Word-of-mouth and community support is a more effective way to stamp out right-wing extremism than additional government policing powers, writes Tom Tanuki.
IN THE PAST YEAR, I’ve read a thousand columns on how all Nazis should be locked up permanently and/or murdered extrajudicially by an army of 007s and Robocops. In the context of the renewed focus on the far-Right and White supremacist fringe after 6 January’s amateur U.S. insurrection and recent Australian Government enquiries into the subject, calls for action are not a surprise to me.
But I am so tired of hearing that many peoples’ best – or only – answer to the problem of the far-Right is throwing cops at it, ignorant as to the motivations of the State, the role of anti-fascism and the power of popular community resistance to this kind of extremism. Bad takes on the far-Right abound, from the Left, academics and, of course, our government.
Mind you, there was an open Nazi White supremacist with a swastika on his forehead using a rudimentary flamethrower on a family this week and you’ll be relieved to hear I’m not nominating you for the task of citizen’s arresting him to role model good community resistance. Nor am I seeking to reduce the risks that White supremacists pose when they commit radically violent acts. I’m not even talking about my (admittedly rather abolitionist) politics regarding the police here. I’m simply talking about the painfully imagination-free way that people write about the far-Right in Australia.
Read the article by Tom Tanuki in Independent Australia.