{"id":577,"date":"2007-02-01T18:20:20","date_gmt":"2007-02-01T08:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=577"},"modified":"2007-02-02T22:20:05","modified_gmt":"2007-02-02T12:20:05","slug":"white-australia-afp-says-lets-start-with-tamworth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=577","title":{"rendered":"White Australia: AFP says let’s start with Tamworth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr James Saleam<\/em>‘s Australia First Party<\/strong> has recently attempted to capitalise on racialised conflict in the capital of Australian country music, Tamworth. ABC<\/strong> reported on January 29 that ‘Leaflets attack Tamworth over refugee resettlement’<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Tamworth has been targeted in a leaflet drop attacking the council’s decision to launch a trial refugee resettlement program.<\/p>\n

The leaflet drop comes only weeks after the council’s backflip on its decision to reject a Commonwealth plan to resettle refugees from Sudan in the district.<\/p>\n

The leaflets, with contact details for the Australia First Party, say refugees bring violence, sexual assault, disease and other crimes to the country…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note that Newcastle-based Stormfront<\/a><\/strong> member AustralianEuro<\/em> reported his group’s participation — ie, the Newcastle branch of AFP — in the leaflet drop on January 28, claiming that the response to their distributing 2,000 copies of the leaflet was uniformly positive (see also<\/em> ‘White radicals hit Tamworth’<\/a>, The Daily Terror<\/em>, January 30, 2007). Note also that racists and fascists on Stormfront had previously expressed tremendous annoyance<\/a> at Tamworth Council’s decision. Further, in an audacious (and in my opinion somewhat comical) attempt to shed some of its neo-Nazi baggage, AFP has also declared its intention to try and capture a segment of the Aboriginal vote (‘Australia First in bid for indigenous vote’<\/a>, Tracy Ong, The Australian<\/em>, January 30, 2007):<\/p>\n

Australia First founder [sic<\/em> — the party was founded in 1996 by Graeme Campbell<\/em>, whom the party claims remains a patronising presence behind-the-scenes] Jim Saleam said the party would “love to” field an Aboriginal candidate in upcoming state and local elections if one willing to run under the party’s banner stepped forward.<\/p>\n

“Aborigin[e]s are special people, we look forward to courting Aboriginal people and Aboriginal votes,” he said.<\/p>\n

But ALP<\/strong> national president Warren Mundine<\/em> said Mr Saleam was “completely nuts” if he thought he could court Aboriginal support. “It’s an idiotic viewpoint.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Nuts”, yes, “idiotic”, of course, but in invoking the ‘special’<\/a> status of Aboriginal people, Saleam is also undoubtedly invoking the memory of their ‘special treatment’.*<\/p>\n

In general media reportage, AFP has been variously described as a “political party” — subsequently amended to read “right-wing nationalist”<\/a> — and a “nationalist anti-immigration” party (AAP<\/strong>\/News<\/strong>), and a “White Australia group”<\/a> (Fairfax<\/strong>). The ABC reports that AFP could be the subject of legal complaints over their distribution of the racist leaflet (HRC mulls legal action over Tamworth anti-refugee leaflets<\/a>, January 29, 2007), while the Northern Daily Leader<\/em> carries a report (widely-syndicated by the regional and rural press) by David Ellery on the political complexion (pale skin, brown shirts) of the AFP: ‘Anti-refugee leaflets circulate in Tamworth’<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ellery notes that AFP is an unregistered party, and that its leader, variously described as “secretary and chairman”, James Saleam, is “a right wing figure who has spent time in prison after being implicated in a shotgun attack on an African politician”. Curiously:<\/p>\n

When asked about the time he spent in prison between 1991 and 1995 after being convicted of firearms charges stemming from a shotgun attack on Eddie Funde<\/em>, a member of the African National Congress<\/strong> [NB. Funde was not merely a member, but the ANC’s official representative to Australia and Aotearoa\/New Zealand from 1983–1991], Saleam threatened The Leader<\/em> editor, David Ellery, with the wrath of the Press Council.<\/p>\n

