Excerpt from our submission to the Senate inquiry Right wing extremist movements in Australia.

On July 24, 2024, at the Senate Committee investigating right wing extremist movements in Australia, practitioners from the Counter Extremism Project presented an embarrassingly incorrect account of the state of the Australian extreme right landscape, particularly concerning Active Clubs.

This highlights a key problem with the Countering Violent Extremism industrial complex—individuals who have spent the past twenty years focusing on the Islamophobic war on terror often lack substantial knowledge about the extreme right. Despite this, they are positioned as experts while chasing grant money into the right-wing space.

The White Rose Society had previously provided a submission to this inquiry, detailing the recent history, organisational strategy, and capacity of the extreme right, including their international connections and the role of the Active Club model in Australian neo-Nazism. We intended our submission to be made available publicly. Our submission was accepted only on a confidential basis due to 'adverse commentary' about the groups MyPlace, Christian Lives Matter and the Australian Natives Association, and it appears that the information provided has not been taken on board by legislators or authorities responsible for addressing the extreme right.

The misinformation presented at the Inquiry, particularly the false claim that the Active Club model is not present in Australia, with the exception of a “recent” South Australian “failed” attempt, has already permeated the broader media landscape. In response, we have decided to publish a small, updated section of our submission on our blog. This excerpt addresses the place of Active Clubs in global neo-Nazi and accelerationist political strategy, emphasising Australia's role and contributions to its success. By sticking to arbitrary strict definitions of “Active Club,” the true adaptability and success of the model are obscured, as our submission demonstrates. We hope this publication will provide clarity to those curious about the actual state of the far-right and Active Clubs in Australia.

Content warning: includes extreme references to racist hatred and sexual violence.

The European Australian Movement/National Socialist Network

The Active Club Model

The Active Club model was founded by Robert Rundo, an American neo-Nazi activist who was the leader of the Rise Above Movement, a violent neo-Nazi street gang. Rundo went on to found Will2Rise, which sells merchandise, publishes propaganda, and has a neo-Nazi record label. Rundo’s concept of the active club model draws inspiration from various sources, including Russian and European fight clubs, football ultras and “hooligans”, and ultranationalist groups.

These clubs can be characterised as small localised cells. They usually integrate mixed martial arts (MMA) training with nationalist political engagement. They focus on fitness, camaraderie, and political activism. This may include activities such as stickering, graffiti, and disrupting perceived adversaries. Some also participate in protests against issues such as immigration and LGBTQIA+ rights.

These clubs explicitly adhere to white supremacist ideologies and envision themselves as preparing for a racial conflict. According to extremism researcher Pavel Klymenko, far-Right fight clubs strategically utilise MMA training to equip themselves for potential political violence. Members of these clubs embrace militant accelerationism, anticipating societal collapse or a race-based conflict, intending to establish a white ethnostate.

Following his departure from the United States to evade federal charges related to riots, Rundo travelled extensively across Europe, particularly in the Balkans. There, he interacted with and gleaned insights from various far-Right groups and individuals. His journeys have been meticulously documented by Bellingcat. Rundo's vision of “White Supremacy 3.0” and the formation of active clubs drew inspiration from his observations in Europe, particularly from neo-Nazi activist gangs and football hooligan firms and Ultras.

These groups emphasise fitness, combat training, style, and counter-cultural endeavours such as graffiti, music, book clubs, and propaganda dissemination. Rundo published a video in April 2021 called Starting Your Own Crew, explaining that the concept of the Rise Above Movement and active clubs was largely influenced by his time living in Eastern Europe and inspired by European MMA-ultranationalist groups, including White Rex, Confident Hooligan, and Generation Identity.

An early embodiment of this model is White Rex, founded by Russian neo-Nazi hooligan Denis Kapustin (also known as Denis Nikitin) as an activewear brand in 2008. White Rex gained prominence through hosting whites-only MMA tournaments across Europe, fostering networks and expanding its influence within the international far-Right community. Kapustin articulated an ideology centred on traditionalism, hypermasculinity, racism, and a “warrior spirit,” which resonated with his followers.

Active clubs rally their members around the motto “Tribe and Train,” portraying themselves as contemporary Aryan warriors preparing for a racial conflict while advocating for “White unity” in support of their perceived communities. There are active clubs throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Latin America and New Zealand. Currently, all active clubs in Australia fall under the umbrella of the European Australian Movement and the National Socialist Network, though there have been other short-lived independent active clubs in Australia over the last two years.

The structure of the European Australian Movement & National Socialist Network

The European Australian Movement (EAM) is led by neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell, and neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant leads the National Socialist Network (NSN). These groups are part of one organisation and use the active club model. Sewell has stated that the active clubs in each state operate semi-autonomously. There are currently active clubs in every capital city except in the Northern Territory, and a number in regional areas.

Sewell recently discussed their model on a YouTube livestream with far-Right activist and Diagolon member Alex Vriend, who is also a leader of a Canadian active club:

So there's the, you know, in history, when we understand the National Socialists in Germany, there's the SA, and there's the SS, and there's the National Socialist German Workers Party. So it's sort of the same kind of principle. We're one total organisation, we're one movement here in Australia. And we have, there's many different arms or wings of that one singular movement. So it's, I wouldn't consider the SS or the SA, or the NSDAP to be three different movements or three different organisations. They're kind of like, how do you organise men for different objectives? How do you organise the same group of German nationalists that want to take back their country from International Jewry? And so in Australia, we've kind of got the same principle. So there's different missions, different horses for different courses. So there's a lot of cross pollination, unlike in that model. But in our model, it's just we do things objective-based. And we believe quite heavily in, I guess the correct word would be consent, or this idea that, the right, you have the right to associate with what you want to associate with. So what that means is that there are some people that, they might want to be members of the community, like European Australian Movement, they want to train, they want to get together, they want to have family barbecues, they want to network with other white people, they see that there's a lot to gain from that in terms of personally and practically, and for their family's sake, and realising that we have to train and collectivise and that “tribe and train” sort of mantra, but then they might be maybe, maybe they work a government job. Or maybe they not like that they're Feds, but maybe they work for subcontract for the government, for example, like there's a lot of people that might, you know, they might be plumbers, but the plumbing job that they have, is a subcontract to, like the state water service. And so they might be worried, like, you know, they got issues with the wife that, you know, I, if I go march down the street in black bloc and say, destroy paedophiles, and the council that I work for, the local council was waving these paedophile flags, it might cause me to lose my contract. So guys like that might be like, I'll do one half of the movement, but not the other half. And obviously, we encourage, and especially all the young guys, they do both, but a lot of the older guys, a lot of family men, a lot of the people that are maybe burnt out from activism, they're not as interested in the boots on the ground. So the situation, they're more interested in being like a rear detail, they're more interested in being community members, they're more interested in being logistics support, supply, for the effort, whether that be online or in person. And, you know, we need these men, we need everyone to be involved in the capacity they can be. So I'm interested in organising as many white man in this country into mobilising against a system that's trying to destroy them and kill them and pollute their genes and pollute their culture and society and children and everything. So that's what I'm interested in. And obviously, I do a lot of informational work as well, I try to create an online presence, I try to make sure that people know that we exist, but EAM isn't really going out and as an organisation, trying to push the buttons of the system. It's not like trying to go out there. And, you know, its purpose is different. Its purpose is internal, and a sense that let's build our men up, let's build our community up. All these other communities, they're doing their thing. And it's not that we're optics-cucking, it's just that if we focus this community into internal development, that's what I, that's what my mission is. And Jacob is very young, very keen, very energetic, very strong worldview in terms of is just, you know, they say, to understand something, you need to be able to explain it to, you know, a 10-year-old or something, to understand something, you should be able to explain it very simply and shortly and Jacob's, kind of a master of that, we've seen that with him creating an online presence for himself recently. He used to never make any sort of online content as Jacob Hersant, he just made it as part of NSN. But in the last two months, he's been pumping out a video a day, you know, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, just explaining the most core fundamental principles of the worldview. And that is in itself, an expression of who he is politically, in the sense of, let's get the core fundamental message out there as sharply as possible, let's hit home with it, let's slam the message on the table. And the reason why you see me in the front of all those rallies is not just because I'm the leader of the community and the movement as a whole. But also because he was put on a two year non-association. So he couldn't even organise his own organisation. So I was doing it for him. Because I love activism as well. I'm not a big fan of like, putting stickers up and stuff, I'm kind of burnt out from that. I did that a lot in the early days. And I'm keen for the young guys to do it. But I'm what I've seen is that, you know, the big rallies, like marching down the street in formation, putting the banner up putting the flags up and saying Here we are. So that's kind of the discrepancy, National Socialist Network is focused primarily on the anonymous activism, whereas EAM is focused primarily on tribing and training. It's like the community building, the MMA, the physical training, it's got an active club model, it's got a, it's got a really specific structure to it. But the two are just, we're just evolving, it's gonna take a lot of time to bleed the two together and, and have like a formality. And that's all going on behind the scenes. But for the public sake, we're just the Nazis, we're the white guys, whatever you want to call it, and we're just, we're just trying to save White Australia.

On the same livestream, Sewell said his minimum age for recruitment was sixteen. He said ideally, his recruits would be 18, but he would “tolerate” 16 or 17-year-olds if they are “ideologically mature.” We are aware of at least one 16-year-old joining the National Socialist Network. It is also worth noting that some members bring their young children to events and training sessions.

Thomas Sewell's profile among the international far-Right is now on par with Robert Rundo's. Sewell has emerged as a key international active club leader. This is in part due to respect from other neo-Nazis for publicly uploaded footage of attacks like the bashing of a Black security guard working for Channel 9, and activism like the DESTROY PAEDO FREAKS banner on the steps of Melbourne Parliament. Both have been perceived as bold stunts by neo-Nazis worldwide.

Sewell is more accessible and visible across social media than Rundo, whose personal social media presence has been sporadic due to his legal issues in the United States. While Rundo was networking in person with far-Right groups and individuals across Europe, Sewell has made himself available for chats and livestreams with the international far-Right. He is also unapologetically a neo-Nazi and does not shy from the “Jewish Question”, openly praising Adolf Hitler and National Socialism.

This ‘boldness’ is inspiring to neo-Nazis who appreciate his efforts to mainstream Antisemitism and Nazism. When Sewell was remanded in prison, he received support as a ‘political prisoner’ from neo-Nazis around the world. This was equal to the support that Robert Rundo has received since his imprisonment. Sewell’s time on remand has earned him further credibility in the movement and is seen as a testimony to his total commitment to the cause.

On February 15 2024, Sewell started hosting Spaces on Twitter/X, where many of his members and overseas neo-Nazis congregate. On March 10 2024, he hosted a Space with active club leaders from across the United States, Canada and Europe. In this Space, he revealed that he has mentored smaller groups in the United States and Europe over the last three to four years, saying he has helped set up two dozen or so active clubs overseas. He described Adolf Hitler as creating “the world’s biggest active club”.

Sewell explained the vetting process for the EAM and the NSN, saying it is important to have a long vetting process. He said new recruits are not made official members for a “very long time”. The first stage of recruitment is an associate, and the recruit is invited to all events and training for the next six months. After six months of regular attendance, they are made an initiated member and given a white wristband (one way to recognise if someone is a member of the organisation).

The initial membership process takes about 12 to 18 months of regular attendance and the achievement of certain fitness goals. They are then made a full member and swear oaths. He also described “spectators” as valuable – these are men sympathetic to the aims of the neo-Nazi movement but who won't join the organisation but may consume online content and donate.

Sewell also described another “layer” of membership, which he is “trying to work out how to mobilise”. He described them like this:

...that's the people that don't even want to show up once a month. But they are in online spaces. They are family men, they are careerists. And we're working on how to mobilise them. They don't really want the heat as well, they're often very afraid of the police attention, they're very afraid of being doxxed. Because they usually have good, high paying jobs. And they can't, they don't want to change their standard of living. And that's just the position that they're in. And we're looking at mobilising them in what you could call satellite groups. So the idea of setting up groups that aren't even on paper, anything to do with you, you don't really have much cross pollination, but they still have one or two guys from your group helping manage it, because if you left them alone to do their own thing, it would fizzle out and die and it wouldn't have that continuity. So having a cadre member, maintain a satellite group that has not public facing that hasn't got a serious level of commitment needed, but you can at least maintain them in the wider community instead of just maintaining them in an internet relationship. And that way, you know, as things come up, you'll find these people do have their uses – some of them IT guys, they can help you with security, your online security, some guys, you know, work in construction, and they can hire the young guys you have in your clubs, so they'll still network with the community. So I see those as like the four primary layers of an org.

Attitudes towards women

“Women have manipulated me using sex and emotion; demoralization, and I have manipulated them using violence and terror. We use what we have to get what we want.” – neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell.

“Pedophilia is actually based … if she bleeds she can get the seed.” – messages in the Discord server of National Socialist Network leader Cameron Brodie-Hall.

“An Eye for an Eye. A Tooth for a Tooth. A Rape for a Rape. When we win the retribution will be biblical.” – Thomas Sewell (source: Telegram chat of Matthew Roebuck, 15 April 2021)

Over the years, retention has been a key issue for far-Right and extremist groups. Members could burn out, become disillusioned with their lack of success, grow up, move, start studying or working, or have interpersonal conflicts within the group. However, the greatest threat to retention by far is getting a girlfriend. To this end, the EAM/NSN has developed a strategy for involving and controlling partners.

Due to the heavily misogynistic views of neo-Nazis, there is no place for women as political agents in EAM/NSN. Yet Sewell recognises women as crucial to retention. First, he suggests that all neo-Nazis tell their partners directly about their political views so there can be no confusion. Second, he fosters networking and bonding amongst the women through social events and encourages them to form sewing clubs, book clubs and so on. Finally, he encourages neo-Nazis to start families and aims to set up cooperative child-minding and, later, home-schooling. If women are very young, pregnant and networked with similar women, they are less likely to put pressure on their neo-Nazi partner to change.

Prominent members and associates of EAM/NSN have advocated marrying girls as young as 14. One has boasted of refusing to “let” his girlfriend wear trousers. Others have boasted about controlling what their partner wears to the gym or even eats. This is a form of coercive control. We’re aware that multiple members of EAM/NSN have been the subject of Intervention Orders, and ex-partners of EAM/NSN members have also told us that after leaving a relationship with an EAM/NSN member, they were subjected to harassment from other members of the group.

On September 12 2022, the new $90,000 ute of neo-Nazi Geoff Abel was burnt out in his driveway. The perpetrator was a child recruited from prison by neo-Nazi Benjamin Thomas, who has MEIN KAMPF tattooed on his forehead. Thomas arranged the arson attack as revenge against Abel, who was in a relationship at the time with Thomas' former girlfriend. Thomas was in prison on related domestic violence charges and had previously served time for stabbing a former partner in a jealous rage. Abel was jailed in 2023 for domestic violence offences against the same woman who he punched and kicked while she was pregnant. Both men were founding members of Activ88, the Wollongong active club cell of the NSN.

Attitudes towards violence

Sewell often states his group is non-violent and complains that they are depicted otherwise in the press. In the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre, Sewell compared himself favourably to Brenton Tarrant by saying that his group would remain non-violent on the condition that police did not investigate them:

“Mr Sewell said he did not wish harm on any minorities but that he would see violence as an option “if the state continues its persecution of our people for wanting to preserve their culture and heritage” or if his members were arrested.

“The difference between my organisation, myself and him [Tarrant], is simply that we believe, certainly at this stage, that there is a peaceful solution for us to create the society we want to live in,” Mr Sewell said.

“We want a peaceful alternative, we want to be treated with respect, we want to be left alone. If we are not given that opportunity, well, time will tell. I'm not going to give you any explicit threat but it's pretty f—king obvious what's going to happen.”

Mr Sewell said “we’re all gravy at the moment” because police were leaving his group alone but that people were “making the world burn, and they have names and addresses.”

This conditional commitment to peaceful co-existence with mainstream society is not evident in practice.

On 17 August 2019, members of the Victorian branch of the Antipodean Resistance group were involved in a road rage incident in Colac in which they threw a bottle at an Asian couple and assaulted a female KFC manager. When police investigated, they found knives, firearms and ammunition in the car belonging to the AR members.

On March 1 2021, Sewell and Hersant attended the Melbourne offices of Channel 9 to complain that their group would be depicted unfairly in an upcoming broadcast of A Current Affair. While being escorted from the premises by a Black security guard, Sewell unleashed an assault on the guard, which Magistrate Stephen Ballek described as “brutal in its force, speed and repetition.” Onlookers may have found the attack terrifying, but for Sewell and his cadre, it was something to be celebrated. Racist memes and animated GIFs celebrating the assault were widely shared in international neo-Nazi spaces on Telegram, and Sewell was invited to appear on the livestream of Canadian neo-Nazi Brandon Martinez – a personal hero of Sewell's – introducing him to a far wider audience than he had previously enjoyed.

While the potential disruption that Sewell's jailing might have on his employer was raised as a sentencing consideration, conspicuously absent from the prosecution's evidence was that far from expressing remorse for the racially-motivated attack, Sewell had benefited greatly from it and had never at any point castigated his followers when they abused and mocked his victim at length. Sewell was sentenced to serve a Community Corrections Order and perform community service.

On 8 May 2021, Sewell, Hersant and other members of the EAM/NSN were taking part in a hiking trip in Victoria's Cathedral Ranges. At one point, they were recognised as potentially being neo-Nazis by some passing hikers (the EAM/NSN group were hiking in matching outfits featuring the EAM's modified swastika logo). When the hikers attempted to take a video of the group, paranoid NSN members thought they must have been anti-fascist spies and commenced to attack the smaller group, smashing the windows of their car and causing it to crash. Again, far from expressing remorse, NSN members responded to this incident by mocking the victims and posting bizarre conspiracy theories about them.

In sentencing remarks after Sewell and Hersant's trial, it was mentioned that the sight of an NSN member brandishing a knife in a 'ready position' had caused so much fear in one of their victims that they had urinated. This point was the subject of particular mirth for Sewell's followers. After being given remarkably light sentences because this assault was declared not related to political belief and then being congratulated by the judge on their excellent prospects for rehabilitation, Hersant allegedly committed further offences within seconds of emerging from court when he allegedly performed a now-illegal Sieg Heil salute while saying “Heil Hitler’ for media cameras.

In May 2023, two members of NSN were approached by a member of the public as they posted neo-Nazi stickers in the Adelaide CBD. The NSN members, Kane Brennand-Reynolds and Martin Quinn, pushed the man over and kicked him in the head. Despite this, the man could get up and chase his attackers away. NSN members have subsequently celebrated this assault online, repeatedly posting photos of the injury inflicted on the victim and CCTV of the attack. Kane Brennand-Reynolds received a suspended 2 month and 24 day sentence, and Martin Quinn received a $1000 fine.

On September 15, 2023, members of the NSN arrived at Cafe Gummo, a venue in Melbourne holding an anti-fascist fundraiser gig. A number of the NSN members had GoPros strapped to their chests and carried a banner featuring a Sonnenrad (Black Sun). Bystanders reported that several carried knives. Quick-thinking bar patrons averted a potential catastrophe by chasing the NSN away from the venue. No neo-Nazis have been charged over this incident.

