{"id":424,"date":"2006-10-17T05:25:52","date_gmt":"2006-10-16T19:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=424"},"modified":"2007-05-11T14:25:45","modified_gmt":"2007-05-11T04:25:45","slug":"sydney-forum-2006-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=424","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Forum 2006 Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align = \"center\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/static.flickr.com\/79\/271427071_642b8e8a04_m.jpg\"><\/div>\n<ul>:: <em>Above<\/em> : &#8220;Australian youth took the matter into their own hands&#8221; according to the Australia First Party ::<\/ul>\n<p>As promised, here&#8217;s a re-cap of Australia&#8217;s premiere gathering of assorted racists and fascists: the <strong>Australia First Party<\/strong> (AFP) organised <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=340\">Sydney Forum<\/a><\/strong> (August 26 &#8212; 27).<\/p>\n<p>First, the venue for the first day&#8217;s events &#8212; <strong>Estonian House<\/strong>, 141 Campbell St, Surry Hills, NSW, 2010 &#8212; and an unanswered email to <em>Boris Lees<\/em>, Secretary, the Estonian House Co-operative Society :<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Boris,<\/p>\n<p>It has come to my attention that on Saturday the 26th of August, the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eesti.org.au\/houses.php\">Estonian House Co-operative Society<\/a><\/strong> &#8212; for which you are the Secretary &#8212; authorised the use of its premises for the &#8216;2006 Sydney Forum&#8217;. The &#8216;Sydney Forum&#8217; is an annual gathering of racists, fascists and neo-Nazis from all over Australia, and is organised by the Australia First Party (AFP), a racist party whose leader, Dr. James Saleam, has been convicted for crimes of racial hatred, and which has as its central policy opposition to multiculturalism and a return to a White Australia. Aside from its endorsement of racism and fascism, the AFP is perhaps best known for distributing racist propaganda during the riots in Cronulla in December last year &#8212; although it has also been the subject of more recent media attention as a result of endorsing the contents of racist pamphlets distributed in Port Maquarie earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Given the decision by the <strong>Russian Club<\/strong> to withdraw their support as [host] for last year&#8217;s Forum, could you please explain why the Estonian House Co-operative Society has decided to align Sydney&#8217;s Estonian community with the propagation of racism and fascism?<\/p>\n<p>PS. For further information:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/portmacquarie.yourguide.com.au\/detail.asp?class=news&#038;subclass=general&#038;story_id=502326&#038;category=General&#038;m=8&#038;y=2006\">Racism outrage: Pamphlet condemns Muslims<\/a><br \/>\nBy LYNN HORD<br \/>\n<em>Port Macquarie News<\/em><br \/>\nWednesday, 16 August 2006<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/islamicsydney.com\/story.php?id=2565\">White supremacy in our backyard<\/a><br \/>\nBy DAN BOX<br \/>\n<em>The Australian<\/em><br \/>\nMonday, 6 March 2006<\/p>\n<p>Reference to Saleam&#8217;s criminal conviction may be found in this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anthonyalbanese.com.au\/file.php?file=\/news\/397\/index.html&#038;lu=\/speechesindex\/2004&#038;ln=Media+Releases+Archive+2004\">short speech<\/a> by Anthony Albanese.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Given Boris&#8217; silence, one may well expect next year&#8217;s Sydney Forum to be held at the same venue; a form of collaboration presumably aided by the &#8216;anti-Communist&#8217; veneer surrounding fascist parties such as Australia First, and Estonia&#8217;s many decades of subjection to rule by Communist Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, the speakers :<\/p>\n<p>Following the <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=363\">withdrawal<\/a> of filmmaker <em>David Bradbury<\/em>, the Syrian Ambassador to Australia, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=354\">Tamman Sulaiman<\/a><\/em>, and &#8212; last but by <em>no<\/em> means least &#8212; &#8220;a bloody funny sheila&#8221; named <em>Sandy Thorne<\/em>, the list of publically-advertised speakers was quite short: Neil Baird, Jim Cassidy, Greg Clancy, Andrew Fraser and Dr. James Saleam.<\/p>\n<p>No one was scheduled to replace David Bradbury, but it was announced at the time that A SURPRISE SYRIAN SPEAKER WILL ADDRESS THE FORUM in place of the Syrian Ambassador. And guess what? Having returned from his too-long holiday in the Carribean, <em>Agent Gerbil<\/em> can now reveal that the &#8212; SURPRISE! &#8212; replacement speaker turned out to be another fascist, a Syrian one: <em>Dr. E. Melhem<\/em> of the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.atimes.com\/atimes\/Middle_East\/GD26Ak04.html\">Syrian Social Nationalist Party<\/a><\/strong> (SSNP).