just one word

Posted on June 27, 2006 by @ndy
    ‘Bullshit’.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

BASTARDS OF UTOPIA!

Posted on June 25, 2006 by @ndy

En Masse Films present…

BASTARDS OF UTOPIA
[ 70 min, 2006 ]

The documentary film Bastards of Utopia—based on 18 months of filming—follows the fieldwork of anthropologist Maple Razsa with anarchist-punks in Zagreb, Croatia. The film focuses on three leading activists who organize political protests against capitalism and nationalism throughout the former Yugoslavia. The three belong to the “Black Bloc”, the faction of the anarchist community [sic] responsible for the most confrontational episodes at “anti-globalization” protests.

In this film, the directors leave behind the now familiar media images of faceless masses breaking shop windows to consider the lived experiences and motivations of the activists behind this movement. They document how—for these three activists—their participation in radical protest is only part of a continuum of political action manifest in their everyday lives: not-for-profit cultural production, do-it-yourself media and post-consumption lifestyles.


“Oh my God, they’ve smashed the state!”

“You bastards!”

Posted in Anarchism, Film | Leave a comment

Hot Pies!

Posted on June 25, 2006 by @ndy

South Melbourne / Sydney / The Bloods / The Swans given a bloody red nose by good old Collingwood!

Collingwood 14.11 (95) def. Sydney 11.16 (82).

Magpies swoop on Swans; Hot Pies cool off at the end, but too late for frustrated Swans; Pies inflict Swans’ second straight loss: “In truth, the final scoreboard flattered the Swans, who never looked in the game except for a four-goal burst in the third term that briefly gave them the lead”; Pies hold on to upset Swans; Fraser taps into winning form as Magpies fly: “[Collingwood] beat Sydney at its own stultifying game”; Pies ground Swans in year’s best win; Magpies rekindle flag hopes; Magpies defy Hall to sink Swans; Take us seriously now, Collingwood says:

“I thought it was probably close to our best win because it was Sydney in Sydney, Sydney after a loss,” Malthouse said.

“To fight back from that I thought was a fantastic result for us.”

And he also believed the win against the sixth-placed Swans finally brought some credibility to his side.

“I thought so. It doesn’t prove everything but what it does say is we can fight back and play against the reigning premiers and beat them on their home ground and still do it by making mistakes and overcoming them,” Malthouse said.

Malthouse pointed out that six of his players – Heath Shaw, Chris Egan, Dale Thomas, Travis Cloke, Harry O’Brien and Scott Pendlebury – are either in their first or second year in the AFL.

COLLINGWOOD 4.3 6.7 11.8 14.11 (95)
SYDNEY 2.4 2.10 6.13 11.16 (82)
Goals: Collingwood: A Didak 4 A Rocca 2 R Lonie 2 C Egan P Licuria R Shaw J Fraser B Johnson L Davis. Sydney: B Hall 3 R O’Keefe 2 M O’Loughlin 2 A Goodes 2 J McVeigh P Williams.
Best: Collingwood: R Shaw A Didak S Burns S Prestigiacomo H Shaw D Thomas. Sydney: C Bolton L Barry R O’Keefe L Ablett A Buchanan J Bolton.
Umpires: S McBurney M James B Allen.
Crowd: 60,307 at Telstra Stadium.

And best wishes to Blake Caracella.

Posted in Collingwood | Leave a comment

Would you accept a racist flyer from this man?

Posted on June 25, 2006 by @ndy

I try not to pay too much attention to the ravings of local fascists, but promoting uneducation! by the Secretary (and likely President and Treasurer) of the Sutherland Shire branch of the neo-Nazi Australia First Party is just too funny. When he’s not selling sex toys to a community he despises, or attending to the many and varied duties that being James Saleam‘s sidekick entails, Darrin Hodges likes to write. Stuff like this:

Thursday, June 15, 2006
promoting uneducation!
Standing at a suburban railway station handing out flyers. The flyers were about the destructive influence of multiculturalism on Australian society. Most people just take one and probably read it on the train. One wom[a]n took it, started to read [it], then stopped[.] I was thinking maybe she would give it back, but as she read more she started walking again. I think it’s part of the conditioning, that anybody who opposes multiculturalism must be a racist, therefore any literature [espousing] anti-multiculturalist ideals must also be racist.

