Bloggy Thursday Anarchy // The Baldies + 20

Posted on March 13, 2008 by @ndy

OK, so I think it’s about time I again reviewed the state-of-play on my blogroll, specifically all them trouble-makin’ anarchists. Oh, and as for my blog, it’s soaring up the charts, and is currently ranked #265,092 most popular site IN THE WORLD (while greenleft.org.au has slipped from #267,145 to #281,415)! In reality, I don’t really believe my blog is more popular than the Green Left site — and attribute the fact that Alexa thinks so to the enormous amount of spam (“Akismet has caught 151,434 spam for you since you first installed it”) I receive — but anyway… Wowee zowee.

* aketus
* An Australian Anarchist Weblog
* anarchafairy
* Anarchia
* Anarcho-Din
* Anarchy Alive
* Anarch[Oi]!
* Angry White Kid
* Anna Aniston
* another blog is possible
* Blogging the Middle East
* Bloggreen
* Bombs and Shields
* CrimethInc. Far East Blog
* Cruz Negra Anarquista de Venezuela
* Dole Diary
* insultadarity
* love @nd rage
* Mickey Z.: Cool Observer
* negations
* Noam Chomsky
* Orthodox Anarchist
* Our War
* Rad Geek People’s Daily
* Riot Porn
* schizoanarcho
* Sketchy Thoughts
* The Dark Age
* the Disillusioned kid
* three way fight
* uncarved

As noted previously, a number of blogs are now dormant or have disappeared altogether: aketus, Anarcho-Din, Angry White Kid, love @nd rage, Riot Porn and The Dark Age. Anna Aniston has abandoned blogsome, as well as blogspot for wordpress; Bloggreen has become the crafty Radical Cross Stitch.

An Australian Anarchist Weblog : Another local Melbourne anark waxes lyrical, in 2008 on the subjects of the meaning of those little words “sorry” and “Corey”. anarchafairy, on the other hand, writes on the subject of ‘Post-Anarchism and Social War’, Malthus and Kiwi @ project the Rebel Press. Anarchia discusses state repression, spies and another Kiwi @ press, Katipo Books. Anarchy Alive! by Uri Gordon concerns his (brilliant) new book called, appropriately enough, Anarchy Alive! (a complimentary copy of which will no doubt soon be winging its way to @ndy c/o PO Box 199, East Brunswick, Victoria 3057, AUSTRALIA… right Uri?). Chuck continues to demonstrate that another blog is possible, although blogging about personal matter is not necessarily advisable….

Anyway, skipping merrily from ‘A’ over to ‘T’ — and over the next dozen or so anarchist blogs on my list — brings me to threewayfight, which is dedicated to the fight the Carlton Blues, Essendon Bombers and Richmond Tigers, or in more “political” terms the state, capital and fascism. twf has alerted me to the existence of a recent article on The Baldies, a seminal (anti-racist) skinhead crew from Minneapolis, written in answer to the question, twenty years later, where are they now…?

Twenty years after their heyday, the anti-racist Baldies recount the rise and fall of a notorious Twin Cities scene

Skinheads at Forty
Matt Snyders
City Pages
February 20, 2008

Dusk was descending as a dozen skinheads eyed their counterparts across Lagoon Avenue. The ragtag crew stood their ground, the rubber soles of their Doc Martens defiantly gripping asphalt.

Across the street stood a mirror image. They too had close-cropped hair, ample tattoos, and punk-rock piercings. But as they stood facing each other that day, a chasm much wider than a busy Uptown thoroughfare separated the crews.

The Baldies were “traditional skins,” which is to say leftist, anti-racist militants. They devoted their days to stomping out fascism, often quite literally. Any neo-Nazi spotted on their turf in Uptown was promptly treated to a “boot party”—three or more skins kicking the offending party mercilessly with steel-toed Docs.

Their boot-wearing rivals across the way represented a totally different breed of skinhead, a subculture much more familiar to the general public: nationalistic, far-right neo-Nazis.

The Baldies marched toward their rivals. Just as they were about to clash, a girl’s voice rang out.

“He’s got a gun!”

Pandemonium ensued. Gator—the boisterous young co-founder of the anti-racist skins—dove behind a car and braced himself for gunshots. None came. Instead, an adjoining parking lot became the scene of vicious hand-to-hand combat. The skinheads swung Louisville sluggers and ax handles recklessly into faces and bodies. Teeth fell to the asphalt like pearls from torn necklaces. Blood splattered the collars of flight jackets.

The riot had lasted more than two minutes when the neo-Nazis relented. “Let’s go!” one yelled, and they all jumped into a white pickup belonging to the guitarist of local white power band Mass Corruption.

As the racist crew sped down Lagoon, the Baldies pelted the pickup with rocks, sticks, and beer bottles, shattering a side window. The neo-Nazis covered their heads from the raining debris.

Gator searched the ground for a projectile and came across a cobblestone lying alongside the curb. When the vehicle was close enough for Gator to get a clean shot at it, he jumped into the middle of the road and hurled the brick through the front windshield. The pickup swerved, regained control, and sped off.

WITH HIS POINTY GOATEE, tattooed forearms, and a ratty pink Mohawk peeking out from behind his checkered beret, Gator, 38, still exudes a punk-rock vibe 20 years later. But ever since having kids—two sons and a daughter—he’s refrained from attending any boot parties.

“As you get older, shit changes, and you look at the world differently,” he says. “If I see a Nazi today, I’m like, ‘I don’t have time for this shit.’ If I fought every racist I saw, I’d be punching dudes all day.” He laughs, then adds, “But it was a very special time. It was a great thing to be a part of.”

The Baldies began as a small, insular group of friends hanging out, drawn together by a shared love of oi! music—working-class punk rock with unpretentious, street-level lyrics. Many were straight-edge—no drugs or drink—and all harbored a deep distain for racists, particularly neo-Nazis.

In the spring of 1986, Gator and his buddies Hugh, Danny, and Little Tim sat in a south Minneapolis basement and kicked around names for their newly formed anti-racist skinhead crew.

“How about the Undertakers?” suggested Danny, a scrappy blond kid with coal-black eyes.

“No,” the others protested. “Too metal.”

The foursome bantered back and forth. They needed a moniker to differentiate them from British skinheads.

“What about the Baldies?”

The crew brought together kids from all different backgrounds (most of whom requested that their real names be withheld in this article). There was Joe Hawkins, a stocky lad with pale blue eyes, often ribbed by his mates for being a “mama’s boy” due to his early curfew and general aversion to partying. Casanova Frankenstein was a prim, brown-eyed chap whose nickname reflected both his freewheeling antics and his suave way with the ladies. And, of course, Davey, a tall, lithe, black kid from Atlanta who trained as an amateur boxer and was generally regarded as the finest pugilist of the crew.

They took fashion cues from the original British skins: Dickies work pants, thin suspenders worn over Fred Perry polo shirts, and, most importantly, Doc Martens work boots. They spent their days hanging around Lake Street, tagging buildings, skateboarding, listening to music, and going to shows. They exchanged albums from bands such as the Redskins, the Cro-Mags, and Blind Approach, a St. Paul-based hardcore straight-edge band whose frenetic power chords provided a fitting soundtrack to the Baldies’ wayward lifestyles.

“They’d all come to Uptown and raise hell,” recalls now-retired MPD gang unit officer Mike Schoeben, who was assigned to keep an eye on the crew in the late ’80s. “They’d do stupid stuff. There’d be assaults once in a while. They seemed to me to be bored kids looking for attention.”

Their ranks swelled as assorted punk rockers, misfits, runaways, and young activists took notice of the fledgling crew and joined as “fresh cuts” (their term for newbies). A veritable scene was taking root in the heart of Uptown.

ONE FRESH CUT was a young, square-jawed activist with steely blue eyes named Ciaran. Well-read and socially conscious, the 16-year-old sought to introduce a more explicit political bent to the crew’s anti-fascist philosophy.

On a blustery day in the winter of ’87, more than a dozen Baldies packed an Uptown Rocky Rococo’s on Hennepin (now an Old Chicago pizzeria) to discuss how to broaden their influence.

“We have to organize ourselves,” stressed Ciaran, clad in a Public Enemy T-shirt. “We need to get non-skins involved, too—people who share our views, but aren’t necessarily into our music and style.”

