Vale Alexander! Hail Christopher!

Posted on July 3, 2008 by @ndy

Bad News for Sports Fans: Alexander Downer has

shocked and stunned

the Nation by announcing his retirement from Parliament.

The question on everybody’s lips is: does this mean Alexander will stop blogging?

Let’s hope not. Since April and my last excursion into The Mind of Alexander, he has revealed much. For example, did you know:

    * KRudd’s 2020 Summit may usefully be compared to Stalin’s Five-Year Plans?
    * Madeleine Albright asked Alexander in 1998 if Australia would be prepared to support a war against Saddam Hussein?
    * Alexander met a tough woman named Aung San Suu Kyi in her home in Rangoon and Alexander committed Australia to helping her?
    * During the Blair’s visit to Australia in 2006, Alexander suggested to Cherie Blair that Tony Blair, whose father was a strong Conservative, was not truly Labour but the heir to the British Liberal tradition of Asquith, Lloyd George and Campbell Bannerman?
    * Alexander first visited Beijing in 1982, as Malcolm Fraser’s speechwriter? It was a very different China from the China of 2008! In 1982 there were very few modern high rise buildings, people dressed in drab Mao suits, there were no neon lights or bars and restaurants to be seen! It was a dour, socialist, drab sort of place! There were almost no shops: the only one the chaps who accompanied Malcolm could find was a department store bulging with cheap junk, some of which Alexander lugged home for his family (it was poorly received)! More significantly, Alexander had never seen more bicycles in a single place anywhere before or since! The place was swarming with bikes! There were millions of them! Today there are not many at all!
    * All of us dream, or we ought to anyway? Alexander discussed these dreams late one night on the inaugural passenger journey on the Adelaide–Darwin railway with the Premier, Mike Rann, the then head of Santos, John Ellice Flint and the then head of the Economic Development Board, Robert deCrespigny?
    * Nicole Kidman’s a great actor and a national icon. But could she put together a government budget or work out the geo-politics of the Asia-Pacific region? Alexander thinks not!

Alexander is, obviously, a legend, and filling his short pants is going to be no easy task. Fortunately, there’s another private schoolboy from Adelaide who may well fit the legend: and his name is Christopher.

Alexander Downer Resignation
Thursday, July 3, 2008

I shall be resigning from the Federal Parliament as the Member for Mayo from the close of business on Monday, 14 July 2008.

It has been a great honour to have served the people of Mayo for nearly 24 years and I am deeply grateful to them for the support they have given me.

I was born in the electorate and am deeply committed to the district and will remain so after politics.

Amongst my proudest achievements in Mayo have been to get the funding for the Heysen Tunnels in 1996 at a time when the Federal Government was otherwise making significant spending cuts. I am also proud to have helped get grants for many local projects ranging from the Hut now located in Aldgate to the new Stirling library.

I am also proud of the part I played in the Howard government’s $10 billion Murray Darling initiative. This initiative although, being implemented much more slowly than I would have liked, has the potential to transform completely the Murray Darling environment which, for the people of Mayo, is the most important single issue they now face.

Had it not been for the people of Mayo, I would never have served as the Foreign Minister of Australia for nearly 12 years. This was an enormous honour and throughout that time I tried to use every minute to advance the interests of Australia.

Amongst my proudest achievements are the Bougainville peace process, Australia’s response to the Asian economic crisis, our role in East Timor, Australia’s response to the war on terror in South East Asia as well as in Afghanistan and Iraq, the support for South East Asia following the 2004 tsunami and the restructuring of Australia’s South Pacific policies, in particular, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.

The Liberal Party has been the foundation of my political career. Although it is going through difficult times now, it is showing determination at both the Federal and State levels to get back into office. I am confident that it can look forward to considerable electoral success. I appreciate the friendship of Brendan Nelson who has done a marvellous job stabilising the Coalition after the election defeat of 24 November 2007. I think he, supported by Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull and the Shadow Cabinet has every prospect of winning the next election.

In the future, I shall be establishing with Ian Smith and Nick Bolkus, a business consultancy called Bespoke Approach; accepting a number of board positions and taking up a part time role at a university (details of which will be announced by the university soon).

I shall also continue to be active in public debate through speaking engagements and writing, all of which are being managed by Robert Joske Management Pty Ltd

Finally, as is well known, the United Nations has approached me about a role as a Special Envoy of the Secretary General on Cyprus and I have told the United Nations that if this role is confirmed I will accept the position. I very much appreciate the role Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith have played in supporting me for this role.

Finally, I would like to thank my wife Nicky and my four children, Georgina, Olivia, Edward and Henrietta for their enduring support during my years as a Member of Parliament. There have been difficult times for them on occasions and they have always been my backbone of support.