Attacks and responses

How neo-Nazis respond to mass casualty events can be instructive as it relates to their conception of violence. Many such events are celebrated, and the perpetrators are sanctified by neo-Nazis. However, for the purposes of this submission, there are two events that we wish to highlight specifically.

Christchurch massacres, March 15 2019

The massacres perpetrated by Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch in March 2019 were not quite the same as other atrocities that Australian neo-Nazis had cheered on, such as the October 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. For one thing, many Australian neo-Nazis knew Tarrant.

Although the New Zealand Royal Commission found no evidence that Tarrant had been given assistance in committing the attack, they also found that he had been an active participant in secret Facebook groups for supporters of the Lads Society and that he was especially known to the leadership of the Lads Society after having made a sizeable donation.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, some members of the Lads Society bemoaned the idea that the killer might have acquired the firearms used legally, which would put pressure on governments to tighten gun control measures. And at a Fraser Anning supporters’ meeting in Sydney, attended by Lads Society members shortly after the attack, we observed members of the far-Right raising a toast to Tarrant.

For some Australian neo-Nazis, the desire to celebrate was dampened by a series of arrests nationwide of people sharing the killer's live-streamed video. Some adopted the mantra '51' as a way to signal support in a subtler way. As neo-Nazi Stefan Eracleous explained in a Telegram post, “This is why I made 51 a trend. It's coded language so you can still get a high from the NZ thing but staying below the radar”. Often this mantra would be posted as text, but occasionally in other ways. Neo-Nazis have graffitied messages of praise for Tarrant near Table 51 in pubs. In one disturbing video posted by Eracleous, a man surreptitiously films Muslim men outside a mosque. He whistles the British Grenadier marching song played by Tarrant prior to commencing his attack, then mutters 51 over and over, before concluding with the words “headshot.”

Wieambilla shootings, December 12 2022

The neo-Nazi leadership in Australia is obsessed with the potential for violence to be used against them by law enforcement. In this context, the deaths of three Christian fundamentalists at Wieambilla did not represent a lesson about the dangers of Christian fundamentalist conspiracism or gaps in the national firearms intelligence schema, but rather a propaganda opportunity to push the idea that the State might kill them without justification at any moment. In his Twitter/X Space on March 10 2024, Sewell spoke of the attack in very sympathetic terms:

and the government can do what they did to that family in, there was a there was a shooting recently with a cops killed a man, a wife and his brother on a farm in in Queensland, and the media ran cover for the cops saying that the cops just you know went there to just check in and they just got shot at for no reason and that's why they had to murder this family. And these three are dead and and then the media ran cover and said, they were in an “incestuous relationship” and the brother was having sex with, and they just smeared these people that were just good, honest, Australians that were part of the Freedom Movement, which is like our anti-COVID-tyranny movement. And they just got fucking executed on their farm by these scumbags in the tyranny and nothing is being done about it like no one is mobilising against that because they were alienated, isolated, atomised Freedom Rally people instead of being like strongly connected to an online, international and, and obviously local community.

This framing of conflict with authorities as a battle for freedom leading to justifiable violence has been a concern of ours for many years, especially given that Sewell and the NSN also hold to a conspiracy theory that anyone who opposes his group – be they investigative journalists, anti-racist counter-protesters or just someone telling them off in the street – is doing so at the behest of a State which possesses murderous intent. In this logic, any form of opposition is fair game for a pre-emptive reprisal.

Other associates of the NSN have also commented on the Wieambilla massacre. We would like to note that in their commentary on the massacre, the murder of neighbour Alan Dare by the Trains is never mentioned, as he does not fit into their conspiracy. On the XYZ blog, run by NSN member David Hiscox, failed West Australian political candidate Stephen Wells wrote of the victims:

So I don’t care that two police were murdered. Don’t become a police officer if you don’t want to be murdered. As long as the Australian Government is using police to do fuck all other than collect speeding fines, persecute people with opinions they don’t like and beat and shoot non sanctioned protestors, why should anyone care about your lives? If your job involves leaving your conscience at home and “just following orders”, don’t be surprised if people forsake their consciences when disobeying your orders. You get what you give in life and police in Australia have been giving the public nothing but shit for decades. No respect deserved from the public and no mercy shown by the criminals.

A day later, Wells expanded on his thinking:

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and the Globalist leaders are intent on acting out their totalitarian wet dreams. For those that have turned to God you know that the Bible shows how God puts what Issac Newton articulated into practice.

Everyone who has been red pilled to even a basic level will have thought about how they will respond if the police one day comes for them.

I would suggest that if it’s a knock on the door, you don’t need to pull out weapons. If they come in force to bust down your door…. that’s a scenario where no one can advise you on. Other than trust in God and before that day comes, try not to get too paranoid. It may never happen.

For anyone in the Police Force or thinking about joining the Police Force, get out and don’t join. You take your orders from psychopaths and the more they push their insanity, the more you will be required to enforce it, the more likely it will be that you will receive the reaction. Don’t blame me. I’m just the one pointing out science and Biblical principles.

This second Stephen Wells article was approvingly shared across NSN channels on Telegram.

Rhetoric and abuse

Casual and repeated use of violent imagery and language is one way that members and potential recruits are desensitised and radicalised and come to adopt the us (good Nazis) vs them (Jews and their ‘system pets’) framework underlying the EAM/NSN group.

Thomas Sewell and other EAM and NSN members have repeatedly threatened violence against their political enemies, including academics, activists, healthcare workers, journalists, LGBTIQA+ people, librarians, politicians, police and state security. NSN members have gleefully and wilfully targeted supposed adversaries (usually random people who have committed the “crime” of being fat, non-white or queer in public) in the city of Melbourne over the last two years, including harassing them and filming them in their workplaces, disrupting businesses, following and yelling at people of minority backgrounds and assaulting soup kitchen volunteers. Due to this behaviour, at least one business has permanently trespassed two NSN members from all stores. They especially target women and transgender people.

In early February 2024, National Socialist Network leader Jimeone Roberts uploaded a nearly eight-minute-long video to his Telegram channel of him violently abusing and threatening a small group of elderly women from the group Grandmothers For Refugees while they peacefully protested. He said he hoped that the women would be stabbed next. We believe his rage was precipitated by the stabbing murder of Vyleen White in Ipswich, blaming refugee activists for importing “rapists and murderers.” Roberts' abuse included anti-Black and Antisemitic slurs and violent misogyny. At one point, he spat towards the group of women. The police were called.

Thomas Sewell later claimed on Telegram that Roberts had been arrested by counter-terrorism and had five charges pending, including racial vilification and using a carrier service to harass. We are yet to see confirmation of the charges. The video was shared widely across Telegram and Twitter/X including internationally. Neo-Nazi leader of the Goyim Defense League and troll Jon Minadeo II (aka 'Handsome Truth') shared the video on Telegram and requested to be put in touch with Roberts, bolstering his international profile with this act of abuse and intimidation.

Now excommunicated NSN member Stefan Eracleous is fixated on Senator Lidia Thorpe and has made thousands of violently misogynistic and racist posts about her in private chats and public Telegram channels. He has also plastered misogynistic and racist graffiti and stickers about her and other Indigenous MPs all over Melbourne. With fellow member Jimeone Roberts, Eracleous produced and published two menacing and racist videos threatening Senator Thorpe, one in January 2022 and the other in October 2023. Eracleous was charged and recently convicted over the first video. Roberts has not been charged over either video, despite the first video being geolocated to the backyard of a family property he lived in at the time and his masked appearance in the second video, reading out the script. Senator Thorpe’s concerns for her safety were minimised by the Australian Federal Police, who she described as slow and ineffective, leaving her no choice but to hire her own private security.

We are extremely concerned about the potential for an attack on an Australian politician. We consider female politicians who are Indigenous and Muslim particularly at risk. This risk has only accelerated since the failed Voice referendum and the Labor Party's attack on Senator Fatima Payman. Australian agencies do not appear to have learned any lessons from the murder of British Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. Cox was shot and stabbed by Thomas Mair, who shouted “Put Britain First”. Mair was a fascist who collected Nazi propaganda and was obsessed with the Great Replacement conspiracy theory. The now-proscribed British neo-Nazi group National Action celebrated the murder of Jo Cox and, according to Hope Not Hate, adopted Mair as a martyr, encouraging others to do the same. Inspired by the murder of Jo Cox, another National Action member, Jack Renshaw, was sentenced in 2019 over a plot to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper. As we outline below, there are deep and ongoing links between the Australian neo-Nazi members and British fascists, including ex-members of National Action.

Since our submission, a right-wing teenager inspired by Brenton Tarrant and obsessed with gore planned to behead a Labor Party MP in Newcastle. He fortunately chickened out at the last minute.

We would note that when a sitting Senator appeared at an anti-racist public event in Melbourne last year, it was not the AFP officers tasked with protecting them who noticed a young man nervously pacing back and forth in front of the venue but private security. When police were eventually cajoled into investigating, it was discovered that the young man was a known neo-Nazi, and he was armed with a concealed machete.

International connections

Australia’s neo-Nazi movement is very well connected internationally and held in high regard. As we have outlined, Sewell boasts of mentoring many overseas fascists, nationalists and neo-Nazis and helping to start over two dozen active clubs. A small number of overseas neo-Nazis have visited Australia, including a member of [Patriot Front])(https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/patriot-front) who was hosted by Lads Society members in Queensland and Victoria. We also know of visits by Australian neo-Nazis to America and Europe.

In 2012, the leader of Nationalist Alternative travelled to the United States for a political training conference run by Stormfront founder Don Black.

Like Jacob Hersant’s previous group, Antipodean Resistance, the UK group National Action formed on Iron March. Members of the Antipodean Resistance travelled to the United Kingdom to meet with members of National Action, and they networked online.

Members of the European Australia Movement and the National Socialist Network have travelled at different times to Aotearoa New Zealand, where they’ve met with old school ‘boneheads’ and Action Zealandia. Visits to the United States include meeting with Harold Covington, a former member of the American Nazi Party and influential founder of Northwest Front who was an inspiration to mass murderer Dylann Roof.

In August 2023, a member of the European Australian Movement posted on Telegram about touring Greece and networking and forming bonds with “with some brothers” from the Greek nationalist group ProPatria Hellas. ProPatria are the youth front of the Greek neo-Nazi organisation the Golden Dawn. The leaders of Golden Dawn were sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2020, convicted of operating a criminal organisation under the guise of being a democratically elected party. Described as a fanatical neo-Nazi organisation and formerly a martial arts club, ProPatria is known for violent attacks against students and antifascist protestors and football hooliganism. ProPatria are networked with the far-Right across Europe and White Rex in Russia.

One online supporter of the EAM and NSN, neo-Nazi Tylere Baker-Pearce, made a pilgrimage to Al Noor Mosque in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand in June 2023, to retrace the steps of Brenton Tarrant. Baker-Pearce unsuccessfully ran as an independent candidate in the Victorian state election in 2022 and was preferenced by the Victorian Liberal Party above Labor. Action Zealandia member Max Newsome once invited Nordic Resistance Movement members to visit Aotearoa New Zealand, promising to “take you on a pilgrimage route a saint did last year”, referencing mass murderer Brenton Tarrant as a “saint”. An Action Zealandia member made a violent threat to Al Noor mosque in 2020 and was never charged. Posts on 4Chan and Twitter/X from New Zealand neo-Nazis have also invited overseas “lads” to do this pilgrimage. A founding member of Action Zealandia and a serving member of the New Zealand Defence Force is currently awaiting trial on charges including espionage, being a member of a white supremacist group, and possessing a recording of the Christchurch mosque attack livestream. Members of the National Socialist Network and Action Zealandia met up in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in January 2023.

Concerningly, a relatively new member of the neo-Nazi scene and member of the EAM and the NSN, Joel Davis, has made two known trips to network with overseas white nationalists.

Due to the lack of moderation on Twitter/X under Elon Musk, extremist and neo-Nazi material has circulated freely. The new stalwart of the neo-Nazi Australian scene Joel Davis, a ‘philosophy bro’ type who recently moved to Melbourne from Sydney, is specialising in influencing followers on X and boasts of ‘ratioing’ political figures such as the Prime Minister (to 'ratio' is to gain more engagement on a reply than the original post). His follower base skews heavily American, and he has become a contact point for fascists and neo-Nazis from across the Anglosphere due to his consistently high engagement on X and his voluminous live-streaming. His weekly show with neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell often includes Thomas Sewell and was only recently banned from Youtube. He gave a speech on effective propaganda at the 2023 EAM/NSN national annual meetup and attended training events and the 2024 Australia Day neo-Nazi meetup in Sydney.

Due to his prominence within the movement, Davis was invited to speak in England by British neo-Nazi leader Mark Collett at the annual Patriotic Alternative conference in October 2023. Davis and Sewell have both defended Sam Melia, a Patriotic Alternative member and former member of the proscribed group National Action, who has recently been jailed for stirring up racial hatred. Other invited speakers were Americans Tony Hovater and Warren Balogh, who are both members of the National Justice Party (NJP), a virulently Antisemitic white supremacist group formed by attendees of the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Balogh is the party secretary. Hovater was a founding member of the neo-Nazi group Traditionalist Workers Party and is now chief of staff in the NJP.

In November 2023, Joel Davis travelled to Poland to attend Poland’s nationalist “independence march”. Approximately 40,000 people attended the march in 2023, including members of Patriot Front, members of active clubs from Denmark, Estonia, France and Netherlands, and Greek and Serbian neo-Nazis. The neo-Nazi bloc in the march carried flags with the Celtic Cross, a symbol often used in Europe in place of the Hakenkreuz swastika. The march in 2022 featured a banner with the Sonnenrad or Black Sun, a symbol used by Germany's Schutzstaffel (SS) and Antisemitic chants.

While in Poland, Davis met with Keith Woods, a prominent Irish Antisemitic white nationalist. Davis’ international travel is significant and helps build his profile as an international far-right figure. Jacob Hersant and Thomas Sewell’s legal issues have prevented them from travelling overseas. Davis’ travels allow them to build deeper transnational far-right networks through his in-person meetings.

Before Joel Davis met with Patriotic Alternative in the UK, both Davis and Sewell had live-streamed with Mark Collett, the leader. Indeed, in 2022, Sewell caused a potential problem for PA by announcing that he “believed in the retributive rape of every social worker, police, and judge that had inadequately protected the victims of trafficking and rape gangs” PA was concerned this extreme statement would cause their group to be proscribed in the UK(when they are seeking legitimisation as a registered political party).

The rift was mended, and the offending section of the livestream was edited. As Sewell said, “Everyone knows what I'm about. There's no confusion as to what my views are and what I think about life. And if you're going to do a podcast with me, I'll probably say something controversial.” In June 2019, two teenage members of British neo-Nazi group Sonnenkrieg Division were jailed for terrorism offences. Influenced by Atomwaffen Division and the Order of Nine Angles, their propaganda included the same sentiment: an image of a masked neo-Nazi wearing a Sonnenrad patch, attacking a female police officer, alongside a direction to “rape the cops”.

Joel Davis had been coy about revealing support for Sewell’s overt neo-Nazi agenda, only recently donning EAM clothing and performing Hitler salutes. His role in the EAM/NSN ecosystem is as a communications strategist and philosopher and acting as a link between “normie racists” and EAM/NSN. Indeed, he appears to have three aims: push anti-immigration with a strong focus on Indians, mobilise followers on Twitter/X to push the Overton window, and legitimising overt racism. He has frequently said it's important to be racist as it is not only fun but necessary. Following the path set by Jack Van Tongeren, Davis wants immigrants, specifically Indians, to feel so unwelcome and unwanted in Australia as to leave.

Australia’s neo-Nazis and Terrorgram

Australia's neo-Nazis are well connected to the transnational Terrorgram Collective, which operates within a network of loosely connected Telegram channels. Collectively known as “Terrorgram,” these channels espouse an ideology of militant accelerationism. This community has ties to various extremist groups such as the Atomwaffen Division, National Socialist Order, The Base, and Order of Nine Angles. Atomwaffen Division, National Socialist Order, and The Base are proscribed terrorist groups in Australia. Graham Macklin characterises Terrorgram and its online milieu as part of a “dark fandom” that glorifies extreme-Right terrorists akin to how school shooters and serial killers are idolised.

The Terrorgram Collective produces and shares guides promoting racially motivated violence and anti-government terrorism. Notable publications from the group include titles like Militant Accelerationism, Do it For the 'Gram, The Hard Reset, and Make It Count. These publications are seen as emblematic of a post-Siege era, wherein accelerationists seek to establish a new legacy beyond groups like the Atomwaffen Division and Siege Culture, as articulated on the American Futurist website (the publishing arm of the National Socialist Order). The Collective also produces propaganda, such as the pseudo-documentary White Terror, which commemorates “the Saints,” a roster of white individuals responsible for racially motivated killings and terrorist acts.

Militant accelerationism, according to Matthew Kriner, involves tactics aimed at intensifying societal divisions through violence to expedite societal collapse. The predominant ideological strain within militant accelerationism is neofascism, with the ultimate aim of establishing a white ethnostate post-collapse. A key belief of militant accelerationists is “There Is No Political Solution”.

White Terror originated from the “Saint Calendar” published by the Terrorgram Collective starting in 2021. This calendar glorifies acts of historical terrorism and violence, with the intent of inspiring further such acts by venerating mass murderers as “Saints” and extolling their body counts. To achieve Saint status, one must have committed at least one murder. Those whose attacks only achieve injuries are given “honorary” status. By August 2023, the Collective had added over 157 “Saints” to their “Pantheon”, lauding the killing of 722 people, with new saints and murders added in late 2023.

On October 12, 2022, the Terrorgram Collective ‘canonised’ its first Saint, 19-year-old shooter Juraj Krajčík, who killed two men and injured another outside a gay bar in Bratislava, Slovakia. They hailed Krajčík as “Tarrant’s sixth disciple and Terrorgram’s first saint.” In his manifesto, A Call To Arms, Krajčík explicitly acknowledged the Terrorgram Collective's influence and referenced their publications, including Militant Accelerationism and The Hard Reset, along with an indirect mention of Make it Count, which had a more limited circulation. We suspect there may have been some degree of coordination between Krajčík and the Terrorgram Collective before his attack.

Make it Count is a small booklet described by the Southern Poverty Law Centre as a “blueprint for terror” that advocated for assaults on critical infrastructure such as the power grid, as well as endorsing violence and terror acts targeting various groups, including Jewish communities. Additionally, it promoted urban sniping as an accelerationist strategy aimed at political adversaries such as judges, law enforcement officials, and politicians. The booklet also glorified the Manson Family's murder of Sharon Tate.

We first saw Make It Count shared on 2 June 2022 in a chat called 'Caucasian Coaching', run by NSN leader Jimeone Roberts. The user who shared the PDF of the publication was later identified through court records as Brandon Russell, the founder of the American neo-Nazi terrorist group Atomwaffen Division. Russell was active in other Telegram chats including 'Australian Meditations Nationalist Yarn', run by member of the NSN Stefan Eracleous. Russell also regularly shared neo-Nazi propaganda by the proscribed terrorist group the National Socialist Order in these chats, as well as an urban sniping manual.

