Scotland Goes to the Polls

Posted on May 7, 2011 by @ndy

Damn.

There’s an election in Scotland, so naturally, being an Australian, I’m gonna blog about it.

I dunno much about Scotland apart from the fact that Scots eat haggis, play the bagpipes, and wear kilts:–which fact probably explains, in turn, why a number of my ancestors fled the place to seek political asylum in Australia, thus ensuring my ability to eat vegan pies, play truant, and wear kilts.

Anyway, one of the more remarkable features of the election–apart from its domination by the SNP, whose members now enjoy sitting in 69 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament (and the fact that only half the registered voters bothered to go the ballot box)–is the collapse in the left vote.* Solidarity and the SSP both done bad; the worst result of the election, however, seems to have been reserved for the SEP. Despite the fact that “The Socialist Equality Party is the leadership workers in Britain need”, according to the BBC, out of a possible 282,371 votes, the SEP candidate in West Scotland has received…

0.

(Of course, the BBC website is trying to be tricky: the SEP done put 0 candidates up. See also : Liberal Democrats hammered in UK elections, Chris Marsden, wsws.org, May 7, 2011.)

*Well, apart from Arthur Scargill’s SLP: “With results still incomplete at time of going to press, it seems likely that the Socialist Labour Party will easily be the main electoral force on the left of Scottish politics. It looks likely that we will also outpoll both the BNP and UKIP even with their high profile media coverage and big business backing – no small achievement!”

International Socialist Group (Scotland)

Cool.

Splitters! from the Socialist Workers Party franchise in Scotland have formed a NEW! party called — with typically imaginative flair — the ‘International Socialist Group (Scotland)’. The ‘International Socialist Group (Scotland)’ is to be confused with the ‘International Socialist Group’ (now part of ‘Socialist Resistance’, the British Section of the Fourth International, to be confused with the British Section of the International Committee of the Fourth International) and will be joining the Scottish Socialist Party, the Socialist Party Scotland and Solidarity (Scotland’s Socialist Movement) in the struggle for sand, surf, socialism, and Scotland.

Or something.

Otherwise, the BNP has fared poorly in council elections: “Extreme rightwing party has so far lost seven of 11 council seats it was defending and has been wiped out in key target areas” (BNP suffers election meltdown, Matthew Taylor, The Guardian, May 6, 2011).

Posted in History, State / Politics, That's Capitalism! | Tagged , | 8 Comments

‘Russian Anti-Racist Skinheads’ : Documentary

Posted on May 5, 2011 by @ndy

Cool.

Sometimes, surfers bring some useful search terms to my blog: ‘Russian Anti-Racist Skinheads’ is one, and the title of a new documentary (2011) by Ian Ivanov.

Searching for moar infos — of which there appears to be little — I also found this blog: skinhead-music-russian-ex-USSR.

The idea that a thriving, if marginal, neo-Nazi movement exists in Russia strikes some as absurd. After all, Hitler and the Nazi regime regarded the Slavs as being suitable for little more than slavery. Further, Russian neo-Nazis (and other racists) direct much of their fury at peoples from the Caucasus; ‘Caucasians’, in other words: a term generally considered synonymous with ‘white’. But the frequent absurdities of neo-Nazi or fascist or racialist thought is hardly new, and explanations for its attractions are just as often found elsewhere…

In any case, despite regular and occasionally murderous attacks by fascists, and more generalised repression by the state, skinhead and oppositional youth subcultures in Russia appear to be growing as well as surviving.

Note that last week:

…a divided jury issued a guilty verdict against Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgeniya Khasis, the neo-Nazi couple accused of murdering Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova in downtown Moscow on January 19, 2009. Seven jurors found the defendants guilty, and the forthcoming sentencing could yield a life imprisonment for Tikhonov and as many as 20 years behind the bars for Khasis.