The life of a neo-Nazi sure is an exciting one, eh? Certainly gives you plenty of time to think… of ways to mix tenses… or of reasons why a woman might walk away from you… all the while loitering… outside of suburban railway stations… distributing racist flyers…

For white men such as myself, having thrilled to Darrin’s tale, the only remaining question, naturally, is: Where do I join?

Eventually a State Rail employee [sic] asked me to move on, as I need[ed] permission from ‘Australian Posters’ to ‘advertise’ at the station entrance, so I went off down the sidewalk a bit.

That’s the ANZAC spirit! When challenged by authority, shuffle off down the sidewalk!

Of course, if Darrin spent less time poring over The Protocols and more time studying politics, he might be a little more curious regarding the lawfulness of such a request. Then again, Darrin might also like to keep in mind laws regarding racial vilification.

A bit later I noticed another State Rail [sic] employee carefully examining the flyer with another man[.] [E]ventually he came up to me and said:

‘[D]o you really believe this stuff, that educated people think multiculturalism is good and that uneducated people think it’s bad?”

The [passage, presumably derived from the flyer very much in question] he was referring to was this:

“Multiculturalism is an unsound political ideology, advocated by academics, social theorists, journalists, and politicians. Whilst its theory is supported by such anti-national [sic] people, its actual street-level reality [sic] is opposed by the majority [sic] of Australians.”

In other words, the undemocratic imposition of multiculturalism from the top-down was never voted for or agreed to by the general public. Of course our dear [S]tate [R]ail employee [sic] challenged this in rather simplistic terms, but accusing [my promotion of] an anti-multicultural view as being the same as promoting ‘uneducation’ (sic) is laughable[.] [I]ndeed, if a university degree leads to sweeping platforms and collecting tickets, I for one, would give it a miss.

Er…

To begin with, the railway worker arrived at a reasonable conclusion: if ‘multiculturalism’ is supported by “academics, social theorists, journalists, and politicians” — a group which might otherwise be termed ‘the political class’ (and which may, in turn, be defined as an uneasy alliance between the managerial class and the intelligentsia) — but is opposed by the majority of the population (the masses), then formal level of education would seem to be an obvious distinguishing feature. Unsurprisingly, to really believe this to be true requires a level of indifference to reality that beggars belief: ‘Do you really believe this stuff?’

Secondly, to describe this class as ‘anti-national’ on the basis of its supposed support for ‘multiculturalism’ is absurd… Unless, of course, one defines the properly ‘national’ character of Australian society as being White: precisely what the racist Australia First Party believes, and, on this basis, has a return to a ‘White Australia’ as its central platform.

In reality, the doctrine of ‘multiculturalism’ has a history and this history may be studied. And while Diane Teasdale, the grandmotherly President of the Party, may be entirely ignorant of both this and, no doubt, many other topics, there’s no good reason why the majority of Australians shouldn’t avail themselves of such resources. In fact, many do, and in so doing discover that the simplistic rhetoric of racist grandmothers is just that.

Finally, for all their pissing and moaning about ‘undemocratic impositions’ by the state — and ‘multiculturalism’ is, in essence, a state-based system of managing ‘cultural difference’ — the AFP’s objection is not a principled one: they’re hardly anarchists, after all. Rather, the tiny number of racists who flock to Saleam’s banner are motivated by racial animosity towards those they deem to be ‘non-White’. And the “street-level reality” of this smelly little unorthodoxy may be found standing at a suburban railway station handing out flyers, being met with hostility and indifference.

“You have your dreams, we have dreams of our own, we all have our dreams. Fortunately, we live in an age, when, as never before in human history, you can live your dreams.

