It is no accident that the racist March For Australia (MFA) movement started after up to 300,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on August 31 behind a banner that proclaimed “March for humanity – Save Gaza”.
The mass surge of solidarity that the march represented was understood by the racist right as a deadly threat to its dreams to build a mass anti-immigrant movement.
Far-right and white supremacist activists, organised in a range of small groups and parties as well as within the Liberal and National parties, aspire to build a mass right-wing populist movement here, like those that have developed in many European countries and in the United States. US President Donald Trump’s re-election supercharged their ugly dreams.
MFA tried to build its first nationwide mobilisation on August 31 as a counter to the Sydney Harbour Bridge march in solidarity with Gaza, but the former’s size paled in comparison. Around 5000 joined the racist march in Gadigal Country/Sydney and, in total, the numbers at MFA marches elsewhere added up to about 40,000.
The black-clad and masked members of the neo-Nazi grouplet, the National Socialist Network (NSN), at the front of the MFA marches in the biggest cities in August received most public attention. And after NSN thugs attacked Camp Sovereignty, a sacred place maintained by Aboriginal people in Naarm/Melbourne, and other reports of abuse and assaults on people in public transport, the outrage and publicity led to NSN’s leader, Thomas Sewell, and two others being arrested on .
Perhaps the NSN hoped this would make their leader a popular symbol for the right, along the lines of Tommy Robinson in Britain. But that has not eventuated.
The prominent role of neo-Nazis on August 31 divided MFA and its organisers hastily scrambled to distance themselves from the NSN.
However, the close connection between MFA organisers and the NSN remains, as detailed investigations in and show. The support for the MFA from some 91̳ of the capitalist class, including the right-wing media, has also been exposed. Nevertheless the overt role of NSN neo-Nazi goons in the first MFA day of action appear to have led to much smaller turn-outs to MFA’s two subsequent nationwide mobilisations, which have been much smaller.
The neo-Nazis remain part of the MFA, but they are trying to make themselves less obvious.
MFA’s politics remains the same. Officially, it claims to oppose “mass immigration” — which is not taking place. However, their march chants include calls for the mass deportations of migrants who do not “assimilate” into white Australia. MFA organiser Bec Freedom has openly supported the neo-Nazi’s demand of “remigration”.
Fear in communities
The MFA movement has created real fear in many communities, some of whom have been urged by some of their own organisations to stay of city centres on days when the MFA has held rallies and marches.
The role of neo-Nazis in MFA’s mobilisations has sparked some concern about the beginnings of a fascist movement. Such fears are understandable, but they should not confuse us about the MFA’s real danger. It is not like 1930s Germany, where large capitalists saw the need to use the Nazis to smash a powerful and radicalised working class movement.
Today, the organised working class in every imperialist country is weaker than it has ever been. It has been smashed by social democratic neoliberal betrayals and the impact of capitalist globalisation. The working class is also very divided in levels of income and job (in)security. The precariat has grown and a growing number of workers cannot even afford decent housing.
The populist right seeks to exploit these divisions as well as racism, misogyny and xenophobia to keep the working class divided. This makes it easier for the capitalist ruling class to recompose its political power in the face of the collapse of confidence in the traditional parties of government.
Right wing populism
Right-wing populism also seeks to brainwash a section of the exploited classes into supporting government policies that will, in fact, hurt them very badly. For example, it seeks to consolidate a degree of public support for the expensive military build-up to shore up US-led imperialist global hegemony. This build-up — spearheaded in Australia by the AUKUS agreement — will be funded at the expense of social spending (housing, welfare, health and education) and urgently-needed funds to address the climate emergency.
The US and its imperialist allies still militarily dominate the world, but its economic supremacy is gradually being weakened, ironically, as a result of neoliberal capitalist globalisation that these same powers have relentlessly promoted since the 1980s, to shore up corporate profits.
Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza and its attacks on neighbouring states are part and parcel of the imperialist powers’ drive to demonstrate and re-assert its military power.
Israel’s genocide was — and continues to be — armed by US and its imperialist allies, including Australia. The global mass movement against the genocide is a direct challenge to the imperialist military build-up.
While the mass global Palestine solidarity movement has not succeeded stopping the US and its imperialist allies from arming and supporting Israel, it has shaped the Trump “peace deal” in Gaza.
This deal has not delivered real peace, let alone justice; it leaves Israel with the power to resume the full-scale genocide and attack its neighbours on the flimsiest of excuses.
However, the global movement in solidarity with Gaza has had some success in isolating Israel politically, and that is probably the reason that Trump seems to be putting some constraint on Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu regime from violently “finishing the job” — at least for now.
Recent US polls show there has been a historic in support for Israel. Pew Research found that 59% now hold a negative view of Israel, while 39% believe it is “going too far” in its war in Gaza — compared with 31% who held that view a year ago and 27% who thought this just two months after October 2023.
The US’s central role in arming the genocide has also fed into declining confidence in imperialist allies’ trust in US.
A recent poll commissioned by the Australian Financial Review showed a fall in support for US-Australia military partnership since 2022 (a 13% fall in just the last year).
So we need to carefully weigh up the achievements of the global solidarity movement, as well as what it has yet to win. But most importantly, we need to recognise that, in this country, the mass Palestine movement remains the strongest force against right-wing populism and racism.
Tactical challenges
There are critical tactical challenges for the progressive movement, which are compounded by the precarious Gaza ceasefire deal, liberal reaction to ongoing Israeli genocide and the rise of far-right movements.
Effective tactics are those that advance the political objectives of the movements for peace and justice. We should reject the idea that the task is to “smash” small groups of neo-Nazis, when the real challenge is to politically isolate the far-right movements and rebuild working class unity and solidarity with progressive struggles.
Broader alliances still need to be built in solidarity with Palestine, as well as against racist attacks in all its forms (from First Nations’ rights to refugee and migrant rights). This means that movements should avoid tactics that could politically isolate progressive struggles from the people who are still deciding where to throw their support.
[Peter Boyle is a long-term anti-racist activist and member of the Socialist Alliance.]