See also : [For Dion] The life and death of Ivan “Bonecrusher” Khutorskoy (November 18, 2009) | avtonom.org | chtodelat news | Moscow Through Brown Eyes | SOVA | The Other Russia | UCSJ.

BONUS! Hardcore!

HARDCORE IS MORE THAN MUSIC 2011 TRAILER from WHITE LABEL on Vimeo.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Film, History, Music, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Notes on anarchy and May Day and more

Posted on May 4, 2011 by @ndy

In Russia, anarchists and/or gays are unpopular with authorities: about 50 anarchists were prevented from participating in May Day festivities in St. Petersburg, and in Moscow teh gheys had to battle cops as well as Communists. (Fascists were allowed to assemble unmolested.) Elsewhere “[a]round Europe, the May Day activities were generally more subdued than in years past” according to Deutsche Welle. In E E England, “John Catt attended a May Day protest in Brighton and sketched the demonstration”; the “86-year-old artist from Brighton” is also “taking the police to the High Court to try to get records of his political activities removed from their database”. More on the Brighton May Day here.

In London, several days prior to May Day, Paola Totaro–“the only Australian journalist covering the wedding from inside Westminster Abbey”–done a big fat report on the sumptuous wedding of two massively wealthy scroungers named Bill and Kath. A few years ago, Totaro light-heartedly recounted the supposed fact that at the G20 protests in London, “[t]he great majority of the police, seemingly ever-patient and self-controlled, stood for hours as kids baited and yelled, shoved and provoked. A handful of officers used well-placed elbows while batons were raised only in response to the vandalism.” In reality, one man, Ian Tomlinson, was actually killed by police. Yesterday (May 3), London IndyMedia reported that:

Simon Harwood, the police officer who attacked Ian Tomlinson at the G20 summit in London in 2009 could be prosecuted for manslaughter. The inquest jury ruled today that the Tomlinson has been unlawfully killed. In 2010, the Crown Prosecution Service” announced that the police officer who was caught on video striking Ian Tomlinson year who later died will not face criminal charges, sparking a series of protests.

Tomlinson died of internal bleeding in the abdomen minutes after being struck with a baton and pushed to the ground.

See also : BIT OF STICK (April 8, 2009) | Coroner’s Inquest into the Death of Ian Tomlinson. BONUS! link: First of May Anarchist Alliance (US).

Otherwise, there appears to have been some increase (not surprising, given recent events) in police repression of anarchist dissent in E E England. As it stands, if I was in London and not under arrest, I’d probably rock along to the launch of Soccer Vs. The State by Gabriel Kuhn on May 8.

In Melbourne, I witnessed Collingwood get out of jail, and earlier in the day I even managed to pick up a copy of the Autumn 2011 edition (No.212) of Australasian Spartacist and the April 15, 2011 edition (No.978) of Workers Vanguard. I also gotta copy of a new publication called Black Kite Quarterly (the zine formerly known as Wai Quarterly). The theme of its first edition is “making the world safer for wimmin”. This Saturday @ LaTrobe University’s City campus, the Observatario Internacional Contra las Políticas de las Multinacionales / International Co-ordination Against Multinational Policies will be holding a seminar. For more infos, see the International Multinational Monitor blog.

Posted in Anarchism | Tagged | 2 Comments

Jeff Hall : Another dead neo-Nazi

Posted on May 4, 2011 by @ndy

The US-based Hollywood Nazis of the National Socialist Movement (which, incidentally, appears to have just the one, local member in the person of internet broadcaster Carl D. Thompson) has lost one of its leading members, Jeff Hall. On May 1, Hall was allegedly shot to death at the family home by his young son. The news follows another unfortunate incident last month when, just a few days shy of Adolf Hitler’s birthday, the NSM held a gathering in New Jersey which was attacked by anti-fascists. Hall’s shooting death also follows closely upon the murder of neo-Nazi skinhead and ‘American Front’ organiser David Lynch in March…

White Supremacist Leader Is Shot and Killed at Home; Young Son Is Held
Jesse McKinley
The New York Times
May 2, 2011

RIVERSIDE, Calif. A leader of a Southern California white supremacist group was shot and killed on Sunday at his home here, investigators said.

The victim, Jeff Hall, 32, was a regional director for the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group based in Detroit.

Mr. Hall, a plumber and the father of five children, was shot at his suburban home on Sunday morning, said Lt. Jaybee Brennan of the Riverside Police Department. Lieutenant Brennan said the police responded to reports of gunshots at Mr. Hall’s home just after 4 a.m. The police later detained Mr. Hall’s son, believed to be 10 years old. The department said no other suspects were being sought.

A neighbor said she saw several guns being removed from the home.

An official with the National Socialist Movement in Southern California said that he had seen Mr. Hall on Saturday night and had planned to have breakfast with him on Sunday.

“All I can tell you right now is Jeff’s dead,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the investigation and his group’s activities.

Mr. Hall was an impassioned speaker seen as a rising force in the National Socialist Movement. On Saturday afternoon, he held a monthly meeting of the Southern California chapter at his home, a gathering of about a dozen members that The New York Times had sent a reporter to cover.

At the meeting, he discussed both mundane housekeeping items — the need for members to sell raffle tickets for a fund-raiser, for example — as well as a May “patrol” at the Mexican border in Arizona, a militia-style activity meant to combat illegal immigration.

“This is a very active area right now,” Mr. Hall told his members, adding that he felt that the federal authorities were dropping the ball on border patrols. “You guys get your Glocks cocked and get ready to rock,” he said. “We’re going to the border. That’s how we do it.”

Mr. Hall discussed a recent rally in New Jersey and praised his members’ participation, which earned several of them promotions in the group.

“You guys get out there in the street, you get out on the border,” he said. “And you did a good job.”

Ian Lovett contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Death | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Steve Ignorant : The Last Supper Tour Down Under

Posted on May 2, 2011 by @ndy

Update : Steve will be speaking about all things Crass, Conflict, his new-found love of the Collingwood Football Club and his new autobiography, The Rest is Propaganda, before taking to the stage at the Tote the following evening. Supported by A Commoner’s Revolt and Ducks in the Mud. At the Melbourne Anarchist Club (62 St Georges Road, Northcote) on Thursday night, June 16.

Orright. ‘Ere it is…

Australia

June 10 Brisbane, Prince of Wales Hotel
June 11 Sydney, Salmagundi Studios
June 15 Perth, The Bakery
June 17 Melbourne, The Tote

Aotearoa/New Zealand

June 18 Wellington, Bodega
June 19 Auckland, The Kings Arms

Steve will be performing with a full band (not the other members of Crass) and as well as featuring Crass songs there will be some rather special visuals. The touring line up includes Gizz Butt (guitar – Destructors, English Dogs, Janus Stark, The Prodigy, The More I See), Bob Butler (bass – The Tone, Schwartzneggar), Spike T Smith (drums – The Damned, Conflict, Killing Joke, Morrissey), Carol Hodge (vocals – Bad Taste Barbies, Synco, Electraglide) and of course Steve Ignorant (vocals).

Steve has also just published his autobiography, The Rest Is Propaganda, which tells the story of his upbringing in the wilds of East London, and how he escaped a life on the factory floor, formed Crass with Penny Rimbaud, and how Stephen Williams became Steve Ignorant.

Steve has a website ‘ere, a site for all things Crass is ‘ere, youse can read a review of The Story of Crass by George Berger ‘ere and Rich Cross looks at all that stuff what them done about anarcho-punk ‘ere.

PS. Course they fucking do!

Posted in Anarchism, Music | Tagged | 4 Comments

Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? Dead… ALLEGEDLY.

Posted on May 2, 2011 by @ndy

Just like Elvis… Or Hitler.

o n e

t w o

Barack Obama claims Osama Bin Laden has been “brought to justice”: that is, assassinated by US soldiers:

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against [a] compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.

And may God bless the United States of America.

t h r e e

b e r t

Posted in !nataS, Death, History, State / Politics, War on Terror | Tagged | 3 Comments

Australian Defence League: May 15 rally and counter-rally

Posted on April 30, 2011 by @ndy

Seriously.

The “Australian Defence League”, in one form or another, has been eking out an existence online for several years now. In April of last year, the virtual association announced that it would be participating in a public rally against Islam and immigration. A counter-rally was organised, the ADL rally was aborted, and a handful of ADL supporters — including one obviously drug-addled bonehead — were forced to seek comfort in a nearby pub. (Note that one of the organisers of this rally, some bloke called Glenn Anderson, has recently been featured on The Anti-Bogan blog.) Then in October 2010, the infidel typists declared that they’d be gathering again at the Sydney Opera House to defend Australia from the Taliban. Again: not-a-great-success.

Recently, the ADL has been placed UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT, viz, a whingeing Pom/foreign troublemaker named “Martin Brennan”. In early April, Martin announced that the ADL would be holding its first (sic) official rally at midday in Federation Square in Melbourne on Sunday, May 15 (followed by a march on Parliament). An ‘Event’ page was subsequently created and several dozen Facebook users indicated that they’d attend, some even claiming to be willing to travel from England!

Now, the ‘Event’ has been cancelled.

Or has it?

Well, no: elsewhere, members of the ADL insist that the rally and march will be going ahead, and masses of concerned citizens what hate Mooselems/refugees will be assembling at midday at Federation Square. Oddly enough, May 15 is also Buddha’s Day and Multicultural Festival. On an even more bizarre note, the nutty YouTube video which has been produced to promote the Event has been uploaded by the “EDLJewishDivision”. (The “EDLJewishDivision” got into a li’l bit of trouble earlier in the year when its leader, Roberta Moore, aligned the Zionist groupuscule with the US-based “Jewish Task Force”, mostly known for its supposed embrace of blowing shit up.) In any case, in the video in question, Brennan incoherently rants that:

…the threat of Islam is prevalent here in Australia. Siddiq-Conlon leader Australiah [sic] for Australia has been posted as saying Australians will be ruled by Sharia. Modern Muslims are worried because they know one day they won’t be able to drink their beer, eat their pork. One day they know they will be controlled by Islam. Well I have news for you Mr Conlon, and your like-minded Muslim friends. You have been ranting your mouths off for far too long and now Australians finally hear you. Australians say no to Sharia law, no to Sharia finance, no to halal, and no to the Islamisation of our nation. We are a country built on multiculturalism and democracy, both of which are under severe threat from Islam. Come the 15th of May Australians of all walks of life will march together united as one, to put the stop to the Islamicisation of our nation and the implementation of barbaric Sharia law.

O RLY?

Whatever.

A counter-rally has been organised, so it will be interesting to see who rocks up (in addition to those celebrating Prince Siddhartha Gautama’s birthday).

In England, the Defence League has continued to roll along under the (occasionally disputed) leadership of former BNP member and tanning-salon owner Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Fucking Robinson). Of late, its Facebook presence has been mucked about with by Muslamic hackers, the chief EDL page has disappeared into the ether, while a replacement page looks likely to struggle to attract as many users willing to hit the ‘Like’ button on their screens as the original. Beyond this, the EDL has clarified its understanding of what it seeks to “defend” by declaring its hatred of rebellious students and workers and love of monarchical rule…

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism | Tagged | 15 Comments

May Day in Melbourne 2011

Posted on April 27, 2011 by @ndy

May Day is May 1 is this Sunday. There’s a few things going on, to which the following is a guide.

The Victorian Trades Hall Council is organising a rally and march. Assemble 12.30pm outside Trades Hall (corner Victoria and Russell Streets). [Youse can join the Socialist Alliance for a toast before the march @ the Resistance Centre (Level 5, 407 Swanston St, City (opposite RMIT)) if youse wanna.]