END

See also : Rogues’ Gallery

PS. Sophie Mirabella has had a baby:

Posted in State / Politics | 3 Comments

Global Day of Action Against Starbucks : July 5, 2008

Posted on July 2, 2008 by @ndy

OK OK: so Starbucks in Melbourne is mostly for tourists and mallrats, happy to drink shit coffee while supporting the demise of Melbourne cafe culture. But Starbucks the transnational corporation is also notorious for union-busting, and it’s as a result of its latest union-busting antics that a

Global Day of Action Against Starbucks

on July 5, 2008 has been called for. It follows the firing of union activists, Cole (Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA) and Monica (Seville, Spain). Cole is a member of the Starbucks Workers Union, affiliated to the IWW; Monica is a member of the Commercial and Hotel Workers’ Union, affiliated to the CNT, the Spanish section of the IWA.

In Melbourne, a rally and protest is being organised by the ASF:

WHERE : Starbucks, 295 Swanston St (between Lonsdale and Little Lonsdale Sts), Melbourne
WHEN : Saturday, July 5, 11am

Note that a CLIMATE EMERGENCY RALLY is being held on the same day, just two hours later (1pm) at the City Square, corner of Swanston & Collins Sts… and just a hop, skip and a jump from Starbucks!

Locally, the screws are being turned on construction workers via the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner (ABCC). Established following the conduct of the Cole Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry — and operating ostensibly in order to combat corruption in the industry — the ABCC is one of HoWARd’s lasting legacies. Problems with the ABCC include:

    Abolition of the right to silence.
    Six month jail terms for those refusing to attend hearings.
    Secret interrogations.
    Penalties for informing others of your testimony.

You can learn more about the ABCC via Constructing Fear, “A documentary exposing the activity of an industrial inquisition targeting building workers across Australia. Constructing Fear shows how these workers are the front line in an attack on civil liberties that has implications for every Australian.”

For a contrary view, see Save the ABCC Homepage. See also : Union Solidarity.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

[For Dion] Hooray for Everything!*

Posted on July 2, 2008 by @ndy

Boneheads in Russia are in trouble again, and being a liar, a hypocrite and no better than the trash I fight against, I’m naturally appalled. Anyway… anarchy is a fag… that’s all I have to say to you Mr Nosey.

Russia gang ‘faces murder charge’
Steven Eke
BBC News
June 30, 2008

Russian prosecutors say they are ready to charge a group of boneheads with more than 20 racially motivated murders and 12 attempted murders. Prosecutors say the nine accused, all aged 17 to 22, belonged to an illegal far-right group which sought out non-slavic looking people to attack. The alleged victims were guest workers from Central Asia and the Caucasus. The group was led by two students and had one female member, who is accused of videoing the attacks. One of the group’s leaders claimed during questioning to have carried out nearly 40 racially motivated murders. Officials say the group – known as the Ryno Gang after one of its leaders – was one of the most aggressively racist they have encountered…

Russia: Bonehead gang accused of killing 20 in Moscow
Luke Harding
The Guardian
July 1, 2008

Russian prosecutors yesterday charged a bonehead gang led by two teenagers with the racist murders of 20 people during a series of brutal attacks in Moscow.

Prosecutors said they had charged nine people aged between 17 and 22 with the murders. They identified the ringleaders as Artur Ryno – an art student – and Pavel Skachevsky. One of the gang members was a 22-year-old woman, who allegedly videotaped an attack on one of the victims – a student from Azerbaijan who was severely beaten but survived.

The gang targeted victims from post-Soviet republics who were working and studying in Moscow. Ryno was arrested after allegedly stabbing to death an Armenian businessman in April 2007. He told police he had killed more than 30 people, adding “the city needed to be cleaned” of foreigners who “oppressed Russians”.

The case follows repeated accusations from human rights groups that authorities in Russia fail to investigate racist killings, often labelling xenophobic attacks as hooliganism. According to Sova, a rights group, there were at least 232 victims of hate crime in the first five months of 2008, including 57 murders. “It’s clear that there is a kind of heroisation on the neo-Nazi scene for those who carry them out,” said a spokesman, Alexander Verkhovsky. Some 600 racist attacks took place last year – but resulted in only 20 convictions, Verkhovsky said.

Russian sociologists have struggled to explain the phenomenon of rising neo-Nazism and xenophobia in a country that lost millions of its citizens fighting against Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Last month neo-Nazis daubed swastikas on a memorial in Moscow to members of the Jewish anti-fascist committee and hacked into the Holocaust Centre’s website, decorating it with Nazi symbols. Jewish cemeteries are regularly desecrated.

