{"id":22599,"date":"2025-09-09T10:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idavox.com\/?p=22599"},"modified":"2025-09-09T10:27:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:27:01","slug":"xenophobic-march-for-australia-was-the-violent-nazi-rally-it-sounded-it-would-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idavox.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/09\/xenophobic-march-for-australia-was-the-violent-nazi-rally-it-sounded-it-would-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Xenophobic ‘March for Australia’ Was the Violent Nazi Rally it Sounded it Would Be"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Nazi rally by any other name stinks all the same.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Andy Fleming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, August 31, a nationwide series of anti-migrant rallies was held across Australia under the banner of \u2018March for Australia\u2019<\/a>. While crowd estimates<\/a> vary considerably, the largest rally was almost certainly held in Sydney (in New South Wales, on Gadigal land<\/a>), 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<\/a> (Victoria), several thousand joined in the display, which was also led by members of the neo-Nazi groupuscule \u2018National Socialist Network\u2019<\/a> (NSN). The NSN\u2019s 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<\/a> literally addressed the crowd via<\/em> a megaphone provided to him by the NSN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bob Katter on megaphone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018March for Humanity\u2019), 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<\/a> 2-300,000 people, who crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in spectacular scenes that garnered national and international media attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018anti-lockdown\u2019<\/a> movement of 2020\/1. Initially, the site promoted \u2018remigration\u2019<\/a> (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 \u2014 in the absence of any opposition from other right-wing nationalists, and indeed with some degree of support \u2014 the NSN quickly assumed the role of ideological vanguard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many respects, the \u2018March for Australia\u2019 \u2014 more accurately termed the \u2018March for White Australia\u2019 \u2014 resembled a previous, 2015 irruption of far-right street mobilisations known as \u2018Reclaim Australia\u2019. 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 \u2018United Patriots Front\u2019 (UPF), centred in Melbourne. The UPF was a somewhat loose and unstable collaboration<\/a> between Christian nationalists and national socialists (neo-Nazis), including now-infamous neo-Nazis such as Sewell and Blair Cottrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018The Lads Society\u2019 (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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> model (already in evidence in TLS), under the slogan of \u2018tribe and train\u2019. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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