A documentary on a year of anti-fascist activism in Madrid, following the murder of Carlos Javier Palomino, a 16-year-old skinhead stabbed to death on a Madrid subway on November 11, 2007, allegedly by a Spanish neo-Nazi (and soldier), Josué Estébanez.
Estébanez is currently on trial. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 29 years gaol.
From the Spanish-language press (Público in Madrid), translated into bootiful Spanglish by a machine:
The ‘ friend neonazi ‘ of the supposed killer of Carlos Palomino
Henriqur Mariño Público
September 16, 2009
The Coordinating Antifascist one contributes a supposed proof that Josué E. of H. has links with the ultraright one
Above : Josué, with the supposed neonazi
Josué Estébanez, supposed person in charge of the death of the minor Carlos Javier Palomino, extreme right-winger might be related to the movement. This is what the Coordinating Antifascist one of Madrid supports, that it has spread a photo of the military man along with a person who, according to the organization, realizes a ” gesture of fascist connotations “.
The image shows to the accused to kill Carlos Palomino, who is being judged these days in the first section of the Provincial Hearing of Madrid, along with a male identified by the antifascist ones as Markuss, a “neonazi” of the quarter of Madrid of Orcasitas.
Josué has pushed back before the court that is a neonazi or sympathizes with the ultraright one, as he has narrated from the room Óscar López Fonseca. Also he denied that it should go to a racist march when he met in the Meter of Madrid Young pigeon, which was going to an antifascist counterdeclaration when it received a thrust that provoked the death.
Nevertheless, the Coordinating Antifascist one of Madrid insists that the person who accompanies Estébanez in the top image realizes ” a gesture of fascist connotations with three elevated fingers up “.
It would be a question, according to the organization, of the ” formula of the oath that the members of the SS were doing “. In particular, ” road surface is located with the right arm elevation and the first three fingers of the left hand pointing up, at the time that they were saying: I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, Führer and Chancellor of the Reich, loyalty and value. I promise obedience up to the death to you and to the Superiors for you designated. That God helps me”.
Danish tourism Web ad pulled for promiscuity
Jan M. Olsen
AP
September 15, 2009
COPENHAGEN – Denmark’s tourism agency has removed an advertisement from YouTube after complaints that it promoted promiscuity in the liberal Scandinavian country. The video clip, nearly 3 minutes long, shows a young, blond woman cradling a dark-skinned infant called “August” and saying he is the result of a brief fling with a foreign tourist. Speaking English in the video, she says she is “trying to find August’s father” through Google’s YouTube site. Danish TV2 has clarified that the scene was staged and the woman is an actress…
VisitDenmark’s viral video put Denmark on the tourist map – the question is whether it is a place some would now rather avoid.
Sex sells, but rising above the flotsam of common pornography on the internet requires true talent. That’s why it’s so impressive that a video of something as wholesome as a mother and child could attract over a million internet viewers with one thing on their mind.
What’s unimpressive about the now infamous VisitDenmark YouTube video is that its goal was so obvious. The bogus story of an attractive woman looking for the father of a child sired during a one night stand might have been humorous to some, and almost certainly even inspired some men to consider a swing by Denmark the next time they are in northern Europe, but in the end it could wind up giving the country an reputation it would rather do without…
Did you know that ABBA played their first live concert in Denmark in 1974?
The Yarra National Anarchists — http://yarranationalanarchists.wordpress.com — appear to have had a change of heart!
Play them off, keyboard cat!
…and they’re back!
…This website has in the past and will continue to publish news and information relevant to National-Anarchists and those that may be interested in our activities. At the moment we are working on a full revamp of the website, from which it will be back in action, better than ever. Please bare with us while we get everything set up.
Where did you go?
It is the unfortunate reality that there are a few individuals out there that would try to deny us the freedom to share our ideas and the ability to live according to our own values. Over the past few days, this website has been victim of hackers, claiming to act under a banner of anti-Fascism. These “AntiFa” groups are active throughout the world and are known to attack activists, or anybody for that matter, that they disagree with. People have been violently bashed, families have been terrorised and homes/shops have been vandalised by these thugs, simply because of the beliefs and activities of those they target…
The G20 is meeting in Pittsburgh again next week (September 22-25), and anarchists, as well as numerous other trouble-makers, are again organising in opposition to it. The G20 traveling circus will be meeting @ the David L. Lawrence Convention Center — the same location as the annual convention of the AFL-CIO, which ended on September 15 with some speechifying by President O’Bama.
As AFL-CIO blogger James Parks has noted, “Pittsburgh is a city rich with labor history. Pittsburgh is the birthplace of both the AFL and the CIO, as well as the United Steelworkers (USW), the Ironworkers and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM). It also is the site of two legendary strikes—the Homestead steel mill strike in 1892 and the U.S. Steel strike in the 1930s.”
Which is right — and wrong. The Homestead strike did take place in 1892, but the ‘Great Steel Strike’ began on September 22, 1919. Well, one of ’em, anyway: the ‘Great’ Strike was not a ‘Great’ success — thanks in no small measure to the role played by the AFL — and subsequent strikes fared little better. Which is ‘Great’ for the US ruling class — the most rapacious in history — but not-so-great for US workers, who still struggle for basic health care. Funnily enough, while another AFL-CIO blogger, Seth Michaels, opines that “President Barack Obama had a strong, inspiring message for delegates to the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention: We’re going to make this country work again”, at the time of the 1919 strike, businessmen in Pennsylvania were promoting their own ‘Back-to-Work’ movement.
