The Continuing Appeal of Crasstafarianism

Posted on October 4, 2006 by @ndy

Huh. That’s interesting. I-and-I Googled ‘Crasstafarianism’ and found this: from a neat-o site, to boot!

Anyways, as is the seemingly inevitable outcome of any significant (and even non-significant) cultural/political phenomenon, someone’s gone and written a book about it. Below is an article from the New Statesman (Iain Aitch, ‘Forever Punk’, October 2nd, 2006) reviewing two new books about the pioneering anarcho-punk band Crass…

On the face of it, Crass possessed all the right credentials to earn a place alongside The Clash and the Sex Pistols in the punk history books. The band had the requisite string of high-selling, profanity-ridden [and highly scatological!] records and the amusingly named band members (Phil Free, Steve Ignorant, Joy de Vivre) [also B.A. Nana/N.A. Palmer, Mick Duffield, Eve Libertine, Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher, Pete Wright… and John Loder and Steve Herman!], and was even formed in 1977. Yet it seldom merits a mention on the ubiquitous talking-heads clips shows or makes more than a footnote in music-press retrospectives.

This is surprising when you consider the impact Crass had at the time: in their early-Eighties heyday, they could shift upwards of 20,000 records in the week of release, with no advertising and no airplay. Their anti-Falklands war records were discussed in the Commons and they were even approached by the KGB.

[Above : London’s finest at play during Stop the City (1983), captured by David Hoffman; later used by Chaos UK for the front cover of Short Sharp Shock, then serving as the model for Michelle Shocked‘s Short Sharp Shocked.]

Few bands have done more to bring radical politics to youth culture. For the Pistols, “Anarchy in the UK” was just a song [which they’ve now sold for shitloads of money], but for Crass it was an aim. Their Stop the City protests were [partly] the forerunners of the anti-globalisation movement; their stance on animal rights [partly] inspired the formation of such groups as the Animal Liberation Front. Reclaim the Streets, the McLibel trial and even the success of The Body Shop could be said to have roots in their alternative appeal.

[Maybe. Alternatively, one might find the “roots” of such activities — with the obvious exception of The Body Shop — in the same place one find’s Crass’s roots: in anarchism… Incidentally, on March 17th, 2006, Dame Anita Roddick’s The Body Shop (Roddick was knighted in 2003; see also Sir Bob) agreed to a £652 million takeover offer by L’Oréal, the French cosmetics group. Punk rock or what?]

Penny Rimbaud, a founding member of Crass, has long been perplexed by the band’s whitewashing from history, though not surprised. He can reel off a list of reasons as long as his arm why this may be, but their stance on promoting “product” is one that recurs. “We weren’t part of the normal outlet, by which we weren’t feeding the corporate body,” he says, referring to Crass’s refusal to sell merchandise and habit of printing frighteningly low “pay no more than” prices on their records. “For example, we didn’t do interviews with the mainstream press, believing that if we did them with the home-made fanzines then people would have to buy them.”

Because of this attitude towards the press, scathing reviews of their records were the norm and sniping at their “hippie” politics was de rigueur. The likes of Tony Parsons and [the populist if not-exactly-popular tabloid hack] Garry Bushell took exception to their black “uniform” (worn on stage and off), lack of class politics and their pacifist leanings.

To which Crass memorably responded by way of ‘Hurry Up Garry’:

    The bastards!

    What are they playing at?
    Don’t like the music,
    Don’t like the words,
    Don’t like the sentiments,
    Well keep it for the birds and bees, boys…

    Bastards!

    Yes that’s right, I stepped out of line,
    What do you want? What do you want?
    As long as I play it moderate,
    That’s fine,
    Well, fuck off runt, fuck off runt!

    Pick your nose with your ball pen,
    Put your snot in Sounds,
    Back to your playpen with your street cred minds!
    You whimper and whine from the pages of the press,
    Ridicule and criticise those who want to change this mess.

    There’s people our here who are trying to live,
    People who care, now, what do you give?

    So many parasites living off our sweat,
    So many fuckers in for what they can get,
    Punk ain’t about your standards and your rules,
    It ain’t another product for the suckers and the fools.

    You sit behind your type-writers shovelling shit,
    Rotting in the decadence of your crap-lined pit,
    Waiting for the action so you can grab a part,
    But it stinks so bad, who’s going to smell your fart?