“I got a cousin in the King’s Posse,” piped up Gator, referring to SLK Posse, a mostly black crew of hip-hop kids and graffiti artists. “We should get them involved.”

“Yeah,” agreed Ciaran. “And student activists, too.”

“Okay,” someone said. “What do we call it?”

Ciaran was aware of Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), which had formed in the U.K. just two years earlier. “How about Anti-Racist Action?” he suggested.

ARA incorporated strains of left-wing, anarchistic ideology, incorporating anti-sexist and anti-homophobic stances into its platform. When neo-Nazis spray-painted a swastika on the Washington Avenue Bridge, ARA joined forces with the University of Minnesota Black Law Student Association to organize a demonstration on the University end of the bridge. One of the BLSA officers was Keith Ellison, who would go on to become the first Muslim elected to U.S. Congress.

“I remember he and the rest of the BLSA were friendly with us,” Ciaran laughs. “I think they were just intrigued because we were so young and because we were anti-racist skinheads, which was weird to them.”

That summer, two carloads of Baldies followed Blind Approach on their tour to New York City. For two weeks, the crew acted as the Johnny Appleseeds of the ARA, planting the seeds of what would become a national movement. They cruised the streets of Chicago; Milwaukee; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Rochester, New York, shouting the international skinhead greeting to any Doc Martens-wearing, close-cropped chap they passed.

“Oi!”

“Oi, yourself!”

By and large, the crews encountered by the Baldies were scattered and unorganized. “Some didn’t even have names,” recalls Ciaran. “After hearing about what we were doing with Anti-Racist Action, some decided to just call themselves ‘ARA’ and started their own chapters.”

A franchise was born. Soon after, West Coast punk fanzine Maximum Rock n Roll took notice of ARA and featured the burgeoning organization in an article. ARA became an intercontinental phenomenon. Today, it boasts over 200 chapters worldwide, and is considered one of the most influential underground anti-fascist groups in the world.

The Baldies had gone national.

MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE HOME FRONT in St. Paul, concerns flared that neo-Nazism was taking hold in the local skinhead scene.

“At first it was just rumors,” says Hawkins. “A lot of the guys we were hearing about being into white power were actually some guys who used to hang out with us.”

One night, Gator was cruising with friends Chasiu, a slight Thai kid, and Mic Crenshaw, a brawny African American member of the Baldies who’d just moved to Minneapolis from the south side of Chicago. They pulled into an empty parking lot on Humboldt Avenue just off Lake Street where a party was supposedly taking place. But there was no party–just a half a dozen figures silhouetted against the darkening sky.

As Gator, Chasiu, and Crenshaw approached the scene, they heard a familiar voice ring out. It was Little Tim. He was in the face of Paul Haulis, a short, stocky skinhead whose weathered face suggested an age beyond its 20 years.

“Say it to them!” Little Tim shouted at Haulis and pointed to the two newly arrived non-white Baldies. “Say it to them!”

Haulis remained silent.

“What’s going on?” asked Gator.

“This motherfucker’s a Nazi!” said Little Tim. He turned back to Haulis. “Tell them what you were saying! Tell them!”

Haulis stayed silent.

“Is this true?” Gator asked.

More silence.

As the Baldies were preparing to leave, a hot-blooded member named Hugh ambled up to Haulis and spat in his face. “Fascist!” Hugh yelled.

It served as the opening salvo of a yearlong war. Haulis formed the White Knights, a crew of neo-Nazi skins, in a blue-collar neighborhood of East St. Paul.

“The White Knights were chumps,” Gator says while shaking his head, still seething 20 year later. “We would talk to these guys until we were blue in the face about how full of shit they were, and they wouldn’t understand. But if there was one thing these guys could understand, it was an ass-whuppin’.”

On a bone-chilling, subzero day in the winter of ’88, members of the Baldies’ inner circle, including Gator, Davey, Crenshaw, and Casanova Frankenstein, entered the vestibule of the Uptown Theatre, hoping the warmth would restore feeling to their frostbitten hands. They had spent the afternoon wandering the neighborhood, their trademark wooden canes in tow. Unbeknownst to them, the White Knights had been watching.

As the four Baldies stepped out of the theater, they were greeted by nine White Knights, including an out-of-towner visiting from Washington, D.C.’s Hammerskin neo-Nazi chapter.

“What’s up, guys,” one of them said balefully.

“What, you wanna get your asses kicked again?” challenged Davey.

The White Knights exchanged confident looks. They had the numbers advantage and they knew it.

Meanwhile, Crenshaw was eyeing the Hammerskin. Seeing an opening, he leaped at him. The two fell to the frozen pavement, wrestling for position.

Members from both crews turned into a mass of limbs and fists

Well aware of their comrade’s fighting prowess, the Baldies shouted, “One-on-one! Let them go one-on-one!” The Knights agreed. “One-on-one!” they yelled. “One-on-one.”

Crenshaw gained position and started working over his adversary, delivering close-fisted blows to the skull. Looking to save his friend from a savage pummeling, one of the Knights lunged for Crenshaw. Seeing this, Davey cross-checked him with his cane and sent his target flying between two cars parked along the curb.

Suddenly, a flash of sizzling pain shot through Davey’s head and into his neck. He’d been hit in the back of the head with a railroad spike. Trying to ward off unconsciousness, he wheeled around just in time to see his friend Danny deliver a crushing punch to his assailant’s jaw. The railroad spike fell to the ground, followed shortly thereafter by its owner.

Danny and Davey turned their attention back to Crenshaw, 10 feet away, now being booted by two Knights. Davey hustled over and pushed one White Knight out of the way. Gripping the cane with both hands, he delivered a blow to the other’s head (“It felt and sounded like a really good line drive,” he recalls.)

Meanwhile, the Knight who had originally lunged for Crenshaw was attempting to get up and run away, but he was unable to find his traction on the icy sidewalk. Davey and Crenshaw cornered him in an alley next to Annie’s Parlor (now Chino Latino) on Hennepin. Davey pinned him to the wall with his cane across the Knight’s chest. Gator, Danny, and Casanova Frankenstein formed a semi-circle around Crenshaw and Davey, keeping watchful eyes on the rest of the Knights, who stood by helplessly and watched.

“I thought you wanted to go one-on-one,” growled Crenshaw to the pinned Knight, who looked frantically for assistance. Seeing none, he tried to kick Davey in the groin. Davey tightened the cane against his chest.

“Crush him,” said Gator.

Crenshaw unleashed a hailstorm of punches to his face, which came to resemble a crushed box of jelly donuts, a cloudy mix of mucus and blood.

Sirens began to wail. “Shit! Let’s go!” The Baldies fled. No arrests were made.

THEIR SUCCESSFUL BATTLES against the White Knights quickly turned the Baldies into legends within the local punk scene. On January 24, 1990, they were introduced to the Twin Cities at large when City Pages featured the crew on the cover. In the photo, a serenely self-assured Gator perches front and center, a half-dozen or so of his comrades lurking behind him.

The accompanying article, headlined “The Lost Boys,” captured the Baldies’ youthful idealism. They railed against “the system.” They lambasted cops. They ridiculed yuppies. Most notably, they defended themselves against the most frequent censure waged against them: that they were petty thugs who rationalized hooliganism.

“There’s a place and time for violence and it has to be righteous,” Hawkins told reporter Meleah Maynard. “But I don’t want normal people to be afraid of me. They’ve got nothing to fear from me. Except for Nazis, I give everybody respect that gives me respect.”

“Fighting racism is righteous,” added Gator. “We don’t condone violence unless it’s righteous.”

Yet as their name grew—by 1990, nearly 100 people identified themselves as Baldies—it became harder and harder to maintain a cohesive message and keep behavior in check.

“Guys who really didn’t understand the underlying message and ideals started joining up,” says Danny, looking back on it with 38-year-old eyes. “They just thought it looked cool. And some of them just wanted to fuck people up.”

Also, the Baldies’ reputation as invincible badasses made them frequent targets of non-aligned skins looking to make a name for themselves.

“A lot of guys just wanted to test their mettle,” says Hawkins “And what better way to do it than to take down the Baldies?”

A group called the Minneapolis Oi! Boys (MOB) arose as a consortium of non-aligned skins and punk rockers. While generally apolitical, MOB adhered to a nationalistic, right-leaning philosophy. Unlike the East St. Paul-based White Knights before them, MOB was operating on the Baldies’ turf.