<\/p>\n<p>The SSNP is a weird mob: initially modelled, when first established in Beirut in 1932, on classical European fascism, it has since undergone a number of political shifts. In terms of support, the SSNP apparently has had some &#8212; both within Syria itself, and among elements of the Lebanese and Syrian diasporas &#8212; and has recently found increased tolerance, even Syrian government approval. Lack of support for the SSNP <em>outside<\/em> of Syria <em>may<\/em> have something to do with the (un-)popularity of the party&#8217;s vision of the imperialist project of constructing a &#8216;Greater Syria&#8217;, one comprising Syria, Lebanon, Palestine (\/Israel), Iraq, Jordan&#8230; and who knows, perhaps even parts of Tempe. <\/p>\n<p>(Interestingly, a representative of the SSNP also addressed the Sydney Forum in 2003. <em>See also<\/em> the reactionary historian &#8212; and one of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/news\/update\/2003\/05\/we_420_01.html\">George II&#8217;s favourite academic poodles<\/a> &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/doc\/20040510\/press\">Daniel Pipes<\/a> on <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.danielpipes.org\/books\/greater.php\">Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition<\/a><\/em>. Another &#8216;mystery&#8217; speaker was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/austory\/content\/2004\/s1205805.htm\">Rex Gilroy<\/a>, described in publicity material as being &#8220;a historian and archaeologist&#8221;, he spoke on &#8216;The Ancient European Contact With Australia And The Pacific&#8217;. Apparently Gilroy &#8220;has investigated the contacts between&#8230; peoples of Eu[ro]pean racial origin from the Near East and Old-Europe&#8230; with Australia&#8221;.)<\/p>\n<p>So where to from here for the AFP?<\/p>\n<p>As <em>Ben Weerheym<\/em> has revealed, the (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aec.gov.au\/_content\/Who\/party_reg\/deregistered\/afp.htm\">de-registered<\/a>) AFP is currently preparing &#8212; with the endorsement of the remnants of One Nation in NSW &#8212; to contest local council elections in the Sutherland Shire. Currently, however, &#8220;A member of Australia First, running as an independent, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prospect.sa.gov.au\/site\/page.cfm?u=807\">on the ballot<\/a> in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prospect.sa.gov.au\/site\/page.cfm?u=806\">St. Johns Wood Ward<\/a> of the Prospect City Council in Greater Adelaide. The result will be in by late October (the vote is a postal ballot). The ward is a small one and there are only two other candidates&#8221;; thereby, presumably, drastically improving the chances of a fascist obtaining a seat on council (only three candidates are in the running for just two seats).<\/p>\n<p>Intriguigingly, the candidate in question, <em>Bruce Preece<\/em> &#8212; in addition to the usual bland assurances regarding financial accountability &#8212; states in his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prospect.sa.gov.au\/webdata\/resources\/files\/CC_Election_Issue3.pdf\">election profile<\/a> that &#8220;I want to see the legacy that we have inherited from the past generations maintained and improved for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations&#8221;. Currently, as the AFP has noted with some disgust, Prospect City is a &#8216;refugee welcome zone&#8217;, a welcome which is strictly <em>verboten<\/em> according to the Whites Only AFP. Still, if Preece&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/psephos.adam-carr.net\/countries\/a\/australia\/states\/sa2002.txt\">previous effort<\/a> in Morialta in 2002 is anything to go by &#8212; with just 219 votes (1.3%), he came last of seven candidates &#8212; chances are AFP will be forced to look to establishing a beachhead in Cronulla instead.<\/p>\n<p>And won&#8217;t that campaign be fun?<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Oh, and it appears that the AFP have hit the news again, this time for glorifying racist violence:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theaustralian.news.com.au\/story\/0,20867,20592110-1702,00.html\">[Fascist] party promotes race riot game<\/a>, [AAP], <em>The Australian<\/em>, October 16, 2006 and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theaustralian.news.com.au\/story\/0,20867,20594101-5006784,00.html\">Game glorifies race riot<\/a>, Elizabeth Gosch, <em>The Australian<\/em>, October 17, 2006<\/p>\n<p>Both items mention the AFP&#8217;s upcoming campaign for a seat in the Sutherland Shire; neither mentions Bruce Preece&#8217;s current campaign in Adelaide&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>:: Above : &#8220;Australian youth took the matter into their own hands&#8221; according to the Australia First Party :: As promised, here&#8217;s a re-cap of Australia&#8217;s premiere gathering of assorted racists and fascists: the Australia First Party (AFP) organised Sydney &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=424\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-fascism","category-state"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-6Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}