Boneheads Seek Willing Political Philosophy For Permanent Relationship

Posted on July 14, 2006 by @ndy

Nobody likes neo-Nazis, especially ones from Illinois. In fact, (neo-)Nazism is one of the most universally reviled ideologies known to humanity. Of course, it wasn’t always. Further, its bad reputation regularly manages to attract a small number of losers for whom (neo-)Nazism serves as a prop for a weak ego, and who imagine — tragically — that recreating Hitler’s organised contempt for human dignity will win them f r i e n d s.

Rather than, say, little more than being told to go and jump off a bridge.

However, over the course of the last 15 years or so — the collapse of the Evil (Communist) Empire in the late 80s and early 90s being a pivotal moment — numerous fascists and racists of one sort or another have been seeking some new way forward to help them achieve their vision of Hell on Earth. Part of this project revolves around crafting a new political identity: for some, at least, parading about in Nazi drag — a la the soon-to-be defunct National Socialist Movement (“Heil Satan!”) — is about as attractive a proposition as the men who don such costumes.

Instead, building upon the partially successful inroads into the working class subculture of skinhead that fascists made in the late 1970s, these other fascist elements have turned to the various forms of nationalist ideology that the collapse of Empire spewed forth, and it’s on this ideological foundation that the fascist doctrine of Third Positionism / ‘National Bolshevism’ (‘neither right nor left’) has been built, one that forms an increasingly important organising principle of the far right. Even the self-contradictory doctrine of ‘National Anarchism’ has its followers, especially among among those with more hair than brains…

White nationalists to protest in Oregon
Sadie Gurman
Rockford Register Star
July 12, 2006

OREGON — A Freeport-based Aryan Nation group plans to rally in front of the Ogle County Courthouse on Saturday, in what the organization’s leaders are calling a non-violent, “voice of opinion about current immigration laws.”

Members of the Aryan Anarchist Skins, described as a white nationalist group on the organization’s Web site, will demonstrate at 2 p.m. on Saturday, on South Fifth Street between the old courthouse and the Ogle County Judicial Center, said Lisa Shultz, a “sergeant officer” for the group. Shultz said she expects up to 200 people to attend the rally, though the group itself has just 10 members.

To be continued…

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, State / Politics | Leave a comment

Let’s invite the CIA too!

Posted on July 13, 2006 by @ndy

Peter Coleman: Bring on Cold War dissident debaters

Why not honour those friends of freedom who fought communism, suggests Peter Coleman?

The Australian
July 11, 2006

I HAVE a modest proposal for an academic conference. It was prompted by Imre Salusinszky‘s report in these pages yesterday on a seminar last week in Melbourne on Soviet and Australian intellectuals during the good old days of the Cold War, when the lefties were still convinced they were the wave of the future.

[Says Salusinszky: “Australian intellectuals who raved about the Soviet Union get the kid-glove treatment at a Melbourne conference.”]

But my proposal basically dates back to a visit I made to Russia a few years ago…

[Blah blah blah: Coleman likes Boris Pasternak.]

…Which brings me to Salusinszky’s report yesterday. It discussed the Melbourne Conferences on Soviet and Australian History and Culture, which ran over five days last week at the University of Melbourne. Sheila Fitzpatrick organised them.

No doubt some splendid papers were given by splendid scholars on luminaries such as Katharine Susannah Prichard, Guido Baracchi, Betty Roland, Manning Clark and Brian Fitzpatrick and many others.

It was a celebration of the [pro-USSR, anti-soviet] Left. There were some criticisms. How could anyone begin to think about Prichard without noting her many follies? Some of the pro-communists made clear their unhappiness with some aspects of Soviet life, although they left it rather late in the day.

Even Clark began to voice reservations about Soviet Man towards the end. But none of them would mix it with anti-communists, in the past or now. They were outside the pale. All this makes for a dull conference.

So this is my modest proposal to liven things up. Let us have another conference at the University of Melbourne to which we invite not only the usual lefty suspects, still basically pro-Soviet, but also their critics through the long years of the Cold War.

[Daniel Guerin on ‘soviets’: ‘The point of departure of the Revolution of 1917 was that of 1905, during which a new kind of revolutionary organ had come into being: the soviets. They were born in the factories of St. Petersburg during a spontaneous general strike. In the almost complete absence of a trade-union movement and tradition, the soviets filled a vacuum by coordinating the struggle of the factories on strike. The anarchist Voline was one of the small group which had the idea of setting up the first soviet, in close liaison with the workers and at their suggestion. His evidence coincides with that of Trotsky, who became president of the soviet a few months later. In his account of 1905 he wrote, without any pejorative intent – quite the contrary: “The activity of the soviet represented the organization of anarchy. Its existence and its subsequent development marked the consolidation of anarchy.”]