    “CAN YOU PUT ME ON THE GUEST LIST?
    IS THERE ANY FREEBIE DRINK?
    I CAN’T WRITE UNLESS I FEEL WELL PISSED.”
    Piss off, you fucking stink.

On their records, Crass struck out against left-wing totems such as Rock Against Racism [which they described as “white liberal shit”, not “left-wing”], as well as the rise of the far right. As a result, they were perhaps the only band to be more widely despised than the [bonehead] group Skrewdriver.

[“We even played a Rock Against Racism gig, the only gig that we’d ever been paid for. When we told the man to keep the money for the cause, he informed us that ‘this was the cause’. We never played for RAR again.”]

Their record sales, however, never suffered. The Crass Records label could put out awful recordings of poetry or compilations of rough demos sent to the band by hopeful fans, and still have black-clad punks flocking to the record shops on the day of release. The label’s biggest commercial claim to fame was launching Björk in the UK – it released two albums by her pre-Sugarcubes band Kukl.

The slavish loyalty of Crass fans provoked suspicion, with comparisons being drawn with religious cults and even the Khmer Rouge. And, indeed, various shady organisations were drawn to the band. “Everyone tried to recruit us as a promotional unit, from the IRA to what was left of Baader-Meinhof,” says Rimbaud. “We used to pick up unbelievable amounts of information about anything and everything you can imagine.” So much so, that the British security services started to take an interest.

On one occasion during the Falklands conflict, the band heard a rumour that a battleship, HMS Sheffield, had been willingly sacrificed by the British government in order to protect HMS Invincible, on which Prince Andrew was then serving. In response, Crass created a fake taped telephone conversation between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher discussing the matter. This recording was sent out anonymously to newspapers, and before long it surfaced in the US state department, which denounced it as the work of the Kremlin. The KGB was so impressed by the stunt that it, too, tried to recruit the band members. But they simply drank the free vodka and played dumb.

Crass imploded in 1984 mainly because this Orwellian sell-by date had been counted down by their record catalogue numbers (621984, 521984, and so on). [Actually, the group ended in accordance with its stated intentions and following Andy Palmer’s withdrawal. In fitting fashion, their final gig took place on July 7th, 1984 at Aberdare in Wales: a benefit for striking miners.] Now, in a long-overdue attempt to give the band the recognition it deserves [well yeah; that’s one way of putting it], erstwhile teenage fans of the band have written two books – The Story of Crass by George Berger and The Day the Country Died by Ian Glasper. “They walked it like they talked it,” says Glasper. “And they split at just the right time, before they could begin that inevitable descent into self-parody that befalls any extreme band. I think that’s why their memory has endured ever since. They changed many lives, and it’s safe to say they remain the most profoundly important of all punk bands.”

Yeah, probably. Their music could often be horrible, but that’s part of its appeal, really. They was certainly making ‘stencil art’ — in approximately the same sense in which they produced ‘music’ — 25 years prior to its latest incarnation; which, unfortunately, all too often serves merely as a colourful backdrop to urban yuppie lifestyles the world over: Melbourne in particular. More important, perhaps, is their legacy of a combination of musical, commercial and political integrity, a model which thousands of other have adopted, and which is constantly at war with the chickenshit conformists who would like ‘punk’ to (re-)assume its supine position in the face of the culture industry.

Fuck ’em.

Posted in Anarchism, Art, Film, History, Music | 3 Comments

Listening to…

Posted on October 3, 2006 by @ndy

The Style Council…

A Stone’s Throw Away

For liberty there is a cost — it’s broken skull and leather cosh,
From the boys in uniform — now you know whose side they’re on —
With backing – with blessing,
From earthly gods not heaven,
A stone’s throw away from it all.

Whatever pleasures those who get — from stripping skin with rhino whip,
Are the kind that must be stopped — before their kind take all we’ve got —
With loving – with caring,
They take great pride in working,
The stone’s throw away from it all.

Whenever honesty persists — you’ll hear the snap of broken ribs,
Of anyone who’ll take no more — of the lying bastard’s roar —
In Chile — in Poland,
Johannesburg — South Yorkshire,
A stone’s throw away: Now we’re there.

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Revealed: spying on Anarchists

Posted on October 3, 2006 by @ndy

Well, if it’s good enough for The Age and 4 Corners…

In May/June 2001, it was discovered, independently of the collective, that a member of the Barricade collective was, in fact, a spy.

