slackbastard

Looking for the Barricade Books / Infoshop website? Then please, click here.

He climbs a tree and scrapes his knee
His dress has got a tear
He waltzes on his way to Mass
And whistles on the stair
And underneath his wimple
He has curlers in his hair
I even heard him singing in the abbey

He’s always late for chapel
But his penitence is real
He’s always late for everything
Except for every meal
I hate to have to say it
But I very firmly feel
Ben Weerheym’s not an asset to the abbey

I’d like to say a word in his behalf
Ben Weerheym makes me laugh

How do you solve a problem like Ben Weerheym?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Ben Weerheym?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown!

Many a thing you know you’d like to tell him
Many a thing he ought to understand
But how do you make him stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Ben Weerheym?
How do you hold a wingnut in your hand?

When I read him I’m confused
Out of focus and bemused
And I never know exactly where I am
Unpredictable as weather
He’s as flighty as a feather
He’s a darling! He’s a demon! He’s a lamb!

He’d outpester any pest
Drive a hornet from its nest
He could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl
He is gentle! He is wild!
He’s a riddle! He’s a child!
He’s a headache! He’s an angel!
He’s a girl!

How do you solve a problem like Ben Weerheym?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Ben Weerheym?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown!

Many a thing you know you’d like to tell him
Many a thing he ought to understand
But how do you make him stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Ben Weerheym?
How do you hold a wingnut in your hand?

Recently on perth.indymedia a discussion has been taking place in relation to how best to react to neo-Nazi “infiltration” (sic) of activist mileaus and, more generally, how best to react to fascist political formations as a whole.

The subject? Ben ‘Getaway Driver’ Weerheym.

This question is of particular relevance as it was occasioned by the recent (December 20, 2005) sentencing of Damon Paul Blaxall, 29, to 12 months jail for his part in what has been described as “a racist graffiti attack on a synagogue in Perth” and “possessing racist material” (ABC News Online) and “racial attacks on a Chinese restaurant and a Jewish food store” (Adelaide Advertiser). Earlier this year, and in relation to the same crime, Shannon Mark Post, 24, was “jailed for six months for his part in race-hate graffiti attacks on a synagogue and other buildings around Perth” (The Australian). Of course, the other members of this Devilish group were ANM members Daniel Tyrone Klavins, 26, and Frank James Lemin, 20 — jailed for 10 months and seven months respectively — and Ben Weerheym. Weerheym, 28, escaped a jail sentence because… well, rumour has it that Weerheym turned on his erstwhile comrades-in-arms precisely in order to avoid their fate. A more likely explanation is that Weerheym escaped a custodial sentence because i) he was ‘only’ the driver and ii) his intensive involvement in neo-Nazi politics was not brought to the court’s attention. An article by Paige Taylor (The Australian, August 7, 2004) reads:

A student who avoided jail over Perth’s latest race-hate crimes concealed his involvement with a terrorist group and is a white supremacist who has urged violence against Asians.

The state Director of Public Prosecutions will consider appealing the suspended jail sentence given to Benjamin Weerheym, 27, on Thursday in light of information from The Weekend Australian about his involvement with the Australian Nationalists Movement.

Weerheym, an IT student and part-time disc-jockey from the southern suburb of Como, admitted he was the driver for his two co-accused in the July 16 and 17 [2004] graffiti attacks.

Before he was sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence this week, Weerheym’s lawyer, Michael Tudori, told the Perth Magistrates Court Weerheym was not interested in the ANM and had not wanted to take part in the graffiti.

However The Weekend Australian has learned that for almost two years Weerheym has been promoting the ANM and urging violent attacks against ethnic groups on a white supremacist website called Stormfront.org.

Under the pseudonym Thor Hammered, Weerheym has posted more than 800 messages, ranting against Asians, Jews and Muslims. He has urged others to blow up a Perth nightclub owned by Asians.

“The more the white youth of Australia stand up and show them their true feelings towards the invaders THE BETTER!!” he wrote in March [2003].

Weerheym also wrote: “After a recent trip east by the key members of the ANM/ANWU, it has become apparent we are the most effective, organised, active and above all premier nationalist/pro-white organisation in Australia.”

When Weerheym was confronted about his pseudonym — which was tracked to his email address and his telephone number — he refused to answer any questions about it or his involvement with the ANM.