The Internet is changing life as we know it, so through it, let us lend power, shape and style to your dreams. Your passions, along with the genius of our product line, and the integrity of our ordering / dispatch systems, combine to make a powerful elixir.

So drink deep and step into our world and let your fancy take on reality.”

Posted in Anti-fascism | 14 Comments

Redwatch UK

Posted on June 24, 2006 by @ndy

Call for action on far right website
Yorkshire Evening Post
23 June, 2006
Anne Alexander
(Political Editor)

American law enforcers could take action against a Leeds-run far right website blamed for a knife attack on a young father.

The Home Office is in talks with the US Department for Justice over the website Redwatch which publishes “hit lists” of anti-fascist and anti-racist campaigners.

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker told MPs that the British authorities have no authority over the site because it is hosted by an American company.

But he has had talks with his counterparts in the US to get them to investigate whether they have broken any laws and to prosecute.

He revealed the move during a debate in the House of Commons on the organisation following the attack on Alec McFadden from the Wirral.

The father of two was nearly blinded and suffered cuts to his head, arm and wrists when a knifeman [“knifeman”?] attacked him in front of his young daughters. His photograph and address had appeared on the website.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media, State / Politics | 2 Comments

Hitler cats!

Posted on June 24, 2006 by @ndy

My Godwin!

Hitler cats!

See also : Kittenwar!

Posted in Cats | Leave a comment

Whatever…

Posted on June 24, 2006 by @ndy

Anna the FBI informant stars in another article, this time one appearing in the Broward-Palm Beach New Times (June 22, 2006). Go Anna!

Have Wire, Will Travel

Anna the Medic, one of the FBI’s top informants, has cut a wide swath through the antiwar and animal rights movements.

Listen, my children, to the story of Anna the Medic, who travels the land, bringing the harsh scrutiny of federal law enforcement to Americans engaged in political protest.

In the past two years, Anna, whose real name may be Anna Davies or Anna Davidson, has turned up at rallies and marches from South Florida to Northern California, with a lot of stops in between. She has demonstrated for animal rights and protested the Iraq War, all the while meticulously gathering information on political dissidents for the FBI. According to FBI affidavits, Anna has been a paid informant in 12 investigations of “anarchist” groups. She’s a veritable Scarlet Pimpernel, on the federal government tab.

From the Department of Everybody’s an “Anarchist” Nowadays:

‘Anarchist’ Libs accused of disloyalty
Mark Kenny
Advertiser
23 June 2006

MODERATE Coalition MPs have been accused of disloyalty and branded “anarchists” as tempers fray over the Government’s asylum seeker policies.

From the Department of Fuck Rocks *s Are Stupid:

Venting feelings of anger and frustration through the use of humour and boisterous rock music was a very deliberate move. Lead singer/guitarist Nathan Larson (Shudder To Think) was concerned that the messages of the political left were becoming too dry or aggressive to engage the average person.

“You’ve got this very dusty, Noam Chomsky, academic, boring type,” explains Larson, “and nobody wants to listen to that guy.”

“It’s just not interesting to most people. And then you’ve got the really hardcore, anarchist, Molotov-cocktail-tossing thing, which is so deadly serious that it is repellent to many people.”

Bassist Emm Gryner agrees that humour and a sense of fun are excellent vehicles for delivering disturbing issues.

From the Department of Who’s the Moron Now:

Protesters were ‘morons’: police chief

E-mail to officers sent by chief after probe begins into group member’s allegations

Fiona Isaacson
Guelph Mercury
June 23, 2006

Police Chief Rob Davis called members of the Guelph Union of Tenants and Supporters “morons” in the middle of a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault by a police officer of one of the group’s members.

Posted in Anarchism | Leave a comment

Redwatch UK not OK with MP; DreamHost still hearts neo-Nazism

Posted on June 22, 2006 by @ndy

BBC, June 20, 2006: Action urged on far-right website

A far-right website which publishes leftwingers’ addresses has come under fire in the Commons in the wake of a knife attack on a union activist.