Last year a video surfaced showing the killing by neo-Nazis of two men from the Caucuses, who were decapitated. Russian officials at first claimed the video was fake. They began an investigation only after Artur Umadanov from Dagestan recognised his missing brother Shamil, who went to Moscow to work and disappeared in the summer of 2007.

Yesterday Russian prosecutors said they had charged the teenage gang in Moscow with 20 cases of murder and 12 attempted murders. The attacks took place during 2006-07, they said.

“Lone citizens of non-Slavic appearance were chosen as victims. The assailants attempted to inflict grievous harm within the shortest possible time,” said Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia’s investigative committee. The two leaders of the group were both under 16 years of age when they committed their crimes, he added.

According to the newspaper Vremya Novostei, Ryno was a student at Moscow’s icon painting school. Police were initially sceptical of his claim that he had murdered 32 people. The investigation committee subsequently confirmed some of his testimony.

Ryno and Skachevski were arrested for killing Karen Abramian, an Armenian businessman. They fled from the scene but were spotted boarding a tram. Police chased after them and detained both teenagers, the paper said, adding that their clothes were covered with blood.

Locally, Skin Heads Neither For Nor Against Racial Prejudice have declared that they are neither supportive of nor opposed to the activities of skinheads in Russia; they have also refused to comment on the upcoming gig by T.H.U.G. on July 19 at the East Brunswick Hotel, nor that organised by the local Blood & Honour and Hammerskins franchises scheduled for September. In addition, local experts on the Bombshell punk rawk music forum have agreed with Russian authorities and denied that there’s any real increase in the number of racist murders in the country, as well as suggested that, even if they were, what’s music got to do with politics anyway?

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Music | Leave a comment

Un-commodification

Posted on July 2, 2008 by @ndy

Groovy Greek anarchists revive a wonderful tradition from Ye Olde England: stealing from the rich, and giving to the poor.

Supermarket target of Robin Hood raid
ekathimerini.com
July 1, 2008

Stylish anarchists claimed responsibility yesterday for raiding a supermarket in the Athens neighborhood of Nea Smyrni and then distributing the stolen goods to shoppers at a fruit and vegetable market in the fourth such incident during the last month. A group of some 20 people, all wearing hoods or helmets, entered the Marinopoulos supermarket on Evdoxou Street, loaded up trolleys with food and simply walked out of the store unchallenged. Police said they were notified some time after the incident as the shop manager was concerned about the possible repercussions if he called for help immediately. Soon after the raid, an announcement appeared on a website claiming that an anarchist group promoting “the free distribution of goods” was behind the fourth raid of its kind in Athens since May 31.

See also : Lucio Urtubia | Today’s Poll : Do you like champagne? | Late mail | Robin Hood & His Merry Wo/men Are Alive & Well & The Sheriffs Are Hunting For Them in Hamburg

Speaking of Merry Olde England…

Matthew Butcher: Model for A Monument ‘The Anarcho-Syndicalist Town Hall’- July 5 to July 20
Building Design
July 1, 2008

‘Model for a Monument (The Anarcho-Syndicalist Town Hall)’ is an architectural installation and scale model of an anarchist’s discussion space, commissioned by Camden Council and sited in Russell Square.

Originally planned for the site of a once thriving communist cinema and propaganda distribution centre, 84 Grays Inn Road. The structure has a 5.5 metre high lattice structure supporting a rotating roof that spins on a single axis.

Taking as its starting point, several key political texts by anarchist thinkers Pierre Monatte and Errico Malatesta; ‘Model for a Monument’ seeks to explore the fundamentals of political symbolism and how they have influenced design in architecture throughout its history.

‘Model for A Monument (The Anarcho-Syndicalist Town Hall)’ is part of the London Festival of Architecture 2008.

Matthew Butcher: Model for A Monument ‘The Anarcho-Syndicalist Town Hall’
July 5 to July 20
Russell Square
South East Corner (near Montague Place)
London
WC1

“Key to this exploration and central to the actual installation is the Anarcho-Syndicalist flag that decorates the lattice of the revolving roof. The inclusion of this flag points to the activities of the Anarcho-Syndicalists who operated out of the now abandoned squat that used to over look the square. It further references a lineage that begins with Kazimir Malevich and his extremist political thought and runs through the Avant Garde ideas of architects including Bernard Tschumi and Rem Koolhaas.”

“The Square (evicted): 21-22 Russell Square, London, WC1. As the 2006 New Year started, a new occupation began. The former School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (SSEES) which had been vacated some months previous, was occupied by students and non-students, aiming to create free accommodation, denied by speculative property prices and in refusal of the debt trap exacerbated by the creeping privatisation of education. We seized what has been denied, and we don’t seek to re-create private property, but rather, to realise a new radical, public space for all.”

