Three hundred anti-fascist protesters marched on a neo-Nazi recruitment event run out of a gym in Melbourne on Saturday. We marched down the streets of Sunshine West, spreading a message to residents who emerged from nearby shops in the multicultural suburb: “Right here, in your neighbourhood, there’s a recruiting centre for white supremacists and neo-Nazis. They want to make Australia a white-only country. We think that everyone should be welcome here: migrants, refugees, people of every race and gender”.
The Nazis huddled inside the gym, refusing to come out and face us. We chanted “Black, Indigenous, Arab, Asian and white, unite to fight the right”, urging them to show themselves. A journalist laughed as he told us that the news helicopter had footage to prove they were in there and could hear us.
Standing on the barricades set up by police, speakers talked about anti-fascist history: the fight against Pauline Hanson, the battle for Lewisham against the British National Front, the partisans of Italy and the rebels of Germany. They also spoke about the international context; while the far right is small in Australia right now, far-right political parties have risen to prominence and power across Europe and in India.
Read the article by Jasmine Duff in Red Flag.