The victim, Alec McFadden, has apparently been targeted by the far right because of his outspoken opposition to the fascist BNP. Labour MP Angela Eagle, who has called on fellow MPs to “take action” of some sort, believes that Redwatch UK may be registered to the neo-Nazi terrorist gang Combat 18, a project of the international terror network Blood And Honour. UK Antifa describe the two groups as follows:

Combat 18:

Rarely sighted these days in England, C18 now has sister groups in several European countries and the USA. Damaged by the revelation that his number two, Darren Wells, was an informer for Searchlight and the security services, C18 Fuhrer Wilf Browning has had an exceptionally low profile recently. Recent raids on C18 in Poland and northern Germany indicate that the authorities still regard C18 as a threat, even if no one else does.

Blood and Honour:

The cash cow of the international far-right. Rather like football hooliganism, Blood & Honour originated in England, but has gone on to bigger and better things elsewhere. An important player in the development of far-right ideas internationally, Blood & Honour has struggled to retain much of a profile in its homeland. In Europe an outright ban by the German government was an indication of its size and threat. Here [the UK] B&H struggle to hold more than the odd gig in the sticks. Perhaps people in Britain have realised that the music is shit?

Well, their music is certainly shit, but so too is the fate of former Fuhrer Charlie Sargent:

Paul David Sargent, known as Charlie Sargent, is the former leader and founder of Combat 18, a British neo-Nazi group. He was initially a supporter of the [BNP] but split from them in 1996.

Sargent spent time in prison in 1997 for distributing anti-Semitic literature, and was sentenced to life imprisonment on January 21, 1998 at Chelmsford crown court for his part in the murder in 1997 of Chris Castle, another member of C18. It has since been claimed that Sargent was a paid informant for the British government.

When the 5 foot tall Sargent was jailed for life, The Sun ran the front page headline ‘The End of the Road For The 5 Foot Toad’.

Ha!

A further aside: neo-Nazis are quite good at murdering one another. Very good, in fact. In 1989, ANM member Wayne Robert Napier used a concrete pole to beat David Locke to death. Further:

On 20 April 1991 — Adolf’s bithday… — National Action member Perry Whitehouse gunned down fellow member Wayne ‘Bovver’ Smith at the National Action headquarters. What Whitehouse didn’t know, as he closed the hand of his bullet-riddled former comrade around a knife to make it look like self-defence, was that ASIO had bugged the place, and the whole sorry affair was down on tape.

Smith : What’s it say?
Whitehouse: Ask him, mate. Just ask him. He’s…
Smith : You’re the one that’s fuckin’ sayin’ this.
Whitehouse : Just wait here. Footsteps. I’ll show what I got to say.
Smith : All right.
Music. Pause in conversation. Six sharp noises in succession. Distinct sound similar to a gun being fired. Crashing sounds. Music.
Whitehouse : That’s what I got to fuckin’ say, you fuckin’ cunt.
Another member, Gregory Jorgensen, then speaks. His words are inaudible.
Whitehouse : I just killed the prick. You wanna know. Yeah, you wanna fuckin’ know. What’ya wanna know… to kill you too… I just shot the fuckin’ prick. Right. I just shot the cunt. Wanna know.
Music stops.
Whitehouse : Because he’s a fuckin’ arsehole, that’s why I shot him. Right. Do you think I’m fuckin’ scared of fuckin’ goin’ to jail. I don’t give a fuck. I’m not scared. Right. I shot the cunt dead. That’s what it’s all about boy, that’s what it’s all about, right. You ain’t got the guts to fuckin’ face up to that, you’re fuckin’ weak as piss. Right, he’s fuckin’ dead. Now we gotta get rid of that body or I’m gonna get rid of the fuckin’ body, right.
A gasp is heard.
Whitehouse : Shut up, ya fuckin’ prick.

[Source : David Greason, I was a teenage fascist, McPhee Gribble, 1994, pp.303-304.]

Right.

