Yeah Nah Pasaran #264 w Hannah Gais on Kirk, Posobiec & US Politics : September 18, 2025

This week on Yeah Nah Pasaran! on 3CR, we talk to Hannah Gais [Bluesky]. Hannah is a writer and researcher and inter alia publishes the free newsletter “Posts from Underground”. We spoke to Hannah about the recent killing of Charlie Kirk and its impact upon US discourse, some of her recent writing on Zionist d0xxers, and the many grievances of Jack Posobiec.

See : For Betar or Worse, The Baffler, August 26, 2025 /// Unhuman Resources, The Baffler, February 6, 2025. Also : Charlie Kirk was killed by a meme (‘Making sense of our dark new era of extremely online political violence’), Ryan Broderick & Adam Bumas, Garbage Day, September 12, 2025 /// Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning, Elizabeth Spiers, The Nation, September 12, 2025.

See also : Yeah Nah Pasaran! #152 w Hannah Gais on Atomwaffen, Terrorgram & international neo-Nazism : March 2, 2023 /// Yeah Nah Pasaran! #041 w Hannah Gais on Russia & laundering fascism : October 22, 2020.

4.30pm, September 18, 2025 /// 855AM, digital, streaming, Community Radio Plus

• This episode will be available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms after broadcast.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’, although because the anti-social platform is bloody awful, chances are you’ll never notice it.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Death, History, Media, State / Politics, Student movement, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yeah Nah Pasaran #263 w Celeste Liddle on The March for (White) Australia : September 11, 2025

This week on Yeah Nah Pasaran! on 3CR, we talk to Celeste Liddle about the March for (White) Australia of August 31. Celeste is an Arrernte woman, a feminist, hard left, trade unionist, punk and podcaster. You can read some of her writing on her blog, Rantings of an Aboriginal Feminist and listen to her podcast The Radical Online Leftist Pipeline (with Tom Tanuki, Mitch Alexander and Jordan van den Lamb).

See : We lost in Melbourne, Black Feminist Ranter, September 1, 2025 (‘As an Arrernte woman, I never want to see us lose in Melbourne again’) /// We won’t solve our Nazi problem until we cut the Great Australian Bullshit, Crikey, August 20, 2025 (‘Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan claims neo-Nazis ‘don’t belong in this country’. That’s not even remotely true’).

4.30pm, September 11, 2025 /// 855AM, digital, streaming, Community Radio Plus

• This episode will be available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms after broadcast.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’, although because the anti-social platform is bloody awful, chances are you’ll never notice it.

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Media, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yeah Nah Pasaran #262 on The March for (White) Australia : September 4, 2025

Above : Hugo ‘Auspill’ Lennon, a key figure in promoting the March for White Australia, celebrity scion of a massive property developer in Australia, and heir to hundreds of millions: an extremely fortunate son.

Yeah Nah …

This week on Yeah Nah Pasaran! on 3CR, Cam & I share some thoughts on the March for (White) Australia of August 31.

See also : Yeah Nah Pasaran #260 w Kaz Ross on the National Socialist Network, March Australia +++ : August 14, 2025 /// Against The March For White Australia : August 31, 2025 (August 23, 2025) /// Just Say F*ck Off to The March for White Australia, August 31, 2025 (August 30, 2025).

(Last week’s episode of YNP! was a repeat of a previous episode with Kaz Ross on sovereign citizens; on August 21, Cam had a yarn with Johnathan M. Katz about substack and nazis.)

4.30pm, September 4, 2025 /// 855AM, digital, streaming, Community Radio Plus

• This episode will be available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms after broadcast.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’, although because the anti-social platform is bloody awful, chances are you’ll never notice it.

… I Ain’t Marching For a White Australia

The March for (White) Australia obviously made a big splash, on account of its size, neo-Nazi leadership, and endorsement by some of the parliamentary right.

1)

According to the ABC, an estimated 15,000 marched in Sydney and 5,000 in Perth, while The Age reports 5-10,000 in Perth, and 6,000 participated in the combined March for White Australia and the ‘pro-Palestine’/’anti-fascist’ rallies in Melbourne; according to The Guardian:

New South Wales police said an estimated 15,000 people … attended the protest in Sydney.

Queensland police confirmed about 6,000 protesters came out in Brisbane for the protest. In Melbourne, police estimated 5,000 took to the streets, but this included the protesters and antifascist counter-protesters.

