G20: Chris Tinkler and News Corporation contribute $10 to a drink-and-drug-fuelled all-ages protester orgy!

Posted on March 18, 2007 by @ndy

The two journalists at the G20 benefit gig / drug-fuelled orgy on Friday — the gum-chewing Chris Tinkler and his photographic assistant — have managed to scribble the following account as a special (possibly even EXCLUSIVE!) contribution to the corporate media’s ongoing campaign to demonise G20 protesters. As it happens, the two hacks in question stuck out like sore thumbs, but I don’t know if they were confronted at any point. Judging by the below, it seems not.

At first I thought the pair may have been ‘undercover’ police, but I suppose I should’ve guessed that, given Tinkler’s diminutive stature, it was more likely that they were simply hacks. Which is not to suggest that police and other agencies don’t routinely monitor ‘anti-capitalist’ protests, events and organising projects: they do. Thus the suspicions of ‘student leaders’ in Sydney are very well-founded, as a garbled report in today’s SMH indicates (‘Fears of uni spies after five charged over G20 violence’, John Kidman, Sydney Morning Herald, March 18, 2007).

Anyway, here’s Tinkler’s Walkley Award winning effort:

‘Out of control’
Chris Tinkler
Sunday Herald Sun
March 18, 2007

DRUG use and under-age drinking have been exposed at a wild [wild!] “all-ages” benefit gig for rioters charged over Melbourne’s G20 protests.

Children as young as 10 slugged beer in front of their dazed parents, a mother smoked cannabis beside a pram containing her baby and youths openly snorted powder off a table at Friday night’s event.

[Huh?]

The Sunday Herald Sun also found traces of drugs including cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis in all of the [two] toilet cubicles. The tests were conducted with Securetec DrugWipe kits, used by customs officers and police.

The $5-a-head event was run to raise funds for protesters arrested over the riots during the summit of the world’s financial leaders in November.

Police were [allegedly] bitten, vehicles [sic] smashed and barricades and other objects thrown at officers as demonstrations degenerated into chaos.

About 300 people attended the G20 Arrestee Legal Solidarity Benefit Gig, which raged [raged!] until the early hours yesterday in a former lingerie [oo-er!] factory in Brunswick.

But anti-capitalist chanting and police-baiting that characterised the G20 riot were absent — replaced by drunken and drug-fuelled debauchery.

The landlord of the Pitt St venue, rented by a collective, said he had not been told of the gig, which featured punk rockers Pisschrist.

    Tinkler obviously had troubling understanding Pisschrist lyrics. Here’s a sample (‘Tofu Terror’, Distort Melbourne Demo Tape, July 2004):

    YI ER SAN SI

    THOUGHT OF MEAT MAKES ME SICK
    GOTTA GET MY TOFU FIX

    TOFU TERROR

    CHUCK A SLAB ON THE PIT
    FIRE IT UP READY TO EAT
    DEVOUR IT UP WANT SOME MORE

    TOFU TERROR

    THOUGHT OF MEAT MAKES ME SICK
    GOTTA GET MY TOFU FIX

The party was advertised through message boards on activists’ websites, with charged Monash student Akin Sari helping to promote it.

[And?]

More than 30 protesters, including a private school boy [a private school boy!], have been charged over the G20 violence.

Police are bracing for more violence [ie, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! — and police have a ready excuse for any violent assaults they commit] on Tuesday, with protests [sic] planned outside Melbourne Magistrates[‘] Court where four alleged G20 rioters, who were arrested in Sydney dawn raids last Wednesday, are due to appear.

The Sunday Herald Sun revealed this month the Bracks Government had agreed to a secret $700,000 [sic] payout to [47] protesters [of which $600,000 went to the struggling law firm Slater & Gordon] who clashed with [ie, were assaulted by] police in the S11 [police] riots outside the World Economic Forum in 2000.

The Sunday Herald Sun‘s editorial, meanwhile, after making some limp criticisms of this year’s Big Dick — the twelfth year in a row Melbourne has been forced to suffer a corporate-fuelled yuppie invasion — opines the following regarding ‘Protesters’ hypocrisy’: “WIDESPREAD drug use at a party to raise funds to pay legal fees for G20 protesters makes a mockery of their claims to the high moral ground. They laugh at the law and the community they pretend to represent.” Apart from not making any sense, it’s a public secret that Big Dick brings not only a fabulous boost in clientele for local brothels, but (gasp!) the drug trade too. But of course, the chances of the Herald Sun engaging in an investigative report regarding the manner in which rich folks and yuppies celebrate the occasion — perhaps by attending one of Ron Walker‘s parties — is about as likely as “Jamie” being a real person instead of a figment of some PR hack’s imagination.

