Police monitor supremacist group in Perth Hills

Posted on February 8, 2009 by @ndy
    Update : Christ. Dickhead changed his tiny mind. Again…

    Apparently, there is such a thing as bad publicity. The appearance of ‘Steelcap Boot’ (Paul Innes) in the media, and his campaign to create a Whites-only enclave in the Perth foothills, naturally drew the attention of fellow anti-Semites on Stormfront Down Under. ‘RoadTrain’ comments:

    “It’s old Rupert and his crew of vipers again, remember the shadowy White Supremacist/Neo Nazi organisation that was hinted at in the Herald Sun at the time of the Tyler Cassidy shooting [a reference to the Southern Cross Soldiers]? Good on you SCB, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, now when curious people take a look at SF and see the forums on music, homemaking and theology sitting alongside serious and rational debate on all the current affairs issues of the day they might decide that White Nationalism is for them.”

    No longer, unfortunately, as Paul has decided to delete this thread:

    http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=6471633

    As for Paul himself:

    “This is not the first time they have done a write up. Though at least it has some good quotes taken from my writings. What do you think everyone? As [for] the police… have they actually stopped monitoring me? Waste of resources in my opinion… Though I guess the state has to go after anyone who does not digest the force fed multiracial policies set by a [sic] what I feel is a now [sic] corrupted government that I did not want to govern over me.

    Thought crime!…Thought crime!”

Ner-ner ner-ner!

Police monitor supremacist group in Perth Hills
Nick Taylor
news.com.au
February 7, 2009

SUPREMACISTS have re-ignited a campaign to set up a whites-only enclave in the Perth foothills.

They are urging other racists to join the Pioneer Little Europe project.

Police have been monitoring postings on the controversial Stormfront website, a white-supremacist forum that features a coat of arms with a Celtic cross, surrounded by the motto “White Pride World Wide”‘.

The idea for the project was started several years ago and promoted in Perth by a website contributor calling himself Steelcap Boot [Paul Innes].


Paul and Sue Bateman (One Nation Party, WA), pictured at a Stormfront BBQ in Perth. Paul is the moderator of the Stormfront Down Under forum, of which Sue was also once a member. He is wearing a t-shirt which features a Celtic cross, surrounded by the motto “White Pride World Wide”.

But just a week ago he wrote: “There has been a bit of international interest again over this last week from a couple of places…”

In earlier posts he wrote: “Stormfronts of the Street (aka PLEs) are urgently needed now. Seize a targeted PLE area for white people today!”

He claimed “white nationalists and national socialists” were becoming increasingly active in the foothills, especially in uniting WA boneheads.

He said Pioneer Little Europe first surfaced in 2001 to develop racially conscious white communities within existing and “culturally ineffective” white communities.

“A PLE occupies a targeted living area for white nationalists with different pro-white ideologies,” he wrote.

“It is suggested that any demand for proof about the existence of any given PLE project should be ignored … our opponents have actually made no provision whatsoever to account for something as unusual as the PLE strategy.”

Steelcap Boot, who said he is a white nationalist but had never been a bonehead, claims to have started increasing levels of pro-white legal “activism”, distributing literature and organising pro-white activities.

In one post he claimed there had been “a bbq, a couple of meetings and some international comings and going”. In another he said: “Numerous leafleting runs were completed … everything else is pumping along nicely.”

    NB. Paul’s efforts were preceeded by those of his brother David, and David’s former partner Lilith. In addition to promoting Stormfront, Paul also promotes the activities of the openly neo-Nazi Blood & Honour Australia and the Southern Cross Hammerskins, two bonehead gangs. Their next gig, to celebrate the deaths of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought Nazism in WWII, is scheduled to take place in Perth on ANZAC Day.

Other contributors to the forum use names such as Aussieknight, who claims to be a bonehead already living in the “PLE Area”, anglodane, whitenproud82, ozwarrior and Knightspirit.

Sen-Sgt Ray Butler of the State Security Investigation Group said: “Police have concerns for anyone espousing white supremacist views or views that are designed to drive a wedge through the community. We do not take groups such as this lightly. Community safety and security is of paramount importance.”

The Ethnic Communities Council of WA is aware of the website, but its executive officer Suresh Rajan said: “These people are not a group worthy of comment. However, our position is consistent in that we opposed the proposed Muslim enclave in Rivervale only three weeks ago and we would oppose the Little Europe concept as it does not promote integration.”

Opposition police spokeswoman Margaret Quirk said: “These things have the capacity and danger to extend from cyberspace into the community. We’ve said in the past that community safety can be under threat from these extremists. They present particular challenges to police who should be given the resources to deal with it.”

    In New Zealand/Aotearoa, a similar project is being spearheaded by Kyle Chapman, who posts on SF using the pseudonym ‘NZ Trooper’.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 15 Comments

THE QUEEN v ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA, et al

Posted on February 6, 2009 by @ndy

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary) is the fortieth monarch since William the Conqueror, and is also the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

She is Head of State of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms, including Australia.

The elder daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, she was born in 1926. She became Queen at the age of 25, and has reigned gloriously for more than five decades.

She is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and has four children and eight grandchildren.

Her Majesty is 38th in direct line of descent from Egbert (c.775-839), King of Wessex from 802 and of England 827 to 839.

On February 3, THE QUEEN had ~ a magnificent victory ~ over

ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA,
AIMEN JOUD,
FADL SAYADI,
ABDULLAH MERHI,
AHMED RAAD,
EZZIT RAAD and
AMER HADDARA

in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The seven men will now reside at Her Majesty’s Prisons for periods of between 15 (Benbrika) and 4 1/2 years, after having been found guilty by a jury of their peers of belonging to a terrorist group between July 2004 and November 2005.