Let’s start with Frank Knopfelmacher. A paper on his life and thought would trace his trajectory from his Marxist youth in Prague and his escape from the Nazis to his return to Prague and his second escape, this time from the communists.

An authority on comparative totalitarianism, his experience, wit and mordant lecturing style would guarantee a stimulating paper. Sam Lipski is the obvious candidate to give it.

Next, a paper on a writer of a different stamp and value system, James McAuley, whose essay ‘On Being an Intellectual’ is the best of its kind in the annals of Australian letters. His odyssey from youthful anarchism to a Catholic anti-communism via Andersonian philosophy and classicist poetry must be absorbing. Tony Abbott is the man for that job.

Then a lively paper on Richard Krygier, who established the anti-communist Australian Association of Cultural Freedom. He kept it going, through the warmth and optimism of his personality and the complete security of his convictions, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. His son Martin Krygier should give this paper.

Another is Lloyd Ross, the former communist intellectual and trade union leader who broke with the communists over the Hitler-Stalin alliance. Stephen Holt must give this paper.

There are many more anti-communist crusaders. Philosopher John Anderson is one. His uncompromising anti-Stalinist analyses were unique on the Australian Left in the 1930s.

[Anderson’s opposition to “Stalinist” tyranny ‘unique’? I’m not convinced. As a rule of thumb, wherever there were anarchists, there was opposition. And there were anarchists in Australia in the 1920s and 1930s. The fact that these groups and individuals have been (almost) completely ignored may well be attributable to the fact that not only were they anarchists, but wogs to boot. The role of Jim Dawson and the Southern Advocate for Workers’ Councils in the 1940s and 1950s in popularising Left Communism should also not be overlooked.]

James Normington Rawling is another. The Communist Party expelled him because he would not support the Soviet invasion of Finland.

And what about Ken Gee, who has just published his fascinating memoir Comrade Roberts: Recollections of a Trotskyite?

Sheila Fitzpatrick says it would be extraordinarily interesting to bring together the pro-communists and the anti-communists in a conference of this kind.

Yes indeed. So let’s get on with it.

[Peter Coleman was editor of a CIA publication called Quadrant for 20 years during the Cold War.]

Pffft. Unless it includes peeps like Jack the Anarchist, you can count me out Peter. Both the “pro-communists” — read: Communist stooges — and the “anti-communists” — read: right-wing reactionaries — are two sides of the same coin of bourgeois managerialism.

I remember you saying that other than the Sydney libertarians and a few others you found a lot of fear and paranoia amongst Australians in the 1950s?

Selling Freedom at the Domain [where the above photo of Jack was taken] I was faced with the question: “Aren’t you scared of being arrested?” Many would buy Freedom and put it straight in their pockets as if they were pinching something from the shops. The Domain was a very good place. A lot of activities on Sundays. I was speaking from the Rationalist platform. Questioning the communists was one of the greatest fun. I was called a traitor, a fascist and quite often they would call the police and a few times I was removed from the Domain. For the communists anyone who left Eastern Europe was a fascist. Nonetheless I had established a friendship, not without arguments, with a communist, Harry Read, who was expelled from the party because of his criticism of its handling of the Hungarian affairs in 1956. He left for Cuba in 1959 if I am not mistaken. Many of the communists, like Aaron’s faction, were Stalinists.

Posted in Anarchism, Anti-fascism, History, State / Politics | Leave a comment

Mussolini Headkick : Materazzi Headbutt?

Posted on July 12, 2006 by @ndy

Mussolini Headkick.

Above : Themes for Violent Retribution

Materazzi Headbutt.

The Times, ‘Materazzi changes story as Fifa starts inquiry’, Matt Hughes, July 12:

“I did insult him, it’s true, but I categorically did not call him a terrorist,” Materazzi said. “I’m not cultured and I don’t even know what an Islamic terrorist is. I held his shirt for a few seconds only, then he turned round and spoke to me, sneering. He looked me up and down arrogantly and said, ‘If you really want my shirt, I’ll give it to you afterwards’. ”

Given his poor disciplinary record, which was once raised in the Italian parliament, Materazzi is not a naturally sympathetic character, although he appears determined to try to rehabilitate his reputation. The Inter Milan centre back was adamant that he had not insulted Zidane’s mother after lip-readers claimed that he called the Frenchman “the son of a terrorist whore”.

