist import White Crusaders of the RaHoWa, the Australian franchise for which is owned by the not-terribly ‘Reverend’ Colin Campbell of Adelaide (not to be confused with Peter Campbell // ‘Kromlek of Asgard’ of Sydney). After having been booted from one host to another, Innes has rather foolishly found a home at this, one of Adelaide’s… er… ‘lesser-known’ churches.

Intriguingly, on the same day these articles appeared, and only a few days after my profiling of Der Baron, David’s partner-in-crime Lilith Peterson has seen fit to be the first neo-Nazi since Darrin Hodges to comment on my blog for over a month.

I wonder why?

Actually, I think the reason is pretty obvious: it’s a rather pathetic attempt to distance herself, her partner and her partner’s brother — Paul Innes // ‘Steelcap Boot’ — from Stormfront. Not a terribly courageous thing to do for a tiny group that once boasted of its role in promoting the foreign import that is David Duke’s brand of ‘White Nationalism’; then again, it’s not like ‘Perth Stormfront’ — with their ceaseless promotion of the virtues of racism, fascism and burnt snags — haven’t been begging and screaming for the attention for some time now. Further, attempting to ‘plaster over’ their extensive and well-documented links to neo-Nazism is not only useless; it’s embarassing.

You see, Australia’s fascists are not only confusing, they’re confused. They sincerely believe that their sordid ideology really does have popular support among Australia’s white population, and that the only thing preventing a ‘White resurgence’ is a Jewish-controlled media. Some of the more politically savvy among them realise that both aspects of this thesis are bankrupt, and do their level best to disown their movement’s neo-Nazi origins and (continued) lineage.

Poor David. An historical and political illiterate, he believes that neo-Nazism is much like fashion; an ideological garment you can put on and take off as many times as you like and as the need arises. David also believes that the source of all his woes is Mat Henderson-Hau, FDB’s spokesperson. In fact, while his comrade Ben Weerheym tends to adopt a scatter-gun approach to maligning anti-racists, such is David’s obsessional focus on Mat, he’s even constructed a shrine to him on his site.

When will David and his ilk understand that Fightdemback is not Mat, racism and fascism are unacceptable, and that, whatever they do, we’re not going away?

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Without Jack

Posted on January 30, 2006 by @ndy

Five neo-Nazi boys go round the outside;
round the outside, round the outside
*scratches*
Five neo-Nazi boys go round the outside;
round the outside, round the outside
*scratches*

Guess who’s back
Back again
Jack’s back
Tell a friend
Guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back
Guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back…

Jack’s back! Yes, Jack van Tongeren, 58, has just a few days ago been released from jail, after having spent the last 17 months on remand in Perth. According to news reports (see below), van Tongeren is in a poor state of health and will spend the next 7 weeks preparing his defence against charges of plotting to commit four arson attacks and 19 counts of criminal damage against four Chinese restaurants in Perth in June and July, 2004 (‘Supremacist leader in court’, The Age, August 7, 2004). “[M]agistrate Robert Black… told the court the arson charges related to four separate alleged attacks, carried out with others, between June 1 and July 16 this year. Mr Black said van Tongeren was accused of plotting to cause criminal damage by fire to properties in the Perth suburbs of Willeton, Karrawarra, Ferndale and another unknown location.”

‘Long trial wait sees van Tongeren get bail’
David Darragh
The West Australian
28 January, 2006

Former Australian Nationalist Movement leader Jack van Tongeren was granted bail by a Supreme Court judge yesterday ahead of his trial on a charge of plotting to bomb four Chinese restaurants in Perth.

Justice Anthony Templeman ruled that the 58-year-old would have spent an excessive amount of time in custody if he was not granted bail before his three-week trial in March.

“A period of 19 months on remand (assuming a grant of bail was to be refused) would be excessive, having regard to (his) age and the state of his health,” the judge said.

Mr van Tongeren and two co-accused — deputy ANM leader John Anthony Van Blitterswyk, 53, and Matthew Peter Billing, 33 — have denied a charge of conspiring to commit criminal damage by fire. They are accused of plotting to firebomb four Chinese restaurants in June and July 2004 as a publicity stunt to coincide with the release of Mr van Tongeren’s book, The ANM Story.

In his ruling, Justice Templeman said the former Vietnam veteran suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, irritable bowel syndrome and hearing loss. Also, he had profuse bleeding from burst veins on four occasions. Apart from having a hearing aid fitted, he had no specialist treatment while in custody at Hakea Prison.