Posted in Anarchism | 2 Comments

one two three four

Posted on July 1, 2008 by @ndy

o n e

Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey

A close reading of the text of Marx’s Capital, Volume I.

t w o

Bonehead remanded in custody
Wanganui Chronicle
July 1, 2008

THE NAZI skinhead who was the victim of last month’s Cornfoot St shooting will be off Wanganui streets for at least a week. William George Mosen, 26, yesterday appeared in Wanganui District Court, where he was remanded in custody after he was arrested on Sunday and charged with a number of offences. The charges included kidnapping a woman on June 28-29, physically abusing her while a protection order was in place, damaging her property while a protection order was in place, threatening to injure another woman in order to intimidate her and intentionally damaging a swipe card reader and wiring, the property of the New Zealand Police. Mosen has also been charged with possession of a knife and drinking alcohol in a liquor ban area at 3.55am on June 24. Mosen, who was on bail when charged, will appear in court on July 8. Yesterday, Police Prosecutor Stephen Butler opposed further bail for Mosen and asked that he be held in custody for a week. However, Mosen declined to apply for bail, on grounds he thought it might be “safer”. Nevertheless, shortly afterwards Mosen appeared to be in two minds on the matter: “I just don’t think my gunshot wound will heal that well in jail. It probably won’t save my life being locked up in prison, but so be it,” he told Judge Michael Radford. Wanganui Police have yet to make an arrest in connection with Mosen’s shooting.

Self-proclaimed bonehead faces murder charges
Devona Walker
The Oklahoman
June 20, 2008

A self-proclaimed general of an Oklahoma bonehead gang is facing two murder charges, and prosecutors say the death penalty is a distinct possibility in both deaths. Darrel Madden is charged with murder and kidnapping in the October death of Steven Domer, 62. Domer was last seen Oct. 26 near NW 39 and Pennsylvania Avenue, and the next day his car was found burned in McClain County. A few days later, Domer’s body was found in a ravine about three miles away from the vehicle. “This crime is completely odious to us that they would come, hunt someone down and kill them because of their race or sexual orientation,” said Oklahoma County Assistant District Attorney Scott Rowland. “I don’t think there will be a plea.” Though Madden has asked for a plea agreement in the case, Rowland said the district attorney’s office has little motivation to offer him one. Rowland said the death penalty is very much on the table. Madden is accused in Domer’s death, and also the death of Bradley Qualls, who authorities said quarreled with him while hiding from law authorities after Domer’s body was discovered. Madden faces a murder charge in Carter County in connection with Qualls’ death. District Attorney Craig Ladd said Madden also will likely face the death penalty in the killing of Qualls, who may have been Madden’s accomplice in the killing of Domer. Madden has court dates scheduled next month in both cases.

t h r e e

The Woiworung had a religious relationship to their land, participating in corroborees and sacred ceremonies on Merri Creek. They played games too – wrestling, throwing boomerangs and playing ‘Marngrook’. Two sides played this ball game. A round ball made of rolled possum skin tied up with kangaroo sinew was kicked high in the air.

Merri Creek was a meeting place for the Woiworung and three other cultural language groups. There was enough food for up to a thousand people for several weeks. The meetings were for social contact, ceremonies, marriage, deciding issues in tribal law and trading axe heads, reed spears and possum skin cloaks.

The settlement of the area around Melbourne in the 1830s was a disaster for the Woiworung. The Aborigines died from western diseases – small pox, fever, ulcers, syphilis and dysentery. The growth of the white population and building of houses and towns meant that bird and animal life moved north because the land was taken over by sheep and cattle. Sheep ate the plants and trampled food and water resources. Lack of food, accidents, alcohol and violent incidents with white people killed many. Fewer babies were born because Woiworung were so fearful – their country was theirs no longer.

f o u r

An old stone quarry was filled in and became Fleming Park, the home of the East Brunswick cricket and football clubs in 1919. In 1916 the tram along Lygon Street was electrified, putting the site of Brunswick’s first textile factory, Prestige Hosiery (1922), within easier reach of its workforce. A returned servicemen’s housing area was begun in 1923, identifiable by the Maori street names, probably in acknowledgment of the Anzac War tradition.

f i v e

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…

s i x

SHAM 69 (UK) with Bastard Squad, Sin City and T.H.U.G., Saturday July 19, 2008, for a scorching show at the East!

s e v e n

What do you think those who care about this issue should do?