So much for The Good News.

The Bad News is that Melbourne’s Moreland Council has become

a playground for professional multiculturalists of the far Left.

This follows its public condemnation of the “Israeli massacre in Gaza” (Moreland councillors blast Israel on Gaza action, Moreland Leader, February 2, 2009).

According to the Moreland Leader, only one of the eleven members of Council — John Kavanagh — opposed the motion. This means — I assume — that the Mayor, Lambros Tapinos, supported it. Which is odd, as Lambros is or was a member of Labour Unity, and Labour Unity is generally supportive of Israeli policy. (The council is dominated by the ALP, which has eight members (three Socialist Left [sic] faction, five Labor Unity faction) while The Greens have two and the DLP (Catholic right) one.)

Tapinos-the-professional-multiculturalist-of-the-far-left / Labour Unity member had his campaign for election in November 2008 subsidised by former MP Evan Thornley to the tune of two thousand dollars. Chump change for millionaire Thornley, but an investment which is paying handsome dividends for Tapinos:

Labor’s novice mayor for Moreland
Simon Craig
Moreland Leader
December 21, 2008

MORELAND’S Labor councillors headed off a bid by Greens councillors last week and installed newcomer Lambos Tapinos in the mayoral position.

Greens Cr Jo Connellan nominated experienced independent Cr John Kavanagh for the position at a special mayoral meeting on Monday evening, saying she wanted someone “whose sole purpose of being on the council is to work for Moreland”.

Her nomination was supported by fellow Green Toby Archer and Cr Kavanagh.

But Moreland’s eight Labor councillors followed the party line and voted for 29-year-old Cr Tapinos as mayor for 2009.

Cr Tapinos said he would quit his job with federal Labor senator David Feeney to take on the role full-time.

The mayor is set to be paid $77,300 a year, up from $57,500, after councillors voted at the same meeting to raise their annual allowance. The increases, subject to a 28-day public consultation period beginning in February, will also see councillor allowances rise from $18,000 to $24,200.

Despite being voted in only at the November 29 elections, Cr Tapinos said his experience in student politics, including a stint as president of the Victorian branch of the National Union of Students, had given him political experience.

“There’s a lot of similarities to the university councils that I have been on,” Cr Tapinos said.

In his mayor’s speech to 100 or so residents at Coburg Town Hall, Cr Tapinos said he would use his term in office to:

* “Develop an infrastructure program to make sure our local roads and footpaths are repaired and made safe for our entire community”.

* “Rebuild Coburg through the Coburg Initiative and start similar projects for Brunswick and Glenroy”.

* “Redevelop the Brunswick baths (and) renew the Oak Park Aquatic Centre and review the opening hours of all outdoor pools” and

* “Deliver more and better services, like Meals on Wheels and Home Help to assist you (seniors) maintain your independence and sense of community”.

See also:

EVERYNIGHT…EVERYNIGHT
Production Date: c. 1993
Release Date: 1994

Follows Australia’s (second, after Mark Brandon Read?) most notorious hit man, Christopher Dale Flannery’s (Field) time inside the infamous H Division of Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison. Dale, remand prisoner, is thrown into H division, where he’s subjected to relentless beatings, mind games and despair at the hands of sadistic warders, led by Berriman (Hunter). Remarkable story from playwright Mooney, whose original play is based on his own experiences inside H Division. Shot in gritty black and white, it’s amazing that this film isn’t more widely known: it tells an incredible, horrifying story of the disregard of basic human rights as recently as the 1970s. Field and Hunter are terrific in their lead roles – it is interesting to note that Field and director Tsilimidos teamed up again for the inferior but still impacting SILENT PARTNER seven years later. Films like these make you wonder what is really happening inside detention centres today. For those who are interested, LOUGHNAN v R [1981] VR 443 is a case in which the defendant sought to escape from Pentridge but was captured in the process (he broke both ankles jumping from the prison wall). He argued duress and necessity (both recognised defences to most crimes in Australia), saying that he had been threatened with death, and did not want to be placed under any prison protection scheme (which simply meant either solitary confinement, or being placed in H Division) because he believed his life would in even more danger there. The Full Court of the Victorian Supreme Court decided that the response of the defendant was not proportionate to the danger, and dismissed his action; interestingly, it was noted in a later case – ROGERS (1996) 86 A Crim R 542 – that had the defendant, upon escaping in fear of his life, immediately handed himself over to relevant authorities, he might be able to use necessity or duress as a defence. Rogers was never in Pentridge during the 70s or 80s, however, and, in any event, Loughnan broke both ankles and couldn’t have reported to any authorities anyway.

