Left, Right…

    Update Saturday December 8.

Having examined the Leninist vote at the 2007 Federal election, it’s time to turn right…

AUSTRALIA

Neither Pauline nor her former Party experienced much success at the polls this election. Well, not in terms of votes anyway. In terms of money, she’s laughing ka-ching! all the way to the bank, with a cheque for over $162,000 (Loser Hanson cleans up, Herald Sun, Ellen Whinnett, November 25, 2007).

In what will probably be her final tilt at Parliament, Ms. Hanson came fourth in the Queensland Senate race, having gained 95,131 votes or 4.12% and 0.2883 of a quota. One Nation, on the other hand, gained a meagre 4,144 votes, or just 0.18%, placing them fifteenth of 24 Senate tickets. In other states, One Nation fared a little better: in NSW obtaining 16,611 votes or 0.41% (by contrast, Pauline’s United Australia got 38,165 votes or 0.95%); in Victoria, 12,414 votes or 0.41%; in WA, 10,354 votes or 0.93%; and in SA, 5,583 votes or 0.61%. In total then, across the nation ON received 49,106 votes: a far cry from 2004, when in Queensland alone ON received 71,032 votes. In 2001, the Hanson ticket in Queensland received 215,400 votes…

In the seat of Murray, Diane Teasdale, with 623 votes, placed sixth of nine candidates. In Werriwa, Dr James Saleam’s comrade Joe Bryant fared a little better, gaining 2,019 votes, and placing fourth among a field of six.

Other parties on the right include the Jesus Freaks in the Christian Democratic and the Family First Parties, and the Free Market Fanatics in the LDP (Liberty and Democracy Party). In the Lower House, 129 Family First candidates received 245,144 votes, or 2.0%; 63 Christian Democratic Party candidates Hallelujah! received 104,433 votes or Can I Get A Witness? 0.8%. In the free market of ideas, the Liberty and Democracy Party found much fewer buyers, their 47 candidates collecting just 17,003 votes or 0.1%.

God and the Market have spoken.

Finally, in one of the finer displays of complete gibberish I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, here’s Sue ‘I hate Jews’ Bateman with her election screed, one apparently worth 801 votes by the people of Fremantle:

    VOTE 1 – SUE BATEMAN
    ONE NATION WESTERN AUSTRALIA
    FREMANTLE

    This Election is possibly the most crucial,
    This Nation has ever faced.

    Your VOTE and Preference will decide whether
    we continue
    this greedy and destructive course we are on.

    Or will you say enough is enough?

    This election, Stop! And sit quietly.

    Clear all your mind of all of the confusion
    and propaganda that has been forced upon you.

    Quietly think of your 5 million Australian
    Brother and Sisters who live below the poverty line.

    Think of the depth of moral degradation
    WE have stuck to.

    Quietly, visualise how obscenely the Rich and
    Privileged few have become and how the poor have to
    Struggle harder each day just to exist.

    As you “THINK”, let your conscious and commonsense
    Guide you.

    Do not be afraid of change it will be unhurried.

    It will only effect, what is disadvantageous to YOU,
    Or OUR country AUSTRALIA.

    What do you think you will miss out on If you vote
    For a new and vibrant unshackled party?
    What could be worse than the two BURNT OUT,
    “Derelicts” we have now.

    VOTE 1 – SUE BATEMAN
    ONE NATION WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Speaking of “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!”…

GERMANY

On November 17, a group of around 30 neo-Nazis, armed with cobblestones and batons, attacked the Casablanca restaurant in Dortmund. According to the police report, the group shouted “shit Turks” and “shit foreigners,” a reference to the Turkish guests inside. Nevertheless, the police are refusing to admit that the attack was racially motivated, and the offenders have been charged only with disturbing the peace…

Using a variety of tactics, the right-wing scene has attempted since the 1970s to establish itself in Dortmund and has a long record of criminal offences. At one time, in an attempt to recruit football fans, it formed Borussenfront. It also established the since-banned FAP (Free Comradeship) and most recently the “Anarchist Nationalists” and the RechtsRockszene (right-wing rock scene)… ~ Germany: Neo-Nazi attack in Dortmund restaurant, Sybille Fuchs, wsws.org, November 27, 2007

Also in Germany, four Übermensch allegedly carved a swastika into the leg of a sixteen-year old girl. They did so after the teenager tried to stop the men from harassing a six-year old outside a supermarket (Police Hunt Neo-Nazis Who Cut Swastika Into Woman’s Hip, Spiegel Online, November 26, 2007). The story was apparently originally reported on German indymedia. Of course, numerous other accounts of fascist and neo-Nazi intimidation never make it even as far as this.

RETURN TO OZ

On a completely unrelated note, I sometimes wonder why Welf Herfurth, the German-born neo-Nazi yuppie and chief (and only) ideologue of national anarchism in Australia and New Zealand fled Germany to come to Australia all those years ago…

On a somewhat related note, this Saturday night local scabs will be gathering at The Birmy in Fitzroy to reward Gary K’s support for neo-Nazi groups Blood & Honour (banned in Germany) and the Southern Cross Hammerskins over a period of a decade; a privilege recently claimed by the Melbourne Croatia Social Club. Herfurth attended the 2006 Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial, but I’ve no idea if he attended this year’s. It’s likely that Jim Perren did however. (See also : Allon Lee, The Music of the Nightmare: “Sounds of Hate” revisited, Australia/Israel Review, December 2007; response to follow)

Oh yeah, and someone claiming to be a corporate shill from some advertising agency sent a message to the Boycott the Birmingham blog. Here’s what it read:

John Hawley Says:
November 21, 2007 at 8:01 pm

To Whom it May Concern,
I would like to inform the persons running this site that some one in your organisation is illegaly [sic] placing posters inside JCDecaux bus shelters.
As these are owned by us and are private property we will be contacting the Police and prosecuting if any further posters are found in our shelters. We will also charge for advertising and removal costs.
I hope that this does not re-occur.
Regards,
John
JCDecaux Australia

JC Decaux are an interesting mob. Based in Paris, with branches in 45 countries including, obviously, Australia, they’re also apparently the second-largest outdoor advertising corporation in the world, and likely able to afford some otherwise expensive legal representation. Thus according to a Reuters report from March: “The company said 2006 net profit rose 4.1 percent to 201.1 million euros ($265.1 million) and announced a 5 percent dividend hike to 0.42 euros per share. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased 10.9 percent to 331.9 million euros and EBITDA rose 12.6 percent to 533.6 million euros.” Coincidentally, and perhaps encouraged by the sale of another former public asset — our ‘public’ transport system — to another French corporation — Connex — Jesus Christ Decaux wants to buy advertising space from the Victorian Government in exchange for bicycles.

Keen-eyed students of European radical history, as I’m sure most of my readers are, will note that this is in fact the neo-liberal, corporate version of a scheme first attempted to be implemented by Dutch radicals in the 1960s. According to Peter Marshall (Demanding the Impossible):

The Provos set out to provoke the staid burghers of Amsterdam and upholders of the Dutch State. In their journal Provo, they announced a series of White plans to deal with city problems. These included the White Bicycle Plan, which set up a number of white bikes around the city to be used communally; unfortunately, and perhaps predictably, many were stolen. They also mooted the White Chicken Plan (kip, or chicken, is slang for policeman); this would have seen policemen dressed in white uniforms and had them distributing contraceptives. Provo (which as a monthly reached a circulation of ten thousand) regarded anarchism as the ‘inspirational source of resistance’ and wanted to revive anarchism and to teach it to the young. The happenings and demonstrations of the Provos reached its climax in a violent confrontation with the police during a royal wedding on 10 March 1966…

Fast forward 40 years and traverse a continent (or two), and the situation has obviously shifted. 1) The ‘organisers’ of a blog advocating a boycott of a local pub which has 2) hosted White supremacists for the last 10 years is 3) the subject of a legal threat from 4) the local arm of a foreign corporation which is 5) simultaneously seeking to acquire advertising rights over public property by implementing a White Bicycle scheme first proposed by 6) anarchists in Europe and 7) from which political tendency the boycott is being most actively promoted. Meanwhile, the pub in question continues to be patronised by both boneheads and people who wear @ symbols on their clothing.

AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

In New Zealand/Aotearoa, another well-known bonehead, 22 year-old Brendon ‘Nasty’ Rimmer, has recently gone to court for exhibiting similar fortitude in the struggle against ZOG as his German comrades, in Rimmer’s case, by spitting in the face and then allegedly assaulting an Asian teenager:

A Taupo man who spat in an Asian teenager’s face and told him to “get out of my country” has been labelled as nasty by a judge. Brendon James Rimmer, 22, appeared in the Taupo District Court yesterday facing three charges of common assault. He has pleaded guilty to the charges, which relate to an incident in Napier in July when Rimmer approached a group of four teenagers – aged between 15 and 17 – and verbally abused them before assaulting some of them.

Judge James Weir described Rimmer as “nasty” after hearing the details of the incident. Rimmer ran up to a group of boys walking along Wycliffe St in Napier and began verbally abusing them, a police summary of facts said Rimmer asked them “why are you hanging around with this chink?”, the summary said. He then asked the Asian teenager what he was doing in “my country” before saying “why are you here? Get out of my country”.

Rimmer then spat in the teenager’s face before hitting him in the face. Three of the boys escaped but one was left with Rimmer who pulled on his shirt, then asked why he was crying and threatened to “smack” him in the face…

Rahowa! you wanker.

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.
This entry was posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Anti-fascism, History, Music, State / Politics. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Left, Right…

  1. grumpy cat says:

    Hi all
    were the provos actually anarchists? I know they were often described as ‘anarchic’ but didn’t they run for election for city councils?
    rebel love
    Dave

  2. @ndy says:

    Yeah, in Amsterdam, in 1966. More than that, they actually won a seat. ‘Provo’ declared itself dead a year later, with a party, on May 13. From what I can gather, Provo was a mixed bag, and the anarchism it drew upon came as much from the worlds of art and culture as politics, blending elements of the indigenous Dutch tradition — especially anarcho-syndicalism — with more general European counter-cultural happenings. A subsequent mob, the Kabouters, involving important elements of the Provos, also participated in elections — also winning seats. The Kabouters then collapsed as a movement in the early ’70s (victims of their own success), they and the Provos (provocateurs) leaving behind otherwise-occupied council seats, but also militant environmental, peace, squatting and women’s movements and a range of other counter-cultural institutions and initiatives…

    Hippies with attitude, basically.

  3. lumpnboy says:

    I mainly know them from (what I remember of) the Situationist critique, I think, which left me with impressions in line with all the above, and which was predictably very critical – wasn’t one of the more arty ex-situationists heavily involved in the Provos? That usually guaranteed hostility if nothing else, and it does sound like there is much that they would have been hostile to in the practice and theory of the Provos.

    As much time as I have for the SI people, of course, I learned long ago that the contempt of the SI does not guarantee that the object of that contempt is without interest or good qualities – and I think they were fairly soft on the Provos. For them.

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