He instead issued an apology for his involvement in the graffiti attacks.

“I take seriously my political and social ideals but the methods of expression that were undertaken were most definitely not positive or a viable option,” he said.

DPP Robert Cock said Weerheym may have misled the court.

“If we establish that he had misled the court in his submission we would be very enthusiastic to get the matter back before the court to be corrected,” he said…

Weerheym was not jailed because he was deemed to have played a much lesser role as the driver.

The ANM campaign has been escalating since three restaurants were firebombed in February.

Police uncovered an ANM plot to harm West Australian attorney general Jim McGinty last month while investigating the racist graffiti attacks.

Ethnic Communities Council president Suresh Rajan said Weerheym’s sentence was woefully inadequate, especially because it appeared he acted with intent.

“I don’t think I’ve seen such hate being expressed by people in quite a long time, it is really quite frightening,” he said.

(More discussion here.)

Writing in The Review, Andrew Friedman notes that:

Blaxell and Post, arrested on July 20, were caught largely due to the help of footage taken from a security camera at the Perth Hebrew Congregation, where slogans calling for a new Holocaust were sprayed. The surveillance system monitors every individual that enters the building and is of high enough quality that the images of Blaxall and Post were clearly seen by police investigators following the attack.

Ooops. In a related vein:

‘Fifth man charged over racist graffiti attacks’
The Sunday Times
July 28, 2004

A FIFTH man has been charged in relation to a string of racist graffiti attacks in Perth.

Police said the 27-year-old man was arrested yesterday at his home at Como by officers attached to Operation Atlantic.

Operation Atlantic was formed to investigate racially-motivated graffiti found at various locations throughout Perth on the weekend of July 17 and 18…

Police will allege the 27-year-old man, who has been charged with nine counts of criminal damage, was identified as driving one of the cars seen at the scene of an attack on Saturday, July 17…

Blaxall, who is undergoing psychiatric assessment, also faces the additional charge of racial vilification.

‘Guilty pleas over racist graffiti’
Herald Sun
August 3, 2004

…The court was told today that some ANM members were armed and that the group had stockpiled enough equipment to enable it to set up camp in the bush for up to two years.

Lawyer for the three men, Michael Tudori, told the court his clients were easily led and that Mr van Tongeren was a “sweet talker” who could be very persuasive.

Mr Tudori said his clients, who all had troubled family backgrounds, regretted their actions and now denounced the teachings of the ANM.

“They’re all three people who felt left out and never felt accepted by their family groups,” Mr Tudori said. “It does, I submit, give rise to how they felt comfort in this group.”

He told Magistrate Peter Malone his clients’ roles within the ANM were restricted to the distribution of promotional material and they were led to believe that, if caught, it would be considered littering.

After being arrested, charged and remanded on wilful damage charges, Mr Tudori said his clients realised they had been used by senior members of the ANM. “They have also, in my submission, really woken up to themselves,” he said.

“They never once appreciated the seriousness of the matter. They do now.”

Klavins has pleaded guilty to 17 counts of wilfully and unlawfully damaging property, while Lemin and Weerheym have pleaded guilty to 11 and 9 counts respectively of the same offence.

They will be sentenced on Thursday…

‘Neo-Nazi duo jailed for race hate attacks’
Sydney Morning Herald
August 5, 2004

…A third man, Benjamin Weerheym, pleaded guilty to nine counts of wilful damage and received a sentence of six months and one day, which was suspended for 12 months.

The court was told Weerheym had acted as driver for both Klavins and Lemin and while his culpability was equal, his level of criminality was lower than that of his associates.

The court was told the attacks – in which posters promoting the ANM were plastered on buildings alongside racist graffiti – were premeditated and carried out in a clandestine way.

The right-wing ANM is headed by Jack van Tongeren, who spent 12 years behind bars for a spate of racially-motivated fire bombings in Perth in the 1980’s.

‘Supremacist leader in court’
The Age
August 7, 2004

White supremacist leader Jack van Tongeren appeared in a Perth court this morning charged with plotting to commit four arson attacks, and 19 counts of criminal damage.

Van Tongeren, standing in the dock without his trademark fishing hat and moustache, spoke only to confirm that he was commonly known as Jack, after being addressed by the magistrate as Peter Joseph.

