CHAPTER FOUR

ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORGANIZATIONS ‘REBIRTH’ THE EXTREME RIGHT 1975-82

The ‘Fraser Coup’ called forth Left militancy. The Maoist ‘Independence Movement’ developed a ‘Left-nationalist’ critique of State power.[1] Trotskyists practised campus activism and youth recruitment.[2] Citizens For Democracy urged a republic.[3] The Left dynamic drew upon a second-generation of youth radicalized by Labor promises and the failure of labourist social reform.[4] Rejecting life-style-ism and social democracy, they fleshed out a number of hard-Left sects each asserting various strategies and ideological heritages against capitalism’s offensive.

Left critiques were not unreasonable. The Liberal government sought to alter the social balance in favour of large capital, particularly global-connected enterprise.[5] Left literature that examined the Trilateral Commission’s role in international capitalist organization, a new Cold War and an internal assault on democratic freedom – was credible.[6]

The Right was in disarray. Co-opted by the Liberal-National parties, it was dependent; but the new Liberal positions shocked conservatives. The ‘pro-South African’ Senator Sheill was sacked from the Ministry, Rhodesia was condemned[7] and Vietnamese refugees were welcomed. Fraser adopted a pro-Chinese foreign policy. State policy had severed the auxiliary connection, leaving only the exceptionalist Queensland Premier as a Right patron and leader. As shall be shown, the LOR, NAA and conservative Liberals scarcely understood their estrangement from State requirement, obsessed as they were by the Left. Rather, it was the anti-immigrationists who re-established an independent Extreme Right.

1. IMMIGRATION CONTROL ASSOCIATION/PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE PARTY DEVELOPS A NEW EXTREME RIGHT

1976-80

The ICA reactivated, claiming cautiously the new Immigration Minister was a “realist”, but warning against Fraser.[8] As ICA cranked up, it reasoned the refugee “invasion” demonstrated failing resolve, and that capitulation to “United Nations pressure”[9] on refugees required a new “Conservative Party”.[10] Frenchman Jean Raspail’s apocalyptic novel, The Camp Of The Saints, with its description of an unarmed refugee invasion of morally bankrupt Europe, sounded the alarm.[11] ICA President Robert Clark, burnt his bridges to the anti-communist Right.

A loose collection of new anti-immigration groups provided an Extreme Right resource-base. Perth was fertile, with the Campaign Against Illegal Immigration (1976–8),[12] Migrant Policy Action Group (1976–8),[13] European-Australian Alliance (1977–8)[14] and Robin Linke’s Immigration Control Council (1980–4).[15] With the regroupment of these forces, a cadre emerged around two late-forties activists – property developer Gordon Hardy and businessman Les Dunn. Long standing Extreme Right campaigners were present when a Perth branch of the ICA-initiated Progressive Conservative Party (PCP) was established in early 1980.[16]

Some rightists radicalized in Adelaide. In 1978, Christopher Steele, son of Joyce Steele, a Liberal Cabinet Minister, introduced a swathe of LOR “actionists” to the immigration question. His branch of ICA soon distributed 100,000 leaflets.[17] By mid-1978 ICA reasoned:

We do not know what goes on behind the doors of the exclusive Melbourne Club where … the present Immigration [policy] is worked out by the elite … Members of the same class … who imported coloured labour in the last century are now harping continually on the theme that local labour is not productive enough … a campaign has started to encourage these people to keep their own culture and languages. The effect will be … without a common language and culture the various sections of the working class will tend to be isolated … [and] … the employer will get productive labour at a cheap rate.[18]

ICA demanded a political-popular struggle against multiracialist capital. It went on to criticize Bjelke-Petersen’s close bond with Japanese capital[19] and chided Right groups for failing to tackle the National Party.[20] By 1980 a mailing list of 1000
existed.[21] From 1977, one million recruitment leaflets were distributed.[22] ICA/PCP’s consistency outbid the NAA for the ‘racist’ market.