Subsequent investigations suggested that the person in question — Mehmet Akif Ersoy [1] (employing the pseudonym ‘Mehmet Osman’) — was a former government agent. Mehmet, having previously worked for/with ASIS, the DIO, the Federal Justice Office and the Victoria Police, was, in 2000/2001, attempting to establish himself as a freelance informant for the state/corporate sector under the guise of a business consultancy, Universal Axiom.

    Universal Axiom was an Australian company (ACN 091 146 155) that registered with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) on 11/01/2000. According to the company extract, the Registered Office for the company was Walters & Partners, located in Box Hill, Victoria. Further, Mehmet’s date of birth was given as being 27/04/1967 and his place of birth Istanbul, Turkey. If correct, this would mean that Mehmet is now 39.

Mehmet, it was discovered, was working ‘undercover’ and in the employ of a number of corporations (in particular, those in the mining and timber industries) seeking to obtain otherwise ‘confidential’ information on individuals and groups in the environmental movement. These corporations included:

    General Atomics [2] — a nuclear physics and defense contractor headquartered in San Diego, California, and the parent company of Heathgate Resources, owners and managers of the Beverley uranium mine; and

    North Ltd — since taken over by Rio Tinto, owners and managers of the Jabiluka uranium mine and also heavy investors in the woodchipping industry.

Of particular concern to Mehmet were the campaigns then being conducted against uranium mining, whether in the Northern Territory (Jabiluka) or South Australia (Beverley). As I see it, his membership of the Barricade collective fulfilled two functions: one, it enabled him to maintain a watching brief on the activities of local anarchists (numbers of which naturally involve themselves in environmental struggles); two, it enabled him to establish a ‘profile’ with which to approach various other political/social communities.

On this second point he was most insistent: literally demanding that the collective vouch for his credibility in order to facilitate his attempts, not only to simply join campaigning groups, but also — and as is standard practice — to be entrusted with the very important role of liasing with others. (For example, in the Beverley campaign, Mehmet attempted to be entrusted with liasing between Aboriginal and environmental activists.)

As 4 Corners has confirmed, the environmental movement was, and remains, a big worry for big business. Certainly worry enough to support the construction of an ‘A Team’, and to employ Mehmet — and who knows how many others? — to lie, cheat and steal from social movements, groups and individuals. All for the benefit of a very small group of people with more money than ways to flaunt it.

Perhaps we should take comfort in the fact that state and corporate authorities should feel so threatened by our attempts to stop their ‘progress’ — a ‘progress’ which strips us of our humanity at the same time as it plunders our communities and our Earth — to resort to such measures. For we have a new world in our hearts, one based on freedom, equality and solidarity, and no amount of lies and deceit can prevent this world from continuing to grow — both now, and in our future.

::::::

[1] Also, a likely pseudonym: Mehmet Akif Ersoy (1873 – 1936) was a Turkish poet. Ersoy wrote the national anthem of Turkey, Istiklâl Marsi (The March of Independence in English), adopted by the Turkish state in 1921.

Mehmet is approximately 5′ 7″ or 8″ tall, balding, of solid build and olive complexion (Mehmet claimed to be of both Kurdish and Turkish ancestry, at different times, and as required). He was involved in a number of different groups and campaigns, including but not limited to Barricade, Friends of the Earth and the Jabiluka Action Group.

More on Mehmet, his methods, and his motivations, later.

[2] US: Privately Funded Trips Add Up on Capitol Hill
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post
June 6, 2006

…One of the largest corporate sponsors of lawmakers’ travel was General Atomics, a relatively small San Diego-based defense contractor that makes the Predator, an unmanned spy plane now in wide use by the United States and other countries. The study reported that the company “largely targeted congressional staff members, spending roughly $660,000 on 86 trips for legislators, aides and their spouses from 2000 to mid-2005.” Some of the trips were valued at more than $25,000.

General Atomics’ spending on congressional travel was more than that of many larger companies and was considerably higher than what other defense contractors spent. Microsoft, for instance, funded nearly $395,000 in trips during the period; SBC Communications Inc. spent about $205,000. Among General Atomics’ defense competitors, Northrop Grumman spent about $12,000 on congressional junkets and Boeing spent about $13,000.

On trips paid for by General Atomics to Turkey and Australia, congressional staffers attended meetings with foreign government officials that the company was soliciting to buy the Predator.