Russell was sentenced to five years in federal prison in 2018 for possessing an unregistered destructive device and unlawfully possessing and storing explosive material. He was also found with radioactive materials at the time of his arrest. After his release from prison in 2021, he was again active with the National Socialist Order and The American Futurist, using pseudonyms on Telegram. He was re-arrested in February 2023 alongside Sarah Beth Clendaniel. Both were charged with conspiracy to destroy an energy facility in a plot to attack local power grid facilities, driven by racially motivated hatred. Court documents alleged that the couple wanted to conduct sniper attacks on five electricity substations to “completely destroy this whole city”.

National Socialist Network leader Jimeone Roberts was already in contact with the National Socialist Order, publishing an article about physical discipline on their website, The American Futurist, on 27 January 2022. On an encrypted chat platform, he revealed that the NSO asked him to write an article for them.

Another direct Australian involvement in the Terrogram Collective was recently revealed by a neo-Nazi leaker who turned against the National Socialist Order. The leaker claimed that a veteran Australian neo-Nazi who is a member of the European Australian Movement (known to us) was an affiliate or on the “staff” of The American Futurist. This neo-Nazi is active in many Terrorgram communities, including in spaces associated with the neo-Nazi Satanic cult Order of Nine Angles.

On 8 December 2023, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) for the Greater Toronto Area/Southwest arrested two Ontario men, Kristoffer Nippak and Matthew Althorpe, following an 18-month investigation. The men are accused of involvement in creating manifestos for the Terrorgram Collective and producing recruitment videos for the Atomwaffen Division (AWD). Althorpe faces multiple charges, including the commission of hate crimes offences, participation in the activities of a terrorist group (AWD), facilitating terrorist activity, instructing a person to carry out terrorist activity, and counselling the commission of a terrorism offence. Nippak is charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group (AWD). Nippak and Althorpe were also both members of Active Club Canada.

An investigation by Mack Lamoureux revealed in early December that Kristoffer Nippak, a founding member of the Canadian offshoot of Atomwaffen Division, was a key player in building the active club network, both in Canada and Europe, where he travelled and networked extensively, especially in Scandinavia. Anti-Hate Canada revealed that Nippak was also a member of Crew 38, a feeder group for the Vinland Hammerskins. Some Crew 38 and Hammerskins members act as recruiters for Active Club Canada. This is an example of how memberships of far-right groups are fluid and transnational, with far-right leaders increasingly networking in person across borders.

The Base

“I got more enjoyment watching Saint Tarrant do his thing. I've eaten several meals watching that ... it's where I was born, so I have a very sentimental connection to Christchurch.” – an Australian applicant to The Base.

The Base is an international neo-Nazi terror network, primarily based in the United States, but run from St Petersburg, Russia, by its leader Rinaldo Nazzaro (using the nom de plumes Norman Spear and Roman Wolf), a former US military contractor.

Much of what we know about the internal workings of The Base is thanks to the efforts of an anti-fascist infiltrator who we worked closely with and who managed to gain the trust of Nazzaro to the extent that they were intimately involved in most of the vetting interviews that potential recruits to the group would undergo.

The Base is an explicitly accelerationist project that rejects the premise of political solutions and advocates for action over words. They eschew a strict hierarchy; instead, Nazzaro would act as the face of the organisation, and members would form small two- or three-man cells (called Trouble Trios) that could take independent action. Federal authorities moved on one cell in the United States after they planned to undertake a mass shooting at a gun rights rally (a target chosen not because of opposition to gun rights but because of the potential for maximum chaos if rally-goers returned fire at each other).

Another such trio was formed in Australia in 2018 by members of Antipodean Resistance who were closely networked online with members of Atomwaffen Division and the leadership of Tempel ov Blood, a ‘nexion’ or cell of the neo-Nazi Satanic cult Order of Nine Angles (O9A). These teenage neo-Nazis admired the edginess of the neo-Nazi Satanists, reading literature published through the occult publishing house Martinet Press. Martinet Press was partly bankrolled by the FBI, who paid Atomwaffen Division and Tempel ov Blood member Joshua Caleb Sutter nearly USD$100,000 for his work as an informant since 2003. Books published by Martinet Press, such as Iron Gates, include graphic descriptions of cannibalism, infanticide, necrophilia, paedophilia, rape and torture.

The three Australians were known within The Base for their tendency to push the envelope—no small achievement in these spaces. In late 2018, one of them abruptly disconnected from the encrypted chats without notice. Another member of the trio explained to a concerned Nazzaro that they had decided to engage in a digital detox and concentrate on offline activity.

The other two members would also begin abrupt digital detoxes on March 15, 2019, perhaps concerned that law enforcement would soon come knocking in the wake of the massacre in Christchurch. This concern that they might be linked somehow to the attack was not unwarranted – the Steam account of one of the members was erroneously identified as belonging to Tarrant by a commenter on a 4chan thread on the day of the shooting.

In January 2020, family members of one of the cell posted on Facebook that he had completed suicide after police raided his home. The raid was reportedly related to social media posts he had made, including a photo he posted of himself dressed all in black, wearing a hoodie, a skull mask, a utility belt with a hunting knife and an Airsoft gun. Some of his online contacts that he played Minecraft and Snapchatted with alleged that – inspired by O9A – he had initiated discussions about his fantasies of cannibalism, paedophilia and rape.

The other member would eventually re-emerge as a leader of the National Socialist Network.

In October 2019, Nazzaro began a new effort to recruit Australians to his cause. Working with a member of a West Australian neo-Nazi group called SWAN (the Society of West Australian Nationalists), Nazzaro interviewed several potential candidates who had expressed an interest in joining the group. This pool included a former One Nation candidate and members (and leaders) of groups such as Lads Society, Order 15, Operation Werewolf, Identity Australia, Australian Natives Association and others. Applicants ranged in age from their teens to their 40s.

Ultimately, this attempt at establishing Australian cells would also come to naught, as the organisation soon descended into chaos following journalist Jason Wilson's doxxing of Nazzaro. Most applicants, however, continue to participate in other far-right organisations and projects. We’re aware that one has since renounced their far-right beliefs.

On 10 December 2021, The Base was officially proscribed in Australia as a terrorist organisation.

Almost one year later, on 8 December 2022, Thomas Sewell uploaded a selfie to his Telegram channel wearing a jacket with a patch featuring the logo of The Base.

The Base's Telegram channel reposted this selfie on 9 December 2022 with the caption, “Thomas Sewell is in The Base. Are you?” There is no evidence that there is still a cell of The Base within Australia.

Three American members of The Base are currently imprisoned for a plot to assassinate an antifascist activist and his wife. The neo-Nazis planned to ambush the antifascist activist inside his rural home, execute him and his wife with guns, and then burn the house down. Three other American members of The Base are imprisoned on federal charges relating to firearms and alien-related charges.

Access to firearms

We are concerned about the ability of members of the Australian far-Right to acquire firearms and firearms training. In early 2023, we conducted extensive research into this area.

In March 2023, our research with Nine journalist Nick McKenzie revealed that Australian Defence Force vetting processes had failed to detect several members of neo-Nazi groups who were currently serving in the Army. Some of them had previously been publicly named as neo-Nazis or posted neo-Nazi propaganda quite openly on their social media profiles.

Our research also revealed that Australian neo-Nazis were related to or in relationships with serving police officers, giving them potential access to firearms.

Further, we found that the Australian far-Right organisation, the Australian Natives Association, was listed as an Approved Hunting Organisation (AHO) by the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Membership of an AHO can be a stepping stone to acquiring a full firearms licence, and we observed members of this group spruiking this feature to accelerationist neo-Nazis on Telegram. In November 2019, when a Canberran teenager attempted to join The Base, he revealed in his vetting interview that he was a member of this group and that its leadership had indicated to him that they were racists and in favour of a white ethnostate. This situation should be treated seriously and reviewed.

Our investigations also revealed that in encrypted chats, neo-Nazis from the NSN and other groups were exchanging schematics for 3D-printed guns.

Finally, our research also found that a member of the NSN had attended a Sporting Shooters Association gun range while wearing a Sonnenrad symbol. This is the same symbol that Brenton Tarrant wore on his vest as he committed his atrocities. Given questions raised in the New Zealand Royal Commission about whether the Bruce Gun Club attended by Tarrant had a problematic culture, we feel that current levels of training to recognise signs of extremism may be lacking in Australian gun ranges.

We recommend that membership of any organisation with a whites-only membership policy should be automatic grounds for application of a Firearms Protection Order.

On September 15, 2023, neo-Nazis from National Socialist Network, armed with knives, attempted to attack an anti-fascist gig in Thornbury at Café Gummo. The gig was a fundraiser for us and the Black Peoples Union.

If you recognise any of these cowards e-mail us thewhiterosesociety@protonmail.com. Please share this image in your networks and on your social media in case anyone recognises them. We have numbered the faces of those we do not yet know the names of.

If you would like to amplify our X post/tweet of these faces you can repost it at this link.

Video of National Socialist Network running like rats:

A group of neo nazis has squared off with anti-fascists, in a terrifying brawl that took over Thornbury's main street. @ajhegarty9 #9News pic.twitter.com/B4OmCJmI9f

— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) September 16, 2023

Our love, respect and solidarity with Melbourne SHARPs and other antifascist comrades who confronted the National Socialist Network on the streets of Thornbury. Antifascism is community self-defence.

There is a Chuffed link to donate to us and The Black Peoples Union for those who couldn't make the fundraiser gig. We have been an anti-fascist research collective for over five years and this is the first time we have fundraised. We aren't going anywhere. We often get messages asking “How can I help?” We know everyone is feeling the cost of living crisis at the moment, but if you have the capacity to donate to us (or share our fundraiser) we would be really grateful for the help. This will go towards our expenses for research like hosting and subscriptions, which aren't cheap.

We want to express our gratitude for and thanks to Café Gummo and Melbourne SHARPs for hosting the fundraiser for us and the Black Peoples Union, and the artists and bands who played: The Victim’s Ball, An Effigy To Extinction, Dire Need and Louts.

My motion at council tonight to reaffirm our commitment to the LGBTIQA+ community after rainbow storytime events were cancelled due to threats from the far right, has passed!

Red text are the small changes made by request from other councillors. pic.twitter.com/0YHY21bfB4

— Cr Tim Baxter 🏳️‍🌈 (@BaxterTim) June 21, 2023

On 21 June 2023, Councillor Tim Baxter from the City of Port Phillip successfully tabled a motion to reaffirm the council's commitment to the LGBTIQA+ community after rainbow story hour events were cancelled due to threats from the far-right. This has come in the wake of a wave of cancellations from councils and other event organisers this year, particularly related to IDAHOBIT Day and during Pride Month. This motion allows the City of Port Phillip to begin work on how to hold safer events in the future, an urgent issue for many other councils that requires leadership. We are pleased that the City of Port Phillip is showing leadership on this issue and hope it will lead to safer events for the Rainbow Community and families.

There were some small changes to the motion by Councillor Baxter's colleagues, including the addition of Victoria Police as a stakeholder. Regardless of our position on police, their “safety advice” to councils has driven many event cancellations and councils will continue to liaise with them. In some instances, Victoria Police have told councils it's still unsafe even if drag queen story hours are moved to Zoom. Tom Tanuki has written about the issue of Victoria Police failing to protect the LGBTQI+ community, including events for children.

Councillor Baxter reached out to us and asked if we'd write a statement to support his motion and explain some of the groups who are involved in targeting councils and events for children. We wrote this in support of his draft motion and he read part of it in his speech to the council. We publish this below in the hope that it may assist other councillors who want to articulate the threat of the far-right, the need for solidarity with the Rainbow Community and the need for leadership on safety for community events.

Statement from The White Rose Society in support of Councillor Tim Baxter’s draft motion:

The White Rose Society is a collective of antifascist researchers from around Australia, formed in 2018. Our work has educated and informed the media, the public, community groups, and parliament about extremism, by documenting, exposing and countering the role and rise of fascism and neo-Nazism in Australia. We believe that in order to confront the increasing attacks against LGBTQI+ people in public life and find ways to counter it, we must name it correctly, as a form of far-right extremism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to many the interconnected dependencies between the far-right and conspiracy theories. For some time prior to the pandemic, the White Rose Society was concerned about the spread of organised conspiracy movements, particularly rhetoric emerging out of the ‘QAnon’ and the ‘Sovereign Citizen’ conspiracies, and had begun tracking this in our work. Because of the far-right nature of organised conspiracy movements and the many violent incidents associated with them, we continue to monitor and collaborate with other activists and researchers who are deeply invested in documenting the growth and impact of them on our society, families and friends.

One of the more troubling aspects of this phenomenon has been the global rise in far-right-directed moral panic against the LGBTQI+ community, and in particular, the current flash-point surrounding Drag Queen Story Hours. As such, we write this statement in support of Councillor Tim Baxter’s motion to reaffirm a commitment to protect our LGBTQI+ family and friends from far-right extremism.

The groups targeting these events, while often distinct, are, however, frequently interconnected via the online, far-right, conspiratorial milieu. Avowed white supremacists such as the National Socialist Network, a group with ties to convicted terrorists and/or intercepted extremist acts, have instigated some of these events and attempted to infiltrate the online spaces of ‘Sovereign Citizen’ groups like My Place in order to radicalise them further.

These groups are also connected via the surge in reactionary Christian-Right politics, with Christian Nationalist rhetoric and biblical references frequently used as justification for their actions. This may come in the form of prophet-like pronouncements from leaders within the various groups, or, in the case of Christian Lives Matter, a general militant obligation to “defend” their faith from the perceived attacks that social progress presents.

The radicalisation within conspiracist spaces is also achieved via Australian extremist outlets such as The XYZ, whose content is spread far and wide throughout conspiracist channels and accounts on Telegram and Twitter. The news-like medium is used to spread explicitly Antisemitic falsehoods which posit that movements to make society more inclusive are part of a broader global agenda of Jewish domination. A sentiment shared, albeit not always so openly or clearly defined, within the soft-right conspiracist groups, who prefer dog-whistle language such as ‘globalists’, ‘Khazarian Mafia’, or ‘Freemasons’. We must stress that such Antisemitic conspiracies should not be considered separate from the targeting of LGBTQI+ events.

Online, groups like National Socialist Network, My Place, The XYZ, and others use their social media accounts to “paint targets” on those they violently disagree with, including events for children, council staff, entertainers, activists, democratic or progressive institutions, healthcare workers, and politicians. This enables them to mobilise large groups of people, often from outside the council area, to send abuse and make threats online or in person.

Recently, this has escalated to organised attendance at council meetings by My Place in an effort to disrupt their proceedings, force changes, or sow distrust in the process of democracy itself. Some councils have cancelled events at the mere suggestion by the National Socialist Network that they would attend. This has only emboldened such groups, who have revelled in the idea that they can shut down an event just by mentioning it, even if they had no intention or capacity to actually attend it. Such responses by councils reinforce to both neo-Nazis and queer communities that support for LGBTQI+ people will buckle as soon as it gets a little too hard.

We believe that everyone has the right to feel safe at work and in their personal lives. Every council employee has the right to do their job free of abuse, harassment and threats of violence. Though Drag Queen Story Hours are the major focus of far-right groups at present, if tomorrow they ended forever, the far-right would find other reasons to target councils. Examples of this include conspiracists mobilising around 15 Minute Cities, the targeting of Holocaust literature, or Indigenous events.

These far-right extremists are ideologically authoritarian and anti-democratic and bear all the hallmarks, strategies, behaviours, and ideologies of fascistic movements before them. Intimidating council employees, including librarians, is a long-established tactic of far-right extremists. The White Rose Society knows from many years of observing far-right activity that conceding defeat at the mere threat of a far-right response does not make staff safer. This demonstrates to the far-right that councils are a soft target that will not only not resist them, but will openly retreat and willingly create space for them to grow.

We are deeply concerned at the escalation in offline events in countries such as Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States, where elected officials and their staff have been subjected to violent attacks and attempts at “citizen’s arrests” by ‘Sovereign Citizens’, all of which is followed very closely by, if not directly connected to, groups here in Australia. In the United States, which often drives far-right political thought and tactics, groups of neo-Nazis terrorise Drag Queen Story Hours, chanting and Sieg Heiling. Similarly, on the streets of Melbourne, neo-Nazis are also regularly mobilising to intimidate the LGBTQI+ community. We must not normalise the mobilisation of the far-right by capitulating to their whims and demands.

This concern is also exacerbated by the fact that in online far-right spaces in Australia, it is common to see public advocacy for executions of political and social enemies and fantasies of a military takeover that would usher in “Nuremberg 2.0.” This fetishisation of violence often includes explicit support for the Train family, who executed three people in Wieambilla in what many conspiracists consider to be a “false flag” operation and was instantly folded into the broader conspiratorial narratives prevalent within these groups.

During this time of global far-right-directed moral panic against people of diverse genders and sexualities, we strongly emphasise the necessity of continued partnership and solidarity with advocacy groups centred on and led by members of the LGBTQI+ community. A commitment to diversity and inclusion requires courage and leadership from councils, to enact policy and respond to the far-right in a way that advances the struggle of the LGBTQI+ community for progress and equal social status. The far-right would see LGBTQ+ people shunned from society or eradicated completely. Our solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community and a unified stance against the far-right is essential.

Resources on holding safer events:

• Anti Hate Canada: Pride Defence Guide
• Western States Center: Protecting Pride Organizing Guide
• Glitterpill: How to plan and hold a safer drag story hour or LGBTQI+ event
• It's Going Down: Materials and Resources to Help you #DefendPride This Summer from the Far-Right

Content warning for extreme misogyny, racism, Antisemitism, Islamophobia and violence, discussions of neo-Nazi terrorist attacks, and mention (but no description) of rape.

Gabriel Llewellyn Russell Seymour from Thornlands is the leader of the Queensland branch of Australia's largest neo-Nazi network, the National Socialist Network (NSN). Posting simply as ‘Gabe’ in Nazi online chats or as ‘Gabe Smith’ on wider social media, Seymour's identity was unknown until our research was used to profile him in the recent expose by The Age of Australian neo-Nazi leaders:

Seymour’s identity was confirmed by anti-fascist researchers from the White Rose Society using online surveillance. They matched photos he posted of neo-Nazi propaganda at his Queensland home to pictures of a house listed for sale on a real estate website. Public records linked Seymour to this home address.

Seymour admins the Werwulf HQ neo-Nazi Telegram channel which frequently posts extremist material. He makes propaganda for the NSN and its other division, the European Australian Movement. He was also an active participant in the small neo-Nazi Telegram chat ‘Aus Boogaloo’ which is where we first noticed him.

Gabe Seymour was studying at the University of Queensland to be a pharmacist, and may still be working as an assistant pharmacist. His potential access to confidential data is a serious concern.

We have observed that Seymour's behaviour shows an escalating commitment to extremism and an ongoing glorification of violence.

