[Via Django @ libcom] Alleged murderer Anders Behring Breivik appears to have ties with the “I must say I am very impressed with how quickly they have grown” E E EDL. (Note that the A A ADL is assembling in Sydney next Saturday under the leadership of E E Englishman (and former soldier) Martin Brennan, while the E E EDL is gonna march through Tower Hamlets next month.) Funnily enough, Breivik berates Muslims for their murderous ways, but otherwise carries on with all the usual shite one expects from a ‘cultural conservative’ on the perils of leftism and multiculturalism, the corrosive effects of cultural Marxism on social order and so on and so forth.
The rightwinger allegedly responsible for the Mumbai-style massacre and bombing in Norway appears to have ties with UK-based “counter-jihad movement” the English Defence League.
In online rants, alleged murderer Anders Behring Breivik describes himself as a rightwing conservative opposed to “Eurabia”, the “Islamisation of Europe” and the erosion of Christian values.
In a post on Norwegian website document.no he describes his admiration for the English Defence League, his contacts with the group and aspiration to set up a Norwegian sister organisation…
The original source for Breivik’s posts is the (right-wing, populist) document.no site.
The documentary film Operation 8 is playing at the Melbourne International Film Festival today and on Wednesday July 27. Dr. Cam and I had the pleasure of interviewing filmmaker Errol Wright and activist Valerie Morse today on ‘The SUWA Show’ on 3CR.
LOL oh man… They’re going to have a limo, man, and food backstage, man, everything. They need a manager. That’s the only thing. My cousin. He doesn’t have a job. They’ll make him the manager. He’s got a van. It’ll be heavy. They’ll be the heaviest chicks, man. Get all-new instruments, man, everything. All right…
Former nutzi pin-up grrls Lamb and Lynx Gaede (formerly known as the pop sensation Prussian Blue) have apparently put down their swastikas.
After putting on their thinking hoods and quaffing from their mead horns, neo-Nazi circles are placing the blame for the unravelling of the twin’s neo-Nazi ideology squarely on the shoulders of those bloody Jamaicans. And by Jamaicans I mean, of course, Jews.
May 26, 1971, Time: 10:03 am – 11:35 am — Oval Office Conversation: 505-4 — Meeting with Nixon and HR ‘Bob’ Haldeman
RN: “Now, this is one thing I want. I want a Goddamn strong
statement on marijuana. Can I get that out of this
sonofabitching, uh, Domestic Council?”
HRH: “Sure.”
RN: “I mean one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them.
I see another thing in the news summary this morning about it.
You know it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are
out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the
matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them? I
suppose it’s because most of them are psychiatrists, you know,
there’s so many, all the greatest psychiatrists are Jewish. By
God we are going to hit the marijuana thing, and I want to hit it
right square in the puss, I want to find a way of putting more on
that. More [ unintelligible ] work with somebody else with this.”
HRH: “Mm hmm, yep.”
RN: “I want to hit it, against legalizing and all that sort of
thing.”
While the grrls are getting all mellow ‘n’ shit, according to The Daily Mom April is still working hard to create a ‘Pioneer Little Europe’ (white enclave) in the hills of Montana. In the hills surrounding Perth, WA this task is being undertaken under the auspices of former Stormfront moderator Paul Innes. Oddly enough, Innes also helped to distribute a portion of US neo-Nazi terrorist David Lane’s ashes (Lane co-wrote a creepy love song with the Gaede twins titled ‘Hate for Hate: Lamb Near the Lane’). Typically, the disposal of Lane’s ashes occasioned a sectarian battle between Combat 18 and fellow nutzis ‘Women for Aryan Unity’. Combat 18 later distinguished itself by a handful of members shooting at a mosque in February 2010; in January 2011, a WA policeman was charged with giving information to members of the group. His last court hearing was apparently some time in May…
Recently, the Anarchist Federation (UK) was asked some questions concerning the position its fraternal organisation in Bulgaria, the FAB, has taken with regards the trial and sentencing of the Australian Jock Palfreeman. Unsatisfied with the response they received from AF, late last month the group ‘Anarchist Solidarity’ published an open letter to AF, asking it ‘Which side are you on?’. Although it doesn’t (yet?) appear on the AF’s site, the following statement–which appears on the libcom site–is attributed to AF.