“A lot of MOB were even former members of the White Knights,” says Gator. “And some of them were dudes who didn’t want to become white power, but were still sympathetic to it. And some guys just wanted to belong.”

When some Baldies spotted a MOB kid walking along Hennepin near Lagoon wearing a T-shirt featuring Screwdriver—a British white power band—Casanova Frankenstein approached the young Oi! boy and confronted him. The day ended without violence and was quickly forgotten.

But three days later, as Ciaran walked out of class at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, he noticed four MOB members waiting for him. He gleaned from their menacing faces that they had it in for him. Payback. “I still don’t know how they knew to find me there at that exact time,” he says.

Determined to keep his composure, Ciaran walked up to them and asked, “What’s the problem?”

The answer was a punch in the face. The foursome proceeded to kick him when he was down. Ciaran had just managed to pull one down with him when two campus security guards swarmed in and broke it up.

“I’m lucky those security guards showed up when they did, because I don’t know how I would have gotten out of that,” he says.

With that, the war intensified. Beat-downs became a daily occurrence. Members on both sides began brandishing weapons, usually baseball bats and ax handles.

“If I have one regret, it’s that we didn’t do more to reach out to MOB,” says Ciaran. “Things got out of hand.”

Other Baldies agree.

“Some of those MOB guys were cool,” says Davey. “Our pride got in the way. It turned into a vicious cycle of needless violence.”

By ’92, the skin scene was dying. Part of it had to do with the MOB war, but the simple fact was that the crew was getting older. Some Baldies were fathers. Some, such as Hawkins, went off to college. Others, like Danny, had joined the military.

In addition, the crew’s straight-edge ethos had worn thin. An increasing number of Baldies, particularly fresh cuts, were getting loaded.

“At that time there was a big culture of house parties in south Minneapolis,” says Ciaran. “You could show up anywhere and you’d be welcome.”

As the booze flowed, so did adrenaline, testosterone, and, all too often, blood.

“Things started getting out of control,” says Hawkins. “I’d often leave early, because I could see where things were going. It wasn’t fighting for principles anymore. It was just fighting for the sake of fighting.”

Other factors, such as illegal drugs, contributed to the scene falling apart. It was no longer about ideology. It was about money. And as the stakes rose, so did the danger level.

“Crack was becoming really prevalent,” says Crenshaw. “Things were fizzling out then—now there were guns involved. We wanted no part in that.”

THREE YEARS AFTER calling it quits, the Baldies got together for one last mission under the ARA banner.

In the summer of ’95, the St. Paul-based neo-Nazi band Bound for Glory, arguably the world’s biggest white power band at the time, planned a show in West St. Paul. Worried that their homecoming might incite the wrath of the ARA and what was left of the Baldies, the band arranged a gig at an undisclosed venue—their fans were told where to go upon purchasing tickets.

“We did some digging and eventually found out where they were playing at some old hall,” says Ciaran. “So we compiled a list of contacts—a lot of old Baldies and ARA guys—and tried to round up as many as we could.”

The goal was to assemble a group of 100. They succeeded in getting 90. The night before the show, the crew papered the neighborhood with flyers.

“Bound for Glory is a band that promotes hatred and racist violence,” the flyers warned. “Don’t allow them to invade your neighborhood.”

The next day, a caravan of anti-racist skins arrived from Uptown.

“You had several hundred activists and agitated community members surrounding the place,” says Martin, an ex-Baldie who speaks at a rapid clip. “And inside there were about a dozen guys setting up who were just shitting themselves.”

Fearing a full-fledged riot, the police arrived and told the placard-wielding mob they were shutting down the show.

“We weren’t sure we could believe them, so we had a neighborhood resident go with the cops inside to confirm that they wouldn’t be playing.”

Bound for Glory never played another public show in the Twin Cities again.

ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM January day, Hawkins, who, at 38, now works in law enforcement with at-risk offenders, sits in an Uptown Davanni’s on Lake Street and picks at his pita wrap apprehensively. A roadmap of colorful tattoos peeks out from under the sleeves of his muscle shirt. His short, graying hair clashes with his youthful sky-blue eyes, which turn thoughtful as he searches for the right words.

“Sometimes I wonder if what we did had the opposite impact of what we wanted to accomplish,” he says. “In some respects, we backed some people into a corner and made them get more into white power. It’s one of those things I always wonder about: Would East St. Paul have become a hotbed of white supremacy were it not for us?”

Just then, the entrance door swings open. Hawkins looks up and does a double-take. His pensive frown transforms into warm smile and he leaps to his feet to meet the tall newcomer.

“Davey!”

“Hey man, how have you been?” Davey asks, offering a hand.

Comically dissimilar—Hawkins is a short, stocky white dude, while Davey suggests a ‘roided out Don Cheadle—they embrace in a bear hug.

“I just got back from church, man,” Davey says as he eases into his seat. “Was eating brunch with the family. We’re heading off to TwinsFest later on.”

The words seem strange coming from a man heralded by his compatriots as one of the Twin Cities’ toughest street fighters of his day. Now the disarmingly mellow 38-year-old is pursuing his Master’s in social work from Met State while working as a counselor for drug-addicted kids.

Although they’re no longer bashing skulls, the guys who made up the core of the Baldies still keep tabs on one another. A tentative reunion is planned for August.

After struggling with addiction through the 1990s, Casanova Frankenstein cleaned up and now works with an outreach program for the homeless in the Twin Cities.

Ciaran has maintained his leftist radicalism as a union steward and activist for the Industrial Workers of the World, a militant international union.

Mic Crenshaw moved to Portland in the mid-’90s to teach public high school, and also performs as a hip-hop artist.

Danny works as a security guard in downtown Minneapolis. More than any other former Baldie, his political views have undergone a transformation since he left the scene. His blue V-neck sweater, crisp khakis, and round spectacles make him look like a chipper accountant.

“I was young and looking for something to grab a hold of to match the intensity in my heart,” Danny says. “I dealt with a lot of radical left-wing politics, which were close to my heart at the time. I think when I joined the Army, I kind of saw a different side of life. For me, it comes down to personal accountability. You’re not going to be your best unless you keep your own nose clean. I’m real, real conservative on some things and real, real liberal on others.”

Hawkins views it as growing up, rather than selling out.

“Now that I’m beyond my testosterone-fueled days, I see things differently,” he explains. “I was one of those kids throwing rocks outside the system. Then I realized I could make more changes inside the system.

“But do I regret my days as a Baldie? Not for a second.”

See also : ‘Rude Boys II Men’, another look at The Baldies and the skinhead scene in Minneapolis by Erik Farseth — also a chapter from a really interesting looking book by Erik on DIY culture in the US (1979–1999). He even quotes the almighty Killdozer — ‘Intellectuals are the shoeshine boys of the ruling elite’ — which pretty much seals the deal as far as I’m concerned.

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

Less is more on Stormfront

Posted on March 12, 2008 by @ndy

Damn. A little birdy has apparently been feeding FDB! with more photos, presumably gleaned from the BBQs disgraced former SFDU members David (Innes) and ‘Lilith’ (Peterson) organised once upon a time in Perth. The latest batch features a rather plastered looking Paul Innes (the meanie in the beanie) and perennial losing One Nation candidate Sue Bateman posing provocatively for the camera.

Bateman is not only tipsy, but very tricksy, having denied outright that she was ever a member of the world’s leading white supremacist forum; presumably, she’ll also deny having appeared in a photo with the lovely Paul.

As it stands, Stormfront Down Under is becoming increasingly sad. Those who haven’t abandoned it for browner pastures are now being forced to contend with an influx of trolls, most spectacularly — and amusingly — a teenage ‘social nationalist’ (Stalinist). Otherwise, it’s the usual: complaints about Aborigines in the cashbox, blacks on the streets, Fabians in the Gub’mint, homosexuals in the skools, Indians in the universities, and of course ZOG — everywhere. Plans to combat the Aboriginal / black / Fabian / homosexual / Indian / Jewish menace include placing racist, anti-race-mixin’ stickers on cars, not-forming fascist clubs on campus, indulging teenage phantasies, and generally complaining about the state of the (white) world and how we’re all going to Hell in a multicultural handbasket.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 20 Comments

The Mother of a Thousand Dead Still Not Quite Dead… Yet

Posted on March 12, 2008 by @ndy

Huh. vents told me The Iron Lady was unwell, and it seems that just yesterday she was released from hospital. Among the others expected to be dancing on the soon-to-be-dead Margaret Thatcher‘s grave are Class War:

    Dancing On Maggie’s Grave

    Are you coming to the party of the decade?

