{"id":719,"date":"2007-06-15T03:33:40","date_gmt":"2007-06-14T17:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=719"},"modified":"2007-06-15T17:30:39","modified_gmt":"2007-06-15T07:30:39","slug":"2007-sydney-forum-phantasy-vs-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=719","title":{"rendered":"2007 Sydney Forum : Phantasy vs. Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Uh-oh, spaghetti-o.<\/p>\n

This year’s Sydney Forum<\/a><\/strong> — Australia’s premiere gathering of teenaged fascists, middle-aged white supremacists, elderly neo-Nazi pensioners, anti-Semitic lunatics, conspiracists, cranks and “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” racists of all ages — is shaping up to be a corker, a ding-dong battle between the various mobs that comprise the far right milieu, all of whose beady eyes will be fixed on the one, glittering prize: control of the Australia First Party<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Well, that and the thermos.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1996, the Australia First Party functions as a political refuge for those on the racist fringe who want to go ‘straight’; that is, to contest, and perhaps even win, an election to public office. Thus far, however, the results have not been terribly encouraging: only one member of the party, Bruce Preece<\/em>, has won an election<\/a> — and then only to a local council, in Adelaide<\/em>, and all the while maintaining silence over his membership of and support for a racist party.<\/p>\n

A further complicating factor for the party has been the sudden emergence of Pauline Hanson<\/em>, the rise of her party One Nation<\/strong>, and the equally rapid decline of both. The effective demise<\/a> of One Nation, then, has opened up some<\/em> small space in the political market for Australia First. Moreover, the explosion of racist sentiment in Cronulla in December 2005<\/a> was widely expected to trigger at least some resurgence in the party’s ranks, however modest that surge might be. The fact that no such resurgence has taken place<\/a> has put a great deal of pressure on the leadership of the party, and tensions within it, and among the far right generally, have been building since then. This year’s seventh annual Sydney Forum — planned for the last weekend in August — is therefore widely tipped to experience a blowout.<\/p>\n

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The Establishment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Control of the Australia First Party is concentrated in the hands of the National Council, and the incumbents are centred around the Old Man of fascist politics in Australia, Dr. James Saleam<\/a><\/em>. Saleam has had a political stranglehold on the party for some years now, one which commenced after Graeme Campbell<\/em> ditched it upon its creation in 1996. Since then, while Diane Teasdale<\/em>, the racist country bumpkin from Shepparton, Victoria, has been President — and hence the formal leader of the party — Saleam has functioned as the de facto<\/em> Fuehrer from his bunker in Tempe, Sydney (the same location from which, prior to his imprisonment in 1991, Saleam controlled the precursor to Australia First, National Action<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Saleam’s closest ally, at this stage, appears to be his old mate Ross ‘The Skull’ May<\/em>, another jailbird — one without a doctorate — but, unlike Herr Doktor, one still happy to prance about Sydney town dressed in swastikas. Indeed, it’s partly as a result of May’s continuing close association with Saleam that many Australia First members — who aren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed — have begun to question the wisdom of having Saleam continue to function as de facto<\/em> leader and spokesperson. Adding weight to the bid to unseat Saleam is the ongoing saga surrounding his ethnicity (one occasioning his banishment from Stormfront for being not-quite-white<\/a>), and, most recently, President Teasdale’s decision to re-assert her control over the party’s Internet presence.<\/p>\n

‘A woman scorned’ and all that.<\/p>\n

East Coast vs. West Coast<\/strong><\/p>\n