“[It’s] useful and very helpful, in fact, when you go down and talk to the government officials, to have congressional people go along and discuss the capabilities of [the plane] with them,” Tom Cassidy, chief executive of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the company’s aircraft-manufacturing subsidiary, told the center.

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, State / Politics, Television | 2 Comments

Salvador Puig Antich : The Film

Posted on October 2, 2006 by @ndy

On 2 March 1974, the young militant of the Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación (Iberian Liberation Movement), Salvador Puig Antich, became the last political prisoner to be executed in Spain by the garrotte. This is his story and that of the desperate attempts of his family, colleagues and lawyers to avoid his execution…

Alternatively…

This slick, commercial melodrama offers us no explanation of Salvador Puig Antich’s actual battle, the reasons why he fought and perished, what he believed in, the process whereby he became radicalised politically and his commitment to the struggle alongside what was then the most radically anti-capitalist strand of the workers’ movement…

Yeah well, at least it doesn’t star Penélope-Fucking-Cruz.*

See also : salvadorpuigantich.info [Spanish]

*Even if she is a vegetarian… and cute.

Posted in Anarchism, Film, History | Leave a comment

Down with DSP Thuggery! Defend Spartacism! (And China! And Cuba! And North Korea! And Vietnam!)

Posted on October 2, 2006 by @ndy

Pistols at dawn? Well, probably not. Recently, in a flyer dated September 5th, the SL (Spartacist League) ‘Condemn DSP Thug Attack on Spartacist Woman at Union Rally’, claiming that a male member of the DSP (Democratic Socialist Perspective) took Spartacist Woman’s paper — without purchasing it first — then punched her in the face. Or: “He ripped the paper from her hand and threw it to the ground! Pushing the DSPer away, our supporter loudly protested this unprovoked attack and violent attempt at political censorship[!] Then, as she moved to pick up the paper, he punched her in the face!”

…Acts of violence such as this attack have no place in the workers’ movement! Evidently some Green Left Weekly (GLW) salesmen/DSP members are willing to substitute the fist for the brain when losing an argument[!]

Such social chauvinism is evidently providing a culture medium within and around the DSP for violent anti-woman and anti-communist creeps[!] At the Melbourne May Day rally earlier this year we had to defend ourselves against an unhinged GLW salesman—known as “Alex”—who kicked over our literature table and attempted to bully a woman comrade[!] He has twice since threatened Spartacist salesmen, including screwing up the papers of a [the?] Spartacus Youth Club member at the 28 June mass union rally[!] “Alex” denounces our forthright defence of those, such as Melbourne schoolteacher Karen Ellis, who have been victimised under the reactionary age-of-consent laws[!] Like the cowardly assailant on 29 August, he also aggressively embraces the DSP’s support to the Australian imperialist military invasion of East Timor[!]

We note that these attempts at violent political censorship of the SL are taking place at the same time the bourgeoisie is carrying out chilling state repression against Muslims, leftists and unionists under the bogus “war on terror”[!] Moreover these GLW goons reek of anti-communist social-democratic nationalism, which glories in the anti-woman bigotry of this remote, white imperialist enclave[!] Their hostility towards the SL is fostered by the DSP’s touching faith in the capitalist state, which consists at its core of the military, police, courts and prisons and exists to enforce the rule of the capitalist class over the working class and oppressed[!] Unable to defend the politics of the DSP, they seek to silence communists who fight for the political independence of the proletariat and for class-struggle actions against the depredations of Australian imperialist oppression abroad and state repression at home[!]

[‘Condemn DSP Thug Attack on Spartacist Woman at Union Rally’, Workers Vanguard No. 876, September 15, 2006]

And in response: “Did not!”

…WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

At an August 29 solidarity rally in the city in support of the 107 victimised WA construction workers, a female SL seller hawking their paper fronted one of our male comrades. At a previous demonstration he had received the standard aggressive and harassing treatment from this same Spart. This time, in exasperation, he ripped the paper out of her hand and threw it on the ground.

That same day the DSP sent a letter to the SL. The letter apologised for the incident, said that we did not approve of such actions, explained that we had spoken to the comrade concerned and that he recognised that his behaviour was wrong. (In fact, he was quite mortified about the whole incident.)