I would say boycott, boycott, boycott. Don’t buy the fucking records. Just leave it alone… This goes to promoters too. Hell, you make enough money. Show some integrity. Stop these people from coming in and infesting the scene. If you think it is any good for the scene, then think again. It is just going to cause all kinds of problems.

e i g h t

Aside from blind, brute nationalistic pride, what is the point of all this lying about history? Emory University Jewish and Holocaust Studies Professor Deborah Lipstadt put it well in her 1993 book Denying the Holocaust: “Denial aims to reshape history to rehabilitate the persecutors and demonize the victims.”

That is true across the board. Some semi-official Turkish narratives now claim, in effect, that the Armenians actually carried out genocidal attacks on the Turks. Neo-Nazis and their scholarly enablers say that “the Jews” manufactured tall tales of the Holocaust in order to extort money and other concessions from postwar Germany. Neo-Confederates like Doug Wilson, a far-right pastor in Moscow, Idaho, tell their listeners with a straight face that the Civil War was nothing less than a defense of righteous Christian civilization and that blacks really didn’t mind slavery.

These lies all serve current agendas — to demonize and minimize the historical claims of Armenians, Jews, and African Americans. That is why, at the end of her book, Lipstadt called on scholars to act: “We must do so in order to expose falsehood and hate. We will remain ever vigilant so that the most precious tools of our trade and our society — truth and reason — can prevail. The still, small voices of millions cry out to us from the ground demanding that we do no less.”

n u m b e r n i n e n u m b e r n i n e . . .

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Jesus is a BLANK & Vestal Masturbation is BAD… mmmkay?

Posted on June 29, 2008 by @ndy

Good old Cradle of Filth. Long-abandoned by metal purists, seven years after first coming to the attention of The Man for a naughty t-shirt, the same t-shirt has irked the normally happy-go-lucky, footloose and fancy-free Queensland police.

Teen arrested for ‘blasphemous T-shirt’
Ben Dillaway
June 25, 2008

A GOLD Coast teenager who wore a T-shirt by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth that reads ‘Jesus is a c**t’ has been charged with offensive behaviour.

Above the offensive slogan a nun is depicted masturbating.

A 16-year-old was arrested on Monday for wearing the shirt and was charged with offensive behaviour under the Summary Offences Act 2005 for public nuisance.

Senior Sergeant Arron Ottaway said the teen was walking along Hollywell Road, in Biggera Waters, when a officer saw him.

Police conducted inquiries at Australia Fair, where the teen said he bought the shirt, to find any shops selling it…

Cradle of Filth merchandise has got plenty of form. Prior to this latest arrest:

Shopkeeper who sold ‘obscene’ Jesus T-shirt escapes trial for prejudice
Lauren Crooks
The Scotsman
November 9, 2007

A SHOP owner charged with religious prejudice after selling an obscene T-shirt will not face trial.

Daniel Moore, 45, sold the T-shirt – which features the slogan “Jesus is a c***” and a pornographic picture of a nun – to an undercover policeman.

Minutes later a team of ten police officers raided his Edinburgh shop and he was charged with selling obscene material aggravated by religious prejudice…

And prior to this incident:

Nicholas Barker, their former drummer, was arrested in Dover in May 2005 and charged with “creating a public disorder” for wearing the garment. There were no further proceedings against him.

In 2004, Dale Wilson was arrested in Norwich after he was spotted wearing the T-shirt as he walked to his local shop.

He walked away from court without a conviction, but magistrates told him to “grow up”.

In 2005, Adam Shepherd, 19, was fined £40 and sentenced to 80 hours community service after a member of the public complained to police over the T-shirt.

In 2001 the then Lord Provost of Glasgow, Alex Mosson, campaigned to stop the T-shirt from being sold at Tower Records. The record shop was raided on two occasions by police, and eventually agreed to stop stocking the garment.

The band’s singer, Dani Filth, has said of the T-shirt: “It was going against the usual mediocre statement of ‘Jesus Loves You’. I mean, what does it mean?”

(Vestal Masturbation is also available in Australia via Metal Mayhem, for the low low price of $55.)

In a completely awesome, utterly macabre and like, totally related note, it’s World Yoof Day (sic) soon, and to celebrate the Catholic Church is arranging for a coupla blokes to come visit. About 125,000, in fact. The first off the plane is some German fella by the name of Ratso; the second is some Italian fella by the name of Pier. And while Ratso was born in 1927, Pier died just two years earlier.

As a result, it’s expected that Ratso will do most of the talking.

Whether or not he’ll apologise for years of abuse by members of his priesthood in Australia remains to be seen. Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell has courageously left the door open for Ratso to walk through, while The Mad Monk reckons Ratso should do more reaching out before apologising on behalf of those clergy who went too far.