Victoria police said there were an estimated 3,000 people representing the March for Australia, 800 people from the Rally for Palestine group, and the remainder of people from joining as part of “multiple other groups”.

There were also nationalist assemblies in Adelaide, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Townsville and some satellite events in other locations (an estimated 500 in Newcastle, 600 in Echuca/Moama, and 250 in Wodonga).

Obviously, crowd estimates can vary wildly, often depend on the perspective/bias of the observer, and independent experts seem to be rarely available to provide more accurate figures. Suffice it say that, across Australia, tens of thousands marched on Sunday to voice their hostility to migrant workers.

2)

The neo-Nazi leadership of the March was provided by Thomas ‘Dickhead’ Sewell and his National Socialist Network (NSN), a groupuscule concentrated in the major cities and especially Melbourne, its birthplace. The role of the NSN was obvious from the beginning, though semi-farcical attempts to deny this were of course broadly expressed by March supporters (and the usual gormless, frequently disingenuous, figures in media and politics). In any case, fresh from a successful gathering at Phoenix Caravan Park in Ballan and a police-escorted jackboot parade of their own through Melbourne’s CBD late at night, the NSN were warmly received by Marchers in Melbourne, and the budding führer from Balwyn was the keynote speaker to address the throngs from the steps of the Victorian parliament, where his ‘anti-migrant/pro-Australia’ rhetoric was also applauded by the useful idiots.

Unfortunately for Sewell and the NSN, as they left later in the afternoon, they (allegedly) engaged in a group assault upon Indigenous people gathered at Camp Sovereignty in Kings Domain. As a result, this morning Sewell was charged with violent disorder, affray, assault by kicking, discharge missile and other offences by detectives from Melbourne CIU. (Also charged was one of his flunkeys, Nathan Bull). Whether or not other (alleged) participants are charged remains open to question, but certainly, as well as vividly confirming — again — the intrinsically violent racism of the neo-Nazi political project, the (alleged) attack has brought the group to wider and understandably hostile — outside of the Marchers — attention.

Of course, in addition to these latest charges, Sewell is also facing charges inre the (alleged) d0xxing of a police officer: it was for this reason that he was at court and available to be arrested outside of it by police yesterday. In this context, on the occasion of a previous, unsuccessful appeal by the prosecution for a more punitive sentence to be imposed upon him after being found guilty of another assault, the fact that Sewell and another flunkey were spared imprisonment, considered good prospects for ‘rehabilitation’, and even wished ‘good luck’ by the sentencing judge, might imply that he’s reached the limits of the (legal and political) largesse afforded him to date by the courts … we’ll find out eventually, I guess.

3)

The March was endorsed and supported by a smol range of MPs and other public figures on the (far) right, including Bob Katter (KAP), Pauline Hanson (PHONy) and Jacinta Price (Tory), among others (see : All the politicians who attended anti-immigration marches — and what they’ve got to say for themselves, Daanyal Saeed, Crikey, September 2, 2025).

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back with some additional notes in the near-future.

See also : Neo-Nazis and racist rallies: why it’s important the Australian media call them for what they are, Denis Muller, The Conversation, September 2, 2025 | How Australia’s anti-immigration rallies were amplified online by the global far right, Callum Jones and Kurt Sengul, The Conversation, September 2, 2025 | How neo-Nazis used the shield of ‘ordinary mums and dads’ anti-immigration rallies to sell white supremacy, Ariel Bogle, Nino Bucci and Stephanie Convery, The Guardian, September 2, 2025 | How mainstream media and politicians fuelled Australia’s biggest far-right rally, Osman Faruqi, Lamestream, September 1, 2025.

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Media, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Just Say F*ck Off to The March for White Australia, August 31, 2025

See : Watch: Far-Right Leader’s Effort To Hijack Dairy Farmer Protest Backfires, New Matilda, May 25, 2016.

As I wrote last Saturday, tomorrow is the occasion of the March for (White) Australia.

In essence, the rallies serve two purposes.

First, to allow for the public expression of (white) nationalist and xenophobic anger at (non-white) migrant workers; a group local wankers have determined to be collectively responsible for all manner of social ills.

Secondly, to serve as a platform for the neo-Nazi groupuscule National Socialist Network to launch its proposed political party, ‘White Australia’.