The Sparts say that our comrade punched the Spart woman in the face. Our comrade emphatically denies this. And knowing the SL’s general political frenzy and strange take on reality plus our comrade’s quiet behaviour and demeanour ever since we have known him, we frankly do not believe the Spart account of the incident. If anyone had actually punched a woman in the face in the middle of a union demonstration, there would have been a considerable reaction.

SECT SEIZES OPPORTUNITY

The SL is notorious on the left (and justifiably so) for its extreme sectarian theory and practice. It is a rabid propaganda sect which has hardly ever done anything positive in its entire history. In fact, irrespective of what its members think they are doing, the objective function of the SL is simply to convince people that socialists are crazy people and generally give socialism a bad name.

If we were dealing with even a halfway rational organisation, the DSP’s clear and direct letter might have closed the unfortunate incident. However, the Spartacist League is a mad-dog sect. This is a heaven-sent opportunity for it to raise a general hullaballoo, make propaganda for itself and attack its arch-enemy, the “pseudo-socialists” of the DSP (as the SL leaflet puts it).

It seems that this campaign is absolutely their number-one priority right now. In such a testing period, another organisation might be trying to actually do something to drive the struggle forward — but not the SL. It sees its chance and it is going all out to pillory the DSP. But the Sparts’ righteous pose is a fake.

A PAGE FROM HISTORY

In 1985 we held a function at the Sydney Trades Hall with a speaker from the Vietnamese consulate. It was around the theme of 10 years since the liberation of Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City). We were prepared for an attack by Vietnamese right-wingers and so we had a strong defence contingent around the narrow entrance.

No rightists fronted that night but suddenly about 20 Sparts in military formation — two abreast, the bigger ones at the front and the smaller ones at the back — marched down the pavement and crashed straight into our defence guard.

Within moments people were spread right across Goulburn St in a wild melee. Papers were all over the street and traffic was stopped. People around the entrance to Chinatown were gobsmacked! After about five minutes of this, the Sparts backed off and formed a revolving picket in front of the doorway! They chanted and held up placards demanding access to the meeting. A short while later the fracas was on again, all over the street. Then the Sparts again settled down to their revolving picket.

We can be proud of our consistent record in defence of workers’ democracy. The DSP has always opposed violence within the left and labour movement. It cuts across the open political discussion that is essential to work out what needs to be done. A number of times over the years our comrades have been the victim of violence or the threat of it.

On August 29 one of our members was provoked and made a mistake — an understandable mistake but a mistake nonetheless. We have apologised to the SL and explained our policy to the comrade concerned. That should be the end of it. But a dead-end sect has lied about what took place and is using the incident as factional ammunition with which to attack the DSP.

Norm.

I suggest a grudge match. Involving jelly. And wrestling.

Posted in !nataS, Trot Guide | 5 Comments

A Tale of Two Birminghams

Posted on September 30, 2006 by @ndy

Birmingham Hotel, 8pm, October 7th, 2006:

Marching Orders
Slick 46
Standard Union [SA]

Slick 46 play “working class punk”; Marching Orders hate dirty, lousy, stinking “traitors” and Standard Union reckon “Our slogan is ‘Unionism Not Racism’.”

‘NOEL MARTIN’S FINAL STRUGGLE : Neo-Nazi Victim Battling to the Death’
Roman Heflik in Birmingham
Spigel Online
September 29, 2006

Noel Martin plans to take his own life in less than a year. Just over 10 years ago, a neo-Nazi attack left him paralyzed from the neck down. He plans to fight right-wing extremists to the very end.

Noel Martin has only 297 days left. But time, he says, is also limited for the neo-Nazis who ruined his life.

Noel Martin has already chosen July 23, 2007 to be the day he dies. On that evening, his pulse will gradually slow down until it stops completely. He has decided to die as a result of a lethal blend of drugs — administered in Switzerland by Dignitas, an organization that offers its clients medically assisted suicide…

The attack occurred on June 16, 1996 in Mahlow, a town in the former East German state of Brandenburg where the dark-skinned, Jamaican-born Briton was employed as a construction worker. A stone crashed through the windshield of his car and Martin’s car veered off the road. He remembers seeing a tree careening towards him and jerking the steering wheel…

Two young Germans, Sandro R. and Mario P., had thrown a lump of concrete at Martin’s car. They were 17 and 24 years old at the time and their motive was “explicit xenophobia,” as a court later determined. They were sentenced to five and eight years in prison. Noel Martin never got an apology, but by now he doesn’t care any more. “It would be a waste of time. God will take care of them,” he says, “life will take care of them.” Both of his attackers are now free. But Martin is still imprisoned — in his own body.

