Michael McGuire: Why junior wannabe nazis are back on the march in South Australia

Adelaide’s neo-nazis are more emboldened than at any time since the 1990s – and this time the movement is being driven by young extremists, writes Michael McGuire. But why now?

There was a time back in the late 1980s and into the 1990s when Adelaide had something of a problem with neo-nazis.

Groups such as the National Front would have little rallies, calling for Asian immigration to be banned or for Japanese investment to be outlawed.

Another lot called the Adelaide Institute specialised in denying the Holocaust happened.

It was all the usual mishmash of racism, conspiracy theory and absence of facts or reasoned thought that define these kind of far-right groups.

National Action gatherings with skinheads giving the Hitler salute made the front page of the paper. In truth, the rallies were not well attended, but they carried with them the threat of violence and intimidation.

The Adelaide branch of the neo-nazi group, the National Socialist Network, gather to perform the Hitler salute under a bridge in the darkness, hiding their identities.

Sometimes, the violence was real. In 1994, a group of about 20 nazis marched down Rundle Mall shouting “sieg heil” and “heil Hitler’’ and bashing people they thought were of ethnic origin. An MP’s office was shot up. Racist graffiti and flyers were common in parts of Adelaide.

But it all died down as the ’90s evolved. It had a brief flourishing with the rise of Pauline Hanson and One Nation when the now-Senator came along espousing anti-Asian views. But mostly it retreated below the public parapet. Still, those kind of stinking views never completely disappear, but for a while they seemed to be in retreat as Australia become a more sophisticated, multicultural society.

But now it appears the nazis are back. In the Sunday Mail this week, Indigenous activist and actor Natasha Wanganeen told how police had to move quickly to stop nazis disrupting the Survival Day rally in the CBD on January 26. And we should just call them nazis. There is nothing neo or new about this lot. It’s just the same old crap. They haven’t had an original thought since the 1930s.

Natasha Wanganeen at Adelaide’s Survival Day March at Victoria Square. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier.

With NAIDOC week starting, Wanganeen says she will not be intimidated by these thugs, and will stand up for herself. But she is concerned about the message this new nazi emergence will have on younger members of her community.

“I think it’s so important that we get on to these neo Nazi groups, because they’re going to destroy kids that have a big dreams like I did,’’ said Wanganeen, who is heading to the US this month to show her film Bunker: The Last Fleet at the LA Shorts International Film Festival.

There is also a worry about the potential for violence on the street. That young Indigenous people could be targeted and beaten up. Wanganeen calls these people “terrorists’’ and she is right about that.

A man shouts racist slogans at a larger group of people, including returned servicemen, at an anti-racism rally in Prospect in 2011.

Last month, SA Police said it was investigating the distribution of flyers from right-wing groups, headlined “Calling all white Australians’’. Of course, these various groups have also been on social media, posting pictures of themselves giving the straight-arm salute or wishing happy birthday to “the greatest man who ever lived”, Adolf Hitler.

The pictures are all of men. Little boys really.

Earlier this year, ASIO boss Mike Burgess expressed his concern that younger people were being attracted to extremist groups.

“And perhaps more disturbingly, these young people are more intense in their extremism,” Burgess said. “We are now seeing teenagers in leadership positions, directing adults, and willing to take violent action themselves.”

But why are they back? Why have the nazis again emerged from the ooze of history? Perhaps they feel emboldened that their views are not as repellent to broader society as they have been.

A protester does a nazi salute at an Australian freedom rally in Melbourne earlier this year. Picture: NCA NewsWire Brendan Beckett

Or watched with satisfaction when Trump supporters attacked the Capitol to try to overturn the election of Joe Biden as president. One certainty about nazis across the past century is that they are no fans of democracy.

Or perhaps they took a cue from closer to home. From politicians and community leaders who demonise asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants.

Or is it, when you see a new age of protesters gathering to object to vaccines or mandates, or who believe the UN wants to kill billions, or that Bill Gates has implanted a microchip in your body, that just maybe your old-fashioned racism still has a place. Certainly there has been some confluence between the far right and the anti-vaxxers.

Wanganeen is hoping the police are keeping an eye on these latest nazis. The indications are that they are. ASIO seems keen as well.

But in a society that is increasingly fractured politically, and as we head for more difficult economic times with inflation rising, a housing crisis growing and the aftermath of a pandemic, it’s possible the simple message pushed by the nazis – everything is someone else’s fault – will find new ears.