Max Brenner, chocolate and blood

Yeah well anyway. Max Brenner eh? The demos on the weekend in Melbourne and Sydney attracted small crowds, but I s’pose one point of interest was the involvement of some right-wing loons in the rallies in support of the chain. “Max Brenner is owned by the Strauss Group, which is Israel’s second-largest food and beverage conglomerate. The Strauss Group openly supports the Israeli Defence Force,” a critic said (Shop ‘with Israeli links’ targeted, Gareth Hutchens, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 11, 2011). The same report also notes that in Newtown “the store was defended by about 60 supporters, including members of the Australian Protectionist Party, a far-right nationalist group”.

As indeed it was.

Darrin Hodges — the balding d00d in the middle — now the NSW leader of the APP was once a member of Dr Jim Saleam’s Australia First Party and an active member of the Stormfront website (which nominates The Jew as Public Enemy #1), meaning that Max Brenner has some rather odd allies. Hodges also took part in a fascist ‘black bloc’ in 2007, along with various other denizens of the far right including former German NPD member turned Volksfront Australia organiser Welf Herfurth. On the other hand, the “mad Marxist” Rick Kuhn reckons that “Fighting oppression is not anti-Semitic”, an accusation which — along with eating lentils and tofu — has been levelled at his ‘Socialist Alternative’ party in the past. The author of that piece, Nick Dyrenfurth, was recently engaged in an online battle with blogger Michael Brull, which Brull comments on here. Otherwise, Ben Fordham kicks goals for 2GB on behalf of “normal Aussies” here, while the ‘Australian BDS Campaign for Palestine’ has a blog here.

Go Pies!