Posted in State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

British Workers Go Back to British Work (w/- BONUS! British Babes)

Posted on February 6, 2009 by @ndy

Striking UK refinery workers vote to end walkout
Jill Lawless

LONDON (AP) — Striking workers at a British refinery voted unanimously Thursday to end their wildcat walkout over the hiring of foreign workers. Staff at the Lindsey oil refinery in northeast England accepted a deal negotiated by their union, management and mediators that will create 102 new jobs for British workers. They will return to work on Monday. “We have now got the chance to go back to work but the fight does not stop here,” said Phil Whitehurst, an official with the GMB union. The strike was triggered by the decision of Italian construction company IREM SpA to use Italian and Portuguese workers for a huge project at a Total refinery in northeastern England. None of those workers will lose their jobs under the agreement. Hundreds of workers have been off the job for more than a week at the refinery, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of London. Employees at other energy facilities have staged sympathy walkouts. Under European Union rules, the Italian and Portuguese laborers have the same right to work in Britain as British citizens do — and Britons have the right to work in other EU nations. The Lindsey workers, however, claim British workers were unfairly excluded from applying for jobs on the project. The protests touched a nerve across Britain, reflecting concern about rising unemployment — currently at 6.1 percent — and fears of more layoffs as the global economic slump worsens. “There was an uprising here but I don’t think it’s going to stop,” said Whitehurst, the union official. “We have started it but I think it’s going to carry on elsewhere.” British government officials have said they understand workers’ concerns, but argue protectionism will make the economic downturn worse. But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that the construction industry had agreed on new guidelines that advised employers to “always consider whether there are competent workers locally” when hiring for a project.

WE’VE WON THANKS TO DAILY STAR
Gary Nicks
Daily Star
February 6, 2009

UNION chiefs last night praised the Daily Star for helping their jobs victory and declared: “We couldn’t have done this without you.” [“We couldn’t have done it without the support of the Daily Star and its readers ~ GMB union strike chief Phil Whitehurst.]

NICE PAIR OF STRIKERS

…THE Daily Star sent in our own strikers to cheer up the wildcat strikers yesterday. Page 3 babes Charlotte McKenna and Porchia Watson, both, 21, were welcomed by wolf-whistle at the Lindsey site. Striker Robert Robson, 26, of Glasgow, told the gorgeous Star favourites: “Thanks for coming all this way girls. It’s made our day.”

Discontents, wintry and otherwise
The Economist
February 5, 2009

Worries about Britain’s open labour market are growing

…Though case-by-case solutions may emerge, the underlying tension between openness and protectionism will endure. That the Tories and the Liberal Democrats have had little to say beyond lampooning Mr Brown’s foolish slogan underlines a shared view that Britain must back open markets while giving its workers skills superior to their competitors’. But challenges to this consensus may come from the protectionist far-left and the nationalist far-right. The cosy prosperity of the past decade was barren ground for political extremes; the coming years might not be.

ten days that shook new labour
an article on the refinery strikes by john mcdonnell mp
the commune
february 5, 2009

Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist

Workers take charge at Lindsey Oil Refinery

It has started, and not before time. Workers across the country are on the move. Construction, oil and energy workers in Grangemouth, Milford Haven, Aberthaw, Warrington, Southampton, Teeside, Darlington and elsewhere are walking out of their workplaces in support of Lindsey Oil Refinery construction workers in Lincolnshire… [PDF]

See also : British Jobs for British Workers?

Posted in State / Politics | Leave a comment

Everybody Knows

Posted on February 5, 2009 by @ndy

BISHOP ANTHONY FISHER, CO-ORDINATOR OF WORLD YOUTH DAY, 16 JULY, 2008: “Happily, I think most of Australia was enjoying [and] delighting in the beauty and goodness of these young people and the hope for us doing these sorts of things better in the future, as we saw last night, rather than dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds.”

23 ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay your tithe of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law-justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have practised, those not neglected.

24 You blind guides, straining out gnats and swallowing camels!

25 ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance.

26 Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that it and the outside are both clean.

27 ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of corruption.

28 In just the same way, from the outside you look upright, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the sepulchres of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the upright,

30 saying, “We would never have joined in shedding the blood of the prophets, had we lived in our ancestors’ day.”

31 So! Your own evidence tells against you! You are the children of those who murdered the prophets!

32 Very well then, finish off the work that your ancestors began.

33 ‘You serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape being condemned to hell?

Suffer the Children (December 6, 2008) | Ratso is funny… Pell… less so (July 8, 2008) | Alas for you George! | egg benedict dot org (July 9, 2008) | Ecce Homo (July 17, 2008)

Jews outraged by Holocaust-denying bishop
Victor L. Simpson
January 23, 2009

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s relations with Jews risked a new crisis Friday after an excommunicated British bishop — reportedly in line for rehabilitation — said that historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed” during World War II. Two Italian newspapers reported Thursday that Pope Benedict XVI planned to lift the excommunication of Richard Williamson and three other bishops punished for having been consecrated without papal consent 20 years ago by the late French conservative Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre…

Pope Lifts Excommunication of Four Bishops
Vatican Radio
January 24, 2009

…The decree concludes : “It is hoped that this step will be followed by the accomplishment of full communion of the entire Fraternity of Saint Pius X with the Church, thus, with visible unity testifying true fidelity and true recognition of the Magisterium and of the authority of the Pope”.

Vatican: Comments by Holocaust denier unacceptable
Nicole Winfield
January 26, 2009

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican said Monday that comments by a recently rehabilitated bishop that no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust were unacceptable and violate Church teaching. In a front-page article, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reaffirmed that Pope Benedict XVI deplored all forms of anti-Semitism and that all Roman Catholics must do the same. The article was issued amid an outcry from Jewish groups that Benedict last week lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop, Richard Williamson, who has denied that 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II. The Vatican has stressed that removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared Williamson’s views…

German Far-Right Hails Holocaust Denier Williamson
Peter Wensierski
Spiegel Online
January 27, 2009