Faced with a militant street Left, the NAA “could only see red”.[23] It lobbied hard for Governor-General Kerr’s public reputation with leaflets and “loyal petitions”.[24] With Constitutional defence paramount, it petitioned that the Monarch be proclaimed Queen of each state and announced Australia’s legal-heritage stymied the “aspiring dictator” Whitlam and Labor crypto-marxism.[25] Immigration was again criticized as a marxist divisionist tool, and early in 1976 NAA achieved its own coup – acquiring Sir Robert Menzies as patron. Menzies wrote:

The objectives of the National Australian Association as set out in their Constitution are such as to produce my complete support. It does not surprise me that I should find myself supporting a body of people whose views on immigration are similar to mine and to those of the late Arthur Calwell.[26]

Placed under intense criticism, Menzies withdrew.[27] Bjelke-Petersen, whose patronage was acquired next, also quit amidst media allegations of racism.[28]

Although rejected, NAA continued to push for a conservative reaction inside the government parties. It entered into alliances with Lyenko Urbanchich’s ‘Uglies’ Liberal faction[29] and Alex Psalti’s group in the Victorian Nationals. With perhaps 500 members in three Eastern States, NAA lobbied RSL conferences that it fight to rid Australia of:

strange foods, odours, animals slaughtered in bathrooms, styles of dress and manners … bizarre crimes, bombs, knives, kidnappings (which) … are not the Australian way …[30]

The NAA’s pressure-infiltration efforts familiarized RSL spokesmen with anti-immigration positions. Although initially the organization was unresponsive, the mood would change when in August 1981, the Victorian RSL denounced the pace of Asian immigration.

For NAA, immigration undermined the British constitutional and civic heritage. Thus an alliance with the LOR front, the Heritage Society, was formalized in August 1977;[31] with Eason’s illness occasioning the NAA’s infirmity, this League front could offer a secure home for most members. The Heritage Society’s propaganda outpourings favouring the Old Australia of Monarchy, Flag, Constitution, Anglo-Saxon Christian virtue, states’ rights and common law, were massive compared to NAA’s effort.[32] With its styled ‘public opinion’ “voting form” mass leaflet opposing the “Grassby Mackellar Immigration Policy”, the League competed with ICA/PCP[33] albeit with a ‘non political’ pressure group solution.

Further, the League/NAA line remained at odds with ICA/PCP over the definition of heritage and identity; one favoured a semi-mystical vision of archaic constitutional rights and symbols derived from the British connection, and the other a nativist idea of Australian identity based upon European race and culture. The Progressive-Conservatives received no encouragement from the League which eschewed ‘political’ action and responded with rancorous invective. League officials Ray White (Perth), Peggy Fox (Brisbane) and Roy Stuckey (Sydney), fearful of defections, pilloried the PCP as a “power movement” with “no understanding of finance” (Social Credit), and an “equivocal attitude” towards protection of the Australian Constitution.[34]

The active Extreme Right PCP had acquired a new market with separate interests to the older conservative forces. It was a magnet to people the conservatives had hoped to recruit. The PCP appealed for a $20,000 Electoral Fund early in 1980[35] and targetted various ‘pro-Asian immigration’ politicians as the ICA had done in the 1970’s. Perth M.P. Ross McLean, and Michael Mackellar, found themselves under attack through mass leaflets.[36]

The 1980 Federal Election was seen by the PCP as a desperate contest on the direction of immigration and multiculturalism.[37] Candidates were advanced in three states. The results were:

Table 4.1 Progressive Conservative Party 1980 Federal Poll[38]

Candidate	Electorate	Primary Vote
John McGrath	Warringah (NSW)	1297
Colin Wuttke	Sturt (SA)	354
Jim Russell	Boothby (SA)	762
Don Keitel	Boynthon (SA)	656
Pamela Wells	Canning (WA)	896
June Steen-Olsen	Perth	551
Syd Negus	WA Senate	4836
P.H. Harwood	W.A. Senate	163
D.C. Kitto	S.A. Senate	1045
M.A. McKenzie Huish	S.A. Senate	203

These results represented another lost hope and PCP cast for options. The approach was made to Australian National Alliance for unification.