The attack left Noel Martin paralyzed from the neck down. “I am not a part of life,” he says, 10 years and three months later, “I just exist.” At home in Birmingham, he leans his heavy head against the headrest of his giant wheelchair. He fixes his weary eyes on his interviewer. “Everything has to be figured out by your head. It’s torture, mental torture,” he sighs. Martin will never be able to move his arms or legs again and he’ll never be able to feel what his fingertips touch. He’ll never have sex again, never go to the toilet by himself. Nor will he ever feel his own heartbeat…

Right-wing extremists, for their part, see it as a provocation that he is still alive. One of their Internet forums features a post by a neo-Nazi urging Martin to burn himself alive on a market square, noting that this would save money. The author of the post adds that he would be “happy to donate the gasoline.” What does Martin think about the neo-Nazis? “Foolish people who know nothing about life. They love white skin, but they lie down in the sun to get a tan.” He says to let them talk — after all, there is such a thing as freedom of speech. “I wasn’t afraid of them then, and I’m not afraid of them now,” he says.

Black people still aren’t safe in Brandenburg today, 10 years after the attack on Noel Martin. “The government should make sure everyone can go wherever they want and be safe,” he says. Martin knows how far-reaching the problem is. The first time he heard the word “nigger” was decades ago, back home, in the British industrial town of Birmingham…

The right-wing extremists may well celebrate his death as a late triumph, but Noel Martin takes a very different view. “I have some bad news for those people,” Martin says. He raises his head and his voice as if he were preparing to give a speech: “Of the 6 billion people in the world, 5 billion are people of color. Sooner or later they’ll all mix.” He grins. “Who knows? Maybe the children of these Nazis will marry a black man or a black woman one day?”

He likes the idea. The [neo-]Nazis are running out of time — with or without Noel Martin.

STAGE BOTTLES : Real Skinhead

    Oi! You stupid bastards just wake up
    And think about
    Where your culture comes from
    Oi! It’s not just having fights
    Dancing and drinking
    Dressing up and owning many records

    Oi! It’s fighting back
    So you should feel
    Like a suburban rebel
    Oi! Social difference is the reason
    Employees are still exploited

    Real Skinhead

    Oi! Fred Perry was a Jew and Levi, too
    Black music
    The movement source
    Oi! Is kicking out the stupid racists
    So let the kids be united
    Oi! Don’t influence the younger ones
    By telling much
    Without saying anything
    Oi! Skinhead’s not a stupid culture
    Your’re not allowed
    To switch your brain off

    Real Skinhead

    Oi! You’re singing songs about a teenage warning
    About not showing the white flag
    Oi! Don’t talk about a way of life
    Though for you
    There’s no deeper meaning
    Oi! Is feeling pride
    But just posing
    Is no reason to be proud
    Oi! So skinhead is a different thing
    Your infiltration will be stopped

Posted in Anti-fascism, Collingwood, History, Music | 5 Comments

Um…

Posted on September 29, 2006 by @ndy

‘German faces fine for using Nazi symbols to fight far-right extremism’
[The Associated Press, via International Herald Tribune]
September 27, 2006

STUTTGART, Germany A German man went on trial Wednesday for displaying Nazi symbols including swastikas even though he was campaigning against far-right extremism and the swastikas had a line drawn through them in a symbol of cancellation.

Prosecutor Bernd Haeussler urged a Stuttgart state court to fine Juergen Kamm €6,000 (US$7,610) for selling various merchandise that carry the swastikas and other Nazi symbols through his mail-order business.

“Swastikas shouldn’t be displayed in such a striking way,” Haeussler said, adding that he hopes the outcome of this trial will bring about a complete ban of Nazi symbols in public spaces.

But defense attorney Michael Wolff argued that Kamm, who employs 10 people at his Nix Gut firm, was using the symbols to fight against neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists and should be acquitted.

“It should not be illegal to use the symbols against Nazis,” Kamm, 32, told the court.

The case challenges post-World War II laws that make it illegal to display or reproduce symbols used by the Nazis. Both sides have said they will appeal to a higher court if necessary.

[UPI reports: “However, Germany’s supreme court ruled more than three decades ago that it was not illegal to show a swastika if it had clearly been altered for the purposes of protesting against Nazi ideas.”]