Germany’s far right has welcomed the move by German Pope Benedict XVI to lift the excommunication of British bishop Richard Williamson, who denied the Holocaust in an interview last week. German Jewish leaders are appalled at the decision. In the churches and chapels of the Society of Saint Pius X, the incense burners at the holy masses have been swung with even greater vigor since the weekend in joy over the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to lift the excommunication of their founding father, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the bishops he ordained, among them Archbishop Richard Williamson. British bishop Richard Williamson denied the Holocaust in an interview on Swedish television. Germany’s far right is equally pleased with the decision and is hailing Williamson as a hero — because he has denied the Holocaust. He told Swedish television in an interview broadcast last Wednesday: “I believe there were no gas chambers.” He claimed that only 300,000 Jews perished in the Nazi concentration camps, instead of the 6 million figure that is widely accepted by historians…

Pope in bid to dampen bishop row
BBC
January 29, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI has expressed “full and indisputable solidarity” with Jews, distancing himself from a bishop who denies the Nazis used gas chambers. Briton Richard Williamson was among four bishops whose excommunications were lifted by the Pope last week. Bishop Williamson said recently [November 2008]: “I believe there were no gas chambers”…

German Jews Cut Contact with Catholic Church
Spiegel Online
January 29, 2009

Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said on Thursday that she was severing contact with the Catholic Church. Her move stems from the pope’s decision to void the excommunication of Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson…

A broad church after all
Christopher Pearson
The Australian
January 31, 2009

…It should be obvious to disinterested observers that the lifting of a canonical penalty for the four bishops’ breach of canon law is completely unrelated to the question of whether the church in any way endorses the offensive non-theological opinions of one of them. In fact the Pope has gone out of his way to make a pilgrimage to Auschwitz, reiterating his solidarity with the Jewish people this week while preaching on the lessons of the Holocaust. His primary responsibility is not to ingratiate himself with the Left-liberal press but to bring separated brethren – including the inconvenient and the barking mad as well as the mild-mannered conservatives – back into the church…

Holocaust-denying Bishop apologises to Pope
ABC [AFP}
January 31, 2009

The holocaust denier at the centre of a spiralling scandal after Pope Benedict XVI rescinded his excommunication voiced his “regrets” for causing the pontiff “unnecessary distress.” Bishop Richard Williamson referred to as “imprudent” remarks carried last week by Swedish television in which he said no more than 300,000 Jews died in the Holocaust, and none in gas chambers…

Pope promotes conservative cleric
David Willey
BBC News, Rome
January 31, 2009

Pope Benedict has made a controversial appointment, days after revoking the excommunication of a bishop who is a Holocaust denier. He promoted ultra-conservative cleric Fr Gerhard Maria Wagner to assistant bishop of the Austrian city of Linz… The bishop apologised for shaming the Church, but not for his views. Fr Wagner is also notorious for his extreme views – he has accused the popular Harry Potter novels of spreading Satanism, and described Hurricane Katrina as God’s punishment for the sinners of New Orleans. He wrote in a parish newsletter that the death and destruction caused by the hurricane in New Orleans was divine retribution for the city’s tolerance of homosexuals and permissive sexual attitudes…

Cardinal admits error over Holocaust denier
Kate Connolly in Berlin
The Guardian
February 4, 2009

The cardinal in charge of the Vatican’s relations with Jews has admitted that the Pope’s decision to rehabilitate an ultra-conservative bishop who denies the Holocaust was dealt with poorly and was the result of bad management in the Vatican hierarchy. In a frank interview with the German service of Vatican Radio, Cardinal Walter Kasper acknowledged that communication between decision-makers had been lacking. “There wasn’t enough talking with each other in the Vatican and there are no longer checks to see where problems could arise,” he said…

‘Holocaust bishop’ told to recant
BBC
February 4, 2009

The Vatican has ordered an ultra-traditionalist bishop to publicly recant his views denying the Holocaust. A statement said British Bishop Richard Williamson must “unequivocally” distance himself from his statements to serve in the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican also said that the Pope had not been aware of the bishop’s views when he lifted excommunications on him and three other bishops last month. Earlier, a senior cardinal acknowledged the Vatican had mishandled the issue…

Bishop Richard Williamson: Profile

Bishop Richard Williamson was born in 1940, the son of an Anglican vicar.

Posted in !nataS, History, State / Politics | 21 Comments

Bill Hicks on Letterman, October 1, 1993

Posted on February 5, 2009 by @ndy

Originally filmed October 1, 1993. First broadcast January 30, 2009. See : Dave Letterman, Bill Hicks, Truth & Reconciliation, TPM, January 31, 2009. William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961–February 26, 1994).

Posted in History, Television | Leave a comment

Not quite Summer in Melbourne

Posted on February 5, 2009 by @ndy

Luke:

Stan:

Jules:

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

British Jobs for British Workers?

Posted on February 4, 2009 by @ndy

The recent (and seemingly ongoing) wildcat strikes at British oil refineries (Lindsey, Teesside, Devon…), triggered by the awarding of a contract by the French company Total to the Italian company IREM (which has shipped in its own staff), has provoked a good deal of commentary, especially from British leftists, who are seemingly divided on whether or not to support the strikes, and whether or not they might be classified as ‘progressive’ or ‘reactionary’. The major sticking point for the left — and the reason the BNP and assorted other racists have been flocking to it like flies to shit — is the nationalist and xenophobic dimension of the strike, embodied in the slogan ‘British Jobs for British Workers’.

According to The Guardian (Workers reject plea to return during talks, Martin Wainwright, Wednesday, February 4. 2009):

In [Tuesday]’s biggest wildcat actions 530 contractors decide to prolong walkouts at Longannet power station in Fife and Cockenzie in East Lothian. Staff will stay away until the weekend from both plants, which are run by Scottish Power. Eighty workers also walked out at Exxon Mobil’s petrochemicals plant in Mossmorran, Fife. In Hartlepool, 250 staff left Heerema’s gas and oil engineering plant for a 24-hour strike. Langage power station near Plymouth saw 500 workers down tools, including a group of Poles.