As for Homestead, the defeat of that strike caused the anarchist Alexander Berkman (1870–1936) to attempt to murder Henry Clay Frick, the Carnegie Steel Company’s (temporary) boss. He failed, was sentenced to 22 years jail, served 15, and upon his release wrote a classic of prison literature: Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist.
Among a number of sites dedicated to getting the masses off their asses is Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project — a project to which the (anarchist) Pittsburgh Organizing Group is one of many lending support. Johnny-On-The-Spot is Mike Boda, the Pittsburgh Grassroots Examiner. Also providing independent coverage is G-Infinity, a project of Pittsburgh Indymedia; G20 Media Support is an “Information clearinghouse & [provides] media support for dissent at the Pittsburgh G20 Summit”.
Prior to London, the G20 met in Cape Town (South Africa) in 2007, and in São Paulo (Brazil) and Washington, D.C. (United States) in 2008. In 2006, the G20 met in my home town, Melbourne. The meeting met with protest which — for Australia, at any rate — assumed some rather spectacular forms. As a result, several dozen people were arrested, and it is only now, almost three years later, that the final trials of those arrested are coming to an end (see : G20 : Sunil & Tim (& Co.), July 30, 2009; Crazy G20 Solidarity Speech, June 15, 2009 — and elsewhere).
Between November 19, 2006 — the date at which the G20 meeting in Melbourne ended — and September 22, 2009 — the date upon which the Pittsburgh summit is scheduled to commence — an estimated 31,170,000 children under the age of 5 will have died of preventable causes (hunger, malnutrition, disease), aka ‘poverty’. On an even sadder note: “The richest people in the world have gotten poorer, just like the rest of us. This year the world’s billionaires have an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23% in 12 months. The world now has 793 billionaires, down from 1,125 a year ago” (Special Report: The World’s Billionaires, Edited by Luisa Kroll, Matthew Miller and Tatiana Serafin, Forbes, March 11, 2009).
The Bull
Edition 21, Week 8, Semester 2
14 – 20 September 2009
[PDF]
Diana Tjoeng investigates the new political party rising from the far-right.
Recently, the neo-Nazi symbol ‘88’ (representative of ‘HH’ – ‘Heil Hitler’) was painted on the home of the NSW Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal. The graffiti attack occurred one month after Mr. Roozendaal blocked any preference flow from the Labor Party to the far-right, anti-immigration Australia First Party, prompting the group to come under scrutiny.
“This was clearly a premeditated attack,” said Mr. Roozendaal, whose parents are Holocaust survivors. “If they were sending me a message, I am sending a message right back to them – I will not be intimidated and will continue to speak out against racists and those who promote hate in our community,” he asserted.
Formed in 1996, the Australia First Party gained notoriety around the time of the Cronulla riots through the pamphleteering activities of its now defunct youth arm, the Patriotic Youth League. Australia First is currently in the process of registering as a federal political party, having crossed the required membership threshold earlier this year.[1] They plan to launch a new youth organisation in 2010.
The party’s founder, Graeme Campbell, was the Federal Member for Kalgoorlie from 1980 until he was expelled from the Labor Party in 1995. He became the endorsed One Nation candidate in 2001 but was not elected.[2] Evidently, there is membership crossover between the two parties, but Jim Saleam, the NSW Chairperson of Australia First, claims that the groups differ immensely in policy.
“One Nation are essentially assimilationists; we are not assimilationists. There are, in our view, people who Australia cannot assimilate at all,” says Dr. Saleam. “That is a fundamentally different position … although it is true that many former members of One Nation have found their way to Australia First,” he says.[3]
“One Nation was fundamentally a conservative force with a pseudo-popular base that came out of the sections of the Liberal and the National Party. Our movement, as it develops, may be more of a working people’s movement and it may also be one that is more ‘radical’ in terms of its economic and political demands.”
Dr. Saleam has had a long-standing dispute with Mr. Roozendaal, stemming from their days together at Macquarie University. After Saleam founded the white nationalist group, National Action, in 1982, the pair had a number of public clashes. In 1984, as president of the student union, Mr. Roozendaal had National Action banned from campus.
“I was disgusted by their attempts to intimidate international students and other minorities on the campus,” Mr. Roozendaal says.
Recalling the incident that led to the group’s final dismissal from Macquarie University, Dr. Saleam says, “Some of my associates temporarily occupied his [Mr Roozendaal’s] office one day. A file of papers was tipped over, and when it was on the television news that night, the office had been systematically ransacked and maliciously damaged. I’m not saying that Mr. Roozendaal did that, but I’m saying that someone in Mr. Roozendaal’s office did that … we deny doing that.”