See also:

1) Marduk, ‘Fuck Me Jesus’ (Demo, 1991):

2) ‘Jesus is Cumming’:

3) Move over Paul Whicker! Stand aside Gordon Ramsay! Here’s Geoff Baron!

Posted in !nataS, Music | 10 Comments

“Who won”, I said, “the election?”

Posted on June 29, 2008 by @ndy

He laughed, I felt like a gringo…

The ALP has managed to retain its stranglehold on the Western suburbs seat of Kororoit, helped by a low-level dirty tricks campaign, one augmented by some rather deranged attacks on chief rival Les Twentyman by right-wing blogger Andrew Landeryou.

In the UK, (New) Labour has had its flabby neo-liberal arse kicked in the Henley by-election, being beaten not only by the victorious Tory candidate — as widely expected — but also the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, and even the fascist British National Party. To its credit, Labour did manage to defeat the UK Independence Party, (Bananaman Owen of) the Monster Raving Loony Party, the English Democrats, The Common Good and Harry Bear of The Fur Play Party. Blondes also proved more popular than brunettes, with Amanda Harrington of the Miss Great Britain Party narrowly defeating Louise Cole, also of the Miss Great Britain Party. On the other hand, the turnout was only 34,761, or 50.32% of the electorate — a drop of 17.58% — so it’s still possible brunettes are the real favourite among the Tory-loving voters of Henley.

Also in the UK, after the disastrous performance of the SWP front the Left List (nee Respect ‘the Unity Coalition’) in the May local council elections, four councillors from Tower Hamlets — the jewel in the tarnished bronze crown of Respect — have defected to Labour.

On a somewhat related note, Nick Lowles of Searchlight magazine asks ‘Where Now?’ for the campaign against fascism.

Back in the former British penal colony — in the words of renowned British philosopher Jeremy Bentham, home to “a sort of excrementitious mass, that could be projected, and accordingly was projected — projected, and as it should seem purposely — as far out of sight as possible” — the Australian Democrats have finally limped off the political stage, the final whimper coming nine years after the sentence was read by John HoWARd and Meg Lees shaking hands on the regressive GST. Lees resigned from the party in 2002, to form the ridiculous stunt known as the Australian Progressive Alliance. Naturally, it sank without trace.

The demise of the Democrats has been greeted with some regrets. For example:

I REMEMBER the great joy and the palpable sense of possibility I felt when Natasha Stott Despoja, at age 26, became the youngest female elected to the Federal Parliament in November 1995. Finally, here was one of us elected to the people’s house. A Doc Martens-wearing senator who was proudly and determinedly herself, blowing the winds of change through the Old Boys Club in Canberra…

*vomit*

Finally, on a bright note for bosses, in Perth a trouble-making trade union leader has been given his marching orders by police (Police ‘grab’ union leader Dave Robinson, PerthNow, Paul Lampathakis, June 28, 2008): “PROMINENT unionist Dave Robinson was “grabbed”‘ by police this morning and marched away from outside the WA Labor State Conference, at Perth’s Hyatt Hotel”. In even better news:

Violent boss has charges dismissed by right wing judge

Magistrate: “Civil disobedience is merely a euphemism for breaking the law”

A boss who drove a semi-trailer through a group of protesters, endangering the lives of several people, walked free from court this week without so much as a slap on the wrist. Anthony Elliott, the owner of the Elliott Group of companies in Melbourne, had all 15 charges against him dismissed after a 4 day court hearing…

The moral of these stories?

The Roar of the Masses Could be Farts

Posted in State / Politics | 7 Comments

T.H.U.G.

Posted on June 29, 2008 by @ndy

In three weeks, on July 19, 2008, a gig is scheduled to take place at the East Brunswick Hotel (280 Lygon Street, East Brunswick). The headline act is Sham 69, with support from Bastard Squad, Sin City and T.H.U.G.. The tour is being organised by Faultline Records & Touring, a Melbourne-based heavy metal label, established in 1998 by DW Norton, current CEO and former member of nu metal outfit Superheist.*

Unlike Superheist (1993–2004), T.H.U.G. is a relatively-new, Sydney-based oi! band. Importantly, two of its members — Chumley, vocals, and Simon, drums — last graced the world’s stage as members of White Lightning (c.1986–1988), an Australian neo-Nazi band. White Lightning released one album, We Rule, the title track of which T.H.U.G. still performs. The opening track is ‘Australian Youth’: “Make a stand for your great nation / Against the scum who are going to die”.