The ‘organisers’ of the events — which have been announced for each capital city and several regional Queensland towns — have positively welcomed the participation of the NSN, and invited them to address the rallies: the NSN has stated that it will be present in numbers at every march. Depending on the location (Melbourne/Naarm is their stronghold), this presumably means the neo-Nazis will be joined by hundreds of their supporters and other opponents of (non-white) migration. Thus, in addition to the NSN, federal MPs Ralph Babet and Bob Katter (and NSW state MP John Ruddick) have expressed support for the marches, and so too PHONy. In which case, fans of Bob and Pauline (if not Adolf), along with a smattering of proprietarians, can also — in a united right-wing voice — join in the neo-Nazi chorus against (non-white) migrant workers.

Sadly, one NSN member who likely won’t be attending the march is the Sydney man charged last weekend over possessing alleged violent extremist and child abuse material, a most unfortunate incident which Tom Tanuki contextualizes below:

Be that as it may, as was the case with ‘Reclaim Australia’ 10 years ago, the organisation of the March for (White) Australia is loose and occasionally shambolic, with the role of ‘organiser’ varying slightly according to state — in some, authorities require the issuing of permits for public rallies — but largely fulfilling the role of providing a name and a face for media and police inquiries. In Brisbane, that role appears to have fallen to a Proud Boy, Ben ‘The Dusty Bogan’ Shand (note that Katter once pledged allegiance to the Boys, which is proscribed as a ‘terrorist’ organisation in Aotearoa and Canada); in Sydney, Bec ‘Freedom’ Walker has been a focus of attention, while in Melbourne, Hugo Lennon — the scion of a wealthy property developer family — is apparently happy to be That Guy.

In summary, the NSN has managed to assemble quite a range of useful idiots to march (or rally) on their behalf tomorrow. As expected, in Melbourne/Naarm, police have declared the CBD a designated zone, meaning they’ve been granted additional powers to do things like unmask rally-goers etc.. For this reason, the NSN will be attending in uniform but without masks. At the same time, it appears certain that other NSN members will attend in civvies in order to pose, like others, as Ordinary Punters (What Are Angry With All The Indians ‘N’ That Comin’ Over Here).

On neo-Nazi participation in the rallies, see : ‘March for Australia’: when grievance & conspiracy collide, ABC’s The Radio National Hour, August 28, 2025 /// The neo-Nazis behind the ‘March for Australia’, Jordan van den Lamb, Red Flag, August 27, 2025 /// ‘March for Australia’ is not common-sense patriotism — it’s a Nazi-led mobilisation, Tom Tanuki, Independent Australia, August 22, 2025.

Beyond this, a complicating factor for police management in Victoria is the ongoing search for ‘sovereign citizen’/’pseudo-law adherent’ Dezi Freeman, who’s currently on-the-run in rural Victoria after having allegedly shot dead two police officers who’d attended his property in order to serve a warrant. The shootings have been the subject of enormous media coverage, including much discussion of Freeman’s ideological commitments (see : ‘Hunt down all cops’: Dezi Freeman fantasised for years about killing police in unearthed social media posts, Cam Wilson, Crikey, August 29, 2025). Sadly, Mr Freeman is not the only person who appears to have had his bRanes scrambled by COVID-19 and lockdowns, and many of his comrades in the self-described ‘freedom’ movement in Melbourne/Naarm are very keen to join the NSN in order to register their opposition to the presence of (non-white) migrant workers in Australia.

Finally, a word to the wise:

Counter-protests

Counter-protests are also taking place in several cities (with the regular Sunday Palestine solidemos forming a springboard): I may add other details later tonight as I become aware of them.




Posted in Anti-fascism, Broken Windows, History, Media, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Against The March For White Australia : August 31, 2025

[Update (August 25, 2025) : A number of counter-rallies to oppose the neo-Nazi led “Marches for Australia” on Sunday August 31st have been organised and include:

BRISBANE: 11AM @ King George Square.
CANBERRA: 12PM @ Australian War Memorial.
MELBOURNE: 11AM @ State Library.
PERTH: 11:30AM @ Stirling Gardens.
SYDNEY: 1PM @ Hyde Park North.

NB. There may be other actions; venues are subject to change.]

As you’re probably already aware, the corpse of ‘Reclaim Australia’ has resurrected itself as ‘March Australia’ and — under the ideological stewardship of New Zealand-born Tom Sewell’s nazi gang the National Socialist Network (NSN) — intends to do a zombie shuffle through the cities and towns of STRAYA on Sunday, August 31. And, as was the case with Reclaim, these partisans of ‘The Great Replacement’ thesis (see : Christchurch) are once again responding to the call to oppose mass non-White immigration to Australia, for “We Must Secure The Existence Of Our People And A Future For White Children”.

