C.U.N.T., Hoelzer Reich, & Tomorrow Belongs to The Yes Men!

C.U.N.T.

Oh Noes! “Covert Undercover Nuisance Tactics” — a blog established in December 2005 and apparently maintained by two British neo-Nazis named Tommy Williams and Dave Howard — has passed on. The blog is no more. It has ceased to be. It has expired and gone to meet its maker. It’s a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. It’s pushing up the daisies. Its quasi-metabolic processes are now history. It’s off the twig. It’s kicked the bucket, shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile. THIS IS AN EX-BLOG!

http://covert-tactics.blogspot.com/

Why?

Dunno.

But it may have something to do with the alleged fact that Tommy Williams and Dave Howard attended the home of National Front functionary Eddy Morrison in late November (Eddy has been slightly unsteady in his precise political allegiances, having been involved in umpteen fascist groupuscules over his lifetime). Some further details are available here: BNP Life Member promotes rabid neo-Nazism, Edmund Standing, December 5, 2009.

Hoelzer Reich

In other nutzi news, the US-based clothing label Hoelzer Reich — founded by Jed Colvin and Jamie Vine — is coming under fire. See : Controversial Hoelzer Reich Clothing at TUF 10 Finale, Brent Brookhouse, Bloody Elbow, December 2, 2009.

While the company distances itself from neo-Nazism and fascism — and it, in turn has been repudiated by the UFC, at least in England — the fact is that HR has sponsored neo-Nazi reich ‘n’ rollers ‘West Wall’ in the past:

West Wall is a neo-Nazi metal band led by the former leader of the neo-Nazi skinhead group Northern Hammerskins [ie, Ed Wolbank, a former member of US reich ‘n’ rollers Bound for Glory*]. Hoelzer Reich’s website contained photos of the band in their shirts which the brand explains as the band buying the shirts and mailing them photos which were then posted and removed once it was realized who they were. However, in an interview the lead singer of the band said that they were sponsored by the brand. Add that to the fact that up until recent days the label’s blog stated West Wall as their favorite band and the fact that HR’s myspace page featured a playlist of West Wall songs and it becomes hard to think that the posting of the band in HR shirts was a simple mistake.

Check out West Wall, Before God & Bound For Glory on the web here.

Like any good business — cf. The Birmingham Hotel and Hold Fast Body Art in Melbourne — Hoelzer Reich understands that, while it may be funs to flirt with fascism, beyond a certain level, honest confessions of racist political sentiment can be damaging to the brand, and hence profitability. It’s also standard practice, when sprung, for more intelligent businessmen to go into damage control mode, seeking to eliminate previously more-or-less open support for disreputable groups and projects; the shit-for-brains, on the other hand, tend to go out of business.

It’s also worth noting that of the thousands of nutzi musos making a racket in the ’80s and ’90s, some small number are now trying to go ‘legit’: that is, to make muzak and perform it without, for example, imploring their audience to go out and kill some Jews. In doing so, they invariably — and necessarily — seek to transform their img. Examples of this include bands like ‘Tattooed Motherfuckers’ in the UK and ‘T.H.U.G.’ in Australia.

The moral of the story is that if you’re a tweenage, or teenage, or 20-something, or 30-something bonehead, don’t be surprised if your devotion to the Master Race doesn’t come back to bite you in the arse later on in life.

And the silver lining? Watching with amusement as their pals jump in to defend them.

    *Bound for Glory: A popular Minnesota-based hate band that formed in 1989; perhaps the most important U.S.-based hate music group. The band is led by Ed Wolbank, at one time the director of the neo-Nazi Northern Hammerskins in St. Paul, Minnesota. The band members also formed their own production company, Bound for Glory (BFG) Productions, which they recently sold to Panzerfaust Records [LOL].

Anyway.

Tomorrow belongs to The Yes Men.

NB. “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” (Cabaret) was written by two Jewish d00ds, John Kander (1927–) and Fred Ebb (1928–2004).

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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18 Responses to C.U.N.T., Hoelzer Reich, & Tomorrow Belongs to The Yes Men!