“It is clear from the evidence given by (Mr van Tongeren) that he has been worn down — both mentally and physically — by his lengthy incarceration on remand.”

…Bail conditions, including $30,000 personal bail and a $30,000 surety and daily reporting to police, were imposed on Mr van Tongeren.

Interestingly, police claim that ‘Operation Atlantic’ uncovered evidence for the alleged plot after five members of the ‘White Devils’ Social Club for Juvenile Delinquents (aka the Australian Nationalist Movement’s (ANM) youth wing) got busted for vandalism in mid-July 2004: “Detectives involved in Operation Atlantic, the investigation into the graffiti, raided van Tongeren’s house in Gingin, north of Perth, on July 29, where, they allege, they [also?] uncovered a plot to harm WA’s Attorney General Jim McGinty and other high profile community leaders.”

With idiotic mates like the White Dickheads — Damon Paul Blaxall (29), Daniel Tyrone Klavins (26), Frank James Lemin (20), Shannon Mark Post (24), and Ben ‘Getaway Driver’ Weerheym (28) — who needs enemies? Of course, this mob is quite used to frenzied bouts of back-stabbing: metaphorical and literal! Among one of the longer-term tensions within Australian fascism is that between Jim (the ‘Lebanese’) and Jack (the ‘Indonesian’). The November 2002 issue of the AIJAC’s Review features the following piece by Matthew Collins, ‘The Tale of Jack and Jim’:

Van Tongeren was initially a leading light in the Sydney based National Action (NA) neo-Nazi group in the early eighties. As with every almost other member that NA has ever had, Jack quit and went off to form his own organisation, believing NA were being soft on Jews, and not Nazi enough to lead the rebirth of the supreme Aryan being. Despite what followed, some in National Action, those with “radical” beliefs, felt in turn that Van Tongeren had been a little soft on the Asian question. Jack’s parents had previously disowned him, not surprisingly as it turned out, given his Asian ancestry.

Throughout the 1980s, while both National Action and ANM were breaking windows and spraying walls with catchy slogans, both organisations were closely scrutinised and monitored by the authorities. From the top to the very shallow bottom, members were arrested and imprisoned for fire bombings, shootings, even murder, while with their otherwise spare time, they battered and attacked each other.

Jack’s biggest nemesis throughout the eighties, and the ANM continues to bait him today, is James Saleam, former leader and founder of National Action. For constantly and casually reminding everyone of Van Tongeren’s Asian heritage, Saleam is labelled a “Sand Nigger” by the ANM, due to his own, some-say Turkish, some-say Lebanese, background. Certainly the two could not stand further apart in the political wilderness. While Van Tongeren saw a future for Australian neo-Nazism in building a broad-base with the Conservative right, Saleam has continued to waste his political life dreaming of Eureka style insurrection, inspired by Maoist and other obscure revolutionary thinkers. What the two do share, other than their long list of criminal convictions, is an empty and dying grip on the minds of what is left of the traditional Australian fascist movement.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to establish a foothold in Melbourne during the 1990s — most spectacularly in the form of a ‘shop’ in Fawkner: born January 1997; died April 1998 — National Action has collapsed, and its last fuhrer, the racist (“and that’s official!”) Michael Brander, has opted to follow Jim’s (unsuccessful) journey into academia… best of luck you fascist swine.

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No review on freed neo-Nazi axe murderer Sweetman

Posted on January 29, 2006 by @ndy

Speaking of racial assault, Dane Sweetman remains on parole despite an alleged assault on a patron at a pub in Collingwood. The Victorian Police Association and the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission are not happy, according to Greg Roberts writing in The Australian, while ‘Corrections Minister Tim Holding said he would not be making representations to the parole board. “The board took into account the fact he was not charged with any further offences,” a spokesman for Mr Holding said. “It’s a matter for the board.”‘ According to Roberts “Police sources said the man did not wish to proceed with charges against Sweetman because he feared retribution.”

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Racist attacks on Australia Day

Posted on January 29, 2006 by @ndy

Aboriginal children in Rockhampton, Queensland have been shot in an alleged racially-motivated assault on Australia Day according to The Australian and The Advertiser. The first attack was reported the day after Australia Day, while a second assault was only revealed to have occurred days later when the child concerned reported to hospital after having heard of the first attack.

Child shot in alleged racist attack
By Steve Connolly
January 27, 2006

AN Aboriginal boy was shot in the back with an airgun pellet in an alleged random, racist attack on Australia Day, a Queensland court heard today.

