Skinheads

             We see them in the streets every day, people we dont know, yet they might hate us. But not all youths with shaved heads or closely cropped hair are Neo-Nazis. There are many young persons across Australia who call themselves Skinheads and .
             eschew bigotry (some are actively anti-racist). They look the same as their racist counterparts without the Nazi insignia and follow many of the same fashions including a taste for oi, music, beer and violence.
             We as a society and Neo-Nazi ideology combined with the gang lifestyle, provide Skinheads with a sense of strength, group belonging and superiority over others. These strands a sense of power, of belonging, of destiny combine to create the appeal the Skinhead movement holds for disaffected youngsters.
             Rompa Stompa, an Australian motion picture that depicts savage violence by Skinhead toughs, has brought worldwide attention to Australia's Skinheads. Although the story on which the film is based is fictionalised, there are indeed racist Skins Down Under and some of them actually liked the film. One such Skinhead has been quoted thus: Up to a point it's against Skinheads buts it's good publicity for our cause. With unemployment as it is, theyre asking for trouble letting all these Asians into the country. (Dixon 1994).
             Two racist Skinhead groups have made an appearance. One, calling themselves Southern Cross Hammer Skinheads, has adopted the motto, We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. (Nizkor 1995) This expression is known as the 14 words and was originally coined by David Lane, an American Neo-Nazi terrorist. The other Skinhead gang, White Australian Resistance (WAR) located in Melbourne, apparently adapted its name from the Californian based White Aryan Resistance. .
             Nowhere by themselves do the Neo-Nazi Skinheads constitute a mass movement. Neo-Nazis across the globe have committed a serious number of murders, firebombing and other crimes of violence against innocent victims, who they deemed to be of the "wrong" race, religion, nationality or sexual orientation.