One man was arrested in Melbourne, with police deploying crowd control measures including OC (or pepper) spray, flash-bangs and rubber bullets during a tense stand-off with counter protesters.
In Adelaide, the organiser of the city’s August March for Australia event, Mark Aldridge, was out on the streets once again, but this time joined the counter protest.
He told the ABC it had become clear to him that the March for Australia rally had racist overtones, which he disagreed with.
“The initial rally when I got involved was meant to be about the lack of supply of services for the migration numbers they were bringing in,” Mr Aldridge said.
“I tried to send that messaging, it was very quickly assessable that that wasn’t the messaging that was meant to be on the day.”
The August rally ended after an altercation broke out when a man who identified himself as a member of the National Socialist Network took to the stage to call for an end to immigration.
member of the National Socialist Network
There’s no need for a ‘hmmm…’, those shitheads are open, Hitler-heiling Nazis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Network
Why aren’t they banned?
Banned from Australia? Well the governments tolerate abusive cults and neo-Nazis. The NSN hasn’t yet made it onto the official terrorist organisations list over here. (No, I’m not exaggerating when I say ‘cult’)
Or if you meant banned from the event: it’s because they were heavily involved in organising it in every state, they’re effectively running the rally as a front. They’re not going to ban themselves from their own rally. Mainstream outlets like ABC and The Age summarised this before the rallies, journalist Tom Tanuki has made in-depth videos detailing the evidence.
Bevase they’re not protesting Climate change.
This guy… National Socialists, you say? Perhaps I should be wary, instead of, you know, fighting against the nazis trying to take over my country.
I will squint now.
I hear a lot of theorists talk about how being involved in a movement forces people to come to terms with the reality of it. Propaganda often doesn’t hold up against what’s in front of your face. And it’s reassuring to see that it’s sometimes the case.
Apparently this guy turned up to the anti-racism.rally uninvited and tried to make it all about him by having a press conference of sorts. Was a Trumpet of Patriots candidate at election. So it’s not like he’s had a change of heart. Opportunist looking to self-promote and wants to wash stink of NSN off any future tilt at office I guess.
Oh yuck. Big tent is one thing, but someone just opportunistically doing this is not on.
From the main rally organiser Natasha Wanganeen:
Pity they swapped out one of the Canberra pictures since I read the article earlier, I found it amusing how well the roadworks sign works with a protest crowd:
Finally, a protest with a clear demand. Down with roadwork!
Commander Wayne Cheeseman said police officers were pelted with rocks, glass bottles and rotten fruit
Well then don’t stand in front of nazis.
English police officers in Brighton figured this one out and let the '43 Group throw bricks at the BUF, Mosley didn’t appear in public again.
Seeing some photos online that did not make it into the media, its clear the rocks that are noe famous only appeared after the cops had been pepper spraying, shooting, and lobbing granades at anti-racists for two hours
the police picked them up from outside the state library, where they had forced the rally back to by the end of the day
These are Fascist, Racist, Culturalist Rallies. They can charitably be called “Anti-Immigration” rallies or “Isolationist” rallies.
They are not “Immigration” rallies in any sense.
Authoritarians always hold counter protests, always.
expect more nazis
also, I noticed youtube is becoming infested with “Nativist” channels. They push an agenda, push “fact” based vidoes while not explaining which argument they are supporting.
Question everything. Do not accept any facts as presented, no matter who.
It’s strange that this comment is demanding skepticism while declaring “Authoritarians always hold counter protests, always.”
To contradict that assertion: The flash bang video in that article clearly shows many flags front and centre of the Melbourne counter-protest are anarcho-socialist flags. Out of all political currents, it’s tough to get any more anti-authoritarian than them.
And, as we’ve seen, the March for Australia protests that these people are counter-protesting is organised and led by neo-Nazis, Nazism being infamously and proudly authoritarian.
Looking at history, I don’t think “authoritarian/anti-authoritarian” is a useful lens for analysing state politics [further reading], but if we’re using it, we can tell that the counter protest is not the authoritarian side. I mean, some of them are literally throwing things at the authority, how could they be any clearer.
Question everything
This could be an astroturfing account from a troll farm.
or I could be a long time poster
Fucking useless advice.
why should I believe you that it’s useless advice?
Skepticism and careful questioning has served humankind very well. Without it you’d be an antivaxxer, eh