    Class War has called for a mass celebration in Trafalgar Square at 6pm on the first Saturday after Margaret Thatcher dies. Remember Trafalgar Square, I’ll Be There!

I expect that a few miners, among others, will be popping champagne corks too when Maggie finally pops her clogs. Her bouffant terrible on the other hand, will likely never die.

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Eco-terrorists top the FBI’s threat list after wave of arsons

Posted on March 12, 2008 by @ndy

It began 16 years ago with a meeting of disaffected environmentalists in Brighton. Today the radical organisation they created – the Earth Liberation Front – is described as a decentralised al-Qaeda-style network and America’s No 1 domestic terrorism threat. It even provided inspiration for the villains in Michael Crichton’s 2004 thriller State of Fear…

…and it really doesn’t get much better from Chris Ayres in Los Angeles of The Times on March 11, 2008.

The disaffection Ayres refers to was with Earth First! (Journal), a previous (and still-existant) incarnation of the radical, direct action environmental movement. For another account of the ELF, see PRIMITIVE DISSIDENTS: EARTH LIBERATION FRONT AND THE MAKING OF A RADICAL ANTHROPOLOGY by Jay Hasbrouck (PhD Thesis, December 2005). The comparison to al-Qaeda makes sense from the perspective of state and capital, but little sense from a human one. Also, the declaration that the ELF (and the ALF) was Public Enemy #1 was initially made some time ago, that is, prior to 9/11. Still, this hasn’t prevented the FBI from listing Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, Josephine Overaker, Rebecca J. Rubin, Daniel Andreas San Diego and Justin Franchi Solondz as among their Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists, all of whom are accused of belonging to or taking part in ALF/ELF actions.

Anyways, Bad people from Brighton also do things like Do or Die! and Schnews — both are worth reading.

See also : It’s the End of the World as We know it and I feel FINE #28 | It’s the End of the World as We know it and I feel FINE #27 | It’s the End of the World as We know it and I feel FINE #26

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Media, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

Greet Your New Lesbian Overlords!

Posted on March 11, 2008 by @ndy

Totally awesome post on i09…

With Y: The Last Man wrapping up and turning into a movie, the science fiction cliche of the female-dominated planet is red-hot once again. The cosmos is safe for our red-blooded spacemen to venture to worlds where there are no men, or where men are subjugated and the women wear funny headgear. But what about the subset of gynarchic cultures where everyone’s a lesbian? It turns out science fiction is full of those, too, and it’s time they got the appreciation they deserve.

Many, many thanks to Liz Henry with the Feminist SF blog for helping me put together this exhaustive list of lesbian-dominated cultures in science fiction. Smug Sappho! There are way more than I’d expected…

Read more misogynist pigdog!

Posted in !nataS, Sex & Sexuality, State / Politics | 4 Comments

Some thoughts on the proposal for a regional anarchist federation in Oceania

Posted on March 10, 2008 by @ndy
    In December last year, some anarchists from Sydney floated a proposal to form a regional anarchist federation in Oceania. In brief, the proposal was made out of a desire to create closer links between anarchists in the region.

    The following are some of my own thoughts in response.

    Note that a gathering of anarchists interested in discussing the proposal will take place over Easter (Friday March 21–Monday March 24) @ the International Workers’ Club in Northcote, Melbourne. For more details, read the blog.

To begin with, there are some obvious definitional issues. The first is “what is anarchism?” The second is “what is a federation?” And the third is to do with what is meant by ‘Oceania’.

Anarchism

As for the first question, the proposal contains a statement of ‘common politics’. These are contained in five points. Thus according to the proposal’s authors, anarchists:

    1) Seek to abolish capitalism and class society;
    2) Support libertarian forms of organisation;
    3) Oppose all forms of oppression;
    4) Believe an anarchist society is possible, desirable (and necessary) and;
    5) Oppose the state and support internationalist struggle.

Or something like that. (The above is a summation.) The five points are elaborated upon at some length in the proposal, and the following section is a response, both to these further reflections, and the five points which are presented as forming the core of an anarchist politic.

So, in respect of 1): Capitalism is a form of class society — but not the only one, obviously. In which case, it may be simpler to state that anarchists seek to abolish class society. On the other hand, to my mind, the most obvious and first principle of an anarchist politic is opposition to hierarchy; that is, anarchists wish to create anarchy, a society without rulers. In which case 4) would assume the highest priority. That is, in terms of arriving at a definition of ‘anarchism’, anarchists are those who maintain an anarchist society is both possible and desirable (the question of whether or not it is ‘necessary’ is a question of secondary importance in my opinion). From this commitment also flows the other points: opposition to capitalism and all forms of domination and exploitation, whether their bases are economic, racial or sexual. Beyond this, I think it would be worthwhile committing the federation to an explicitly revolutionary political framework.

Federation

The roots of anarchist federalism lie in the late nineteenth century, in particular debates within the IWMA (The First International, 1864). Those debates are relevant only insofar as they concerned, in part, the question of the relationship between an organisation and its parts; in this case, the International and its (largely) national branches. One of the central features of this debate was the question of state power and the relationship of workers’ movements towards its conquest. For the anarchists — sometimes also referred to as the autonomists — the ‘economic’ struggle always took precedence over the ‘political’ one. In the end, the differences between the (broadly) Marxist position and that of the (broadly) anarchist position proved too great to be reconciled within the one organisation, and the International dissolved (1872).

In essence, the theory and practice of federation developed in opposition to the theory and practice of political centralisation. That is, federation developed as a means by which such conflicts, in the absence of a central authority, could be best resolved — or perhaps left unresolved — while minimising the effects upon the pursuit of common interests. Instead, decisions made by a federation require the agreement of each of its member parts. By one definition, then, federalism means “free agreement of individuals and organizations upon collective endeavour geared towards a common objective”. In Australia, the last attempt to create such a structure was the Federation of Australian Anarchists, or FAA, established in January 1975.

The FAA lasted several years before collapsing. The reasons for this are many, but it’s notable that the structure of the FAA allowed membership by both groups and individuals (see below).

Process

There are a number of arguments in favour of allowing both existing groups of anarchists and unaffiliated individuals to participate in and to form part of an anarchist ‘federation’. The first and most obvious is that, of the hundreds if not thousands of people who describe themselves as being anarchist (or highly sympathetic to anarchism), the majority are not members of any anarchist group. In which case, excluding individuals from joining and participating in a federation (if not a discussion concerning its merits), is to effectively exclude the majority of (self-described) anarchists from the organisation. To the extent that the purpose of the federation is to overcome the political, social and even geographical isolation of anarchists, this is obviously a problem.

One reason why the inclusion of individuals (as individuals) within the federation is problematic proceeds from an understanding of the distinctive nature of a federation. In general usage, a federation is composed of groups which nominate delegates — authorised representatives of the group’s collectively-determined position(s). Delegates meet with delegates from other groups, and do so with a mandate. That is, with a clearly-defined purpose in meeting and in order to address specific questions. Further, whatever agreements are reached by delegates are not confirmed until such time as groups then proceed to ratify those decisions. That is, delegate agreements require ratification by the groups which comprise the federation. This process is intended to limit the potential for the abuse of authority granted to delegates, and to ensure that ultimate decision-making authority rests with the groups which form the federation’s organisational basis.

In the context of a federation comprised of groups and individuals, such a process is obviously unworkable. Rather, either individuals assume the same authority as groups, or decisions made by the federation as a whole are made as a result of the deliberations of each of the individuals which comprise its membership. In which case, the federation more closely resembles a political party than it does a federation of groups in the anarchist sense of the term.

As it stands, the following groups have expressed some interest in and might possibly comprise the groups from which a federation is drawn: Alarm Youth Anarchist Collective, Black Rose, Jura, Mutiny, Wollongong Autonomous Collective (NSW); Anarchist Direct Action, Barricade, Melbourne Anarchist Club (Victoria). To the best of my knowledge, there are no functioning anarchist groups in the ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia or Tasmania. In Queensland, Bastard, Beating Hearts and/or Black & Green infoshop exist as functioning collective(s), and may (or may not) be interested in the federation, but have yet to formally express any; in Western Australia, the Black Dove collective appears to have dissolved, and I’m unaware of any other functioning groups. (As an aside, the sites of both the Brisbane and Perth Social Forums have lapsed, while those for Melbourne and Sydney remain.) On a geographical basis then, and assuming the federation is a federation of groups, a more appropriate title for it might be the East Coast Anarchist Federation.