Seymour glorifies violence

In private online group chats, Seymour frequently uses dehumanising, racist, misogynistic, and violent language and rhetoric. He has celebrated Tarrant's terrorist attack and ‘fedposted’ (openly talking about committing future crimes) about committing his own attack to 'remove kebabs' (a reference to Brenton Tarrant's attack on Muslims). He has written dehumanising comments about Asian and Muslim pharmacy customers he encountered in his workplace. He has even fantasised about committing violence against his neighbours. And perhaps most alarmingly, he has shared plans for 3D-printed guns in a chat and clearly has access to guns which he is actively training with. All of this was in the extremist 'Aus Boogaloo' group chat, which, it's important to note, also included extremist Conor Sretenovic.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has described how the ‘Boogaloo’ meme emerged concurrently in anti-government and white power online spaces in the early 2010s:

In both of these communities, “boogaloo” was frequently associated with racist violence and, in many cases, was an explicit call for race war. Today the term is regularly deployed by white nationalists and neo-Nazis who want to see society descend into chaos so that they can come to power and build a new fascist state.

In April of 2021, Seymour shared instructions for 3D printing firearms and constructing IEDs to the Aus Boogaloo private group chat – at the time renamed as ‘Aus Milk bag’.

The 'Minecraft mods' comment by ‘Special Six’ is a reference to the ‘In Minecraft’ meme. This meme is part of a ridiculous and ineffective strategy of ‘plausible deniability’ which is encultured within neo-Nazi movements.

Seymour has an obsession with guns and shooting. Here's a photo taken while travelling in Japan at an airsoft shop. Seymour has pinned his target practice on his bedroom wall alongside his Nazi flags and propaganda.

Seymour has fantasised about taking his target practice into the real world, forgetting to qualify his fedposting with the “in Minecraft” disclaimer. He has gone so far as to muse on whether or not he is “dedicated enough to die or go to prison for removing a few kebabs”:

Seymour and the ‘Aus Boogaloo’ chat also shared the livestream and messages approving of Tarrant's massacre as well as Stephan Balliet's attack on the synagogue in Halle, Germany in October 2019 along with memes calling Balliet a new “Saint” (a martyr of fascist struggle).

Seymour is extremely racist, frequently referring to Jews as “kikes” and once polled the chat to ask “Are niggers considered human?”

As the pandemic hit, the chat discussed ‘the Boogaloo’ and what happens if SHTF (Shit Hits The Fan). Seymour’s Boogaloo fantasies extended beyond looting for supplies to disturbing and violent fantasies about his neighbours, saying, “if it hits the fan i have multiple neighbours I'd love to put a knife through.”

Seymour trained at Bloodshed Muay Thai Gym in 2020. Even at that stage he felt he had reason to hide his legal name.

He has since moved on to fight training in public parks in Brisbane with other members of the NSN.

The activities of the National Socialist Network in Queensland have so far been limited to banner drops, letterboxing, postering and stickering, punching each other and rival neo-Nazis in public parks, and vandalising sacred sites like carving a swastika into White Rock at Ipswich.

That's Gabe Seymour in the red shoes. His small friend and fellow National Socialist Network member Zachary Mark Makkinga ('Lanes') bought the exact same pair of red shoes to be more like Gabe. Like Gabe, he's also been raided by Counter Terrorism.

In Mid-2022, Gabe travelled to Gunnedah with other members from QLD to attend an NSN training camp/cross-burning with members of the NSW cell.

Gabe travelled to Melbourne for the national meet-up in December 2022 at the Legacy Boxing Gym in Sunshine West and fought someone known as “Phil”. Gabe edited their propaganda video from that event to share internationally on Telegram. Gabe was responsible for fucking up the blurring on a split second of a video frame, where we clearly saw Legacy Boxing Gym's owner Tim Lutze in the ring.

Is Gabe Seymour escalating?

Gabe Seymour is one of the few members (alongside Jimeone Roberts and Jack Eltis) of National Socialist Network who has “face doxxed”. This represents a clear escalation in radical behaviour. With his martial arts and weapons training, psychopathic fantasies, as well as access to sensitive personal information through possible employment in a pharmacy, Seymour is one of the most concerning members of NSN.

A number of NSN members co-admin a public trolling channel called DPoker that frequently posts death and rape threats towards academics, activists, journalists, law enforcement, politicians, and other public figures. It was on this channel in early March that an admin posted an alarming photo taken at a shooting range in Belmont, about a 20-minute drive from Seymour's house.

Only four years ago, Australian neo-Nazi terrorist Brenton Tarrant posted an online manifesto with the Black Sun (or ‘Sonnenrad’) on the cover, put on a bulletproof vest with a Sonnenrad patch and picked up weapons painted with the Sonnenrad. He then massacred 51 people who were at Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah (Friday prayers).

It beggars belief that a member of National Socialist Network was able to go shooting at a gun range wearing this same extremist symbol without being challenged. The Royal Commission into the Christchurch massacre found that concerns about Tarrant's behaviour while training at a gun club in Aotearoa New Zealand had been inadequately reported. We are alarmed that an NSN member has been able to boldly proclaim their Nazi sympathies while training with guns.

Gabe Seymour, prospective pharmacist

We have strong reasons to believe that Gabe Seymour is a current or former assistant pharmacist. We are extremely concerned about Gabe Seymour’s access to the personal details (including addresses, date of birth, Medicare numbers etc.) and private medical information of pharmacy customers. Given Seymour’s violent fixations about his political and racial enemies, the information accessible to him in his position at a pharmacy could allow him to build profiles on people, share their information among his neo-Nazi comrades, or carry out harassment or violent attacks himself.

Seymour revealed in Telegram chats that he was studying Pharmacy at the University of Queensland and working (at least during 2020) at a chemist. Below, he calls female customers at his workplace 'roasties' (a misogynistic term from Incel culture to refer to sexually active women) and discusses how he shames them if they buy the morning-after pill or are prescribed the contraceptive pill, by refusing to give them a bag for their purchase.

Gabe Seymour studying at the University of Queensland

Gabe Seymour posted in the Aus Boogaloo chat about studying Pharmacy at the University of Queensland.

The NSN posted photographs taken on the UQ campus giving (unwanted and unwelcomed) support to embattled stupol activist Drew Pavlou.

Below Seymour shares a selfie wearing a Nazi SS shirt while on campus at The University of Queensland:

Gabe Seymour uploads a photo of his assessment and says “apparently remove kebab isn't the right answer” (a reference to Brenton Tarrant's attack on mosques in Christchurch on 15 March 2019).

Seymour also posted in the chat about his studies in the pharmacy course, mocked pregnant women and mocked people prescribed medical cannabis, called his pharmacy course 'gay bullshit', and mocked the idea of health equity.

Gabe Seymour at home

Seymour lives at home with his parents in Thornlands and adorns his bedroom walls with neo-Nazi propaganda and target practices. He's been raided at home by counter-terrorism at least once, and had his bank account cancelled.

Gabe Seymour has pinned his target practices up from Rothwell Professional Indoor Industry Pistol Club in Rothwell on his bedroom wall along with his Nazi flags and propaganda.

If you have any information about Gabe Seymour, you can e-mail us in confidence at thewhiterosesociety@protonmail.com.

Action items

Update:

The SSSA range has been made aware of the posts above. If you have concerns about psychopathic neo-Nazis being granted firearms licences, we recommend reaching out to your local MP as well as the responsible minister, the Honorable Mark Ryan.

Contact the Pharmacy Board politely to express your concerns about any registration or future registration of Gabriel Llewellyn Russell Seymour as a pharmacist and explain why, citing this article and our post.

Contact SSAA Brisbane, where Gabe Seymour or his fellow National Socialist Network members train and express your concern about neo-Nazis training for race war at their range, while wearing extremist symbols like the Sonnenrad, linked to neo-Nazi terrorist Brenton Tarrant. Gabe Seymour and anyone associated with him who has joined or visited SSAA Brisbane should be banned from this range and all others. Neo-Nazi extremists who have openly fantasised about committing mass casualty attacks should not hold firearms licences.

To our knowledge, Gabe Seymour is no longer studying at the University of Queensland but we do not know if he’s graduated or may return to his studies in the future. We would like assurances from AHPRA that he will never be registered as a pharmacist.

Chemist Warehouse has also stated he does not currently work there but hasn’t commented on past employment.

On December 3rd 2022, the National Socialist Network (NSN)/European Australian Movement (EAM) held a Mixed Martial Arts event at an undisclosed location. In advertising for the event, they said that it would take place in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.

The Age newspaper today disclosed the location of this event. We provide the following information for the benefit of parents whose children attend this gym.

On December 11, the EAM Telegram channel posted a photo from the event. It depicted 47 people in an industrial gym setting with EAM and swastika flags hanging from the walls. Most of the people in the photo had their faces blurred in addition to wearing face coverings. For some reason, it seemed a few remained unsure about the quality of the NSN's opsec.

The gym in the photograph was very quickly identified by a number of anti-fascist researchers as belonging to Legacy Boxing Gym, and located in Sunshine West.

At first glance, you might assume that the space had been rented without the owners being aware of who they were allowing in – a common tactic for the far-Right. After all, who would knowingly welcome a motley crew of racists, incels and thugs into their business?

In this case, that would be Timothy Lutze – one of the owners of Legacy Boxing, an active participant in this neo-Nazi event, and someone who has previously used their child as a prop in neo-Nazi propaganda.

Across the social profiles of Legacy Boxing and its owners, we found numerous examples of Timothy Lutze giving a friendly wave to the camera, and encouraging the young men in his care to do the same.

It's not a crime to be friendly, but then we noticed that tattoos in these photos matched those of a man Sieg Heiling in a photo previously released by the EAM. He stands in the centre of the photo behind a young boy.

We saw these tattoos again in a photo posted to a neo-Nazi chat run by former Young Liberal Stephen Eracleous.

The photo – posted by a user with the handle @legacyboxing and using the name Rebecca – shows a young child Sieg Heiling at Movie World on the Gold Coast.

A few days prior to this Movie World adventure, @legacyboxing/Rebecca had posted: “Just attended the karate nationals in Rockhampton alot of white power. Alot boomer with half Asian kids too.”

We have confirmed that Timothy Lutze and his partner Rebecca Morris (formerly Rebecca Michael) both attended the Karate Nationals in Rockhampton.

Finally, Timothy Lutze's distinctive sleeve tattoos could be seen throughout a video released by the NSN celebrating the event – and in one frame, his distinctive face.

Sport should be a healthy and supportive culture for young athletes and it’s important to keep these spaces free of extremism so children and teens of all backgrounds can participate. We commend Boxing Victoria for deregistering Legacy Boxing Gym and suspending the registration of all coaches involved with the gym pending an investigation of the allegations in January 2023.

We've linked some resources below to help parents and caregivers grappling with issues of youth radicalisation or those who want to be vigilant about protecting their children. Fascists and neo-Nazis actively groom increasingly younger children into cultures of hatred in order to recruit them for offline groups.

• Parents & Caregivers Guide to Online Youth Radicalization by the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
• Confronting Conspiracy Theories and Organized Bigotry at Home A Guide for Parents and Caregivers by Western States Centre.
• This resource is US-centric to a degree, but for teachers, we also recommend Western States Centre's Confronting White Nationalism in Schools Toolkit. You can request a free digital copy here.
• 5 Red Flags For Parents & Ways To Respond To Online Radicalization by Samantha Kutner, The Khalifa Ihler Institute.

Content warning: the below includes racial slurs, mentions of CSA, and extremist bigotry, including racism, antisemitism, ableism, homophobia. We have collected a large number of posts by McNamara, what follows is a representative sample.

The Age have reported yesterday:

Another anti-lockdown promoter has been unmasked as Alice McNamara, a musician who runs a children’s music business, KiddyRock. Ms McNamara, who has been posting neo-Nazi and anti-lockdown propaganda under an online alias, hung up the phone when contacted.

This seems unbelievable to those who knew her personally as Alice, or as Ally Spazzy from the mid-2000s pop punk band The Spazzys.

McNamara has been a prolific member of the flourishing conspiracy-driven anti-lockdown movement since the start of the pandemic. Our investigations show, however, that her views predate 2020 and that she regularly shares abhorrent racist and white supremacist views in blackpilled accelerationist groups. This is a shocking contrast between her public persona and her work with children.

Ally Spazzy Kiddyrock & The Cool Bananas – Blackfella/Whitefella (Warumpi Band) @ Elsternwick Park (21st June 2015) from Carbie Warbie on Vimeo.

As 'Mary Manson', however, McNamara doesn't hold back:

McNamara is referring to an article from a fascist publication that describes how to have fun while using racist microaggressions in the “war on coloured people” in the workplace. It includes advice for causing maximum upset and offence but staying on the right side of the law. There are suggestions for how to make fun of people's names, cultures, backgrounds and food while maintaining plausible deniability.

McNamara's response? “Lots of great advice and tips in here!”

So, who is 'Mary Manson'?

On the one hand, 'Mary Manson' is a typical anti-vaxxer. She's made posters for protests, medical exemption letters, attends protests and boasts of not wearing a mask.

But she also hates Jews, denigrates lesbian parents, and promotes Siege, the notorious and influential accelerationist text by child pornographer neo-Nazi James Mason. This text has inspired some of the most extreme violent far-right terrorist groups in the world today.

'Mary Manson' has also talked about the benefits of showing children an American neo-Nazi story book. This is a serious concern as 'Mary Manson' has access to children through her small business providing musical education to children. She also did childcare for a doctor once her business was closed due to lockdowns.

But how do we know 'Mary Manson' is really Alice McNamara?

We first noticed 'Mary Manson' in Proud Boys chats as a Holocaust denier:

We then we saw her taking a prominent role in some Melbourne anti-lockdown chats. And we tracked her to neo-Nazi online spaces. Over the last 18 months, we have collected a multitude of data points. We know many people will be shocked by our information and we take the task of proving her identity very seriously. Below we show some of our evidence.

By going through her posts, we were able to identify a number of matching data points between 'Mary Manson' and McNamara: both were women living in Melbourne, both owned a small business providing musical education to children, and both had connections to the Australian alternative music scene.

In one post 'Mary Manson' remarks with surprise that Australian music broadcaster Jane Gazzo had joined one of the more antisemitic Telegram chat groups in the Australian anti-lockdown online environment.

At the time she posted this, the most recent poster in the Covid 19 Truth Group chat was Jane Anderson aka Calamity22:

Jane Gazzo has published in the past using the nom de plume Calamity Jane.

'Mary Manson' explained to others in the chat that she knew 'Jane Anderson' was Gazzo because she had her number saved in her phone – Telegram's settings mean that contact names in your device will supercede a person's chosen display name.

We are not suggesting that Gazzo has posted antisemitic content, indeed her edgiest contribution to the Australian anti-lockdown space was a declaration that she had travelled on a tram without a mask.

In other postings, 'Mary Manson' identified a number of Facebook groups she had joined. We discovered that Alice McNamara was a member of each of these groups.

'Mary' and Alice also shared some other data points. Out of respect for McNamara's family, we have left some sensitive personal details out.

The smoking gun

But it was the metadata from anti-lockdown propaganda she created that provided the definitive link. Using publicly accessible data, we were able to cross-match metadata in documents made by 'Mary Manson' to Kiddyrock, the business registered to Alice McNamara.

There is no doubt that 'Mary Manson' is a pseudonym for Alice (Ally) McNamara.

How did McNamara get radicalised?

It was only six short years ago that Alice McNamara was performing anti-racist anthems at the Community Cup. How did she go from performing Blackfella/Whitefella to becoming a Siege-pilled neo-Nazi?

We can't say for sure but one clue might be on an old YouTube profile, where Alice had subscribed to the channel of anti-feminist YouTuber Carl Benjamin (a/k/a Sargon of Akkad).

In one discussion, 'Mary' references having dropped a supposed truth-bomb about feminism onto a shocked and awed social media audience. Everybody clapped.

In other conversations with members of the far-Right, she makes reference to watching the videos of far-Right pastor Jesse Lee Peterson. It seems probable that McNamara simply followed a well-worn path down the YouTube rabbit hole. She's certainly not the first musician to travel this path.

being so influenced by the ramones one has to become a nazi

— John (@realbpullman) August 17, 2021

What next?

Members of Alice McNamara's old band The Spazzys have now issued a statement about Ally's views.

We send our best wishes to the remaining band members. We release this information as a public service especially for those parents who entrusted their children to someone concealing their real abhorrent opinions and political standpoint.

Proud Boys

Calling for Proud Boys to join the anti-lockdown protests, which later happened

In anti-lockdown groups, 'Mary' would promote the infamous neo-Nazi text 'Siege' by convicted child pornographer James Mason. Siege promotes the idea that leaderless terrorist cells are necessary in order to bring about a White revolution.

In neo-Nazi chats, 'Mary' expressed her love of reading in other ways, suggesting that other neo-Nazis might find some value in showing children a book by American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell

Anti-Lockdown activities

Attending anti-lockdown rallies and ignoring health directives around mask-wearing.

Racist, Anti-semitic, homophobic comments

Not even the Greeks were quite white enough for Alice McNamara.

The end of Mary Manson.

Following contact from Nine Fairfax, Alice has changed her name on Telegram.

Update on 13 March 2020:

“The New Zealand Defence Force says a man who reportedly posted online about forming a terror cell in New Zealand is no longer serving in the military.

And it says it is confident the Defence Force has the systems in place to weed out any extremists in its ranks, after concerns that the Defence Force was being infiltrated by far-right activists. ... A NZDF spokeswoman confirmed that the man enlisted in the NZ Army as a private in 2014 but said he left in December 2016. His reasons for leaving the military were not known.”

NZ Defence Force says white supremacist is a former soldier by Isaac Davison, NZ Herald, 13 March 2020

We believe that misrepresenting yourself as still being enlisted in the military to neo-Nazis in chat rooms, despite leaving NZDF four years ago, may make you a valour thief Max Newsome.

See also:

NZDF hasn't reviewed extremist procedures by Marc Daalder, Newsroom, 12 March 2020

Over the last week, Action Zealandia members have been brought to the attention of authorities by the White Rose Society and anti-fascist researchers in Aotearoa including ParaDoxx. We have seen Action Zealandia members threaten worshippers at the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, share confidential police memos and, more recently, an anonymous member 'Matt' was exposed for planning to create a neo-Nazi terror group similar to American accelerationist neo-Nazi groups such as the Atomwaffen Division and The Base.

Action Zealandia member planned terror cell by Marc Daalder, Newsroom, 9 March 2020

We would like to introduce you to 'Matt', a leading figure from Action Zealandia who we believe is better known as Max Newsome from Palmerston North.

Meet 'Matt'. Meet Matt and Max Newsome's eyebrows.

'Matt' is a leader of Action Zealandia based in Palmerston North. He first came to our attention in a small, Australian-based neo-Nazi 'prepper' Telegram group chat where he was an admin. He frequently shared actions by his group Action Zealandia into the chat (gallery). He talked about acquiring firearms on the black market and he posted photos of his camping trip (gallery):

Action Zealandia and the Dominion Movement

Action Zealandia is a New Zealand neo-Nazi group who has come under increasing pressure from anti-fascists, anti-racists, and the state since late 2019. This was when one of their members, a New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) soldier, was arrested last December. The Linton soldier is subject to a name suppression in New Zealand and has since been charged with an “unauthorised disclosure of information” that is “likely to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand”.

