Local
The Nutzis who belong to the Australian Protectionist Party have established a new Internet forum called ‘Australian Identity’. Its membership is principally drawn from current members of the Party and a few other odds and sods no longer welcome on the anti-Semitic (and apparently ailing) ‘Stormfront’ site, or on the Nutzi ‘Australian New Nation’ forum. In a number of recent letters from his bunker in Tempe, rival to the ‘Australian nationalist’ crown (/tinfoil helmet), Australia First Party fuehrer Dr James Saleam has a few choice words both for the ‘Christian-Zionists’ of APP as well as in relation to the handful of Internet geeks assembled around Welf Herfurth and the New Right / ‘national anarchists’. The principal bone of contention for these fascist dogs is the question of state power: Herr Doktor dreams of seizing it; the notional anarchists attached to Welf’s apron strings claim to want to do away with it. For Herr Doktor, not unreasonably, the state is a necessary instrument through which to re-establish a White Australia, and the New Right’s aim to dissolve it is deeply antithetical to the interests of the Australian nationalist (read: fascist) movement. (Herr Doktor has also detected a minor contradiction between the group’s proclaimed ‘nationalism’ and its apparent espousal of ‘anarchism’.) No doubt the boys will kiss and make up in time for this year’s Sydney Forum.
Finally, note that there’s been a minor resurgence of neo-Nazi activism in Perth, both political and musical. On the political side of things, more later; recently, The Homicides gladly shared a stage with Murray Holmes (ex-Quick & The Dead, Skrewdriver), who’d previously travelled to Melbourne (last year) to perform at the Melbourne Croatia Social Club with a handful of other neo-Nazi bands. Curiously, The Homicides are planning a split release later this year with Sydney’s T.H.U.G., the vocalist for which (Chumley) and drummer (Simon) played in another seminal Australian RAC band called White Lightning (est.1988). T.H.U.G. still perform the White Lightning song ‘We Rule’, which was the title of their only official release (subsequently re-recorded and released as ‘Destiny’ on French RAC label Rebelles Européens (1987–1994) in 1990, RE332190). Although apparently collapsing in 1994, in 1995 Rebelles Européens made a short-lived recovery assisted by an Australian label, White League. White League released a handful of CD recordings before it too dissolved. In the meantime, T.H.U.G. will be playing with Sham 69 (minus Jimmy Pursey), Sin City and Toe to Toe @ The Corner on ANZAC Day (April 25).
- Simon, Out of Order (Dutch RAC zine), 2000:
What is your best memory of White Lightning?
Best memory was playing a gig in Melbourne, in some pub, can’t remember which, full swing into it and about 30 Maoris drinking in the front bar… I’m sure you can picture what happened. Bedlam. We managed to protect all our gear however. Mic stands make magnificent clubs.
Chumley, The Stormtroop (Australian RAC zine), 1988:
Do you have any opinion on the current crisis in the West Bank between the Jews and the Palestinians?
As everyone can see the ever troublesome Jews are up to their old tricks by causing mass disorder. So we think that the Palestinians should wipe the Jews out and take back Palestine, then we should go in and wipe the Arabs off the face of the Earth.
What do you think of the Australian Nationalists Movement?
It makes a lot of sense.
(NB. In this context, the term “Nutzi” is a catch-all phrase used to describe the far right; it should not be interpreted as implying that all described as such are, according to a standard definition, neo-Nazis. Local fascists and racists are divided on a number of questions, including Islam, ZOG, the state, political strategy and tactics.)
&/Or General
Mother Russia
In Russia, despite the proclamations of local experts, neo-Nazis continue their terrorist campaign, the latest in a string of murders being that of a teenage (?) Muscovite, Alexei Krylov:
Young man killed in Moscow in attack by neo-Nazis, group says
AP / International Herald Tribune
March 17, 2008MOSCOW: A young man was stabbed to death in central Moscow in what activists described on Monday as an attack by neo-Nazis.
The Antifa anti-Nazi movement said in a blog that the 16-year-old, Alexei Krylov, was attacked by more than a dozen neo-Nazis armed with knives and fatally stabbed in the neck late Sunday. The attack just a few blocks away from the Kremlin occurred as Krylov and several others were heading to a punk music concert in a Moscow nightclub, Antifa said.
Moscow police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev confirmed that a young man was stabbed to death in downtown Moscow late Sunday, but would not identify the victim or give any details, saying the criminal probe was under way.
Antifa said that a young woman also was wounded in Sunday’s attack. It said that in 2006 another young man died in a similar attack by neo-Nazis outside a Moscow nightclub.
Nationalist and neo-Nazi groups mushroomed after the 1991 Soviet collapse as a dramatic economic decline spread social frustration, particularly among youth. They targeted numerous guest workers from impoverished ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia, students from Africa, visitors from Asian countries, Jews and Russian anti-Nazi activists.
Rights activists have said that authorities, who earlier came under criticism for doing little to combat xenophobia, have been making efforts recently to investigate hate crimes more thoroughly and to take such cases to court.