Dr. Saleam also denies any involvement in the recent graffiti attack on Mr. Roozendaal’s home, though believes the attack was linked to the treasurer’s comments about Australia First. According to Saleam, the suspects include groups identifying themselves as neo-Nazis or clansmen and pivot around figures such as David Palmer, the ‘dirty tricks’ sections of major political parties, and anti-racism groups such as FightDemBack.[4]
FightDemBack is a volunteer-based, activist organisation that disseminates information about far-right groups and reacts against racist activities. It started in 2004 with the effort to remove the Patriotic Youth League’s anti-immigration stickers in the suburbs of Sydney. FightDemBack has also provided support to people who have sought to leave extreme right-wing groups.[5]
“These people specialise in organised defamation, spreading false material … stalking of young people who describe themselves as nationalists and so on,” says Dr. Saleam. “For a very long time, these people have been involved in a campaign to suggest that, in fact, I am a neo-Nazi.”[6]
Cam Smith, from FightDemBack, rejects Dr Saleam’s accusations, saying, “FightDemBack didn’t have any involvement in the incident, and we don’t know who did. We think the most likely suspects are people involved in Australia First, taking action without Saleam’s knowledge in response to Roozendal’s statements regarding Australia First … At any rate, we don’t need to graffiti outside somebody’s house to suggest that Saleam is a neo-Nazi – the fact that he is a neo-Nazi is easily demonstrated in far simpler ways.”
Dr. Saleam’s lengthy career in right-wing politics has indeed been contentious. In the early 1970s, he was a member of the National Socialist Party of Australia and was photographed wearing a swastika armband at a demonstration in 1975. He has served two gaol terms – in 1984 he was convicted of property offences and insurance fraud, and in 1989 he was convicted for his role in a shotgun attack on the home of anti-Apartheid activist Eddie Funde. In 2001, Dr. Saleam gained a PhD from The University of Sydney for his thesis on the history of Australian right-wing politics.
On the day of the infamous Cronulla race riots of December [2005], Saleam wrote in the Nationalist News, “It was heartening and a sign of things to come … If there was any proof needed that ultimately there were Australians ready to stand up and be counted it was duly provided.”
As Australia First gears up to contest the next federal election, Saleam confirms that the party will become more of an activist organisation that is not concerned with appearing mainstream. He believes that “there are sections of the Australian community right now who are prepared to step outside of normal rules and normal methods and stand up for their industries”.
Mr. Roozendaal has reiterated his calls to the NSW Liberal Party leader, Barry O’Farrell, to match Labor’s commitment to refuse to give preferences to far-right parties like Australia First and One Nation.
“Who can forget the stench of One Nation?” says Mr. Roozendaal. “And make no mistake, there was only one way that One Nation got elected and it was on the back of Liberal and National Party preferences.”
[1] Australia First formally announced that it had gained 525 members, and was therefore in a position to register with the AEC as a political party, on July 9, 2009. As of this date (September 16, 2009), it has yet to formally notify the AEC of its intention to register.
[2] Following his expulsion from the ALP, Campbell contested the seat of Kalgoorlie at the October 1998 Federal election as a member of Australia First: he came third, gaining 15,585 votes (22.79%). The seat was won by Liberal Party member Barry Haase (who remains the sitting member). In November 2001, Campbell stood for a seat in the Senate, on this occasion as a member of One Nation and as No.1 on their ticket. ONP gained a total of 77,757 votes (7.03%), but no seats. ‘One Nation Western Australia’ was deregistered on June 17, 2009.
[3] Among these are Terry Cooksley and Tony Pettitt; other ‘prominent’ members of AF have backgrounds in ‘Australians Against Further Immigration’, the ‘Confederate Action Party’, ‘National Action’, and allied groups.
[4] David Palmer — nicknamed ‘The Space Wizard’ — is a long-time rival of Saleam’s on the far right. He was profiled by Zoo magazine in August 2007, along with John Drew, the then-leader of the Patriotic Youth League, and David Innes, then a prominent member of Stormfront Down Under. Drew was expelled from AF — and hence the PYL — in March 2009, while Innes retired from public life in July 2007; Palmer’s pointyhead cropped up again in July 2009, just as Saleam announced that AF was to register.
[5] While forming earlier, FDB! formally announced its existence on April 25, 2005, as a Trans-Tasman alliance of anti-racist and anti-fascist activists from Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand.
[6] By the same token, Saleam has claimed that the police shooting of 16-year-old Tyler Cassidy in Northcote (Melbourne) in December 2008 was the result of a conspiracy between FDB! and the secret police; in October 2008, Saleam had himself photographed reading from a childhood book belonging to FDB! member Asher Goldman (a book obtained from a garage sale at Asher’s father’s house in Wellington); he is a member of the world’s premiere White supremacist — and virulently anti-Semitic — website ‘Stormfront’ (and has been since October 2005); he still maintains that the secret police framed him for his involvement in the shotgun assault upon the home of ANC representative Eddie Funde.
So, a few more Indian students have been beaten in Melbourne, in what appears to have been a racially-motivated attack (Indians gang-bashed in latest racist attack, Sarah-Jane Collins and Mex Cooper, The Age, September 16, 2009).
Obviously, this latest incident is bad — not least for the four victims — but worse, as far as Victorian Government and business is concerned, is the effect such incidents are having on the local education industry. Or, to be precise, the attention being given to such incidents by Indian media.
