4 days ago
What Australia's neo-Nazis, marching at 1am, really want
Masked men dressed in black marching through the streets of Australia's second largest city.
It's not the first time it's happened and it won't be the last — part of a carefully choreographed, orchestrated campaign to strike fear into the hearts of Australians but also to recruit sympathetic new members to their cause.
The neo-Nazis' chilling parade through Melbourne at 1am on Saturday morning led the Victorian Premier to label them 'goons' who 'don't belong in this country'.
But that type of reaction is exactly what they came for.
The National Socialist Network and its leader, Tom Sewell, want two things.
They want to establish an extremely conservative white ethno-state, which means there is no room for other ethnicities or anyone not heterosexual, and they want to recruit new members.
It's why they've tried to claim a viral protest against mass immigration on August 31st as their own — a move that's been met with ire on social media and claims of 'hijacking by extremists'.
On Saturday, NSN members from around the country gathered in country Victoria for their 'national conference' — one held at a caravan park in Ballan. Approximately 250 white nationalists were in attendance.
Anti-fascist researchers from the White Rose Society, an organisation that has been studying neo-Nazis for several years, told they want to 'clear the country of their perceived enemies — Jews, Muslims, Asians and anyone not white and right-wing'.
Importantly, they said they are careful about what they discuss in public — and it's not the same as what they say privately.
'In public they talk about 'remigration' — but we know in private they talk about executions and mass murder. 'Remigration' is a sanitised word for genocide.
'To achieve their long term goals, they want to recruit members and sway public opinion in their favour. They do that through public stunts and sparking outrage.'
That's exactly what followed their march through the streets on Saturday morning, just as it did when they turned up at the 3am outside Northland Shopping Centre to unveil a racist banner.
Again, they were dressed in black, with their faces covered. And again their message would have found a home with disenfranchised youth.
The White Rose Society said the group's national conferences are always paired with 'some public stunt'.
'On previous occasions, state police in NSW and SA have disrupted these stunts so this time the group went 'sneaky Nazi' and filtered into Melbourne city in small groups, seemingly escaping police notice,' they said.
'The neo-Nazis are claiming the march as a victory because they were unimpeded and their actions received widespread media coverage. However, what they don't want us to notice is that after five years of working hard to expand, they had around 100 men marching.'
The spokesperson said 'it's not the victory they claim at all' but 'does follow a new pattern — one of their stunts was at 3am'.
The careful image the NSN is trying to establish, one that includes members posing with their children in T-shirts that read 'I heil Hitler', is not the same as what is known about white supremacists more widely.
'There are many aspects of their beliefs and behaviours that neo-Nazis do not want known,' the White Rose Society said.
'They operate like a cult and they prey on vulnerable teenagers, both male and female. They actively work to isolate members from any family that might challenge their extremist beliefs.
'The role they map out for young teenage women is to drop out of school and work and become stay-at-home mothers, in service to their extremist husbands.
'This is to ensure that the young men don't leave the organisation. Some of the leaders and prominent members have publicly condoned marriage for 14-year-old girls and 16-year-old boys.'
has seen a Telegram message from a member of the NSN that read: 'My argument was that it's not pedophilia even if it's abnormal, and I said that it should be up to the parents when their daughter is old enough to marry but to say that it's pedophilia is (wrong) because they are child bearing age and by Catholic canon law 14 is the age when it's permissible for women to marry.'
Another tactic used by the NSN, according to the researchers, is to encourage young members to cause trouble in public.
'The leaders tolerate young members engaging in behaviour such as spraying racist graffiti, trolling vulnerable people on the street, wearing offensive clothing,' they said.
'This results in criminal convictions and brings the offender further into the neo-Nazi fold.'
They said the group's numbers are 'increasing steadily' and it is 'unknown' how many supporters they have away from public activities'.
'It's important to explain that they are actual Nazis — it's not just an insult or a term used loosely. They worship Hitler.'
The right-wing August 31 march, which has police in Australia's capital cities on alert, has links to the NSN.
It has been organised by what can be described as Nazi-adjacent agitators who do the work of the neo-Nazis but don't describe themselves as national socialists.
In a post on Telegram, Tom Sewell wrote about the event: 'After only just arriving home from our summit today, I have been informed that foreign fifth columns are attempting to hijack our August 31st public rally for Australia.
'White Australians must assemble on August 31st against the traitors and foreigners who are trying to destroy our great nation.'
But groups like Reignite Democracy, which sprung up against 'tyranny' during the pandemic, are furious about the link.
'31st August is ruined,' the group wrote on social media.
'It had great potential, but something went wrong. Whether it was planned by extremists or hijacked by extremists, it doesn't matter. When the leader of the Nazis claims it as his event, there's no coming back from there.
'Direct your anger at him for ruining it, not me and others who are risking backlash to tell you the truth.
'I told you what I knew so you were well-informed before attending. If you want to march behind these masked extremists, go for it, that's your choice … but I won't stand by and say nothing just to appease 'the mob'.'