A ruling in the case is expected Oct. 6.

Several politicians, including the head of the Green party Claudia Roth, have reported themselves to prosecutors in Stuttgart for wearing anti-Nazi T-shirts and buttons that include the banned symbols.

Prosecutors said these cases are still under investigation.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, History, State / Politics | 1 Comment

FDB! Press Release: On Blood & Honour, neo-Nazism and The Birmingham Hotel

Posted on September 28, 2006 by @ndy
    BIRMINGHAM HOTEL PUTS COMMUNITY IN DANGER BY HOSTING WHITE SUPREMACISTS
    Thursday, 28th September, 2006
    FOR IMMEDIATE USE

    Australasian anti-fascist campaigners Fight Dem Back! [1] say The Birmingham Hotel [Cnr. Johnston & Smith Sts, Fitzroy; Tel (03) 9417 2706] has endangered the local community by hosting a large neo-Nazi skinhead gig.

    On Saturday the 23rd of September, neo-Nazis from around Australia and the world came to Melbourne for the annual Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig. Ian Stuart, who died in a car crash in 1993, was the lead singer for neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver [2].

    The gig was held by the local branch of Blood & Honour – a global neo-Nazi network banned in Germany and considered a terrorist organisation by British and Belgian authorities – and the Southern Cross Hammerskins (SCHS), the local branch of another international neo-Nazi skinhead network. These two groups are responsible for numerous murders, bombings, arsons and assaults around the world.

    Fight Dem Back! discovered that the gig would be held at the Birmingham Hotel after an infiltrator expressed an interest in attending. To their surprise, they were informed that the concert would be held in Fitzroy, and not at the Jam Tin in Cheltenham – a venue which Blood & Honour had used in the past.

    Although the manager of the Birmingham has denied hosting the event, all three bands listed on the poster for the concert played at the Birmingham that night and approximately 50 members of Blood & Honour and SCHS were present.

    Fight Dem Back!’s Australian spokesperson, Cam Smith, says the matter must be taken seriously by the wider community and the authorities.

    “These are violent thugs who believe they not only have a right, but a duty, to harrass, intimidate and assault those who do not fit their bigoted ideal. If you are not white, not heterosexual, and if your politics are anywhere to the left of Adolf Hitler then you’re fair game as far as they’re concerned. The community needs to let The Birmingham know that they’re not happy with this element being brought into Fitzroy. This is a multicultural area and houses many vulnerable citizens – easy targets for neo-Nazis.”

    “We are sending a powerful message to The Birmingham Hotel to stop providing a venue for these people to spread their vile message. These are dangerous fanatics – we don’t want what is happening in Europe to happen here,” he continued, referring to the uncovering of a Blood & Honour plot to destablilise Belgian democracy by way of mass murder earlier this month [3].

    “As far as we are concerned, these scumbags are the real threat to Australian values.”

    ————

    NOTES

    [1] Fight Dem Back!, founded in 2004, is an Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand wide network of anti-fascist activists. Their website can be found [here].

    [2] Skrewdiver were a pioneer of the “white power” music scene. More information about them can be found [here].

    [3] For more, see articles in the International Herald Tribune and BBC News.

    Above : A patron enjoys the laid-back ambience at The Birmy…
Posted in Anti-fascism, Collingwood, Media, Music | 11 Comments

This Is Collingwood, Not Cronulla; or: No Gary, No!

Posted on September 27, 2006 by @ndy

Well… Fitzroy too. It ain’t fuckin’ L.A., that’s for sure. (Or Boston for that matter.)

Point is:

NO GARY, NO!

‘Neo-Nazi gig incites chorus of protest’
Marika Dobbin
The Melbourne Times
September 27, 2006

LOCAL punk [sic] music venue the Birmingham Hotel in Collingwood is under fire for hosting an international network of neo-Nazis at a gig on Saturday night to commemorate the death of their white supremacist leader Ian Stuart.

Neo-Nazis from around Australia attended the gig on [333] Smith Street, many of them wearing swastikas, to listen to “hatecore” bands.

The concert was sponsored by Blood & Honour Australia – the local chapter of a global neo-Nazi organisation that is banned in Germany – and Aryan supremacists the Southern Cross Hammerskins.