Protecting the Brand
In essence, bad PR is bad for business and, as a rule, whenever profit-making (‘business’) is endangered, Government acts. (The overseas student industry — Australia’s third largest ‘export’ — is worth $15.5 billion per annum.) Thus John Brumby, the Victorian Premier, is off to India next week in order to salvage the Victorian — and Melbourne — ‘brand’: ‘”Some of the events of the past few months have damaged our brand and the Australian brand in India and I can only repeat that overall we remain one of the safest places in the world,” he said.’ Which, in fairness to Brumby, is probably correct, especially if, like him, you’re a VIP (and a former Melbourne Grammar boy).
Others, of course, are less fortunate. Unlike Brumby, they use public transport, work low-paid jobs, live in over-priced and sub-standard accommodation, and pay through the nose for the privilege. Thus the negative PR associated with racial assaults is further compounded by the provision of sub-standard education, housing and employment, in a market subject to very little effective government regulation — deliberately so, and in accordance with the neo-liberal ideology which has dominated Australian policy-making for the last few decades.
Neo-liberalism
The corrosive effects of ‘neo-liberalism’ upon the Australian body politic are felt not just by foreign students, of course, but by the Australian people as a whole. The ‘crisis’ which this system inevitably and, as predicted, produced has triggered alarm bells for ruling elites, one recent expression of which was Australian Prime Minister KRudd’s essay in The Monthly (The Global Financial Crisis, February 2009):
Social-democratic governments across the world must rise to the further challenge of developing a practical policy response to the crisis that rebuilds shattered economic growth, while also devising a new regulatory regime for the financial markets of the future. This is our immediate challenge. But if we fail, there is a grave danger that new political voices of the extreme Left and the nationalist Right will begin to achieve a legitimacy hitherto denied them. Again, history is replete with the most disturbing of precedents.
Arf arf.
“Maybe a gun to their head might help them get the hint that they are not wanted here!”
Or so wrote Terrie-Anne Verney, a former DJ at a community radio station, on Facebook (she also speculated, in reference to Indian students, that the “shit around their head must do something to their brain”). For those who are interested, Terrie-Anne will be speaking at the Sydney Forum — an annual fascist gathering in Sydney, sponsored by the Australia First Party — on the weekend of September 26/27. In previous years (the Forum was launched in 2001), the Returned Services League of NSW has provided the fascists with a venue; the Master of Race Ceremonies is, as always, and perhaps for the next 1,000 years, the German-born neo-Nazi and ex-NPD member Welf Herfurth (a Holocaust denialist). (See : 2009 Sydney Forum (Again), September 11, 2009.)
September 12 : ‘Neo-Nazi skinheads party in Melbourne’
Oddly enough, these latest attacks took place on the same day neo-Nazi skinheads from around Australia gathered in Melbourne to goose-step and jack-boot around to the racist toons sung by several neo-Nazi bands. In attendance was Stormfront Down Under moderator Paul Innes (a plasterer from Perth, WA), while the principal organisers are Jesse !@#$%^ and Justin ^%$#@! (locals from Melbourne). The gig was apparently a roaring success, if they don’t say so themselves:
AustralianMade
Join Date: Dec 2005
Yeah, awesome gig. The whole thing went off without a single hitch.
Great venue, the bands were tight as f*** and the numbers were up from last year. That was due to all the new faces and the renewed support from a lot of the older folk. It was great to see people who’d traveled all the way over from Germany for this one.
The next ISD is promising to be even better but in the meantime we’ll be seeing a lot of you again at the Hammered gig on the Goldie in April, I can’t wait!
It’s a triumph of the will baby!
We are the vanguard, the blood and the honour, the troopers of freedom and light
Government pressure, the scum on the streets, the communist media we fight
Remember places, traitors’ faces, they’ll all pay for their crimes
All of their lies, will some day die, well I told you six million times
Bonus!
Another treat from Jesse & JewTube YouTube:
Indians gang-bashed in latest racist attack
Sarah-Jane Collins and Mex Cooper The Age
September 16, 2009
Victorian Premier John Brumby says a spate of racist attacks has damaged Victoria and Australia’s image in India.
Four men were beaten outside a bar in Melbourne’s north-east on Saturday in the latest racist attack in the city, which has sparked outrage in India.
The victims were playing pool in a bar in Epping about 11pm when a woman celebrating with a large group of people began to make racial slurs.
The men then left the High Street bar and were followed to the car park by up to four men, who beat them in front of a large group of people.
Mr Brumby, who heads to India next week, said the recent spate of racist attacks had damaged Victoria and Australia’s image.
“Some of the events of the past few months have damaged our brand and the Australian brand in India and I can only repeat that overall we remain one of the safest places in the world,” he said.
The Times of India has reported that up to 70 people were involved in Saturday’s serious assault on Sukhdip Singh, his brother Gurdeep Singh and uncle Mukhtair Singh.
A relative told the newspaper that the group had yelled at the victims to “go back to their country”.
“They were quietly playing (pool) and were trying to avoid trouble even after these locals were trying to provoke them by passing comments,” the relative said.
“When they reached the car park to leave the place, a huge crowd attacked them and started bashing. The attackers were in their teens and around 20s.”
Four men were arrested and interviewed but have been released pending further investigations.
Acting Senior Sergeant Glenn Parker told ABC Radio that four men had been involved in the actual assault and a group of up to 20 had been bystanders.
He denied the Indian media reports that 70 people had been involved.
But one of the alleged victims told the ABC that more than 70 people could have been involved.
