Some choice quotes:
[7:26, from an ex-NSN neo-Nazi in the March for Australia recap voice chat] “What surprised me is like, how handsy people got. I had someone pushing me in the back. I had another guy […] threatening to punch my friend’s teeth in.”
Anecdotally, some had veterans grabbing their mouths to shut them up. Many people completely unfamiliar with the group reported that it was obvious they’d divided into tiny clusters of 4 spread in the crowd to avoid being shut down easily.
[9:00, same chatroom] “The lesson I’ve taken is we gotta enforce the 1-metre rule very heavily next time” [a self-defense guidance of keeping 1 metre distance from opponents in a fight, in this context their opponents are the crowd of ANZAC veterans and commemorators]
They seem surprised that doing this stunt is alienating them from many nationalists and might push the Overton window away from them.
We also get some prime crying from a Perth idiot pretending they didn’t come in a co-ordinated group to desecrate a commemoration day, ranting to their phone about being moved along by cops. The booing at Perth ended up being clearly only one or two quiet Nazis as a result.
For one who live under rock, what is that about?
pack of dickheads booed the welcome to country at a couple of ANZAC dawn services.
Why anyone would have Welcome To the country on ANZAC dawn service? They are completely unrelated.
there’s no the. It’s “Welcome to country”
to translate: It’s an indigenous protocol welcoming people to the land on which they stand. And it is very appropriate to have at a gathering of people brought together for a common purpose.
We have the oldest living culture in human history, fucking embrace it.
Is it appropriate to insult ANZAC veterans and the fallen by saying, “You who fought and died for this country do not belong here, but we welcome you?” I do not think so. “Welcome to country” is only appropriate for occasions such as a citizenship ceremony. Even in such cases it is questionable, because the ceremony is rooted in racism and should not exist in a civilized country.
How on EARTH did you get “racist against the troops!!!” out of an aboriginal protocol welcoming people to an ANZAC ceremony?
i get you’re arguing in bad faith but that’s some spectacular gymnastics.
Nope. Stick that baiting shit right back up your arse. That is not what welcome to country is and you fucking well know it.
For those at home, welcome to country is very much like “we welcome all of you who have gathered here today”. Which you will find seems familiar. Because it gets used a lot. Including at the start of every ANZAC ceremony that i’ve artended in the past 40 odd years.
What TheHolm here is doing is intentionally trying to muddy the waters and oh look, there’s a “racist against our national heroes!!!” card. Rather suss, is it not?
A land acknowledgement is relevant to an event held on land. But especially to an event focused on commemoration and respect, of acknowledging war and conflict Australia has been involved in.
Is it appropriate to insult ANZAC veterans and the fallen by saying, “You who fought and died for this country do not belong here, but we welcome you?” I do not think so. “Welcome to country” is only appropriate for occasions such as a citizenship ceremony. Even in such cases it is questionable, because the ceremony is rooted in racism and should not exist in a civilized country.
“You […] do not belong here, but we welcome you"
That’s very different from the impression I get from a Welcome. It almost sounds contradictory? The Welcome, being a welcome, is inherently about including everyone into a traditional connection to wherever we are holding an event - it also includes welcoming indigenous people from other Country - Country here does not mean Australia (Australia is a modern concept), one might consider the word ‘lands’ but the point is it’s not just the land. That article describes in more detail. It’s not about race or ethnicity at all, and it’s really unfortunate that certain strong media influences (e.g. PHON, reactionary commentators) try to misframe it as racist in order to foster discontent.
And from reports on the ground, including those mentioned in the video we’re talking about, ANZAC veterans and families themselves at the ceremonies defended the Welcome ritual by physically attacking those who were booing. They clearly didn’t find the Welcome to be excluding them, or to be an insult. They evidently seem to understand it’s a traditional sign of respect, just like a dawn service is. Both events are an invitation to build connection and respect for our local past.
Last year, there were a few rallies under the banner of March for Australia, attracting a few thousands including some mainstream right-wing politicians (including PHON, Katter, Libertarian). While it was obvious to anyone paying attention that this was being organised by white supremacists (primarily Hugo ‘auspill’ Lennon, who is the son of a huge property investor, and ‘Bec Freedom’, a white supremacist who poorly tries to downplay it as ‘Aussie values’, both affiliated with the former NSN), it was only after the first rally that most attendees realised it was, in fact, being run to platform self-declared neo-Nazis. The following MFA rallies dropped attendance by 85% - it is now unambiguously a white supremacist organisation with the NSN at its core.
Last year, the NSN pulled a media stunt where they booed at ANZAC dawn services during the Welcome to Country, which as shown by chat logs in the video, is done by the group for explicitly white-supremacist reasons. However, due to recent laws, the NSN have officially disbanded to avoid prosecution, but are obviously still an organised group.
This year, the Fight for Australia (Lennon wouldn’t let Bec Freedom have the March for Australia accounts, so they rebranded) tried to create a campaign to do this stunt again.
That should give you enough context to watch the video.
Thanks for the explanation. So it was doing the right thing for a completely wrong reason. Nothing new, Nazis do not like racism if it is not their kind of racism.
“Look at this Christmas Ham…” 😆
I feel like all the reporting on this is just giving them the publicity they want. We should let their silly actions die in obscurity.
If you ignore them, they grow and fester.
Nazis are so far beyond trolls. You excise them swiftly before they recruit more and gain power.
I feel like all the reporting on this is just giving them the publicity they want.
Speaking generally about the mainstream reporting, sure. These stunts, as per their own manuals, are done to use the mainstream media to advertise and legitimise themselves.
But that doesn’t apply to the attached video. I mean no disrespect with this question, but did you watch it? And if so, how do you think it affects these groups?
There are important reasons to report on these groups and their stunts, and there are ethical ways to do it considerately and constructively: https://thewhiterosesociety.writeas.com/9-principles-for-journalists-reporting-on-neo-nazis
You’re right. I didn’t watch the video. It’s just my general stance on these people.