2. AN ABORTIVE ‘FASCISM’: THE NATIONAL FRONT OF AUSTRALIA (NFA)

The launch of a branch of the British National Front in June 1978 was one response to the Vietnamese refugee policy of the Fraser government.[39] The National Front of Australia intended “the unification of all the nationalist/patriotic forces” to reverse the position where “the patriotic vote is virtually forced into supporting the Liberal or National Party …”[40] Although only 150 persons joined between 1978 and 1984 when it was wound up,[41] NFA’s relevance to this Thesis is two-fold. First, it highlighted the inter-relationship between the old Conservative Right and new activists who perceived an enemy in Fraser’s ‘conservatism’. Second, it demonstrated para-State intervention against the Extreme Right.

The NFA’s origins lay in the Melbourne University-based Eureka Students’ League (ESL), formed in 1974 by Alan Birtley. The ESL created a furore when its candidate for editorship of the campus newspaper received a 10% vote,[42] and as it issued widely distributed documents against the Maoists for using the Eureka flag. The Maoists called for “appropriate action”,[43] and finally bashed Birtley in September 1976 calling this violence – “a meting out of people’s justice”.[44] Originally sympathetic to the nationalist labour tradition,[45] Birtley also served as vice-president of People Against Communism along with ‘Nazi’ treasurer, Claude Woods. But once PAC expelled these “extremists”,[46] a new source of inspiration was found in the British NF. The group planned to regroup conservatives, their essential ideology intact, into an electoral machine.

Rosemary Sisson, ESL activist and law student, commenced publication of Australian Nationalist in 1977. Sisson set its ideological tone:

The oath of allegiance to the Sovereign should be restored … there is no reason why we should foresake our history and clamour for a republic … Australia owes almost everything to Great Britain …[47]

With praise for Eric Butler’s writings[48] and its bias against Continental European migrants,[49] the group was notionally palatable to the Conservative Right. Dr. Dique’s ICA favoured Sisson’s position[50] as did some Social Credit activists, League supporters,[51] and ex-NSPA members. NFA’s growth campaign would trade initially upon name-recognition.

A special palingenetic myth was also advanced: to “reform … the present multiracial British Commonwealth into a closely knit association of White states … (with the) … voluntary co-ordination of policies …”[52] – a revived empire. The dream was necessarily contingent upon the success of the British party. Both elements of the scheme revised conservative positions. Religious, civic and traditional Anglophilia was to be transmuted into a racial-nationalism organized independently of the Liberal–National parties and organically bonded with a foreign organization.[53] Rejected by the ICA and nascent nationalist groups (as below), it was not at the time of ‘foundation’ a real amalgamation of other forces. While ‘Chairman’ Sisson correctly recognized the refugee question as a powerful mobilizer, no substantive groundwork had been laid to lure the conservative bloc. Prominent Queensland Frontist, and occasional parliamentary candidate Victor Robb, reasoned three years later:

Bjelke-Petersen unjustifiably … enjoys an Australia-wide reputation as a strongly conservative leader. He may well be the best active anti-socialist operating … [but] … I am not impressed by some of … [his] … League Of Rights supporters who argue he cannot be expected to act until he is assured of substantial electoral support …[54]

This paean to conservative immobilism meant the NFA had confused expectations of Bjelke-Petersen and his auxiliaries. Sisson’s Senate campaign waged in Queensland (1980: for 1467 votes),[55] shattered the illusion, as much as the British NF’s electoral crash in May 1979 had exposed the fantasy. Realistically, as long as Right satellites had Bjelke-Petersen as a messiah, their radicalization was problematical for the Extreme Right.

‘Dirty Tricks’ limited the NFA’s thrust. In 1977, the British party was a rising force. The political syncretism achieved united neo-nazis, neo-fascists and “racial populists” into an electoralist anti-immigration alliance.[56] The leadership was effectively hijacked by covert neo-nazis whose reborn herrenvolk principle was the “Anglo-Saxon commonwealth”.[57] Some evidence existed that an Intelligence assessment of the Australian scene posited neo-nazis could attempt a similar exercise. The 1977 recruitment by Commonwealth Police of English Special Branch detective Norman Ferris, to advise on techniques to manage an Australian NF, demonstrated not simply the existence of a concern (Ferris “interviewed” numerous ex-NSPA members during 1977–8), but also Intelligence monitoring of Sisson’s activities.[58]