In the last week, Action Zealandia has again come to the attention of authorities and the media. 19-year-old member Sam Brittenden was arrested in relation to a threat to Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch which was distributed on a neo-Nazi channel in the encrypted app Telegram based in the Ukraine. 'Matt' was central to the effort to circulate this terror threat on Telegram (see gallery). Of course Al Noor is one of the mosques where an Australian neo-Nazi terrorist massacred 51 Muslim worshippers a year ago this week.

Action Zealandia emerged only months after the neo-Nazi group Dominion Movement shut down its activities and website in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack. Action Zealandia has tried to project a careful public image as an “identitarian” group and, unlike the Dominion Movement, has shied away from more explicit Nazi imagery. Despite Action Zealandia's “wholesome” activities such as gym workouts, hikes, and rubbish pickups, the recent exposure of three members to the public has revealed a more sinister and violent ideology. These members have networked with international neo-Nazi terrorists. They have fantasised and planned for accelerationism and “the boogaloo” (race war). They have promoted neo-Nazi James Mason's book 'Siege' as reading material. They've discussed buying guns on the black market. And they have made violent threats while LARPing in a 'Siege' or skull mask during a drive-by of the Al Noor mosque the week before the first anniversary of a terrible terrorist attack.

The Dominion Movement formed in February 2018 and was the first Identitarian group in New Zealand. It was modelled on the American Identitarian group Patriot Front and also the Australian Neo-Nazi group Antipodean Resistance. Until the Christchurch terrorist attacks, the Dominion Movement grew rapidly, forming branches in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North and Wellington in the North Island as well as Nelson and Christchurch in the South Island. Its growth came through engaging in postering and stickering runs across New Zealand, organising group nature walks, banner drops, as well as participating in solidarity actions. Members “held a “Save the Boer” banner at an All Blacks v South Africa match in Wellington, referring to a false far-right claim that white Afrikaner farmers are being systematically murdered.”

The Dominion Movement also built international connections which included organising security for Canadian white supremacists Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux's thwarted tour to New Zealand in August 2018. After that failure, Dominion Movement members (including the Linton soldier) appeared on the Scottish alt-right Youtuber Millenial Woes' podcast in December 2018 as well as on the Australian fascist podcast The Dingoes in February 2019. Members also formed alliances with neo-fascist groups around the world, and met with Australian Identitarian group Identity Australia which is now known as Australian Revival in October 2018. The Dominion Movement met with Scandinavian neo-Nazis from the Nordic Resistance Movement in January 2019.

The Christchurch terrorist attacks forced the Dominion Movement to immeditely go underground. However, it only took four months for some of their members to reconvene and form Action Zealandia. They started small, portraying themselves as an all-male, white, patriotic fraternity such as the Lads Society in Australia. The 'new' group aimed to organise beach clean-ups, nature walks, and trips to historical landmarks. A re-branding of the now defunct Dominion Movement, Action Zealandia grew quickly and formed branches in the same locations (although the Wellington and New Plymouth branches didn't last long). The group really started to get going from September 2019 by engaging in postering and stickering runs across New Zealand, and in cleaning up graffiti. Less wholesome activities included vandalising National MP Jiang Yang's electorate office in Epsom and National MP Nick Smith's electorate office in Nelson.

The name of Brittenden's group links today's alt-right to old wars of conquest against Maori. Conceived as a relative of Britannia, Zealandia was a patron goddess of Pakeha. Her statue stands on an Auckland memorial to soldiers who fought 'rebel' Maori. In 2018 she was tomahawked https://t.co/yA17T6NrpE pic.twitter.com/bkxHGzbnCZ

— Scott Hamilton RTM (@SikotiHamiltonR) March 5, 2020

Max Newsome alias 'Matt'

Note: 'Matt' is wearing an NZDF army beret.

While 'Matt' has never provided us with a full face dox, his posts in Telegram chats have provided us with many clues as to his identity. These include his life history, his distinctive eyebrows, the bridge of his nose, and his build. His Telegram profile pictures (see gallery) clearly confirm his alignment with both Action Zealandia and the now-defunct Dominion Movement. In order to identifiy this core member of both groups, we consulted with Paparoa, who have been tracking Action Zealandia and the Dominion Movement for some time. They put forward several possible candidates for 'Matt.' After much analysis, White Rose Society has settled on the one person with the same distinctive eyebrows and facial structure: Max Newsome.

Max Newsome, alias 'Matt', is a mid-20s man from Palmerston North who left school early to join the army, probably around 2014 or 2015 when a close friend of his also enlisted (not the NZDF soldier who has been detained and charged).

We have so far been unable to confirm whether Newsome is still serving in the NZDF as they have refused to comment. We note that in a Telegram chat as 'Matt', Newsome reported he was on a 'no-contact order' with the detained NZDF soldier.

Max Newsome came to the attention of anti-fascists in Aotearoa after he attended a Free Speech Rally in Wellington on 14 July 2018 with other members of Dominion Movement including the detained NZDF soldier, Mark Urry, David Toomath and Jarrad Randell-Walsh. This rally was in response to calls in Aotearoa to de-platform Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux ahead of their tour. (It was also timed to coincide with the jailing of British far-right activist Tommy Robinson who violated a court order and thus endagered justice for victims of sexual abuse).

Max Newsome and 'Matt' both have connections to the New Zealand Army, as shown by the military clothing they wear. Some of this clothing is not available to the public.

'Matt' and Max Newsome both travelled to Australia at the beginning of February 2020. Max was there for a family wedding. 'Matt' mentions being at Sydney Airport during the same period.

Max Newsome's Facebook Likes show a degree of radicalisation and engagement with far-right groups. He also follows the fascist, Identitarian organisation 'Australian Revival' (formerly 'Identity Australia') on Instagram. This is the group that Dominion Movement met with prior to being rebranded as Action Zealandia. Of course Max was a follower of Dominion Movement on Instagram before its account was deleted.

Max was also followed on Instagram by Sam Brittenden, the Action Zealandia member who recently made a terror threat to the Al Noor mosque. 'Matt' made a sympathetic reference to Brittenden's arrest. You can read the full chat with 'Matt' distributing the terror threat against the Al Noor Mosque and talking about his 'boy' who did it at this gallery.

'Matt' recently celebrated the release of Christchurch neo-Nazi Philip Arps from prison.

'Matt' mentioned meeting with Nordic Resistance Movement in a Telegram chat for supporters of the group. You can read screenshots of his chats in the NRM Supporters Chat at this link, this link and this link. Dominion Movement also met with Nordic Resistance Movement in January 2019, reporting it on this archived monthly report. Photos from the meetup were posted along with photos of group bonding joint stickering session:

Marc Daalder wrote:

“In other Telegram channels, Matt chatted with members of the far-right Nordic Resistance Movement, which is banned in Finland and has conducted bombings and attacked anti-racism and LGBT rights marches in other Nordic countries. He invited NRM members to visit New Zealand, promising to “take you on a pilgrimage route a saint did last year”, referencing a popular far-right meme depicting the alleged Christchurch gunman as a saint.”

Max Newsome's Instagram (made private since the story on Newsroom about 'Matt'), includes a photograph of him wearing a Wargus Christi singlet (the same far-right “male body culture” organisation that the Linton soldier belonged to).

Earlier this week, an Action Zealandia security manual was leaked by a member of Action Zealandia via Paparoa. Recently arrested Action Zealandia member Sam Brittenden appears to have heeded the advice of this manual in refusing to cooperate with a police search. However, even the intricacy and sophistication of the security manual failed to help Action Zealandia avoid detection.

Leaked 'security guidelines' reveals neo-Nazi plans to avoid detection by Thomas Manch and Florence Kerr, Stuff, 10 March 2020

Could this be Sam Brittenden from a recent Action Zealandia video climbing Mount Ruapehu?

Accelerationism

'Matt' posted in a Telegram chat that he wanted to send a message of support and a prayer to members of The Base after a number of Base members were arrested for conspiring to murder an anti-fascist couple, as well as planning to disrupt the recent Virginia gun rights rally by shooting into the crowd and prompting a shooting spree. Further, 'Matt' also wrote on Telegram that he sought to start an Atomwaffen Division-esque network of terror cells across New Zealand. You can read 'Matt's' chats with an Atomwaffen Division Florida cell leader at this gallery. So far, the Atomwaffen Division has been responsible for over five murders, including that of a gay Jewish teenager, Blaze Bernstein. 'Matt' expressed similar violent homophobic views, including stating that he wanted to throw bricks into the crowds at Pride.

'Matt' casually chatted (gallery) with a leader of Lads Society Queensland and former Antipodean Resistance associate 'Graham Fowler' about 'Graham's' revenge fantasies to murder New Zealand journalist Patrick Gower. 'Matt' and 'Graham' planned to meet in New Zealand later this year.

Neo-Nazi accelerationist thought can be traced to James Mason, whose book Siege has been seminal for neo-Nazi accelerationists worldwide. In Siege, Mason proposes a strategy of decentralised cells enacting widespread white supremacist violence for the goal of setting off a 'race war'. Accelerationism is an ideology that has been accepted by many neo-Nazis internationally. Groups like The Base and the Atomwaffen Division in the US, Antipodean Resistance in Australia, and National Action in the UK, which originally formed on fascist forum IronMarch have embraced Siege culture and accelerationism. More recently, men's only clubs like Australia's Lads Society and Identitarian groups such as Action Zealandia and Australian Revival/Identity Australia have come to act as feeder groups into this insidious ideology.

Feeder groups can appear innocuous but are dangerous due to how effective they can be at radicalising members and mobilising them into action. Some examples include fascist gyms and Identitarian groups which act as a funnel into fascist violence. Far-right survivalist/'prepper' groups are at the more extreme end of this scale. Members start with 'relatively harmless' direct action such as picking up rubbish before participating in more violent activities like graffiti attacks against minorities or stickering with hate speech. At the more extreme end, groups have planned and carried out sabotage and even murder. Following the neo-Nazi accelerationist/Siege mentality, these groups operate as a means of building the capacity of neo-Nazi movements for widescale violence and terrorising vulnerable communities.

'Matt' spoke about creating a group called 'Southern Order' (see gallery) ​​​​​which never went public. It is unclear whether the group existed or if 'Matt' was attempting to accelerate the extremity of the political ideology within Action Zealandia. Considering 'Matt's' lone camping trips, his fantasies about violence against queer people, his weapons training, and his statements of violent intent (“I'm fuckin amped right now I wanna kill”), there is a clear and present danger that he is mentally and physically preparing himself for future “direct action” involving violence. 'Matt' has already mentioned his willingness to access weapons via the black market.

'Matt' only appears to have backed away from accelerationism after two of his comrades were arrested.

Atomwaffen Division encouraged members to join the armed forces for weapons training. The Base actively recruited members with military experience. It remains to be seen if Action Zealandia similarly encouraged newer members to join the military for weapons training in preparation for a 'race war'. First, the Linton soldier, now 'Matt' AKA Max Newsome.

We hope the New Zealand Defence Force is able to confirm whether Max Newsome, a violent neo-Nazi with international connections to terrorist groups, is currently enlisted in the army or the Reserves.

This researched was conducted and written in collaboration with anti-fascist researchers in Aotearoa including ParaDoxx.

We hope our research and writing serves to illustrate the international nature of accelerationism in the Pacific Region. Our ongoing research (forthcoming) on Australian (and some New Zealand) neo-Nazis and their groups reveals intimate connections to Atomwaffen Division, The Base, National Action, Azov Battalion, Order of Nine Angles, Nordic Resistance Movement and others. These are violent groups which need to be designated international terrorist organisations.

If you would like to provide information or tip-offs on any of the groups or individuals named or who feature in photographs in this post, please e-mail Paparoa at files@paparoa.org or us at thewhiterosesociety@protonmail.com. We are especially interested in Max Newsome, Sam Brittenden, Action Zealandia and the Dominion Movement, and the individuals (named and unnamed) featured in group Dominion Movement photos.

Our love and solidarity to the Muslim community in Aotearoa and to all victims and survivors of white supremacist violence globally.

Never Again.

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“I know these issues come up all the time with you: racism, sexism, homophobia — I don't know how racism is ever raised with you given your background. It's just ridiculous.”

ABC journalist Barrie Cassidy during a publicity interview for Katter's 2012 book, An Incredible Race of People.

“I am Bob Katter and I am a proud western chauvinist.”

Bob Katter, 2017.

The far-right is a serious and present danger in Australia. However, strategies used by prominent far-right figures are effective in manipulating public opinion and the media by obscuring abhorrent political views with a big dose of the “true-blue Aussie bloke” character.

A case in point is the acceptance that Bob Katter enjoys as something of a folksy crank or 'leftist' 'hardman'. 

Katter is seen as a 'living meme', with each new incident or statement becoming public entertainment. This is despite his explicit, career-long commitment to ethno-nationalism, homophobia, misogyny, and general reactionary conservatism.

Katter's response to journalist Jason Wilson's story regarding his 2017 pledge of allegiance to the Proud Boys is a case in point. It provides an opportunity to address the ways in which concepts such as 'larrikinism' and 'mateship' have long been used in Australian political discourse to paper over the cultivating of lines of solidarity and protection amongst racists, misogynists, and homophobes, i.e., the very same conditions under which fascist groups such as the Lads Society, Identity Australia, True Blue Crew, and the Proud Boys seek to obtain legitimacy.

Katter uses appeals to ignorance and 'irresponsibility' to excuse his regular association with figures such as Blair Cottrell, Tom Sewell, Fraser Anning, and the Proud Boys. This whitewashes how closely his political commitments are aligned with the ideas and desires of the far-right.

One key factor in sustaining Katter's role as a mediator of reaction within the Australian mainstream is the support he receives from right-wing elements of the union movement and the ALP, both of whom attempt to use Katter to bolster the credentials of a supposed 'left-wing' nationalism.

Our history of Katter's political statements leads us to conclude that Katter's own brand of National Socialism is no less extreme than the political views espoused publicly by the Proud Boys, a group he recently denounced as extremists.

It is important not to underestimate the extent to which the Proud Boys in Australia overlap with – and are interconnected to – other far-right and fascist networks throughout Australia. On this point, we recommend this thread from slackbastard which details some of their connections.

Katter: ethno-nationalist, misogynist, homophobe

Bob Katter is an explicit ethno-nationalist who has long advocated the idea that “Australians” are a distinct race whose reproduction is threatened by the combined forces of immigration, abortion, and homosexuality.

In 1995 Katter declared that: “I will try, as I always do whenever I speak these days, to bring this nation’s attention to probably the most important thing: put simply, we belong to a vanishing race.” In 2002 Katter is quoted as saying, “What is so wrong with the Australian nation that it has decided to eliminate itself from the gene pool,” a line that he repeated again in 2012 in a media article on his book, An Incredible Race of People. The book itself opens with a poem by Mary Gilmore, a racist nineteenth-century labour activist who was part of a group of ethno-socialists who travelled to Paraguay in 1893 in an attempt to establish a white-only utopia, a history that Katter himself is well aware of.

Katter’s misogyny and biological racism come together in his arguments against abortion. In 2006, for instance, he argued against the abortion drug RU486 on the grounds that immigrants were not capable of reproducing “Australians”. On this point, it is worth noting that Ben Shand — the Proud Boys “President of Ipswich” — is himself a militant anti-abortionist, in line with his Christofascist, Pentecostal beliefs. He and other members of the Proud in Queensland members attended the 'March For Life' rally in Brisbane in September 2018, protesting against decades overdue abortion law reform. Katter's thoughts on the relationship between abortion, immigration, and decline of the “Australian race” are also comparable to a number of Proud Boys tenets, including explicit Western chauvinism, the closing of borders, and the “veneration of the housewife”. In Shand's own words, this latter idea implies that “there should be a time in every woman's life where they are a mother, where they are at home with kids, looking after kids.”

Katter’s record of homophobic statements is well known amongst mainstream commentators but is generally excused or euphemised as part of his 'maverick' identity. What is less often acknowledged is the extent to which Katter's homophobia is tied in with his ethno-nationalist beliefs, connections that are of course there for anyone who cares to look into them.

In a 2008 speech on superannuation equality for same-sex couples, for instance, Katter argued that “People have belief systems because they are important for the survival of the race and the survival of the tribe. If homosexuality is a fashion statement, it is a very dangerous fashion statement and it is at the present moment in Australia. … We have chosen a values system that says that we do not have children, and other races have chosen a value system that says that they do.” In the same speech, Katter goes on to say that “I think it is everyone's duty to reflect upon the fact that the sort of viewpoint that I have must win in the end because the other viewpoint leads to the non-survival of the race.” This sentiment is coupled with Katter's view of homosexuals as inherent vectors of disease and degeneration. In 1994, for instance, he is quoted as saying that “New South Wales ... has its gay Mardi Gras and skites about all the people that came out from San Francisco, the city of a million people and 20,000 AIDS cases, presumably to bring their pestilence and plague with them.”

As with the issue of abortion, Katter's homophobia overlaps with a number of Shand's own homophobic views, the two having met as part of the Queensland Proud Boys participation in an anti-marriage equality gathering in Brisbane in 2017. It was at this event that the Proud Boys made the video recording of Katter's “Western chauvinist” pledge that featured in the recent Guardian story. This clearly demonstrates the extent of the mutual appeal between Katter and the fascist far-right, one grounded in a shared political outlook rather than ignorance or happenstance. It is also noteworthy that the Proud Boys do accept the membership of both cisgender (exclusively) gay men and men of colour — a fact that Shand uses to launder his bigoted views and associations with other white supremacists, such as Fraser Anning and Blair Cottrell.

First image, Ben Shand interviewing Blair Cottrell, one of Australia's most infamous neo-Nazis.

Second image, professional homophobe, Australian Conservatives senate candidate for Queensland, and general reactionary bottom-feeder Lyle Shelton hanging out with members of the Queensland Proud Boys including Jordan Clayton-Nelson and Dan Schy. Standing behind them is fundamentalist Christian hate preacher Dave Pellowe.

In case it doesn't go without saying, being a “bloke who is sick of PC nonsense” is less a counterpoint to being a Nazi than it is an entry level requirement for being one.

On the question of political alignment, Katter likes to portray himself as a rough-and-tumble member of the “hard left”. His true views on the relationship between labour and capital, however, share next to nothing in common with the ideas of radical leftist politics. Rather, many of the ideas that Katter tries to present as 'leftist' are attributable to a deeply conservative variety of social corporatism. This doctrine of hierarchical social relations has been historically favoured by the Catholic Church, Benito Mussolini, and reactionary socialists who oppose notions of class conflict. In his first speech in the Federal Parliament in 1993, Katter stated that “private ownership was the great bulwark of protection against the excesses of government and of bullies of all types and of collectives in our society today.” In the same speech he derides the ideas of Karl Marx and points to Russia, “the great basket case of the planet”, as evidence of the failure of Das Kapital. Clearly, Katter's critique of Marx is grounded in Katter's own conservatism, rather than in any recognisably 'leftist' tradition of thought.