The leader of the neo-Nazi Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM) was arrested yesterday after a week-long, statewide manhunt, which ended when a member of the public spotted van Tongeren entering the RSL club in Perth’s CBD.

After being questioned for several hours last night, he was formally charged and this morning appeared before magistrate Robert Black.

Mr Black told the court the arson charges related to four separate alleged attacks, carried out with others, between June 1 and July 16 this year.

Mr Black said van Tongeren was accused of plotting to cause criminal damage by fire to properties in the Perth suburbs of Willeton, Karrawarra, Ferndale and another unknown location.

Van Tongeren’s lawyer Brianna Lonnie said she had not been instructed to apply for bail, and the case was adjourned to be heard in the Perth Court of Petty Sessions on Wednesday, August 11.

Van Tongeren, a Vietnam veteran, saluted the court as he was led away.

The attention of WA Police was again drawn to van Tongeren in early July, when a series of racist graffiti appeared across Perth, along with posters and stickers promoting the ANM.

After five men were arrested over the attacks, it appeared the group had links with the organisation and van Tongeren. The ANM leader denied the claim.

Detectives involved in Operation Atlantic, the investigation into the graffiti, raided van Tongeren’s house in Gingin, north of Perth, on July 29, where, they allege, they uncovered a plot to harm WA’s Attorney General Jim McGinty and other high profile community leaders.

After the alleged plot was publicised, van Tongeren went into hiding until yesterday, when a member of the public spotted him walking into a club on St George’s Terrace and flagged down a passing police car.

Before being taken into custody, van Tongeren told the media he had organised a meeting with police, at the RSL’s Perth headquarters.

He said he had intended to hand himself in to the State Protective Services when he had been arrested.

“I came here to arrange to see (a particular detective) to explain the situation why I’m innocent and (to) answer all questions,” Mr van Tongeren told the ABC.

“Now I come in here, I got jumped on and arrested by a couple of police who happened to be here and recognised me.

I came here to arrange to sort all this out, explain what’s what.”

More on van Tongeren later. In the meantime, it’s worth adding:

‘Portrait of troubled son’
West Australian
23 July, 2004

The parents of alleged race-hate campaigner Damon Paul Blaxall say Graylands Psychiatric Hospital is the best place for their troubled son. David and Marion Blaxall distanced themselves yesterday from their 28-year-old son’s alleged crimes. An Australian Nationalists Movement member, he was charged on Tuesday after a weekend graffiti attack on the Perth Hebrew Congregation in Menora. He was remanded to Graylands for assessment. “Our son unfortunately is a product of the ‘system’, able to leave school and home and receive social benefits without parents’ knowledge and consent – while on the streets it makes it easy for these people to fall into the clutches of people like Jack van Tongeren,” Mrs Blaxall said.

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe” — Albert Einstein

Introduction

2005 was not a good year for local neo-Nazis. The euphoria that erupted at the prospect of a further wave of racially-based violence following the rally cum riot at Cronulla has disappeared almost as quickly as it surfaced. Presented with what they mistakenly believed was an early Xmas present in the form of a crowd of 5,000 ‘angry (White) locals’ determined to ‘Bash the Lebs’ — a golden opportunity for ‘White nationalists’ to rally round the flag and celebrate the dawning of a new era — since December 11, 2005, everything’s turning to shit.

Carl D. Thompson

The year began badly for Carl D. Thompson, one-time editor of One Nation’s newsletter The Nation.

A ‘Lunar’ commentary (‘The End of Pretence’) from the January 2005 issue of The Review — a publication of The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) — elaborates why:

While, as a general rule, One Nation has steered clear of overtly antisemitic material in the past, Carl D. Thompson uses the latest edition The Nation (Vol. 4, No. 10) to unleash a series of anti-Semitic epithets, conspiracy theories, and hatred more commonly associated with neo-Nazi groups. For example, under the headline of “Kiddie porn to be used as net censorship ploy”, Thompson charges that Prime Minister John Howard’s controversial sale of Telstra is only taking place at the order of “Howard’s globalist Zionist masters”, and claims that “it is with good reason that Zionists refer to non-Jews as goyim, which means cattle.”

…[Thompson also espouses] unabashed white supremacy, claiming that Australia’s racial vilification laws “make it a crime for white Australians to say what they think of the government’s agenda to flood Australia with the scum of the third world.”