Or something like that.

Xenophobia is a coat of many colours, and Australia has a long, even notorious, history of it. Naturally, the neo-Nazis who’ve positioned themselves as the political vanguard of the March lament the passing of the White Australia policy, and want to restore it as part of their vision for ‘Aryan’ supremacy. To that end, earlier this year, the NSN announced it was going to form a political party on precisely that basis.

I remain slightly skeptical that 1,500 neo-Nazis are happy to d0x themselves to authorities, but the formation of such a party — the nazis believe — will provide the NSN with added legal protections in their various interactions with the forces of Law & Order. In any case, as noted above, the active involvement of neo-Nazis in the vanguard of the March has caused (some) minor disquiet among (some of) the freedumb-seeking c00kers who form a considerable proportion of the social base/pool of potential recruits from which the nazis draw. Figures from within this wider milieu — including Matt Trihey and Bec Walker, but also Hugo Lennon and Harrison McLean — play useful roles for the NSN, both in terms of supplying ideological support for/engendering interest in joining groups like the NSN and obscuring/downplaying the neo-Nazi politics at the heart of the proposed marches.

In the effort to launder nazi party-building, the Marchers are ably assisted by various mainstream, right-wing reactionaries who like to pander to xenophobic and racist sentiment in typically more ‘nuanced’ language.

In addition, the massive solidemo for Palestine in Sydney, which embarked on a ‘March for Humanity’ a few weeks ago, has many hopping mAd, from NSW Premier Chis Minns to the worst, most obscure genocide apologist on X, the everything app. Will the Lions of Zion be holding hands with members of the NSN or NWA on August 31 because they both despise Teh LeFt? It seems unlikely, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the Australian Jewish Association once attempted to tour Lauren ‘The Great Replacement’ Southern and her neo-Nazi security detail — then known as the Lads Society, now known as the NSN — through Bondi and Caulfield in 2018. Further, that the NSN has received and continues to receive tens of thousands of dollars via Christian nationalist fundraiser Give Send Go, an organisation that sponsored Warren Mundine’s Conservative Political Action Conference Australia in 2023.

(For a useful explainer on these ructions on the (far) right, see : How neo-Nazi support for a viral anti-immigration rally exposed fractures among ‘freedom’ groups, Scobie McKay, Crikey, August 18, 2025. See also : A Brief Guide To The Australian Far Right (July 2025 Edition).)

Finally, along with writing ‘March for Australia’ is not common-sense patriotism — it’s a Nazi-led mobilisation (Independent Australia, August 22, 2025), the always-outrageous Tom Tanuki has recently published a video analysing the NSN as a child-grooming cult:

Tell ‘Em To Get Stuffed

In Melbourne/Naarm, the Marchers have declared their intention to block and to occupy the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets (outside Flinders Street Station) at midday. Being a Sunday, there will also be the regular Palestine solidemo occurring at the State Library (a few blocks from the station). In response to the nazi mobilisation, organisers have announced that the rally, normally scheduled for midday, will instead commence at 11am on August 31.

For its part, VTHC has been quite rude about Nazis and their anti-working class politics:

Finally, along with the neo-Nazis and their gormless followers, there may be some other compañerxs to be found in the city that day, so my general advice is to keep your wits about you if you happen to find yourself in the vicinity of a March for White Australia on August 31, whether in Naarm or elsewhere.

Posted in Anti-fascism, History, Media, State / Politics, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Yeah Nah Pasaran #260 w Kaz Ross on the National Socialist Network, March Australia +++ : August 14, 2025

img c/o alex z

This week on Yeah Nah Pasaran! on 3CR we talk to RETVRN guest Dr Kaz Ross [Twitter/X] about the National Socialist Network and March Australia — and get an UPDATE on sloppy Steve Bannon. You may remember the NSN from such events as ‘Let’s Go Camping in Ballan!’, while March Australia is an attempt to resuscitate the corpse of Reclaim Australia and ‘Sloppy’ Steve is currently engaged in a battle of halfwits with Emerald Mine Guy: “Sad!” We spoke to Kaz about all these things and MORE.

See also : The Daily Mail’s society listicle that has not gone down well with those included., ABC Media Watch, August 11, 2025.

