The recent cancellation of drag queen storytime events sets a terrible precedent, providing an opportunity for the thugs of the far right to recruit.
Perhaps understandably, people interstate have been asking why there are so many Nazis in Melbourne. But a better question would be why there are so few.
During Victoria’s prolonged Covid-19 lockdown, the so-called “Freedom Movement” brought anti-vaxxers on to the city streets in their tens of thousands. Each rally served as a kind of far-right Woodstock, with genuine anger from, in particular, the much-neglected outer suburbs degenerating into a carnival of conspiracy.
For a time, the far right seemed poised to break through. In 2020 and 2021, QAnon surged across Facebook; celebrity chef Pete Evans shared the “sonnenrad” symbol on his Instagram feed (he subsequently apologised for any offence to those who had ‘misinterpreted’ the post); anti-vaxxers trashed the CFMEU office.
Street brawlers everywhere came together to rail against the health consequences of Covid vaccines, recognising in the fantasies about “pure bloods” resisting George Soros an ideology with which they could work.
Yet, in 2023, when the National Socialist Network calls a rally against immigration, it attracts … 30 people.
Thirty fascists remain 30 fascists too many. Nevertheless, we should still celebrate the NSN’s palpable failure to grow.
Melbourne’s hardcore fascists have struggled ever since the glory days of the United Patriots Front.
The UPF enjoyed its brief moment of sunshine partly because it maintained a certain plausible deniability about all things Hitler.
Back in 2015, Tom Sewell – the would-be dictator of the NSN – declared himself an ordinary bloke, concerned about threats to “our democratic process”. Sections of the media went along with this pretty transparent charade, with UPF leader and convicted criminal Blair Cottrell duchessed by JJJ’s Hack, invited to chat about immigration on Sky News and interviewed by Channel Seven about, of all things, “crime gangs”.
Regular anti-racist protests made the true nature of the UPF increasingly undeniable; the social media networks bowed to pressure and blocked its accounts, radically limiting its ability to organise.
Without its Facebook page, the UPF splintered.
The 2019 massacre in Christchurch by a self-professed ‘admirer’ of the group sealed its demise. Here was the logical conclusion of the fascist cult – the slaughter of 51 people by a man under a pseudonym on one of the splinter group’s Facebook chat servers.
For a while, the ex-UPFers tried establishing a series of white-only gyms under the name “Lads Society”. But that plan flopped, too.
So under the banner of the National Socialist Network, the masks came off – or, rather, went on, as the lads bravely equipped themselves with balaclavas to sieg heil for the cameras.
Their various stunts have brought them into the media spotlight. But the problem for the Nazis is that they’re Nazis. Sure, openly proclaiming yourself a National Socialist attracts attention. But so does smearing yourself with faeces – and just because people stare and point, that doesn’t mean they want to join in.
Nevertheless, the NSN’s persistent failures shouldn’t foster anti-fascist complacency. The sentiment that manifested during lockdown may have subsided but it hasn’t gone away.
Nazis seize on any bigotry that’s going. Back in the day, the UPF fixated on Muslims. A few weeks back, the NSN gatechrashed Posie Parker’s transphobic rally to latch on to the anti-trans, anti-gay backlash currently sweeping the world.
But if fascist rhetoric often just repeats standard “culture war” talking points, fascist practice rests on violence. That’s what distinguishes genuine Nazis from run-of-the-mill populists: a rightwing populist may rail against inner-city elites, immigrants and feminism in the name of the common folk; a fascist wants to eliminate all of them, presenting the brutal suppression of minorities and democratic rights as necessary for the salvation of a degenerate society.
To grow appreciably, fascism must sell violence as not just spiritually redemptive but also as tactically successful. The cancellation of drag queen story time events gives them a chance to do precisely that.
The harassment faced by staff puts libraries in an undeniably difficult position. Workers have a right to safety – and after Christchurch no one should minimise the danger from the right.
But allowing bigots to determine what kids can and can’t hear sends a message: violence works. Every capitulation only encourages more threats, allowing the fascist thugs to present themselves as getting the rightwing job done.
To their credit, a group of LGBTIQA+ advocates called the Rainbow Community Angels ensured that, even after the cancellation of the official session, a story reading still took place outside the Eltham library this week. We need more of that determination. If the authorities won’t stand up to the fascists, ordinary people must be prepared to come out in numbers.
In 1945, Hitler came to a dismal end in a crumbling Berlin bunker. All of us have a responsibility to make sure the dreams of his local disciples collapse as miserably as those of their master.
Jeff Sparrow is a Guardian Australia columnist
• This story was amended on 24 May 2023. An earlier version misnamed the National Socialist Network as the “National Socialist Movement”.