Katter’s conception of property institutions is equally grounded in his own ethno-nationalist commitments, having stated that “The English had private ownership centuries before any other race.” Katter's claims to embody the ideals of a “hard left” are therefore based on little more than a commitment to supporting the most reactionary inclinations of the Australian labour movement, in partnership with the interests of a supposedly non-exploitative form of 'Australian' capitalism. On examination, Katter's 'leftism' turns out to be less 'hard' than it is white, authoritarian, and capitalist.

Unions and ALP for Katter

Bob Katter has long enjoyed the support of both mainstream unions and leading figures of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Katter is particularly close with recently elected ALP leader Anthony Albanese. Katter openly and wholeheartedly backed Albanese's bid for party leadership, particularly against the early interest of Tanya Plibersek, whom Katter blamed for the ALP's electoral losses in Queensland. As reported by the ABC, Katter's support for Albanese rests on over 21 years worth of mutual affection between the two, with Albanese having described Katter as “one of the great characters of the national parliament ... He's a mate of mine and I am proud to say that. He is a fair-dinkum bloke.”

Amongst the unions, Katter and his party — Katter's Australia Party (KAP) — have received substantial forms of finacial and political support, including from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union), the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), and the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA). The CFMEU is notable amongst this group as one of several unions who have been instrumental in the ALP's adoption of Tony Abbott's refugee turnback policy and shutting down debate on reforms to asylum seeker policy within ALP. These same policies have themselves inspired support and imitation from a number of neo-Nazi groups across Europe.

In financial terms, between 2011 and 2016 the CFMEU and ETU Victoria donated a combined total of no less than $300,000 worth of members money to the KAP. Notable amongst these records was a $25,000 donation from the CFMEU that came 6 months after Katter had appeared in a photo-op with well-known neo-Nazis from the United Patriots Front (now Lads Society). They met at a rally for dairy farmers which the UPF had attempted to hijack. Tom Sewell (in the background of the photo below), once tried to recruit Brenton Tarrant, the neo-Nazi terrorist responsible for the Christchurch attacks.

Left to right: neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell, MP Bob Katter, neo-Nazi Tom Sewell

In August of 2018 the ETU was reported to have distanced itself from KAP after Katter lent his full-bodied support to Fraser Anning's infamous “final solution” speech. While no statement was recorded from the CFMEU at that time, such details did not hold back union leaders such as Luke Hilakari from posturing over the unfounded assumption that the Australia union movement are undivided in their opposition to fascism. While that particular scandal brought many a concerned and surprised voice from out of the woodwork, the record of Katter's statements previously outlined indicates that reactions on the part of many politicians, media, and union leaders were more often contrived and opportunistic than they were credible.

True to form, less than a year later, Sally McManus and Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) preferenced KAP and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) above the Australian Greens in Capricornia in the 2019 Federal Election. The Katter family have a long association with the DLP dating back to Katter's father Bob Sr., who once held membership. Katter Sr. went on to join the National Party and win his seat on the third count thanks to preferences from the DLP. McManus and the ACTU's electoral strategy spectacularly backfired.

Leading up to the Federal Election in 2019, the ABC revealed the neo-Nazis working on staff for then independent Senator Fraser Anning. This went unremarked upon by both the ALP and ACTU. A number of fascists and right-wing micro parties campaigned and organised alongside each other in Queensland prior to the election, including a now infamous BBQ and campaign event with members of fascist group True Blue Crew and candidates and members from Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party, Great Australia Party, Katter's Australia Party, Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON), Shooters, Fishers and Farmers and Independent candidate Sandy Turner. The event was promoted by former Queensland One Nation President Jim Savage, who allegedly told Fraser Anning to “say something really controversial, really hit that nerve” to draw attention to his maiden speech. Media attention post-BBQ resulted in PHON banning their members from associating with True Blue Crew, despite a history of shared membership in their Queensland supporter and voter base. Union members in Queensland have turned out in large numbers many times in the past to oppose fascists and racists, but during the Federal Election in 2019 this anti-fascist union activity was noticably absent — despite candidates from right-wing micro parties making up a majority of the ballot. 

In sum, Bob Katter's dismissal of his loyalty oath to the Proud Boys as “larrikinism” is little more than a convenient cover for his own brand of National Socialism. Far from being a victim of the Proud Boys antics, Katter's politics and values were aligned with the Proud Boys' before any of them, including Gavin McInnes, were even born. Katter's ability to dodge the repercussions of his ethno-nationalist views and fascist hookups can be chalked up largely to the support that he receives from the Australian media, union leadership, and political class, who continue to find comfort in Katter's blokey authoritarianism.

While this support continues to hold, far-right groups such as Proud Boys will be able to derive legitimacy from the interest and support of mainstream political figures.

Max Towns is a well-known figure within Sydney's far-right scene. Even among his fellow violent fascists, Towns is kept at arm’s length due to his reputation for bizarre and unpredictable behaviour. His cowardly and obsessive crusade on the streets of Newtown involves him targeting 'lefties' (predominantly young women) by stalking and physically intimidating them. Towns’ deeply disturbing solo adventures are well documented and creepy enough on their own, but are all the more worrying in the context of his previously unpublished catalogue of hateful online vitriol and threats of serious violence.

During his one-man street patrol days and in the months leading up to his assault on a News Corp journalist and photographer at a Fraser Anning press conference in Cronulla, Max Towns strongly identified with the fascist 'patriot' group True Blue Crew (TBC). He even dropped $100+ on one of their branded hoodies, which he regularly wore while 'on patrol' hunting for anTeEefa. These vigilante patrols were a neat way of excusing pathological behaviour of the worst kind and consisted mostly of the angsty teenager stalking and profiling young women. Towns would often pretend to talk on his phone to imaginary friends, though they never seemed to accompany Towns on his sad little powerwanks.

On the surface, Towns’ behaviour is almost a caricature of the unhinged and isolated ‘lone wolf' archetype. We will demonstrate that Max Towns has long associated, both online and in person, with various far-right organisations, and has attended numerous actions and rallies before the fated press conference in Cronulla. Although Towns doesn’t seem particularly popular with other figures on the far right, he is undeniably well-connected in fascist far-right circles. In line with demographic trends among young men on the far-right, Towns is also from a background of privilege and wealth, with all the benefits of an expensive private education.

In the images above, Max Towns expresses his support for Senator Fraser Anning, ahead of Towns' now infamous assault on journalists Eliza Barr and Dylan Robinson at a Conservative National Party press conference at Cronulla on Friday 26 April 2019. Note that, next to the “Victory or Death” slogan, Towns uses the 🤚 emoji. This emoji is commonly used by neo-Nazis online as shorthand for “Sieg Heil” or “Heil Hitler”, or included alongside these phrases.

In the second image, Towns uses this same “Sieg Heil” sign alongside the “OK”/“White Power” 👌 sign, famously hand signalled by the neo-Nazi terrorist during his first court appearance following his horrific massacre of 50 people in Christchurch.

Anning's racist pilgrimage

It’s no coincidence that Fraser Anning held his NSW Senate ticket launch at Dunningham Park, Cronulla. This is the same park where the 2005 Cronulla race riots began with a gathering of 5000 beer-swilling flagwits, and escalated into violent attacks on anyone judged to be of 'Middle Eastern' appearance. These attacks were stoked by the same white supremacist discourses peddled by Anning and his supporters.

At the launch attended by Max Towns on Friday 26 April, Anning remarked “As you know, this area is the Prime Minister's seat, and there's been all sorts of problems here with the Muslim immigrants who have come in here and attacked people right here where we're standing now”. Thick irony, considering his feet were on the same ground where thousands of racist dogs congregated in 2005, before swarming the streets of Cronulla while shouting “Fuck off Lebs”.

Anning understands all too well the benefits that accrue from stoking racist fantasies among white Australians. His particular brand of incitement includes regular references to nebulous African and Muslim 'gangs', along with the odd reference to Asians 'buying our land.' A high point of this fascist frenzy was the event dubbed 'Cronulla 2.0' in St Kilda in January this year at which Anning — whose attendance was funded courtesy of taxpayers — staged photo-ops with Blair Cottrell and other neo-Nazis amidst a crowd of Sieg Heiling goons frothing for easy minority targets.

Max Towns making threats of violence on a thread about the 'Cronulla 2.0' rally, on a far-right Facebook Page.

Max Towns attended True Blue Crew's 'Aussie Pride Flag March' in June 2018, when he travelled from Sydney to Melbourne to join clusters of fellow ultra-nationalists and right-wing eccentrics. The neo-Nazi terrorist who carried out the massacre in Christchurch, was also a big fan of the TBC.

Towns appeared in Federation Square after the 'march', with over a dozen other neo-Nazis, in the also famous 'Dandyman' incident. slackbastard wrote:

Having journeyed to Transport Bar at Fed Square upon completion of the rally, Cottrell and a number of his followers took the opportunity to enforce some white shariah. Spying a street performer, ‘Dandyman’, dressed in pink, and possibly imagining himself in the role of head of an Antipodean Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Cottrell & The Gang vocally objected to the performer’s pink costume. This, apparently, was sufficient reason to demand that he remove himself from the Square, and sufficient evidence for the performer to be accused of being a paedophile(!). Requesting assistance from police, they merely delayed the Dandyman’s performance and their removal from the Square. ... Cottrell was accompanied by at least thirteen others including the sloppy seconds of Australia's ever desperate alt right scene (LadSoc) and the leftover crack lumps from Melton's TBC meth labs INC who were to assist in the great cleansing of degenerate modern art in Fed Square:

1: Luke Phipps; 2: Bayden Mottee (kicked out of the Proud Boys for lying); 3: Ian Sayer (True Blue Crew); 4: Max Towns; 5: Lee Taylor (Proud Boys); 6: Jacob Hersant (Antipodean Resistance and Lads Society); 7: Lads Society member (unnamed); 8: Kane Miller (True Blue Crew); 9: Troy Crockett (Lads Society); 10: True Blue Crew member (unnamed); 11: 'Bluebeard'; 12: Steven Hansford (True Blue Crew); 13: True Blue Crew member (unnamed).

(Troy Crockett (#9), a violent neo-Nazi member of Lads Society has not previously been named publicly. Troy uses the following aliases online: Trè Blackstone, Trè Bloodstone, Troy or Trè Targaryen and Trè Greystoke. If you have any information on Troy, please e-mail us.)

It was during this incident — in which a group of neo-Nazi thugs intimidated members of the public with impunity — that Max Towns lead an unprovoked assault on a young couple who subsquently became the next target of Cottrell's fixated band of minions.

This video shows Towns approaching the couple, probably because they looked like 'leftists' to him — or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. This fits Towns' established pattern of victimisation. He tells the young man at the end of the assault to “Fuck off faggot”, an insult he frequently uses when trolling online. The young couple are then surrounded by over a dozen neo-Nazis who continued to abuse, intimidate and threaten them.

Between the Dandyman incident in Federation Square in June 2018 and the verbal and physical assault on two journalists in Cronulla on 26 April 2019, Max Towns has been busy. However, Towns' busy schedule does not appear to be focussed on his studies at The University of Sydney where he is allegedly still enrolled. Nor with the rugby matches he enjoyed during his days at the exclusive $15,000 per annum private Catholic school Waverley College:

Rather, Towns has been busy making himself known throughout the Inner West of Sydney in a series of attacks and intimidation efforts directed at supposed 'leftists', people he believes to be 'antifascists', or people he thinks look at him wrong or just look wrong to him.

Inner West Sydney activities

Reports of Towns' activities were sent to us by concerned Sydney locals on social media. These reports first surfaced after an incident in which he attempted to intimidate a well-known Sydney Socialist activist in Newtown while they were campaigning for the Refugee Action Coalition. The list goes on: he later threatened the daughter of another well-known Sydney Socialist activist; repeatedly egged the front of anarchist bookshop Jura Books; was spotted lurking outside the SWOP building; attacked a door person at an Inner West warehouse party and threw a longneck bottle at them; and is rumoured to have made in-person threats against a Greens MP at their home and electorate office.

On the day of Newtown Festival in November 2018, Towns, sporting his trademark “anti-Antifa” hoody, proceeded to stalk two individuals through the streets of Enmore. The following is an account sent to us from the people who were targeted that day:

On the afternoon of Newtown Festival, mid-November 2018, my partner and I were out getting groceries on Enmore Road.

When we reached Phillip Street we saw a young man was standing outside, talking on his mobile (today, 5 months later, we recognised him as the person who attacked journalists and was arrested at the Fraser Anning event in Cronulla).

We saw the slogans 'anti-antifa' (i.e. pro-fascists) and 'good night lefties' on his pristine black hoodie, so we looked at him visibly disgusted.

Without hesitation, he responded with a smile and then did the 'Heil Hitler' salute. He then aggressively and pointedly snapped up his hoodie while smiling and staring at us, and started yelling stuff like 'die commie pigs' at us as we walked away from him.

We only then realised how aggressive and fixated he was and how dangerous the situation was. We felt physically threatened and like he was a violent guy. We didn't want to turn around and engage any further, so we walked quickly away, with him following and continuing to shout at us.

We turned into Belmore Street and thought he had given up. As we got near to our car we realised he had followed us, and saw him a few cars back, across the street, watching us with his hoodie up, smiling. We got into the car and drove away as quickly as possible.

Until recently many victims of Max Towns' assaults or stalking have been people he thinks are anti-fascists or 'leftists' but who actually have no idea why he's assaulting or stalking them. He generally prefers to pick on people who he reads as smaller or weaker than him, or not up for a fight.

Prior to his abuse and assault on two journalists at Cronulla on 26 April 2019, the last report sent by Sydney locals of Max Towns committing physical assault was again in the Inner West. A young man who passed Towns in the street objected to Towns' “anti-Antifa” hoody. Towns is used to being the one who starts on someone and met his match in a physical altercation. His opponent landed a few punches on behalf of everyone else Towns has assaulted in the past year.

Then Max Towns pushed his opponent into oncoming traffic on a major road.

Towns can often be spotted in Newtown and the Inner West of Sydney wearing anti-Antifa, RA Infidel, or True Blue Crew merchandise. He has also been seen wearing a plain bomber jacket and chinos.

Far-right connections

Max Towns was spotted at other far-right and neo-Nazi events in 2018. He turned up outside the Sydney tour of fascists Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux in July 2018 without a ticket, opting instead to stalk up and down outside the venue, hoping to meet leftist counter-protesters.

Towns also turned up to “Freedom of Speech Day” in Lakemba in 2018, seen here on the far right of this group photo:

Some notable faces from left to right: Jaiden Armstrong Penney (Lads Society), John Bolton (lawyer for neo-Nazis including Blair Cottrell), neo-Nazi and violent misogynist Bluebeard (Neil Erikson's former tripod), neo-Nazi Nick Folkes (formerly Party for Freedom), Alex Annenkov and Mark McDonald (formerly Squadron 88 and Lads Society Sydney leaders), Oscar Tuckfield (Lads Society and one of neo-Nazi infiltrators of NSW Young Nationals) and Mitch van Dam (fascist leader of True Blue Crew in NSW).

Max Towns also stood awkwardly in the background of other photographs, taken at “Freedom of Speech Day”, featuring Blair Cottrell, Alex Annenkov, Mark McDonald and Oscar Tuckfield in the foreground.

Journalist Eliza Barr, the latest victim of Max Towns' rage, is familiar with stunts pulled by the far-right at Lakemba. When fascist Lauren Southern toured Australia in July 2018, she claimed Lakemba was a “No Go Zone” and filmed a video there, despite Lakemba's residents failing to live up to her expectations of a gang war or attacks on white women. Southern was instead moved on by the police for making a nuisance of herself. Barr uploaded a video to Twitter debunking Southern's ridiculous claims.

January 2019 saw Towns making his typical threats of violence on Neil Erikson's (now deleted) Facebook Page ahead of Australia Day/Invasion Day protests. He was egged on by Melissa McPhee, a Queensland member of fascist 'patriot' group True Blue Crew.

“First leftist I see on Australia Day will be eating the pavement, no ifs no buts”

“everyone has a plan until they're punched in the face”

“You don't 'negotiate' or 'be civil' with communists”

On that day, Towns was reportedly spotted in his best Infidel Brotherhood shirt outside the Woolworths at Town Hall station a few blocks from the Sydney Invasion Day rally. Perhaps intimidated by the size of the crowd, on this occasion his big plans amounted to yelling at a few confused commuters.

Towns regularly trolled posts about the March 2019 Mardi Gras in Sydney and ended one long comment thread with:

Privately educated misogynist and racist

Unsurprisingly for someone who abused a female journalist for doing her job, Max Towns is also a violent misogynist. Towns is a supporter of unhinged conspiracy theorist and misogynist Andy Nolch, who vandalised the memorial for rape and murder victim Eurydice Dixon:

Andy Nolch is a pet of both Neil Erikson and the Lads Society, with Nolch serving as an unofficial avatar to represent their hatred of women as they encourage his behaviour.

Max Towns has made threats against feminist Clem Ford online:

Threats towards women and journalists are of course a major feature of the fascist far-right discourse. On the rare occasions that Max Towns isn't spotted sad-boy stalking by himself, he is usually seen consorting with other violent misogynists like Blair Cottrell and 'Bluebeard'. Cottrell shares a common trait with Towns of stalking women and has himself been involved in the harassment of women journalists, the best-known case being a rape threat against Sky News reporter Laura Jayes.

'Bluebeard', like Max Towns, has committed public assaults against female 'leftists'. He remarked to The Feed at the 2018 March for Men:

[Because being a man] sucks! I get in a relationship with a woman, she sucks my dick a couple of times, we get a divorce and she gets half – fuck that! I hate women. Well, a lot of them. There’s a lot of fucking dumb women. There’s a lot of dumb guys out there, too, but nobody complains about misandry. Men have to be tough. Life’s a bitch. Everybody asks stupid questions like, What do women want? It depends on the time of day! Women and men are different. You know, we want different things. I’m 48 years old. Don’t tell me what to do – unless you want to go home in a body bag.

These sentiments are worth placing in connection with Anning's own efforts to stoke a specifically gendered form of racist ire among his supporters.

Far from being inconsistent with the behaviours of Towns, Cottrell, and 'Bluebeard', Anning's own efforts play up to the same sense of superiority and entitlement towards women that is a major feature of misogynist organisations in general and, of course, the fascist far-right in particular. This was born out on Friday in the way that Anning referred to one of his own female candidates, a 54-year-old woman, as a 'good girl'.

Not to be found wanting on JQ ('Jewish Question') front, Towns has also been clocked spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories:

and

In a now ironic comment on a thread about Eggboy, Towns stated “the left get away with murder in this country and it has to stop”.

On the day after Max Towns' arrest at Cronulla for assault, Jesse Nguyen, a former high school acquaintance of Max Towns, shared Facebook posts discussing his history with Towns. Nguyen described exclusive private schools such as Waverley College as a 'fertile breeding ground' for far-right politics.

Nguyen detailed a physical assault Towns perpetrated on him for attending a pro-Palestine protest and stated the only action Waverley College took was to send Jesse to a counsellor — not Max Towns.

