En Passant

I wrote in Independent Australia on Monday that Hanson’s resurgence combined with a Coalition Government and a renewed racialised right in the Reclaim Australia movement, signal dangerous times for Australian politics. To read the whole article click here. The Coalition, Hanson’s resurrection and the rise of racism

I wrote this in July after I had just got back from the Canberra Anti-Racist Network rally against the racists and fascists from Reclaim Australia. It was fantastic. There were about 30 of them and 150 of us. We spoke about how they were responding to Tony Abbott’s agenda of fear and division and his talk of Team Australia. Demonising refugees, attacking Aborigines and belittling Muslims all combine, in times of a worsening economy, to give a spark to the racists and fascists and their simplistic and very very dangerous rubbish. You can read the whole article here.

As capitalism slides into deeper recession or depression, the ruling class may well need the fascists to smash the organised working class, which means smashing unions and the left, all the way from the revolutionary socialists to the Labor Party types. That is why the mainstream media don’t call out the wannabes Hitlers as the Nazis they really are.

Writing in this month’s Solidarity magazine Amy Thomas says among other things:

‘Large demonstrations are key to building confidence and showing the Muslim community that they have wider support. This means winning the support of groups like trade unions and refugee supporters to explicitly oppose Islamophobia.

‘The fascination of Socialist Alternative and some others with faux militancy—small numbers aiming to physically confront Reclaim—will not work. The police mobilise in their hundreds to protect the Reclaim rallies. Outnumbering the racists is the key to demoralising them, showing their views are isolated, and that they will be actively opposed.’

To read the whole article click here. Broader movement needed to defeat Reclaim’s Islamophobia.

‘We write to express our disappointment in the way the demonstration [in Sydney] against Reclaim Australia concluded on Sunday… The rally today had a number of strengths that can be built on to take this movement forward. But the unnecessary and undemocratic confrontation with police was a step back and must not be repeated. We will need a more democratic, honest approach to organising to make any future events successful.’

In an article in the Canberra Times on our anti-Reclaim Australia rally on Sunday at Parliament House, Christopher Knaus quotes me. The report itself doesn’t mention the strong Aboriginal Tent Embassy presence at the anti-Reclaim rally. Here is one of my poor photos of the 25 or so Aboriginal comrades at the beginning of the protest against racism.

Wrapped in the Australian flag, chanting Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi, oi, oi and sprouting hateful lies and abuse against Muslims and anti-fascists and anti-racists like me, and wanting to undertake physical action against its perceived enemies, these white nationalist Reclaim Australia people, mainly alienated middle aged and young men, are a potential lumpen proletariat wing of fascism. It made me realise why some alienated young men might also join or support Reclaim’s alter ego and mirror image, ISIS.

We live in dangerous times. The fascists have guns. One tried to bring a gun to a Reclaim Australia rally. A complicit media and political elite remain silent. We must continue our struggle against racism and Islamaphobia.

Well done to all those in Canberra who attended this great turnout to confront the racists. We outnumbered them five to one. We kicked their sorry arses.

Victoria Police should rightfully be condemned for the deployment of chemical weapons, the targeting of medical personnel, casualties and medical treatment spaces with such weapons and, most of all, doing this in order to facilitate a public rally of racists and overt fascists and neo-nazis. Any assessment of the actions of antifascist protesters will conclude that they were inherently defensive: against threats of violence and the use of weapons by fascists and nazis as part of the United Patriots Front, and against the violence of racism and systematic oppression on the parts of Reclaim Australia, the United Patriots Front and Victoria Police.