    See also : ‘Hill & Knowlton Confidential Report On S11’, Scoop.nz, September 5, 2000. Interestingly, Hill & Knowlton‘s embarrassingly misleading and simple-minded attempt to drum up business claims that prior to S11 the WEF’s last meeting took place in Seattle in 1999; an error still being compounded six years later by a local ‘expert’, Luke Howie. Note that Hill & Knowlton — established in 1927 by a former hack, John W. Hill, in conjunction with a banker, Donald Knowlton — is reportedly one of the world’s leading PR firms (corporate / state propaganda machines), is notorious for selling the first Gulf War, and has been a subsidiary of the ‘communications’ conglomerate WPP since 1987.
Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Media, Music, State / Politics | 4 Comments

G20: Solidarity Action

Posted on March 17, 2007 by @ndy

Tonight’s benefit gig went off like cheese.

Sweet.

This coming Tuesday, March 20, the four people arrested in Sydney will be appearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. A solidarity demonstration has been called for, at 9am. The Court is located at 233 Williams Street. Oh, and in late April / early May, Barricade will be screening a new (2006) documentary film by Roy Wallace (Toxic Waste) on anarcho-punk, called The Day The Country Died. It’s really really… good. Stay tuned for more details.

The story of the anarcho-punk movement is told by some of the most influential performers, including: Penny Rimbaud (Crass), Colin Jerwood (Conflict), Colin & Kevin (Flux of Pink Indians), Dick Lucas (Subhumans), Zillah Minx (Rubella Ballet), Gary Buckley (Dirt), Steve Lake (Zounds), Mark Wallis (Liberty), Gee Vaucher (Crass), Dave Hyndman (Hit Parade), Rob Miller (Amebix), Rodney Relax (Alternative), Stringy & Snout (Erratics) and Gerard Evans (Flowers in the Dustbin). The interview footage is laced with both audio and visual music performance from the main performers on the scene including Crass, Conflict, Subhumans, Liberty, Toxic Waste, Chumbawamba, Sacrilege & many more. A classic mix of exclusive new interviews and ultra-rare archive footage goes a great way to telling at least some of the history…

Dewey Finn: Give up, just quit, because in this life, you can’t win. Yeah, you can try, but in the end you’re just gonna lose, big time, because the world is run by the Man. The Man, oh, you don’t know the Man. He’s everywhere. In the White House… down the hall… Ms. Mullins, she’s the Man. And the Man ruined the ozone, he’s burning down the Amazon, and he kidnapped Shamu and put her in a chlorine tank! And there used to be a way to stick it to the Man. It was called rock ‘n’ roll, but guess what, oh no, the Man ruined that, too, with a little thing called MTV! So don’t waste your time trying to make anything cool or pure or awesome ’cause the Man is just gonna call you a fat washed up loser and crush your soul. So do yourselves a favor and just give up!

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Cops. Tranny Cops.

Posted on March 16, 2007 by @ndy

When US Vice-President Dick Cheney popped into Sydney last month, he was greeted by protesters. Among them were two Tranny Cops. Not known for having a particularly good sense of humour, terrified NSW police promptly arrested them. The two “were each charged with impersonating a police officer and for not being a police officer and wearing a police uniform”. Normally, this would be cause for congratulations — you’ve passed! — but it appears that police are actually serious, and according to AAP in today’s edition of The Age (‘The Tranny Cops’ duo face Sydney court, March 16, 2007):

Two Sydney women who satirise police as part of a street theatre act have appeared in court charged with impersonating a police officer.

Sarah Michelle Harrison, 27, of Balmain East, and Anika Vinson, 24, of Marrickville, were arrested at a rally against the Sydney visit of US Vice-President Dick Cheney on February 23.

The pair, who were wearing fake moustaches and police-style blue overalls, are part of a street theatre act known as The Tranny Cops, rally organisers The Stop the War Coalition said.

The women faced Downing Centre Local Court charged with impersonating a police officer, exercising powers and wearing a police uniform while not being a police officer.

The Stop The War Coalition, who organised a small protest outside the court calling for charges to be dropped against the women, said the performance was a protest stunt.

“They satirise the continued presence of riot police at peaceful protest actions,” coalition spokesman Paddy Gibson said outside court.

“They might run around behind them (police) for the crowd, to lighten the mood of the crowd, which increasingly feels intimidated (by police).”

Mr Gibson said the women had been intimidated by the charges and had not performed since their arrest.

The matter was adjourned to the same court on April 5.

Their charges bring to mind a similarly ridiculous police stunt against another transgressive performer, Starpower, who got arrested by police in 1998 (I think?) for carrying a toy gun home from a rave. The police searched their records to find that the said gun was unregistered and that Starpower had no license to carry it: he was fined $50 (but a conviction was not recorded).

Remember folks: the police are all that stands between us and sheer anarchy.

Posted in !nataS, Sex & Sexuality, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

CK, FDB! & LKJ

Posted on March 15, 2007 by @ndy

As Beavis might say: Christian you dumbass.