One of the ironies of the situation is that British oil workers can and do find employment elsewhere in Europe. In fact: ‘At Irem HQ in Sicily, executive Giovanni Musso claimed it had agreed with unions to pay wages equal to British counterparts and agreed with rules governing tea breaks. Scarano added: “No one has mentioned that on a rig where we’re doing a job off Ravenna there are 150 British workers”.’ (The view from the barge: ‘We want to work with the British as brothers’, Tom Kington in Rome, The Guardian, February 3, 2009.)

As for the Trots*, here’s a sample of reactions…

1. Communist Party of Britain

‘BACK POWER WORKERS ACTION’ URGE BRITAIN’S COMMUNISTS
February 2, 2009

‘Workers taking action at Britain’s power stations are fighting for jobs, decent terms and conditions and trade unionism’, Carolyn Jones has declared today on behalf of the Communist Party of Britain.

2. International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

Stalinists and Socialist Party defend “Britons first” refinery protest
Julie Hyland
February 3, 2009

The stance of the unions and the pseudo-left groups to the oil refinery protests must serve as a warning. Faced with a major economic crisis that threatens the survival of the capitalist profit system itself, their response is to adopt the noxious policy of economic nationalism and anti-migrant propaganda, while embracing the government and the employers as the allies of “British workers”…

NB. The ICFI is bankrolled by a union-free printing company, Grand River Printing & Imaging (GRPI), a multi-million dollar business in Michigan [and “premiere provider of commercial web offset printing services”].

3. Respect Renewal

Strikes, protest and the crisis in the construction industry
Jerry Hicks
January 30, 2009

…This is not about race or prejudice and we are actively challenging any attempt by the BNP to spread their poison. It is about the exploitation of labour, playing one worker off against another. It is about the employers trying to break nationally agreed arrangements and in doing so it is an attack on the union. Gordon Brown, who at the last Labour party conference said ‘British jobs for British workers’, has created a huge problem all of his own making. He can no longer simply sit on his hands waiting on the sidelines…

4. Socialist Party (Committee for a Workers’ International: CWI)

Update on the spreading strikes by construction engineers in the refinery and power industry
Report by phone from Alistair Tice (Yorkshire Socialist Party) on the mass picket at the Lindsey total refinery North Lincolnshire.
February 2, 2009

The strike committee accepted the main demands of Keith Gibson and John Mckewan to put to the mass meeting today. Keith is a Socialist Party member and on the strike committee and John is a Socialist Party supporter and victimised worker from the refinery. The strike committee added an extra demand, calling for John to be reinstated into his job.

The demands were:

    * No victimisation of workers taking solidarity action.
    * All workers in UK to be covered by NAECI Agreement.
    * Union controlled registering of unemployed and locally skilled union members, with nominating rights as work becomes available.
    * Government and employer investment in proper training / apprenticeships for new generation of construction workers – fight for a future for young people.
    * All Immigrant labour to be unionised.
    * Trade Union assistance for immigrant workers – including interpreters – and access to Trade Union advice – to promote active integrated Trade Union Members.
    * Build links with construction trade unions on the continent.

5. Socialist Workers Party (iSt)

Blame the bosses not ‘foreign workers’
February 3, 2009

…fear and anger has exploded into unofficial strike action with thousands of workers in oil refineries and power plants walking out. They are right to want to fight this recession. But the central slogan of the current wave of strike action, “British jobs for British workers”, targets the wrong people and points in a dangerous direction. Any demand framed in terms of “putting British workers first” inevitably paints another set of workers – “foreign workers” – as the problem.

…far too many in the trade union leadership have gone meekly along with this treatment – or even, shamefully, encouraged the “British jobs for British workers” slogan. Anger over how working people have been treated has been mounting and is now threatening to explode. The current walkouts are a symptom of that. And they have shown that unofficial strike action is an effective way to fight…

6. Workers’ Power (League for the Fifth International)

Britain: no to the nationalist strikes
February 1, 2009

Around 3,000 construction workers at oil refineries around the country are taking wildcat, unofficial strike action. Another 900 workers at Sellafield nuclear power plant may join them on Monday 2 February. Normally Workers Power would energetically support strike action by workers – including unofficial strikes taken without the formal support of the union leaders. But this strike is different. We unreservedly oppose it. Why? Because the strikers target is not their employers but 100 Italian and Portuguese workers at the Lindsey oil refinery in North Killingholme, Lincolnshire…

Posted in State / Politics, Trot Guide | 21 Comments

URGENT: Possible State Kidnapping of Abraham Ramírez Vásquez

Posted on February 4, 2009 by @ndy

To the people of Mexico —- To the peoples of the world —- To the alternative news media

On Saturday, January 31, at 6:00 p.m. a heavily armed commando unit of the Oaxaca state police went into the San Pedro Pochutla prison and took our indigenous comrade and political prisoner Abraham Ramírez Vásquez away in a white van with no license plates to an unknown address.

Abraham and two other indigenous men, Juventino and Noel García Cruz, have been held prisoner since January 15, 2005, under the direct orders of the murderer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO). Our comrades’ crime was defending their forests and their traditional practices and customs. For more than 4 years, the URO government has been unable to prove that they committed the crimes they are accused of, and accordingly, they have not been sentenced.

Our comrades are members of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI) of Santiago Xanica, a member organization of the Magonista-Zapatista Alliance (AMZ), the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), and adherent to the Other Campaign.