The Anarchist Federation has been contacted on a number of occasions by a group calling itself Anarchist Solidarity about Jock Palfreeman, currently a prisoner in Bulgaria. The AF has never made any statement on the issue nor had any ‘spokesman’ do so for us. We attempted to establish whether AS were a bone fide organisation before responding to their contact. In an attempt to comprehend the situation an individual member contacted a personal friend who they considered might know something. Anything that is said to have been quoted from the AF is from that private correspondence only.
As it stands, having communicated with the Federation of Anarchists in Bulgaria (FAB) and with other knowledgeable parties in Bulgaria and the Balkans more widely, we won’t be issuing any statement. We know more about this situation than we are at liberty to put in writing. We do not wish what we write here to cause harm to any party which is, unfortunately, a real possibility if we do not choose our words carefully.
Prisoner support groups should approach anarchist organisations in the knowledge that if they are unknown to relevant parties or are abrasive in tone when making their approach, those organisations may respond with suspicion as to how they fit into such complex situations.
If comrades we know to be bone fide want to see the e-mails that Anarchist Solidarity sent to us, please contact the National Secretary of the AF at our national address. Anarchist Solidarity are of course at liberty to publish their approaches to us themselves, if they think that making public the manner in which they approached us would help build international solidarity actions and support for Jock Palfeeman.
Anarchist Federation, July 2011
In summary, AF refuses to adopt a public position on the matter of Palfreeman, or on FAB’s denunciation. Those who care will obviously continue to act in solidarity with Jock, and with others who find themselves in similar situations.
Several year ago I was informed by a number of experts on the (now sadly defunct) ‘Melbourne Punx Forum’ that despite my wild claims to the contrary, there were in fact no neo-Nazis in Russia. Therefore, any efforts to possibly assist those punks and skinheads being murdered by these non-existent neo-Nazis was a waste of time and energy; time and energy better spent on having fun and following fashion. And yet…
June 2011: “At least six people became victims of racist and neo-Nazi attacks in June 2011, with three of those dying due to their injuries. These figures bring the year-to-date totals to 14 deaths, 58 people injured, and an additional 5 people receiving death threats across 15 regions of Russia.”
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Monday handed down sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison to 12 members of the country’s most vicious neo-Nazi gang convicted of 27 hate killings, which included a videotaped decapitation of one of their own gang members and other crimes.
The Moscow City Court sentenced five members of the group, the National Socialist Society North, to life, giving another seven members between 10 and 23 years. One was handed an eight-year suspended sentence.
The defendants were mostly men in their 20s and one woman. Most of the gang members had pleaded partial guilt but requested leniency after their lawyers say they were coerced into committing the crimes.
“Irrespective of whether they were fooled or mentally lost, they are evil killers who will never get back to a normal life,” said Alexander Kolodkin, an ethnic Russian whose son, also named Alexander, was stabbed to death in February 2008. “They should be isolated.”
Sergei Stashevsky, a lawyer for Vasilisa Kovolyova, who was sentenced to 19 years, claimed that his client’s confession was “beaten out” of her “through torture.”
“The trial is definitely political,” he said.
Maria Malakhovskaya, lawyer for Konstantin Nikiforenko, who received a 20-year sentence, blamed the websites of neo-Nazis and Russian supremacists for brainwashing the defendants with far-right ideology.
During the 18-month trial, the court heard that the gang hunted mostly darker-skinned labor migrants from Russia’s Caucasus region, ex-Soviet Central Asia, as well as Africans and South East Asians in a chilling series of rampages that climaxed in February and March of 2008.