Hayden John Nitz, 17, today faced the Rockhampton Magistrates’ Court charged with unlawful wounding and weapons offences.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Darrell Dalton told the court Mr Nitz allegedly fired at the 13-year-old boy with an air rifle yesterday in a drive-by shooting outside a house on Alexandra Street, North Rockhampton.

The boy was allegedly hit in the back and the pellet pierced his skin under the armpit.

He is reported to be in a serious but stable condition in the Rockhampton Base Hospital.

Snr Const Dalton said Mr Nitz was in a car with other people being sought by police when the shooting occurred.

He said Mr Nitz, of Rockhampton, and his alleged accomplices had intended to “shoot indigenous persons”.

…He was remanded in custody to face Rockhampton Magistrates’ Court again on April 3.

News.com.au reports that there will be ‘New charges over girl’s shooting’ (January 29):

AN Aboriginal girl initially treated for an insect sting has had surgery to remove an air-gun pellet fired at her in a string of suspected racist shootings on Australia Day.

Five men already charged over the identical shooting of a 13-year-old Aboriginal boy in the same city will again face court on Tuesday over the attack on the girl.

Police allege the two teenagers were among eight people who were fired upon in the central Queensland city of Rockhampton on Thursday. The other six were not hit.

It emerged today that the 15-year-old girl sought treatment at Rockhampton Hospital on Australia Day, believing she’d been stung by an insect.

Medical staff put a band-aid on her wound and sent her home.

But the girl contacted police when she saw a media report about the air-gun attack on the 13-year-old.

When she returned to hospital an x-ray revealed an air-gun pellet was lodged in her back. “She thought she was stung,” said Central Queensland Crime Co-ordinator Detective Inspector Mick Niland.

“She went up to the hospital and they put a band-aid on it.”

The girl was expected to be discharged from hospital today after the pellet was successfully removed.

Five youths have been charged over the attack on the 13-year-old boy.

The same five will face court on Tuesday, where charges will be laid over the shooting of the 15-year-old girl.

Two of the five – Hayden John Nitz and Timothy Perry, both 17 – have already faced Rockhampton Magistrates Court on charges stemming from the attack on the boy…

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2006 Trot Guide Update #2 // Riot Squad

Posted on January 28, 2006 by @ndy

Yes! A split! And in the Spartacist League (of Australia… & New Zealand?) no less! According to Lou:

According to a May 2005 leaflet, Trotskyist Platform (TP) ‘Is a left split from the Spartacist League (SL), which had in practice started moving, albeit quite slowly, in the direction of the social-democratic left. The new tendency is being founded by the editor of the SL’s newspaper … who is known as Praba Balasubramaniam’.

‘The immediate cause of the split was the SL’s recoil from turning their written defence of the arrested Redfern & Palm Island Aboriginal militants into actual *action*’ (that is, the defeat of Balasubramaniam’s motion calling for SL to initiate a ‘united-front demonstration’ on the subject.)

A further detail, ‘TP is today founded with just 6% of what the tiny SL has.’

Assuming that the SL has 100 members — an extremely generous estimate — the Trotskyist Platform has… 6.

Q. Is this Australia’s smallest Trot group?

Well, I’ve searched for online refs to TP, and found just two, both referring to demonstrations in Sydney:

—->> Rally: Down with the Anti-Communist, China-Bashing Campaign!

—->> Rally to Defend the Black Opponents of Racist State Terror! See: 2006 Trot Guide // 2006 Trot Guide Update #1
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in CustodyIn related developments…

Steve Gee rejoices as “finally” NSW has a riot squad. Note that in this report the main question put to Iemma is ‘Why didn’t this happen sooner?’, not ‘Is this a good thing?’. That this is a good news item for the citizens of NSW is simply assumed; while the squad’s disbandment in the 1980s is mentioned, no reason is given, nor any mention made of its history.

Iemma is then quoted as making a denial: ‘We don’t have an ethnic gang problem’. Immediately preceding this statement is the NSW Premier’s assurance that the state government has enough police, enough laws, and enough prisons to ‘solve racial conflict’ and put a permanent end to race rioting…

NSW riot squad formed
By Steve Gee
The Advertiser
January 17, 2006

IT took three race riots in less than two years – but finally NSW has a riot squad.

The hand-picked squad of 50 officers will be on call 24 hours a day.

Their new tactics will include the use of riot shields and horses to force back lines of rioters.

A further 600 police from across the state have been trained in riot response tactics and can be called in at any time. Eventually there will be 1200 riot-trained police on call across the state.

