Melburnians condemn plans to hold ‘white power’ gig
UK neo-Nazi “music” promoters Blood & Honour have announced a ‘white power’ gig in Melbourne to be headlined by Fortress on October 12. Similar events have been held in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast in the past — they are small, underground and limited to a paltry hardcore fan base. Nonetheless, Blood & Honour have broader aims: they seek to inspire and bring together a violent “white resistance” movement through their music. One member of Blood & Honour is serving prison time following attacks on two Sikh men in Canada in 2012. He was also found to be stockpiling weapons including rifles, machetes and knives among his Nazi paraphernalia. Like any other gathering of white supremacists, their aim is to bring together racists of all stripes and cohere them to their project of building a far-right movement.
The Campaign Against Racism & Fascism (CARF) condemns fascists wherever they gather. Anti-fascists all over the world have made it very difficult for groups such as Blood & Honour to operate. These fascists are coming to Australia with limited ability to promote and build their event because venue information will only be released to people who have been met and vetted by leadership. While this has not stopped their tour, it successfully limits who can attend their gigs and their ability to share their message, recruit and expand their movement in Australia. They will need to release their location to Victoria Police who will then provide a protection service for their event.
CARF stands in solidarity with all anti-fascists across the world who actively oppose fascists on the street. A well-organised anti-fascist movement is key to demobilising and preventing these scumbags from growing their movement and ensuring their vile ideology is relegated to the rubbish bin of history.
CARF does not support appeals to the government to ban tours such as these, or to increase police powers to monitor these groups. We stand strongly against this approach. Promoting community support for immigration controls and policing powers of a racist, neoliberal State is not an antidote to fascism or white supremacy. Instead, it feeds and increases the exact powers that are used against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country, as well as asylum seekers and people of colour, amongst many others. These are real and dangerous powers that we must campaign at all times to decrease, and never promote its use.
The State is neither an ally nor a handy tool we can use to fight racism. Anti-fascists must oppose all forms of bigotry and actively push for an approach that does not seek to increase the dangerous powers of a State that causes people like Tanya Day to die in custody, that supports and enforces lies such as “African Gangs”, and that is working to further restrict people’s right to protest — like we saw over the weekend when police set up barriers to stop people entering the Extinction Rebellion protest on Princes Bridge, the mass arrests of environmental activists at this protest, and the proposed Bill that treats vegan activists as terrorists. These are just a few of the most recent examples.
CARF will continue to organise counter protests and actively oppose fascist and racist events and organising. On October 12, the fascists will be hiding out, keeping their event a secret accessible to their strongest supporters. On this night and into the future, we will not be hiding. We will be building our movement and creating the strongest anti-fascist numbers we can to keep up the pressure on these scum and keep them in hiding. On the 12th, we will be joining anti-fascist band, When Our Turn Comes, and Monkey Butler at Café Gummo. If you hate white supremacists as much as we do, come join anti-fascists in spreading a message of solidarity, and support explicitly anti-fascist musicians with genuine talent. And join us at our next organising meeting to keep up the fight!
Our next organising meeting is Tuesday, 8 October @ 6:00 pm
Monkey Butler and When Our Turn Comes play Gummo Saturday, 12 October @ 9:00 pm — Event details on Facebook