Aug. 31, 2025 - The leader of the National Socialist Network Thomas Sewell throwing a punch while attacking an Aboriginal camp. He is an immigrant from New Zealand. He was arrested for this.
A Nazi rally by any other name stinks all the same.
Andy Fleming
On Sunday, August 31, a nationwide series of anti-migrant rallies was held across Australia under the banner of ‘March for Australia’. While crowd estimates vary considerably, the largest rally was almost certainly held in Sydney (in New South Wales, on Gadigal land), where an estimated 15,000 people gathered and rallied to express their hostility to the presence of (non-white) migrant workers in Australia. In Melbourne/Naarm (Victoria), several thousand joined in the display, which was also led by members of the neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘National Socialist Network’ (NSN). The NSN’s fuehrer, Thomas Sewell, was the keynote speaker at this event, and addressed the crowd from the steps of the state parliament. Members of the group also participated in bobother rallies: in the regional centre of Townsville in Queensland, for example, right-wing federal MP Bob Katter literally addressed the crowd via a megaphone provided to him by the NSN.
The initial trigger for the March is somewhat obscure, but it seems very likely that it was inspired by a viral TikTok video, one in which the pseudonymous creator expressed disgust at the fact that, on August 3, an enormous rally, organised by the Palestine Action Group (who called it the ‘March for Humanity’), took place. Despite NSW state government and police opposition, this earlier march in protest of the genocide of the Palestinian people attracted something in the order of 2-300,000 people, who crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in spectacular scenes that garnered national and international media attention.
Soon after the publication of the incendiary TikTok video, a website was established in order to promote the March. Perhaps not coincidentally, it launched on the 8/8. Further, many anti-social media binfluencers were drawn to the concept, and helped to galvanise support for the March among the dregs of the Australian ‘anti-lockdown’ movement of 2020/1. Initially, the site promoted ‘remigration’ (that is, the forcible expulsion of racialised populations deemed unworthy of residency), but this was soon removed in favour of more politically-palatable terminology. In any case, the proposed March immediately sparked interest from a range of political actors on the far-right, including the NSN and — in the absence of any opposition from other right-wing nationalists, and indeed with some degree of support — the NSN quickly assumed the role of ideological vanguard.
Background
In many respects, the ‘March for Australia’ — more accurately termed the ‘March for White Australia’ — resembled a previous, 2015 irruption of far-right street mobilisations known as ‘Reclaim Australia’. On that occasion, the principal target of protest rallies was Muslims, and Islamophobia was the central motif; in 2025, Muslims have been displaced by migrants as a figure of hate, one requiring removal from the country (especially those from south Asia and the Indian subcontinent). Facing anti-fascist opposition to these racist mobilisations, Reclaim soon gave birth to a self-styled vanguard, the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF), centred in Melbourne. The UPF was a somewhat loose and unstable collaboration between Christian nationalists and national socialists (neo-Nazis), including now-infamous neo-Nazis such as Sewell and Blair Cottrell.
After a brief few years in the media and public spotlight, the UPF imploded after its popular Facebook page was removed in 2017. At this point in time, Sewell established a fascist groupuscule called ‘The Lads Society’ (TLS). Like the UPF, TLS publicly denied any association with neo-Nazism, instead attempting to craft its public image as a fraternal club for white men. Along with producing propaganda, TLS established a headquarters in Melbourne and similar facilities in Sydney and Brisbane. Here members exercised, trained in martial arts, and were indoctrinated in fascist ideology. Towards the end of 2019, TLS also imploded, its training facilities abandoned in the face of exposure, public criticism and anti-fascist campaigning. It was at this point that the NSN emerged.
Under the leadership of Sewell, the NSN (which also comprises another project named the European Australian Movement) openly and explicitly proclaims its adherence to Nazism and has adopted the Active Club model (already in evidence in TLS), under the slogan of ‘tribe and train’. Since its establishment, over the course of the last five years the NSN has gained several hundred members, a wider network of supporters, and established chapters of varying size and levels of activity in all state capitals and some regional centres.