[Blut und Ehre was banned in Germany in September 2000; the banning presumably precipitated by a number of murders and bombings in the months prior. In August 2000, three German boneheads “were sentenced to long jail terms for the murder of a Mozambican man in a vicious racist attack in the east German town of Dessau…”, while in July, “a bomb in Duesseldorf seriously injured 10 foreigners – six of them Jews”.]

It was one of the few events organised by the secretive groups that was open to the public.

Collingwood police said it was well known that [boneheads] and neo-Nazis frequented at the Birmingham.

Union groups at Trades Hall and Yarra Councillor Stephen Jolly are considering organising a protest outside the hotel.

“These people (Blood & Honour) are much more than right-wingers, they are into the politics of the gas chambers, genocide politics,” Cr Jolly, a candidate for the state election, said.

“These dangerous fruitcakes have no place in a municipality where we have migrants from around the world, not to mention gays and lesbians.”

Birmingham Hotel owner Gary, who refused to give his surname, denied it was a neo-Nazi gig.

“It was a punk, skinhead gig that was the same as any night of the week,” he said. “I do parties for anyone, doesn’t matter what religion or faith, I don’t judge anyone … When someone comes through the door I don’t ask them what they are [then again, when they’ve got a fucking swastika tattooed on their fucking forehead, you really don’t need to, do you Gary?]

“When the Iraq war was on, I had Iraqis in the pub, and I don’t judge them. This is about people trying to get their names in the paper.”

People wore Ku Klux Klan outfits at similar Blood & Honour concerts in other countries to commemorate the death of the Scottish [sic: Stuart was English] white-power leader.

Songs by Newcastle band Blood Red Eagle, which played on Saturday, include lyrics such as “from the blood soaked ground on the battlefield, we shall rise up and never yield … on the city streets we fight to win.”

    Above : Damien Ovchynik (vocalist, Bail Up!) performing at the 2005 Ian Stuart Is Dead celebration; also held at The Birmingham

Oh dear.

“Gary” is no genius. For if he’s being truthful — which he’s not, and for obvious reasons — then in stating that “It was a punk, skinhead gig that was the same as any night of the week”, he’s effectively admitting to the fact that neo-Nazi skinheads are constantly drinking and playing at his pub… which certainly appears to be the consensus at the local cop shop!

Gary’s pointless denials also contradict statements made by those in attendance (not to mention photographic and video footage taken of the event). Thus on Scumfront, Gary’s mate Hammerskin38 writes:

Some tool rang up the owner and said he was some construction union boss and had 200 union members in the city that were going to come and picket outside and [a]lluded to [maybe] doing more than that.

They also rang the owner all night and hung up and harrassed him.

There was even the gig[‘]s address/details/map/location/phone number on ‘the site we aren[‘]t allowed to talk about here’ on the day of the gig [a reference to a ruling by Lilith Peterson — Perth-based neo-Nazi and moderator on Shitfront — banning any talk of Fightdemback on the site].

Well we waited all night to ‘say hello’ to these scum and NOT [one] person turned up.

It[‘]s amazing how these cowardly dirtbags can even stand up without a spine. Gutless fags.

The gig was brilliant[:] great bands, great people and a good time was had by all.

UP YOURS FAG ANTI-RACIST VERMIN!

GOD FORGIVES, HAMMERS DON’T!

Another fascist twat — “Jake the Poacher” — writes:

“Slackbastard” had threatened to bring violence to the Birmy Hotel in Melbourne at the Blood and Honour Gig to be held there last night. How did it go? Hope you gave the fags a good thumping.

Poor old “Gary”. In denying the facts, he seems to think that readers of The Melbourne Times are as stupid as his clientele.

Speaking of which, this Saturday, the 30th, is the date for the annual Melbourne Punk Pub Crawl, and The Birmy is traditionally among one of the many inner-city pubs punks crawl to… and, as Conflict sang:

“It’s time to see who’s who.”

    Understand this, you might not agree with what they say, do, or stand for
    You may just like the music, and if that’s all that concerns you, fair enough
    But don’t ride along on the back of change, to play to all us caring, staring people
    Forget it, we won’t be fooled again
    If a tune becomes so fucking important, if all that’s talked about is notes, chords and bands, when a record becomes rebellion – an alternative to action
    An excuse for doing nothing — you help them… to oppress us
Posted in Anti-fascism, Collingwood, Music | 6 Comments

message for c

Posted on September 27, 2006 by @ndy

sorry, no CR. send me an email!

(yeah, i know… and i agree.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment