Briefly: police quarantined maybe 100-150 Reclaim Australia (RA) supporters on the concourse above the square. They were then surrounded on both sides by police. Anti-racists formed picket lines around this assembly and prevented many (but not all) other Reclaimers from joining their racist brethren above (police did manage to force a way thru the picket on the Flinders St side to allow several dozen Reclaimers thru). There was then a stand-off with occasional unsuccessful attempts by Reclaimers to break the picket and a small amount of argy-bargy. After an hour or two of this the Reclaimers above moved to stand in front of Chocolate Buddha — again surrounded by a large number of police. Some time later, police decided to move the Reclaimers out of the square by way of the steps to the Yarra. The hundred or more racists then milled about alongside the Yarra and slow progress (with police escort) was then made to Flinders St station where things basically came to a halt and most dispersed.
Initial verdict: a partial victory for anti-racists, with the racist RA supporters outnumbered, isolated and unable to control the square — and eventually forced to leave. Otherwise: RA attracted many more supporters than the last time (2011) racists tried to rally at Fed Square — a warning signal to the left, I guess, that hatred of Muslims has significant support among the wider population and wrapping this phobia in the Australian flag (one example of which was burnt at the rally by Indigenous activists) will likely draw some small degree of support … but also attract, at least in Melbourne, significant opposition (even without the support of the unions).
And oh yeah: the Reclaim Australia Twitter account was hacked … LOL.
I may write a more complete account and some analysis later. In the meantime:
• ‘Aboriginals Are Dickheads’: Reclaiming Australia, One Racist Video Rant At A Time, New Matilda, April 4, 2015
• Reclaim Australia rallies: protesters clash in Melbourne and Sydney, Michael Safi, The Guardian, April 4, 2015
• So this is Easter: Melbourne faces off at anti-Islam rally as police on horseback hold factions apart, John Elder, The Age, April 4, 2015
• Reclaim Australia clashes with opposing groups at rallies around the country over extremism and tolerance, ABC, April 4, 2015
• Reclaim Australia Twitter account hacked as rallies staged around Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 4, 2015
Reclaim Australia and No Room for Racism rallies clash across Australia, news.com.au, April 4, 2015
How nice of him to tattoo a target on the back of his potato head. Cunt.
Too funny, you guys were a laugh in Brisbane as usual, a few spoilt Uni students half of which were obese, banging on pots and pans, the rest were underweight Vegans, struggling to make it through the day. The average Australian didn’t know who Antifa and co were until yesterday, you now have a whole new range of enemies. We thank you for that. You were an embarrassment to yourselves. And the garbage coming out of your mouth was pure entertainment. Not to mention the cowards you are. You scattered quick after your police protection was gone. Big talk of violence, death to fascists, baseball bats. But the reality is very different. Now the mainstream are aware of that too. Your brave Antifa army changed carriages when I purposefuly sat behind them, they crossed to the other side of the road when I walked toward them. Luckily they were protected by the multitude of surveillance cameras, as they yell Nazi Cunt after they are well clear of me. Look forward to the next rally, bigger and better, expect it to intensify.
that you are happy to affiliate yourself with people who have swastikas tattooed on their heads, should set some pretty serious alarms bells going to alert you to the fact that your moral compass needs some serious adjusting…
I understand that to be the case of a bunch of uneducated, confused, Communist/Anarchist/Fascist-anti Fascist Uni students. No wonder you are such cowards, you fear Tattoo’s and Swastika’s. I bet you get freaked out when you catch a glimpse of your lice infested dreadlocks, under n[o]urished vegan frames or your overweight degeneracy, or perhaps your drug affected skin, or Centrelink paycheck, and crystals are not an appro[p]riate form of deodorising. Take a bath, exercise (prepare for those defeats you dream about) and read more. Good luck!
Thanks for spell checking slackcoward, I will be sure to make sure my fingers hit the key’s with enough force so as not to be highlighted as a possible illiterate “Nazi”.
Those alarms bells are so loud I can even hear them, maybe remove your head from your anus you’ll definitely hear them then. You do understand the symbolism behind the swastika don’t you? Or maybe you don’t, maybe you shouldn’t have left school in year 9. And I must say thank you for your post of anxious verbal vomit.
uneducated and uni student in the same sentence of your mental vomit, too funny…
key’s? I think you meant keys. You really should have stayed in school beyond year 9 you know.
If u leftist scum were so concerned with unemployed Aussies u would oppose 457 visa hypocrite communist scum
Andy, it’s a rally against religious intolerance by certain people within the Islamic community.
Don’t make it out to be what it is not.
Gee. We won, Andy. Sucks to [be] you. I guess you mistook the “Nazis” for mainstream Australia.
Yeah all those fuckers with SS tatts were just there opposing “religious intolerance” you know in between epithets about gas chambers and Jews. It’s a good thing you lot are sitting on IQs of around 70, it might actually be worrying otherwise.
Why don’t you take your love of Adolf to its logical conclusion, find a bunker and eat a bullet.
@Scott:
It was a rally organised to denounce Muslims as pathological.
Uni students are some of the most uneducated people I have met. “Edjewcated” is a better term.
This is why Antifa are youthful. As you grow older and and have more life experiences you will learn that everything you have been taught and told are lies. Until then, learn to defend yourself.