The album was 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 addition, another former member of White Lightning, ‘Aussie’ Nigel Brown (No Remorse, Celtic Warrior, Raven’s Wing, Wolfseye), together with a wanker called Billy, re-recorded and re-released We Rule on Welsh label ‘Independent Voice Records’ in 1998.

T.H.U.G. is thus one of a tiny clutch of bands with roots in the neo-Nazi rock ‘n’ roll of the ’80s and ’90s; another is the UK band Tattooed Mother Fuckers (TMF), whose vocalist is Steve “Jonesy” Jones, formerly of neo-Nazi band English Rose. Numerous other ‘patriotic’ bands attempt to hide their reactionary politics behind the flag: Ross of UK oi! band Scum, for example, has recently been outed as a Hitler fetishist by Benson & Hedges. Scum is, in turn, playing a gig with TMF in October, while Australian band The Corps is touring Europe with TMF and Retaliator. Retaliator, TMF, The Corps and Scum are all available through local mail-order Deadset Music (whose proprietor was a patron at the 2006 Ian Stuart Donaldson (ISD) memorial gig). Rock-O-Rama, the German neo-Nazi label, has re-located to Belgium, and re-invented itself as Pure Impact, selling both neo-Nazi and more straightforwardly ‘conservative’ and/or ‘apolitical’ titles.

Locally, Benson & Hedges have announced the impending disaster that will be the ISD memorial gig (2007 | 2006), *ing Douglas Schott’s Viking warriors from Newcastle Blood Red Eagle, a resurrected Ravenous (not to be confused with the Kiwi metalheads), and some schmucks from one of them foreign countries. BRE is available for purchase through local ‘punk’ mailorder Snapshot, along with Skrewdriver, Bound For Glory (UK not US), Fortress (AUS), Legion of St. George (UK), Retaliator (UK) and the incomparable Southern Storm (”Niggers, Jews and Communists / Look out scum, you’re on our list!”). Snapshot is also closely associated with ‘Class War’ in Sydney… which is odd.

Old whine in new bottles has as its concomitant the disembraining and yuppification of underground DIY punk (sub-)culture. In Perth, The Homicides have gladly shared a stage with Murray Holmes (ex-Quick & The Dead, Skrewdriver). Holmes had previously traveled to Melbourne (last year) to perform at the Melbourne Croatia Social Club with a handful of other neo-Nazi bands. The Homicides are planning a split release later this year with T.H.U.G..

As for T.H.U.G., in 2000, Simon was interviewed by a Dutch neo-Nazi zine Out of Order. Simon says:

All my mates were into oi! and white pride as well. I did not know any skinheads that were into oi! and were not white and proud of it. Lefty skinheads would never dare to show their face on the street for fear of getting severely beaten. And that’s the way it should always be…

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…

Old time skinheads rule!

For these and other reasons, I thought it might be a good idea to contact the band and ask them a few questions. Here’s the first message:

Date:18 Jun 2008, 11:08 AM
Subject: upcoming gig in melbs / nazi schmazi

g’day thug,

yr playing a gig in melb on july 19, and i’d like to know if the band supports the kinda views white lightning did.

ie, neo-nazism.

if not, it’d be helpful if you said so, esp as yr still playing white lightning songs.

cheers,

andy.

======

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.

======

And here’s the second:

Date: 28 Jun 2008, 11:37 AM
Subject: nazi schmazi

g’day t.h.u.g.,

it’s been well over a week since i wrote you, and no reply. i’m therefore assuming that the band is happy for chumley and simon’s previous views and affiliations to remain in force, and will continue to do so until such time as they (and t.h.u.g.) makes a public statement disavowing racism and fascism.

cheers,

andy.

Hopefully, the band will declare some of its members support for neo-Nazism an unhappy memory.

In the meantime, some not-so-nu metal:

    *”Our goal today is the same as when we started,” states Superheist founder/guitarist/producer DW Norton firmly. “To be one of the biggest bands in the world.” Given that Superheist formed in Melbourne in 1993 as a brutal grindcore outfit, their plans for world domination could, back then at least, have been placed safely in the file marked “wishful thinking”. After all, Top 40 success rarely follows bands with vocalists who sound like they gargle acid for kicks. But then Superheist have never been a band afraid to aim high. “We wanted to play extreme, fast and heavy, scary music, and we did that,” continues DW of the band’s early intentions. “All we want to do now is play good, solid, heavy rock with great songs. We’ve decided that it’s not playing fast and aggressive that counts, it’s getting the right songs and making us happy and satisfied and accomplished as songwriters.”
Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Music | Tagged , , | 29 Comments

Nationale Sozialisten für Israel

Posted on June 28, 2008 by @ndy

Awesome!