This was followed up with a faxed letter to that effect — and also foreshadowing the possibility of libel action — late yesterday afternoon. Saleam, who said his conviction had been the result of his being framed by police, claimed an officer involved in the case had subsequently been found guilty of perjury on another matter. He claimed this effectively overturned the court’s finding.<\/p>\n

No court has yet ruled against the original conviction stemming from the attack on Eddie Funde…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Running to the Press Council is Saleam’s standard response to unflattering news items concerning himself, especially any which refer to his criminal or neo-Nazi past. Unfortunately for him, thus far, every single one of his complaints have been dismissed<\/a> by the Council.<\/p>\n

Ellery seems to have relied on the contents of a Wikipedia article on Saleam<\/a> for much of his information, an entry Saleam describes as being “compiled by anti-racist enemies of his who were using it to discredit him”. In reality, the entry is quite brief and — apart from a few spelling errors — states a number of relatively uncontroversial facts, the only real points of contention being Saleam’s ethnicity (he says Greek; others say Lebanese), when he was awarded his PhD, and his relationship to the Patriotic Youth League<\/strong> (now seemingly the singular domain of a middle-aged racist from Brisbane called John Drew<\/em>) and AFP (Saleam is described as Secretary of the Sydney branch).<\/p>\n

Finally, ABC Radio<\/strong> reports that Australia First Party wants to ‘divide and conquer’<\/a> (Tanya Nolan, The World Today, January 31, 2007):<\/p>\n

ELEANOR HALL: The group responsible for a leaflet drop on Tamworth which warned residents that Sudanese migrants would bring crime, violence and disease to the New South Wales centre, has said its Tamworth action was only the start of a national campaign.<\/p>\n

The Australia First Party has declared it will pursue a policy of ‘divide and conquer’ and will field candidates in local elections around the country.<\/p>\n

The Party’s founder, Dr Jim Saleam, says the group’s aim is to split all Australian communities on racial issues, as Tanya Nolan reports…<\/p>\n

JIM SALEAM: Our intention is most certainly to divide all towns between those who in our opinion have an Australian<\/strong> view and those who have the anti-Australian<\/strong> view…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Saleam, as well as a number of other AFP members, is also a member of Stormfront, where he posts under the alias ‘radnat’. It is official Stormfront<\/a> policy that ‘the Jew’ is The White Man’s #1 Enemy. As for The White Man’s Burden<\/a>, interested parties need only refer to the Stormfront website to gain some idea of the hatred and contempt AFP’s social base has for Aborigines. In one thread (‘The real racists in Tamworth’), responding to a newspaper report on the assault of a man in Tamworth in which two of his assailants are described “as being of Aboriginal appearance”, Carl D. Thompson<\/em> (‘Wodensvolk’) writes:<\/p>\n

Typical Abo behaviour: cowardly scum, vicious pack animals. There were reasons that the graziers used to go on black hunts from time to time. It was the only way to ensure that their wives and children were not raped and murdered while the men were away from the homestead. The last ‘permit to shoot blacks’ as they were called was issued in Queensland in 1925. What a pity that the permit system is not still available.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ruthlesstoothless<\/strong> chimes in with:<\/p>\n

Dirty rotten filthy sub-human scum should be hunted down and shot like the filth that they are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ben_hall<\/strong> opines:<\/p>\n

Aboriginals [sic<\/em>] are PRIMITIVE SCUM that are lucky not to be rounded up and placed in a zoo for students to study the world’s most backward animal at a safe distance…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ladyfuro<\/strong> reckons:<\/p>\n

Abo or Sudanese… same in the dark in the eyes of the elderly. Take them all out… that is the only appropriate response. Where [the fuck] was the church when this elderly gentleman needed accom[m]odation… oh sorry, it was taken up by ethnics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While Mithrandir23<\/strong> says:<\/p>\n

I’m surprised these neanderthals weren’t carrying clubs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“White nationalists” are not what you’d call supple thinkers.<\/p>\n

* Special Treatment<\/em> (Paul Kelly<\/a>)<\/p>\n