The NFA’s June 3 1978 Melbourne foundation meeting, was infiltrated by an Age journalist – David Wilson – long accused of an ASIO connection.[59] How Wilson came to be there is unresolved. The resultant media frenzy[60] however, quickly located Nazi Robert Cameron, who claimed Front leadership alongside Anton Heintjes as Queensland leader.[61] Cameron’s insinuation was made near-unassailable by the Sydney arrests on June 15 of Tim Anderson, Ross Dunn and Paul Alister of the Ananda Marga sect. Special Branch detectives alleged a conspiracy to murder the ‘NF leader’.[62] Media also falsely reported Cameron as leader of the “National Alliance Nazi Party”.[63]

A compelling case has been made that the ‘Ananda Marga Three’ were ruthlessly framed by Special Branch to cover security services’ complicity in the 1978 Hilton Hotel Bombing.[64] However, if the men were framed it must be asked why Cameron became the chosen subject of police conspiracy.

David Greason made a sensational allegation. In 1979, whilst working for Melbourne’s Jewish Times, he claimed to have had a conversation with a member of the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies. He was told that in May 1978, a member of the JBD and a Commonwealth Police officer, paid Cameron $1500 cash to announce his claim to NF leadership.[65] These events would have paralleled the developing Special Branch conspiracy to frame Ananda Marga.

Opposing forces have alleged that Cameron was an informer-provocateur.[66] Heintjes withdrew from Cameron’s media fraud, crying “set up”.[67] Greason’s story would explain why Cameron came forward, and why some media reported his statements. Given Cameron’s earlier Special Branch link and his role in destabilizing Sisson’s NF, Special Branch had a compliant ‘victim’ for a terrorist bomb and an egoistic strawman to elevate as ‘the face of the Extreme Right’.

The NFA was stillborn. Cameron tainted it with ‘open’ nazism and violence (although it was foolishly “proud” to be “fascist”);[68] it never escaped the “Jackboot” smear.[69] Rightists like Urbanchich backed away[70] and National Alliance was angered by the ‘Cameron link’. Sisson may have said NFA was “neither right nor left, but above”,[71] but its call for a “regenerated British Australia”[72] meant it had to compete with cautious rightist groups with established resource bases. The task was too great, and some discouraged foundation-cadre deserted for other groups.

The NFA strategy was misconceived, but two facts were demonstrated: some Extreme-Rightists had strategies, and the para-State intended they not blossom.

3. AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL ALLIANCE INITIATES A ‘RADICAL- NATIONALIST’ TREND

Australian National Alliance (ANA) formed in January 1978, developed upon previous adumbrations of Radical-Nationalism to articulate a new trend on the Extreme Right.

In early 1976, the Australian Nationalist White Workers’ Party (ANWWP) dissolved, its migrant members rapt in Fraser’s Liberal victory and Captive Nations sympathies. The rump fused with the ‘Australian Rightist Community’ (ARC). This group, established by former NSPA official Neil Garland in July 1976, announced:

Our aim is to promote true and responsible National Socialism, Fascism and Australian nationalism.[73]

Although the ARC Newsletter also uncritically reported a supposedly “terrorist” Brisbane World Union of National Socialists section,[74] Garland warned: “I counsel no reformation of any NSPA-style group.”[75] He later declared

the passing of the NSPA cannot be anything but a release and a relief from its charade.[76]

Thereafter, the evolving ARC opted “to promote a definite new ideological line”,[77] which led to paper discussions of the New Guard, Stephensen’s nationalism and “Australian Social-nationalism”.[78] A “discussion group for the Australianist idea”, formed[79] and contact was made with National Resistance, a Sydney campus organization, and Sisson’s Australian Nationalist group.

For ostensible radicals, the anti-communist Liberal government represented capitalist internationalism. Consequently, loyalism was rejected. Ideological formation for these isolated Sydney grouplets brought confrontation with the British National Front whose intervention in the Australian Right was criticized as colonialist and misinformed about native identity and the ‘potential’ amongst European migrants.[80] The Australian NF, was subsequently likened to a “noisy League Of Rights” with an oedipus complex.[81] A model of organization and a systematic ideology were sought to counterpose to State “liberal-conservatism”. National Resistance, established in early 1977, discerned a threat to Australia from the Third World’s “population-food crisis”.[82] The marxist ‘theology’ was contrasted to “the socialism of the early Labor party – socialism without doctrines”[83] and the Right was labelled “old people regardless of their age”.[84] The Eureka Flag was used and the CPA(M-L)-controlled Australian Independence Movement and Builders’ Labourers’ Federation condemned for their ‘parodying’ of nationalism.[85] National Resistance, a “temporary organization whose role is the preparation of an effective political party”, prepared the advent of ANA.[86]

National Resistance gained the ARC mailing lists, passed over when Garland quit activism, recruited numerous ‘Democratic Club’ students and acquired patronage from atomic physicist Sir Philip Baxter, whose ‘lifeboat Australia’ argument was counterposed to the “refugee invasion”.[87] The new organization was launched.

The ANA founders possessed particular ideological-activist backgrounds. Ed Azzopardi, 22, of Maltese lineage rejected the Anglophile Right, and liaised with Jack Lang who suggested he play a role with The Century. In 1977 he qualified as a teacher. Frank Salter, 24, had a League Of Rights family background and had resigned from Duntroon Military College to study engineering; James Saleam, 22, was a postgraduate student with interests in Extreme Right ideology; Alex Norwick and a former Trotskyist teacher Myles Ormsby, 26, completed the set. This group considered the Extreme Right and conservative forces as failures and their strategy was one of intentionalism: they would consciously change the Extreme Right’s style.

ANA’s founders had reflected upon the European Extreme Right. The cadre-ideological French and Italian New Order parties were praised,[88] as was the electoralist and street-oriented British National Front.[89] These movements were contrasted to the local Right with its Constitutionalism, Social Credit and pro-Liberal anti-communist preoccupations. Neo-nazism and mimetic fascism were considered dead-ends. Rather, ANA intended to invoke labour-nationalist tradition as the basis of its ‘White Australia republicanism’[90] – and create a cadre-electoral structure.

An inter-related dual-focused political analysis created the crisis-‘enemy’. Fraser’s anti-communism was denounced as false, and subservient to a Peking-Tokyo-Washington Axis directed at the geo-political racial-nationalism of the Soviet Union.[91] Australia’s drift into Asia and open-door on the Vietnamese refugees was imposed by America to pay off its new oriental allies. Australia faced superpower war and both armed and unarmed refugee Asian attack.[92] Responsive Nativism, Armed Neutrality, Fortress Australia and anti-American policies were shocks to ANA’s Left critics[93] and a novel discourse for right-wing listeners.

ANA’s plan for a “party of the National Right”[94] involved, like NFA’s scheme, a regrouping of existent Right forces, but limited to those who could appreciate an ultra-nationalist position, provide funding and supporters – thereby telescoping growth.

In 1977–8, ANA clashed with the Sydney Liberal Party ‘Uglies’ for the support of the Italian immigrant MSI section and other Urbanchich followers. Salter’s father, an ‘Ugly’ and LOR official, ensured favourable articles appeared in News Digest International (NDI).[95] ANA savaged the Liberal ‘Uglies’ around Spectrum magazine, for Cold War consumer-society nostalgia:

Time, money and energy are being wasted on what amounts to a comedy … Nothing was achieved by these individuals in the past … Why imitate Menzies? The Liberal Party was an obsolete piece of junk even in the Golden Age of the ‘50s …[96]

The attack developed with criticism of Urbanchich’s ambivalence towards the ‘refugee invasion’ and the assertion of a “void to his Right”.[97] NDI, which spoke for Captive Nations, pleaded:

There is no need for any discord; they are closer in basic philosophies than they realize …[98]

However, the rift was there. The East European and conservative anti-communists remained wedded to their auxiliary position and their suspicions of ANA were sharpened by whispering campaigns undertaken by David Clarke. Some might endorse ANA ‘militancy’ but the bloc would not fracture.

The LOR periphery was approached. Dora Watts, part-Jewish ‘racist’ pamphleteer joined, recalling proudly her association with P.R. Stephensen.[99] Grazier Nicholas Lindemann, author of Japan Threat, affiliated.[100] Some League-connected ‘anti-immigrationists’ accepted the ultra-nationalist argument but this monarchist organization was innoculated against nativism.

The ICA cautiously pursued a wait-and-see approach. Although it shared members with ANA and co-operated with it, ICA was wary of implicit republicanism.