4.30pm, August 14, 2025 /// 855AM, digital, streaming, Community Radio Plus

• This episode will be available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms after broadcast.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’, although because the anti-social platform is bloody awful, chances are you’ll never notice it.

Posted in Anti-fascism, Broken Windows, Death, History, Media, State / Politics, Student movement, That's Capitalism!, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Neo-Nazis @ Phoenix Caravan Park in Ballan : August 2025

Briefly,

After jackbooting their way down Melbourne’s CBD late last night, members of Tom Sewell’s neo-Nazi gang the National Socialist Network (NSN) have bunkered down at Phoenix Caravan Park in Ballan for the weekend’s festivities. (Also Bacchus Marsh.) ‘Outrage!’ screamed the Herald Sun headline, with the article itself replaying umpteen previous articles about the group’s activities. In any event, props to the Bacchus Marsh locals who attended the train station this morning to provide the nazis a welcoming message:

More later, but in the meantime:

• The Phoenix Caravan Park may be contacted here with polite inquires as to the owners’ desire to provide the NSN some lebensraum in regional Victoria (in the federal electorate of Hawke and state electorate of Eureka);

• You can read ‘9 Principles for Journalists Reporting On Neo-Nazis’ by anti-fascist research gruppe The White Rose Society here.

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Notes on “the fight against antisemitism in Australia”

The fight against antisemitism in Australia has some odd features.

In the wake of October 7, one of these is its rediscovery by VIPs. Hence, former Labor MP Nova Peris — recently ‘elected a director of Hockey Australia weeks after sharing a post on X (formerly Twitter) from an anonymous account calling Muslims “Satan worshipping cockroaches that need to be eradicated”’ — has emerged as one of the faces of #StandUpToHate, joining other notable anti-racists (like, ah, Kyle Sandilands) in a corporate-media sponsored PR campaign to encourage other proud Aussies to ‘reject intolerance and restore the unity and respect that define our multicultural nation’.

Peris is also among those appearing at a conference on the Gold Coast in September titled ‘Australian Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism’, an event which has come under critical scrutiny by Wendy Bacon and Yaakov Aharon in “The Hebrew Hammer”: inside the Gold Coast’s antisemitism junket (Michael West Media, August 5, 2025).

The Gold Coast event is a local manifestation (with local allies) of the US-based ‘Combat Antisemitism Movement’ (CAM), ‘founded [in 2019] by Wichita oil baron Adam Beren, who donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration and $500,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2016′. Earlier this week, the CAM noticed hundreds of thousands of Australians march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge demanding an end to the Palestinian genocide and was prompted to write ‘Mass Sydney Anti-Israel Demonstration Rife With Antisemitic Slogans, Terror Glorification, and Incitement to Violence’. The CAM also apparently regards David Adler’s Australian Jewish Association (AJA) as a voice of authority on the subject of antisemitism in Australia … though whether or not they’ve asked the AJA about its brief love-affair with Lauren ‘The Great Replacement’ Southern and her neo-Nazi security detail is unknown.

As well as featuring Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia, Jillian Segal, as a keynote speaker, organisers have arranged for Jeff Schoep — a failed former fuehrer of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) from 1994 to 2019 — to impart his wisdom for the benefit of local burghers. Following Trump’s successful Presidential election campaign in 2016, Schoep and the NSM gained some notoriety for their role in organising the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Indeed:

On Nov. 23, 2021, a federal court in Virginia found the National Socialist Movement and its former leader, Jeff Schoep, liable on charges of civil conspiracy theory in the Sines v. Kessler case against the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally. The jury allotted Schoep $500,000 in punitive damages and another $1,000,000 to NSM, now under the leadership of Burt Colucci.

The last few years have seen Schoep join the cottage industry of ‘former’ neo-Nazis who now proclaim expertise on the subject of ‘countering violent extremism’ and ‘deradicalisation’. Schoep first attempted this by way of Jesse Morton’s organisation Light Upon Light, but now does so via his own, Beyond Barriers.

As one of the highest-profile neonazis in U.S. history, in the 1990s, Schoep transformed his skinhead crew into a nationwide political organization, which he then led for 25 years. The NSM were often referred to as “Hollywood Nazis” for their brazen racism, including dressing in a “blackshirt” uniform with swastikas, using racial slurs, and preaching race war. Schoep sought out recruits with military training—he claimed 50 percent of their members were veterans—and NSM members have one of the longest rap sheets of racist violence in the movement. Schoep helped lead the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and became one of U.S. White nationalism’s loudest voices. But in 2019, he began presenting himself as a “former White nationalist,” first appearing on Picciolini’s MSNBC show and then working with the Washington, D.C.-based Light Upon Light. Within months, he was speaking at conferences as an expert on White nationalism, and offering “deradicalization” counseling. To Picciolini, it seemed disingenuous.

