Bins. Wheelie Bins.
Following on from the earlier decision by three Justices of the NSW Supreme Court not to allow three (suspected) terrorists to walk along certain streets in Sydney comes this further blow for Truth, Justice and the American President’s Right-of-Way:
Police swoop on ‘wheelie bin boom box’
Sean Cusick
ninemsn
September 8, 2007As the APEC protest in the heart of Sydney wound down without major incident, one activist was receiving what he regarded to be more than his fair share of police attention. Chris Ward took a wheelie bin converted into a stereo to the march — and the contraption caught the attention of the gathered security forces. “I’ve been searched three times today for having a wheelie bin sound system,” Mr Ward said. “As you can see, there’s [nothing] in it but speakers, an amplifier and a battery.” Mr Ward says he was searched for half an hour on each occasion, and once extra police had to be called in after a crowd of activists surrounded the search team.
Police within the Sydney CBD have special APEC powers which allow them to detain and search anyone without cause. Dale Mills, a “Human Rights Monitor” present at the march, described the search as an overreaction. “In my opinion, that was just an illegal search,” Mr Mills said. “That’s the sort of aggressive attitude … that provokes problems at protests.”
Still, while the protest as a whole was characterised by the absence of any physical confrontations with police, converting Tinsel Town into Pig City has had the inevitable consequences: for others. At this stage, perhaps 17 or 18 individuals have been arrested by police, and charged with the usual assortment of infractions, none of which have, to this point — and despite the mountains of propaganda spewed forth by the police / state and ideological state apparatus — involved the rape and/or murder of large numbers of innocent civilians. (Unlike, say, the War on Terror™. In Iraq. Or Chechnya. Or by way of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Or…) Or as riot squad commander Steven Cullen told Sydney’s Supreme Court: “Police lines will come under attack”. As it happens, the closest this came to being true was the apparent use of a dart and an iron bar, by one protester, against one member of the rent-a-mob.
- According to Evelyn Yamine in The Daily Terror (Rioter ‘threw dart at skull’, September 10, 2007), a 40 year-old named Gavin George Begbie “is facing 12 charges over the alleged attack on police officers in Sydney during Saturday’s demonstrations”; namely, he “threw a metal-tip dart into a police officer’s skull before attacking other officers with a metal pole”. Maybe Gavin thought the police officer in question was a member of The Village People?
- ‘Bad idea’
There is a lot of intellectual waffle used in this tiresome campaign to try to get the average citizen to accept the idea that it is normal, even acceptable, for gays to marry and have children. I’m sure that most people would agree that there is in fact something very fundamentally wrong with this idea. If asked, I’m sure that they would say that on an intuitive level those who also harbour these ideas are bordering on mental disturbance.
~ Gavin Begbie, Byron Bay, The Northern Rivers Echo, December 21, 2006
No doubt more details of this offence will emerge as police proceed to feed the waiting chooks.
Note that Cullen claimed that the prospect of chaos on the streets of Sydney was what justified the police application to the courts — smugly agreed upon by the three liberal Justices — to prevent a number of citizens from attending today’s protests without being immediately arrested. Alex Bainbridge, spokesperson for the DSP’s Stop Bush coalition — obviously not a big music fan — is reported to have praised police for their conduct:
Mr Bainbridge said protest organisers did not take issue with the way police conducted themselves. “On the whole, we don’t have big problems, but we think the security operation which today they were a part of, has been exaggerated and overblown.”
On the other hand:
Mr Scipione said he was not aware of any issue with police failing to wear ID badges, as had been alleged by some protesters. No direction had been given for them not to wear ID, but it was something that would be looked into, Mr Scipione said.
Which is the standard li(n)e used by police, for whom this has become standard practice at any event at which they may decide to employ violence and to assault The People What Cause Unrest (AAP, Police show force at APEC, 17 arrests, Sydney Morning Herald, September 8, 2007).