The youths ganged up on apparent foreigners and stabbed them with knives, metal rods and sharpened screwdrivers, the court heard, in brutal attacks coordinated by the gang’s scrawny leader, Lev Molotkov. He gave fellow assailants a few rubles for the train and cigarettes. According to court papers, Molotkov, who’s in his mid-twenties, testified that that during a New Year’s toast on Dec. 31, 2007, he proclaimed 2008 to be “the year of white terror” in Russia.
Molotkov’s gang is estimated to have hundreds of supporters nationwide.
They were also convicted of strangling and decapitating one of their comrades whom they suspected of being a police informant and stealing $112,000 from the gang’s funds. The decapitation, during which they donned clown masks and sang a patriotic song, was videotaped and posted online.
During the trial, the defendants mocked the judge, shouting curse words and performing the Nazi salute. They cracked jokes and demonstratively ignored the judge when he spoke to them. Some wore white masks. After the sentences were handed down, one could be heard to yell “our conscience is higher than your laws.”
The group’s leader and ideologue Maxim Bazylyev, nicknamed Adolf [below], committed suicide by slitting his wrists and neck in April 2009. Shortly after his suicide another of the group’s activist shot himself.
Their friends and supporters claimed both were killed by police.
The sentencing came as a loose group of nationalists announced a coalition with the country’s third-largest political party, potentially giving a growing nationalists movement a louder voice in the country’s parliament.
The LDPR party and a group of nationalist politicians and activists said their union would “protect the Russian people and (Russia’s) interests.”
LDPR stands for the Liberal Democrat Party, but the party has a strong nationalist manifesto and rejects liberal policy. The coalition gives the party access to more a hardline nationalist electorate, which is growing as Russia grapples with heightened tensions among ethnic communities. Parliamentary elections are set for December. The LDPR is represented in the parliament that is dominated by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. Critics say all four parliamentary parties tow the official line, though to varying degrees.
Since its inception in 2004, the National Socialist Society was part of a broader network of neo-Nazi organizations that advocated for an ultranationalist government that would grant exclusive rights to ethnic Russians. In 2007 the group split in two, and the extremist North faction appeared. [The Russian Supreme Court banned the Society in February 2010. See also : Misuse of anti-extremism legislation @ SOVA.]
Ethnic Russians comprise two thirds of the country’s population of 142 million, while more than 100 ethnicities account for the remaining third.
The group recruited new members online and through a network of sports clubs that were labeled centers of patriotic education.
During the trial, one of the defendants said he killed three people in 24 hours, according to court papers.
In recent years, dozens of mostly underage neo-Nazis have been convicted across Russia.
Plummeting birth rates among ethnic Russians, economic woes and an unprecedented influx of labor migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia triggered widespread xenophobia and a spike in hate crimes. Some Russians and nationalist politicians accuse the migrants of stealing jobs and forming ethnic gangs.
Since then, the number of hate crimes have gone down, but human rights groups say neo-Nazis are increasingly resorting to bombings and arson against police and government officials, whom they accuse of condoning the influx of illegal migrants. Ultranationalist groups have also stepped up attacks on human rights activists and anti-racist youth groups.
In early May, a member of an ultranationalist group [Nikita Tikhonov] got a life sentence for the Jan. 2009 killing of a human rights advocate [Stanislav Markelov] and a journalist [Anastasia Baburova], his girlfriend and accomplice [Yevgeniya Khasis] was sentenced to 18 years in jail.
“Knowing there’s guys and girls like you on the outside supporting us makes such a difference…It’s really nice not to be forgotten and I’ll be eternally grateful to everyone.” – Ravi Gill
Leeds ABC are an experienced prisoner support group, but with six of our close friends and comrades sent to jail recently, fitted-up for being antifascists, it’s been a stressful time for us. Unfortunately most of the stress has not come from building an effective solidarity campaign for our imprisoned comrades, but from fighting a rear-guard action against those trying to prevent that support. This has wasted a huge amount of time, energy, and personal resources, all of which could have been better spent supporting our prisoners. All sorts of stupid lies and rumours have been circulated, we were repeatedly told for example that none of the prisoners wanted support, that their numbers were all wrong, or that Phil De Souza wanted to be removed from our list of prisoners. All these tales are UNTRUE.