In Australia, Blood and Honour is most ably represented by Peter Campbell (WPCA) and Welf Herfurth (Australia First); the group’s last gig taking place at Newcastle’s Hamilton Hotel on Saturday the 25th of February. Blood and Honour is a “banned” organisation in Germany, which may help explain why Herfurth — former President of the Riverstone (NSW) branch of the One Nation Party and former executive member of the (German) National Democratic Party — is now living and working in Australia rather than his country of birth.

Of course, as previously revealed by Fightdemback, Welf wasn’t the only neo-Nazi wanker deemed worthy of acknowledgement by the rather dim-witted Blood and Honour NSW. Here’s a message one of the organisers sent to supporters following the gig:

From: Blood Honour NSW
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Date: Feb 27, 2006 10:25 AM
Subject: BH NSW SHOW 25th FEB

[T]hanks to everyone who made the effort to support us and their local scene on the [S]aturday night just pas[t] (25th [F]eb[ruary]). Those who have complained about the lack of a local scene and put their money where their mouth is [sic] and made the effort to turn up – you people are the reason we want to put these shows on. [T]o quote [I]an [S]tuart – “Stop sign? What Stop sign?”

The funds raised from this show will go back into the local scene in the form of future events and equipment purchase to reduce the operating costs of BHNSW and therefore increase [our] ability to throw bigger and better events.

[S]pecial thanks goes out to Welf, Mark, Christian, James, [S]teve and [J]eff who all [pitched] in and helped out in a massive way and without [whose] help there would be no gig to attend. [A]ctions speak louder than words.

BHNSW and Blood Red Eagle both thank everyone who attend[ed] for their support and we hope to see you all back at the next event.

828.
BH NSW CORE TEAM.

Ooops. Anyway, back to Redwatch. First, the UK. Then, Poland.

Two years ago the Home Office promised action against Redwatch “very soon” after a series of representations from MPs.

A Home Office spokeswoman told the BBC News website at the time: “We are aware of the anxiety caused by the presence of such material on the internet.

“We have had representations from many MPs about this matter and will be responding to their concerns very soon.”

Speaking on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said the Home Office was working with the Association of Chief Police Officers to try to tackle the sort of incitement on the Redwatch website.

“We believe the existing legislative framework is enough for tackling this,” she added.

In the Commons, Mr Coaker said there were problems clamping down on overseas websites.

“In these circumstances, we would not have the power to close down that website, or in some cases to prosecute the people who are responsible for it, if illegal material was not distributed in or uploaded from the UK,” he said.

“The offence of inciting others to commit crimes would not be exempt from prosecution under these circumstances, however, regardless of whether the perpetrator had used a website hosted in a foreign jurisdiction.”

Mr Coaker said more international cooperation was needed.

Meanwhile, DreamHost is telling the world to kiss its lily-white arse. Members of the RevolutionaryLeft forum, however, don’t seem all that keen on complying…

Bloody communists!

See also : Ex-Combat 18 man speaks out [BBC, November 11, 2001]; Combat 18’s hardline racism [BBC, April 19, 1999]; and the always irreverant Anti-fascist News [London Class War], from which the following report is taken : “Ireland AFA action (7th June 2006) : Anti Fascist Action and members of Anarchist Youth routed a planned meeting of Nazi bonehead gang, the Celtic Wolves in Dublin city centre yesterday. What was planned as the first meeting in Dublin this year for these sad tossers ended in utter humiliation as anti-fascists first evicted them from their meeting point in a city centre pub and then proceeded to beat them up and down O’Connell Street.”

Ouch!

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Media, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

Sometimes A Slack Bastard, But Always Antifascist

Posted on June 22, 2006 by @ndy

Fuckin’ A!

Posted in Anti-fascism, Music | Leave a comment

Lodhi Goes Down

Posted on June 21, 2006 by @ndy

Lodhi guilty of terror plot: “Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, is the first person in the country to be convicted of planning a terrorist act and faces a maximum penalty of life in jail.” Thus becoming the third person to be convicted under Australia’s new terror laws, Lodhi having been preceded by Jack Thomas and Jack Roche:

In 2004, Jack Roche, 50, a Muslim convert, became the first person to be convicted of an offence under counter-terrorism laws introduced in 2002.