Finally — and rather oddly — Miranda Devine, of all people, recounts the rather extraordinary “FORCIBLE arrest, handcuffing and jailing of a respectable, bespectacled, middle-aged accountant in a Hawaiian shirt” (Pumped-up cops are stepping over the thin blue line, Sydney Morning Herald, September 9, 2007) which is worth reading, especially for this line: ‘You can see police dragging Greg face-down onto the footpath. One is yelling: “Stop resisting! Stop resisting!”‘
Devine a critic of police brutality? Hardly. “Greg [the accountant/terrorist in question] and [his missus] Sophie are my friends of 14 years. My husband and I are godparents to their daughter, Isadora, 3.”
Ooops.
- See also : Matthew Benns, Jailed for jaywalking, Sydney Morning Herald, September 9, 2007
Nazis. Neo-Nazis.
In an ironic twist (that will be completely lost on the hacks working for the state and corporate sector), the only mob threatening or — more precisely — playing on the spectre of violence, was a small group of fascists dressed as ‘anarchists’, who took advantage of the absolutely massive police state presence to carry banners reading ‘Australia, Free Nation or Sheep Station?’, ‘Globalisation is Genocide!’ and ‘Power to the People — Not Political Parties’ and to look — as the Very Reverend Monsignor Geoffrey Baron might say — like sfools.
Thus, in addition to attracting somewhere between 3 and 10,000 people to the rally and march organised by the leftist Stop Bush coalition, in Sydney this morning the APEC summit also attracted a small number (between 20 and 30) of neo-Nazis. The fascist mob was tightly formed, dressed in black, and their clothing was intended to disguise their faces. In other words, the fascists formed a small ‘black bloc’. On Stormfront, a poster writes that:
I was just sent this PM by someone who claims to have been at the APEC demo as part of the [New Right] contingent:
“[N]one of us were arrested. [T]he police surrounded us not because we were a threat, but to protect us from the sea of [M]arxist sewerage around us. We co-operated with police instruction[s] at all times and we left as they brought up the riot squad and the water cannon because the red scum were causing trouble further up in the march.
I tell you the truth, we hurt them more today just by being there [than] any amount of physical confrontation. It was like one of those old horror movies when somebody sprays a vampire with holy water[;] they were foaming and writhing because of us, because our cause is righteous.
At one point they started chanting about fascists or something, so we chanted back, calling them [N]azis[. T]his had them most confused[;] they stared us with a vacant, [slack-jawed] look and had to retreat and started chanting further away from us.
There were so many people we wanted to hit today, but everybody ignored their childish provocations[. W]ell done to those who attended and congratulations to the New Right for organising this ground-breaking step forward in Australian Nationalism.”
John Ferguson in the Herald Sun (NSW police teach Victoria how to deal with protests, September 9, 2007) writes:
At the start of the march, police became concerned when a group of anarchists clashed with neo-Nazi protesters who had gathered at the back of the kilometre-long protest gathering in the heart of the city. Rows of police were ordered to surround the neo-Nazis and told to arrest anyone who acted violently.
In the Sydney Morning Herald, Danielle Teutsch and Daniel Dasey state (Protesters no match as police rule streets, September 9, 2007) “A group of about 20 black-garbed men were separated from the rally by police after protesters accused them of being neo-Nazis intent on provocation.”
So, hardly an unmitigated triumph — the neo-Nazis were soon sussed — but still a success as far as the New Reich / Notional-Anarchists are concerned. After all, they managed to use the platform provided by the protest to announce their existence to the world (as far as I’m aware, this is their first organised attendance at a public protest) and to escape unscathed, job done. Whether or not this ‘intervention’ will mean others begin to pay them any more attention is difficult to say. I suspect not. On the other hand, I think, especially given the near-total collapse of the Australia First Party, the group will quite possibly attract more support from existing elements of the far right, and come to constitute an early twenty-first century version of National Action, and to fill the same niche NA did in terms of constituting an extra-parliamentary radical right-wing organisation. The ‘left’ in Sydney, meanwhile, will most likely remain inactive and largely clueless, at least until such time as they believe themselves standing more to gain from confronting the neo-Nazis than they do to lose.
Business as usual, in other words.