The situation in Aotearoa is a little different…

Accountability

Questions of political accountability are often thorny ones. To whom should one account for one’s actions in any case?

In my experience, but also that of many others, ‘anarchism’ attracts more than its fair share of cranks. That is, individuals for whom ‘anarchism’ functions as a kind of shelter or substitute for therapeutic treatment. This is not a new phenomenon, and its occurrence is closely-related both to the political marginality of anarchism to contemporary Australian politics and social life, and also its strong associations with various (largely antiquated) cultural avant-gardes (eg, punk). In The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell famously (and humorously) wrote:

One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England…

We have reached a stage when the very word ‘Socialism’ calls up, on the one hand, a picture of aeroplanes, tractors, and huge glittering factories of glass and concrete; on the other, a picture of vegetarians with wilting beards, of Bolshevik commissars (half gangster, half gramophone), of earnest ladies in sandals, shock-headed Marxists chewing polysyllables, escaped Quakers, birth-control fanatics, and Labour Party backstairs-crawlers…

If only the sandals and the pistachio-coloured shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaller, and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his yoga exercises quietly!

Before I’m accused of opposition to drinking fruit juice, nudism, wearing sandals, sex, Quakers, pacifism, feminism or even quackery, I’ll make two points: first, some of my best friends are fruit juice-drinking, naked, sandal-wearing, sex-addicted, pacifistic, feministic Quakers, and I love them all dearly. Secondly, my point is that if anarchists wish to have their ideas examined more seriously by a broader range of people, then the inessential aspects of contemporary anarchist practice — so-called ‘lifestylism’ — should not be allowed to prevent this discussion taking place. In other words, the idea that a commitment to certain fashions or lifestyles is an essential requirement for effective anarchist politics needs to be addressed, and shown, in both theory and practice, to be incorrect. In this context, I’d suggest that one of the ways of doing so is to take the idea that anarchism is or rather can be a genuinely popular movement more seriously. (As an aside, I think at least some of Orwell’s apparent hostility to various forms of social deviance may be related to his being an Old Etonian; but that’s another story.)

In any case, the question of accountability is also a useful one in terms of the requirement to have some idea of goals, and also political — meaning organisational — structure. That is, accountability has at least two dimensions: one may be described in terms of an individual’s relationship to the collective of which she is a member (the micro-political); another is the relationship between the individual, group or project, and the broader movement, one composed of elements with similar if not identical political and organisational perspectives (the macro-political). In the first case, I think it’s possible to establish (more) formal arrangements; in the second, accountability — and the extension of solidarity to others — is a more flexible concept.

Why “anarchist”?

Based on my reading of the online discussions that’ve taken place, including those based on meetings in Sydney and Brisbane, one other concern is the naming of the federation, and the question of political prescription. In other words, whether or not a project of this kind should be explicitly anarchist, and whether or not it should be a requirement of those wishing to participate that they identify themselves and/or the groups to which they belong as anarchist.

My feeling is that the politics of the federation should be designated as being anarchist, and so too the groups of which it is composed. In explaining why I think this, I think it also useful to consider some common objections.

First, such a demand is exclusionary. More than this, it excludes those who share the same politics (at least insofar as these are expressed in some form of minimum definition, whatever its precise contents) but who, for whatever reason, choose either to assign some other label to their political perspective or who eschew, or who claim to eschew, labels altogether. To my mind, this is a problem, but one of most relevance to those committed to such a political perspective, but who at the same time refuse its (otherwise) obvious debt to anarchism.

To put it another way: anyone can assign any meaning they like to the term ‘anarchism’, and many use it in a manner far removed from its actual meaning as employed by self-defined anarchists and anarchist movements, both contemporary and historical. The political purpose of proclaiming anarchism to be composed of x, y and z, in the case of an anarchist federation, is to claim a certain political heritage, in a manner not unlike that which other ‘anarchists’ have been doing for several centuries, and irrespective of its bourgeois distortions (including Marxist-derived impositions). And for those who identify as Marxist, there’s no shortage of groups which they may consider joining.

    Incidentally by way of example of a group assuming an ‘anarchist’ identity, it’s possible to cite the “national anarchists”. Assuming the agreement of such individuals with the draft expression of common politics, it would be unfair to exclude them on the basis of their presumed racism (an accusation which is of course denied by them).

But leaving aside such matters, I think the purpose of having an anarchist federation speaks to a real need on the part of those who already consider themselves as belonging to this historical tradition and who feel a greater affinity to this political philosophy than they do others. As such, and in keeping with the notion of political autonomy, it makes sense, to me at least, for those of us who feel similarly inclined to seek ways and means of working more closely together, and thereby making our politics more effective.

Conclusion

Regarding the relationship between those who consider themselves anarchist and those who do not, I think it’s worth reiterating the fact that, if some kind of anarchist federation does emerge, this by no means precludes the emergence or establishment of other forms of political cooperation, whether these remain purely an ‘anarchist’ affair or comprise a range of different groups, individuals or projects. In other words, I think it would be mistaken to seek a consensus from all those who have an opinion on these and other questions regarding what is to be done. Rather, I think the gathering in Melbourne should be viewed in the same manner as a spokescouncil might: that is, as a forum in which different possibilities for action are presented, and those who feel drawn towards one form of action or another be free to pursue this course.

By way of further conclusion

I wanted to join the Spartacist League. True, we used to laugh at them; in fact everyone laughed at them, but in their isolation lay their appeal. The Spartacist League was this bad-tempered Trotskyist group that had probably no more than twenty — no, make that thirty — members throughout the country mainly based on campuses like LaTrobe and Sydney. We occasionally had run-ins with them, although they tended to keep their distance because they imagined that we were out to kidnap them individually and dump the bodies in shallow graves off Rye backbeach. We wouldn’t have done; there were plenty of leftist groups clamouring for that opportunity.

Since the early 1970s, the Australian left had been more gauche than sinister, despite what groups like People Against Communism said. That was the appeal of the far-right, I guess: groups like the League and the Nazis were either nutty or offensive, both of which amused me no end; or it spoke such unambiguous commonsense (like the British NF or the Alliance) that you couldn’t help but identify with it. Well, at least I couldn’t. Most of the left, on the other hand, was dull and earnest and out of touch. You just had to read the left’s papers or, even better, look at the miserable faces of the people selling them. How they ever recruited was beyond me. I certainly didn’t fancy spending my Saturday afternoons in draughty meeting rooms discussing Marx’s Theory of Surplus Value. If I’d wanted to learn that sort of thing I’d have paid attention in fourth form economics classes.

That was the beauty of the Spartacist League. They had this paper, Australasian Spartacist, and virtually every issue had at least one page devoted to sectarianism. Yes, they were Marxists, and yes, they also ran pages of boring leftist tripe that they no doubt thought had some appeal to the working masses — the very same working masses who would never buy their paper, week after week after week — but they specialised in airing the dirty laundry of all the other rival left groups around: the Maoists, the Eurocommunists of the CPA, the Send In the Tanks Stalinists of the Socialist Party, and all the other cheek-by-jowl rivals to the title of Trotsky’s heirs — the Socialist Workers’ Party, the Socialist Labour League, the Communist League (were they still going?), the International Socialists, etc. etc. No wonder they were generally considered to be police agents.

And they had a great writing style — snotty and sneering and puffed-up. It was pretty much like ours, actually. If you could hear what you read, they’d be saying it from the corners of their mouths, then laughing at you. They insulted other leftitsts worse than we insulted other leftists. They insulted other leftists worse than they insulted us. That was no doubt why they kept getting bashed by other Trotskyists. Technically, though, we were the Great Satan, because we were Fascists with a capital F, and the other left groups were part of the workers’ movement.

The politics would have taken a bit of getting used to, but that certainly wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility. I envied them. They knew what they believed. They knew who they hated, and why, and it was all footnoted and there was never any room for error and they could pick up deviationism from the most innocuous slip of the tongue and they were as hard on their own people as they were on everyone else and by Christ they were hard on everyone else. No one was good enough for them.