Kick it Out!
football against racism in europe

Posted in History | Leave a comment

Bill White makes like a rat; Carl D. Thompson cries like a baby?

Posted on July 12, 2006 by @ndy

Roanoke landlord resigns from National Socialist Movement
The Roanoke Times (Virginia, USA)
July 11, 2006

William A. White said he’s concerned about the NSM’s possible link to a Satanist group.

By Laurence Hammack

Roanoke landlord and neo-Nazi sympathizer [?] William A. White has resigned from the National Socialist Movement, an organization that idolizes Adolf Hitler but is reportedly in turmoil over being associated with Satan.

White said Monday he stepped down as spokesman for the group and leader of its Roanoke unit over the weekend following revelations that some NSM members are involved with a group called the Joy of Satan.

According to White and others, the Satanic group engages in inappropriate sexual discussions with children through its Teens for Satan e-mail group.

Until recently considered the country’s fastest-growing white supremacy group, the NSM is in the midst of an upheaval that could change that, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.

An unknown number of members have left the NSM over the controversy, and some entire statewide chapters, including the one in Washington, have bolted from the Minneapolis-based organization, Potok said.

“I think there’s something fairly seismic going on with the National Socialist Movement,” he said.

But according to NSM commander Jeff Schoep, the scandal consists only of rumors spread by White on the Internet. Schoep said White was expelled from the group Friday for “attacking Christianity and various religions.” He also said White has a credibility problem.

[Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! “Credibility problem”. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!]

The NSM official accused by White has denied any ties to Satanism, Schoep said. But if there was such a link, particularly one that involved improper contact with children, the movement would take the appropriate actions, he said.

“We certainly can’t have that. We’re a political party and a legal entity in the United States.”

In his year or so with the group, White “put the National Socialist Movement on the map,” largely through his role as spokesman during a march in Toledo, Ohio, that resulted in a riot that drew national attention, Potok said.

White, who owns more than a dozen rental homes in Roanoke’s West End neighborhood, has also generated controversy for his actions as a landlord and the editor of somebodybringmeabucket-quick.com, a Web site that often airs racist views. The Roanoke NAACP has accused White of discriminating against minority tenants, a charge he denies.

White has declined to say how many members belong to the local NSM unit he headed.

In a recent post on his Web site, White said he has set up an e-mail group for “all white activists” who might be interested in forming a new national socialist movement. But it’s too soon to say whether such an organization might be headquartered in Roanoke.

“That is so far into the future that I can’t comment on that at all,” White said.

NB. Carl D. Thompson is a disgraced former editor, and currently only member (and possibly even leader) of the NSM Down Under. More on him later… maybe. (I’m actually unsure if he’s serious or just has an unfortunate fetish for brooding men dressed in black leather.)

As for Bill, he’s been known to be a complete and utter dickhead for well over 10 years; that is, since 1996, when he launched his first bizarre attempt at self-promotion called the ‘Utopian Anarchist Party'(!).

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism | Leave a comment

An email to DreamHost re Redwatch (I)

Posted on July 12, 2006 by @ndy

First, IFEX, the International Freedom of eXchange reports:

Police shut down neo-fascist website that threatened journalists

Français: Le site néofasciste Redwatch-Pologne appelant ? l’agression de journalistes fermé par les autorités

Country/Topic: Poland
Date: 10 July 2006
Source: Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Person(s):
Target(s): Internet/website(s)
Type(s) of violation(s):
Urgency: Bulletin

(RSF/IFEX) – On 5 July 2006, police closed the Polish website of Redwatch, an international neo-fascist group based in the United States. The http://www.redwatch.info/sites/redwatch.htm site had posted the names of at least 17 journalists, calling them “traitors to the race” and threatening them with reprisals for their anti-fascist views. The Polish authorities also shut down http://www.bhpoland.org/strona/pl, the website of Blood and Honour, another far-right group.

In response to a Reporters Without Borders letter to the Polish justice minister on 22 May about the danger of attacks against journalists named on the Redwatch-Poland website, public prosecutor Jerzy Zientek wrote on 22 June that the authorities were investigating the case and had carried out arrests.

An anti-fascist activist named on this website was rushed to hospital in a serious condition after being attacked and stabbed on a Warsaw street on 16 May.