- See also : APEC protests: Richard’s observer’s report, Webdiary, September 8: “The Australian Police are tonight saying that they averted violence. Actually they attempted to create it. I think their ultimate aim was to clear a public park of happy celebrants of democracy before the Chinese convoy retired to the pub across the road from Hyde Park…” Listen to : The Zimmermen, ‘Don’t Go To Sydney’ (Au-go-go, ANDA 41, 1985).
http://www.newrightausnz.blogspot.com/
http://www.newrightausnz.org/
Food, Sex and Ewe.
And speaking of business…
- APEC boost for brothel business – report
AAP
September 08, 2007
INTERSTATE prostitutes were brought into Sydney to help service the 300 per cent spike in brothel business during APEC, the Adult Business Association (ABA) says. APEC-themed specials on offer at Sydney brothels included the Condi Combo, the UN Duo and the Presidential Platter. “It’s been going gangbusters,” NSW spokesman for the ABA Chris Seage told Fairfax newspapers. “Businesses that were banking on a 200 per cent increase in business have done better than that with it up by 300 per cent. “There have been secret service agents, trade envoys, but no Putins yet.” Mr Seage said suburban brothels were also getting extra work from locals deciding to stay closer to home during APEC.
Wait, so they dressed up in black, went to a demo and didn’t get the shit beaten out of them and they see that as a victory? Shit that’s pathetic. I’d wanna think I might have convinced at least one person to listen to my views before I’d think I’d made any progress. Really they just didn’t go back any further…
Losers.
Hope someone blew bubbles at them.
Yeah well they stole all of the media attention that you wankers crave so much. The fact that they were outnumbered at least 1000 to 1 and still turned up shows that they have more balls than any of you so called anarchist/commie/drug addict dead beat “activists” will ever have. You are nothing without your computers to hide behind. Its YOU who are pathetic.
Ron they’ve hardly had a peep in the media.
Please find me one article that deals with them and them only. If you do, i will find you 10 articles about the day with no mention of the National Anarchists (ftw!) at all.
Most of the media coverage i have seen has touted them as Neo-Nazi’s, seemingly that is what they don’t want to be known as over in the discussions on StormFront, so really it seems that any media coverage hasn’t been a good thing either.
They showed up, stole a style of dress associated with anarchists of the black bloc, had signs which vaguely suggested they might be somewhat right wing, and generally stuck to themselves out the front of the church. Before their presence was publicly announced and nearly everyone simultaneously thought “Hah! fuckwits!”
They got nothing out of the day, the only winners in regards to the New Right were the makers of that shiny banner you guys had. How much did that cost?
It doesn’t really matter how much media attention they got, the point is they made up less than 1% of the crowd and they were noticed and the media picked up on it.
Publicity is publicity and let’s face it, people love reading about “neo-Nazis”, that’s why the media (and yourselves) are always quick to label people as such. Good or bad, right or wrong, it’s publicity.
As for the banner, who knows how much it cost, I’m sure it didn’t put them out too much as they all work for a living. Maybe if you good for nothing, drug addict, dregs of society got off your arses and worked for a living, instead of sponging off the system that you so called anarchists despise so much, then who knows, maybe then you could afford a nice shiny banner of your own… O! beware, my Lord, of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.
Ron,
The New Reich protesters numbered somewhere between 20 and 30, including Andrew Fraser, Scott Harrison and Darrin Hodges. The crowd is estimated as having been anywhere from 3 to 10,000, regular police around 3,500, members of the armed forces around 1,500, with sundry other state and private intelligence and security personnel of all sorts, both domestic and foreign. Obviously, if the police wanted to, they could have ended the New Reich’s party before it even started. As it happens, and as was the case with the aussies4anzus mob, they welcomed their presence — recognising that, in the end, they’re on the same side, and any initial confusion (“Eeek! Anarchists!”) was quickly overcome through dialogue between police and neo-Nazi protesters. The police asked the New Reich to go the way of the Old Reich only when it became obvious that their continued presence, especially on the march itself, would likely require police protection, and even the stupidest police officer would likely recognise that the sight of the police state being mobilised to protect a handful of neo-Nazis would not go down well at HQ…
I obviously don’t know what the members of New Reich thought was their aim, but I imagine that drawing attention to themselves, especially media attention, was a principal goal. Further, as far as I’m aware, this was the first public outing for New Right, and therefore assumed a particular significance. On the whole, however, I think that their principal audience is not the media, or the general public, but other members of the far right. In other words, it was a recruiting exercise, the fruits of which will only ripen over time.