…Perhaps most bizarre is Thompson’s claim that contends that police action against paedophiles is merely a pretext for greater censorship, a claim followed by Thompson’s muse that “the pornography industry is owned and run almost entirely by Jews” [a common theme in contemporary neo-Nazi writings].

…And, of course, no work of antisemitism would be complete without the conspiracy theorists’ favourite, that “throughout the world the Zionists control the news media, all the major political parties, and the entertainment industry. They control everything that people see and read, which as a result, gives them control of what people think.”

As a result of rather foolishly putting into print his views, Thompson not only lost his job, but also claims to have been rendered unemployable. However, not having a job as a scribbler does not mean that Thompson has stopped scribbling. In a (typically hysterical) letter to The Australian in response to Paul Kelly’s article on how ‘Howard and his haters miss real migration story’, Thompson denounces Kelly as a ‘neo-Stalinist’.

“Australia is a success story in its ability to absorb people from many ethnic and racial origins”, according to Kelly.

Tribal violence …is a law and order issue… but its causes transcend law and order. The police crackdown is impressive but not a long-term solution. It would be an act of folly for police to perpetuate any medium-term solution based upon beach closures and public support for any such stance will quickly erode.

White supremacist cells need to be subject to the force of law. That means arrest and trial, the proper response in a multicultural society. Community leaders need to simultaneously admit and act upon the problem of tribal violence among Lebanese in Sydney’s south.

Of course, ‘white supremacist cells’ are already being subject to the full force of law, of which more below. But in Thompson’s view:

Not everyone wants a multicultural Australia

December 30, 2005

SO Paul Kelly wants to make it a thought crime to be a white Australian patriot and to jail such people because they disagree with his grotesque vision of a multicultural and multi-racial Australia. It is interesting to see that Mr Kelly is not afraid to tell the world that he does not believe in freedom of thought, expression or political activity.

…This neo-Stalinist wants to ship white Australian patriots off to some gulag because they do not agree with him.

I would remind Mr Kelly that the Australian people were not given the opportunity to vote on the abolition of the White Australia Policy.

…Anyone who thinks that Australia is “free” or a “democracy” is not up to speed with reality. Just ask Pauline Hanson. It is all smoke and mirrors, folks, intended to distract the herd while the real rulers of this society go about their agenda of genocide against the white race.

As a test of Mr Kelly’s commitment to and belief in multiculturalism, I propose that he send his daughters and/or granddaughters out to play with the Lebanese of western Sydney…

Carl D. Thompson
Gold Coast, Queensland

Angry? Yes. Disturbed? Yes. Lonely? Yes. Potentially violent? Maybe…

In a post to Stormfront, “Wodensvolk” aka Carl D. Thompson, writes: “I would encourage all in this place [ie, Stormfront Down Under] to join a legal sporting shooters club, such as the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia, buy a compliant safe, tool up with a .308 or 30.06 rifle and scope and, within the legal context of the club, learn how to use it. Be prepared, comrades, be prepared… but stay legal.”

“Be prepared” for what, exactly? Why, in Thompson’s opinion, would having access to firearms be an advisable form of ‘preparation’ for local neo-Nazis?

On the now-defunct White Pride Coalition of Australia website, Thompson posted as ‘Howlingdog88′ (’88’ being neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler” where ‘8’ = ‘H’ or the eight letter of the alphabet). The Member Profile for ‘Howlingdog88’ provides the following information:

Birthday: December 22, 1957
Location: Gold Coast, Australia
Interests: target shooting, science fiction and plotting world domination
Occupation: Unemployed due to blacklisting by the ZOG

In a post on Stormfront, Thompson writes:

My life pretty much ended three years ago when I was fired from my job as a magazine editor and blacklisted by Jewish media/publishing interests because I took a stand for our race.

Specifically, I refused to run a photograph that depicted a N (that N word that we are not allowed to use here on Stormfront) in a spa tub with a naked white woman.

I have been unable to get a job since then and at my age (47) I am too old to be considered for retraining for another occupation.

My life is over. All that I have to look forward to is another 30 years or so of crushing poverty and growing hopelessness.

I take handfuls of prescription medication (anti-depressants and tranquilisers) each day, but I give suicide serious consideration about every other day. Many days I sit at home with a pistol in my lap and recite Hamlet’s ‘to be, or not to be’ soliloquy.