We were gratified to receive a large wad of mail from the prisoners today enthusiastically thanking us for our support. They are absolutely unequivocal in saying that they want to be listed and supported as antifascist prisoners.
While astonished that they were convicted, all remain strong and thank everyone for the support they have received. Their main complaint, apart from being fitted-up, is about the notoriously bad food at Wormwood Scrubs!
These comrades have been fitted-up and deserve our fullest possible support. Please write to them or send a solidarity card (advice on writing to prisoners can be found on the Leeds ABC website). Please send a stamped self-addressed envelope if you would like a reply, or if you can afford it they can receive stamps, stationery, and postal orders (made payable to ‘The Governor’). They can also receive books sent via Amazon.
A solidarity fund has been established for the imprisoned antifascists. If you would like to donate to it please send a cheque made payable to the ‘The Cable Street Society’ to Leeds ABC, 145-149 Cardigan Road, Leeds, LS6 1LJ. Bank details and a PayPal option will be up on the Leeds ABC website within a few days.
We can only hope that those with nothing better to do than spread silly rumours undermining support for our six imprisoned antifascists will now either become involved in supporting them or go and do something else other than making our work as a prisoner support group harder. We would like to thank Indymedia for their support and patience during what has been a confusing period, without Indymedia the prisoners would not have received the support they have.
The prisoners’ details are as follows. As always, assume your letters are being read by our enemies and ensure you do not compromise your own security or that of others. Also please note that Thomas Blak and Austin Jackson are as yet unsentenced.
Andy Baker (21 months)
A5768CE
HMP Wormwood Scrubs
PO Box 757
Du Cane Rd
London
W12 OAE
Thomas Blak (Unsentenced)
A5728CE
HMP Wormwood Scrubs
PO Box 757
Du Cane Rd
London
W12 OAE
Sean Cregan (21 months)
A5769CE
HMP Wormwood Scrubs
PO Box 757
Du Cane Rd
London
W12 OAE
Phil De Sousa (21 months)
A5766CE
HMP Wormwood Scrubs
PO Box 757
Du Cane Rd
London
W12 OAE
Ravinder Gill (21 months)
A5770CE
HMP Wormwood Scrubs
PO Box 757
Du Cane Rd
London
W12 OAE
Austen Jackson (Unsentenced)
A5729CE
HMP Wormwood Scrubs
PO Box 757
Du Cane Rd
London
W12 OAE
150 workers at Marrickville Council in Sydney went on strike yesterday after Council decided to privatise green waste collection (Council stink over residents’ green bins, Vikki Campion, The Daily Telegraph, July 8, 2011). Council has hired scabs to replace strikers. It also plans “to ban union officials from council worksites during work times” according to the USU (Marrickville Council Brings In Strike Breakers, Graeme Kelly (USU General Secretary), July 7, 2011).
Australia must have a fair and equitable industrial relations system for all workers.
all people have the right to pursue their well-being in conditions of freedom and dignity, economic security and equal opportunity.
Australia’s future workforce must be highly skilled, highly trained and well paid; the existence of a safety net and the right to collectively bargain are essential to achieving these aims.
working people must receive fair and equitable remuneration for their work. working people have the right to be involved in decisions about their work.
the right to be a member of a union, to collectively bargain, to collectively withhold labour and collectively organise in the workplace is essential to achieving a sustainable and democratic future.
free, independent and democratic unions are an essential pillar of a civil society.
people have the right to a safe workplace free from occupational hazards.
industrial manslaughter is a crime.
the objectives of profitability and efficiency should not override social and ecological objectives.
effective processes of dispute resolution, including conciliation and arbitration before an independent tribunal are a necessary element in any fair and effective industrial relations system.