It’s important to note that Abraham Ramírez is a man of deep libertarian and human convictions, which have motivated him more than once, even from inside the prison, to struggle against the prison authorities for prisoners’ rights.

During all these years, Abraham has stayed in contact and written letters encouraging the people of Oaxaca to resist and not to allow their dignity to be trampled on by the killer who misgoverns this state. Prison bars have not been able to silence his rebellious voice, and he and the other two comrades held prisoner with him have sent letters and greetings to several different events initiated by the Other Campaign.

Abraham is also directly involved in the organization of a popular kitchen inside the Pochutla prison due to the fact that the prisoners have no dining room in this prison. This activity has lead to harassment, hostility, and acts of aggression against him by prison authorities.

In view of this situation, we ask for the sensibility and solidarity of the Mexican people and social organizations to demand that the killer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and the right-wing Calderón government immediately present our comrade Abraham Ramírez Vásquez alive and that they release all the political prisoners of Santiago Xanica.

We hold the prison warden, the governments of Ulises Ruiz and Felipe Calderón responsible for any attempt against our comrade Abraham.

Alianza Magonista Zapatista.

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD!

    In Melbourne, on the weekend of February 20, 21, and 22, the Latin American Solidarity Network / Red de Solidaridad con los Pueblos Latinoamericanos (LASNET) will be holding a Zapatista Film Festival. Details have yet to be confirmed, but the event will be held at the International Workers’ Club, 62 St Georges Road, Northcote, and expected price of admission will be $10 for all three days. Films to be screened include:

    A Train Too Big
    City of Juarez
    Images of the Repression in Oaxaca
    Indigenous Voices from the North
    On the Border
    The Other Campaign
    The War in Guerrero
    Voice of the Voiceless
    Water and Autonomy
    You Are Saying That We Cannot Pass     and
    Zapatista Women

See also : Angry White Kid: Mexico | The Other Journalism With The Other Campaign “On The Road with Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos and the Simple and Humble People Who Fight” (Narco News) | Mexico-Australia Solidarity Network (MASN)

Posted in Film, State / Politics | Leave a comment

Satan King of Waikato

Posted on February 4, 2009 by @ndy

I’m beginning to believe that Kerry Bolton really does have !cinataS powers. Or rather, that the crackademic authorities at the University of Waikato in Aotearoa/New Zealand do.

Last October — that is, four months ago — Roel Van Leeuwen’s 2008 MA thesis — ‘Dreamers of the Dark: Kerry Bolton and the Order of the Left Hand Path, a Case-study of a Satanic/Neo-Nazi Synthesis’ — got pulled, following a complaint lodged by Kiwi nutzi Kerry Bolton.

And it’s still unavailable at the University library (see below).

Fortunately, his thesis is available online (via Scribd):

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6442251/Roel-Van-Leeuwen-Thesis-Original

The title of Van Leeuwen’s thesis is reminiscent of Kevin Coogan’s excellent biography of Francis Parker Yockey, Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International (Autonomedia, New York, 1999). Loren Goldner’s review (available here), like Coogan’s text, is a valuable account of the meanderings of fascist ideology in the post-WWII period. Also of interest is Coogan’s review How Black is Black Metal?:

Lords of Chaos (LOC), a recent book-length examination of the “Satanic” black metal music scene, is less concerned with sound than fury. Authors Michael Moynihan and Didrik Sederlind zero in on Norway, where a tiny clique of black metal musicians torched some churches in 1992. The church burners’ own place of worship was a small Oslo record store called Helvete (Hell). Helvete was run by the godfather of Norwegian black metal, 0ystein Aarseth (“Euronymous”, or “Prince of Death”), who first brought black metal to Norway with his group Mayhem and his Deathlike Silence record label…

“Michael Moynihan is an interesting fellow”, writes Kevin, and so are the other odds and sods associated with various forms of ‘cultural fascism’. Unfortunately, but perhaps unsurprisingly, all seem to share a desire for notoriety which exists in inverse proportion to their talents. Speakiing of the Devil…

Kerry Bolton (1956–): A former NZ Nazi Party member, Bolton is a highly-entertaining fascist bozo, having been a member of numerous other political formations: the National Front (1978), Church of Odin (1980), New Force (1981), Nationalist Workers Party (1983), Fascist Union (1998), Workers’ Front (1999), and others. Bolton also helped form the New Zealand New Right (not to be confused with Welf Herfurth’s New Right Australia & New Zealand). Most recently, Unkle Kerry signed his name to ‘The ANZAC Declaration: Australia First Party And New Zealand Nationalist Alliance: Declaration Of Common Interests And Future Relations’ (April 25, 2008), joining fellow nutzis (‘For Australia’) Brendan Gidley, Jim Saleam, Neil Baird and (‘For New Zealand’) Kyle Chapman and Anton Foljambe.

Aside from the fearsomely powerful Kerry, a number of the other signatories to the Trans-Tasman fascist pact have been having some of their own awfully big adventures. Dr. Jim, for example, has declared that the “Australia First Party will demonstrate at the Coroner’s Court when an investigation is held into Tyler’s Cassidy’s death“; his shooting to death — like Herr Doktor’s jailing for organising a shotgun assault upon the home of Australasian ANC representative Eddie Funde in 1989 — was apparently the result of an elaborate conspiracy on the part of the state to silence the ‘White Nationalist’ movement. Kyle Chapman, on the other hand, has been in the news (and the racial wars) following his announcement that he had a cunning plan to construct a Whites Only (Nie-Blankes!) pie shop in North Canterbury.