Hit the road Israeli neo-Nazis! Make way Aryan anarchist skinheads! Move over nationalist anarchists! Step aside pro-US anti-Germans! It’s time for:

National Socialists For Israel!

polylog Autonome Nationalisten @ www.polylog.tv/videothek

German neo-Nazis: We’re pro-Israel, condemn anti-Semitism
Ofer Aderet
Haaretz
June 4, 2008

Nazis against anti-Semitism? As bizarre as that sounds, a group of Germans which calls itself “National Socialists For Israel” launched its Web site in support of Israel.

“Stop the hatred of the Jewish people,” the Web site reads. “The Jews are a healthy, strong nation.”

The organization – whose members have yet to reveal themselves to the public – claims that Israel’s right to exist is anchored in the principles of social Darwinism, the same principles which the Nazis adopted prior to the Second World War.

“Israel earned the right to live among the nations [after emerging] from unending wars,” the group writes on the site. “Israel also has a right to exist. This nation also has culture… The nation of Israel is appreciated… It is our duty, as neo-Nazis, to defend this supreme success. Not just for the German people and the European cultural sphere, but also, especially, for Israel.”

As such, “Nazis for Israel” also leveled criticism at their colleagues in the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), calling them “politicos, cowards, and reactionaries.”

“Show us proof of a Jewish plot to dominate the world,” they wrote in a rare manifesto which was posted on their Web site.

These unusual statements on the internet [complement] the group’s other public campaigns, including the dissemination of bumper stickers. One of the stickers features a picture of Reinhard Heydrich, the senior Nazi official who chaired the Wansee Conference where the Final Solution was hatched. Underneath the photo reads: “As a Nazi, I’m a Zionist.”

Another sticker shows a photo of Israel Defense Forces soldiers during the Second Lebanon War under the heading: “2,000 years of struggling to survive – respect to those worthy of it.”

In terms of the group’s attitude towards the Holocaust, the organization says: “We must view what is referred to as ‘the Holocaust’ within the context of acts of self-defense undertaken by nations under threat.” It added, however, “that there is no justification for it.” Instead, the Nazis ought to have supported the Zionist cause, the group states.

The group claims it held its first meeting of activists in Berlin last month. It said the meeting touched on issues ranging from “solidarity with Israel, anti-Semitism, capitalism, and Islam.”

Actually, ‘national socialism’ is hardly incompatible with Zionism, or Zionism with national socialism; what makes this mob’s ‘support’ for the state of Israel peculiar is German history and the history of German national socialism/Nazism in particular.

More later…

Posted in !nataS, State / Politics | 7 Comments

White nightmares

Posted on June 27, 2008 by @ndy

    Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
    And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Tight security for backpacker murder-accused
Helen Murdoch
The Press
June 26, 2008

Murder accused Shannon Brent Flewellen was handcuffed and escorted by three police officers when he appeared in Westport District Court today. The 28-year-old Nelson fisherman and a co-offender are accused of murdering Korean backpacker Jae Hyeon Kim in 2003. Flewellen was remanded without plea to appear in Westport District Court on July 24 by Judge Noel Walsh. Duty solicitor Doug Taffs said that it was too problematic at this stage to set depositions and pre-depositions dates. There was no application for bail. Judge Walsh confirmed his remand in custody. Six bonehead supporters left the court when Flewellen was escorted away…

Flewellen has had previous brushes with the law, escaping from a police van in January 2005 before being re-captured.

Two indicted in ’98 homeless slayings in Tampa
Kevin Graham
St. Petersburg Times
June 25, 2008

TAMPA — Federal authorities have charged two more members of a hate group with the 1998 beating deaths of two homeless men in Tampa, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday. James Robertson, 28, and Corey Hulse, 24, formerly of Tampa, have each been charged with two counts of a violent crime in aid of racketeering to commit murder. If convicted, they face life in prison. Robertson has been detained on the charges, and Hulse remains a fugitive, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors described Robertson and Hulse as members of the white racist organization Tampa Blood and Honour, a bonehead group “whose members espoused the belief that white persons of Aryan descent were the superior race.” Robertson and Hulse are accused of helping at least two other men murder Alfred Williams and Richard Arseneau on Sept. 31, 1998. Kenneth Hoover, 35, and Charles Marovskis, 29, two other members of the group, have pleaded guilty in the slayings. Authorities said the men beat Williams to death with a tire iron and used an ax to kill Arseneau in a wooded lot. Prosecutors said the killings took place as part of an initiation rite.

Blood & Honour is a proscribed organisation in Germany and Spain and exists under a legal cloud in Belgium, Holland and Portugal, but operates quite happily in Australia.

Real traditional values:

Posted in Anti-fascism | 5 Comments