MORE INFORMATION:

For further information, contact Annabelle Arki at RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 67, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: europe[at]rsf[dot]org, Internet: http://www.rsf.org

Secondly, my never-to-be-answered email:

dear dreamhost,

not unexpectedly, redwatch.info has been shut down.

has or will the company be making a public statement inre this matter?

when i first contacted the company inre redwatch, in response, in an email dated 27/05/06, i was informed by one of yr employees, sam, that:

“DreamHost strongly believes in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees its citizens freedom of speech and freedom of the press, among other things (both of which can apply to websites). We made a business decision long ago to value freedom of speech above any potential offense someone might take over the content of a site hosted by us.”

and in a second and final email sam stated:

“We thank you for your opinions, however they are not doing anything illegal. It is not illegal to post personal information on the internet. Implying isn’t illegal and neither is posting personal information. We thank you for your concern regarding this matter. However, we are not taking the site down.”

does this mean that dreamhost now believes that redwatch.info WAS doing something illegal, and NOT innocuously publishing “personal information”, of an unspecific nature, in a completely arbitrary context?

further, what does it mean to state that “implying isn’t illegal”? in other words, what did dreamhost believe redwatch.info was “implying” by its publication of “personal information”? and does dreamhost now consider whatever it was that was being “implied” by redwatch.info THEN [to be] illegal NOW?

what’s changed?

the facts?

or dreamhost’s interpretation of these facts?

thank you for yr time.

sincerely,

andy.

Naturally, I’m yet to receive a response, and most likely won’t. However, since the issue of DreamHost’s cheerful hosting of a neo-Nazi hit list first came to my attention in late May, DreamHost has taken a consistent line which may be summarised as follows:

Redwatch Poland is a perfectly legitimate, lawful project — albeit one which some may find distasteful — which merely provides ‘personal information’ on a range of individuals who happen to have generated the ire of neo-Nazis. If Redwatch Poland is guilty of anything, therefore, it is guilty, at worst, of being potentially ‘offensive’ (to overly-sensitive readers).

This position has been defended not only by DreamHost itself, but also a number of its customers, one ‘rlparker’ in particular; at great length, and probably — to rlparker’s credit — in the most reasonable fashion. Responding to one concerned person’s referencing Californian law on ‘hate crimes’, ‘rlparker’ writes:

While I appreciate your recitation of the California statutes that follow in your post, [neither] California, nor U.S. federal, law attaches criminal liability to a person or corporation as “an associated party to a crime”. There are provisions for… attaching [jeopardy] for “accessories” and “accomplices”, though each of those catagories requires specific intent, and overt action(s) on the part of the accessory or accomplices for the “association” to be criminal. There is also the crime of conspiracy, but that entails an entirely different level of cooperative action exist than mere “association”.

Dreamhost’s “association” with the criminal acts of a customer is much like that of a landlord, who is “associated” with the criminal acts of a tenant by having rented the space where a crime is committed to one who commits a crime – a concept that does not exist in California, or U.S. federal, law, absent the other types of involvement mentioned above.

Perhaps. But what if the landlord in question is made aware of the fact that the leaseholder is using the rental property as a meeting place for members of an illegal association? Further, that members of this criminal association were planning, in conjunction with others, violent assaults upon innocent civilians? Suppose, further, that the criminal association in question is Islamic — rather than, say… oh, I don’t know… neo-Nazi? And that it forms one part of a much larger, international network of terrorist cells; a network with a long history of violent crime?

Would DreamHost be as flippant about its legal and moral responsibilities inre a hypothetical group of Islamic terrorists as it appears to have been in a real case involving actual neo-Nazis?

I kinda doubt it.

I don’t know when DreamHost was first alerted to the possibly illegal — certainly unethical — content of ‘Redwatch Poland’. But the following notice appeared on Indymedia on June 17 (that is, over two weeks prior to Redwatch Poland’s closure):

You have been hereby notified of the illegal activities occuring on your servers. You have been provided sufficient evidence regarding the illegal activities and violations of your terms of service. Refusal or neglect to remove these sites will result in further action which could result in prosecution for knowingly and willingly allowing criminal activities to occur on your server and criminal neglect. From this point on, you will be held responsible for any damage that occurs as a result of your hosting of these sites…

So what DreamHost has to explain is: what took you so long?

rlparker continues:

As I do not speak/read Polish, I cannot comment as to whether or not that statement [essentially, Redwatch Poland is an unlawful site] might be accurate, though I should point out that, irrespective of your opinion, the truth of that statement can only be determined by a court ;-).

Tee hee!

That being the case, the question now becomes: why, in the absence of a court order, did DreamHost close Redwatch Poland?

To be continued…

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media | 2 Comments

Fightdemback interview with Dave Hann, co-author No Retreat

Posted on July 11, 2006 by @ndy

Dave Hann is the co-author with Steve Tilzey of the book No Retreat : The Secret War between Britain’s Anti-fascists and the Far Right (Milo Books). The interview below was conducted by Fightdemback and published August 9, 2005.

Dave Hann has kindly given us some of his time for this interview.

You’ve been popping in and out of FDB for a while now, what are your impressions?

Dave: What I most enjoy about FDB is the refreshing lack of petty sectarian bickering on the forum. Similar forums in the UK seem to be full of anonymous snipers and back-stabbers with an axe to grind, a point to score, and nothing helpful to contribute at all. I think the potential of the internet as a tool to aid communication and organisation amongst anti-fascist and progressive groups is enormous, but more often than not, any useful initiatives become bogged down by petty arguments and bickering caused by anonymous gossip-mongers hiding behind their computer screens.

You recently visited New Zealand as well, did you have a chance to get a grasp on what was happening there with the NF?

Dave: I’ll have to be honest and admit that I didn’t get involved in any politics while I was in NZ, but I have seen photos of Kyle Chapman and agree that he is indeed “rather jolly”.

Talking shop, how do the Aussie and Kiwi fash stack up against the NF/BNP/B&H hordes you took on ‘back in the day’?

Dave: The boneheads in the UK have largely been eradicated, due to the efforts of Anti-Fascist Action in the 90’s. They were basically a bunch of bullies who didn’t like it when they were confronted by people who were prepared to stand up to them. I think as far as boneheads and their friends are concerned that’s pretty much the picture the whole world over. They can look quite intimidating when there’s a whole mob of them together, but whenever they were faced with equal numbers, or when they were on their own, they acted pretty much like bullies have always done. Mickey Finn, a docker and anti-fascist from the East End of London summed it up pretty succinctly when he said “the fascists looked pretty tough customers, some of them even wore para-military uniforms… but when it came down to it they weren’t very good on the pavement.”

Well none of us were full-time professional anti-racists, we were just ordinary people who either worked for a living or were unemployed, meaning we had neither the time nor the resources to partake in expensive, and often futile, propaganda campaigns. I think we always tried to be realistic about what we could achieve, and concentrated our energies where we felt we could make a difference. The fascists at the time had a policy of “controlling the streets,” and that’s where we took them on. We challenged them on the streets, and destroyed the myth of invincibility that they had built up. We also targeted our propaganda at the potential recruits of the fascist groups, the white, working class. I think there was a real point of separation between AFA and the more traditional anti-racist/anti-nazi groups on these two points. We were the only group willing to tackle the fascists physically, and the only group trying to undercut their support in places they regarded as their traditional strongholds.

In places where these policies were properly implemented in the 80’s and 90’s, it’s a fact that the fascists have never really recovered, even when they are doing well elsewhere in the country. We took out a whole generation, and in places like Manchester there is no organisation or infrastructure for potential new recruits to join.

I think that’s the most important point I’d like to get across. Set yourselves an achievable target, work out the best way of achieving it, and then keep on going for it until the job’s done.

Reading through No Retreat, they sound like some crazy days. My favourite anecdote was when you cleared the BNP from the Rochdale Town Hall steps and were swamped afterwards by groups of Asian kids paying “respect”. Do you think that anti-fascist groups need to do more to build links with the communities most affected by racist violence?

Dave: I’d better explain that the events in Rochdale took place on the day of the local elections in May 1994. We had plotted up in a pub near the Town Hall, which was where the election count was taking place. We were hoping to ambush the BNP candidates on their way into the count, but this plan was foiled when the three candidates and their election agents were escorted into the Town hall in the back of a police van. However we’d been in the area all day, and had picked up reports that a busload of fascists had been spotted in the area, although we couldn’t track them down. Incidently, we’d cut the phone lines of the BNP’s North-West Election HQ earlier in the day and that had apparently thrown their plans into complete disarray, so we thought that maybe the mysterious busload of fash had been unable to make contact with their people and had gone home. Shortly after 11pm, and with no sightings reported for 5 or 6 hours, we decided to get in our vans and head for home ourselves.

On our way out of town, we drove past the town hall again and spotted a big mob of fash moving into the area. The van drivers screeched to a halt and we steamed out, charging straight into the back of the fash mob, scattering them in all directions. It must have looked like a cunningly executed plan to draw the fash out into the open and ambush them, but it was all a complete accident. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the fash got battered, and were chased all over the place.

There were a number of Asian youth in the area who joined in on our side, but on the whole, the Asian community was very wary of getting involved in anti-fascist activity because of fears that they would be singled out and targeted by the police. On the few occasions when contact was made, this is precisely what happened, and it was a very difficult situation to work around.

How much of a gutless wonder was Ian Stuart (lead singer of infamous neo-Nazi band, Skrewdriver)?

Dave: Stuart was a coward who couldn’t fight to save his life. The fascists might regard him as some kind of nationalist super-hero, but he was just another bully who didn’t like it when the odds weren’t heavily in his favour. He was ambushed several times by AFA activists in London, and eventually fled to Derbyshire in order to escape the constant attacks. Hardly the actions of a brave street-fighter. A couple of friends of mine jumped him before a Blood and Honour gig at Swiss Cottage, and managed to hit him a couple of times before he ran away. At the gig afterwards, he deliberately left the blood to dry on his forehead, so that he could appear more heroic, and then went on stage and claimed that he had fought off a whole mob of “reds” single-handedly.

Did you ever go toe-to-toe with Nicky Crane?

Dave: No, and I’m glad I never had to. He was one of the few genuine hard men on the bonehead scene. I came across him twice. The first time was at the Main Event in Hyde Park, where he disembarked from a mini-bus with a dozen members of Skrewdriver Security. He immediately jumped back onto the bus when he saw the posse of anti-fascists charging out the park at him. The other occasion was when he was heading home from the West End one evening with a number of rent-boys in tow. We followed him for a while, but lost him at Charing Cross station. The interesting thing about Crane was that he was openly gay, but was never challenged about it by his bonehead mates until he was physically weakened by AIDS. He apparently renounced his fascist past during his dying days.

In Australia, we’re currently dealing with a racist academic who feels that his right to free speech guarantees that he should be able to publicly claim that Africans are genetically inferior to “other groups” and that Australia should stop importing third world immigrants less we become a colony of the third world, a colony ruled over by super-intelligent Asians who kick everyone’s arse in exams.

His comments have hurt many members of the Australian community and have been the impetus for increasing racial violence against Sudanese refugees. In light of this, do you believe that [Andrew] Fraser can take his right to free speech and shove it fair up his arse?

Dave: I don’t see how he can be regarded as an academic with theories like that. It’s a bit like David Irving, the “historian” who claims that the holocaust never happened. Surely it’s unacademic to skew the facts to fit your own warped politics. I think there should be no right of free speech for ignorant bigots who abuse the right by promoting intolerance and suppression of free speech on the basis of skin colour.

A perspective on the London Bombings. Everyone condemns these attacks and Britons of all ethnicities were affected by them. What so far has been the ‘fash’ response to these attacks? We’ve seen some grainy footage of a bonehead march through Hackney (?) but not much more.

Dave: There was a march by the NF numbering about 100, but more worrying has been the heightened level of racist attacks on Muslims and Asians. The BNP response has been to bring out propaganda saying “We told you so. Don’t get mad. Get even. Join the BNP.” The bombing has been a godsend for the BNP, and the more bombs that go off the better, as far as they’re concerned. I personally believe that the “War on Terror” will go on for generations. It took thirty years for the Irish conflict to be resolved, and the IRA numbered no more than 600 members, with the support of the wider community in the north of Ireland, and smaller pockets of support in the UK, and the Irish diaspora around the world. The potential support for Al-Qaeda is much, much bigger than that, and I think we’re all in for hard times ahead.

You still keep in touch with Big Nose (co-author Steve Tilzey)?

Dave: I still see Steve at the football, although we support FC United these days. It’s a club set up by Manchester United supporters after an American billionaire bought Old Trafford. They’ve started at the bottom rung of the football league, but are still getting several thousand along to matches. Steve’s not really involved in anti-fascism these days, but with a record stretching back 25 years I think he’s earned a rest.

Did you guys really bug BNP meetings with a homemade device and then sit in Tilzey’s car and listen in to their meetings? What was that like? Did you just sit there and cack yourselves stupid over the crap they were coming out with?

Dave: It was more boring than anything else. It was just the turgid predictability of the crap they were spouting that made you realise what a bunch of sad, inadequates some of these people were. Everyone else was blamed for their own failings. If they couldn’t get a job it was because the blacks were taking all the work. If they couldn’t get a council house it was because the council were giving them all to Asians or Asylum Seekers. The Jews were controlling the media and the banks and keeping the country on its knees. Blah, blah, blah.

The fight against the fash has well and truly taken off in cyberspace. Do you feel that this theater of operations has turned the fash into a bigger bunch of cowards now they have a monitor to hide behind?

Dave: Well it’s all so easy on the Internet isn’t it? You can be anyone or anything. It’s a godsend for your average fascist no-mark. They can sit behind a computer screen and spout off all kinds of crap without any risk of retribution whatsoever.

John Tyndall dead – your thoughts?

Dave: In some ways it’s a shame he couldn’t hang on for another couple of years, because he was proving to be a real thorn in the side of the BNP chairman Nick Griffin. Now the field is free of serious challengers for the throne of potential tin-pot dictator of Britain, and Griifin couldn’t look more pleased with himself.

It must have been one hell of a buzz to have Mensi dedicate ‘Anti-Nazi’ to you at the recent Angelic Upstarts gig in Morecombe. What was that like? Are the Upstarts still kicking arse?

Dave: Yeah it was nice, although I have to be honest and say that it wasn’t just dedicated to me, there were a few others there as well. The fash had threatened to give the Upstarts a kicking, and I got a few people together to ensure that everything passed off peacefully. Of course, the fash never showed their faces, which is true to form for them these days.

Any other thoughts, things you wish to pass on?

Dave: In the words of The Redskins, ‘Keep On Keeping On’. The fight is the same the whole world over, and we can all learn from each other’s experiences… [and England are shit at cricket.]

See also…

The Guardian‘s Special Report on the Far right in Britain
The Anti-Nazi League : A Critical Examination (Colin Roach Centre)

Posted in Anti-fascism, History | 12 Comments

More on MUFF 777

Posted on July 11, 2006 by @ndy

[Listening : Choking Victim. Cheers Evan]

BadLit > Diving Into MUFF done some kinda pingtrackbackthing. It lead me to Esoteric Rabbit. On the Festival : “The informality of the setup really added to opening night’s already prevalent air of alternativeness (Lloyd Kaufman was in attendance, screening a couple of scenes from his upcoming Poultrygeist), not to mention the festival’s in general, which is one of the best things it has going for it.” On Wolstencroft : “…to the extent that his entire project is about not making concessions to anyone, at any level or on any issue, his lack of decorum, so to speak, is both completely in character and politically loaded.” Speaking of character, Toby the Punk Poofy Cat assassinates Wolstencroft’s in this entry, unloading both barrels (metaphorically speaking). A sample of Toby’s invective :

I’m always amazed by how much people kid themselves, that is, believe their own bullshit eg. John Howard, George Bush, Kim Ill Jung [or even Kim Jong-Il], all the powermongering fuckwits earnestly believe the guff they ladle out, especially when it’s to do with their own prowess and activities. A case in point is Richard [Wolstencroft], the “director” of MUFF, the Melbourne Underground Film Festival. In his brochure for this year’s crap-fest he writes, so badly it’s almost unreadable, that he’s a true-blue supporter of the grass-roots Auz Film Industry, that the govt. funders are a bunch of tokenistic, mean Philistines and that he and his gang are revolutionaries, eschewing money and fame for cinematic bean sprouts and tee-pees in Utopia, or somesuch nonsense, all the time quoting Heidegger, promoting German expressionism and squawking anarchism. Who does he think he’s kidding? 14 year old Hollywood wannabes?

This jumble of contradictory sensibilities hid the nature of fascisms as “revolutionary” regimes, whose rejection of liberal and democratic modernity aimed not for a return to a bygone era but to the establishment of a new order, hierarchical, authoritarian, non-egalitarian, nationalistic, even racial, but not backward-looking: fascist mysticism is biologized, its cult of technology aesthetisized, its scorn for democracy founded on the mobilization of the masses, and its rejection of individualism proclaimed in the name of a “community of the people,” sealed by war.

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R.I.P.

Posted on July 9, 2006 by @ndy

David Heidelberg (Fightdemback) :

Monday, July 03, 2006

Sad news

I wish to advise that David passed away last night after a long illness.

Thanks to all who have sent their condolences… Your sentiments have been so helpful during this difficult time.

Linda

Robbie Watts (Cosmic Psychos) :

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Cosmic Psychos guitarist Robbie Watts passed away early Saturday morning after a show with the band in Bendigo, rural Victoria, on Friday night. He was 47. Condolences to his family and friends.

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Lies? Libel?

Posted on July 9, 2006 by @ndy

Uh-oh, spaghetti-oh.

Subject : Re: DreamHost allows Nazi Violence
Posted by : norm1037 (DH Smarty Pants)
Posted on : 07/07/06 12:00 PM

I think you are right.

[Norm, responding to a previous comment by another user on the subject of the now defunct neo-Nazi website / online hitlist Redwatch Poland, and the attempt to bring the issue to DreamHost’s attention : Their “offensive free speech” would accomplish less if you ignored it rather than posting about it for everyone to read.]

And the trouble with these so called free speech sites is that if the free speech made by others does not fit their own ideas then just change the speech and lie about what was said and by whom.

I have been targeted and libelled at this site just for making a comment in this thread.

Seems I work for DreamHost and mentioned something about rabbits or wabbits.

Clearly a strange person who runs the site and has never bothered to read the whole thread… sigh.

Just as well I am able to switch to another parallel universe and ignore it all!

—
Norm

Opinions are my own views, not DreamHost’s.
I am NOT a DreamHost employee OK!
You act on my advice at your own risk!

OK!

But still…

Here’s what I wrote:

DreamHost employee ‘norm1037′ replies :

I am sure that most DreamHost customers would abhor the type of sites you refer to, myself included.

But I always have two phrases keep [sic] popping into my mind, “know thine enemy” and “knowledge is power”. I am sure it is better to know where these sites are, who is posting to them and who is reading them.

No doubt DreamHost could delete these sites in a micro-second, but I wouldn’t want them popping up again from some strange anonymously routed site or untouchable island in the middle of an Ocean. Perhaps where they are now is most convenient.

Let us perhaps be a little cunning [”we’re hunting wabbits!”] and wait and watch!

Just my two-pennyworth.

======

Two-penny? Hmmm. While it’s to be hoped that most DreamHost customers — with at least one obvious exception — would abhor redwatch, it’s not especially relevant. After all, whatever DreamHost customers might “abhor”, none are in a position to deny redwatch its access to DreamHost webhosting facilities. That responsibility lies with DreamHost.

Norm writes: “I am sure it is better to know where these sites are, who is posting to them and who is reading them.”

Why?

Better than what? Not knowing where these sites are, who is posting to them, and who is reading them?

Well, the first question is easily answered: DreamHost is where Polish fascism’s at. As to who’s posting to them and who’s reading them, until such time as DreamHost or someone else states otherwise, only DreamHost and (presumably) the site’s owner knows.

What’s the alternative?

They could be hosted elsewhere.

That’s the point.

“Know thine enemy”? Um, yeah. neo-Nazis for a start…

“Knowledge is power”? Um, OK…

Your first question, for 10 points, is…

What ‘lies’?

OK, so Norm’s not a DreamHost employee; I mistakenly assumed otherwise.

And for 20…

What ‘libel’?

Norm’s ability to switch, at will, to another parallel universe is truly awe-inspiring, but I’m less than impressed by his seeming inability to articulate his concerns to me directly.

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notes from nobody to nowhere

Posted on July 8, 2006 by @ndy

Everybody admires the bravery firemen exhibit by rushing into a burning building when the human survival instinct calls for exactly the opposite behavior. It is for similar reasons that you are likely to find Daryle Lamont Jenkins so fascinating, since this 37 year-old black man born in Newark devotes most of his free-time to monitoring the movements of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists… A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed “large numbers of neo-Nazis and [bonehead] extremists” to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization… WARSAW (AFP) — Poland’s Jewish community is to set up a database listing incidents of anti-Semitism, which have been on the rise in the EU member state in recent months, a Jewish official said Thursday… [This following extract is an unpaid presentation of a “Special service by AGI on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister’s office”:] Turin, Jul 7 – The alarm for parcel bombs arriving in Turin has already been given off yesterday by the police, after the second paper bomb attributed to anarchist groups… [On the Italian state’s infamous ‘strategy of tension’ see here; also here. And here] BERLIN (Reuters) – The ceremonial burning of the diary of Holocaust victim Anne Frank by far-right extremists in eastern Germany was condemned by the German government on Friday amid calls to intensify efforts to stamp out neo-Nazi activity…

So is there a role for Marxist intellectuals in these new movements. Yes, absolutely, I’d say. It’s true that they’re theoretically unsophisticated (though Michael Hardt told me that some of the anti-sweathop activists at Duke, where the movement started in 1997, are really liking his class on Capital).

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