The aftermath of the Reclaim Australia (RA)/United Patriots Front (UPF) rallies of July 18/19 has produced some interesting results.
• To begin with, the President of the UPF, Shermon Burgess (AKA ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’), has declared that the boys will be rallying again in Cronulla in a few months. How NSW authorities and especially Cronulla locals react to this news will be fascinating to watch. Burgess himself has previously boasted of his attendance at the ‘riot’/’White Civil Uprising’ in Cronulla. See also : Cronulla Anniversary: A Kiwi Perspective (December 27, 2006) | Communists on Cronulla (December 3, 2006).
• Somewhat remarkably, a few days after July 18, Burgess published a video confessing to having engaged in a group assault upon a group of ‘anti-fascists’ in Melbourne. An edited version of the video is below:
Given the intense media scrutiny surrounding the weekend’s events — and the considerable criticism to which police have been subject — it seems possible that police may be compelled to take a closer look at the alleged incident Burgess refers to in the video: time will tell.
• It’s also remarkable that Burgess has chosen to promote a song perfomed by defunct Belgian reich ‘n’ rollers Kill Baby Kill. KBK were a neo-Nazi band that split following the suicide of its lead singer, Dieter Samoy. His decision to kill himself apparently occurred after he learned that he would be forced to abandon his teaching career after being convicted of a racist assault. The band toured Australia several years ago in a tour organised by local neo-Nazi groups Blood & Honour and the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins. The Hammerskins gained some small notoriety in 2012 after one of its members, Wade Michael Page, shot dead worshippers at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. See also : Dieter Samoy : Still Dead Baby, Dead (January 15, 2012) | Dieter Samoy : Dead Baby Dead (January 20, 2010) | Wade Michael Page and the (Southern Cross) Hammerskins(August 15, 2012).
• A few articles of interest:
Inside the strange dynamic of Reclaim Australia’s rallies, Martin McKenzie-Murray, The Saturday Paper, July 25, 2015.
Trainspotters note: “At the top was a thick picket line of counter-protesters – largely a mix of anarchists and Socialist Alliance members, but not restricted to them.” A majority of socialists present were members/supporters of Socialist Alternative and the Socialist Party (though members of the Alliance were undoubtedly present).
Reclaim Australia: ‘concerned mums and dads’ or a Trojan horse for extremists?, Joshua Robertson, The Guardian, July 24, 2015.
Comment: Robertson’s article includes extensive quotes from John Oliver, described as an ‘RA spokesman’. Unmentioned is his role as the sometime President of the ‘Patriots Defence League of Australia’, a handful of whose members were present on July 18 in Melbourne. Several months ago, Oliver established a GoFundMe campaign in an attempt to obtain my d0x:
(Note that ‘Australians Against Islam’ is described as a splinter group from RA in Brisbane, est following the July 19 rally.) ‘Concerned dad’ John — whose staunch opposition to racism, fascism, neo-Nazism and to the intimate involvement of his patriotik comrades in neo-Nazi and fascist politics can surely never be questioned — also expressed the view that I should be hunted down like a dog, have my testicles removed and then attached to my forehead:
Top bloke, John.
As for the PDLA, its ‘Eastern Victoria Charter’ was present on July 18, or at least its President, Damien Kourevellis, and its Vice-President, Some Other Bloke, were. (On Kourevellis, see also : Court told violent man not detained, Steve Butcher, The Age, March 26, 2009.) Here they are: a) pictured walking down an alley and; b) having a yarn with neo-Nazi Glenn Anderson:
[Above img via Wardenclyffe Photography.]
Reclaim Australia re-energises radical nationalism, Troy Whitford, The Conversation, July 24, 2015.
Trainspotters note: “Reclaim Australia’s position is probably best articulated through the propaganda arm, The Nationalist Alternative, which was established last year. It argues that the agenda of Australian nationalism is to promote Australia as ‘… an organic nation founded upon Western/European ideals, and created by it’s [sic] descendants primarily the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic ethnicity as well as fellow Europeans from northern, central, southern and eastern Europe.’”
While RA’s position may arguably be best expressed by or thru Nationalist Alternative (NAlt), it is not RA’s propaganda arm, nor was it established in 2014. Rather, NAlt was founded in 2008/9 in anti-mosque agitation in Williamstown. Further, from the time of the emergence of both RA and Burgess adopting ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’ persona, the principal propaganda arm for RA has been ‘Nationalist Republican Guard’ AKA ‘European Australian Civil Rights League’ AKA Melbourne-based neo-Nazi (and criminal anti-Semite) Neil Erikson. Erikson left the group last year, but not before he and some of his comrades outed Mark Hootsen as NAlt’s leader. See also : Nationalist Alternative throw their former Führer under the bus #antifa (December 14, 2014) | Nationalist Alternative : “just a bunch of students from Melbourne” (July 8, 2009).
• ReclaimWhat on Facebook maintains a close watch on the various shenanigans of RA and the UPF.
• Later today I’ll republish some of the comments of UPF leader Blair Cottrell on the subject of Jews, politics, Jews, nationalism and Jews.