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[1] 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[2].
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”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq9Qlr9Q62M, may require a VPN to watch due to a legal takedown attempt by Auspill ↩︎
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 ↩︎
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 exactly how they roll.
If you say anything about this protest at all they will say “we just think the current immigration levels are unsustainable” but in reality it’s just a way to normalise hatred.
There isn’t another rally in Adelaide for four weeks. I don’t know what the organisers are thinking. When it was announced that the next rally would be in a month there was noticeable confusion and you could feel the buzz in the air just drop. I should have yelled out “We can’t wait, we can’t wait”.
PAG in Sydney have had regular rallies basically every weekend since the conflict reignited on Oct 7. Some critics in allied groups were concerned that this would lead to a sense of fatigue, having constant, smaller, easily-missable rallies as opposed to having a big notable one each fortnight or month. And in my limited experience, crowds did get smaller over time until a big event spiked interest, like the invasion of Rafah, bombing of Lebanon, bigger Australian foreign policy actions, etc., so I can understand that perspective, especially when I assume Adelaide has a smaller and less mobilised population to draw from.
Definitely keep an ear out for any counter-rally there on the 31st, I can’t see any announcement of one yet.
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You’re getting more mask off every day.
Kinda shocked the admins tolerate such an openly racist pos as yourself on here.
9 out of the 10 would be interested in this post. You’re really the only person here that consistently tries to derail or push back against any kind of pro-Palestinian discussion.
9 out of the 10 would be interested in this post.
And also it’s simply not 10 in the first place.
There are plenty of posts on the local front page with scores in the dozens and hundreds, the stat count claims 300 users a day in this community alone.
Of course. No reason to correct obvious hyperbole, though. We all know it’s far from reality.
