It would be a massive mistake for progressive folk to convince themselves the March for Australia was a bust, or can safely be ridiculed. It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it. More thoughts (un-paywalled) here: www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...
I don't disagree with your estimation of the degree of danger that has arisen or its causes. The solution of appealing to the majority of Labor governments in Australia to step up and do their duty to protect our democracy doesn't fill me with confidence. They let this brew a long time.
Summarising “demanding better from politics and the media, while taking to the streets” after explicitly pointing to Labor’s complicity in implementing terrible immigration policies as “appealing to Labor governments to do their duty” seems like a pretty bad faith read tbh
Sorry you've take that comment as criticism, which it wasn't intended to be. I thought I was widening the scope of concerns. My own specific contribution is that collaborating with actually existing fascism tends to have consequences for the personnel; attitudes rub off. A gloomy prospect.
I was alarmed by how large it actually was, and how unsafe it made the whole city feel
Not disagreeing with you, but these guys are here full time (just a couple of weeks ago probably the same neonazis attacked some poor bugger in the Bourke St mall.)
Great article. 2 things: 1. How did you feel at Flinders? 2. Agree, the counter protest was dwarfed but there were still people that had not marched from State Library pro-Palestine rally yet 1/2
then they were blocked from joining others, some may have not wanted to confront, but counter protest could have been organised into larger group, how many I don’t know 2/2
There are a lot of (quite valid imo) criticisms emerging of organiser's decisions to split the rallies, and general lack of co-ordination in terms of how to confront the March. It seems like they were caught off guard / too confident in their approach
I have to ask, if there are known Nazi groups running these protests with prominent neo Nazis speaking at these events… surely these groups are designated terrorist organisations?
Unless they actually plan or carry out terrorist attacks, governments in Australia are powerless to ban them. (This might soon change with the attack on Camp Sovereignty in Naarm / Melbourne.)
It's almost like all the laws against hate symbols and terrorism are just there to protect the political establishment and their foreign masters from public criticism.
The first politician to come out and say they’re cracking down on neo-Nazis and sentiments towards them by designating them a terrorist organisation is going to have a very dedicated following across the country honestly.
I was horrified - as horrified when I saw the numbers they were getting in lockdown as they jumped boosted those protests - only this time they were definitely organised and far more single message.
Complete honesty, everyone at the counter protest(Canberra) was genuinely in shock afterwards. We need a lot more people to get out and oppose these nazi cunts, we seriously need to outnumber them or they will seriously feel emboldened
No doubt many people (including myself) wanted to join a counter-protest, but decided that it was too dangerous to attend.
Same here in Adelaide, not just at the size of their march but also the small size of the counterprotest. Halfway through, the organizers were thinking of pulling the plug but we took a vote and decided to march and yell at them anyway.
In shock here in Melb. They were so excited & gleeful in their solidarity. I've never seen so many shit eating grins in my life. I didn't sense that it was an organised counter march. Maybe more people attended the regular pro-Palestine march, but it wasn't an organised opposition to the nazis.
And no shade on the pro-Palestine protest organisers - they are clearly organised, but this was a completely different gig. I am shook by how many nazis there were, and how outnumbered we were.
Agreed
.. and not for the first time - there is an unbroken presence of fascistic political organisations in Australia.
Thank you for this great and important piece. Like many, I'm feeling pretty bummed today 😔 I agree, we need to get serious right now. I'd like to go to an answering march for a start..
Been reading about 1930s while can argue that it is not the same there is much that is depressingly familiar eg inability(?)of labour parties to address social distress led many to the right, comments about legitimate concerns... Disputes among anti groups is also a weakness.
This isn't Melbourne, sure the protests happen all the time but I can't remember these thugs a few years ago.
They've been around. They've just grown braver as their public numbers grow. Two neo-nazi orgs combined to become the NSN but it's still Sewell and his cronies. Lad's Society had a clubhouse nearby me for training in combat back before they merged with the Antipodean Resistance to become the NSN.
As media fuel the Nazis and their indoctrinated racist followers with propaganda lies www.facebook.com/ben.palad/vi...