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Social media is awash today with confronting imagery from down south, after a group of 30 literal Nazis marched through the centre of one of Australia’s biggest cities in fully coordinated uniforms.
The men performed Nazi salutes as part of an anti-Trans rally as clashes broke out between protesters and the police guarding them, in scenes reminiscent of the harrowing 1992 skinhead film ‘Romper Stomper’.
It is not known why, in 2023, Australian intelligence agencies and the police are unable to stop the recruitment of disillusioned white kids into radical hate groups that now appear to have no interest in remaining underground.
It may be due to the fact that Australia’s most dominant voices of left-wing activism aren’t willing to fight fire with fire, and are more concerned about symbolism and performative language rather than tackling the real issues, like actual Nazis. Marching. In public.
The history of Neo-Nazism in Australia is a storied one, with the movement first making waves in the 1980s at the height of anti-Vietnamese sentiment, before transitioning into an almost exclusively anti-Muslim hate group in the 2000s.
After briefly turning their attention to lockdowns and vaccine mandates during the pandemic, the Melbourne far-right have this week rebranded as ‘Anti-Trans activists’ who also hate Jews enough to salute Hitler while surrounded by news cameras in the middle of the CBD.
The group of black-clad fascists held signs that vilified transgender people, while British anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull spoke to the crowd. Several people were restrained by police and it appeared pepper spray was used on at least one occasion.
What is interesting is that these brazen displays of neo-Nazism aren’t taking place in stereotypical ‘redneck’ cities Perth or Brisbane – where majority of anti-fascist activism actually doesn’t take place on Twitter, and may be considered ‘problematic’.
Southern cities are today being advised to adopt a ‘more Queensland approach’ to their activism, by fostering an environment where nazis might not feel that comfortable showing their faces in public – out of fear of ‘getting fasi’d’ – as they say in South Brisbane.