The line was laid down, probably in the US, and you’d know pretty much from the start what you could like and dislike and it would all be explained and there’d be references and cross-references in all the back issues of Australasian Spartacist so no one could just make it up as they went along…

~ David Greason, I was a teenage fascist (1994)

See also : Brian Martin, Activists and “difficult people”, Social Anarchism, Number 30, 2001, pp. 27-47. In the meantime, keep on keep on keep on dancin’ all through the night… ¡HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

    ORGANISATIONAL PLATFORM

    Membership

    The Federation consists of those groups and individuals in Australia who:

    1. are opposed to both capitalism and state socialism,
    2. accept the possibility and desirability of libertarian socialism, ie a co-operative and egalitarian social economy without the State,
    3. reject the view that the State – ie police, army, parliament and bureaucracy – is the decisive instrument for the achievement of a libertarian social order, and
    4. accept the necessity of co-operation, planning and organisation for the achievement of anarchist aims.

    Aims

    1. to struggle against statist, sexist, ageist, and authoritarian conceptions in all spheres of social life,
    2. to prepare the theoretical, ideological-cultural, moral, and material-organisational prerequisites for effective and permanent popular self-government in future crises,
    3. to propagate the general idea of libertarian socialism,
    4. to initiate, assist and participate in practical struggles for partial objectives on the basis of their relationship to libertarian socialist aims and objectives,
    5. to foster the development of the world anarchist movement both through building a strong Australian section and through mutual aid and discussion with other national sections.

    Structure

    1. Affinity Groups

    The basic units of the organisation are cells or affinity groups composed of either:

    1. persons engaged in a common occupation, working in a common institution or having a common status, eg, shop stewards groups, student and teacher groups, women’s groups, etc
    2. persons engaged in common specialised work for the movement or having common interests, eg publishing groups, research groups, prisoners aid groups, etc.
    3. persons living or working in a common locality.

    2. Regional Associations

    The cells or affinity groups in a given geographical region should form a regional association for purposes of mutual aid and discussion and for organising general propaganda. In areas where there are not functionally differentiated groups, regional associations should be formed in order to bring anarchists and sympathisers together and in this and other ways facilitate the emergence of affinity groups.

    3. National Sub-Sections

    Affinity groups may also unite nationally, or regionally on the basis of common occupation, interest, status or program, to form sub-sections of the federation.

    4. Corresponding Members

    Each group – affinity, regional or national – should designate a member for correspondence with the rest of the movement. If the names and addresses of such corresponding members cannot be published openly they should still be held by the group producing the internal bulletin and also the corresponding member of each regional association or national sub-section within the federation should keep the names and addresses of the corresponding members of its component cells or affinity groups.

    5. Individual Members

    Although it is desirable that members belong to an affinity group, (or several), they may be attached directly to either a regional association, a national sub-section or the federation itself in the absence of suitable local groups.

    6. Any individual member or component group can contact any component group of the Federation either directly or if necessary through the medium of the internal bulletin or system of corresponding members.

    7. Any individual member or component group may place articles or statements in the internal bulletin, or – in case of space limitations – have articles or statements distributed together with the internal bulletin.

    8. Any component group may call a conference of all federation members, of all anarchists in a particular region, or of all anarchists active in a particular type of affinity group, and have the conference advertised through the internal bulletin or invitations issued through the system of corresponding members.

    9. Any affinity group may hold meetings with other affinity groups, or between its delegate and the delegates of other affinity groups and have the invitations issued through the system of corresponding members.

    Conferences and Meetings

    1. No decision can be made or statements, issued in the name of the federation. All statements and decisions are made in the name of the conference of individuals or meeting of group delegates making them.

    2. National and regional anarchist conferences are open to all members and decisions have only the force of recommendations, being not binding on members or component groups.

    3. Meetings between revocable delegates with a mandate from their affinity group may make decisions binding on the groups they represent on the specific matters for which they have a mandate.

    Federation of Australian Anarchists Bulletin, No.3, Jan-Feb, 1975; also Rabelais, Vol.9, No.1.

This is a worthwhile document, but flawed. As I see it, what is being envisioned in the recent proposal is the creation of a means by which to facilitate communication and cooperation between existing anarchist groups. The FAA, on the other hand… is another matter, one which is probably not worth my while discussing at any greater length at this point in time.

Posted in Anarchism | 31 Comments

The BNP’s German pals face their own troubles (Searchlight, March 2008)

Posted on March 10, 2008 by @ndy

GERMANY : The BNP’s German pals face their own troubles
Christian Dornbusch for Der Rechte Rand and Lina Bruch for Antifaschistisches Infoblatt
Searchlight, March 2008

GERMANY’S MAIN NAZI organisation, the National Democratic Party (NPD), set itself the objective for 2008 of entering both the Hessen and Niedersachsen regional parliaments. But despite an unprecedented campaign, especially in Niedersachsen, the party failed badly in both regions. The result was a serious setback for the NPD, which has seats in two east German regions but none in the west.

This was only the latest in a series of problems confronting the NPD. Since last summer the party has had to grapple with the so-called Autonomous Nationalists (ANs) who belong to the wider spectrum of militant nazism that goes under the name Freie Kameradschaften.

The ANs notably try to copy the radical left Autonomen, both in their dress style and by skirmishing with the police on demonstrations in an effort to look militant. This behaviour irritates the more sedate law-and-order enthusiasts of the NPD which declared in August 2007 that it did not want people who look like “left anarchists” and frighten the public on its demonstrations.

The NPD’s banishment of these pseudo-radicals sparked outrage, prompting the ANs and some groups of the wider Freie Kameradschaften to denounce the NPD as “bourgeois”. The NPD was so surprised at the ferocity of the response that parts of the party leadership tried to dampen the debate, afraid of endangering its relations with the Freie Kameradschaften, which provide it with much-needed muscle on the street. The dispute remains unresolved and there is a tense relationship between the NPD and the Freie Kameradschaften in many parts of the country.

The NPD is also suffering internal rows. One of the worst stems from a concert held after the nazi Day of Honour ceremony in Budapest on 10 February 2007 at which Norman Bordin, chairman of the NPD’s youth wing, the Junge Nationaldemokraten, in Bavaria, gave a Hitler salute on stage. When Bordin’s act was shown on German television, the party leadership was furious. According to NPD insiders, Udo Voigt, the party leader, drafted an emergency public declaration denouncing Hitler salutes and antisemitic views as not compatible with both the spirit and the letter of the party’s platform and warning that any violations would lead to disciplinary measures, including expulsion.

Although Holger Apfel, the NPD’s deputy leader, watered down the public statement, Klaus Beier, the NPD’s press officer, Frank Schwerdt, its legal spokesman, and Adreas Molau, its educational organiser, felt even that was too much, arguing that the party should only have issued an internal memo about “deviance”.

According to one report, Beier, Schwerdt and Molau commanded majority support on the NPD executive. This enraged Apfel, a moderniser who has been angry for some time about the executive’s soft line towards the nakedly nazi flank of the NPD and has called for drastic measures against “idiots” like Bordin engaging in so-called “NS nonsense”…

Locally, yuppie idiot Welf Herfurth, a former member of the NPD and a current leader of the Sydney-based New Right/National Anarchist groupuscule, is in the process of organising a number of other local fascists to join him on his regular tours of Asia. Otherwise, Herfurth continues to host Dr James Saleam’s annual Sydney Forum, which functions as an annual BBQ for the Australia First Party and assorted other riff-raff. In this capacity he has also attempted, unsuccessfully, to bring into the country other German imports, Udo Voigt (2003) and Gerd Finkenwirth (2005). Fortunately, Australia has some rather strict laws on the importation of toxic materials.

Of course, Herfurth, the amateur Holocaust denialist — along with professional Holocaust denialist Richard Krege — is also notorious for being too much of a Nazi even for Pauline Dancin’ Hanson, who cancelled her scheduled address at last year’s Inverell Forum on the basis of their well-groomed presence. Dr Helen Caldicott, on the other hand, thinks the Inverell Forum — the rural equivalent of Herfurth and Saleam’s Sydney Forum — to be just swell, and spoke there last weekend. While Herfurth didn’t address the masses this year, the New Reich/Notional Anarchists did have a presence, and other speakers included Andrew ‘There’s too many blackfellas’ Fraser and Greg ‘I agree’ Clancy.