For more infos, please see : Can You Ever Trust a Former White Nationalist?, Shane Burley, The Public Eye, Winter 2022.

Beyond these figures, the assembled mayors will also have the opportunity to absorb learnings on antisemitism from a guy who once described Nasser Mashni of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network as being inspired by the notorious antisemitic tract and Tsarist forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Sadly, not all mayors have been convinced of the need to goto the Gold Coast for lessons: ‘Greater Dandenong and Casey councillors have turned down invitations to attend an Australian Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism to be held on the Gold Coast’. See also : Conference slammed as controversial ‘junket’ attracts Wollongong councillor, Zoe Cartwright, Region Illawarra, July 30, 2025.

Finally, in other news that seems to have ESCed the attention of many semi-professional anti-antisemites, Victoria will be hosting a national gathering of Tom Sewell’s EAM/NSN this weekend.

See also : Media reinvents neo-Nazism as post-7 October phenomenon, Tom Tanuki, Independent Australia, July 13, 2024.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, History, Media, State / Politics, War on Terror | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Yeah Nah Pasaran #259 w Emily M Bender & Alex Hanna on The AI Con : August 7, 2025

This week on Yeah Nah Pasaran! on 3CR we talk to Emily M Bender [Bluesky] & Alex Hanna [Bluesky]. Emily and Alex are previous guests of the show, co-host the podcast Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 and have recently co-authored The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want:

A smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner, and why it’s crucial to recognize the many ways in which AI hype covers for a small set of power-hungry actors at work and in the world.

See also : Is AI a con? A new book punctures the hype and proposes some ways to resist, Luke Munn, The Conversation, June 24, 2025 /// The AI Con by Emily M Bender and Alex Hanna review – debunking myths of the AI revolution, Steven Poole, The Guardian, May 19, 2025 /// AI. Don’t believe the hype, Late Night Live (ABC), July 3, 2025 | The Shocking Far-Right Agenda Behind the Facial Recognition Tech Used by ICE and the FBI, Luke O’Brien, Mother Jones, May-June 2025 /// Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI (Karen Hao, Penguin Random House, 2025).

4.30pm, August 7, 2025 /// 855AM, digital, streaming, Community Radio Plus

• This episode will be available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms after broadcast.
• We also have a Facebook page for the show, which you’re invited to ‘Like’ and to ‘Follow’, although because the anti-social platform is bloody awful, chances are you’ll never notice it.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Art, Broken Windows, Cats, History, Media, Music, State / Politics, That's Capitalism! | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Anarchism in (‘so-called’) Australia in 2025

[For John.]

Security Services, July 24, 1942:

Information so far available does not indicate that there is any organised movement in existence in Australia, but rather that groups of Anarchists are engaged in spreading the doctrine of Anarchism among the workers, apparently not with much success.

slackbastard, August 1, 2025:

Leaving aside various informal political and social networks, there are a tiny handful of anarchist groups with (the possibility of) a national reach:

Anarchist Communist Federation : ‘We are class struggle anarchists organising across the Australian continent.’ The ACF announced its formation on May Day this year and has a branch in Melbourne, which is joined by Anarchists Communists Meanjin (now the Brisbane branch) and Geelong Anarchist Communists (Geelong & South West Victoria branch) — but not Sydney, as ‘On the 1st of February, 2025, the membership of Black Flag Sydney voted to dissolve the organisation’.
Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation : ‘The Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation is a libertarian workers movement organised according to anarcho-syndicalist principles. We aim to create a society based on liberty, mutual aid, federalism and self-management.’ In December last year, the 3rd IWA Asia-Pacific convergence took place ‘with comrades from Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Australia in attendance’.

*ARC UP Anarchist Communists : ‘Beginning in 2021, we spent 3 years building our structures, membership base and program. We are growing our membership, with a focus on maintaining an Indigenous and migrant majority, to help us construct and test our program as an organised force within migrant-heavy workplaces, the broader workers movement, social movements for Indigenous Sovereignty here and elsewhere.’

