The Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, a Melbourne activist group, is this week protesting against a gym that trains Nazis.
Legacy Boxing Gym, located in Sunshine, came to national attention last year after an Age investigation uncovered its links to the neo-Nazi movement. In early December, fascists from around the country had gathered at the facility for a weekend of training and propaganda production, held to a backdrop of swastikas and SS flags.
The gathering was yet another reminder that the far-right is continuing to build its ranks and operate in a more confident and open manner.
In October, a group of fascists targeted a youth festival in Moonee Ponds where drag artist Belial B’Zarr was performing. They held banners with homophobic and transphobic slogans and yelled “Sieg Heil!”—the greeting used in Germany under the rule of Adolf Hitler—at participants.
The Nazis have been active in other ways, organising training camps in the Grampians and holding events at Elwood beach. Their most recent target was an Indigenous flag lowering ceremony in Coburg on Invasion day, where a few dozen showed up shouting racist slogans and carrying Australian flags.
But there has also been opposition to the fascists.
Read the article by Ben Milne on Red Flag.