  1. @ndy says:

    ROFLMAO…

    WestWall Wears Hoelzer Reich Clothing!
    August 11, 2009

    Hoelzer Reich Clothing would like to introduce our FAVORITE band, WESTWALL! WestWall is made of veterans of the Minnesota metal scene. These Legionaires [sic] serve up their own brutal style of war metal. Influenced by great metal bands such as Slayer, Bolt Thrower, Iron Maiden, Arch Enemy, and Death, WestWall stays in keeping with the purest tradition of metal. Inspired by movies like Gladiator, Braveheart, Troy, 300 as well as hundreds of history books extolling the virtues of hard-edged, in-your-face, do or die mentality, WestWall’s music is built on overtly powerful guitar riffs, pounding drumming, pulsating bass work and commanding vocals. It is a full-throttled finely tuned music machine that will exhilarate the most discriminating metal heads. Listen to their music at [http://www . myspace . com/westwallwar]. They are amazing!

  2. @ndy says:

    NB. “das vierte reich hat begonnen” = “the fourth reich has begun”.

    HOELZER REICH ‘s friends are private.
    Add HOELZER REICH as a friend to view this page.

  3. @ndy says:

    Maggie kinda skips over the real story, but it’s a start I guess. Maybe if she were allowed the opportunity to think it over while listening to some music. Say, by Westwall. Or Bound For Glory…

    Holzer Reich’s Nazi-esque shirts make way to UFC and Spike TV
    Maggie Hendricks
    Yahoo! Sports
    December 7, 2009
    sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Holzer-Reich-s-Nazi-esque-shirts-make-way-to-UFC?urn=mma,207055

    If you thought you saw some disturbing imagery in the Octagon on Saturday night, your eyes did not deceive you. In his loss to Marc Bocek, Joe Brammer wore a walk-in shirt from Hoelzer Reich, a clothing company who has come under fire for having Nazi-esque symbols on their clothing.

    Brammer’s shirt has iron crosses all over it, a symbol associated with the Third Reich. Hoelzer Reich has also sold shirts with the SS symbol used by Nazis during World War II and other images used by the Third Reich. Even the skulls on the shirts — ubiquitous on MMA gear — are carbon copies of the skulls that were on SS uniforms.

    If Brammer wants to wear this shirt down Main St., he is free to do so. The First Amendment guarantees him that right. But free speech does not mean consequence-free speech. Fighters shouldn’t be able to wear shirts into the Octagon (and make sponsor money from broadcasts) that promote something so hurtful and offensive.

    Hoelzer Reich’s defenders — including Strikeforce fighter Lyle “Fancypants” Beerbohm — say that the clothing only promotes German-American pride, and as a German-American, that offends me more than anything. I am proud to be German, and live in a traditionally German area of Chicago. We are all able to show our pride in Deutschland without paying homage to such a dark part of history.

    The UFC has banned clothing from the Octagon because of squabbles with clothing companies, or because of contract disputes with fighters. They need to take a stand on this, and not allow Hoelzer Reich clothing on a UFC or WEC fighter.

  4. @ndy says:

    Hoelzer Reich’s Racist Hatred Apparently Acceptable in the UFC
    MMA Opinion
    December 7, 2009
    mmaopinion.com/2009/12/07/hoelzer-reichs-racist-hatred-apparently-acceptable-in-the-ufc

    Although Dana White has no problem banning walk-out t-shirts for a variety of reasons (including contract disputes), apparently Neo-Nazi clothing company Hoelzer Reich is perfectly acceptable. Joe Brammer sported the shirt in the Octagon last weekend, joining the list of fighters sponsored by these pieces of shit. (Other fighters taking money from these Nazi apologist scumbags include Donald Cerrone, Lyle Beerbohm, Marcus Sursa, Shane Primm, James Krause, Justin Driggers, Dustin West, Brian Davidson, Jimmy Seipel, Chad Reiner and Eric Marriott.)

    Although the t-shirts are not decked out in swastikas (yet), they do have all sorts of symbols associated with the Third Reich (such as iron crosses, SS symbols and skulls previously used on SS uniforms). The (disgusting excuse for a) clothing company has also sponsored Neo-Nazi organizations and bands (such as WestWall).

