Cities risk being flung into chaos as rival groups plan to shut down streets in counter-protests, with police anticipating clashes between troublemakers.<\/p>\n
National rallies will be staged under the Australia Unites banner, made up of several splinter groups, on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Organisers say the turnout will highlight Australians\u2019 displeasure over worsening cost-of-living pressures, declining health outcomes, rising violence, financial strain and environmental policies that serve corporations.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Opposing groups led by Indigenous and Palestinian activist groups have planned a National Day of Action against racism and fascism in the same cities in response to neo-Nazis allegedly raiding an Indigenous camp in Melbourne on August 31.<\/p>\n Police in Victoria anticipate troublemakers among far-left and far-right groups will use protests as an excuse to pick a fight, warning of extended delays in Melbourne\u2019s CBD.<\/p>\n Violent brawls broke out between anti-immigration protesters and anti-fascism groups, which led to police deploying pepper spray to separate demonstrators.<\/p>\n A group of men dressed in black had clashed with people at Camp Sovereignty in King\u2019s Domain on August 31, following the March for Australia rally in the city.<\/p>\n The camp is a burial site with the remains of Indigenous people from 38 clans. It was first created in 2006 to coincide with the Commonwealth Games and re-established in 2024.<\/p>\n Ten men, some with links to neo-Nazi groups, have been arrested and charged in relation to the alleged assaults and affray.<\/p>\n Victoria Police say among the four groups set to turn out, those with far-right and extreme ideologies, as well as far-left and opposing views, will seek conflict and confront each other.<\/p>\n They could not discount the chance neo-Nazis would again take to the streets while a leader in the group remains behind bars.<\/p>\n Victoria\u2019s Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said the government supported peaceful protest but rebuked any protesters who planned to engage in harm and violence.<\/p>\n \u201cDo not ever use the cloak of protest to go out there and cause crime,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no place for protests that spread harm, that spread hate, that spread fear and violence, and there is certainly no place in Victoria for neo-Nazis.\u201d<\/p>\n Rallies will occur in Sydney, Hobart, Canberra and Brisbane but their state police forces have not warned of similar clashes.<\/p>\n Officers deployed in Melbourne will have extra powers to search people for weapons and can direct people to remove face coverings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cities risk being flung into chaos as rival groups plan to shut down streets in counter-protests, with police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,84],"class_list":["post-138655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}