A FORMER policeman charged with leaking information to an alleged criminal has been allowed to travel overseas.
Robert David Critchley, 42, appeared in the Perth Magistrate’s Court today to appeal the terms of his bail so he could visit an ill member of his wife’s family overseas.
Mr Critchley will pay a $2,500 deposit to have his passport returned to him, and he has 48 hours once he arrives back in Perth after the 12-day trip to hand the travel document in.
The 42-year-old served as a police officer in the state intelligence crime division but resigned in September last year after Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan recommended he be dismissed.
He is charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by allegedly passing on information that could interfere with police investigations when he attempted to warn a man in the neo-nazi organisation Combat 18 that he was under surveillance.
It is also alleged separately that he accessed people’s details on a police computer database without authorisation three times between May 2009 and January 2010.
On November 28, 2010 WikiLeaks—in conjunction with other major media organisations—began publishing classified United States diplomatic cables, detailing correspondence between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world.
The publication of these cables has had an enormous impact upon world affairs. In its 2011 Annual Report, the human rights organisation ‘Amnesty International’ nominated the publication as a major catalyst in a series of uprisings against repressive regimes in the Middle East and North Africa—the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. [1]
Not everyone has welcomed the revelations contained in the WikiLeaks publications quite so warmly, however, and governments around the world have begun to implement measures designed to stifle such activity.
In Australia, these measures are being implemented by way of a series of amendments to laws governing the operations of the state’s intelligence and security apparatus.
Background
In an interview with Fairfax Radio conducted just days after the first cables were published, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard declared “I absolutely condemn the placement of this information on the WikiLeaks website—it’s a grossly irresponsible thing to do and an illegal thing to do”. [2]
This alleged legality, however, was not at all as straightforward as PM Gillard imagined.
Less than a week later, PM Gillard retreated from her claim, unable to nominate any Australian law WikiLeaks may have broken in publishing the cables. Gillard later claimed that “The foundation stone of it is an illegal act… It would not happen, information would not be on WikiLeaks, if there had not been an illegal act undertaken.” [3]
An investigation by Australian Federal Police into WikiLeaks subsequently concluded that it was unable to establish “the existence of any criminal offences where Australia would have jurisdiction”. [4]
As of this date, no charges have been filed against WikiLeaks for publishing the cables. However, US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning—currently being held in an Army prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas—faces multiple charges in relation to the alleged leak, and if found guilty could receive a life sentence. [5] Further, WikiLeaks and its supporters are currently the subject of a Grand Jury investigation in what journalist Glenn Greenwald describes as “part of a much broader campaign by the Obama administration to crack down on leakers”. [6]
Amending the Law
Having failed to discover an Australian law under which WikiLeaks could be prosecuted, in early 2011, [7] the Gillard Government introduced a new Bill into the Federal Parliament: the Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2011. [8]
This legislation—dubbed “the WikiLeaks amendment”—considerably broadens the legal powers available to ASIO to investigate matters of concern to the state, especially as it relates to the activities of “foreign” organisations. The amendment has important implications for all members of civil society engaged in the investigation, reportage and critical scrutiny of matters state authorities believe are best kept out of public discourse. [9]
In May, Philip Dorling of The Age wrote:
Government sources told The Age last year that there was legal ambiguity over whether ASIO could collect intelligence on WikiLeaks under its foreign intelligence collection function. The issue turned on whether WikiLeaks could be defined as a “foreign political organisation”.
Last week the government introduced legislation to define ASIO’s role more broadly to include collection of intelligence “about the capabilities, intentions or activities of people or organisations outside Australia.”
According to the government the proposed amendment, known informally as “the WikiLeaks amendment”, reflects “the changing nature of threats to Australia, since activities undertaken by non-state actors, whether individually or as a group, can also threaten Australia’s national interest”. [10]
The legislation has been warmly received by the Opposition and rushed through the Parliament, with the only criticisms from within Parliament being voiced by the Greens.
On June 23, the Greens “warned… that a Government plan to significantly broaden ASIO’s mandate was unjustified and dangerous”. [11] Questioned by WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlum before the ‘Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’ on May 25, 2011:
The Head of ASIO was very resistant to discussing Wikileaks, neither confirming nor denying anything. Mr Irvine hadn’t read the submissions from legal experts into the Bill currently before the parliament that will dramatically expand his agency’s ability to spy on civil society organisations like Wikileaks. [12]
Senator Ludlum also noted that questioning revealed that “it took 6 AFP officers a total of 18 days to conclude that Wikileaks had broken no Australian criminal offence and there was no basis for an investigation”. [13]
Media inquiry
In addition to the Fairfax press, The WikiLeaks Amendment has been closely examined by Bernard Keane in the independent online news source Crikey. Keane notes that the current definition of a “foreign organisation”:
…allows ASIO to apply to the attorney-general to spy on foreign governments or foreign political organisations, but would be dramatically widened under the amendment to allow spying in relation to anything to do with “the interests of Australia’s national security, Australia’s foreign relations or Australia’s national economic well-being”. [14]
The Government’s seeming inability to explain the rationale behind the amendment at the Senate inquiry prompted it to make an extraordinary third submission (its second submission sought to respond to issues raised by the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law) in which it claimed that the amendment would provide “authorities with a better understanding of illegal fishing operations, and enable the relevant Australian authorities to take appropriate action internationally. Illegal fishing puts at risk Australian jobs, investment and the sustainability of fish stocks.”
As Keane wryly commented, “So there you have it—the one clear example of why the government wants a significant expansion in ASIO’s foreign intelligence remit is to provide it with “a better understanding of illegal fishing operations”. It has nothing to do with WikiLeaks, but is all about the fish.” [15]
Something fishy
There is indeed something very fishy about the “WikiLeaks amendment”, from its timing to its bi-partisan support within (and speedy passage through) the Parliament, the absence of any clear rationale for its introduction, and its exceedingly wide potential application.
In addition to the Greens and some journalists, the Law Council of Australia, the Federation of Community Legal Centres (Vic), and the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law have raised objections to the amendment in their submissions to the Senate inquiry. The Castan Centre’s comments on the amendment and its potential impact upon WikiLeaks operations are worth quoting at length. It makes particular note of the fact that:
…amendments would permit ASIO a much wider scope to investigate the activities of Australians who are overseas, and whose activities do not pose any threat to Australia’s security, but perhaps do have implications for Australia’s foreign relations or economic interests. This could include Australians involved in non-violent political activities abroad, which while posing no threat to Australia’s security, and not involving any foreign political organisations, might nevertheless be seen as having implications for Australia’s foreign relations (for example, because they would be perceived adversely by the government of the country in which such activities were taking place). An example of such activities might include the release of secret government information by an Australian living abroad, such as has been the case in respect of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Currently, information about Wikileaks probably would not constitute foreign intelligence – because Wikileaks is (arguably) not a foreign political organisation, and its activities do not threaten Australia’s security (as defined in section 4 of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 (Cth)). But Wikileaks is an organisation, and Mr Assange is a person, outside Australia, and their activities evidently do have implications for Australia’s foreign relations. This example shows how the notion of “person or organisation outside Australia”, combined with the notion of “Australia’s foreign relations”, very considerably expands the scope of ASIO’s potential activities. [16]
Given the broader political context, both domestic and foreign, in which it has been made, there is every reason for Australian citizens to be concerned about The WikiLeaks Amendment. The amendment allows ASIO greater powers to target WikiLeaks and related organisations, and the attack on human and civil rights it represents can, should and must be resisted.
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