Unveiling the Public Order and Riot Squad yesterday, Premier Morris Iemma denied the squad was too little too late in the face of violent conflicts around Sydney.

“There’s riot police, tough new powers and plenty more coming in the fight to take back control of the streets and to ensure peaceful, law-abiding citizens can go about their business,” Mr Iemma said.

“This is another step in our fight to take back the streets in our crackdown on anti-social behaviour and riotous behaviour.

“The message is a simple one: If you want to riot we’ve got riot squads and we’ve got plenty of cells in our jails to accommodate you.”

Mr Iemma denied Sydney had an ethnic gang problem, saying: “No matter what their ethnicity, no matter where they come from the message is a simple one – your behaviour won’t be tolerated.”

The Government announced plans to reform the riot squad – axed in the 1980s – after the Redfern and Macquarie Fields riots.

Deputy Police Commissioner Terry Collins said police had learned from the experience of last year’s Macquarie Fields riot, in which officers were injured by missiles as they held their positions.

“We’ve gone through that. We’ve tried to do that softly, softly approach, quite frankly,” Mr Collins said.

“We’ll certainly be putting large contingents – a large field force – of police out there with a clear mandate to do what they need to do, not just stand there in the line, cop molotov cocktails, cop rocks being pelted at them.”


Interestingly, despite news of the squad’s formation being framed in terms of it being a response to riots at Redfern and Macquarie Fields, Dale Mills notes (‘NSW riot squad to target dissent’, Green Left Weekly, January 26) that the initial announcement “was made after the ‘anti-globalisation’ protests against the [neo-conservative] Forbes business leaders’ conference at the Sydney Opera House on August 30, 2005. The next day, NSW Police Minister Carl Scully praised the police crackdown on the protesters, even though many had been injured, and he endorsed the formation of a full-time state riot squad. On September 1, Police Commissioner Ken Moroney announced the formation of the Public Order and Riot Squad.” And in a sign of things to come, according to Mills “The new riot squad is likely to use the NSW government’s new “lock-down” powers, introduced in an emergency sitting following the Cronulla riots late last year. These powers allow police to ban people, including journalists, from entering an area where the riot squad is being used. Out of the gaze of the media, serious human rights abuses could occur when the riot squad has been let loose.”

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Victorian Authorities Censor ‘Entartete Kunst’… Again

Posted on January 27, 2006 by @ndy

:: Left : Victoria is not amused ::

Azlan McLennan‘s latest work has received an extremely savage review from the notoriously fickle Footscray police. As reported by ABC Online, The Age, Melbourne Indymedia and news.com.au, his latest artistic assault on nationalist ideology has been [censored]. In essence, the critics out West have delivered an aesthetic ultimatum: this season, burning flags is out; waving flags is in. (Although some trouble-makers appear to disagree.)

As expected, police have made their usual (dis)claim(er): they were acting after having received ‘complaints’ from ‘the public’ (according to news.com.au, lodged on the 20th of January) regarding McLennan’s work. Bizarrely, the person (or persons) from Footscray police responsible for the theft of the work from outside Footscray’s Trocadero gallery was (or were) only able to gain access to the work by entering the gallery from an adjoining business: ‘Gallery executive Michael Brennan said no one had been at the gallery when police removed the flag. “On Friday … Footscray police officers gained access to the space through a neighbouring business and removed the flag, leaving behind a business card with the neighbouring business,” Mr Brennan said. “(The card) was then passed on to an artist who shares a studio at Trocadero Artspace, who consequently called us to tell us this work had been removed by the police.”‘

Further, according to a police spokesperson: “Police would not have been able to remove the burnt flag if it had been displayed inside the gallery… If it was inside the gallery they wouldn’t have the authority to do anything with it. But once it’s out in public view it could be treated as an incident of offensive behaviour or offensive language.”

Logically, this implies that the work in question is regarded both by (an) anonymous member(s) of the public and the critics at Footscray police station as offensive; police claim that “[a]n investigation had been launched to establish whether an offence had been committed”. In other words, no charges have been laid, and no ‘crime’ committed, other than one against certain, limited notions of what exactly constitutes ‘good taste’; notions derived from anonymous members of the public and… Footscray police.