    Both HR and neo Nazi metal band WestWall state that they are not hate groups, and sadly those unfamiliar with how racist groups operate are simply taking these lies at face value. HR says they simply like “German imagery” and yet sponsor fighters with Neo-Nazi tattoos (such as Niko [Puhakka]). WestWall is led by [ED WOLBANK] the former leader of neo-Nazi skinhead group Northern Hammerskins, and the name of the band itself is named after the German line of defense built during the 1930s.

    HR has hired publicists to try to cover up the issue by denying previous associations or saying that other clothing companies have also used racist symbols in the past, thus making theirs acceptable. Nazi sympathizers disguised as MMA fans have also been popping out of the woodwork, trying to pretend that advocating hatred is simply a free speech issue. (It is interesting to note that HR publicists have been pressuring MMA sites to take down accurate information–where’s your free speech now?)

    Rather than print vague statements about how they are not politically affiliated, it would be startlingly easy for HR to denounce Nazi, neo-Nazi and skinhead groups on their website if that were actually the case. Right now, it’s looking an awful lot like a bunch of racist scumbags with a PR problem desperately trying to clean up their image through a series of lies.

    ED WOLBANK was previously a member of the nutzi reich ‘n’ roll band Bound For Glory. Wolbank was also one of three men to establish Panzerfaust Records in 1998. Panzerfaust came to notoriety for its attempts to recruit White yoof by way of releasing a free sampler CD to White skool kids titled Project Schoolyard in 2004.

    Bound for Glory – Behold The Iron Cross

    ~versus~

  5. @ndy says:

    […]

    This could end up being the biggest controversy to come out of the failboat that was The Ultimate Fighter Finale. Joe Brammer was sponsored and wore a t-shirt by the Hoelzer Reich clothing company. HR’s designs are heavy in Nazi related imagery–iron crosses and that sort of thing. While they suggest it[‘]s merely a coincidence, they also sponsor a number of neo-Nazi/white power rock bands.

    Now, were it a case where the UFC had no real control over their fighters’ sponsorships this would be something of a non-issue. Brammer would be responsible for his decision, and that would be that. But as everyone knows the UFC is notorious for micromanaging the sponsors [whose] logos appear in the octagon. Affliction got the boot when they went into the MMA promotion business, and more recently RVCA has become verboten…er…banned…due to their sponsorship of Fedor Emelianenko. Anyway, Bloody Elbow went into depth on the subject and here’s some of what they came up with:

    However, certain aspect of the story just aren’t adding up. There is a lot of discussion over HR’s sponsorship of neo-nazi bands (such as Westwall, see the comment section for a discussion on this band and the ties to HR) and sponsoring fighters with neo-nazi tattoos (such as Niko Puhakka, featured on such classy sites as Skinhead Hate Crew). A thread over at the underground dives into the situation and points out some of the inconsistencies of the HR statements on their mission.

    I’ve never been one to deny fighters the right to make a living and Lyle Beerbohm on the above linked Underground thread even discusses how important HR’s sponsorship was in his life. However, I can’t support any company’s right to sponsor an MMA event when they appear to have connections to things so deeply rooted in racism and hate.

    Speaking personally, I hope the UFC steps in and prevents Brammer, and any other fighter from wearing Hoelzer Reich apparel at their events. If we’re going to see companies banned from sponsorship for putting money in Fedor and Dan Henderson’s pockets, I hope companies that put money in the pockets of hate groups receive the same treatment.

    Update: For those just coming across the story here is a bit more on the above mentioned ties to the band West Wall:

    West Wall is a neo-Nazi metal band led by the former leader of the neo-Nazi skinhead group Northern Hammerskins. Hoelzer Reich’s website contained photos of the band in their shirts which the brand explains as the band buying the shirts and mailing them photos which were then posted and removed once it was realized who they were. However, in an interview the lead singer of the band said that they were sponsored by the brand. Add that to the fact that up until recent days the label’s blog stated West Wall as their favorite band and the fact that HR’s myspace page featured a playlist of West Wall songs and it becomes hard to think that the posting of the band in HR shirts was a simple mistake.