See also : Nicht sanktionsfähig. “Die NPD führt das »Volksfront-Bündnis« mit den freien Kameradschaften zwar an, verfügt jedoch nicht über die Stärke, um ihr nicht genehme Kräfte aus der Bewegung zu drängen. Die Partei versuchte, den »NS Black Block« auszugrenzen, scheiterte jedoch an der Kritik aus der Kameradschaftsszene und musste sich schließlich vom eigenen Beschluss distanzieren” as they say. And ah, Anti-German Translation.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 5 Comments

New # SPLC Intelligence Report

Posted on March 10, 2008 by @ndy

    Above : James Leshkevich (1955–2008), aka “Yankee Jim”, former National Alliance member, VNN radio show host, neo-Nazi murderer … On the other hand, maybe not.

#129 of the Southern Poverty Law Centre’s Intelligence Report (Spring 2008) has just been published and as usual is well worth a read. (As is Searchlight magazine, the March # of which apparently contains an article on notional anarchism in Germany which I look forward to reading.) Included in the latest # is a profile of bizarro Bill White, leader of the American National Socialist Workers’ Party (and millionaire landlord); an interview with supposed former bonehead Sean Gaines (currently on trial for the murder of Mark Mathes); and a discussion of the situation facing net-Nazi and amateur radio ham Hal Turner. In connection with the latter, SPLC quotes another net-Nazi named “Yankee Jim” to the effect that Hal most likely is — as he’s been accused of being — an FBI informant.

More recently, the same “Yankee Jim” — a neo-Nazi named James Leshkevich — killed both himself and his wife Deborah. The last entry on his blog, ‘The Hudson Valley Freeman’ (since closed by Blogger/Google), is titled ‘I Caught My Wife Sleeping With Another Man…’ and dated February 18, 2008. The next day, Leshkevich committed his final act…

Domestic violence and animal abuse linked
Caroline Marcus
The Age
March 9, 2008

A PET cockatiel was beheaded because it had been “singing too much”, a cat was hung by a leash, another cat was put in a microwave and other pets were shot, stabbed, kicked and thrown.

As horrific as these stories are, what is worse is the fact that the men who abused animals like this were also harming their own loved ones.

And the fear that pets will be harmed means one in three women delay leaving an abusive relationship.

In more than half of cases where women are abused, family pets are also attacked.

The findings are from a Monash University paper, ‘The Relationship Between Family Violence and Animal Abuse: An Australian Study’. The research is the first of its kind in Australia and will be published this year.

Researchers interviewed 102 women with a history of family violence, recruited through the Eastern Domestic Violence Outreach Centre [03 9870 5939], and a control group of 102 women with no history of violence.

Co-author and psychology department associate professor Eleonora Gullone said that actual or threatened harm to pets was one of the ways abusive partners kept women in relationships.

“One of the concerns is that women stay in the violent situation longer, endangering themselves and their children, because they are afraid to leave the pets,” Dr Gullone said.

The study found that 53% of women in violent relationships reported their pets had also been abused. By comparison, only 6% of the sample group had pets who were harmed, and in most of those cases the harm was accidental.

The study found that 33% of women had delayed leaving the relationship by up to eight weeks out of concern for the welfare of their pets.

Pets were killed in 17% of households where there is family violence, including fish, birds and farm animals. In some instances, multiple pets were killed.

No pets had been killed in the control group.

Children were witness to the abuse in 29% of cases, leading to concerns that they had an increased likelihood of growing up to be abusive adults because of the proven links between witnessing abuse and engaging in it, said Dr Gullone.

She also said previous research had found many murderers and hard criminals had histories of animal abuse, meaning animal abuse could be used to track perpetrators of human crime.

The research recommended that the public be made aware that in instances of pet abuse, there was a likelihood that people in the household were also being abused, and for neighbours to be alert.

RSPCA Victoria spokesman Ray Lord said the society had a long-running program designed to help victims of domestic violence. The non-profit organisation will take care of pets when necessary, making the step of leaving an abusive relationship easier.

“We take in pets through our welfare boarding program for many different reasons, one of which is to help people escaping domestic violence,” he said.

Cases of pet abuse seen by vets include a dog whose leg was broken when it was thrown off a balcony during an argument.

A social worker reported that one woman’s partner would hold the family dog to the phone and make it whimper to manipulate the woman into returning home.

More information is available by phoning [03] 9224 2222.

With MELISSA KENT

See also : Uncle Adolf : The Incestuous Coprohiliac (September 19, 2006)

Speaking of which, whatever happened to Alexander Things That Batter Downer?

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media | 2 Comments

Dr Helen Caldicott addresses far right @ Inverell Forum

Posted on March 9, 2008 by @ndy

Oh dear.

The Forum that was considered too kooky and racist even for Pauline Hanson (see below) is apparently considered a thoroughly worthwhile event by others. Thus it is that Helen Caldicott, known as an anti-nuclear activist, has this weekend lent her name to the Inverell Forum — along with the Sydney Forum, one of the two main annual gatherings of the far right in Australia.

Other speakers at this year’s Forum, in addition to the usual assortment of conspiracy theorists, opponents of Big Gub’mint, and advocates of alternative medical practices, included Greg Clancy — who denounced the multicultural menace — and an anxious Anglo-Saxon named Andrew Fraser (who also spoke at the 2006 Forum).

Oddly enough, last year’s Inverell Forum was to feature Pauline Hanson, but she withdrew after being informed she was to share a platform with a neo-Nazi, Welf Herfurth. Herfurth spoke on the subject of the German NPD, of which he was once a member. (Herfurth also spoke at the 2003 Forum on the same topic.)

This year, the political organisation for which Herfurth is the local fueher, the New Right/National Anarchists, held a stall at the Forum.

In 2007, Herfurth was joined by Richard Krege, another Holocaust denialist, who spoke of his experience (in the company of Frederick Toben, currently the subject of legal proceedings) at the infamous conference in Tehran on the subject of the Holocaust. Krege, an engineer, maintains that only 5,000 people died at the death camp at Treblinka, of disease, rather than the 800,000 historians estimate.

In 2006, in addition to Fraser, the Inverell Forum featured convicted criminal Dr James Saleam, who spoke in praise of what he and his white supremacist party, Australia First, terms the ‘Cronulla uprising’.

Still, Caldicott is also going to Sydney to address the 911TruthNow conference, where on March 14 she’ll be speaking on the subject of the use of depleted uranium in weapons, in the Middle East in particular, where millions have served as unwilling guinea pigs in US military experiments. Speaking of which, last year’s Sydney Forum featured a Palestinian speaker, Rihab Charida. She spoke on the subject of Palestine. However, she notes that:

I was not asked to speak at this event by the organisers. Three days prior to the event, a friend who was scheduled to speak asked if I could replace him, as he had other commitments. Stupidly, I agreed without investigating who the Sydney Forum was organised by and for. Therefore, I prepared my talk as a standard presentation about Palestine and went to deliver it with no understanding of the purpose of the Forum…

[Tomislav Sunic’s] talk had my friends and myself feeling sick. We realised that we were surrounded by fascists and rednecks. Even then, I didn’t click that the entire event was held for white supremacists. I thought that maybe this was a forum attracting different people (right leaning), including rednecks. Obviously, I now realise it is a forum organised exclusively by and for white supremacists.

To all but the most naive, the function of inviting speakers such as Helen Caldicott and Rihab Charida to address such events as the Inverell and Sydney Forums is to lend them an air of credibility, and to allow their organisers to claim that such events go ‘beyond left and right’ and aren’t the gatherings of the rural and urban-based far right, composed of the kinds of audiences who remark — in reference to Rihab — that ‘She would have been of much better use as a mud flap for my car’. That, and the remnants of an older generation of right-wing letter-writers, precisely the kind who found a home in One Nation.

Tim Blair (Culture wars over, say leftists, The Daily Telegraph, February 23, 2008):

Dr Helen Caldicott enjoyed mainstream media respect from about the mid-’80s until it became obvious her nuclear devastation fantasies were never going to come true, some time around, oh, 1989. Thereafter she’s largely been limited to the ABC and similarly inclined outlets.

Lately things have become even worse. Next month lefty Helen – one of our new cultural overlords, remember – is listed to speak at a Sydney meeting of the global 9/11 truth movement, which holds that the events of September 11 2001 were somehow faked or the result of a conspiracy led by the US Government.