… There’s also the Wobblies (revolutionary industrial unionists):

Industrial Workers of the World : ‘IWW AusROC [Australian Regional Organising Committee] is the section of the IWW representing the Australasian region, with members in Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Singapore and Thailand. The IWW fights for better working conditions, benefits and pay for all workers across every industry.’ The IWW has general membership branches in Naarm/Melbourne, Tarndanya/Adelaide and Warrang/Sydney.

… A bookshoppe in Warrang/Sydney:

Jura Books : ‘Jura has been open since 1977. The name commemorates a successful European anarchist workers organisation.’ (The Jura Federation is the subject of a recent film.)

Along with Black Current Anarchist Distro [CrackBook] : ‘A not for profit mobile book stall that sells all books at cost price. We stock books and zines on anarchist theory, practice and history’ in Brisbane & Black Swan Socialists [Instagram] : a (libertarian?) reading group (?) in Perth.

… Some sites/projects of interest based in Melbourne/Naarm:

Black Spark Cultural Centre : ‘Black Spark exists to facilitate creativity in visual arts and music, learning through contemplation and deep listening and liberation through cultures of resistance and conscious praxis.’
Catalyst : ‘Catalyst Social Centre is a radical community space located in Coburg, on unceded Wurundjeri Country. The centre offers free meeting/event spaces for individuals and collectives engaged in leftist organising and solidarity work.’
Food Not Bombs : ‘Food Not Bombs is a collective of people throughout the city that collect, organise and share vegan food to the streets, to protests, fundraisers and events.’
Sticky Institute : ‘Sticky Institute is an Artist Run Initiative in Melbourne/Naarm dedicated to zines. Part open-resource working space and part non-profit retail space, we’re your one-stop-shop for all things zines!’

… Some publications of various sorts, either anarchist and/or of interest to anarchists:

Anarchist World This Week : Dr Joe Toscano presents ‘an anarchist analysis of local, national and international news and events’.
Backlash : ‘A digital community for Indigenous, ecological and anti-fascist resistance within the territory occupied by the Australian state.’
Beyond The Dark Horizon : ‘A publication of green anarchist art, poetry, stories, rants from ‘so called-Australia’.’
The Commons Social Change Library : ‘The Commons Library exists to make social movements smarter and stronger.’
Red and Black Notes : ‘Red and Black Notes is an attempt at offering an anarchist communist perspective on current issues and events.’
People’s History of Australia : ‘People’s History of Australia is a podcast and blog aiming to amplify those moments when ordinary people across Australia have made history – by coming together, overcoming the barriers and divisions that keep us isolated and atomised, and struggling collectively for justice.’

So …

In the past, I’ve had occasion to examine the political landscape for traces of anarchism, with mixed results. Apart from institutions like Jura Books, there are few that are of much longevity — the ASF, est.1986, is another exception, as is the Anarchist Media Institute and related projects. Following a series of various other gatherings, Bookfairs in Melbourne were A Thing for several years (2011–2018) and, of the Wikipedia Category:Australian anarchists, only a handful are … alive (including Pi O). That said, you can read a Reportback from the 2025 Kurilpa Anarchist Bookfair from earlier in the year, and a number of otherwise semi-prominent figures have left us in the past decade, including Jack (Jack ‘The Anarchist’ Grancharoff (1925–2016)), Antonio (Vale Antonio Burgos (May 13, 1918–October 31, 2018) : The Last of the Spanish Anarchists Exiled to Australia) and John (A life of honesty, integrity and social conscience: John Englart, 1955-2025, Brunswick Voice, July 23, 2025 /// Remembering John Englart 1955-2025, YarraBUG (3CR), July 21, 2025). The historical legacy of these and other compañerxs is partially preserved by way of publications by the likes of the Grupo Cultural de Estudios Sociales de Melbourne and the remarkable Kate Sharpley Library, which ‘exists to preserve and promote anarchist history’.

Finally, you’ll find anarchists of various sorts lurking about community radio, including 3CR, 4ZZZ, RTRFM and Three D Radio and, who knows, even elsewhere …

PS. Across the pond in Aotearoa/New Zealand, there’s: the Tamaki Makaurau Anarchists; The Freedom Shop (which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary); and Rebel Press. See also : A visual history of Wellington’s anarchist house, Baz Macdonald, Re:News, September 4, 2020 /// Sam Buchanan @ Pyramid Club.

Posted in Anarchism, History, Media, State / Politics, Student movement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments