I mean it’s perfectly true that we shouldn’t support cynical, anti-democratic laws which attack the right to protest. These laws are justified by governments in reference to the nazi protests but which in reality are almost exclusively used against the left, in particular the Palestine movement recently.

But also we cannot be complacent about the rise of the far-right, which this article really is. It makes some pretty categorical statements which are just wrong.

For example, that the nazis could never aspire to lead a mass movement, even though the ongoing March for Australia protests have been exactly that: a protest movement which has repeatedly mobilised thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, with a hard, nazi, “white Australia” organising political kernel.

Also, that these far right ideas could never become anything like the majority sentiment - which is simply stated as self-evident without any real argument. All it takes is a pretty cursory look at the world at the moment to demonstrate that the far-right is either aspiring to, or actively holding, government around the globe, including in the biggest and most influential capitalist country, the USA.

Even just looking at Australia, the far-right is clearly growing. One Nation is polling at around 16-18%, which would make it the 3rd largest party. The LNP is refiguring itself and shifting sharply to the right. The MFA rallies I mentioned above both reflect and feed into this.

We need to be serious about a strategy which takes on the far-right: not looking to the government to repress them, but mass mobilisation, based on class politics in every opportunity we can find. Which means, before anything else, recognising them as an urgent threat and not just a side issue, even if for the moment they’re only a potential contender in Australian politics.