In the universe of modern crazy, your truthers are at the top of the list. Where normal people see footage of massive jets piling into the World Trade Centre towers, truthers see all manner of clues hinting at unmanned aircraft, substitute flights (where did the passengers go?) and controlled demolition.

Even noted engineering and physics scholars are sometimes drawn in by truther theories on building collapse. Willie Nelson, for example.

So Caldicott, if not actually signing on to the truther fable – and we’re yet to see her speech; she may well do – is at least prepared to lend this group whatever credibility she has left after warning us for decades that all nuclear plants are as unreliable and prone to Aeroflot-style commie bungling as Chernobyl. It’d be sad, except for the fact that Caldicott is possibly the only person on earth whose support might detract from the truther cause.

Get used to it, people. The war is over. We now live in a Helmichael Caldinig country. Say sorry to your atomic duck.

Hanson will share stage with Holocaust denier
Greg Roberts
The Australian
February 15, 2007

ONE Nation founder Pauline Hanson plans to share a platform with a prominent denier of the Holocaust and a well-known neo-Nazi activist.

Ms Hanson will be a special guest next month at the Inverell Forum, an annual talkfest in the NSW country town that has long been associated with right-wing extremist groups.

Ms Hanson announced in December that she hoped to resurrect her political career by standing as a candidate in this year’s federal election.

She will share the Inverell platform with Richard Krege, an Air Services Australia engineer who recently attended the Holocaust Conference in Tehran. The Iranian government-sponsored conference attempted to disprove the accepted historic fact that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during World War II.

Mr Krege is regarded by fellow Holocaust deniers as an expert on the notorious Treblinka concentration camp, in Poland. Although 800,000 Jews and others died there, he claims just 5000 perished of disease and none were killed.

The Inverell Forum website said the gathering would discuss the “current Zionist propaganda campaign designed to condition the public to accept the inevitable first attack on Iran”.

Ms Hanson will also share the platform with Welf Herfurth, a long-time activist with Germany’s neo-nazi National Democratic Party before he moved to Sydney.

Mr Herfurth will address the forum on “what other nationalists outside Germany can learn from the NPD’s practical approach to politics and creating a parallel society”.

Other speakers at the forum include James Cook University academic Bob Carter, a leading global warming sceptic.

Ms Hanson could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The forum will hear how “recent events in Australia have galvanised her once more into taking up the cudgel for patriotic Australia”.

Ms Hanson served a term in federal parliament when she was elected as the MP for Oxley in 1996.

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics | 4 Comments

What is this gay community shit?

Posted on March 9, 2008 by @ndy

On June 24, 1978 in Sydney, a thousand or so people gathered to attend the first Gay Mardi Gras, held on the ninth anniversary of Stonewall, declared a day of international gay solidarity. The day’s events consisted of a rally and march at Sydney Town Hall in the morning, a public meeting at Paddington Town Hall in the afternoon, and a festival that night at Taylor Square. Despite having obtained a permit to hold a rally in the streets, police decided to join in the celebrations by attacking those attending that night’s party, which in turn became a protest over such repressive acts. Or as Aysha Leo and Will Temple (Is it time to say sorry?, NEWS.com.au, February 29, 2008) put it:

The Mardi Gras had started as a legal pride parade down Sydney’s Oxford St for a few hundred people in commemoration of the Stonewall riots that marked the start of the fight for gay liberation in the US a decade earlier. But when the marchers arrived at Hyde Park at the bottom of the street police confiscated the sound system. The gathering, which was now numbered about 2000, started marching towards neighbouring Kings Cross until police blocked two ends of the main thoroughfare – Darlinghurst Rd – and started arresting those involved. 53 marchers – including Peter Murphy – were charged variously with being in an illegal procession, hindering police and resisting police from the night of June 24, 1978.

gaymatchmaker paid tribute to the boys and grrls of ’78, but it appears that politics is about appearances, and the situation facing a Pakistani man, Ali Humayun, is apparently “too political” for the hundreds of thousands of people who now watch the passing parade in Sydney each year. Sadly, because he has come out as a queer man, Ali, who is currently imprisoned in Villawood, faces being murdered by members of his own family should he be deported to Pakistan. Given the recent change in Federal Government, one might expect a change in policy with regards the imprisonment of asylum seekers, but as yet, despite the official abandonment (February 8, 2008) of the $300 million ‘Pacific Solution’, the HoWARd Government’s decision to excise islands from Australia’s territory remains seemingly in place, as well as the policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers — first introduced, of course, by the previous ALP Government.

    Community Action Against Homophobia Press Release
    Tuesday 4th March
    Ali Humayun banned from Mardi Gras Parade

    New Mardi Gras banned a “Free Ali Humayun” banner from being shown on Saturday’s Mardi Gras parade. The banner was a large professionally produced colour picture of Ali Humayun, a queer Pakistani man who has been locked up in Villawood Detention Centre for over three years. The banner had the words “Free Ali Humayun” emblazoned on it, the Community Action Against Homophobia website and was placed on the front of CAAH’s truck.

    A representative from the New Mardi Gras board told CAAH to take the banner down because it was “too political”. CAAH complied, thinking the banner would be able to be presented while walking. This was not the case.

    An ex-detainee of Villawood detention centre was holding the Ali banner high and five minutes into walking off into the parade, a New Mardi Gras representative grabbed the banner from his hands and told CAAH “you will not come back to Mardi Gras if you show this banner”. CAAH tried to convince the NMG representative that showing the banner was a democratic right, only to be told “this comes from the head of the Mardi Gras board.”

    Ali Humayun is out to his Muslim family in Pakistan. His father and brother have told him they will kill him if he returns home. It is clear Ali will be persecuted if he is deported back to Pakistan. Instead of accepting the danger Ali Humayun will be in if he returns home and giving him refugee status the Australian government has locked Ali Humayun up for over three years. The Federal Ombudsman has recommended his release, along with many other long term detainees. Rudd was elected into office promising detainees were not to be locked up for more than 90 days. Yet there are detainees who’ve been locked up for more than 1000, and still no action comes from Rudd.

    “It is deplorable that New Mardi Gras banned Ali Humayun’s presence at the Mardi Gras parade.” said Allan Priestly, CAAH Co-convenor. “It was the only way he could have a voice at the parade, given the Rudd government still has him locked up.”

    Rachel Evans, CAAH-Co-convenor said “We call on New Mardi Gras to support queers in Pakistan – support freeing Ali Humayun and give assurances to the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex (GLBTI) community that this racist censorship will not happen again. Mardi Gras was born out of the queer communities refusal to accept the closet or the censorship bigoted governments and police foisted upon us. Thirty years on and New Mardi Gras is trying to censor solidarity actions with the most oppressed queers in our community. Shame New Mardi Gras, shame” concluded Evans.

    “We want to free Ali Humayun,” said Alan Priestly. “We want New Mardi Gras to support this campaign and help us. Together, united we can do this”.

    Mark Goudkamp from Sydney’s Refugee Action Coalition said “The Ali Humayun case is one all in Australian should know about. The censorship of New Mardi Gras is an outrage. We request that all gay and lesbian support organizations come on board and support the immediate release of Ali Humayun.”

    Call Rachel Evans 0403 798 420 or Alan Priestly 0410 879 068 for more info…

See also : Sasha Soldatow, What is this gay community shit? The Sydney Gay Mardi Gras and the Left, 1983. In some respects, Soldatow’s observations apply equally to other times, places and communities, including the contemporary anarchist movement, where notions of ‘community’ are constantly invoked, and to suit different and often conflicting agendas.

In that pamphlet I wrote that the emerging gay community was dismantling a whole history of radical political action. So-called community aspirations were taking over from the preceding debates of sexual politics, debates that involved both women and men attempting to renegotiate and reinvent the temperament of gender. Simply put, the whole gay community thing was twaddle; it was a matter of emerging gay capitalists smelling the dollars that could be milked from men’s cocks…

How do I fit in this rainbow machine?
Pride and waves of flags in this beauty-boy scene
Shaved bodies, tight tummies all ’round
I am such a lost queer walking down the streets of boys’ town

Fashion dictates if you’re wrong or right
Abercrombie Fitch Gap what a fright
Versace Prada Diesel and many more
Label flashing shit what a bore

Punk queers shit let’s put it where it’s at
Bald or hairy thin or thick you know I like that fat
Pull off your punk shirts and let’s not hide
Let’s rework that thing they call pride

Posted in Sex & Sexuality, State / Politics | 8 Comments