Neo Nazi Youths Arrested For Shooting

On Thursday last week, Jason Molloy and Ross Baumgarten were arrested in Auckland. The charges thusfar? Unlawful possession of a firearm and presenting a firearm. Jason and Ross weren’t just two random kids out for a joy-shooting however.

Jason is the former long-time webmaster for the National Front, who made a large habit of issuing death threats to people online, including myself. Ross is also a long time National Fronter, who recently has held the position of Youth Representative, and was helping new Fuhrer Sid Wilson to rebuild the group following Kyle Chapman’s move to the Direct Democracy Party.

I would just like to announce the fact that I am currently laughing very hard at the sheer stupidity of these two, and my joy that they will both likely be going to jail. Some might see this as gloating, and that would be perfectly fair, because it is.

Ah, ain’t it great when other people fuck themselves up and save you the time and effort of doing it yourself?

Thanks, boys!

Edit – I can also now reveal that while Ross was released on bail pending a court date next month, Jason was not and is currently sitting in prison up in Auckland.

In-jokes are great!

So, a certain fundie friend of mine told me I should post something about him on this blog. Now, Asher, I hear you ask, why would a fine upstanding citizen such as yourself be friendly with a Christian fundamentalist?

Well, thats a very good question. To be honest, I don’t know the answer myself. So, fundie, this is just to tell you that I hate you. Sincerely.

Inexcusable Actions

Sometimes I get very angry. The last couple of days has been one of these times.

You see, while I was away, a certain nazi saw fit to put up a website called “The Twatts Of Fight Dem Back!”. This website published the personal details of 4 people (3 Australians and myself) involved with Fight Dem Back!, an Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia combined anti-nazi resource site.

Now, I’m obviously not happy about personal details (ranging from my cellphone number to what schools I have attended) made public for all to see, especially when the website is aimed at providing nazis with the information needed to harrass and cause physical harm to me (see FDB for details). However, given my involvement in FDB and other anti-fascist activities, to some extent I am prepared to deal with this – note that dealing does not mean accepting, but merely that I can understand to some extent that I am “fair game” and must respond with my own methods.

What I cannot accept, and will not sit blindly by and watch, is when details of where my father lives are brought into this. The website essentially gave my fathers address, and there can be no legitimate excuse for this in anybodies book.

Basically, I’m fucking angry. The website was only up for 2 days before it was taken down by its host, but the person who put it up has shown every desire to do so again, and the mere fact that he has that info and is spreading it around by other means (such as via an email list) means that it is out there.

My friend, I know who you are. Rest assured that if we ever meet in person, you will not like the result. Until that day, I will do everything within my power to ensure you do not do this again.

Fuck you.

I’m back!

Hi everyone. Sorry I’ve been missing for so long – I took a 3 week holiday (although I only left Wellington for 9 days of that) and didn’t think to mention it on here. Anyway, I’m back now (hooray!) and will be writing again.

It’s great when something you’ve planned for a while turns out to fit in perfectly with what you need – I had organised a while ago for 2 close friends of mine to come visit me from Melbourne (where they both live) – each came for 2 weeks, with 1 week overlap (which was when I left Welly and went up North). As it turns out, by the time they came to visit, I was needing a break from everything – Wellington itself, the people, and all the bits and pieces I do down here. So, everything worked itself out quite nicely.

The 3 weeks break I took really helped to clear a lot of things up for me, but in the last couple of days I’ve realised another week probably was needed. Returning to Welly has left me with some very mixed feelings about my life, what I’m doing and where I’m headed (both in a metaphorical and a literal sense), and another week “away from it all” probably would have helped significantly in answering those questions. Still, I’m back now, and am going to make the most of it.

While I was away, I got to thinking about activism, and about the critique vs. creation (or reaction vs. action) choice that all activists make. I started writing an article on this very topic for the soon-to-be-published new anarchist zine (taking up the space left by the fantastic Aotearoa Dissident Voice) which I will also post up here as soon as it’s done. For a brief explanation of what I’m writing about, the path of critique takes in all activism which exposes or hinders the many forms of oppression our society partakes in – this includes rallies, marches and also more direct actions such as animal liberation or reclaiming the streets. The path of creation is the complete opposite. Rather than exposing the bad points about society, creation seeks to form new spaces, both physical and figurative, using the same methods that we wish society as a whole to use. This can be anything from forming a radical bookshop to changing the way we interact with others to be more equal and less based on traditional power imbalances.

My focus is steadily but surely switching from a majority critique to a majority creation one, and that majority is ever increasing. I think the main reason for that is that critique requires putting oneself out there in what is generally an emotionally (and sometimes physically) unsafe environment. Activist lifestyles which consist purely of critique are thus extremely unhealthy – without creation, without an emotionally “safe space” to return to post-critique, our lives tend to become racked with feelings of instability, and with an overwhelming desire to curl up into a ball and cry our hearts out. Or maybe thats just me. Who knows?

Either way, creation, while perhaps harder than critique, is a vital part of any community which seeks to radically change society. And right now, on a personal level, what I’m seeking are emotionally safe spaces and relationships with others that are able to provide for me the safety so that I am able to continue in whatever it is I’m trying to do.

This is something that I’ve realised to an even greater extent in the two days since the 2nd of my friends to visit from Melbourne flew away. I noticed while they were here the big difference in my relationships with my friends here and my friends in Australia, who I lived with for a year on my OE. My friends here are great, and I love them dearly. They know about what goes on in my life far better than my friends in Australia. What they don’t know, however, is the whys. My friends in Australia, and especially the two who visited, understand why I do things and how my mind works like nobody over here does. It’s probably primarily something that can be attributed to time spent in proximity together. Spending a large period of time living with someone means you will get to know them far, far better than otherwise. Seeing someone outside those normal “social hours”, seeing the way they live their life in their own home means you will see a part of them that normally remains hidden. That doesn’t change the fact however, that the people who understand me best live on the other side of the Tasman Sea to me.

So, what am I to do? I’ve got ideas for creation that are based in Wellington, ideas I would like to see come to fruition, but that means a medium – long term committment to living here, something which I’m not sure if I want to do. The other option, which is looking more likely at the moment, is to put myself into a holding pattern for the next 6 months until a move to Melbourne over new years, followed by Uni over there, and, depending on what the activist community is like in Melbourne, perhaps creation along similar lines to my ideas for here.

What will the future hold for me? I’m not sure, but stay tuned to find out…