Chapman’s vision of pies aplenty for Nice White Families is mirrored in fellow Stormfronter Paul Innes’ desire to construct a ‘Pioneer Little Europe’ in the Perth foothills. Presumably, as part of his attempt to whip up support for his nutty scheme, Paul will attend the upcoming gig being organised by fellow nutzis Blood & Honour Australia and the Southern Cross Hammerskins. The gig is scheduled for ANZAC Day, and the boneheads will be celebrating the deaths of Australian (and New Zealand) soldiers in WWII by way of getting paralytic drunk while listening to the soothing sounds of Ravenous, Quick & the Dead and Indigenous Hate.

They’re a weird mob.

Thesis probe delay angers
Nicola Brennan
Waikato Times
January 31, 2009

The author of a thesis pulled by Waikato University last October is angry that it remains off library shelves.

The masters thesis, which explores Satanist and neo-Nazi themes, was removed from the university library without warning at the beginning of October following a complaint by the subject of the research, former National Front secretary Kerry Bolton.

By mid October, two top academics had been appointed to review the processes around the thesis and a defamation complaint amid accusations of university censorship.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford said yesterday he had received the report and would not make any further comment until he had read it.

The author of the thesis, philosophy and religious studies student Roel Van Leeuwen, told the Waikato Times this week he was not happy with the way the investigation was being handled.

“I was given a reassurance that it would take a couple of weeks. It’s now been months and months,” Mr Leeuwen said.

Mr Leeuwen, who has stood by his research from the start, was “profoundly unhappy” that his thesis remained off library shelves.

He said he had put a lot of work into the thesis, for which he received top marks.

While he understood that the university had to investigate the complaint, he said it had “gone on too long”.

Mr Bolton has repeatedly claimed that the thesis was riddled with errors and was no more than a personal smear.

“Its having passed with honours is a scandal,” he told The Times last year.

Speaking from his home in Wellington yesterday Mr Bolton said he told the university that he would not comment further to the media until after the investigation process was completed.

“The last I heard from them (the university) was before Christmas when they apologised for the delay,” he said.

Note that University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Roy Crawford is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, whose primary research interest has been in the mechanical properties and processing behaviour of plastics. Announcing Professor Crawford’s appointment in May 2004, Waikato’s Chancellor John Gallagher said: “His research and business skills and experience, coupled with his very high-level academic experience, make him the ideal person to lead the university, particularly at a time when research performance affects our funding and we are looking to start up more businesses based on university-developed intellectual property. His track record in establishing spin-out [!] companies and other outlets for technology transfer is impressive.”

His reading abilities, on the other hand…

See also : Kerry Bolton and the Power of !nataS, October 6, 2008 | Kerry Bolton : a right scum bag? October 7, 2008 | Nutzis. New Zealand Nutzis. October 22, 2008 | “Wellington nazis. I hate Wellington nazis.” October 29, 2008

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism | 4 Comments

Suspicious Minds & Barking Dogs: Canada, France, Russia (& Australia)

Posted on February 3, 2009 by @ndy

    A suspicious article in a suspicious-sounding newspaper by a suspicious-sounding journalist:

French couple cloaked in suspicion
Tu Thanh Ha
Globe and Mail
February 3, 2009

While visiting Quebec, pair covertly entered New York. What ensued has led to nine arrests on sabotage charges.

On a clear, cold day a year ago, a French couple visiting Quebec went on a clandestine visit to New York then sneaked back into Canada. However, their knapsack, transported in a car driven by a Canadian friend, caught the attention of suspicious Canadian border agents.

What happened that day sparked a probe that gained momentum after a bombing in Manhattan and ended when French police arrested nine people this fall and accused them of being behind a series of sabotage acts that disrupted the country’s TGV high-speed train.

A fiery debate has raged in France since. Were they subversives targeting key infrastructure? Or harmless lefties in a commune who were framed by a government keen on whipping up fears to bolster its agenda?

Among the defendants are the couple who visited Quebec – Julien Coupat, 34, and Yldune Lévy, 25. Authorities say Mr. Coupat is the group’s leader and have denied him bail. The others have been released pending trial.

“They call it an act of terrorism even though not a gun or a stick of dynamite were ever found. At no time was any life endangered,” Ms. Lévy’s father, Michel, said in an interview.

Mr. Coupat and most of the accused lived in rural Tarnac, in central France, where they were well liked by the locals after they refurbished a farmhouse and reopened the grocery store.

A court summary of evidence alleges the group is “connected to the anarcho-autonomist movement who want to destabilize the state through violent actions.”

There is a European resurgence of left-wing radicalism, said security consultant Eric Denécé, head of the Centre français de recherche sur le renseignement think tank.

“It’s a new generation with totally different views from their elders. Their reasoning is one of pure and total rejection of Western society,” he said.

In Canada, this kind of militancy occupied police and intelligence services until Islamic radicals gained more attention, said Senator Colin Kenny, who served on committees dealing with national security.