In practice, the violence, the suppression of speech, the hate and the execution of justice without trial or a hearing was practised by the “anti-racists” at the rally. In PRACTICE, it is the far-Left who act as thugs to suppress speech in this society. They excuse this bad practice by claiming that their opponents don’t deserve basic human treatment because of what they are.
In PRACTICE, the far-Left act exactly like the Fascists they accuse everyone else of being. JUST like the people they supposedly oppose, the Nazi’s [no apostrophe], the Fascists, they justify their actions based on the “undeserving” being not worthy of such things, and being guilty based on presumptions formulated by their own ideology and not through discussion or actual evidence.
And as a result, they see it justified to throw projectiles at women, throw elderly to the ground and stop mainstream Australians from hearing an argument by means of intimidation.
And all they have to defend themselves, are glib one liners which somehow “justify” their thuggery.
And what does it mean when on your side are people who behead blasphemers, marry children, destroy cultural artifacts, kidnap children and murder innocents indiscriminately. I’m sure you will be anti racist right until [you’re] declared an infidel by the caliphate of Australia and beheaded for not being [M]uslim. Wake up.
Yes Andy you poor bugger we did win on the day. Looking down at your pathetic mob of rabid mongrels who were so pissed they could not get ‘at us’ it drove them utterly crazy. I was smiling all the time old son. They looked so tired … so worn out … perhaps the same number as in 2011 but wait … WE were many many times more than then … ooops … We are growing you lot are static and fading. A bit of a change from May 15th 2011 when the feral scum gathered at the mumbled commands of Manrico Moro’s gay sounding voice “let’s all get behind our banner and drive them out of fed square” … hmmm 300 vs 40 not exactly a victory. So now you are the same, same old worn out banner: “Unite against racism” … *ouch* … that hurt… but with our numbers MASSIVELY bigger, no one drove us anywhere and this time if they’d tried it on me … well … perhaps I’d have spoken ‘harshly’ to such an attacker. Oh newsflash: I think next time we will be bigger than Ben Hur as the nation catches up to our program. I really thought the lefties needed a damn good hug to boost their flagging spirits at the end.
ALMOST FORGOT I’d like to extend many thanks to the leftist scum who burned our flags. I guess there are few things which will have a better effect in boosting our numbers next time.
Just a point Andy: You said:
Anti-racists formed picket lines around this assembly and prevented many (but not all) other racists from joining their racist brethren above (police did manage to force a way thru the picket on the Flinders St side to allow several dozen racists thru)
So much for ‘tolerance’ and ‘inclusion’ and ‘freedom of expression’… I ask ‘WHY’ did you mob of ferals do that? Is your argument so weak, your cause too calamitous, your point too pathetic that you are forced to resort to the use of “might is right?”
I have been stunned by the clearheadedness of most Media Consumers who have been exposed to two thing: i) Your brutality and hypocrisy, your violence and aggression, your flagrant disrespect for truth, and freedom and; ii) The true point of RECLAIM. They are not being sucked in to your nefarious narrative of “racist” because they are all FEELING what we feel… and it’s not about race. Perhaps one of these decades you people might get that, but I know you won’t because your ‘anti racism’ position has absolutely NOTHING to do with ‘racism’. We weren’t born behind the bushes mate. You are just using this occasion to raise your ugly profile for socio-political reasons.
METHOD… in spite of your madness (and that of the Herald Sun) is this…
i) Create a mis-characterization of the movement.
ii) Attack that mis-characterization.
Well as Mill said the public will get a clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. The general public are in fact seeing our truth as it collides with your error. Thank you for making the contrast vivid.
I saw the hipster neo nazi (wearing the hat, sunglasses, and nationalist alternative t-shirt in the photo) walking down Sydney Rd on the Friday before the rally. He has a red swastika tattooed on his right arm. The moron with Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) tattooed on the back of his head is trying to prove to everyone that he is actually Anglo-Saxon, because if he didn’t have it inked into his bone head, people may think that he is, in fact, non Anglo-Saxon. Jim Saleam dyed his hair blond so people would think that he was Anglo-Saxon when in fact he is Lebanese. Jack Van Tongeren was half Indonesian. These neo nazis are totally delusional. If these morons love being Anglo, or deluding themselves that they are, like Saleam, Van Tongeren, and the bonehead from Squadron 88, so much, they should go and live in England, because this country has a black history and the rest of us are immigrants. Indigenous people rallied alongside us, not the morons trying to supposedly “reclaim Australia” (sic) despite the fact that RA appropriated the land rights flag into their iconography. RA do not give a stuff about Indigenous people. They stand for white power, mono culturalism, capitalism, patriarchy, and heterosexism. RA never distanced themselves from the fascists who rallied alongside them.
Pingback: antifa notes (may 24) : United Patriots Front rally + counter-rally: Richmond, Sunday, May 31 | slackbastard
Pingback: Neo-Nazis @ #ReclaimAustralia in Melbourne | slackbastard
Pingback: Some notes on anarchism + anti-fascism | slackbastard
Pingback: antifa notes (june 17, 2015) : facebook, angry white males, united patriots front | slackbastard
Pingback: #ReclaimAustralia ~versus~ RALLY AGAINST RACISM (#Melbourne, Saturday, July 18) | slackbastard
Pingback: #Reclaim Australia : November 22, 2015 : Post-match | slackbastard
Pingback: antifa notes (april 12, 2016) : hard times for patriots | slackbastard