The fatal attack on Alexei was accompanied at around the same time by an attack on an African student, who was stabbed 36 times but miraculously managed to survive (African Student Stabbed in [Bonehead] Attack, Ali Nassor, The St. Petersburg Times, March 18, 2008). Marches in memory of Alexei were held in Moscow, Berlin and Milan; he’s described as being 21 in a report on the protests (Murder of anti-fascist sparks march in Moscow, Russia Today, March 19, 2008: “They thought we were anti-fascist activists but we’re not and we told them so. But these people didn’t care, I think they wanted to kill someone and went for it because we looked different,” said Stas, a witness.). Moscow police have arrested a number of boneheads in connection with murder: “There have been 33 racist murders and another 101 people severely injured in hate crimes across Russia so far this year, the Sova Center, which tracks hate crimes, said Wednesday. “In the whole of last year, 72 people died as a result of attacks by [boneheads], and in the less than three full months of 2008 we’ve already had 33,” Sova Center head Galina Kozhevnikova said, Interfax reported. “The level of violence in rising,” she said” (5 Suspected [Boneheads] Held in Raids, The Moscow Times, March 20, 2008). The marches and arrests failed to halt a further fatal attack in Moscow, the victim on this occasion being a woman from Tajikistan (Woman from Central Asia killed in Moscow in apparent hate crime, AP / International Herald Tribune, March 21, 2008). A subsequent report in The Moscow Times by Matt Siegel goes into some greater detail regarding the rising tide of fascist violence in Russia (Tracking Hate Crimes a Tricky Business, March 27, 2008):
After the 17th body was discovered in mid-February, alarm bells began to sound. Hate-crime monitors announced a significant spike in xenophobic attacks nationwide, warning that if the trend continued through the end of the year there would be a 200 percent rise in the number of violent racist crimes compared with 2007. The trend does not appear to be fading. As of Wednesday, 38 people had been murdered in racially motivated attacks, according to the Sova Center, one of the country’s two main NGOs tracking hate crimes. But exactly what conclusions can be drawn from these figures is difficult to gauge given the inexact science of tracking such crimes…
On the evening of March 25, in the middle of a snowstorm(!), Russian antifa staged a protest in St. Petersburg. Russian police arrested two dozen or so members of the 150-strong march; a report on IndyMedia may be read (in English) here (with Bonus! links).
The St Petersburg Times carries a report on the protest (Anti-Fascists Chased by Police, Sergey Chernov, March 28, 2008). Contrary to the expert prognostications of local punk luminaries, the article concludes that “An Uzbek man and a woman either from Yakutia or Buryatiya, were reported to have been stabbed to death in St. Petersburg this week, in addition to three other racially-motivated killings and a number of beatings this month.”
- See also : [For Dion] Hate Crimes on Rise in Russia // Big Ups from Down Under, January 31st, 2008 | [For Dion] “I Love Trash”, February 6, 2008 | [For Dion] Nothing to see here…, February 16, 2008 | [For Dion] Love versus hate // Another antifa stabbed in Moscow, February 16, 2008 | Dion, December 12, 2007: “As I stated on the [Bombshell] forum Andy, you are a liar, a hypocrite and no better than the trash that you fight against.” | Doug Smith Drops A Bombshell, December 11, 2007
Acts of fascist violence aren’t confined to Russia, of course. In Belfast, Ireland, a 32-year-old man had his throat slashed by a Loyalist mob following a football match (Neo-Nazi thugs involved in throat slashing, Belfast Newsletter, March 31, 2008):
ENGLISH neo-Nazi thugs were among the loyalist mob who slashed the throat of a Celtic fan at the weekend, eyewitnesses have claimed. Violence erupted on Saturday at the junction of Castle Street and King Street at around 3.30pm involving a mob of up to 70 Linfield fans returning from the day’s Irish Cup semi-final clash with Cliftonville at The Oval. The 32-year-old Celtic supporter was pummeled and had his throat slashed during the trouble, and today remained in a critical condition at the Royal Victoria Hospital. A number of other people were also injured by bricks, bottles and stones hurled during the rioting. Eyewitnesses in Castle Street – a mainly nationalist thoroughfare – said the Linfield supporters alighted from a bus and rushed towards the area. Onlookers today reported some of them were wearing neo-Nazi gear. At first the crowd tried to get into the Belfast Bar at the junction of Castle Street and King Street, but were repelled by up to 100 customers who had been watching the Celtic-Rangers Old Firm match on television. One witness said: “It was after the Linfield crowd were beaten back from the bar that they singled out a guy in King Street. They knew he was Catholic because of his Celtic shirt.” And Superintendent Mark Purden told the Nolan show police were aware of men dressed head-to-toe in black roaming the city before the violence. They were monitored by the PSNI CCTV hub in Belfast, and when they saw the gang begin to attack, they tasked officers just after 3.30pm. He admitted police were aware of claims they were neo-Nazis. One eyewitnesse told the show: “The men tried to get into the bar at first, and one was carrying an extendable baton. Another had a pair of knuckle-dusters and [they] were chanting, ‘Combat 18’.”
Whether or not the cowards involved in the assault were members of an organised C18 grouping is unknown, but unlikely given C18’s virtual abandonment of the UK for more favourable territory on mainland Europe (Police check neo-Nazi link to Belfast attack, Henry McDonald, The Guardian, April 2 2008). Speaking of which, in Germany, Der Spiegel reports that ‘New Bid to Ban Far-Right NPD Looks Doomed’ (April 1, 2008), which is sure to be welcomed by ex-member Herfurth, as well as the many local fascists who look to the NPD — and to a lesser extent the BNP — as an organising model.
