A REVOLT BY THE UNTERMENSCH?

            Certain sections of the media and politicians, notably Josh Frydenburg and Kristina Kenneally, have expressed concerns about what they see as extreme right and alleged neo-Nazi groups in Australia.

In January, 40 white males in Victoria’s Grampians met, sang Waltzing Matilda, and raised their hands in straight arm salutes. Some even called out “white power”.  The police were called but as the group were not doing anything illegal no one was arrested. Nevertheless it’s claimed by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation that 40% of its priority case load involved right-wing extremist groups. (1) So far as we know, only one person has been arrested for serious crimes in relation to the far-right and this was Philip Galea, a “lone wolf” who was sentenced over planned terrorist attacks on leftist groups. (2)

We are also told that an American white supremacist group called The Base was trying to recruit neo-Nazis in Australia. The Base was formed in 2018, is active in the United States, Canada, South Africa and Britain, and is said to have an agenda of hastening the collapse of American liberal democracy into civil war. Apparently four Australians did apply but two dropped out shortly after. Two people involved were Grant Fuller from the Gold Coast, a leader of The Lads Society, and Dean Smith who contested the 2019 election as a Western Australian One Nation candidate. (3) Neither seem to have a criminal or violent background.

So far the Australian government has only outlawed one “neo-Nazi” group and that is the Sonnenkrieg Division which is listed along with a number of Islamist groups as terrorist. (4)

In New South Wales frontline police are to be better trained to identify “hate crimes” under a $12.3 million package to tackle violent extremism and racism. Some of this funding will go to the NSW Police Engagement and Hate Crime Unit, an arm of the Counter Terrorism command that focuses on what is claimed to be an “unreported” type of crime. Incidents motivated by bias based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, disability or political beliefs come under the hate crime umbrella. NSW already has a specific hate crime offence, known as 93Z although few actions appear to have been taken under this law. (5)

One exception is the arrest of a young man in Albury who had apparently posted some nasty – or silly – things on the Internet. He is alleged to have urged others to commit terrorist acts and sought bomb-making materials. (6) There is nothing in the report to indicate he had in fact acquired weapons or made a bomb.

The Australian government set up a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security which has received submissions but so far these have mentioned Muslim groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda rather than right wing groups. (7)

More recently there have been calls by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for the displaying of Nazi or Islamic State flags or possessing terrorist manifestos to be outlawed. The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Mike Burgess said that his agency expected a terrorist attack to occur within the next year, although they don’t know if it will come from Islamist or racist/nationalist extremists. (8) But they do know it will occur? Really makes sense.

There appears to be no concern about leftist groups like Black Lives Matter or Antifa which don’t seem to have caused that much trouble in Australia but the American groups whose names and ideology they imitate have a bad record of intimidation and violence. (9) These groups don’t receive the vilification from the media that the so-called right wing groups do. Note how often the media refer to nationalist and right wing groups by emotive terms like “white supremacist” and “neo-Nazi”. Despite the negative images these groups still provide some attraction to likely supporters which begs the question why?

Some of the reasons could be in the political system were our elections are Tweedledum-Tweedledee affairs with the policies of both major political groups pretty much alike and important matters often being left out of the argument. This means that serious problems get ignored, except by small parties that generally get nowhere.

While the federal governments gave us a silly plebiscite on same sex marriage, really serious decisions that involve massive changes, such as the dissolution of the White Australia Policy or the involvement in wars in countries like Afghanistan or Iraq, neither of which were threatening Australia, were carried out with no consultation with the Australian people. Basically the government took decisions which would probably not have a consensus among the population, proceeded and used propaganda to brainwash us – remember Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction”?

Now the AFP and ASIO look like becoming thought police, deciding what we can say and indirectly what we think and do. Basically we are supposed to be political zombies, some sort of untermensch with no will of our own – at least when it becomes to politics. And now the untermensch are rebelling.

(1) Nick McKenzie and Joel Tozer, “Neo-Nazis go Bush”, https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/neo-nazis-go-bush-grampia... 27 January 2021               

(2) Remy Varga, “Terror Fears Over Right-Wing Radicals”, The Australian, 27 March 2021

(3) N. McKenzie, J. Wilson, J. Tozer, H. McNeill, “US White Power Group Recruits in Australia’s Neo-Nazi Underworld”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 March 2021

(4) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-02/sonnenkrieg-division-first-... 2 March 2021    

(5) Ava Benny-Morrison, “Boost in Battle against Haters”, Sunday Telegraph, 15 November 2020

(6) Emma Elsworthy, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-09/nsw-albury-man-18-expect... 9 December 2020

(7) Tom Ravlic, https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/03/01/extremism-australia-inquiry/  1 March 2021

(8) Ben Packham, “New Laws Flagged for Terror Fight”, The Australian, 30 April 2021

(9) Andy Ngo, “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy”, Center Street, New York, 2021