Now, far be it for me to question the police’s recent foray into cultural criticism, but surely they — like other unhappy visitors to the Proudly UnAustralian exhibition — could content themselves with an unkind entry in the Trocadero’s guestbook? More importantly, will I ever get to view McLennan’s work? Rather sadly, it appears that the answer to both questions is ‘no’…

And now, a word from their sponsor:

On February 27th 1933… While the defeated Centre Party and the Marxists were being driven from their final entrenchments, the trade unions abolished, and while National Socialist thought and ideas were being brought from the world of dream and vision into the world of fact, and our plans were being put into effect one after the other — in the midst of all this we found time to lay the foundations of a new Temple of Art. And so it was that the same revolution that had swept over the State prepared the soil for the growth of a new culture.[…]

Art is not one of those human activities that may be laid aside to order and resumed to order. Nor can it be retired to pension, as it were. For either a people is endowed with cultural gifts that are inherent in its very nature or it is not so endowed at all. Therefore such gifts are part of the general racial qualities of a people. But the creative function through which these spiritual gifts or faculties are expressed follows the same law of development and decay that governs all human activity.[…]

But we are convinced that in the political sphere we have discovered a fitting mode of expression for the nature and will of our people. Therefore we feel that we are capable also of recognising and discovering in the cultural sphere the complementary expression which will be adequate to that nature and that will. We shall discover and encourage artists who will imprint on the new German State the cultural stamp of the German race, which will be valid for all time.

— Adolf Hitler, ‘Art and Politics’, in Liberty. Art. Nationhood (M. Mueller & Son: Berlin, 1935)

Long live Entartete Kunst!

Posted in Anti-fascism, Art, State / Politics | Leave a comment

Shut ‘Em Down!

Posted on January 26, 2006 by @ndy

Media Release

27 January 2006

CHIPMILL SHUT DOWN

Twenty five conservationists have shut down the Eden woodchip mill this morning, with four people locked on to machinery inside. The Japanese-owned chipmill exports woodchips to Japan from East Gippsland and South-East New South Wales forests. The protest follows a week of blockades in East Gippsland’s old growth forest, which resulted in 13 arrests.

Protesters inside the chipmill are being sprayed with high-pressure hoses by mill workers and police are not yet in attendance.

“Eighty percent of timber from East Gippsland and the South-East ends up as woodchips which are exported to Japan. On Australia Day, many Australians see this as madness,” said Billy Dain, spokesperson for the protesters.

“The Victorian and NSW premiers, who pride themselves on their green credentials, must act to stop this ongoing forest destruction,” he concluded.

For further comment:
Billy Dain (on site) 0402564862 or 0427221691
Harriet Swift (on site) 0414908997
Fiona York (East Gippsland) 0351540174

GECO (Goongerah Environment Centre Office)

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Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em

Posted on January 26, 2006 by @ndy

Andrew Scott Sanders, 25, “today made a brief appearance in Penrith Local Court charged with prohibited weapons offences and possessing a disguise with the intent of using it to commit an indictable offence. The former Sydney security guard was arrested on December 19 when police who raided his Willmot home, in Sydney’s west, allegedly found smoke grenades, mace, capsicum spray and an unlicensed pistol.” The webmaster of fightback.org has been “ordered to live with his mother and not leave her side while in public”.

It appears that the court believes that Andrew’s not Der Fuehrer, just a naughty little boy.

(Source: ‘Don’t leave mum’s side, court orders’, Sydney Morning Herald, January 27, 2006.)

In related news (‘Hate text suspect faces court’), “Brett Andrew King, 25, of Loftus, has appeared in court charged over the circulation of text messages inciting racial violence following the Cronulla riot… [Brett] is the first person to face court charged over the sending of text messages relating to last December’s racial violence.”

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Happy 218th Birthday Australia!

Posted on January 26, 2006 by @ndy


“In 1788 down in Sydney Cove, the first boat people landed and they said ‘sorry boys, our gain’s your loss, we’re gonna steal your land'”.

As today is Invasion Day, I thought I’d post Jas H Duke‘s poem ‘Happy Birthday Australia’, written, I believe, for Australia’s purported bicentenary in 1988. (I say ‘purported’ because January 26, 1788 is not actually the date upon which the modern nation-state of Australia was formed; that event formally occured on January 1, 1901. January 26 is the date upon which the British Empire was expanded to include the colony of New South Wales.) Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of Duke’s wonderfully acerbic poem to hand, so instead, here’s a link to singer-songwiter Kev Carmody. He’s written a great song called ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’, the first lines of which appear above. Oh, and remember Kids: “If you want to avoid being a dole bludger, be sure to pick your parents carefully” — Jas H Duke.

[And here you’ll find a contemporary Melbourne anarchist’s reaction to the opening of Australia’s first Parliament. The more things change ‘n’ all that!]

Posted in History, Music, Poetry, State / Politics | Leave a comment