In issue 22 of The Light newspaper an article was published by Jack Delaney criticising the approach of the now disbanded National Socialist Network (NSN) and what he believed was “an overemphasis on historical aesthetics and single issue fixation”.
As a former member of the NSN, I believe I have the right of reply.
First of all I reject his underlying premise. The NSN, in its day, didn’t just protest mass non white immigration. It also protested the cancellation of Australia Day, attacks on free speech, drag queen story hour, the influence of Jewish lobby groups on our politicians and the protection by the Chinese Government of a criminal that had mutilated an Australian baby.
To say it had “a single issue fixation”, is just plain false. I also wonder what “historical aesthetics” Mr Delany is talking about? As he goes on to reference “German Optics” I assume he is suggesting the NSN dressed up like caricatures in the Blues Brothers movie or German officers in Schindler’s List. The NSN dressed in black. Initially because when they first cobbled together a protest with a bunch of friends, black was the only colour clothing they all had that matched.
An understanding of the relevance of optics in gaining publicity doesnt mean “an overemphasis” on them.
The NSN did of course praise the ideology of the NSDAP which Mr Delaney notes “has an appeal to a Gen Z audience”. He is also correct that “this choice comes with immense strategic baggage.” That, “it allows hostile media and government entities to instantly frame the movement as a foreign import – a mere replica of a historically defeated ideology”.
What Mr Delaney fails to understand is that the leaders of the former NSN were not only aware of this but deliberately chose this path knowing that the most likely outcome of openly identifying with Adolf Hitler and National Socialsm would be to be made illegal. That being outlawed was not just a possibilty that was worth the risk, but an objective that would be considered a victory.
The origins of the NSN date back to 2015 where two niave young men followed the democratic process to peacefully protest the building of a mosque in one of Melbourne’s suburbs. There they watched old ladies being bashed by Antifa and the police stand by and do nothing. One of the men, Blair Cottrell, gained a million followers on Facebook and briefly appeared on TV a few times, where his calm demeanour and logical answers to baited questions showed him to be a political threat. He subsequently was banned from further TV appearances, had his Facebook account closed and even had his bank accounts closed.
The other young man, Thomas Sewell, had begun organising a political group. The police found excuses to obtain warrants to raid the member’s homes, doxx them to their family and employers as “Nazis” and basically scare 99% of its members into never doing anything political again. It should be pointed out that no one in this movement in 2015 who went on to join the NSN considered themselves to be Nazis when they first began politically organising.
Being labelled and vilified for something you are not can cause one to look at what you are being labelled as and consider it in earnest. This is what happened with Thomas Sewell who became the leader of the NSN. Being persecuted whilst being labelled a Nazi led him and others to investigate history and challenge the doctrine that they had grown up with.
The NSN disbanded just before new “hate group laws” were passed that would have made all of their previous legal activity retrospectively illegal and made future peaceful political activity impossible.
Jack Delaney believes that a more resilient strategy to being “permanently categorised and neutralised as a “hate group” would be “concentrating on building parallel institutions, fostering community resilience and articulating a positive vision for the nation’s future”.
But this is exactly what Blair Cottrell and Thomas Sewell had already done. They were shut down anyway. Illegally. Secretly. Nor were they the only ones. In Perth in 2020 there was a community building White Nationalist group that were 99% focused on building a parallel community. Movie nights, hiking, camping, chess tournaments. Organising, in-group leadership and responsibilities. They did a single banner drop over a freeway protesting the Covid lockdowns in 2020 and Australia’s counterterrorism police raided half of the membership, doxxed them to employers and family as Nazis. It’s a standard tactic. The members all had a naive view of how the world works and how “democratic” Australia is and simply couldn’t handle the overt tyranny. They crumbled and the organisation failed.
The NSN, on the other hand didn’t fail. Its objective all along was to expose the hypocrisy and illusion of liberal democracy in Australia. It followed the rules. It obeyed the law. As did its community group the European Australia Movement (EAM) that ran along side it. It was always going to be shut down. The difference is, our community may be physically separated from one another by the new laws, but the commitment to each other and the cause only grows stronger.
I will assert this to Jack Delaney: Build ANY effective Nationalist movement including using your own “Australia First” philosophy. If it gets beyond a certain size it will be either subverted or shut down.
The issue is not being shut down. The issue is what do you do after you have been shut down.
The men of the former NSN knew that this day was coming. They embraced it and worked towards it. The “hate group” laws were passed in direct response to the lawful and peaceful success of the NSN. The lie of living in a democracy was exposed to everyone in Australia, even if many still refuse to accept it.
The NSN didn’t focus on Anti-Semitism, rather the media and politicians chose to label any protest they did as Anti-Semitic
The NSN also succeded in another area. That of historical revisionism. By being peaceful and lawful, but being branded as terrorists anyway, they made many more people question what else they have been lied to about by the Government. Why should we fear how the media and government framed us Jack, when nobody believes anything the government or mainstream media says anymore?
You can find Stephen Wells at Telegram and purchase his books here.