“It could be 70, it could be more than 70,” he said.
“They were coming from all sides. The carpark was crowded.”
He said the attackers didn’t use weapons, but racism was behind the incident.
“Definitely racism,” he said.
“We went outside, the crowd was there. They said: ‘You Indians, just go back to your country’. Even the ladies, the whole crowd came outside.”
The victim said he had lived in Australia for 22 years and hadn’t experienced any problems on earlier visits to the bar.
Police issued a statement about the assault this morning following widespread coverage of the attack by Indian media.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said police had witnessed about 15 men and women making racist comments and one woman throwing water over a bystander during the heated incident.
She said the group continued to sling racist abuse and threats at the victims as police took them away from the scene.
The incident has made headlines in India and is fuelling Melbourne’s reputation as a hotspot for racist crime ahead of Premier John Brumby’s visit to the country next week.
Mr Brumby said today he would not comment on the case but that any violence, racially motivated or not, was unacceptable.
“If you look at Victoria as a whole we remain the safest state in Australia in terms of our crime rate,” he said.
“Any violence which does occur and any violence which is racially motivated is completely unacceptable … and I’ll keep repeating this message as long as I have to to get the message out there.”
The premier said he would meet with key Indian officials to discuss the issue and also with students to encourage them to continue to come to Victoria and study.
“No offence but honestly who gives a shit about some skinhead in Russia.” Nowave, Melbourne Punx Forum, October 2008
“If Russians are so interesting to you, move to Russia.” ~ Fruitsalad, Melbourne Punx Forum, October 2008
“As I stated on the Bombshell forum Andy, you are a liar, a hypocrite and no better than the trash that you fight against.” ~ Dion, December, 2007
“Anarchy is a fag. Thanx to the people who have supported us… and to the random people letting us know about this anarchist knobjockey Mr Moran.” ~ Chunga (The Worst), September 2007
The country’s Africans know that the capital is no place to let your guard down.
“I knew folks who lost their lives,” said Nigerian-born JK Samson. “Attacks, fights, even in the lecture room and with lecturers, just name it.”
A survey last month by the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy (MPC) found that 58.5 per cent of the African community had been physically attacked in the capital, while human rights group Sova reported no fewer than 23 victims, including three fatalities, of racist and neo-Nazi attacks in August in the Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kirov and Ufa regions.
The majority of incidents “took place on the day of the VDV (Airborne Troops) celebration, which is traditionally marked by mass disorders and fights of drunken VDV veterans, including racially motivated incidents,” Sova said in their August monthly bulletin published on their web site.
People of non-Slavic appearance are advised by the MPC to lay low on these days and avoid travelling on the metro four hours before and after football or hockey matches, particularly on the red or green lines.
All people of non-Slavic appearance are also advised to remain extra vigilant on April 21, when [bone]heads mark Hitler’s birthday.
A Moscow-based Western DJ, who asked not to be named, said he “made the mistake of taking the same train they [(bone)heads] were taking to a soccer match and that was a nightmare. The escalator was full of [bone]heads in black jackets.” Now, he says, he doesn’t have a particular problem with racism.
Meanwhile Buster, an African-American who worked on his dissertation in the capital until June 2008, created “Moscow Through Brown Eyes”, a [great!] blog which dispenses advice to people of colour planning to visit Russia. Despite not being attacked, Buster warned that visitors should take the recommendations of other residents “very seriously”.
Back in the 1990s, the DJ was rescued from his encounter with [bone]heads by a policeman who put him in a secure room till the crowd dispersed. Others, however, have found the opposite to be the case and been persecuted by the police themselves.
Less than 15 per cent of the respondents on the MPC survey said they had a good or very good relationship with the police while some 25 per cent said items had been stolen by the police. Communication is often the key and Robert K. Bronkema from the MPC said in a telephone interview that “if you speak Russian there is a very high possibility of being helped [by the police].”
The MPC’s task force can also assist those that don’t speak good Russian file a police report and help them get medical attention as well as contact the relevant embassy.
One consular officer from an African embassy was reluctant to speak, feeling the problems weren’t unique to Moscow, but did offer some advice.
“When people come to Moscow they should conduct themselves well, not go to dangerous zones where they are likely to be attacked, such as train stations,” he said.
Much of the advice is common sense: avoid underground passages late at night; don’t travel alone; and avoid groups of teenage boys with shaved heads. Attitude and appearance are another important factor, according to both the DJ and Buster.
“I tried to maintain a serious appearance – I wore a collared shirt and always carried a briefcase (even when there was nothing inside of it) to look professional,” Buster wrote.
Despite the problems, racism has fallen since its boom in the 1990s and early 2000s, according to the survey.
“Race relations between the African and Russian communities have generally improved [but] the situation remains bad” the report said…
The first and last time gay activists staged a Pride parade in Belgrade, [bone]heads and Serbian nationalists attacked the demonstrators. The thugs shouted, “We do not want gays in Serbia,” and “Long live the Serbian kingdom.” The authorities failed to protect the protesters from injury.
Eight years on, gay activists are determined to hold a second Pride parade in the Serbian capital, scheduled for this Saturday. Pride organiser Majda Puaca, 29, believes there have been considerable developments since 2001…
Human rights defenders are under attack in Serbia and the authorities are failing to protect them, Amnesty International said on Monday.