Nguyen shared screenshots from a Facebook chat called 'Right Wing Waverley' Towns created in 2017 to harass left-wing students and discuss far-right politics. The screenshots from this chat that Jesse shared on Facebook have been archived by us in this gallery.

Another former high school acquaintance of Towns, Rose Donnelly, described how Towns personally demeaned, threatened and abused her over a span of several years.

Home Ground

The Towns family live in Randwick, in the Eastern Suburbs. Max Towns' father is Michael Towns, who also played Australian Schools Rugby for Waverley College in 1988. Michael Towns works in IT support for Sydney's children's hospitals. Rugby may not be all Max has in common with his father. Michael Towns' Facebook Likes indicate Max's far-right politics may run in the family. Max and Michael Towns both share a hatred of Muslims, something else they have in common with Senator Fraser Anning. Michael Towns' Facebook profile was deactivated a few hours after his son's arrest on Friday 26 April 2019.

Towns was picked up from the watchouse by his supportive mother and grandmother, who tried to help him avoid the waiting media. Towns was again captured smiling smugly outside the watchhouse. He was also photographed a few hours earlier with a self-satisfied smile during his arrest at Cronulla. Those who viewed the full livestream of the neo-Nazi terrorist attack in Christchurch will recall the gunman's calm as he gunned down 50 innocent people at prayer; he was laughing.

It would be a mistake to dismiss Max Towns as merely a dangerous individual trying to make a name with the “big boys” of the fascist scene. He clearly sees himself as some sort of warrior, intent on policing those he deems to be undesirable elements: women, queers, Muslims, reporters, “lefties”, Jews. When violent young men start taking such action, we should all be worried.

Max Towns has shown himself to be a fixated stalker and a dangerous and violent young man. He is not simply a danger to journalists, but to anyone who deviates from his strict, fascist world view. Even though Max Towns usually acts alone on his violence, he is clearly no “lone wolf”, having enjoyed the company and support of the same cross-state network of neo-Nazis with whom Senator Anning has actively sought to associate and align himself with.

We encourage you to e-mail us in confidence if you have any further information about Max Towns — or if you have been targeted by him personally.

We also encourage you to e-mail us if you have further information on the individuals shown above who were in Federation Square during the Dandyman incident. We are particularly interested in #9 Troy Crockett, a violent neo-Nazi member of Lads Society who has not been named until now. Troy uses the following aliases online: Trè Blackstone, Trè Bloodstone, Troy or Trè Targaryen and Trè Greystoke.

Senator Fraser Anning shakes hands at St. Kilda in January with convicted criminal, Neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell

Increasingly, the far-right in Australia has been emboldened by politicians who repeat and validate their conspiracies, imagined grievances and talking points about “African gangs”, Asian immigration, nationalism, “Cultural Marxism”, Indigenous peoples, Muslims, and “White Genocide”. Last year we reported on the extent to which some far-right, fascist, and neo-Nazi groups had established relations with politicians from both minor and mainstream parties, including a major infiltration of NSW Young Nationals.

It is now clear that Senator Fraser Anning, the ‘accidental’ senator, is becoming the figurehead for this growing movement.

Our investigation into Senator Fraser Anning reveals a complicated web of links between Anning and players and power brokers on the far-right including neo-Nazi Andrew Wilson.

These neo-Nazis and far-right activists have been attempting to influence the Australian political scene for years. They have used their networks and social media techniques to push Anning’s agenda and popularity. Members of defunct far-right groups such as the Patriotic Youth League, the New Guard, and Klub Nation are still working together behind the scenes to install Anning as the acceptable frontman for Australia’s ethno-nationalist/neo-Nazi movement.

We reveal a blueprint for the neo-Nazi movement in Australia

• The placement of ethno-nationalist staffers in the offices of minority parties is one key plank in the strategy. We show how certain persons of influence are in Anning’s camp and demand Anning provides information about his staffers, including the names of those who contributed to his “Final Solution” maiden speech.

• The use of social media to push incendiary and racist messaging is another strategy. We show how a network of alt-right media and Facebook pages run by the far-right and neo-Nazis work together to promote Anning. We also show how these pages have already been used to troll opposition candidates in elections.

• Whether or not Anning knows it, his statements on banning Muslim and African immigration, deporting families, and protecting Australia’s “European” identity rest on an anti-Semitic ethno-nationalist bedrock provided by far-right Australian academics. This is despite Anning’s publicly declared support for Israel which provides a useful cover for the real agenda.

Anning’s maiden speech: neo-Nazi speech writers?

Anning’s parliamentary debut in August 2018 was controversial. His maiden speech called for an end to “Muslim and third world” immigration, proposing a White Australia policy for the 21st century. At the time, Senator Pauline Hanson called the speech “straight out of the Goebbels’ handbook from Nazi Germany” and told the media that Anning’s speechwriter was a One Nation ex-staffer called Richard Howard.

We can reveal that White Rose Society has been passed information from a credible source claiming that another of Anning's speechwriters for the “Final Solution” maiden speech, was longtime ethno-nationalist Frank Salter. Salter is an honorary associate in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.

In the 1970s, Salter and Jim Saleam co-founded Australian National Alliance, the predecessor to Australian National Action. Most notably, members of National Action took part in a drive-by shooting, organised by Saleam, of anti-Apartheid activist Eddie Funde’s house. (Saleam was later jailed for his role in the crime, and is now the leader of the Australia First Party.)

Salter left activism and Australia in the 1980s and moved to Austria to research the application of behavioural biology to politics. He has published on ethnicity and conflict and describes himself as an Anglo Identitarian. He believes in ‘the great replacement’ of white people by non-white migrants and has been described as “a giant in the intellectual defense of white identity.” He argues for the strengthening of Christianity and the rejection of multiculturalism.

Note: these are all sentiments we have heard uttered by Fraser Anning over the last 6 months.

The ethno-nationalist blueprint for taking over Australia

Frank Salter has recently outlined the steps needed for far-right ethno-nationalists to take Australia “back to its traditional Western identity”:

Salter wants the war fought on two fronts: the political and the cultural. Struggles on the cultural front are important for a number of reasons, including the extent to which they reinforce the political. The most important way the cultural front can help is:

Salter has acted as an adviser to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party on ethnicity. He has spoken against ethno-religious diversity at the Christian Democrat Party national convention in 2010. And now we believe he is influencing Senator Fraser Anning.

Neo-Nazi pseudoscience

Salter has a strong connection to prolific Holocaust denier and academic Kevin Macdonald, an important intellectual exponent of White Nationalism in America. MacDonald's work has become increasingly popular with the alt-right in recent years.

MacDonald argues that a Jewish dominated elite “has emerged to dominate intellectual and political debate” and “loathes traditional institutions of European culture”. MacDonald has associated with Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and testified in defence of Holocaust denier David Irving. He was known affectionately as “K-Mac” on the Nazi bulletin board, Daily Stormer.

MacDonald visited Australia in late 2018. Members of Sydney’s Lads Society, including Thomas Brasher (“Thomas Hopper”), subsequently posted fan photos with MacDonald.

Both Salter and MacDonald use pseudo-science to claim that ethnic groups are bound by common interests through shared genetics. They reject multiculturalism and actively work for a white, Christian ethno-state on traditionalist lines. They provide the intellectual foundation for the alt-right nationalist movement in Australia.

Fraser Anning’s advisers

We have seen from Frank Salter's blueprint how placing ethno-nationalist advisers into minor political parties is a key strategy of the neo-Nazi movement. And so, it is with great concern that we note the presence of a nodding familiar face standing just behind Senator Fraser Anning at the 5 January St Kilda Rally: neo-Nazi Andrew Wilson.

We won't rehash what's been written elsewhere in the last week about the events of the day, the fascist and Neo-Nazi organisers, media incitement to racism and violence and Anning’s galling expenditure of at least $10,000 of public funds to attend far-right events to which he’s invited himself over the last 6 months.

Many media reports have focused on the ‘roman salutes’ thrown by rally attendees while Anning has claimed he saw no neo-Nazis at all. We have been informed that when asked recently, Anning denied knowing Wilson and claimed that Wilson “just happened” to be standing near him. Why would Senator Fraser Anning lie about knowing Andrew Wilson? Why would a Senator hide his relationships with neo-Nazis, unless he knows they're neo-Nazis?

Who is neo-Nazi Andrew Wilson?

Andrew Wilson is a key figure who ties past fascist groups together with current political efforts. Wilson can be linked to Senator Fraser Anning well before he showed up at the rally in St Kilda on 5 January 2019. Wilson has had a long involvement with extreme right politics from his earliest university days. He has been connected to extreme neo-Nazi groups in the USA, boasted about involvement in the Cronulla riot of 2005, was a key participant in attempts to infiltrate Humanist Society of NSW, and is a failed political candidate in WA. Andrew Wilson is at the centre of a network of far-right figures who are intent on achieving political influence.

This section will provide our readers with Andrew Wilson’s background and update you with his activities since he was last publicly active in far-right politics. The next part of our article will explain the pieces of the puzzle that led us to link Wilson to Fraser Anning well before he showed up next to Anning at St. Kilda on 5 January 2019.

Andrew Wilson in the Volksfront era

Fight dem Bak wrote in 2009:

In the years 2004–2005, Andrew Wilson was a member of, and the Sydney organiser for, the ‘Patriotic Youth League’, a botched attempt by AF (Australia First Party) to establish a youth wing. Like Palmer, Rafty and Cratchley, Wilson was also at one point a member of the Stormfront forum. The PYL lead a relatively brief existence, conducted campaigns against the presence of foreign students on University campuses and trade union support for foreign workers, and underwent a significant crisis when its Sydney branch was also discovered to be functioning as the contact point for the US-based neo-Nazi group ‘Volksfront’.

Wilson was a 17-year-old student at the University of Newcastle and living in Epping, NSW, in 2004.

While a member of the Patriotic Youth League (see below), Wilson explained his opposition was to “non-European immigrants who are completely alien to the Australian way of life and culture, and who have no wish to assimilate anyway”.

In February 2005 an Australia First Party front-group in Newcastle “Concerned Citizens Council”, held a public event “Campaign against the Sudanese Invasion of Newcastle”. Their event was heavily countered and outnumbered. Australia First Party's Jim Saleam appeared, with Australia First Party, Patriotic Youth League and the band Blood Red Eagle listed as sponsors, among others. Blood Red Eagle are a Newcastle neo-Nazi band. Vocalist Doug Schott was a member of Volksfront. Later that year Patriotic Youth League boasted of their role at the Cronulla Riots. Just as neo-Nazis sought to take advantage of the Cronulla riots in Sydney in 2005, so too do neo-Nazis in Melbourne in 2019 — on this occasion with the blessings of an Australian Senator — seek to profit from 'Cronulla 2.0'.

Closely following on from his involvement in the PYL and Volksfront, Wilson became a member of a group known as Klub Nation/Klub Naziya/Public Information Forum. This group had big plans. They met at Humanist House (owned and managed by the Humanist Society of NSW) in Sydney from 2001 until 2010.

In 2007, a prominent member of Klub Nation Jason Rafty described Klub Nation on the neo-Nazi Stormfront forum as follows:

Klub Nation is the only continuous meeting place for white Nationalists in Sydney since 2003.

...

Klub Nation is sponsored by the PIF Inc ([P]ublic [I]nformation [F]orum) and in essence is a networking and social point for Nationalists. [W]e present a range of guest and in house speakers covering the full gamut of political-economy, and other subjects of relevance to the Nationalist milieu.

The conveners of Klub Nation seek to cast an image as a survivor’s Klub.

Urban survival against the predations of the NWO–Globalist over class is less about arms caches, compounds and tin food stock, but rather having the knowledge, network and social capital to assail and prevail over everything this insidious over class throws at us. NWO tyranny and enslavement is predicated on the atomization of Anglo-Celtic people. Any brotherhood or Klan based unity is like a silver bullet[.]

Klub Nation promotes the “viable Nationalist”: – one who isn’t crest fallen, physiologically addled, impecunious or effeminate. Remaining viable is the linchpin to survival. Like hell, we’re going to become the white trash of South East Asia.

Infiltration attempts by Klub Nation to gain resources

From 2008-2010 Klub Nation attempted to infiltrate the Humanist Society of NSW. This included installing Klub Nation member Mark Pavic as Vice-President of the Society. (Notoriously, Pavic was convicted of the manslaughter of his mother in 1985 after her body was found in Lake Burleigh Griffin weighted down by concrete blocks.) This gaggle of right-wing extremists planned to gain control of Humanist House and other assets held by the Humanist Society of NSW. Slackbastard wrote in 2017 “(Klub Nation) is also alleged to have been involved in some dingbat investment scheme — the purchase of gold and silver — in which several investors allegedly lost some small sums of money.”

David Palmer and other neo-Nazi members of Klub Nation had earlier infiltrated the British-Israel World [Federation] Pty. Ltd. in New South Wales in 1999. According to Jim Saleam, joining to “get a hold of over $500,000 in money and assets left to the Federation from the Estate of Mr. K.D. Nicholls. If they had succeeded, neo-[N]azism in Australia would have become self-sustaining.”

History repeating in 2018?

A decade after the Klub Nation infiltration attempt, members of the Lads Society attempted to infiltrate the NSW Young Nationals. There is overlap between the memberships of Klub Nation, Lads Society and Antipodean Resistance. United Nationalists Australia (neo-Nazis Australia First Party) first warned of this in a bitchy March 2018 blog post Are the Lads Society Klub Nation 2.0?:

“…we have the incredible situation where one of the most influential of Nationalist thinkers has thrown his all in with this non-Nationalist group. Moreover, he is paying it tributes that not only it hasn’t earned, but which are not in any way deserved by this non-political, non-activist, non-Nationalist association.

We will not name the individual or any organisation to which this Nationalist may belong, but by ‘this group’ – we mean the ‘Lads Society’.

[Frank Salter?]

… The Lads Society is a monetised operation dependent on fee-paying members to sustain the club and maintain its equipment. Klub Nation was likewise monetised although it was done so along the lines of a Ponzi scheme. It does not possess a real hope of survival. This is subculture at best and as such it has a finite lifespan. Under the conditions described there is no hope of ‘saving Australia’, particularly when its leaders are reticent about committing to a definition of what constitutes an Australian.”

What Andrew Wilson did next: failed political candidate

Andrew Wilson dropped off the radar for a few years until he reappeared in September 2017 when he ran for council in the North Ward of Mosman Park, Western Australia. Wilson’s candidate profile described him as a long term resident of Mosman Park with a background working in law and media.

Wilson was described by Peter Tinly, the then WA Housing Minister as “a member of the ‘lunatic fringe’ who aspires to local government.” Wilson ran on a single issue platform of evicting Public Housing tenants from Mosman Park, writing on his candidate Facebook Page:

“It's time to address the elephant in the room. Every day a break in occurs in Mosman Park, and we all know it's due to the housing commission.

We have three schools in the area, young children, families, and retirees living in Mosman Park who deserve to feel safe walking the streets, and yes, that means even at night.

I am a resident of Mosman Park. I have a background in law and I am running for local council this October. If elected I will ensure that we get rid of the housing commission blocks ASAP.”

This Facebook post was accompanied a video with the tagline “We have to GET RID of the housing commission. SAFETY FOR MOSMAN PARK NOW!”

During his campaign, Wilson was interviewed on Radio 6PR with Oliver Peterson. In this interview, he made the bizarre assertion, “I have a big heart, if you met me you’d say wow…a big heart.”

Peterson: “I have met you before. I know you have a Memes for the Urban Gentleman Facebook account which is a satirical Facebook account. I'm wondering if this video and your proposed election here to the town of Mosman Park is actually just a pisstake.”

Wilson: “No I’m not sure what you’re talking about there Ollie.”

Andrew Wilson: Facebook troll?

During the Perth council elections in 2017, another candidate for Mosman Park, Georgie Carey, was “subjected to a barrage of online abuse, with accusations of being ‘anti-male and anti-white'” after calling for greater diversity on the council and reaffirming the sentiment expressed by WA Local Government Minister David Templeman about the need to reverse the “male, pale and stale” stereotype of councillors. Her post was shared by the Facebook Page Abhorrent Australian Memes (with 40,000 followers at the time and since Zucced), instructing their followers to let her know what they thought. Her post also featured on troll bulletin board 4Chan.

Since the St Kilda rally on 5th January, the Abhorrent Australian Memes Did Nothing Wrong Facebook Page has posted to celebrate the rally and in support of Senator Fraser Anning's actions and his new political party.

Georgie Carey stated she received more than 300 abusive comments and posts calling her racist and sexist. Abhorrent Australian Memes and its reincarnation, [Abhorrent Australian Memes Did Nothing Wrong](https://www.facebook.com/Abhorrent-Australian-Memes-did-nothing-wrong-1018690331591700/) is run by Cooma based neo-Nazi Matthew Grant, leader of Australia First Party’s Eureka Youth League, a later incarnation of the Patriotic Youth League, of which Andrew Wilson was once the organiser.

Wilson received 290 votes as a candidate for the North Ward in Mosman Park, behind winning candidate Paul Shaw's 737 votes. Georgie Carey was one of two candidates elected in Mosman Park for the South Ward, coming second with 499 votes.

This incident reveals the power that troll pages have to attack rivals as well as support their chosen candidates. These pages are vocal in their support of Fraser Anning.

Did Andrew Wilson's political ambition end there, or did he have his sights set higher, perhaps a position of influence with a politician like Senator Fraser Anning?

Andrew Wilson falls out with his neo-Nazi mentor

After his electoral defeat in 2017, Wilson appeared in a May 2018 post on the 'United Nationalists of Australia' blog (an online shitsheet for the Australia First Party). Titled 'Klub Defamation: AFP Leader Being Sued over UNA Klub Nation Exposé', it read in part:

Former members of the defunct Klub Nation have joined together to launch a defamation suit against Australia First Party president Jim Saleam for an article published on this blog in June 2017.

Led by Andrew Wilson, who has filed a statement of claim several months after the publication of ‘Rape House’, notices of concern have also been filed by Jason Rafty, Steven Moore, and Peter Coleman. What is unusual is that all four applications have been made from different states claiming damages collectively to the value of $530,000.

It is understood that following the issuing of his statement of claim, Andrew Wilson has travelled to NSW to muster up support for his action.

Information received suggests that another associate of Klub Nation, Mark Pavic, is playing an instrumental role behind the scenes, and may yet himself issue a concerns notice.

We have no update on the progress of the defamation suit against Saleam, but assume it’s ongoing: the blog post in question was later unpublished. In either case, we believe Wilson may now have moved back to Sydney from Perth, or be frequently commuting between the two cities.

Weaponising memes: Andrew Wilson’s connection to Senator Fraser Anning

Andrew Wilson and his associates have been running some of the most prolific online support for Senator Fraser Anning through a network of Facebook Pages and groups, in coordination with Anning. Proving this has been complex. Wilson has actively pushed the “white South African farmers are in peril” narrative. The South African “White Genocide” conspiracy theory has made a major contribution to pushing political discourse further to the right, as well as radicalising conservative politicians.

