Australia: neo-Nazi link to campus anti-foreigner campaign

By Matthew Thompson, Higher Education Reporter

A nationalist group targeting university campuses with anti-foreigner propaganda is linked to the local branch of an American neo-Nazi organisation.

The Patriotic Youth League’s "Australian unis for Australian students" campaign at the University of Newcastle has coincided with racist incidents against African students and the posting of US neo-Nazi leaflets on campus.

The group’s founder, Stuart McBeth, 23, who has been running the Patriotic Youth League while working at a Salvation Army crisis centre in Newcastle, has denied responsibility for the white supremacist posters. He issued a statement saying only people with a "lack of mental capacity" could accuse the league of involvement with American racist organisations.

However, the Herald has uncovered that the league shares a Newcastle postal address with the Australian branch of the US neo-Nazi organisation Volksfront - a group that denies the Holocaust, is buying land for an "Aryan" homeland in the US and warns of a coming "One World Zionist Police State".

Mr McBeth yesterday said he did not know why the postal addresses were identical and denied any link to Volksfront - assertions contradicted by the league’s Sydney representative, Andrew Wilson.

Mr Wilson, from Epping, said Mr McBeth was behind Volksfront Australia, which is "in the early stages of development".

"It’s a cultural kind of movement, whereas the Patriotic Youth League is more political and youth-orientated," he said.

Mr McBeth said there were about 50 members in the league, which began a campaign this year against foreign students.

He said he believed overseas students should be restricted to "exchange programs" so they did not displace local students.

Universities and the Federal Government say that because international students pay full fees they displace no one, and instead inject much-needed cash into the higher education system.

League members appear to have recently posted messages on the Australian section of the Stormfront website (a "white nationalist community discussion forum") about plans to "visit Sydney University with our stickers and posters in the coming weeks".

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/30/1093852185161.html?oneclick=true