A-Infos (en) anarkismo.net: Rise and rise of the extreme right by Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group

All efforts must now be made to bring the unions into the struggle. This will be 
difficult, though, due to the cowardly nature of the union bureaucracy. The message must 
be got through to all unionists that racism is fatal to working class solidarity. ---- 
Despite a burst of publicity at its first appearance, Reclaim Australia (RA) has been 
eclipsed by the certifiable fascists of the United Patriots Front (UPF). The UPF announced 
themselves in May last year, when they attempted to march on Richmond Town Hall, but they 
got a hiding. They have had similar experiences on repeated occasions in Melbourne, either 
being blocked by anti-fascists or cowering behind masses of cops. Their mobilisations in 
Bendigo, however, have been far more successful, each time outnumbering the anti-fascists 
who came out to counter them.

This hasn't been all. Alarmingly, on 1 November the UPF visited the Melbourne Anarchist 
Club and radio station 3CR, in unspoken but clear acts of intimidation. Then, on 26 June, 
the UPF and the even more thuggish True Blue Crew decided to counter an anti-racist rally 
in Coburg. To cut a long story short, the fascists eventually got another hiding, but not 
before things nearly went the other way.

Meanwhile, overseas, fascist groups attack refugees in Greece, Italy, Germany and Sweden - 
often with impunity. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists rally in the United 
States, inflicting grievous bodily harm on anti-fascists who come out against them. The 
rise of Fascism is world-wide.

Fascists are not, however, merely thugs with swastika tattoos and convictions for violent 
assault. There are many open fascist parties in parliaments in Europe, including Golden 
Dawn in Greece and Jobbik in Hungary. The Front National in France and the Freedom Party 
of Austria, though less extreme and denying their fascist heritage, are on the verge of 
taking over government. Finally, though Donald Trump in the United States is not a 
fascist, his extreme Right populism is providing fascists an umbrella under which to organise.

Back here in Australia, we see the return of Pauline Hanson, who has come out on top in 
the struggle to be the mouthpiece of the extreme right. Having been granted uncontested 
space to spew her racist bile on morning television, her party has reaped a swag of Senate 
seats in the recent election. Like Trump, she isn't a fascist, but her party is infested 
with them and they will likely grow in influence while she's publicly engaged in her 
infamous xenophobia.

It is a burning necessity that all working class organisations mobilise against the far 
right, both populist and fascist, before the menace grows even larger. The UPF is the most 
powerful fascist organisation in Australia for 80 years, while Hanson has the most 
successful extreme right parliamentary presence ever. Both tap into a deep well of 
Islamophobia nourished by years of media and government demonisation of Muslims. Their 
claim that the jihadis and their crimes are representative of all Muslims is a dangerous lie.

The return of Hanson is both a threat and an opportunity. Her policies are deadly dangers, 
but by seeking to scapegoat both Muslims and Asians simultaneously, she makes herself more 
opponents and renders herself easier to rebut in arguments with workers who might be 
attracted to some of her ideas.

All efforts must now be made to bring the unions into the struggle. This will be 
difficult, though, due to the cowardly nature of the union bureaucracy. The message must 
be got through to all unionists that racism is fatal to working class solidarity.

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW

Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (MACG)

https://melbacg.files.wordpress.com

*Article from the new issue of MACG's newsletter "The Anvil", No 5/1

Related Link: https://melbacg.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/the-anvil-vol-5-no-1.pdf

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29581
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