Over the past year women human rights activists have faced repeated attacks in the Serbian media including being threatened with lynching.
Such attacks are made by parliamentarians, members of ultra-right organizations and members of the security services indicted for war crimes. Other defenders have had their property destroyed, their offices attacked or been beaten by members of neo-Nazi groups.
“Physical attacks and threats to the lives and property of human rights activists are seldom promptly and impartially investigated by the authorities and few perpetrators are brought to justice,” said Sian Jones, Amnesty International’s Balkans expert…
Prague, Sept 14 (CTK) – The Czech police have in the past two decades learnt ways to dissolve neo-Nazi concerts and demonstrations, but they are still incapable of protecting victims of neo-Nazi threats, the weekly Respekt writes Monday.
A door doused with petrol, an SMS threatening with slitting the addressee’s throat, a few kicks in his abdomen and similar messages that Czech right-wing extremists send to local Romanies and to their critics from among the majority population are alarming, but no one is capable of protecting the threats’ victims though the perpetrators’ identity is often known or close to evident, Katerina Copjakova and Bara Prochazkova write in the magazine…
It’s been a while since tabloid TV done a hatchet job on teh unemployed. (Well, probably not, but not that I’ve noticed, anyway.) Last night, FrontlineToday Tonight aired a segment devoted to Justin Sheridan, a 36-year-old bloke from beautiful Byron Bay, who seems to spend more of his time surfing than seeking opportunities to allow others to exploit his labour for profit looking for a job.
Walkley Award-winning journalist former sports presenter Matthew White is TT Presenter in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.
In his introduction, Tim states that “one in six Australians are now living off the dole”. Which is correct. Or would be, if the Australian population were reduced from just under 22,000,000 to approximately 2,000,000. According to the ABS: “In 2007, there were nearly half a million (478,300) unemployed people compared with 321,800 job seekers receiving labour market payments”. In other words, not ‘one in six’ but (approximately) 1.6% of the Australian population are now leading lives of luxury on the dole (in Justin’s case, $487 a fortnight, or the princely sum of $12,662 per annum).
But let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good story eh?
Speaking of which, the sterling piece very much in question was produced by (the bloody hard working) Tim Noonan.
Tim Noonan
Tim looks fetching in his yellow t-shirt; he’s also got form. In August 2005, Tim produced a ‘documentary’ for Today Tonight on the delicate subject of why Muslim yoof hate our freedoms, and, as Walkley Award-winning journalist TV personality Naomi Robson stated on the evening following the broadcast “no one could predict the public outcry over a young Australian Muslim’s comment on this program last night — that Muslims will never adopt the Australian way of life”.
Of course, in that other place called by some ‘reality’, the story is a little more complicated (see : ‘Unkind cuts’, Mediawatch, ABC, August 22, 2005).
Tim claims that “Centrelink abuse costs Australian taxpayers billions of dollars every year”. This is a standard trope of tabloid reporting, but again, that pesky thing called ‘reality’ intrudes. Thus:
Last June the Government announced a major crackdown on people who it said were wrongly claiming unemployment benefits.
A national review of 700,000 dole recipients would save taxpayers “hundreds of millions [of dollars]” and force “tens of thousands” off benefits, Employment Services Minister Mal Brough said.
“This will shake the tree like it has never been shaken before,” he warned.
A year later, and one solitary person has been found to be fraudulently claiming benefits.
The Government provided the figure to the Opposition following a written question.
Asked how many individuals since April 2003 had been found to be fraudulently claiming “the New Start Allowance, Youth Allowance or other allowance by claiming benefits when they were, for example, in paid employment”, the answer came back: one…
And so on.
In addition to surfer d00d, Tim’s segment featured two other talking heads: a private investigator (Ken(neth) Gamble) and a politician (John Williams).
Kenneth Gamble
When he’s not ‘working’ by sitting in his car and taking photographs of fair dinkum Aussies enjoying the natural wonders of this, The Lucky Country, Kenneth is doing other stuff. Like, what Den Hinch writes (September 18, 2002):
…the REAL story, the story that intrigues me, is what happened AFTER the rape charge was laid and before Millichamp went to trial.
A few people don’t emerge from this with much class or with reputations intact.
It ended with one of the players — NOT Millichamp — being sentenced to more than six years in jail this week.
You see Steve Millichamp’s lawyers, Kalus Kenny, instructed a Millichamp friend, private investigator Kenneth Gamble, to try (to put it crudely) to dig up some dirt on the alleged rape victim.
Like find out if she took drugs.
Flash forward to Sydney where one Simon Lowe, sometime lover of Lantana star Barbara Hershey, contrives to be in the same Bondi café as Ms Davies and some friends.
I’ll keep it brief. He sends her wine. He joins her table. He spins her a line that he is a wealthy songwriter. He borrows a friend’s sport car.
They go nightclubbing. She declines a weekend at a ritzy hotel. But more flowers, more wooing and eventually days later sex at her apartment.
Which Simon Lowe secretly videotaped. And then he threatened to put the porn tape on the Internet if she did not withdraw the rape charge.
You are entitled to ask why the defence team for an innocent man would go to these lengths? Lowe’s defence team argued that Lowe’s actions were overzealous and opportunistic. Not part of any widespread and pervasive conspiracy.
