Jim Saleam
James Saleam (/ˈseɪl.əm/, born 18 September 1955) is an Australian far-right activist and the current chairman of the Australia First Party.
Biography
Saleam co-founded National Action (NA) on Anzac Day, 1982, having been a member of the short-lived National Socialist Party of Australia as a teenager during the 1970s.[1] National Action eventually imploded due to Saleam's criminal actions which included property offences and fraud in 1984[2] and for organising a shotgun attack in 1989 on African National Congress representative Eddie Funde by two NA members.[3] Saleam served jail terms for both crimes. He pleaded not guilty to both charges, claiming that he was set up by police.[3] This claim was rejected by the courts. Saleam maintains his innocence.
On his release from prison, Saleam earned a PhD in politics from the University of Sydney by writing a thesis entitled The Other Radicalism: An Inquiry Into Contemporary Australian Extreme Right Ideology, Politics And Organization 1975-1995. [1]
Saleam has acted as a mentor for the Patriotic Youth League and was the Secretary of the Sydney branch of the Australia First Party (AFP) between 2002 to 2007. In August 2007, he was expelled from the party by AFP president Diane Teasdale and later established Australia First (NSW) as a separate entity and incorporated the AFP NSW membership into the new party with himself as the party chairman. He is also the co-organiser along with Welf Herfurth, of the Sydney Forum, a right wing conference that is held annually in Sydney.[citation needed]
Saleam is divorced with two children and was reported to be self-employed in 2008.[2]
Saleam has been described as a white nationalist, and has been a strong advocate of barring further immigration to preserve a "predominantly white nation resistant to... watering-down of its culture".[3] This is often considered ironic, since Saleam is ethnically Lebanese; Middle Eastern people, and in fact all non-Europeans, were barred from immigrating to Australia until the 1950s under the White Australia policy. He has been observed wearing a swastika armband and associating with neo-Nazi skinheads.
References
External links
- Australian Nationalist Ideological, Historical and Legal Archive maintained by James Saleam
- Use dmy dates from October 2011
- Use Australian English from October 2011
- All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
- Articles with unsourced statements from March 2015
- 1955 births
- Living people
- People from Sydney
- Australian white nationalists
- Australian fraudsters
- People convicted of fraud
- Australian academics
- University of Sydney alumni