Angry? Yes. Disturbed? Yes. Lonely? Yes. Potentially violent? Maybe…

Pride “refers to a sense of self-respect, a refusal to be humiliated as well as joy in the accomplishments of oneself or a person, group, or object that one identifies with”. Pride as vanity, on the other hand, is “a desire to be important or attractive to others or excessive love of self… Dante’s definition was “love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbor”. In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, pride is referred to as superbia. In Jacob Bidermann’s mediaeval miracle play superbia is the deadliest of all the sins, and leads directly to the damnation of the famed Doctor of Paris, Cenodoxus.”

[The term narcissism was first used in relation to human psychology by Sigmund Freud after the figure of Narcissus in Greek mythology (right). Narcissus was a handsome Greek youth who rejected the desperate advances of the nymph Echo. As a punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away and changed into the flower that bears his name, the narcissus…]

Research shows that when an individual [at any age, but for current purposes, let’s say… 35?] encounters an insurmountable obstacle to his or her orderly progression from one stage of personal development to another, he or she regresses to his infantile-narcissistic phase rather than circumvent the hindrance (Gunderson-Ronningstam, 1996).

While in regression, the person displays childish, immature behaviors. He feels that he is omnipotent, and misjudges his power and that of his opposition. [NB. Hodges once declared on Stormfront that any attempt by antifa to counter his neo-Nazi ideology or to reveal his identity would “awaken the sleeping dragon”.] He underestimates challenges facing him and pretends to be “Mr. Know-All”. His sensitivity to the needs and emotions of others and his ability to empathise with them deteriorate sharply. He becomes intolerably haughty and arrogant, with sadistic and paranoid tendencies. Above all, he then seeks unconditional admiration, even when others with more objective views perceive that he does not deserve it. [Hodges once claimed to have organised a very successful rally in Sydney. It didn’t happen.] He is preoccupied with fantastic, magical thinking and daydreams. In this mode he tends to exploit others, to envy them, and to be explosive.

The main function of such reactive and transient secondary narcissism is to encourage the individual to engage in magical thinking, to wish the problem away or to enchant it or to tackle and overcome it from a position of omnipotence.

Narcissism is also related to another concept: ‘victory disease’.

Victory disease happens when a nation, army or commander has previous military victories and falls for some combination of: arrogance, also known as hubris; complacency; established patterns of fighting; stereotypes of opponents, and/or ignorance of alternatives or refusal to recognize them and loses badly as result.

In each case, the attacker is led to believe in a sense of military invincibility, and comes to ultimate disaster. While “victory disease” does not automatically foretell failure, it is a strong indicator.

The term has applications outside the military world.

Quite.

An infidel is an unbeliever in respect to a particular religion, especially Christianity or Islam; in Islam, kafir is most commonly translated from Arabic into English as “infidel”. In general, an infidel is one who doubts or rejects a particular doctrine, system, or principle.

Having discussed pride, vanity, narcissism, ‘victory defeat’ and infidelity, I’d now like to introduce Joe Hildebrand. According to Hildebrand, ‘White supremacists [are] casting a black cloud’ (The Daily Terror, December 20, 2005) over our sunny beaches.

One of the most disturbing developments of the past nine days is the emergence of handfuls of white supremacists suddenly invigorated by the prospect of a race war.

Until two Sundays ago [11.12.05], these people were rightly confined to the lunatic fringes of political thought. Their presence was largely ignored and their views – so far removed from modern and mainstream society – were considered laughable at best.

Now there’s a buzz in the bizarre world of white supremacy. They think their time has come…

And plenty of those stirring up hatred are locals too, not just to Sydney but to the Sutherland Shire.

…The internet on its own is also a hotbed for white supremacist activity, giving them instant access to their paltry and disparate fellow travellers across the country and overseas, offering the anonymity they crave.

One active local member, who goes by the moniker “Proud to be an Infidel”, has been a regular contributor to international white supremacist organisation Stormfront.

Via a series of electronic footprints, anti-Nazi campaigner Mat Henderson-Hau has linked “Infidel” to Engadine local Darrin Hodges.

Hodges, who runs a website for a sex toy distributor, yesterday admitted to being a member of the racist Australia First Party but denied being a member of any white nationalist groups or a contributor to Stormfront.

His alleged alter ego is not so shy.

“Friends, today was an historic day, the day Australians stood up against state-imposed multiculturalism,” he wrote on the night of the Cronulla riots.

Accompanying his posting is a series of photographs he took at Cronulla that day, including one of a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “wog free zone” and another of a sign offering free sausages to the crowd, with “no tabouli”.

Infidel also speaks of footage he filmed on the day which Henderson-Hau believes was used in a video released over the weekend that glorifies a mob of rioters bashing various non-whites at Cronulla.

Posted on Saturday, it had been downloaded around 400 times by yesterday afternoon.

It follows an earlier video credited to “White Nationalist TV” and dubbed “The Battle For Cronulla”, which was released on the Stormfront website on the night of the riots and has since been downloaded 1700 times.

After several minutes of footage showing skinheads emblazoned with the iron cross and three-bladed swastika taking part in the Cronulla “gathering”, the video finishes with the words “Not white, not welcome in Cronulla”.

If there was any doubt as to what Infidel and his ilk stand for, consider one of his earlier posts on Stormfront in which he states: “I’m more interested in the purer form of fascism… and while I don’t subscribe to the whole ‘worship Hitler’ thing, his comments on multiculturalism and politics in general are still just as relevant today as they were 70-odd years ago.”

“Was there any excrement, any shamelessness in any form, above all in cultural life, in which at least one Jew would not have been involved? As soon as one even carefully cut into such an abscess, one found, like maggots in a decaying body, often blinded by the sudden light, a kike.”

The first video was posted by JN, whom Henderson-Hau believes to be a Central Coast man known as James Newton or James Mauser, although it is unclear if either is his real name.

A situation which subsequent events — and Hildebrand — have done much to clarify: the videographer in question is James Newman. Of whom, more later. For the moment, suffice it to say that Newman, like Hodges, was (is?) also a member of Australia First, is “thought to live in Wyong [and] works for SNP Security at Sydney Central Plaza in Pitt St”. Oh, and here’s a photograph which tends to confirm Hildebrand’s description — “While Infidel fits the profile of an isolated internet geek, JN or Newton is more your typical [bonehead]”.

To conclude: On December 19, just one day prior to the publication of the above, Hodges made the following announcement on Stormfront:

Due to personal circumstances I will be no longer [be] posting/visiting stormfront. I have also resigned my membership of Australia First. I apologise to anybody who may have been offended by my posts on stormfront.

I would appreciate it if a mod could disable/delete this account, thankyou.

Hodge’s announcement was, unsurprisingly, met with the same wailing and gnashing of teeth previous such declarations have engendered, along with speculation over the possible legal ramifications of Hodges’ ‘outing’ and the advisability of threatening the lives of antifa. With that in mind, I offer the following:

DARE WE AWAKEN THE SLEEPING DRAGON?

by Bok-Nam Park [Adapted and Re-edited by F. Hriadil]

“Come not between the dragon and his wrath” — William Shakespeare’s King Lear, Act I, Scene 124

The seething energy of the sleeping dragon dwells within us all. If awakened in the proper manner, the dragon can bestow unfathomable powers; but if aroused incorrectly, it will consume everything in its path. You face this challenge when you tease the dragon with the circle walking exercise of Ba Gua Zhang. Doing the exercise correctly brings enormous benefits. Doing it incorrectly… well, who knows what the dragon might do?

As you learn to correctly awaken the “dragon” (i.e. your Inner Energy), it is necessary to understand more than just the physical movements of walking the circle…

“The Patriotic Youth League similarly denies any connection with neo-Nazi groups.”

A spokesman, Luke Connors, said: “None of our members sympathises with Nazis. We’re just young blokes standing up for our own sort.”

Meanwhile, groups such as the PYL are enjoying the publicity. Mr Connors explains: “Mate, I’m going to get brain cancer from having the mobile phone pressed to me ear all day and all night. Answering membership and media inquiries.”

Connors is thus not only a liar — most, if not all of PYL’s membership is either neo-Nazi or sympathetic to neo-Nazi ideology — he also displays a cavalier attitude towards the possibly harmful effects — not only of racism — but electro-magnetic radiation as well. Perhaps Connors’ embrace of fascism is an early warning sign of mental dysfunction and possible trauma, that is, brain cancer?

Oh, and speaking of psychosis and cancers on the body politic, this is interesting:

Excerpt from Leviathan by John Birmingham about a bunch of violent nutters in the ’80s, including a deserving case who comes to a sticky end:

[National Action] unexpectedly found itself called upon to explain its position. The party’s slack-jawed mouthpiece denied they were in any way racist. [They] didn’t believe in the superiority of one race over another. [They] simply believed that the Anglo-Celtic culture of Australia should not be endangered. As more people noted what they were saying… the party’s internal bulletin, announced that the time had come for taking it to the streets.

Student unions noted an escalating number of bashings of Asian students after dark, both on campus and in the clutch of inner city suburbs around the neo-Nazis’ favourite watering holes. There was a shift not just in the frequency of political violence, but also in its intensity and focus. The targets began to change. The party bulletin [Audacity?] featured a regular [column] in which critics of the party would find their name, phone number and address published with an invitation to the ‘curious and adventurous’ to dish out a little nationalist justice. Journalists such as Gerard Henderson, Andrew Olle and Adele Horin who covered the immigration debate or related topics in an unsatisfactory manner began to receive phone calls and death threats late at night. Academics and unionists found their car tyres slashed and graffiti daubed on their houses. Greenpeace and Community Aid Abroad shops were broken into and looted.

Violent overthrow of the dominant paradigm doesn’t come cheap, however, so in early 1984 the party leadership cooked up a scam to rip off the GIO and raise money to buy all the firebombs, balaclavas and nail-studded clubs they would need to make people understand the righteousness of their cause. A woman who rented a room at [National Action’s] headquarters came home one day to find the place ransacked, her jewellery gone and party fuhrer [James Saleam] shaking his head…

[NA] began working its way down the enemies list, widening their attacks from vulnerable students and the occasional journalist to gays, lesbians, Aboriginal, peace and anti-apartheid groups, academics, liberal congregations such as the Pitt Street Uniting Church, the Anti-discrimination Board, union activists and, somewhat recklessly, a couple of Special Branch cops who had been assigned to their case. Terrorising the wives and families of heavily armed secret police­men was not the Nazis’ first step on the happy staircase to success. After [NA] raided the meeting of a gay migration lobby group the hammer came down.

Having suffered through months of harassment the gays were ready for a fight. Their resistance seemed to unnerve the storm troopers and a handful of hysterical pansies and angry dykes proceeded to bitch slap them out of the room. Special Branch quickly obtained a search warrant and charged over to a house in Petersham used as an alternative headquarters by [NA]. They found a tape recording and photographs of the raid. Most of those who took part were arrested and charged. The cases were heard in Glebe local court and attended by observers from a resistance group called Community Alert Against Racism and Violence.

‘It was unbelievably pathetic,’ said CAARAV’s Betty Hounslow. ‘Shane Rosier, one of their big men, was just this really pathetic bloke in his late forties who was, you know, a bit chubby. He wore these brown trousers that kept riding up the back and an old yukko-looking brown cardigan. They found a lot of weapons in his house… coshs, chains, and studded balls. And his story to the magistrate was that the weapons were part of his collection. He’d always been interested in weapons, he said. His grandfather was a famous gun collector. He and his dad had always wanted to have a gun collection just like old Granddad’s, but they’d never had enough money to collect guns so they had to collect cheaper, working-class weapons. And this was why he had all these things. He said the tape of the raid was left on his doorstep one morning. Like a little abandoned baby.’

The pressure told and the Nazis turned on each other as deeply repressed suspicions and rivalries burst through to the surface. Everybody seemed to accuse everyone else of being police spies and sexual deviants. The final slide into ignoble collapse was marked by the gunshot murder of Wayne ‘Bovver’ Smith in [NA’s] headquarters at Tempe a few years later. It was an almost perfect example of the hapless farce which so often attended the adventures of Sydney’s neo-Nazi elite in the 1980s. Bovver, twenty-five years old and already weighing 108 kilos thanks to the three or four stubbies of beer he’d consume for breakfast each morning, was shot eight times with a sawn-off .22 rifle by Perry Whitehouse, ten years his senior but less than half his size, during a drunken, confused and basically pointless argument. When Whitehouse blew him away, Bovver was wearing a singlet bearing the message: Say No To The New Gun Control Laws.