    Jon Bram[m]er Hoelzer Reich sponsorship @ Bloody Elbow

    Here’s the UG Forum link listed in blurb above. The bit about them calling an avowed racist skinhead ‘comrade’ is pretty tough to rationalize:

    Hoelzer Reich thread at UG Forum

    On one hand, I get the argument that HR is just looking for ‘powerful imagery’ in their use of Nazi icons. As a heavy metal fan, there are countless bands who co-opt what some suggest to be satanic imagery just because it looks badass. Still, there’s a difference between a flaming skull with snakes coming out the eyes and an accurate homage to the evils perpetrated by the Nazi regime. Plus, there’s suggestions that HR has financial ties with avowed neo-Nazis. Not exactly a fast track to mainstreaming the sport, now is it.

    More significantly, even the *suggestion* that one of their sponsors is tied in with Neo-Nazis and ‘white power’ elements should be a complete non-starter for the UFC. There’s been a few hysterical suggestions (mostly in the European media) that MMA is a haven for white supremacists and racism. To anyone who follows the sport, that’s absurd but keep in mind that that perception is out there. To do anything that would lend credibility to that concept–even on a superficial level–is PR and marketing suicide. And don’t forget the UFC’s long sought after TV deal–do you think TV networks want to even *risk* a potential fiasco caused by a tacit endorsement of Nazism by an already controversial sport?

    Now, no one is saying that Dana White or the Fertittas are closet racists or anything. The problem is that its really bad for the image of a sport that already suffers enough from a negative perception–albeit unfair in most cases–among the mainstream media and general public. Personally, I find the HR clothing offensive and the way they tiptoe around the Nazi issue by saying ‘we can’t help if skinheads and racists like our clothes’ despicable. But it’s a free country and they’ve got the right to do it. The UFC, however, isn’t quite so egalitarian and in light of their well known micromanagement of their fighters’ sponsors its difficult to rationalize that companies that sponsor Fedor Emelianenko aren’t ‘octagon worthy’ but companies that sponsor ‘white power’ rock bands are welcome.

    UPDATE: Hoelzer Reich got some notice in the UK Jewish community prior to the Manchester show in November:

    A leading mixed-martial arts group has distanced itself from a clothing company which features Nazi-style images on its products.

    The Ultimate Fighting Championship held a tournament in Manchester on Saturday night at which a number of fighters wore Hoelzer Reich items.

    The sport is growing quickly on both sides of the Atlantic as an alternative attraction for boxing and wrestling fans. British fighters Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy were among those on the bill at the MEN Arena.

    Hoelzer Reich’s clothes feature Iron Crosses and swastika and SS-style emblems.

    Fans writing on internet forums before the event questioned whether the company was a suitable sponsor for fighters.

    One wrote: “Didn’t have an issue until I saw the ‘HR’ logo on the top left shirt which is clearly a variation on a swastika.”

    Another advised: “While the word ‘Reich’ and the Iron Cross are not themselves exclusive symbols of Nazi Germany, it’s one of those things where it’s safer not to make reference, just because of the common association.”

    A UFC spokesman said the group had “no affiliation with any right-wing groups or ideology.

    “The head of UFC UK, Marshall Zelaznik, is Jewish and as a company we would have absolutely nothing to do with anything antisemitic at all.

    “Our fans and our fighters are into heavy metal and heavy rap whether they are black, white, Jewish, Japanese or Chinese. We have fans all over the world. Their lifestyle is tattoos, heavy metal and rap.”

    Hoelzer Reich’s website states the company has no links to political organisations.

    On the site, owner Jed Colvin writes: “Our interest in German imagery comes from a historical and ancestral standpoint. For many years, we have collected German memorabilia.

    “We chose the name Hoelzer Reich, not only because it reflects Strength and Honour, but because it is part of our family history. We started this company using a family name, our love for apparel and design, and a desire to create a bad-ass line of apparel.”