The Perth man was sentenced to nine years’ jail after pleading guilty to conspiring to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra.

But a NSW Supreme Court jury acquitted Zeky Mallah, 21, of terrorism charges after he was accused of preparing to launch a suicide attack on the Sydney office of either ASIO or the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Mallah pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening to kill a commonwealth officer. He became the first person to be acquitted under Australia’s anti-terror legislation.

“Jihad” Jack Thomas, the Melbourne man whom Osama bin Laden is said to have wanted as an al-Qa’ida sleeper agent in Australia, was also acquitted by a jury of terrorism charges. But he was sentenced to five years’ jail for receiving funds from a terrorist organisation.

Attorney-General Montgomery Burns, as keen-eyed and forthcoming as ever, is reported to have stated the following to The Daily Terror (June 19, 2006) in reaction to Lodhi’s conviction: “Mr Lodhi has been convicted of offences in relation to acts preparatory of a terrorist event here in Australia”. Even more helpfully, Burns added that he was unable to say ‘how close Australia came to an actual terrorist attack’. According to Kim Arlington (AAP), the successful prosecution of the ‘Case hinged on Lodhi as terrorist or entrepreneur’ (June 19, 2006), the jury settling for ‘terrorist’; The Australian too, reminding us (June 20, 2006) that the ‘Case against Lodhi was circumstantial’. But now that it’s over, The Daily Terror (June 20, 2006) has made its position clear regarding Lodhi’s sentencing: ‘Sydney terrorist must rot in jail’.

That’s Sydney. As for Melbourne:

…Magistrate Paul Smith last week adjourned a committal hearing for 13 men accused of being members of an alleged terrorist group… Prosecution and defence lawyers resolved a dispute after lawyers for the 13 men opposed the Federal Government’s insistence they [that is, the defence lawyers] pass security checks as part of new national security laws. The security checks would require extensive disclosure of personal information… defence lawyer Rob Stary called the security clearances “unlawful and unconstitutional”… The hearing continues in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on July 10.

The men charged with belonging to, funding and supporting a terrorist organisation are yet to enter a plea. Two of the men face additional charges of trying to help al-Qaida conduct a terrorist organisation.

Of note is the fact that similar laws were enacted in Germany in the 1970s, laws which were justified at the time as being necessary in order to combat the scourge of ‘(Red) Terror’. The effects of their enactment are described by one source as follows:

In Germany, by contrast, as the government’s policy became visibly more repressive during the 1970s, radical lawyers became important public voices of the RAF and other radical groups. Often berated publicly by the RAF, the government, and the media, several lawyers were arrested and convicted. Legal aid centers became a recruiting ground for future generations of radicals once the initial generation was behind bars. In Germany political trials and prisons were of great significance. German law acknowledges by 1976 that it is dealing with “political prisoners”, a category that the United States throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and Italy until 1978, refuses to acknowledge.

But if not Germany 1970s, then perhaps Northern Ireland 1970s?

As Sydney architect Faheem Lodhi yesterday became the first person to be convicted by a jury of planning a terrorist attack in Australia, one of the world’s foremost counter-terrorism experts, John Stevens, called for terrorism cases to be heard by a judge alone.

The former head of the London Metropolitan police has joined Australia’s top policeman, Mick Keelty, in arguing for a change to the justice system.

Lord Stevens and Mr Keelty discussed the issue in Sydney last week while the jury was deliberating on the terrorism charges against Lodhi.

Lord Stevens, who is considered one of London’s most successful police commissioners, said a successful precedent had been set in Northern Ireland where judge-only courts were used to run cases against accused IRA terrorists.

Lord Stevens said one of the major issues in conducting terrorism trials was the question of how much information should and could be disclosed to a jury.

“There is some information that should never see the light of day,” he said. “They (the judges) are going to be guarding the information and ensuring that it remains confidential.”

Problem solved.

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