    A pre-occupation vividly expressed in ‘Anti-Globalization – A Spreading Phenomenon’ (Report No. 2000/08, August 22, 2000), prepared by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service “us[ing] open sources to examine any topic with the potential to cause threats to public or national security”. (In Australia, such open source intelligence gathering has, like most everything else, been partly privatised.) It would be mistaken, however, to assume that “this kind of militancy” has been ignored by the state apparatus. (One, rather comical, instance of state paranoia is revealed in the curious case of the punk rawk band ‘The Suicide Pilots’.) Equally, one can trace the development of a security apparatus to monitor, contain, and if necessary crush “this kind of militancy” back to the nineteenth century. In Australia, the first such agency was the Counter Espionage Bureau, effectively a foreign branch of M15, established by the Australian Federal Gub’mint in 1916. (A useful history is provided by Frank Cain, The Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia, Angus & Robertson, 1983.) At this time, major targets of repression were the revolutionary industrial unionist IWW and Irish/Australian Republicans. Following the Russian Revolution and Bolshevik coup d’état of 1917, communists, especially members of the CPA, became Public Enemy Number One. Then as now, monitoring the activities of fascists and the far right generally has been given very low priority (for obvious reasons).

Mr. Coupat and Ms. Lévy covertly entered New York State from Quebec in January of 2008.

According to relatives, they didn’t want their photos and fingerprints in the hands of U.S. authorities. “They’re people who didn’t have the right passport, who reject biometrics and who wanted to see New York. That’s all,” Mr. Lévy said.

On the way back, on Jan. 31, their bag – which was being transported separately by a friend with a car – was seized by Canadian agents. Inside, they found a copy of Mr. Coupat’s driver’s licence, photos of Times Square, minutes of meetings and “subversive texts,” the summary of evidence said.

In March, a man threw a firebomb at a military recruitment centre in Times Square.

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said investigators checked whether it was connected with the border incident. “That stop did take place in Canada. Some pictures of Times Square, including the recruiting station, were found,” Commissioner Kelly said at the time.

A police source said there is no evidence the couple is linked to the New York bombing. “It could be a coincidence.” But it had started a chain of events. “It was just like dominos,” the source said.

Mr. Coupat and Ms. Lévy were brought to the attention of French security.

For months, undercover agents tailed the couple. The evening of Nov. 7, they were followed as they drove around the Paris region, making what the court document describes as evasive moves to foil surveillance.

Near 4 a.m., they parked for 20 minutes near a TGV route. After they left, a search of the tracks found nothing.

But at dawn, a sweeper train sent ahead of passenger traffic snagged into a U-shaped bar hooked on the overheard wires. That and three similar sabotages elsewhere disrupted traffic for hours.

A German newspaper received a letter claiming the acts were in protest against the transport of nuclear waste between France and Germany.

The prosecution says the culprit was Mr. Coupat and his group, alleging he was the author of an anonymous book, The Coming Insurrection, that advocates sabotage and violence.

    Chaos-crazed anarchy groups in the United States report that “An improved English translation is currently being worked on and will be published shortly”.

The summary of evidence says that Canadian authorities are ready to provide the French police with the documents they seized.

Canadian officials are keeping mum so far. A spokeswoman said the Canada Border Services Agency had “no public information on this file.”

The investigation is the responsibility of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) led by the RCMP, she said. The RCMP will not confirm or comment on continuing investigations.

“They hear an awful lot of barking and only occasional bites,” Mr. Kenny said. “The theory is that it’s better to listen to all of the barking, even if some of it does not turn into reality.”

Support the Tarnac 9

[site of the US support committee for the Tarnac 9]

Unmentioned in Ha’s article is the existence of a state agency known as ‘Alliance Base’:

…a joint antiterrorist cell of the CIA and the French secret service… put in place after the events of 9/11 by French President Jacques Chirac and the President of the United States, George Bush.

According to the Washington Post (Help From France Key In Covert Operations: Paris’s ‘Alliance Base’ Targets Terrorists, Dana Priest, July 3, 2005), the Alliance Base cell was installed in Paris in 2002 to fight Al Qaida (the name Alliance Base being a literal translation of an Al Qaida cell). Great Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia are participating nations as well… The goal: analyze transnational movements of presumed terrorists and launch operations to spy on them or capture them. Official documents from the Ministry of Defense prove that the project has been in operation since April 2002.

Despite their disagreements on the war in Iraq, France and the United States have not ceased, since 9/11, from collaborating in the fight against Islamist terrorism. The DGSE (Directorate-General for External Security) as well as the DST (counter-espionage) has “regular bilateral relationships” with their colleagues in the CIA and the FBI.

See also : Cheese-eating surrender monkeys vs. very fast trains : Free the Tarnac Nine! November 25th, 2008 | “Your heads are full of rubbish because you have read too many books.” December 19th, 2008 | So Frenchy So Chic January 5th, 2009 | The War Against Preterrorism: The ‘Tarnac Nine’ and The Coming Insurrection January 17th, 2009

Meanwhile, in Russia, Russian authorities aren’t just imprisoning anarchists as terrorists — although they do that too — but murdering them.

Two political killings rock [sic] Russia
Ellen Barry
International Herald Tribune
February 2, 2009

MOSCOW: The mourners who gathered in a Moscow square, hopping and shivering against the bitter cold, grew still as the angry voice of the human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov echoed over a public address system. “I am tired of meeting my acquaintances in crime reports,” Markelov said in a speech recorded last November but replayed on Sunday. “We need protection from fascists, from the mafia, from those security services that simply serve them,” he said. “We understand well that no one but ourselves will offer us protection. Not God, not the czar, no one. There is no one left but ourselves.”

…

Aleksandr Grigoriev, 23, a member of an anarchist organization, said he knew eight people who had been killed for their political activities.

“I blame the authorities for these killings, not because they failed to protect us, or because they carried out the killings,” said Anna Karetnikova, a leader of the Anti-War Club. “I blame the regime because it is impossible to establish civil society here. The death of each person creates a gap in the ranks of civil society. The authorities have made it so that it is profitable to kill.”

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, State / Politics, War on Terror | 1 Comment