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"ADC ONLINE" - Vol.3, No.1, February 2002

An online journal of the
B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission,
presenting news and analysis of far-right
activity in Australia and the world.
ISSN 1445-0402
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CONTENTS
* Where do the racists get their money?
* One Nation leader linked to Holocaust-deniers


***  WHERE DO THE RACISTS GET THEIR MONEY?

In recent years, severe financial difficulties have contributed to a decline
in Australia's violent neo-Nazi groups, most notably National Action.
However, other racist groups, particularly those that present a guise of
respectability, continue to succeed in raising funds from supporters and to
prey on the gullible and politically naïve to finance their activities.

* Citizens Electoral Council

The Citizens Electoral Council (CEC) remains Australia's best-financed
racist organisation, with it declaring $1,065,512.29 in total receipts for
the year 2000/2001, according to its annual political party return lodged
with the Australian Electoral Commission. CEC staffers use what they term
"phone-knocking", working in a boiler room atmosphere to solicit funds over
the phone. The financially and educationally disempowered and the
susceptible elderly are among those targeted in the belief that the
potential combination of fragility, loneliness and a final search for
meaning make them vulnerable to solicitation. As the Australian arm of the
US-based neo-fascist political cult led by a convicted felon, Lyndon
LaRouche, it is believed that a significant portion of the CEC's funds go to
finance the group's US operations. This is clear from the group's 1999/2000
annual return, which stated that the CEC "owed" $941,115.24 to the LaRouche
front company, Publications and General Management, in Leesburg, Virginia.

* Australian League of Rights

Unlike the CEC, Australia's oldest racist group, the Australian League of
Rights, does not have a budget in the millions. However, it operates what it
terms a "basic fund", where supporters are asked to contribute on an annual
basis. The League also charges subscription fees for its publications (On
Target, New Times Survey and Heritage), and operates front companies through
which it fundraises and disseminates racist materials. These include the
West Australia-based Veritas Publishing Company, which produces a range of
antisemitic and racist books, the Heritage Bookshop in the Melbourne CBD,
the Heritage Book Mailing Service with branches in WA, SA, and NSW, the
Conservative Book Mailing Service in Queensland, and the MEA Tape Library.

* Australia First Party

Of interest is the connection between the Australian League of Rights and
the xenophobic Australia First Party, which has effectively merged with One
Nation since its founder, Graeme Campbell, unsuccessfully stood for election
in 2001 as One Nation's WA lead candidate for the Senate. The Australia
First Party’s 2000/2001 return lists only one individual as being owed in
excess of $1500 – "A Luks" of South Australia. The address listed is that of
Arnie Luks, who is the webmaster of the League of Rights' website and the
son of the League's National Director, Betty Luks.

* The Strategy

Australia's foremost racist newspaper, The Strategy, is published monthly by
retiree Ray Platt, a resident of Yarram, Victoria. Beyond the fees for
subscriptions and advertisements (largely placed by other far-right groups
and publications), the paper operates a "special effort fund", appealing to
readers to assist in raising the $1100 necessary to produce The Strategy
each month.

* Adelaide Institute

The Holocaust-denying Adelaide Institute funds its activities largely
through donations by a few affluent supporters. Its head, Fredrick Toben,
travels frequently to address far-right gatherings in Australia and abroad,
and often reduces his accommodation costs by staying with friends and
neo-Nazi contacts in the places his visits. The group’s December 2001
newsletter reports that it is $6000 in deficit, offensively remarking,
"amazing how the six figure features even in our work" (a reference to the
Institute’s denial that 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis).


***  ONE NATION LEADER LINKED TO HOLOCAUST-DENIERS

Edward Joseph Wall, a lawyer representing two Holocaust-deniers, has been
elected the One Nation Party's WA State Vice-President.

Wall, of the Perth legal firm EJ Wall and Associates, has acted as the
Australian solicitor representing UK-based Holocaust-denier David Irving in
his ongoing attempts to overturn the Australian Government's ruling refusing
him an entry visa. Wall also acted on behalf of Fredrick Toben of the
Adelaide Institute during Toben's 1999 incarceration in a German prison for
Holocaust-denial. At that time, Wall wrote to the Foreign Minister,
Alexander Downer, arguing that Toben's imprisonment was an "infringement of
human rights", and that the German law against denying the Holocaust was
merely used "to stifle free speech in relation to enquiry about the
Holocaust".

Wall has also spoken at forums of the Australian League of Rights. In 1994
he addressed the League's National Seminar in Melbourne, during which he
made explicit his support for the League's social credit ideology: "In the
explosive times which surely lie ahead, if and when I am put to the test, I
will not disown this movement. In the long lever of time the truth which
this movement expounds will be vindicated." He most recently spoke at the
League’s Annual Seminar and Dinner in Perth in October 2000.

Wall joins a range of individuals in leadership positions in the One Nation
Party who are linked to organised racist groups. Following the departure of
Pauline Hanson as the leader of One Nation, and the growth of the party's
power base in Perth, it is likely that these individuals will seek to
broaden their positions of power.

Copyright (c) 2002 B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission Inc.
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This edition of ADC ONLINE acknowledges the support and commitment of Eric
Svirskis to the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission.

ADC ONLINE is a publication of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission
Inc. (ADC), a national Australian organisation dedicated to researching and
combatting all forms of racism.

Prepared by Mr Benseon Apple, Director of Research & Public Affairs.

Technical support provided by Fluffy Spider Technologies
http://www.fluffyspider.com.au/

B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission Inc.
PO Box 450, Caulfield South, Vic 3162, Australia.
Phone 61-3-9527-1228 Fax 61-3-9525-9127
Email antidef@optusnet.com.au

ADC Board of Advisers:
The Rt Hon Sir Zelman Cowen AK GCMG GCVO QC DCL (pres.),
Sir Walter Campbell AC,
The Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser AC CH,
The Hon RJL Hawke AC,
Professor Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE,
The Rt Hon Sir Ninian Stephen KG AK GCMG GCVO KBE,
The Hon Neville Wran AC QC

ADC Chairman: Mr Jeffrey Loewenstein
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