Neo-Nazis have risen to organisational prominence in Australia lately. If "authorities" remain this poorly informed, they won’t be doing much to stop them. Tom Tanuki reports.
THE SECOND HEARING of a Senate Inquiry into Right-wing extremist movements in Australia was held in Canberra on 24 July.
Individuals and organisations who made public submissions to the Inquiry are given the opportunity to present their contributions at these hearings. Many of these submissions are public if you care to look.
That afternoon, one policy body, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), was invited to discuss its submission, which chiefly focuses on warning of what it describes as the “next challenge” to be posed by Australian neo-Nazis: the adoption of the "Active Club" model.
The Active Club model is a method for attracting, recruiting and retaining young men into neo-Nazi lifestyle and political organisations through shell fitness groups.
Young men get training, hiking and learning to fight through these clubs. They’re politicised and radicalised along the way, as they are linked up to White supremacist social scenes or given access to work or housing via wider group networks. The Active Club model is the most popular group structure for militant neo-Nazi groups worldwide.
The CEP’s report was submitted in April of this year.
It is clear about where it says Australian neo-Nazis are at with this potential new threat:
'At the time of writing of this report, there are no visible groups in Australia that follow the Active Club Strategy.'
That’s a relief.
By the time of the July Hearing the authors of CEP’s report, Alexander Ritzmann and Joshua Fisher-Birch, had an ominous update for the Senate Committee about what it described as the recent efforts of National Socialist Network leader (NSN) Thomas Sewell:
'Just six weeks later, a "Crow Eater Active Club" was founded in South Australia... A few weeks ago, after the creation of the Crow Eater Active Club, the Active Club branding was removed and the Telegram channel is now [renamed]. So it appears that this transformation has failed.'
Foiled, then. Back to the drawing board for Sewell.
Later in the hearing, ASIO head Mike Burgess presented on the current threat and landscape of Right-wing extremism in Australia. He was asked about the Active Club model by the committee. He replied that he hadn’t heard of it.
Hopefully, Mike keeps it in the back of his mind, then... just in case Active Clubs ever become a thing.
Later, the ABC published a piece about this new threat. Reporter Lexie Jeuniewic wrote about the 'latest form' of Right-wing extremism in Australia.
On the topic of CEP guy Ritzmann’s abovementioned report of Thomas Sewell’s "failed" South Australian Active Club start-up, she observes:
'Despite the Croweater page purporting in May that Active Clubs "are everywhere", in Australia, they are in relative infancy compared to other locations.'
It’s interesting that Jeuniewic reports that we're experiencing the "relative infancy" of Active Clubs despite their not being here yet. Still, thanks for the update, ABC! Keep us in the loop, please!
The component of this article that deals in absolute garbage is now over. Let me now convey to you some facts:
Active Clubs have already existed in Australia.
Since 2018, no less.
The "Croweater page" is not a standalone group. It is the South Australian chapter of NSN.
"Croweater" is old Australian slang for a person from South Australia. This is obvious to me because I am Australian. Alexander Ritzmann is from Germany and doesn’t seem to know much about the Australian Far-right.
Thomas Sewell did not "fail" at making Active Clubs. He is one of the world’s leading proponents of the Active Club model. He is constantly sought out for advice and guidance from neo-Nazi leaders around the world — for his expertise and know-how in setting up effective Active Clubs.
The Croweater page is right: there really are Active Clubs everywhere. The NSN has set one up in every major city, not to mention in many rural areas. They are not in their "relative infancy" — they have one of the world’s more widespread Active Club scenes.
Lexie Jeuniewic could have Googled all this. She could even have checked her own employer’s website because ABC was the first Australian mainstream media outlet to report on local Active Clubs — way back in June 2018. ABC’s Alex Mann, a real journalist, even went and knocked on the door of one in Sydney.
The funniest part of Lexie’s drivel is this caption:
‘Croweater claims it has groups all over the world’, she says.
Really? So it’s not that NSN are all over Australia, contrary to everything this lot are saying, but it’s that the Adelaide chapter of NSN has chapters all over the world??? Incredible. Is Adelaide franchising now? Adelaide nationalism, is it?
What we have here, I think, is a classic example of the spread of ill-informed ineptitude started by mail-it-in countering violent extremism (CVE) bodies like the CEP.
As I said before, Ritzmann has no idea whatsoever about the Australian far-Right. I might guess that he’s too busy hustling appearances before government committees and the media to substantiate the CEP’s funding to bother actually learning anything about these "extremists" of his. I can't be sure. Is it, maybe, that he just doesn’t enjoy his job very much? This would all be funnier to me if it weren’t a bit serious.
Because Ritzmann is presenting this tripe to the Federal Government — which makes laws and big decisions.
And we see the effect that this ineptitude has had. One of the few mainstream media outlets which could be relied upon to discuss the happenings of neo-Nazism in Australia appears to have sent its worst to collectively memory-hole six years of Australian Active Club history.
Perhaps Lexie Jeuniewic has every right to expect that a presentation to the Senate on far-Right extremism be not filled with patently ridiculous disinformation! That’s fair. But I have every right to expect that salaried ABC journalists do not make assumptions about dangerous fascists.
Most concerning of all, however, is that the head of ASIO doesn’t know anything about the successful nation-wide model that Australian neo-Nazis use to recruit, retain and radicalise young white men.
The Liberal Left media in Australia is constantly gushing about the latest workload statistics that far-Right extremism is said to account for in the goings-on of ASIO — the idea being that we’re meant to feel assured knowing that James Bond is monitoring Thomas Sewell.
Well, I’m not reassured. I’m worried. What are the spooks actually doing if they don’t know about Active Clubs? Doughnuts? Do spies like doughnuts as much as cops? Will they be chowing down on some while these clubs produce the next Tarrant (also known as the "Christchurch killer")?
I am often found repeating myself in this column space, with apologies. I always say that community organising and grassroots anti-fascist action is what is needed, far more than more CVE hacks and overpaid James Bonds.
Just little old me flapping my anti-fascist activist flag, year in, year out. But hopefully, now you understand that we can’t exactly rely upon these spies and hacks while we content ourselves with doing nothing.
Neo-Nazis have risen to organisational prominence in Australia in the past several years and if authorities remain this badly informed, they won’t be doing much to stop them.
Tom Tanuki is a writer, satirist and anti-fascist activist. Tom posts weekly videos on YouTube commenting on the Australian political fringe. You can follow Tom on Twitter @tom_tanuki.
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