In tribute to the launch of Nigel Garbage’s tour of so-called Australia, a small group of queer and trans antifascists/ anarchists gathered at the Melbourne Convention Center to deliver Nigel and his cohort a simple, yet sincere message : “Fuck Off Farage”.
Although we were small in number, and our action was a minimum response, our message was received with the spirit with which we intended it.
At the entrance to the auditorium hosting Garbage’s xenophobic ramblings, some of our crew held a banner proclaiming “Fuck off Farage”, accompanied by a loud, grimy antifascist soundtrack.
The well-heeled attendees – no doubt representing the multiple property owning luminaries of the LNP far-right- were affronted at our uncouth choice of language and offered us tediously predictable advice such as “go home” and “get a job” (ironic, given the common perception amongst the far-right that antifascists are on the Soros payroll).
Meanwhile several of us offered fliers articulating our disdain for Garbage’s ‘message’. They read:
THE WORKING CLASS IS UNDER THREAT FROM FASCIST ENEMIES AT HOME AND ABROAD! IT’S TIME TO UNITE AGAINST THE FAR RIGHT!
Nigel Garbage and his elite cronies want you to believe your livelihood is under threat from non-white immigrant sexual predators, feminists, queer and trans people, and any hint of progressivism. These pathetic opportunists peddle pseudo intellectual far right Great Replacement Theory under the guise of a return to “rationalist traditional values”.
You so-called “free thinkers” and proponents of “free speech” are being duped by your over lords whose value system would see every woman be a trad wife, non-white migrants sent “Back to where they come from”, the introduction of forced conscription, the abolition of welfare payments and the expansion of the police state and neo-liberal economic policies that have ravaged working class communities world wide.
Fascist elites are the true enemies of the working class! Do not fall for the lies and manipulation that would see you turned against your neighbours. The real enemies are those who insight fear and violence to further alienate and exploit workers.
The choice is yours – to be a pawn of the ruling class or be a true “rebel” and rise-up against Farage and his bottom-feeding grifter friends!
FUCK FARAGE! FUCK THE STOLENWEALTH! FUCK CPAC!
Despite several attendees tearing up our proffered fliers, we did receive some hilariously irrelevant advice from bloated Boomer racists, including, “It’s not the Summer of Love anymore – I should know, I went to see the Beatles”.
Several thin-lipped and future coronary by-pass recipient attendees complained to the venue’s security, allegedly feeling affronted by our use of the word “Fuck”.
Alas, at the behest of the venue’s security manager, we were eventually escorted off the premises by Vic Pigs, with threat of arrest for displaying ‘offensive language’. Strangely, Garbage’s promised night of ‘entertainment’, espousing white supremacist and nationalist messages was not considered offensive language- but as we are tediously aware, that’s the so-called Australian way..
As Vic Pigs escorted us outside, we were patronisingly reminded that we live in a pluralistic society with ‘the right to protest’. We kindly reminded the filth that we had the ‘right to choose to leave without being arrested’, but our ‘right’ to protest where we choose was obviously curtailed.
Despite being relegated to the outside of the venue, we continued our action, well in view of the milling attendees inside shooting us death stares through the thick plate-glass. Several local far-right YouTube luminaries shot footage on selfie-sticks- no doubt to evidence the an-tee-fa menace in action (and grift more of those precious Patreon dollars from their gormless supporters) . We continued displaying our banner, and to an anti-colonial/ anti-empire/ anti-fascist soundtrack, we rejoiced in burning a Union Jack flag.
Reflections…
Although we take pride in fronting up to challenge Farage and his supporters, we were disappointed that Naarm’s response to challenging fascist propaganda involved a paltry 5 people. Where were the 1000s of angry antifascists and leftists who mobilised in 2018 across the city (and so-called Australia) to give Garbage the reception he and his ilk deserve?
Why have we allowed the rabid far-right to hold tours/ protests/ community mobilisation events without any fear of consequence? Why have we as an antifascist movement become willing to allow the rabid right any space in our communities? Where is the anti-fascist spirit of radical community defense?
When did we become so apathetic to the real life manifestations of the increasingly post-truth far right? Do we believe that now our sacred ‘democratic process’ has removed Trump and Scummo from leadership positions, that the increasing global creep of far-right rhetoric has somehow been uprooted?
The far-right meme in irony that antifascists are the “tolerant” left – and unfortunately that is exactly what we seem to have become! We are tolerant of fascists meeting in our local public spaces, we are tolerant of far-right recruiting, and we are tolerant of the (Murdoch) media’s heinous attitudes mired in the worst forms of misogyny, queer and trans phobia, antisemitism, xenophobia, and racist bile.
What has happened to the values underpinning antifascism that argue there is no place for tolerance of far-right mobilisation?
We call on all antifascists to recommit to the cause and join us in gleeful defiance of these fascist pigs!
For years we have come together to successfully counter protest and de-platform far right figures to stop them spreading racist hate. Molyneux, Southern, Yiannopoulos and even Garbage himself have drawn hundreds of protesters to shut down their narcissistic hate-fests in the past.
The rise of the far right is not an inevitability! We have the power to smash them if we choose to use it!
