Solidarity Melbourne Branch Committee statement
The thousands who marched as part of the anti-migrant “Nationwide March for Australia” alongside open Nazis shows the danger if anti-migrant racism goes unchallenged.
The Nazis were emboldened by the march. They attacked Camp Sovereignty, injuring several people, and went on a rampage harassing people of colour and anyone associated with the left.
But most of those on the march were not Nazis. It attracted a range of people, from conspiracy theorists to ordinary workers, wrongly blaming migrants for the housing crisis.
It shows that the anti-migrant scapegoating by the Coalition and Labor has very real potential to drive larger numbers of people towards the politics of Nazi groups like the NSN.
The racists are seeking to turn legitimate anger against Anthony Albanese’s failure to act on housing prices and the cost of living against immigrants.
It is essential we build the widest possible opposition to this racism at the same time as building a real fightback for jobs, wages and conditions to turn that anger towards the rich where it belongs.
Strong and united
Although there was a good turnout on our side on August 31, the divided response on the counter-demonstration was not what was needed.
About 5000 anti-racist, pro-Palestine supporters assembled at 11am at the State Library and marched towards Flinders Street to confront the rally. We were strong and united.
As the counter-demonstration reached the intersection at Flinders Street, the Socialist Alternative chair of the rally announced that the rally was splitting into two groups – with one group marching towards Parliament and the other staying at the intersection.
After an announcement from the chair that the counter-demo would march to Parliament where the racists were reportedly advancing on Palestinians, Socialist Alternative changed their mind and redirected the bulk of the march towards the State Library, causing considerable opposition and confusion, with a smaller group breaking off towards Parliament
This meant that anti-racists ended up divided and split, while the racists and fascists could feel strong.
But it’s reflective of a deeper problem. The decision to split the rally was based on the idea that the best approach to defeating the racists is to demoralise them by insisting everyone at the rally is a Nazi—and treating them as such.
Physical confrontation by the minority of anti-fascists who are willing to confront them in this way is seen as the way forward—and a justification for splitting away those who want to fight the fascists from those who only want to march.
When the Nazis mobilise their members, physical confrontation is needed to demoralise them and make it impossible for them to organise. This too requires mass mobilisation and broad unity from unions and the mainstream left like Labor and the Greens to effectively outnumber and isolate them.
At the same time as mobilising against racism, we need to expose the Nazis’ agenda and make it impossible for them to be legitimised through racist campaigns.
But focusing on the Nazis right now runs the risk of letting the racist arguments about migration and housing, or Labor’s deportation of asylum-seekers, go unchallenged.
To undermine the Nazis, we need to tackle the racism that lets them grow.
United, anti-racist rally
The massive march for Palestine on 24 August shows that building a big united anti-racist rally that can massively outnumber the far right is possible.
The failure to do so on Sunday is the product of a political strategy in which no effort is made to relate to or mobilise considerable forces beyond the far left.
While the organisers put out media critical of black bloc tactics, the narrow basis on which they built the rally inevitably leaves space for politics that says the main priority is the act of physically confronting the fascists.
Instead, the priority needs to be a strong, united and disciplined march which shows that we are many and the racists are few.
This requires a focus on building broad, united opposition among wider sections of the working class.
Before the rally, Trades Hall put out messaging on their social media aiming to educate union members about the true nature of the rally.
Instead of welcoming this opposition and reaching out to Trades Hall to provide a speaker at the counter rally, which would’ve sent a signal to all union members that it is important to join us on the streets, the rally platform featured only the far left.
Similarly, while there were small contingents from Brimbank and Melton Greens and Young Labor Left carrying a “Pro-Palestine, Anti-Fascist” banner at the rally, no effort was made to seek out endorsements or to reflect the untapped broad opposition to racism and fascism on the rally platform.
Broad, anti-racist
There will be another counter demonstration to the “March for Australia” on 13 September. It is essential this does not repeat the same mistakes and divide the anti-racist response by taking a section of the rally into a confrontation with the racists.
To build rallies of several thousands we need to involve unions, members and supporters of the ALP and the Greens, as well as those who face the Nazi hate—Indigenous people, trans activists, Jews, Muslims, migrants and refugees.
That’s what the response on the 13th should look like. We need to all turn out to make it as large and united as possible.
The Refugee Action Collective has initiated a broad, anti-racist mobilisation on 26 September endorsed by Free Palestine Melbourne, with Robbie Thorpe speaking.
Trades Hall has been approached for endorsement, which would offer the opportunity to mobilise thousands of union members as we saw on the Palestine rally on 24 August.
We urgently need to dedicate ourselves to building in our unions, workplaces and campuses to make this as large as possible and show the broad opposition to the government’s anti-migrant agenda, to break people from racist ideas and the influence of the fascists.
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