Linton Kwesi Johnson
Elizabeth DiNovella
The Progressive
February 2007

Lyricist Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in Jamaica but has [along with Benjamin Zephaniah, perhaps] become Britain’s most celebrated black poet. He immigrated to England as a child, part of the succeeding waves of West Indians who arrived in the UK in the last several decades. “My generation is the second generation,” he says. “I call us the Rebel Generation.” This generation would not put up with the racial abuse its parents did. “Through our rebellion, we helped change Britain,” he says.

As a teenager in 1970, he joined the British Black Panthers and by the 1980s was a journalist and editor of the journal Race Today. He’s also reported for BBC and Channel 4.

As a young man growing up in south London, Johnson saw many people his age criminalized under what was known in the neighborhood as “sus law.” The police had resurrected a Victorian era law against vagrancy that had languished on the books. “Sus being short for suspicion,” Johnson explains, noting that the common charge was “attempt to steal from persons unknown.” His poem “Sonny’s Lettah (anti-sus poem)” is about a young man writing to his mother from Brixton prison, telling her his little brother got arrested, as did he…

“1981 is perhaps most significant of black experience in Britain,” says LKJ, alluding to the New Cross Fire where thirteen blacks died. No one was ever convicted, but racial tensions in the neighborhood led many blacks to believe it was a firebombing. LKJ wrote “New Crass Massakah” as a protest.

wi did know seh it coulda happn
yu know—anytime, anywhe
. . .
it coulda be mi
it couda be yu
. . .
who fell victim to di terrah by nite

In April that same year, police began “Operation Swamp 81,” and harassed the black community. “It was the last straw,” says LKJ. “There was a riot, and it spread.” He wrote “Di Great Insohreckshan” about it.

LKJ has released a dozen albums. He married verse and reggae music into a new form known as dub. He recorded several albums on the Island label, including Forces of Victory, Bass Culture, LKJ in Dub, and Making History. In the mid-1980s, he established his own music label [LKJ Records].

In 2002, Johnson became the first black poet to have his work published in England by Penguin Classics. He has authored four collections of poetry. Mi Revalueshanary Fren, Penguin’s compilation of selected poems from the 1970s-1990s, was just published in the United States… [More]

di innocent an di fool could paas fi twin
but haas a haas
an mule a mule
mawgah mean mawgah
it noh mean slim
yet di two a dem in common share someting
dem is awftin confused an get used
dem is awftin criticised an campramised
dem is awftin villified an reviled
dem is awftin foun guilty widout being tried
wan ting set di two a dem far apawt dow
di innocent wi habah dout
check tings out
an maybe fine out
but di fool…… cho!

— ‘Sense Outa Nansense’, Tings An’ Times, Shanachie Records, 1991

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Music, Poetry, State / Politics | 2 Comments

G20: Police fight terrorism; arrest protesters

Posted on March 15, 2007 by @ndy

In George II‘s ongoing and everlasting War on Terrorism™, in a joint operation involving members of the Federal, NSW and Victoria police, and acting under the direction of the ‘Police Terrorism Investigation Squad’, five people were arrested yesterday in dawn raids on a number of houses in Sydney. The five — “Sunil Menon, 25, from Darlington, Daniel Jones, 20, from Balmain East, Timothy Davis-Frank, 22, from Bronte… Daniel Robins, 24 [from Newtown]”, and an unnamed teenage male — appeared in Sydney’s Central Local Court, and were bailed to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, March 20. (“The 17-year-old from Haberfield, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was granted bail in Bidura Children’s Court.”) According to AAP, “They have been charged with a variety of offences, including aggravated burglary, riot, affray, unlawful assembly, criminal damage and conduct endangering person”: with the possible exception of aggravated burglary, the same charges currently facing dozens of others arrested since G20 as a result of the efforts of Operation Salver — the police taskforce established immediately following the meeting in Melbourne last November 18–19. (‘Five charged over G20 protests’, [AAP], Herald Sun, March 14, 2007.)

Another, triumphant account in Murdoch’s Herald Sun, titled ‘Anti-terror cops swoop in raids’ (Mark Buttler and Paul Anderson, March 15, 2007), reports that:

The dramatic arrests followed a four-month search for activists allegedly associated with Arterial Bloc, a radical protest group blamed for much of the violence at the meeting of 20 of the world’s economic powers. Police from the NSW anti-terrorism unit joined Victorian detectives in the pre-dawn raids. Supporters of the arrested men accused police of kicking down doors. They said dozens of police ransacked the homes. It is believed three of the men are Sydney University students and a fourth is a librarian there…

According to one unconfirmed report, the warrants authorising the arrests were applied for by ‘Gary Charles Lowe’ of the ‘Terrorism Investigation Squad’; a NSW police officer by the name of Gary Lowe may work for the NSW State Crime Command. Then again, the only online reference I can find to anything like the above squad is the “terror investigation squad” referred to in the following account of the ongoing trial of The Sydney Nine:

‘Ethnicity question in terror trial’
Tracy Ong
The Australian
March 9, 2007

THE lawyer of one of nine Sydney terror suspects has accused police of not laying terrorism charges against a 10th man because he is not a Muslim. Paul King, the barrister for Mazen Touma, yesterday asked James Pratt, a detective senior constable attached to the terror investigation squad, why George Lord was not “sitting here in the dock with everybody else”…