More generally, publicity is indeed publicity, but you’re a fool if you think that this means that all forms of publicity are of equal utility. In this case, for example, the New Reich actually rejects the neo-Nazi label. Therefore, being labeled as such — which is what all (or almost all) media reportage did — can hardly be considered a success as far as they’re concerned, can it?
As for the banner(s), I think it/them remarkable only in the sense that, in Australia at least, we’re more used to the sight of badly-written and crudely-illustrated leaflets and stickers coming from the far right. The shift towards a more professional-looking presentation denotes a more serious approach to selling their politics; so too, the effort to mimic anarchist rhetoric and imagery more generally.
@ndy:
“The New Reich protesters numbered somewhere between 20 and 30, including Andrew Fraser, Scott Harrison and Darrin Hodges.”
Actually i think a more accurate estimate would be 15-20, not that it means all that much.
“so too, the effort to mimic anarchist rhetoric and imagery more generally.”
I found this aspect particularly hilarious given the pompous rhetoric of people like Ron; i mean, stealing fashion tips from the ‘drug addicts’ and assorted anarchist filth? I’d have thought the ‘new’ right would be a little bit more… creative? Esp. considering their whole fucking gimmick is ‘look at us, we’re cutting-edge racists!’
For a supposed ‘innovation’ in ideology these people sure do enjoy leeching off the ideas and popularity/notoriety of others (and their ideological enemies no less!), it’s all just so pathetic/derivative/unoriginal.
They appropriate the dress of black bloc anarchists/punks (an attempt to appeal to leech off the popularity of anarchism amongst the youth? Or perhaps to gain the media’s attention – but again, this is not because of who they are, but who they look like [anarchists]), appropriate leftists slogans (‘Power to the people!’ A slogan of the Black Panther Party no less!), and symbols (the red and black star).
Serious question to the ‘New’ Right, WTF is a red ‘n’ black star with a Celtic cross on it meant to represent?
Do any of you even know what the red and black star is? Its history? Where it comes from? Or did ya focus group just tell you that anarchism was catching on with young people today so you just slapped on whatever anarchist image you could find?
Coz it’s not as if the ideology of national anarchism has any historical links with anarcho-syndicalism or anarchist-communism etc.
It’s like something a politically confused/ignorant teenager would come up with… you know the kind of people who don’t really understand ANY of the concepts they’re referencing so they just blurt out ridiculous contradictory statements like…
‘Grrrrrrroooaaaaaaarrrrrr!!! I’m a badass @NARCHIST NATIONALIST wooooo!’
Sorry kids, but like ‘anarcho-capitalism’, nationalist anarchism is a (rather silly) contradiction in terms.
You ‘new’ right jerks-off say that the ‘traditional left’ has failed, so instead of copying the traditional left (i.e. national bolshevism) you’ll copy anarchists?
I hate to burst your bubble but no matter how you package your pathetic racist agenda it’s not going to catch on. Coz although the semantic games are important to y’all (you like to feel all intellectual about your racism, to ‘develop’ your thought… though development seems a lot like appropriate ‘n’ tweak whatever ideology is in the ascendancy ie. anarchism, in the hope you might scam a few people), anyone with half a brain can see through it and call a nazi a nazi.
P.S. What kind of anarchist is proud of kissing the cop-ass? All over scumfront i read accounts from people who were in the national anarchist bloc, and they all talk about how closely the co-operated with the cops etc. Arent y’all anti-state? Anti-cop? People sounded proud about how well they got in with the cops!
Boy are you guys confused.