But the facts remain: One member at the lower end of this grubby food chain has been jailed for more than six years for serious crimes including attempting to intimidate a witness.
Private eye Kenneth Gamble plea-bargained his way to a good behaviour bond. Kalus Kenny solicitors appear to have gone scot free and last seen Stephen Millichamp was lunching with an attractive young woman at a trendy South Yarra bistro last weekend.
Presumably he also picked up the tab for Slimy Simon’s seductive lunches in Sydney. And his fee.
And hats off to a brave, humiliated, young woman who stared down a blackmail attempt and still went to court — even though she lost. Again.
According to Tim, Ken has “spent years undercover as a Centrelink surveillance agent”; PR agent Lauren Lewis reckons: “Gamble has emerged a leader in foreign intelligence and surveillance. Working with a team of strategic alliances that form a global network that spans across 15 countries, Gamble is one of the few of a new breed of international private investigators able to meet the increased challenges of a world that is in the midst of history-making change.” Further: “RENOWNED INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR AND CYBERCRIME EXPERT KEN GAMBLE OFFERS AMERICAN MEDIA A FRESH, IMMENSELY QUALIFIED AND GLOBALLY INFORMED VOICE THAT SPEAKS FROM A WORLD OF EXPERIENCE.”
To which all I can say is: WOW.
In November 1999, the HoWARd Government announced that it had awarded contracts to 21 private companies to spy on individuals suspected of the horrible crimes of “working for cash in hand payments” who had “not declare[d] their payments to Centrelink”; receiving “disability pensions [while also] claiming they are unfit for work”; and “fraudulently claiming more than one benefit at a time”. In February 2007, ‘Centrelink videos 800 people in fraud probe’ (ABC): “A Senate estimates committee has heard that Centrelink employed private investigators to secretly video more than 800 people suspected of welfare fraud in the first six months of this financial year…” In July 2009, the CPSU announced that it was undertaking a survey on Workplace Bullying.
Further disco on Centrelink surveillance is provided in ‘Mutual Obligation? Regulating by Supervision and Surveillance in Australian Income Support Policy’, Stephen Parker and Rodney Fopp, Surveillance & Society, Vol.3. No.1, 2005 [PDF].
Abstract
Through an analysis of speeches by government ministers, documents and regulations, this article examines the Australian national government’s surveillance of unemployed people through what is known as Activity Testing, and more specifically as Mutual Obligation. It seeks to merge the social policy analysis of Mutual Obligation with a surveillance perspective in order to delve deeper into the underlying nature of the policy and its implications for people who are unemployed. It does this by:
1. Outlining the neo-liberal political theory underlying these policies;
2. Illustrating the nature and extent of surveillance of people in receipt of income support, and
3. Employing Foucault’s concepts of the technologies of domination and the self to highlight the controlling and coercive aspects of Mutual Obligation in achieving certain of the Government’s political and policy objectives.
In doing so, the analysis will make visible something of the power exerted over the disadvantaged while subject to such surveillance.
John Williams
John Williams is a National Party politician, The Nationals Whip in the Senate and Senator for New South Wales. He made his maiden speech in the Federal Parliament on September 15, 2008, from which the following facts are drawn.
A failed student (John confesses that, despite being granted the privilege of attending University, the lure of the surf farm was too great, and so after three months he became a drop-out) and pig farmer (John couldn’t compete with the more ‘efficient’ Canadians on the labour pork market), John is from South Australia, and considers himself to be the ‘salt of the earth’. In addition to failing as a pig farmer, John also failed as an investor. Thus, like countless other ordinary Australians (presumably), in 1985 he and his family “decided to take a foreign currency loan in Swiss francs”. Unfortunately, “I soon found out that I was in more trouble than the early settlers”. Happily, John was eventually able to secure a financial victory in the courts.
In terms of his political philosophy, John states “I have always had the opinion that you should run the nation the same way as a farmer runs the family farm… The family farm must be protected from foreign invasion and takeover. We have an obligation to protect Australia and to see that it remains a free and democratic nation. I congratulate the former coalition government for a real increase in excess of 40 per cent on defence spending during their time in government.”
Further:
The family farm cannot afford to pay wages when the person never shows up for work. So too with our nation. I believe that if you are in good health and are capable of working then you should work. I have seen many who are determined not to work. They are simply getting a free ride from the taxpayers of Australia. It is about time that they received a touch on the backside from a cattle prod to get them off their butts and doing some work.
I see workers at Inverell abattoirs who come from the Philippines, Korea and Brazil. All the employees in an abattoir work really hard. Yet just a few hours drive away I see areas on the coast where unemployment is up to eight per cent and nine per cent. In my opinion, if you are in good health and youth is on your side, you should not receive a dole cheque unless you contribute something to our nation. However, I believe that the genuine unemployed should have a safety net and should be helped through their tough times until they find employment.
Of course, it should be noted that (as of February 2008) just 3% of the Australian workforce is employed on farms. Further, that agricultural labour is very dangerous.
