eureka

[This video was published a week ago]

While I do think the introduction segment is a tad harsh, given the violent and emotional situation, the rest of the video is a broad insight into the hyperrealities being pushed by social media grifters and malicious political opportunists, and quick look into some of the different groups doing this, both (nominally) left and right wing.

"I think everyone's in agreement that the most incredible thing about this tragedy was the heroism of the everyman who ran up and stopped one of the shooters from their deadly tirade, [...], and the name of that hero is... Simon Harding, according to Google AI... ah no my apologies, uh, Edward Crabtree [according to Grok AI], ..."

Which ones did you find most interesting?

"Antifascist combat training is about feeling safe, not tough, writes Tom Tanuki."

This article is from anarchist Tom Tanuki, in response to an article in SAlt's publication denouncing "black bloc" violence. This discussion notes both points of agreement and divergence of opinion.

To oversimplify the situation:

• Victorian Socialists^[wikipedia]^ are an electoral political party. They publicly announced themselves and registered in 2018 as a collaboration between Socialist Alternative (SAlt)^[wikipedia]^, Socialist Alliance^[wikipedia]^ and a few other politicians.
• In 2020, Socialist Alliance withdrew from Victorian Socialists. Official article.
• In mid-2025, Victorian Socialists announced plans to expand nationwide, and to change their name to Socialist Party. Branches have been launched in all other states and territories, with some already being registered.
• This month, VS announced their attempts to rename with the AEC and to register with the NSW Electoral Commission were both refused on the basis of similarity with Socialist Alliance's name. They emphasised that Alliance has not acted to prevent the registration, Alliance have given permission, it's the AEC and NSWEC blocking them. Official statement and call for unity with Alliance. [November 12]
• Less than a week later, VS have sent another statement to Alliance calling for unity. Official statement [November 17].

While I don't see it bluntly stated, I think it's fair to say VS want Alliance to join their party and deregister.

I am not well-networked with VS, Alliance, SAlt, RCO, etc., and I've often found that online arguments are different to the reality on-the-ground, so it's hard to know what the situation truly is. Two of the main, contradictory perspectives I've heard so far are:

• One claims that Alliance's 2020 claim of SAlt being a dominant anti-collaborative faction still applies today, and perceives VS as essentially a SAlt electoral front, or otherwise controlled by them. There is a history of allegations like this against SAlt, such as the Freedom Socialist Party and associated Radical Women claiming that SAlt joined CARF after other groups and "over time through undemocratic measures, dismantled the unity and took control."
• The other points to the Communist Caucus - the minority faction in VS - and two successful former caucuses (Socialist Unity and Socialist Workers' Caucus) as evidence of their openness to diversity of politics and open factions. The Communist Caucus formed by the Revolutionary Communist Organisation and allies. RCO's article about their faction. The Socialist Unity and Socialist Workers' Caucus are both discussed in this recent article by a VS independent and former member of Socialist Unity - SU met almost all of its demands and had little reason to continue existing, and the SWC were incorporated as an official party body.

I don't see any official statements from Alliance on their publication Green Left, although an RCO Partisan! article published today contains an excerpt of an official email sent to Alliance members, raising objections towards SAlt dominating through stacking VS's undelegated conferences, and alleging that VS's repeated calls for unity are not designed to leave the door open for regroupment or to build trust.

Unity supporters are arguing that Alliance and Socialist Party have near identical politics and that them existing as separate parties is counterproductive.

I've just moved to a new place last month and now have storage space to bulk buy this Black Friday. When I started looking for certain items, especially ones associated with health and wellbeing, I was quickly disgusted by the amount of blatant greenwashing and I was surprised to see some technically recyclable products are currently recommended to not be recycled by local council.

It's made me wonder about some brands which I had assumed were legitimately environmentally conscious, and I want to confirm I'm making a better choice before buying significant amounts of their products.

What are some resources for helping us make environmentally-conscious shopping choices? Such as suggesting or auditing products for environmental impact compared to competitors.

A few cities in Australia have chain stores for these noodles now. A friend asked if I'd been to one, I mentioned I'd been to one in another state a few years back and my friend asked me if it was 1915 Lanzhao Beef Noodles, 1919 Lanzhao Beef Noodle, or one of the few 1917 Lanzhao Beef Noodle stores.

I hadn't paid attention to the date, so I had no idea, but yes, there are two chains and a couple of other stores all with nearly the same name.

• https://www.1915lanzhou.com.au/ (NSW, VIC)
• https://www.1919masternoodle.com.au/ (ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, VIC)
• and a couple of NSW stores which may or may not still be called 1917 Lanzhao Beef Noodle

Looking in deeper, the video on 1919's homepage says 1919 Lanzhao was opened in 2018, merging with Master Lanzhao in Victoria (est. 2017) to form their current brand. Meanwhile, the birth of 1915, or at least under that name, is fuzzy. 1915 seems to be claiming (the language is ambiguous) in 1915 in China as "1915 Halal Lanzhou Beef Noodle" while also saying 1915 Catering Management Co., Ltd. was established on September 22, 2014, although another part of the site says "Yijiu Yiwu Catering Management Co., Ltd. was founded on September 2, 2014, Lanzhou beef Ramen was founded in 1915", which makes me suspect a typo is in play and it changed name at a later date. I haven't found anything conclusive to prove which was named first.

Anyone been to one of these stores? Anyone been to a 1915 and a 1919? What's different?

I know other instances have grown a lot due to media attention, reddit making silly decisions or banning communities. Did anything similar happen or is this just a thing that thinged?

Edit: having a closer look, some of the names I thought were new are people who've had accounts for years but have mostly been posting to other instances so I didn't see them. So maybe I'm only seeing them on higher-scoring local posts

In Western Australia, a rally in Albany, on the state's south coast, has drawn low numbers.

Six people gathered around a Eureka flag in the centre of town, while another six people gathered in opposition.

Apart from some minimal interaction between the groups, the event proceeded without any further incident.

— ABC Great Southern

Introduction & Background

For those who haven't heard, after the recent "March for Humanity" (the massive Palestine protests which included the Sydney Harbour Bridge march), some social media and later news articles have fueled hype for a nationalist anti-immigration counter-protest, the "March for Australia" this Sunday.

Notably, the people organising the event have been very secretive about themselves, leading to tensions among the groups who make up this march's main audience (various generic patriotism, generic 'right-wing', anti-vax, Zionist groups and White Nationalist groups), and leading to notable figureheads and influencers advising their fans against joining.

To anyone who did bother looking, or even just read their brief coverage in news articles after the initial wave, it's become clearer and clearer that the organising circle behind the curtain are made up of literal, self-identifying neo-Nazis and their surrounding ring of associated White Nationalist influencers (crypto-fascists like Auspill^[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq9Qlr9Q62M, may require a VPN to watch due to a legal takedown attempt by Auspill] and Bec Freedom) who are a bit more palatable to the 'right-wing' than open Hitler fans. The official announcements from organisers have consistently argued for the inclusion and against the exclusion of Nazi groups (oh, sorry, "people and groups on the right many consider controversial").

Articles for further reading: [Independent Australia article] [pedestrian.tv article]

What this ultimately means is, the "March for Australia" is a project by neo-Nazis and other White Supremacists using toned-down, big-tent, populist rhetoric with the intent of conning regular patriots and nationalists into standing alongside them "for Australia". This is a known and often-used tactic for the NSN, and although these Nazis have a history of rejection in their recruitment attempts among conservative and anti-vax protests (alongside some limited recruitment success) because even cookers usually know Nazis are scum, however this event, if it were seen as a success, would symbolise popularity or increased acceptance for the Nazis and White Nationalists among the broader normal nationalists and 'right-wing'.

The actual post

I've been a little concerned that such a big-tent nationalist cause, despite the tensions and fractures, could turn out crowds of thousands who mistakenly think they're just supporting the country and fighting against extremism or protecting their communities. Allowing such a protest to look big, to look like it's representing the community at large, is a serious issue.

And, I was wondering what kind of support there would be for the counter-protests popping up against these crypto-fascist rallies, because I've been to a lot of tiny protests before, where we have more people honking support from vehicles than with us on the ground. (I was also worried about Sydney in particular^[Sydney had the regular weekend PAG rally in Hyde Park promoting itself, as well as an explicit counter-protest concert over in Prince Alfred Park run by a coalition of pro-refugee and anti-racist groups, splitting up the counter-protest. However, I'm glad to hear they've now announced they'll do what I hoped they would - the pro-refugee concert will run from 10:30am for a couple of hours before marching to Belmore Park where the March for Australia will be if they haven't scampered yet, and then onto Hyde Park to join up with the regular PAG Gaza protest].

This Sunday's pro-Palestine protests marked the first (large) protests of its kind in many cities and towns and showed that the broad anti-genocide movement has enough momentum to continue mobilising in the hundreds of thousands. And I reckon they have enough mass to continue onto this week for a proper show of popular resistance against the so-called "March for Australia".