Tracing Andrew Wilson's online presence was like following a trail of crumbs dropped in odd places. Wilson also wasn't who we expected to find in connection to Anning: we were interested in investigating Wilson's recent activity, and in particular, whether it was linked to other former Klub Nation members.

The trail began in June last year in the comments section on the Future Now Australia Facebook page (then administered by Dan Spiller and Neil Erikson), and an account that looked very much like a sockpuppet. The sockpuppet had accidentally replied in a thread about the Dandyman incident in Federation Square; tellingly, as the sockpuppet, rather than as the Future Now Australia page. Later in this article we will show that the sockpuppet in question, “Henni Mostert”, belongs to Andrew Wilson.

We started to compare what content was being shared across the Future Now Australia Page, and where. We began to suspect that others on the far-right, perhaps living in Perth, were Admins on this Page. We also noted that since June 2018, “Henni Mostert” had been regularly sharing content from the Senator Fraser Anning Facebook Page into a number of far-right Facebook groups such as:

• Australians vs Neoliberal & Right Wing Politics
• Palmy Army
• Australian Conservatives Party
• THE BOLT REPORT SUPPORTERS GROUP
• INFIDEL BROTHERHOOD SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR
• Pauline Hanson’s One Nation
• Pauline Hanson/One Nation Supporters & Discussion Forum
• Outsider’s Support Group 2.0
• Proud South African in Perth.

Prior to this, in May 2018, “Henni Mostert” was sharing content from the Hon Charles Smith MLC (Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party) Facebook Page. We’ve uploaded a selection of “Henni Mostert's” Facebook posts and shares to a Photo Gallery for your review. The Future Now Australia Facebook Page strongly supported Anning by also sharing his content.

Why would Senator Fraser Anning lie about knowing Andrew Wilson, when Wilson has been an active supporter of Anning and his politics online since at least June 2018? We have seen Anning fraternise with many on the far-right including fascists “working” in alt-media and their neo-Nazi associates like Blair Cottrell. Yet Anning felt compelled to lie about working closely with neo-Nazi Andrew Wilson, even when Wilson had been seen standing right next to him.

Neo-Nazi and convicted racist Neil Erikson was also an Admin on the Future Now Pages until Queensland businessman, fascist and Mormon Dan Spiller ran out of money after sinking it all into the bankrupt Milo Yiannopolous, and had to cut Erikson loose.

We also noted “Henni Mostert” posing as a South African in Perth, with family still in South Africa suffering because of “White Genocide”:

We compared the “meme template” across a number of far-right Facebook Pages. Rather than make this article more screenshot heavy, we've uploaded a selection of their content to Photo Galleries linked below, for your comparison:

• Future Now Australia – Photo Gallery
• Senator Fraser Anning – Photo Gallery
• Save Australia – Photo Gallery
• Hon Charles Smith MLC (Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party) – Photo Gallery

and recently to Memes for the Urban Gentleman, the Facebook Page allegedly run by Andrew Wilson (Wilson’s Facebook regularly interacts with this Page including in the comments section).

These “memes” are photographs and texts in identical or similar fonts and similar layouts, with racist or reactionary text and calls to action. All of these Pages heavily used white space with black text, red text or white text on red backgrounds, or white text on green: design elements that catch the eye and are readable. We noted these Pages were either sharing each other’s content or similar political lines and sentiments at the same time, in what appeared to be an organised communications strategy.

Each of these Pages, including Anning’s, follow parts of Frank Salter’s blueprint: talking about how cultural and racial diversity undermines social cohesion; introducing the public to the meaning and benefits of nationhood and its reliance on a dominant and confident core ethnic identity; explaining that multiculturalism is an ethnic hierarchy that subordinates Anglo Australians; maintaining a rational rage against the corruption of the universities and proposing remedial policies; working with responsible protest groups to defend the right to public assembly. They share memes, text and videos that are anti-immigration (especially Africans, Asians and Muslims), they fearmonger about the “White Genocide” conspiracy theory, they are nationalist, pro-Christian and “traditionalist” and they warn about “Cultural Marxism” and universities. Fraser Anning's posts have included the tagline, “Help save Australia before it's too late.”

Who is responsible for the content on Senator Fraser Anning’s Facebook Page and his communications strategy? Who are the Admins on Anning’s Facebook Page? Are these Admins paid staffers or volunteers?

Henni Mostert and Andrew Wilson

Looking at an account like “Henni Mostert” one could assume it’s a sockpuppet. On closer examination, we quickly saw that Andrew Wilson had simply renamed his Facebook account, active since at least 2009. We found proof of this through an old friend of Andrew Wilson's, Allan Worth:

At one point Wilson was also known as “Bannon Jones” online:

Ultimately it was his close friendship with Allan Worth dating back to at least the Volksfront days, that gave him away. To our knowledge, Worth has not previously been named as an associate or member of Volksfront.

The Volksfront group photo referred to above turned up again on Worth's Facebook profile, confirming our suspicions that “Henni Mostert” is really Andrew Wilson. Allan Worth also features in this photo.

This Facebook post suggests that Wilson was familiar with the Abhorrent Australian Memes Facebook Page, which led an online attack against his rival council candidate Georgie Carey in 2017.

To verify Andrew Wilson's identity we compared numerous other photographs of him that had been published online by his friends, as well as video footage taken during his 2017 council campaign in Perth and at the St Kilda rally this year.

Andrew Wilson and the New Guard

The New Guard was a secret group which formed the basis of the attempt to infiltrate the Young Nationals in 2018 as outlined by the ABC’s Background Briefing program. During the course of our investigations into Wilson's online profile, we recalled comments by “Henni Mostert” (Andrew Wilson) and others in Western Australia, in the New Guard Facebook group. These comments made reference to a “James Kenneth” from the group Austranati (The Australian Traditional Nationalist), who is accused of attempting to poach members of the group. In the discussion, Mostert/Wilson threatens to launch defamation proceedings against “Kenneth”, suggesting that Mostert/Wilson is familiar with taking such legal action.

We later unearthed mention of a group that may exist in Perth called Dominion League, that has some crossover with Lads Society.

If there is a group named “Dominion League” in Perth, is it Andrew Wilson's group? A number of others in Perth commented under him in the screenshot from the New Guard and none appear to be associated with Lads Society. Given his beginnings in Patriotic Youth League, a group named 'Dominion League' seems to be more Wilson's style; the League, like the New Guard, named after an historical Australian fascist group.

Members of the New Guard Facebook group planned to elect people in local, state and federal parliament. Did Andrew Wilson have his sights set on Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, or Katter's Australia Party, next?

Andrew Wilson's collaborators and the digital agency

Radomir Kobryn-Coletti

In the course of our investigations, we found a link to Andrew Wilson through Radomir Kobryn-Coletti, a person of interest over the last year. Radomir founded R&CO Agency, a video production, advertising and digital agency in Perth, Western Australia. Ironically, they claimed on their website to have worked with the ABC, at the same time as Kobryn-Coletti had a “Defund The ABC” (alt-right meme) profile pic frame on his personal Facebook.

Andrew Wilson's sparse LinkedIn revealed he may be associated with Kobryn-Coletti.

Further investigation revealed that Kobryn-Coletti had traded as R&CO Agency on his personal ABN until 15 June 2017.

On 17 January 2017 Radomir Asterius Kobryn-Coletti formed a partnership with a T.J. Vacher (Tyson John Vacher) and an A.J. Wilson, with the ABN 18 559 392 078. Could Radomir have made Andrew John Wilson and Tyson Vacher partners at R&CO Agency? Or does their partnership have another purpose?

Radomir emerged in Perth in 2013 as a 17-year-old “teenpreneur” running a party management venture Rads Entertainment, co-founded with then 16-year-old Tyson Vacher, both now in partnership with Andrew Wilson. Radomir was educated at The Modern School in Perth, graduating in 2012, then studying at the University of Western Australia. His father Giuseppe Coletti works in the Physics department at UWA and his mother Dr Halina Kobryn is an academic at Murdoch University in the School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Agricultural and Fisheries Sciences. Radomir's social media accounts indicate his political beliefs align with the “alt-right”, he identifies as an 'anarcho-capitalist' or proprietarian and is an MRA (Men's Rights Activist).

Radomir is also a rabid racist. In the screenshot below, Radomir teams up with Wilson and Vacher to leave dozens of racist and homophobic comments on the Facebook profile of a young black man. (This link contains the original, unedited thread.)

(With our apologies to Mr Bremner)

Radomir also joined in the online attack on Mosman Park candidate Georgie Carey, commenting on Reddit:

The sole video on Radomir Kobryn-Coletti's Vimeo channel is 33 seconds of Senator Fraser Anning speaking about Peter Dutton's “fast track visa” offer for white South African farmers, saying, “The lessons of Rhodesia have not been learnt”. This video was posted ten months ago. Kobryn-Coletti's Vimeo channel uses the R&Co Agency logo, who offer services in video production.

In January 2018 Kobryn-Coletti was sharing posts in the Palmy Army Facebook group about Clive Palmer or from his Facebook Page, as well as from the Senator Fraser Anning Facebook Page into the Facebook groups THE BOLT REPORT SUPPORTERS GROUP and The Bolt Report Supporters Group (Uncensored Version). From March 2018 he also shared posts from the Hon Charles Smith MLC Facebook Page into Facebook groups THE BOLT REPORT SUPPORTERS GROUP and The Bolt Report Supporters Group (Uncensored Version). From July 2018, he followed the same sharing strategy for posts from Future Now Australia and Future Now News Facebook Pages. We have uploaded selected screenshots of Radomir's Facebook shares and posts to a Photo Gallery for you to peruse.

Tyson Vacher

Tyson Vacher, or “Dongers” according to those who went to high school with him, is notorious in Perth for being fined $7500 in 2017 after his company Black Tie Waiters took payment from clients for engagements, parties and weddings, but didn't turn up to the events. Fisting $50 notes in a selfie, he boasted on Facebook, “Prosecution sought $144,000 in fines. I got fined $7,000. On my way to court now to pay my fines in CASH. Peace.”

Tyson previously made local media in Perth in 2015 after a publicity stunt advertising a nightclub event “exclusively for private school graduates within Perth's 'golden triangle'.” Kobryn-Coletti is also heavily involved in events management in Perth.

Tyson is, or was, a student of The University of Western Australia. He went to Beldon Primary School and Lake Joondalup Baptist College. Tyson is a homophobe and racist and appears to be fond of harassing women and misogyny. He also described a game which rewards shooting LGBTQI+ people as an “epic gaming moment”.

Fraser Anning and the AltRight media

Fraser Anning has been heavily supported by fake news journalists including The Unshackled and XYZ, both running numerous articles about Anning as well as video interviews and live-streams. One of Anning's staffers, Boston White, has also supplied photographs of rallies (including March for South Africa) to XYZ to use for their articles.

AltRight media and Anning have a mutually beneficial relationship. The AltRight media and their far-right followers are able to advance bigoted, racist and white supremacist policies and talking points through Anning to the mainstream. Anning has his voice amplified through the alt-media and their far-right followers and is able to build his voter base, hoping to improve on the paltry nineteen votes that saw him elected. Online, Anning has support from garden variety racists to neo-Nazis, despite his public despite his public support for the state of Israel and its policies. Neo-Nazis see Anning as “our guy” despite his failure to publicly identify as an explicit white nationalist. The same considerations apply to their support for other political figures such as Clive Palmer.

Anning appears to have been carefully coached in public speaking and talking points, with communications appearing scripted to be digestible by a far-right audience who rely on headlines and short video clips. His explicit communications also ensure greater outrage (or support) when reported in the mainstream.

We have seen direct links with AltRight media and other far-right politicians before. Fake news journalist from The Unshackled, Steele Archer Hawes, claimed partial credit for Senator Pauline Hanson's “It's OK To Be White” motion in October last year:

Morgan Munro, The Unshackled and Neil Erikson

Morgan Munro is a cameraman for The Unshackled and is originally from Perth. He is an Admin in the “unofficial” Fraser Anning Supporter's Group on Facebook, where he uses the sockpuppet account “Buster McDuff”. Facebook groups like this run by “volunteers” in close contact with Anning's office, are cheaper and easier to run than focus groups or phone polls, allowing staffers to quickly take the pulse of issues like this one:

Or this one:

Antipodean Resistance and Lads Society member Aaron Long, a neo-Nazi, is also a Moderator in the “unofficial” Fraser Anning Supporter's Group on Facebook. Here he mentions that he has a mate who works for Anning:

On 8 December 2018 neo-Nazi and twice-convicted racist Neil Erikson attended the African Music & Cultural Festival in Federation Square in Melbourne. There he mounted the stage to yell the White Supremacist slogan “It's OK To Be White!”. On this occasion Erikson was accompanied by some of his current crop of devotees: fascist Morgan Munro (“Buster McDuff”), frequent mental health-ward patient, rotting-corpse and woman-basher 'Bluebeard' (Rino Grgurovic) and Stefan Eracleous, a former Young Liberal at the University of Melbourne, aspiring rapist and former supporter of Greek neo-Nazi organisation Golden Dawn.

“Buster McDuff” live-streamed a couple of videos in the Fraser Anning Supporter's Group on Facebook. Neil Erikson's group selfie (above) with his fellow serial pests was later deleted from his Facebook Page (by Erikson).

Note that Richie Whelan is one of Erikson's neo-Nazi comrades of many years. Like Erikson, Whelan is facing charges arising from the Milo event in Melbourne in December 2017. The pair, along with Ricky Turner, are due back in Melbourne Magistrates' Court in May.

If you compare the group selfie and the first few seconds of this video, you'll see that Morgan Munro accidentally outs his sockpuppet Buster McDuff:

Over the next month, alt-media continued to escalate an imagined “African gang crisis”, first manufactured by their colleagues in the mainstream media and federal politicians. Far-right Facebook Pages and groups continued to amplify this “issue”. In late December, Neil Erikson went to St Kilda and filmed a group of African youths playing football, harassing them until a young man was brutally capsicum sprayed and arrested. Recently Avi Yemini (a close political colleague of Senator Fraser Anning) and Anning himself, have mentioned “African gangs” in Queensland. We believe none of these events were accidental or independent of each other.

This brings us to Saturday 5th January 2019 and a far-right rally called by Neil Erikson and nicknamed “Cronulla 2.0” in the leadup. Speaking to the crowd and media at that event was far-right favourite, Senator Fraser Anning, with neo-Nazi Andrew Wilson by his side.

Senator Fraser Anning must answer to parliament and the public:

• Is Frank Salter the real author of Senator Fraser Anning's “Final Solution” speech?
• Does Senator Fraser Anning have an ongoing relationship with Frank Salter and what is the nature of it? What communications have there been between Anning, his office and staffers, and Salter? What payments have been made?
• Why did Senator Fraser Anning lie about his relationship with neo-Nazi Andrew Wilson?
• In what capacity are neo-Nazi Andrew Wilson and fascist Morgan Munro of The Unshackled, working for Senator Fraser Anning? Are they consultants, paid staffers or volunteers? What communications have there been between Andrew Wilson and Morgan Munro, with Anning, his office and staffers?
• Are Andrew Wilson and Morgan Munro being paid by Anning or another source connected to Anning?
  
• What communications have there been between Senator Fraser Anning, his office and staffers and: Andrew Wilson; Radomir Kobryn-Coletti and Tyson Vacher and others at R&CO Agency; Dan Spiller and Future Now; The Unshackled; XYZ; and others on the far-right like Neil Erikson and Blair Cottrell?
• Have any payments been exchanged, with any of these individuals or groups?

If Senator Fraser Anning continues to lie, all avenues of investigation should be exhausted by those with the means to pursue them: Freedom of Information requests should be made and financial records should be made available and examined.

Australian media, politicians and the public are mistaken if they think the only neo-Nazis in Australia are the visible and vocal few. Neo-Nazis Sieg Heiling in public and Nazi merchandise or tattoos are shocking, but not as shocking as the rapid shift to the far-right, in Australian discourse and policy. Or comments regularly made by politicians like Senator Fraser Anning, that should violate Human Rights Law. Neo-Nazis who were active ten, twenty, thirty years ago haven’t gone away, nor has their ambition. They are actively working with younger generations in the far-right on aggressive recruitment strategies into new organisations, or new organisations formed from old ones. These players and power brokers behind the scenes should not be ignored or underestimated, nor should the growing threat of the far-right in Australia be minimised or rationalised away. Personal and political apathy and deliberate ignorance of people who do not share right-wing views, provides the far-right with space to communicate and organise, in parliament and on the streets. Far-right infiltration of political parties is not a one-off incident, nor is it neutralised by an internal party investigation that failed to remove the ringleaders.

Frank Salter's behind the scenes influence on “nationalist” thought, policy and political direction, needs to be carefully considered in line with his blueprint.

If the Australian media, politicians and public do not start paying attention, soon there will be more than a couple of hundred fascists and neo-Nazis at the beach or on the streets. There will also be more of them in parliament, further accelerating the shift to the right of our political discourse and policies. Australia may be behind the Americas, Europe and South East Asia, but we are still drifting towards fascism in perfect conditions. Fascists and neo-Nazis are already all around you, vocal online and quietly biding their time offline. They occupy spaces outside of bonehead clubhouses, they wear white collars. They are comfortable with boneheads and their criminal connections and caches of weapons. They teach your children and work in your office and go to your church. They are radicalised young and go to high school with your children. They are provided with a platform by mainstream media outlets who share their views, allowing them to reach pre-groomed and sympathetic audiences. There is no national approach to collecting intelligence on domestic extremists on the far-right. There is no national (or even statewide) strategy for de-radicalisation of the far-right. There are very few, if any, safeguards in our “democratic” parliamentary system to prevent them from gaining political influence and power. Anning just launched his own political party with an unknown source of funding. The first time, he was only elected on nineteen votes. Since his election, Senator Fraser Anning has been working from Frank Salter's blueprint and campaigning to shore up a large far-right voter base. The very real danger in the next Federal Election is an increased and emboldened far-right vote, empowering politicians like Senator Fraser Anning and his neo-Nazi advisors to push Australian politics and society even further to the right.

We can be contacted at thewhiterosesociety@protonmail.com.

Bonus photos of Senator Fraser Anning with some familiar neo-Nazis:

Fraser Anning and former Squadron 88 member and current Lad's Society Sydney co-leader, Mark McDonald, at St. Kilda. Five members of Lads Society Sydney travelled to St. Kilda for the rally: Mark McDonald, Alex Annenkov, Thomas Brasher, Michael Heaney and Jaiden Armstrong Penney.

Fraser Anning and neo-Nazi Thomas Brasher (“Thomas Hopper”) at St. Kilda. Thomas is a member of the Lads Society Sydney and a former Young Nationals NSW member. He resigned in protest with Clifford Jennings.

Fraser Anning and fascist Claudia Benitez (“Dia Beltran”) at St. Kilda. Claudia is a YouTuber who frequently interviews her neo-Nazi friends.

Fraser Anning and Lads Society Sydney member Jaiden Armstrong Penney at St Kilda. Jaiden likes to make threats of violence against politicians he thinks are “communists”.

Fraser Anning with fascist Tim Wilms from The Unshackled. The Unshackled are devoted supporters of Anning.