Detailed studies show a high rate of fatalities in the industry and a corresponding high rate of serious injury. Between 300 and 350 traumatic deaths of male farm workers and farm workers from all causes (non-intentional and intentional) occur each year across Australia. In 2003-4, amongst other industries, the agricultural industry recorded the highest number of work-related deaths. There are approximately 5500 – 6000 workers compensation claims in the agriculture and services to Agriculture sectors per annum… Australian Bureau of Statistics data for work-related injuries in Australia 2005-6 indicated that agriculture had the highest work-related injury or illness rate (109 per 1,000 employees) ahead of manufacturing (87 per 1,000 employees) and construction and mining (86 per 1,000 employees).
~ ‘Workers Compensation and Occupational Health and Safety in the Australian Agricultural Industry’, Robert Guthrie, Lisa Goldacre and Jennifer Westaway, The Agricultural Industry, Vol.9, 2007 [PDF].
In addition:
The agricultural workforce has a number of distinctive features. Compared with other sectors of the economy agriculture has:
• a high proportion of self-employed, family and casual workers;
• long job tenure;
• a relatively old workforce;
• a low incidence of post-school qualifications; and
• low employee wages…
Agriculture has a high proportion of relatively low paid employees compared with other sectors of the economy. In 2003, 68 per cent of all full-time agriculture employees earned less than $700 per week. This compares with 40 per cent of full-time workers across all sectors of the economy. Fourteen per cent of agriculture workers earned in excess of $1000 per week, compared with almost 30 per cent of workers in all sectors of the economy (figure 5.14). The median weekly earnings for full-time paid employees in agriculture in 2003 was $575. This was around one third lower than the median weekly income for all full-time employees ($769), making agriculture workers the lowest paid workers in the economy. The next lowest paid, on average, were employees in the retail trades ($600) and accommodation, cafes and restaurants ($610).
~ Trends in Australian Agriculture, Productivity Commission Research Paper, 2005 [PDF].
All of which tends to suggest that surfing is more funs than working for a farmer. That said, Justin has probably committed Centrelink suicide, so I hope he got paid for the privilege.
Media Release : February 5, 2002 : Gutter Journalism Hoax Exposed
Last night the big guns of Tabloid TV fell victim to their own sleazy set-up tactics.
Both Channel 9’s A Current Affair and 7’s Today Tonight ran competing stories on the fictional group the “Dole Army”. They claimed to expose gangs of jobless militants inhabiting Melbourne’s drains, surfacing only to scavenge food from bins — and organising through the internet.
Today Tonight reporter Norm Beaman’s introductory voiceover began: “if it wasn’t true, it would almost be comical”. It wasn’t true and the joke’s on you, Norm.
These ridiculous stories of sewer-dwellers would have more accurately described the journalists themselves.
“We approached them with exactly the kind of story they love and they lapped it up like dogs,” said the Dole Army’s Emma Goldman. “They enjoy nothing more than victimising the poor and unemployed. We did it to avenge the Paxtons.”
“We also wanted to publicise our website, www.dolearmy.org” added Kool Keith. “And it’s worked — the website has received literally thousands of hits since the stories went to air last night. That’s thousands of unemployed people now better equipped to deal with the inhuman Centrelink bureaucracy — and we’d like to thank these TV shows for helping us get the message out. Not to mention the $1000 Today Tonight paid us which will help keep the Dole Army website alive.”
The shamelessly ratings-driven bully tactics of these two programs are well known — A Current Affair were publicly embarrassed by their hatchet job on the Paxton kids, the Robert Bogucki ‘banana chunder blunder’ and, most tragically, by Benny Mendoza, a repairman who committed suicide after ACA accused him of poor workmanship.
Mike Munro is not known for his honesty but the following closing comment surprised even us: “let me assure you that we did not pay anyone from that charming and courageous pack back in the Dole Army.” We’ll give Mike the benefit of the doubt and assume the producers neglected to mention the 30 blank digital videotapes (worth $360) they gave us in exchange for a video of masked figures pretending to play Cluedo in a tunnel, and the $2000 they offered us to deny Today Tonight a chance at a follow-up story.
Today Tonight is also no stranger to the invented story paraded as fact — the infamous ‘Majorca Skase Chase’ report was mocked up in the theatrical district of Barcelona. True to form while shooting the Dole Army expose, the TT crew happily colluded in setting up a fake drain dwelling in an above-ground brick factory.
“There are bludgers who are in work and there are bludgers who make millions of dollars. There are people who don’t want to work. The reality is we can’t put everyone in work. There wouldn’t be a percentage point difference in the unemployment figures if every person desperately wanted to work, unless you’re going to get down to sub-third-world wages. Why do journalists dish out this crap? It’s pathetic.” (Former MP Phil Cleary, in reference to the ACA/Paxton saga).
Young Australians don’t watch TV current affairs. It’s easy to see why.
…Following the Macquarie Fields riots, A Current Affair asked viewers to believe generational jihad was imminent with a report on attempts by the international terror group Class War to recruit the area’s young people.
That some of Australia’s most influential media regularly portray young people as threats to the nation impacts significantly on youth culture, youth policy and law-making. It also has real consequences for democracy…
Added Bonus!
NB. The September 2009 edition of Film Ink includes a ‘retrospective’ on the film Idiot Box (1996), from which the footage to the above video (a cover by The Mark of Cain of the song ‘Degenerate Boy’, originally performed by X) is taken. The film *ed Ben Mendelsohn (among others), who you may remember from such films as Beautiful Kate (2009).
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