    Martial arts group denies Nazi clothing @ Jewish Community Online (UK)

  6. @ndy says:

    During the invasion of German-held Austria, the “Thunderbolt” division of the U.S. 11th Armored Division overran two of the largest Nazi concentration camps in the country: Mauthausen and Gusen. On May 5, 1945, the 11th arrived in Gusen, which had originally been a subcamp of Mauthausen. The division’s arrival prevented the SS guards from murdering thousands of concentration camp prisoners by dynamiting the underground tunnels and factories where the inmates had been forced to work. The very next day, the unit liberated Mauthausen.

    In this interview, Ross Snowdon, a veteran of the 11th Armored Division, speaks with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum about his experiences during liberation.

  7. @ndy says:

    Following the controversy in the UK, Ross ‘The Real Deal’ Pearson writes:

    The Real Deal
    November 14, 2009

    Hi guys, I am no longer sponsored by this company. The first I heard about them was two days ago when my manager asked me to pose for pictures with their tshirt on. I thought that the imagery was a [bit] ‘funny’ so when I got back to my hotel I checked them out and I wasn[‘]t happy with being associated with them. I have now broken ties with them and will not be sponsored by them for this fight or any further fight.
    This is not what I really want to be doing on fight day but I feel strongly about it and I [wouldn’t] want my fans to think that I had let them down.

    Ross ‘the real deal’ Pearson

    Ross went on to win his fight against Aaron Riley.

    Joe Brammer lost his fight against Mark Bocek @ UFC – The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale (December 5, 2009).

  8. @ndy says:

    Racism, Hoelzer Reich and the UFC
    Jim Murphy
    The Savage Science
    December 6, 2009

    …The term ‘great white hope’ was coined during the Johnson reign. Boxing promoters quickly figured out that white fans would pay to see ‘one of their own’ try and dethrone Johnson. The term and concept remained a significant part of fight sports through the years. The dynamic was turned on its head during the late 1930s when Joe Louis twice fought German Max Schmeling. Though historians have dismissed suggestions that Schmeling himself was a Nazi sympathizer, he was co-opted by Adoph Hitler as a symbol of Aryan pride following his defeat of Louis in 1936. A rematch was scheduled in 1938, and Louis became a vessel of American nationalism. Schmeling by that point was accompanied at all times by a Nazi party PR ‘handler’ who claimed that a black man would never defeat Germany’s champion. For that reason the rematch became much more than a boxing contest. President Franklin Roosevelt famously quipped to Louis “”Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany.” Louis would later recount the experience saying “I knew I had to get Schmeling good. I had my own personal reasons and the whole damned country was depending on me.”

    Don PalabraZ is a Subversive Historian. mister word’s [June 22, 2009] post recalls the day in 1938 Joe Louis defeated Max Schmeling for the heavy-weight boxing title. Curiously, despite being championed by a dead incestuous coprophiliac dicktator, and acting as a mouthpiece for the Nazi regime, Schmeling was:

    Compassionate and Modest

    …On Kristallnacht, Schmeling took an enormous risk and hid the two teenage sons of a Jewish friend in his Berlin hotel room. The boxer claimed to be sick and did not allow any visitors. When the opportunity presented itself, Schmeling smuggled the two boys out of the country. Henri Lewin, who became a Las Vegas hotelier, credits Schmeling with his life; characteristically, the modest Schmeling made no mention of this episode in his own autobiography.

    Further:

    Invited to referee a bout in Milwaukee in 1954, Schmeling first flew to New York to visit Joe Jacobs’ grave. On the same trip, he drove to Chicago and found Joe Louis at home. They reminisced and renewed an acquaintance that lasted until Louis’ death. The two even appeared on a popular television program, “This is Your Life,” which reunited Louis with a host of people from his past. When Louis died in 1981, Schmeling helped pay for the funeral. In his later years, Max Schmeling continued to live outside his hometown of Hamburg, Germany, until his death in February 2005 at the age of 99. “I had a happy marriage and a nice wife,” he would tell an interviewer before his death. “I accomplished everything you can. What more can you want?”

  9. @ndy says:

    Losers wear Hoelzer…

    Mark Bocek – $55,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus, $25,000 submission bonus) def. Joe Brammer – $5,000

  10. Not you says:

    Wankers

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