Still, it’s worth noting that the draconian legislation rushed through Parliament by the HoWARd Government following 9/11 defines ‘terrorism’ in extremely broad terms, and it may be that — in the context of state preparations for the upcoming APEC Summit in Sydney (September 7–9), and at which George II himself will be making an unwelcome appearance, in addition to other war criminals such as Russian President Vladimir Putin — authorities are going to want to send a very clear message that any form of active opposition will be crushed: by any means necessary…

    House raids and arrests of G20 protestors: Defence campaign launched in Sydney
    [Media release]
    Wednesday, March 14, 2007

    Five people have been arrested in Sydney this morning in relation to the G20 protests in Melbourne last November.

    Five houses were raided in operations involving NSW, Victorian and Federal Police. The “Police Terrorism Investigation Squad” [is] reportedly co-ordinating the operation.

    Supporters have formed a “G20 Defence Collective”, demanding immediate release of the protestors and the dropping of all charges.

    “These actions by the ‘Police Terrorism Investigation Squad’ are a gross attack on democratic rights. That these police are even being used for protest matters is outrageous”, said Paddy Gibson from the G20 Defence Collective.

    “Doors were kicked in this morning and places ransacked by dozens of police. The ‘Counter Terrorism’ unit is in fact being used to terrorise young people and their families [and] anyone who dares to stand up against the war and poverty being inflicted on the world by the G20. We demand all charges be dropped immediately.”

    “These raids follow on the heels of brutal police intimidation of protestors during recent actions against US Vice-President Dick Cheney, where we were physically stopped from demonstrating and two people were hospitalised”, said Emma Torzillo from the Sydney Stop G20 collective.

    “What about the 650,000 people that Howard, Cheney and other delegates to G20 have killed in Iraq? If the police are so concerned about ‘violence’ why don’t they raid Howard’s office – he is the real terrorist”.

    “People across the country are turning fast against the war and these raids are simply an attempt to intimidate those who have been most active, particularly in the lead up to Bush’s visit at the APEC summit in September”.

    “We will not be intimidated. Protests are happening tomorrow and Friday morning at 8:30 outside the Downing Centre local court demanding dismissal of charges laid during Dick Cheney’s visit. We will be there also demanding and end to the house raids and charges on G20 protestors”, said Ms Torzillo.

    The G20 Defence Collective will join… rallies [on] Thursday 15th and Friday 16th March at 8:30am outside Downing Centre Local Court demanding an end to police intimidation of protest.

      For more information or media statements contact:

      Paddy Gibson on 0415 800 586 (Sydney University Student Representative Council) or Emma Torzillo on 0412 472 224 (Anti-War Action Group) | And in Melbourne, Anita Thomasson on 0411 680 052 (Ongoing G20 Arrestees Solidarity Network — also 0408 307 722)

Posted in !nataS, State / Politics, Student movement, War on Terror | Leave a comment

The KKK took my perspective away

Posted on March 14, 2007 by @ndy

Two recent articles from Crikey on the KKK and FDB!

The KKK took my perspective away
Cam Smith
Crikey
March 12, 2007

The news last week that a Ku Klux Klan group (The White Legion Knights of the KKK) was attempting to recruit in the Queensland city of Toowoomba via a leaflet campaign has been blown somewhat out of proportion and is just a little bit pathetic. Surely a proper Invisible Empire would never do anything as tacky as sticking propaganda (American propaganda! Very UnAustralian) under people’s windscreen wipers. It’s just not the done thing.

The Mayor (Dianne Thorley), the local members (Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane and Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine) and Premier Peter Beattie have all come out slamming the pamphlets. Just how worried should they actually be?

Let’s put this group into perspective. There’s already a KKK group operating in Australia — they’re called the Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Australia and the organisation is run (Grand Wizarded) by a bloke called David Palmer, a retired electrician who divides his time between doing his bit for the incredibly beleaguered white race and sinking beer at his local RSL. Unlike these classless Toowoomba sheet-heads, he reportedly does much of his recruiting the old fashioned way: in mental institutions and jails.

The crowning achievement of the IEKKKKA has probably been the establishment of their 100% Aryan Breeding Program, wherein women wishing to ensure the racial integrity of their offspring can (for a small fee) do the “horizontal Austrian polka” with Dave or one of his kameraden. To date there have been no takers.

We are possibly not dealing with the cream of the crop of Australian society. The fact that Dave completely disavows any connection to this new group and disparagingly refers to them as “the Toowoomba Centrelink Mob” speaks volumes as to just how insignificant they are. If these losers can’t even organise themselves some jobs, how are they expected to organise a cross burning (it’s actually harder than you’d think).

