En Passant

Independent Australia’s Canberra correspondent John Passant finds himself on the wrong side of Facebook’s “community standards”. To read the article click here

The St Kilda aftermath: Fascists and mainstream politiciansIn the wake of the St Kilda rally, John Passant explores the ways in which fascism is creeping into our government. You can read the full article by clicking here.

Pauline Hanson cloaked her xenophobia in the cloth of liberating women, but taking her lead from Trump, her real aim is to unite the forces of fascism and white supremacy and build her electoral and social base.
 
You can read my full article in Independent Australia by clicking here.

One Nation employs conspiracy theories to create divisions. This may help fuel the rise of fascism in Australia, I write in Independent Australia.

‘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.’

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.

As fascism organises in Australia today, Trotsky’s thinking about the squaddism of the German Communist Party in the early 1930s seems to me to contain important lessons for the left today.

The government’s racist and xenophobic attacks not only allow the respectable racists to come forth. They encourage the fascists and hard racists to not only air their filth but to attempt to mobilise around racism. The most recent example was the ‘United Patriots’ demonstration on Sunday in Melbourne which was an attempt to shut down socialist councillor Stephen Jolly. The left mobilised against the fascists and stopped them silencing Jolly. This is a victory for democracy.

The respectable racists have crawled out from under their rocks (often padded with copies of mainstream newspapers) to condemn the anti-fascist protestors. We have to confront not just the fascists but expose the respectable racists and the government which nurtures and provokes their racism too. We have to oppose the racists whenever they organise their Reclaim White Australia rallies. Just as importantly we have to challenge the governments which demonise asylum seekers, which attack Aborigines and point the finger accusingly at Muslims and which attack our jobs, or wages and our services.

The possibility of a populist Hanson and a neo-Nazi right within Reclaim Australia finding common ground, as they appear to be doing, is frightening. It could herald the development of a proto-fascist organisation, based on the disaffected middle and lower classes and racist fear-mongering. We need to gather our forces and begin the fight against the racist Reclaim (White) Australia movement. It is better to remove the weeds before they destroy the garden than after they have. Apply the weedicide now, not when the weeds have overrun the garden and it is too late.

A strong vibrant and active left and trade union movement, with a clear understanding of the nature of capitalism and the threat respectable racism and its hidden guest, fascism, pose to the left and to working people, could act as a pole of attraction offering hope for these middle and working class people currently driven by fear. Building such a left must be our long term goal. In the medium term it means rank and file workers winning back their unions and building strikes to defend workers’ interests. In the short term we have to confront the racists and their fascist bed fellows every time they poke their slimy necks out from their sewers of hate.