Neo-Nazi leadership
As noted above, the intervention of the NSN into the March was significant less for the numbers it brought to the rallies — the neo-Nazis were outnumbered by thousands of others, armed with flags and a range of grievances centred on migrants — but more the ease with which it was able to assert its dominance over the assembled Aussie flagwits, and to function as its leadership on the day. Thus, while there was some limited pushback in some locations, in Melbourne and Sydney the NSN stamped its authority on the events from the beginning. In essence, and as a result, few in the crowd either knew or cared they were functioning as useful idiots for Sewell & Co.. The capacity of a small but well-organised neo-Nazi group to act in this manner is obviously concerning for those who reject their politics, has triggered much angst among liberal critics, and provided anti-fascists with good reason to pay more attention to the NSN than previously.
With all that said, being cheered by thousands of flag-waving nationalists for his racist rhetoric at the event in Melbourne seems to have provided Sewell with an over-inflated sense of importance and, rather than simply leave the scene-of-battle at the cessation of the March (there were several clashes between the NSN and its followers on the one hand and anti-fascists and some of the attendees at the regular Sunday March for Palestine on the other), he instead chose to direct the NSN to attack a small gathering at Camp Sovereignty in the Kings Domain as the NSN left the area.
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Initially established as part of the Black GST campaign — an Indigenous-led initiative launched in Melbourne in early 2005, calling political attention to the issues of genocide (‘G’), sovereignty (‘S’) and treaty (‘T’) — the Camp remains an important gathering place and a sacred site, being the burial location for ancestral remains: in this sense, it represented all that the neo-Nazis wish to eradicate. The attack on the Camp, in which the neo-Nazis targeted Indigenous women in particular, resulted in injuries to several people, with some requiring hospitalisation. Remarkably, it was also conducted in broad daylight by unmasked members of the NSN, whose actions were filmed by others at the Camp and received widespread publicity in its aftermath.
Actions have consequences
Sine the attack on the Camp, a number of NSN members, including Sewell, have been arrested and charged for a variety of offences, with the possibility of further charges being laid against others alleged to have done similar. If found guilty, Sewell — who has previous convictions stemming from other violent attacks — may still find himself enjoying a lengthy holiday behind bars: a far cry from the leafy, privileged suburb in which he grew up.
Beyond this, the sight of neo-Nazis leading a parade of thousands of angry racists and xenophobes, and their subsequent attack on Camp Sovereignty, has alarmed many. This may in turn generate further and increased opposition to the NSN, neo-Nazi politics, and the racism and xenophobia which underpin it and finds expression across Australian society.
Finally, the decision by the NSN, contrary to their previous practice, to march without obscuring their appearance means many are likely going to find themselves in the media and public spotlight sooner rather than later. Indeed, some already have, with the publication on the weekend following the March of a profile of some NSN members, notably a dentist, ‘a wealthy alumni from one of NSW’s top private schools, a young ACT racing car champion, a financial planner from Melbourne’s eastern suburb of Camberwell, a cybersecurity expert’ and others. As well as somewhat undermining mainstream discourse around who, exactly is attracted to neo-Nazism — almost always rendered as white, working class men experiencing ‘economic anxiety’ of some kind — the public exposure of NSN members poses them a question: ‘How desperate are you to perpetuate the delusions of grandeur of a violent loser?’
The rest is up to anti-fascists.
*For those interested, I recommend following anti-fascist research collective The White Rose Society.
Andy Fleming is an anti-fascist researcher and writer based in Naarm/Melbourne, (so-called) Australia. He blogs and appears on social media as ‘slackbastard’ and is the co-host, with Cam Smith, of ‘Yeah Nah Pasaran!’; an award-winning weekly radio show and podcast (on Melbourne community radio station 3CR), dedicated to exploring “fascism and its gravediggers”.
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