Following celebrations @ Trades Hall, from 4pm the Melbourne Anarchist Club will be enjoying May Day with music, drinks and food. There’ll be acoustic sets from Wil Wagner, Tom Denton (Sweet Teens), A Commoners Revolt (solo) and Jim Power (Ducks in the Mud). NB. The original Melbourne Anarchist Club was formed on May 1, 1886, making 2011 the 125th anniversary of anarchism in Australia.

The Moar You Know…

I dunno if there’s anything else on, but feel free to lemme know if there is.

Oh yeah.

If you’re vegan and you like baking…

Who: Vegetarian Victoria
Date: Sunday May 1, 2011
Time: 11am – 4pm
Venue: Kindness House (288 Brunswick St, Fitzroy, VIC 3065)

Autumn Harvest: Bake Sale AND… Bake Off!!

Yes, we are having a combined bake sale and bake off to celebrate Autumn and homemade delicious vegan treats! Bring along your best homemade vegan treat to donate and be in the running to win prizes! Judges are those that buy and taste the wares and there’s also a Best in Show prize as well. Donate, or just come along and buy from the wonderful range of yummies on offer. GET YOUR BAKE ON!

And of course, @ 4.40pm Collingwood will be playing the Western Bulldogs @ the MCG.

GO PIES!

Posted in Anarchism, History, Music, That's Capitalism! | Tagged | Leave a comment

Spam A Nazi ~versus~ Right Wing Resistance (New Zealand)

Posted on April 25, 2011 by @ndy


Above : Kyle Chapman, fuehrer of RWRNZ, welcomes Canadian Holocaust denialist Paul Fromm to New Zealand, December 2010. Fromm’s tour was organised by the Australia First Party.

Right Wing Resistance New Zealand (RWRNZ) is veteran Kiwi fascist Kyle Chapman‘s latest organising project. The group — which seemingly consists of several dozen neo-Nazi skinheads, mostly from Christchurch — has been in existence since early 2009, and has recently become more active, distributing propaganda — see : Right Wing Resistance New Zealand : They took our jobs! (January 12, 2011) — and apparently organising several street patrols. The gang’s politics are fairly run-of-the-mill (see New Zealand National Front) but the boys’ resemblance to an OMC may cause them some problems in the future as their (arguably) more serious rivals resent the gang’s intrusions onto their turf. Responding to the accusation that RWRNZ is at war with the Rebels MC, Kyle Chapman rites in there blug thet “We have a Clare purpose. [I]t is to fight communism and other scum that want to take away our freedoms.”

Which begs the question: Who is Clare?

Online war against intolerance
The Press
April 25, 2011

Danny Webster’s grandfather fought for freedom in World War II.

Now Webster is waging his own war on intolerance, but his battlefield is online.

Right Wing Resistance is a New Zealand-wide white supremacist group run by Kyle Chapman, former leader of the National Front.

The group’s recent recruitment campaign in Christchurch included Stop the Asian Invasion pamphlets.

Conveniently, Webster says, the group’s blogspot advertising this campaign, included cellphone numbers and email addresses, which prompted him to fight back with a Facebook campaign, Spam A Nazi, launched this weekend.

Webster advocates spamming the group with texts and YouTube links to the Chinese National Anthem and songs such as I think I’m Turning Japanese, and People Are People.

“My flatmates and I found this racist pamphlet in our letterbox and we came up with the idea of sending them a message back,” Webster said.

“Now we have 140 members on Spam A Nazi. I think the Right Wing Resistance campaign is more to intimidate than recruit.

“My grandfather died from war-related injuries when my dad was eight. It’s sad to think that this intolerance still exists two generations on.

“After all we’ve been through in Christchurch, I wanted to send a clear message that this hatred won’t be tolerated. I’m not sure of the legalities around spamming but I’m sure few will have any sympathy for them.”