Hey Dayv,
The abortion that is ‘national-anarchism’ only emerged in the 1990s, out of the wreckage of ‘Third Positionism’, a concept which has a long history in and of itself (eg, ‘anarchism’ was at one point spoken of as being — after capitalism and communism — a ‘Third Way’, but not the neo-liberal ‘Third Way’ Anthony Giddens and that mob (New Labor) tried to pass off in the UK and elsewhere in Europe at around the same time). In the Anglophonic world, a twat named Troy Southgate is probably the best they can do for an intelekshual (at least as far as I’m aware), and both his and others’ philosophy is based on a reformulation of the concept of the nation as a natural, organic form of community, some version of which has a long history in fascist thought, but which ‘national anarchism’ makes much more explicit, and places within an ostensibly ‘anti-capitalist’ and ‘anti-statist’ ideological framework. Like other fascist doctrines, ‘national anarchism’ is motivated by a mythical reconstruction of the past and a delusionary construction of the future, in this case based upon a series of ‘pure’, almost invariably European-derived imagined political communities (like ‘Saxon’). In utilising this myth as an emotional and psychological anchor for its adherents and followers, it also borrows from the fascist elements within George Sorel’s work. (In the bourgeois academy, Sorel almost invariably belongs to the ‘anarchist’ pantheon of philosopher all-*s; in most respects, on my reading, he’s far more complex, but, more simply, radically antagonistic to genuinely anarchist projects of emancipation…) Which is another way of saying that the attempted recuperation of anarchist imagery is motivated less by an understanding of the ideas and movements which gave birth to them, but rather the extent to which they may act as symbolically motivating forces.
‘National anarchism’ not only has no linkage to historical and contemporary forms of anarchism such as ‘anarcho-syndicalism’ and ‘anarchist-communism’, it is radically antagonistic to them. As to how to respond, I’m not convinced that much more than plain-speaking and ridicule is required at this point, but if they become a serious nuisance, there are other examples to follow…
===
The National Anarchists
As an ideology National-Anarchism would appear to be about as logical as the creation of an organisation of Catholic Orangemen. That does not stop Troy Southgate however.
Attempts at finding anyone in the Anarchist movement to speak to them have been unsuccessful (can anyone forget Jamie DeBayo/Damji leaving the Anarchist Bookfair in 1998 head first?) whilst Southgate and co are just a little bit too weird for the rest of the British far-right. More years in no-man’s land beckon.
Do say “National-Anarchism – now that is a brave innovation.”
Don’t say “But how can you be a nationalist and an Anarchist?”
===
International Third Position
A splinter from the NF in the 1980s, the ITP once included one Nick Griffin amongst its members. Following a series of intellectual somersaults, the ITP settled down to a long term strategy of intellectual development and cultural politics, under the leadership of Italian millionaire Roberto Fiore. Its strong association with Catholicism has been a boon to its sister group in Italy, but has gone down like a pint of cold sick with many British fascists. The ITP are very worthy, and very, very boring.
Do say “I thought Father O’Flockerty’s mass on Sunday was most stimulating.”
Don’t say “In my experience Father Ted was a pretty accurate portrayal of the Catholic priesthood.”
I think 15 is generous. My favourite bit was when four women stood in front of them holding a purple banner, which seemed to leave them with little idea of what to do next. While the rest of us continued up the street after a bit of a chant at them (something about police and fascists I don’t really remember), they ended up being completely contained by 4 lefties and a purple banner with anti-war slogans.
Some others caught up with one of them later – claimed to be a confused European anarchist of some sort who thought he’d joined the black bloc. I had to laugh at that.
Didn’t realise they were such big fans of Subcommandante Marcos though – he featured prominently in their weird glossy material.
Note to self: The Colour Purple is a weak spot.
As for the New Reich’s embrace of Marcos, it’s just one more part of the sales pitch, and not to be taken, or taken seriously. Further examples abound at their two principal sites:
http://www . newrightausnz.blogspot.com/
http://www . newrightausnz.org/
Agreed, how can anyone (let alone an aspiring white nationalist) take these goons seriously?
A sample of the sites they link:
Crikey
Green Left
Primitivism
Anarchist Black Cross
Class War
Black Panther Nation
John Pilger
Malcolm X
Noam Chomsky
David Suzuki Foundation
Earth Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
Of course these are alongside links to David Duke, the American Revolutionary Vanguard, Oswald Mosley and some weird website called ‘Blacks and Jews Newspage’ which is ‘dedicated to the dissemination of accurate information about the historical relationship between Blacks and Jews’ – hahaha.