The authorities should definitely keep an eye on them (in case they should grow beyond what we estimate are 5-10 members), but as Dr Mark Copland from the Catholic Social Justice Commission has pointed out, there are actually more important racial issues in Toowoomba for Di, Ian, Kez and Pete to be dealing with. Perhaps the shocking state of Aboriginal education and health should be prioritised above the activities of a few losers in bedsheets.

Cam Smith – poseur or van Tongeren?
Christian Kerr
Crikey
March 13, 2007

Crikey made an error of judgement granting space to the self-styled anti-racism campaigner Cam Smith yesterday, since Smith is either one of two things: a poseur or an advocate of violence.

Smith says he represents an organisation called “Fight Dem Back”. Fight Dem Back has a website, but like most groups on the political fringe there appears to be little more to the entity than some self-selected spokespeople and a message.

In Fight Dem Back’s case, that message is ambiguous.

The organisation’s homepage talks about its “opposition to all groups who would seek to propagate racial hate and division”.

It provides chapter and verse on some strikingly obnoxious groups and individuals who do this – people such as Jack van Tongeren, the white supremacist who served 12 years in prison from 1989-2001 in Western Australia for firebombing Asian businesses.

Nowhere, however, in all the detail on its site, does Fight Dem Back precisely spell out how it expresses its “opposition” to racism.

Violence plays no part in political decision making or debate in Australia. We recognise this. It is why we send people like van Tongeren to jail.

Yet Fight Dem Back explicitly meets violence with violence in its name. Does it also do so in its activities?

It might not have all that many. Smith and his confreres may do little more than run a website and occasionally offer opinions to hard-pressed, naïve or gullible journalists and editors.

If this is so, then they are nothing but… puerile political poseurs. Political poseurs who exploit decent minded people’s repugnance at racism to gain themselves media notoriety.

And if Fight Dem Back uses or condones violence, then Cam Smith is as offensive to our democracy as Jack van Tongeren.

Either way, Crikey should be embarrassed for giving him a platform.

Yes, how embarrassment…

It’s difficult to know precisely what Kerr was thinking when he wrote his rejoinder to Cam; perhaps he wasn’t doing anything else on Sunday afternoon. Or maybe he’d had a bit too much to drink. But who’s Christian Kerr anyway, and why has he bothered to produce such a grotesque caricature?

To begin with, it’s obvious that he’s a Christian: Christian is, after all, his name, and such a conclusion simply follows from Christian the Christian’s impeccable logic regarding the violent implications of the name Fight Dem Back!. Kerr is also, according to The Age, a former Tory party hack and corporate propagandist (Susan Brown, ‘Crikey! Name behind column comes clean on dishing dirt’, July 4, 2004), having been employed by “a string of federal Liberals and a premier”, including Senators Robert Hill and Amanda Vanstone and former South Australian premier John Olsen.

As for Kerr’s diatribe… more later.

However Crikey readers may respond to Kerr’s smears, its publication has certainly been warmly received on Scumfront Down Under. Thus David Innes (‘Baron von Hund’) exclaims “In your face Cam”, and extends a note of appreciation to the neo-Nazi New Right group for bringing the article to his meagre attention span. Note that, like most groups on the fringes of the far right, New Reich is little more than a platform for the articulation of bizarre racist conspiracy theories, in this (nut-)case, those produced by one Welf Herfurth: a former member of the German neo-Nazi NPD and One Nation, and current member of the Australia First Party and Blood & Honour Australia.

Responding to an enquiry by neo-Nazi Carl D. Thompson (‘Wodensvolk’) as to Cam’s identity, Canadian racist Frank! White! informs Thompson that Cam is “the loon who goes by the name Dr. Sexwithmeninheimer”: hurr hurr. Ever-helpful, convicted neo-Nazi criminal Ben Weerheym (‘Patriot Alliance Downunder’) points interested readers in the direction of his blog, where he has published a profile of Mr. Smith, further stating that “He is a deviant peice [sic] of slime that likes to joke about homosexual rape, illicit drug-taking and sodomy”, and requests further information on Cam “so that we can help parents that live in his vicinity know about this creep so they will be able to be vigiliant [sic] when letting their kids go to the local park in Collingwood”.

Hmmm, yes.

Luke Connors (‘young_soldier’) joins in the critical chorus, augmenting Kerr’s not-quite-accurate description of FDB! by further claiming that it’s composed of middle-aged men who “spend their time trying to rev up 16 [year old] kids who hate their parents and John Howard to attack people they don[‘]t like”; which is an odd remark coming from someone who, as ex-spokesperson for the now-defunct Patriotic Youth League, celebrated the racist pogrom in Cronulla in December 2005, claiming that “about 15 [PYL] members handed out literature to the Cronulla crowd, as well as buying drinks for some participants”, and who eagerly predicted further outbreaks of racial violence in the Melbourne suburbs of Heidelberg, Preston, Reservoir and Springvale.

Bonehead James Newman (‘JN’) — like Welf Herfurth, a member of both the Australia First Party and Blood & Honour Australia, and most notorious for uploading to Scumfront celebratory videos of the racist pogrom / ‘White uprising’ in Cronulla for the enjoyment of other racists and fascists around the globe — concludes that, while he and other racist schmucks have long-maintained that FDB! are “idiots”, “apparently mainstream people do too”. Well yeah… if Kerr can be considered ‘mainstream’, as well as representative. Time will tell who, if anyone, wishes to join Kerr and Scumfront in their condemnations. Indeed, perhaps Kerr would like to supplement his accusation of ‘violence’ — on the basis of the occurence of the word ‘Fight’ in the group’s name — by also highlighting the belief among the fine folks at Scumfront that FDB! is the product of a Jewish conspiracy to keep The White Man down?

By crikey, that would be interesting.

PS. Fear and loathing of Jews is “Official Stormfront Policy”, and those who question it are not welcome, no ifs, buts or maybes. “Chief of Staff” ‘jack_boot’ lays down the law:

Insofar as [Scumfront] has a policy, or platform, that platform consists of three major planks:

First, we share a racialist vision for the general prosperity, security, and betterment of our people.

From that commitment flows our most important message: we name the Jew as the deadliest, if not the only, threat to our existence as a race. Forge this message in titanium…

This is one of the reasons why neo-Nazis such as David Innes, his brother Paul Innes (‘Steelcap_Boot’), David’s partner and Scumfront Down Under moderator Lilith Petersen (‘Lilith’), Carl D. Thompson, Ben Weerheym, Dr. James Saleam (‘radnat’) and James Newman (Australia First Party), Luke Connors, and all the other racist losers find Scumfront to be such a happy home.

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

Greeks students are revolting

Posted on March 12, 2007 by @ndy

‘Arsonists attack Greek police station’
[AP]
International Herald Tribune
March 12, 2007

“ATHENS, Greece: Dozens of youths hurled petrol bombs at a police station near central Athens early Monday, damaging a patrol car and the building’s entrance, authorities said. No one was hurt in the attack in the Zografou area of the capital and no arrests were made. The attackers emerged from a nearby university campus, where police are forbidden to enter under Greek law. Monday’s incident followed riots in central Athens on Thursday, when anarchist youths clashed with police in front of parliament for more than three hours and set fire to a presidential guard post at the city’s tomb of the unknown soldier. Clashes between police and anarchist groups have intensified in recent weeks amid widespread student protests against planned university [sabotage] by the country’s [reactionary] government.”

The law prohibiting the entry of police onto University grounds was introduced following the overthrow of the military junta in 1974, and constitutes one of the lasting legacies of the student revolt that helped end the dictatorship. On November 17, 1973, striking students at the National Technical University of Athens (also known as the Athens’ Polytechnic) barricaded themselves behind the walls of the University. The Greek government, under Georgios Papadopoulos, ordered the army in to crush the occupation, and the army, literally, sent the tanks in, declaring that — like the Mayor of Copenhagen — there would be no negotiations with anarchists. The exact number of persons murdered by the army in the subsequent attack remains disputed, but most sources claims anywhere between dozens and scores of students (and civilians who had gathered at the Polytechnic in support of the students) were killed, while hundreds more were injured and thousands arrested.

In addition to abolishing free education, the current government plans to abolish the right of asylum.

    And what is war, what is needed for success in war, what are the morals of the military world? The object of warfare is murder; the means employed in warfare — spying, treachery, and the encouragement of it, the ruin of a country, the plunders of its inhabitants… trickery and lying, which are called military strategy; the morals of the military class — absence of all independence, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, and drunkenness.

    ~ Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, 1872

Posted in Anarchism, History, State / Politics, Student movement | Leave a comment

Jared Taylor versus reality. Again.

Posted on March 12, 2007 by @ndy

Jared Taylor, the racist schmuck and self-described ‘race realist’ from Virginia, has had another crash-course in reality, his latest attempt to talk shit in Halifax, Canada at Saint Mary’s University, being cancelled by University authorities. The grinning idiot was scheduled to debate Peter March (an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at St. Mary’s), previously stating that “I had such a warm reception [last time], how could I stay away?”. Despite March’s assurances that “I’m quite sure that this time it will go very smoothly”, University authorities, claiming security concerns, withdrew permission (March 5) for the use of University premises for the event, scheduled for Tuesday, March 6. In a later press release (March 6), Saint Mary’s stated that:

…the debate between Dr. Peter March, Philosophy Department, and Jared Taylor took place on March 6, 2007 at a location off campus.

The University made arrangements to have the debate videotaped, and copies have been provided to Dr. March and Mr. Taylor.

The University made the decision to withdraw use of campus facilities for the debate because of high security risks and potential threat to both our campus community and to visitors. The University remains committed to academic freedom, diversity of opinion, and supports open debate in a forum that does not put the personal safety of our community at risk.

Those wishing to view the videotaped debate are advised to contact Dr. March directly.