When contacted yesterday, a spokesman for the Right Wing Resistance, who did not wish to be identified, said they had received spam from “gay porn” to “foreign” texts.

“I didn’t understand what they said, they’re just wasting their time. I just delete them. It’s like squashing an annoying bug to me, I don’t even think about it.”

See also : The murky politics of the Right (in New Zealand/Aotearoa) (March 16, 2010).

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Andrew Yeoman is Andrew White is Local Idiot to Burn the Koran is BANANA split with nuts

Posted on April 23, 2011 by @ndy

I’m not quite sure where to start.

Perhaps at the beginning.

“Andrew Yeoman” is the pseudonym used by San Francisco-based White supremacist Andrew White.

White is the subject of an article in the SF Weekly. To be precise, ‘Local Idiot to Burn the Koran’ by Lauren Smiley (April 22, 2011).

The article details White’s latest publicity stunt for his group, which he calls the ‘Bay Area National Anarchists’, but which is more commonly known as BANANAs.

As the title of Smiley’s article suggests, the stunt consists of Andrew’s burning a copy of the Koran in public — although precisely when and where this act will occur is uncertain at this stage.

As publicity stunts go, it’s not a bad one, and trades on the controversy surrounding mentalist Pastor Terry Jones’ attempt to organise a similar burning outside a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan. (At this stage, it appears that the Pastor’s protest may be aborted: Pastor Is Jailed in Michigan Over Planned March at Mosque, AP, April 22, 2011.) Politically speaking, the stunt’s utility is questionable. Otherwise:

Yeoman’s protests have been falling flat as of late. While last May, he got beat up by some anarchists, his Machete protest ended up just being him and a couple of supporters handing out pamphlets in Livermore with cardboard machetes.

Cue trombone: Waa waa waaaaaah.

See also : [Local Idiots] to Burn at Least One Koran, Lauren Smiley, SF Weekly, April 18, 2011.

On an even more bizarre note, White (aka Yeoman) has split with his former leader, Troy Southgate. Or rather, Southgate has denounced White for, inter alia, being censorious, dictatorial and of having had “a relationship with an anorexic Jewish girl he picked up from a website called Craigslist and … telling everyone that they were having sex without a condom. Yeoman is also said to be psychologically unstable and is in possession of a large number of firearms.”

Southgate also claims that White has recently been investigated by the US Secret Service for “making a juvenile online threat” against President O’Bama. Further, Southgate writes that White “turned up at the American Renaissance conference around the same time and then declined to testify against anti-fascists at his recent assault trial”.


Canadian Holocaust denialist Paul Fromm and White, pictured at the AmRen shadow conference, 2011. The Australia First Party arranged for Fromm to tour Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand late last year.

Southgate suggests that White’s recent behaviour may be explained by way of his having been “bought off” by authorities. (Note that the accusation of being a state asset has been levelled at Southgate in the past.) The accusation is a serious one, and indicates the poisonous nature of the once respectful relationship between student and teacher.

What does all of this mean for the ‘national anarchists’?

In Australia, the national anarchists are represented by two men: Welf Herfurth in Sydney and Nicholas Cole in Perth.

Herfurth is friends to both White and Southgate, but is also a member of the neo-Nazi skinhead group known as Volksfront, and a close comrade of Dr James Saleam and the Australia First Party. In his capacity as MC, he welcomed White to the Sydney Forum in 2009. It will be interesting to see which way the German neo-Nazi jumps and whether or not he remains loyal to Southgate, the person whom he credits for converting him to ‘national anarchism’.

As for Cole, he was once associated with the ‘Australian Protectionist Party’, and for this reason was outed by the blog ‘Whitelaw Towers’ (Jim Perren and Peter Campbell). Cole is also attempting to establish a network of fascist University students (but without much luck). An extremely marginal figure, it’s likely that Cole will stick with White.

And as for me, polling suggests that 30% of the population believe I work for The Great Old Ones. I say “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”.

[Hat tip to Those Who Know and You Know Who.]

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments