On Sunday, 31 August, various far-right nationalist groups ranging from conspiracy theorists and “sovereign citizens” to the openly neo-Nazi National Socialist Network (NSN) staged coordinated rallies across Australia under the banner of March for Australia. Rallying around a central demand of ending “mass immigration”, the size of these demonstrations caught much of the left unprepared. Organisers had claimed they could mobilise tens of thousands in response to the mass Palestine solidarity demonstrations, and they succeeded.
Counter-protests were chaotic, small and unable to seriously disrupt the far right’s momentum. This raises urgent questions. Where did the success of March for Australia come from? What does the far right look like in Australia today, and how does it mobilise? And most importantly, how should we prepare to confront them in the future?
Nazis, Cookers and the basis of a frustrated Right
The rallies were not spontaneous. They were carefully launched by white nationalists through a slick social media campaign, a dedicated website, and heavy promotion in community groups. The mainstream press amplified it further. Bob Katter and Pauline Hanson gave endorsements, numerous mainstream radio stations and newspapers ran opinion pieces and interviews, further bolstering March for Australia’s reach
The far-right spectrum today stretches from the Libertarian Party and “sovereign citizens” through to conspiracy groups and hardened neo-Nazis. Among these, the NSN proved most capable of using this milieu of resentment to build a street mobilisation.
Increasing economic difficulty has squeezed the various social classes in Australia in different ways. Small business owners feel pinched by supply problems, labour shortages, inflation, and what they perceive as hostile industrial and tax reform. Workers and the unemployed in turn have suffered their own share of setbacks. Despite nominal increases, real wages in Australia have fallen sharply since 2021. Higher living costs, especially groceries, utilities and housing, are driving much of the anger.
Many March for Australia attendees told the media that concerns around the price of houses was behind their reason for attendance. Though this is clearly a veil for some to hide their racism, there is undoubtedly a grain of truth behind it for others.
Which makes it more ironic that a key figure in promoting March for Australia was Hugo Lennon, or ‘Auspill’, the online celebrity son of a massive property developer in Australia. His family profit from and exploit the Australian housing market to the tune of $800 million, yet try to pin the blame for working class Australians’ housing woes on migrants. It’s a trick as old as time, and sections of Australia’s ruling class are still adept at turning economic frustration to their advantage. All this has paved the way for populist and nationalist politics.
August 31st gave this seedy, growing underbelly of hate and conspiracy an excuse to mobilise on the streets in a way they haven’t since anti-lockdown protests. Globally, far-right movements have surged. Trump in the US, Milei in Argentina and Netanyahus in Israel leading an unchecked genocide in Palestine. Australian fascists see themselves as part of this wave and the March for Australia rallies were their chance to ride it.
Reclaim Australia 2.0?
Ten years ago a series of similar rallies were held across Australia. ‘Reclaim Australia’ attempted a populist mobilisation of the far-right underbelly of Australian society, hoping to capture the attention of garden variety racists and channel them towards more explicitly fascist political projects like the United Patriots Front.
Reclaim was met by anti-fascist resistance in the form of counter rallies. Particularly in Victoria, their advances were halted by confrontational and well organised resistance. Divided amongst themselves and facing prosecution, the Reclaim faltered as key fascist leaders began to change strategy.
Today the NSN are not the adhoc crew who drove Reclaim. They have a substantial cadre of dedicated activists spread across the country. After an escalating series of stunts over recent years, including robberies, beatings and marches through regional towns, their intervention into March for Australia was a significant opportunity. They openly declared themselves as Neo-Nazis on national news, addressed the crowd in multiple cities and distributed White Power propaganda to rally attendees.
On the day, they attacked other sections of the right, effectively capturing control of the rally in Melbourne. This included Avi Yemeni, a prominent personality in alt-right media. There can be no doubt the NSN wanted to drive out Zionists, who they perceive as a Jewish stain on the nationalist movement.
Following the rally, members of NSN attacked the indigenous Camp Sovereignty in Melbourne, sending several people to hospital with serious injuries. Two days later their leader Tom Sewell berated Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen on live TV, before being arrested for brawling in the Melbourne magistrates court.
Political violence is a given with fascists. We should remember that Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch Massacre killer was active in NSN networks, and its members perceive him as a hero. Their development, combined with the groundswell of the populist far-right should be of significant concern.
Coupled with the unpredictability of other far right currents, such as the sovereign citizens, the left must take building a capable antifascist response seriously.
Rebuilding an Antifascist Left
During the Reclaim Australia period the Left managed to collectively build strong anti-fascist campaigns and organisations. Particularly in Victoria, groups like Campaign Against Racism and Fascism united socialists, anarchists, trade unionists and independents with a degree of strategic and tactical unity. Today, an even more serious and considered collective approach is needed. The basis on which we do so is a political question that must be carefully considered.
As anti-capitalists we know that fascism is a symptom of capitalism in crisis. As such a materialist analysis of the far-right should shape our response. Strategy, tactics and slogans flow from how we understand the moment. Our propaganda should reflect not just what is morally correct, but what is useful in the fight. And it should always seek to point the way towards revolutionary solutions. While there is no point trying to appeal to sections of the ruling and middle classes who support March for Australia, there is a small section of the working class who may be fractured away, and our efforts can inoculate other workers against fascist ideas.
Regarding how we approach the need for organisation, the ‘united front’ remains the basic framework. It doesn’t matter if the reference point is Trotsky or Malatesta, German resistance to the Nazis or the fight against the National Front in Britain. Effectively, a defensive conception of the united front means that various working class organisations unite around resistance to fascism. After all, workers, in all their variety, have a shared interest in combatting the far right. Despite a variety of views – social democratic, socialist or anarchist – class is the fundamental point of unity.
Propaganda produced in a united front necessarily lays aside the niche details of difference between the tendencies involved, concentrating on basic antifascist positions. A united front must operate democratically, where organisations are free to operate separately and independently, but undertake antifascist action on a united and cohesive basis. This is encapsulated well in the slogan “march separate, strike together”. Think of it as a proletarian federalism in action.
Which leads to the question of tactics. Organising against Reclaim was something akin to a test run for what is needed now. Everyone involved then undoubtedly made political mistakes. Some groups fetishised loose, violent confrontational tactics and a refusal to engage in collective discipline. These choices saw people get their heads kicked in, resulted in embarrassing propaganda for the far right and police, helped the state to escalate its policing tactics, and produced a paranoid security culture that refused to acknowledge that what really keeps us safe is a large, powerful collective movement. To top it off, the Reclaim wave of antifascism also fostered a toxic, sexist culture that cultivated macho attitudes and elevated physical confrontation from a tactic to a strategy.
In contrast, groups emphasising mass politics at the expense of all tactical questions made a different set of mistakes. Sometimes there was dishonest political engagement between groups that fractured useful alliances, driving activists and organisations out for the sake of grudges and political monopoly. Basing tactics on movements from the past, there was a failure to understand the difficulties of beating a movement that largely organises online. This still looms over us today.
There was also an important aspect of antifascist politics shrugged off by those who focused solely on building mass movements. As interviews with former British National Front leaders demonstrate, large counter rallies only sometimes demoralised their broader social base. What truly terrified the hardcore of the fascist movement was effective, organised physical resistance. During Reclaim, when physical confrontation became unavoidable, a mass, disciplined approach to this question was ignored. This led to injuries, demoralisation, and missed opportunities to ‘no platform’ the fascists.
March for Australia reflects a failure by the left to comprehend all these lessons. Despite warning that the demonstrations would be large, practical questions were brushed aside due to a mistaken belief the fascists were not capable of meaningful mobilisation. Perhaps buoyed by the size of the Palestine solidarity movement and the launch of a new nationwide Socialist Party, Australia’s largest socialist organisations failed to prepare for the day, and everyone else failed to provide a capable alternative.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. We are not building from scratch. A degree of organisational infrastructure from the Reclaim period still exists, and many of the activists who built it are still around. We know how to build far bigger rallies than the right, how to marshall and keep people safe. We have knowledge of street tactics and how to employ these with mapping and effective communication channels.
We should remind ourselves that recent Palestine marches mobilised hundreds of thousands, including a historic march across the harbour bridge. Each year, Invasion Day rallies draw in tens of thousands in all the major cities. There may have been thousands of racists on the streets, but countless more Australians are willing to protest for anti-racist causes. What we have to consider is, how do we get these broader organisations in the room to discuss the antifascist question and mobilise them in a manner that can break the nationalist movement?
Another thing that we should take heart from. During the Reclaim Australia period the labour movement was silent. But before the March for Australia had even held its first rally, Victorian Trades Hall Council called out its Nazi leadership and the Maritime Union of Australia produced media to undermine their message. In the days following, the Victorian CPSU has put out a statement condemning the racist attack on Camp Sovereignty. This shift matters.
There are potentials that did not exist before. There will have to be a careful line walked between courting social democratic forces who are more cautious, and employing the more confrontational tactics required to beat the fascists off the streets. But with continued pressure, we have the opportunity to push labour organisations and other left wing forces with much larger membership into doing something useful. We cannot count on the state, only on the power of workers and revolutionary politics.
Conclusion
March for Australia caught the left unprepared. But we do not have to remain so.
Far right politics have developed; the same social base that turned out for Reclaim Australia has grown into a larger movement. They are no longer led by a handful of confused nationalists and Nazis, but by the cadre organisation that is the National Socialist Network. Unchallenged, they will continue to grow.
But we can beat them. We have experience, theory, organisation and the potential to mobilise tens of thousands more. The task now is to rebuild a disciplined, democratic antifascist movement rooted in class politics, united across tendencies, and unafraid of confrontation when necessary.
Capitalism breeds fascism. Our struggle against the far right is inseparable from the fight against the system itself. With unity, strategy and solidarity, we can stop the fascists again, and push forward towards a revolutionary alternative.
— A member of the Anarchist Communist Federation.
Cover image: Neo-nazis from the NSN leading the March for Australia rally in Sydney.