CBC, on March 6 (‘SMU says no racism debate on campus’), reported that:

University officials said Monday they decided to cancel Tuesday’s debate between Peter March, a philosophy professor, and U.S. author Jared Taylor because of a threat on a website [ie, Stormfront]. According to the posting, somebody would be stabbed if the event went ahead, said Chuck Bridges, a Saint Mary’s spokesman…

And while, according to one report, some less troubled individuals planned on responding to Taylor’s visit by violating The Laws of Nature and engaging in some ‘inter-racial’ kissing (‘Protesters ponder giving Taylor big kiss-off’, John Gillis, The Chronicle Herald, March 3, 2007), Taylor and March exchanged views on radio. Taylor also exchanged views with Peter Duffy in The Chronicle Herald (‘On the menu: Opposing racial diversity’, March 8, 2007), in which Duffy confesses he’s “confused” by Taylor’s racist babbling. In reference to March and Taylor’s broadcast debate, Duffy writes: “Peter March would make a case for racial diversity and I’d agree with it wholeheartedly. But then you’d say something and I could recognize myself in your anti-diversity argument”. Elsewhere, another Chronic journalist, Jim Meek (‘Speech is free, and everywhere in chains’, March 8, 2007) opines:

Is gun violence in Toronto centred in the immigrant Jamaican community? Yes.

Are Asian gangs becoming the dominant drug kingpins in Canada? Yes.

Are our native communities besieged by poverty and drugs? Yes.

Are we addressing these issues through successful public policy? For the most part, no!

So I say let Taylor speak, not because he’s right or wrong, but because his views – however offensive – reveal our failure to address some pretty important issues.

I’m all for multiculturalism, in short, but not for drowning in the warm soup of sentimentality that surrounds it in this country…

Therefore, Taylor makes a valuable contribution to the ‘debate’.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media, State / Politics | 10 Comments

S11: Lawyers eh?

Posted on March 11, 2007 by @ndy
    Q. What’s the difference between an echidna and two lawyers in a BMW?
    A. An echidna has the pricks on the outside.

Another lawyer joke:

Secret S11 deal twist
Chris Tinkler and Kelvin Healey
Sunday Herald Sun
March 11, 2007

THE law firm that brokered a controversial payout for S11 protesters who sued police is now representing injured police.

In another secret deal, the Police Association has struck a pact with Slater & Gordon, which received an estimated $600,000 in the S11 case.

It is understood the law firm has now stopped taking on cases against Victoria Police.

The revelation is a remarkable twist after the S11 saga.

Normally outspoken Police Association secretary Paul Mullett, who slammed the S11 deal, refused to comment on the Slater & Gordon pact on Friday.

Asked if the association had hired the law firm that represented the S11 protesters, he would only say: “We use a range of solicitors.”

But Slater & Gordon spokesman Andrew Taylor confirmed the law firm was working for the association in a range of areas.

“It’s generally industrial stuff and sometimes personal injury work,” Mr Taylor said.

He said the firm had been working with the Police Association for “six months to a year”.

That would mean that a separate unit within the firm was representing the association at the same time as another unit was suing its members.

It is understood all Slater & Gordon employees have been given a directive as part of the association deal not to accept any new cases against the police. When a Slater & Gordon help-line adviser was asked this week about representation for a man claiming to have been beaten by police, he was told: “We are not taking on any claims like that any more.”

The Bracks Government provoked widespread [sic] outrage when the Sunday Herald Sun revealed last week it had agreed to a secret $700,000 payout to protesters who clashed with police in the S11 [police] riots outside the World Economic Forum at Crown Casino in September 2000.

Forty-seven demonstrators and Slater & Gordon are sharing the windfall [sic], though the law firm is believed to be picking up about $600,000 in payment.

News of the payout also fuelled worries that the S11 protesters’ success could prompt similar action from participants in November’s G20 riots in Melbourne.

Opposition police spokesman Andrew McIntosh described the latest revelation as “the irony of ironies”.

“First you have a secret deal between the Bracks Government and Police Association, next you have a secret compo deal between the Government and Slater & Gordon and now there is a secret deal between Slater & Gordon and the Police Association,” he said.

“It is a merry-go-round of secret dealing. But I guess it proves if you can’t beat them, join them.”

Slater & Gordon is also preparing for a possible public listing later this year, with a prospectus due to be released within days.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Crazy anarchists in Greece… crazy anarchists in Denmark… crazy anarchists everywhere!

Posted on March 11, 2007 by @ndy

Megalo, megalo, megalo! Crazy crazy crazy Greek anarchists are up to their old tricks, setting fire to banks and cameras and throwing things at police:

“ATHENS, Greece: Suspected anarchists destroyed three traffic surveillance cameras within 10 minutes in different parts of Athens early Tuesday, and later attacked a bank, authorities said…” (‘Greek arsonists target traffic cameras, bank’, International Herald Tribune, (AP), March 6, 2007). “ATHENS, Greece: Riots broke out in Greece’s second largest city [Thessaloniki] early Friday, hours after hundreds of anarchist youths rampaged for several hours in Athens amid mass student demonstrations against government education reforms [sic]…” (‘Riots break out in Greek cities amid mass education protests’, International Herald Tribune, (AP), March 8, 2007).

See also : ‘Greek police, youths clash over education sabotage’, Reuters, March 8, 2007; ‘More Than 40 Hurt in Athens Rioting’, The Guardian (AP), March 8, 2007.

Further north, the Mayor of Copenhagen, Ritt Bjerregaard, has expressed anger at the anger expressed at her mindful destruction of the Ungdomshuset, an act of vandalism strongly resisted by local anarchists and other radicals. According to a report in The Copenhagen Post (‘Mayor loses patience with protestors’, March 5, 2007) Bjerregaard whinged that “‘I think they are completely out of line with what [I] can accept’ she told Politiken newspaper. ‘Violence isn’t a viable means in a society like ours'”; which is rather odd, given a) the use of a police terror squad to evict the Ungdomshuset to make way for a fundamentalist Christian sect in the first place, and b) the use of Danish mercernaries by the US state in its illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

An article in The Economist (‘Of riots and righteousness’, March 8, 2007) reveals something of the nature of the Mayor’s allies in her struggle to cleanse Copenhagen of youths uninterested in going to church or buying the over-priced commodities that cram its streets:

…The buyer was Faderhuset, a conservative Christian sect led by Ruth Eversen, a firebrand evangelist preacher [who has also compared her opposition to the forces of !natas].

Ms Eversen says that God told her to buy the house. “God often tells me to do things,” she claims. Her mission is to return Denmark to the Christian path, starting in Nørrebro, the district that houses not just the Ungdomshuset but also many Muslims. Ms Eversen has not revealed if she was also acting on God’s orders when she decided to demolish the building within hours of gaining vacant possession…

And who can argue with God? Certainly not a social democrat like Bjerregaard.

David Rovics, on the other hand, might. Further, he’s written a really neat summary of ‘The Battle for Ungdomshuset’ (t r u t h o u t, March 7, 2007), which also provides a useful account of the political context for this, the Danish bourgeoisie’s latest assault on radical culture — of which the Ungdomshuset was but one painful reminder (another, of course, being Christiania):

…Since 1982, Ungdomshuset has been a major center in Europe for the autonomous movement. People who have stood against corporate greed, stood for an egalitarian society. Against nationalism, for a world without borders. Against racism, for a world without discrimination and xenophobia. To these and other ends, Ungdomshuset has been host to thousands of concerts, workshops, meetings, conferences and protests.

The building that, at least up until last Thursday, housed Ungdomshuset, had a long history before 1982. It was built by the Danish labor movement in 1897 and was called Folkets Hus – The People’s House. VI Lenin spoke there before he [sic] launched The Russian Revolution. The Second International took place there. From that house, the first International Women’s Day was declared. It fell into disrepair and disuse in the late ’70s, and was squatted in 1982 by autonomous youth.

The police takeover of Ungdomshuset and the draconian security measures adopted over the weekend come at a time when the Danish government has shifted markedly to the right. The Rasmussen government has sent Danish soldiers to participate in the illegal occupation of Iraq. Denmark has recently passed some of Europe’s most restrictive asylum laws…

The eviction of the Ungdomshuset has been the catalyst for actions and protests around the world, including in Melbourne, where, according to a report on MIM, the Royal Danish Consulate-General of Melbourne had the words “Revenge For Ungdomshuset” sprayed on the front of the building housing it.

    Royal Danish Consulate-General in Melbourne
    Ground Floor
    492 St Kilda Road
    Melbourne VIC 3004
    Tel : (03) 9866 1242
    Fax : (03) 9886 1243
    Email : [email protected]

In Israel, Jonathan Pollock, an anarchist involved in the group Anarchists Against the Wall, was among one of 16 protesters injured by the IDF on Friday, March 9 during the weekly protest in the village of Bil’in. And ah, members of the Armenian Libertarian-Socialist Movement have established a blog, and are seeking contacts from around this bright, blue, but sadly dying planet.

And speaking of blogs and blogging, in the US, Josh Wolf continues to be imprisoned for refusing to submit to state authority (‘He must be crazy!’), now having spent 200 days in jail for so doing (Bob Egelko, ‘Mediator fails to free imprisoned blogger’, San Francisco Chronicle, March 9, 2007). Howard Kurtz questions Wolf’s status as a journalist in ‘Jailed Man Is A Videographer And a Blogger but Is He a Journalist?’ (Washington Post, March 8, 2007), a topic which Mark A. Phillips further pursues in Editor & Publisher Journal (‘Who’s a Journalist These Days?’, March 9, 2007): “Journalists with the “Big Ego disease” often point at bloggers and other people without press passes and accuse them of not being “real journalists.” But bloggers who provide analysis about newsworthy events are journalists…”.

Australian media continues its intensive coverage of the issue at the links below:

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, History, Media, State / Politics | 8 Comments