Essentially ANA, with its home base in Sydney, was surrounded by hostile or suspicious Rightists who denied it political space. It lacked strong facilitators in other areas. The only other option was direct public recruitment.

The ANA showed unrealized potential. It conformed to the Griffin-Llobera models of neo-fascist/nationalist organization: initial gathering of cadre, militant ideas, growth beyond the margin and the attempt to solidify organizational forms.[101] The ANA published Audacity, opened an office in Sydney city and built a skeletal national structure during 1978–9.[102] It sidestepped the NFA debacle and confrontation with the Left (although Maoist students bashed Salter early in 1979).[103] It worked assiduously at clandestine self-promotion authoring pseudonymous ‘smears’ which simultaneously presented its views favourably.[104] In June 1979, Salter contested the ‘Grayndler’ by-election and received 863 votes (1.64%); ANA issued election posters in Italian and Greek – something no ‘White Australia’ organization had done.[105] Frank Browne returned from (drunken) retirement and pledged to edit a new ANA magazine. However, ANA’s direct recruitment program snagged

… in 1979 during the Refugee Crisis. Hundreds of people contacted the nationalist movement precipitating a crisis in ideology and tactical perspectives … we had to preserve our essential creed before submission to momentary issues … Many of our new contacts failed to appreciate such ‘foreign’ notions. They wanted immediate results … They cared very little of much else …[106]

Whereas Azzopardi envisioned a party with “the discipline of Spartans and the fanaticism of Jesuits …”,[107] ANA failed to institute internal education programmes. It produced a welter of journalism and paraphenalia but its reading lists were eclectic and shallow and it featured only one sketchy theoretical-tactical guide.[108] The newsletter Alliance News, made references to “cadre building”, schools and university activism, but ANA reflected the crucial problem of a youthful propaganda group faced with sudden membership surges:

… A small coterie of leaders decided … the new recruits … were ‘reasonable’ and that it was “time to get out of the sectarian mentality” and embrace a watery patriotic ideology. At that point ideological struggle began …[109]

The ANA remained structurally fragile. In late 1978, Salter arranged that an unknown “company manager” Max Davis, be promoted to the Committee, a position he held for some months until his ‘disappearance’. Investigations revealed ‘Davis’ had a false name, switchboard phone services and a mock apartment – and reasonably an Intelligence connection.[110] The affair destabilized ANA and when another ‘plausible businessman’ promised a new façade of respectability, Salter involved ANA in various enterprises in 1979-80, bankrupting it. The businessman proved to be the Nazi, Graeme Royce.[111]

The combination of division and financial loss proved fatal. The increasingly cranky Salter sought to truncate the anti-U.S., labour-nationalist and militant references so as not to “confuse” new recruits, and when this course was rejected he resigned, denouncing ANA leaders for “obscurantism”.[112] The declining organization imploded, a residue lumbering on to contest ‘Parramatta’ in the 1980 Federal Poll (1248 votes: 1.81%). The experiment was over. To preserve its ideological core, ANA amalgamated with ICA/PCP, a course discussed by both sides over time.

The ANA had failed to reorient the Right, but its ideological-political provocation of the Left was significant. The CPA(M-L)/Independence Movement was attempting to hegemonise the Left and related mass movements (anti-foreign bases, anti-war, uranium, militant unionism) around the idea of ‘anti-imperialist national independence’.[113] The CPA and SPA used similar rhetoric. The squabbling Trotskyist movement faulted Maoist nationalism for class-collaborationist chauvinism, and subservience to Chinese foreign policy.[114] The ANA deliberately fueled both this critique, and the strategic debate within Maoist ranks upon such questions, by utilizing the Eureka Flag and Maoist slogans on superpowers and independence.[115] The CPA(M-L) raged, and violence was directed at those Trotskyists who “joyfully chorused” (laughed at) their discomfort.[116] ANA’s ubiquitous stickers and posters drew a full-page Independence Movement advertisement in The National Times:

We declare that the Eureka Flag belongs to the

Australian people. We deplore its use

alongside racist and fascist slogans …[117]

– but the Left’s hold on the Flag was weakening.

Trotskyists wrangled over how to oppose ANA, whether to use violence or exposure.[118] The SPA resorted to the “Nazism” tag.[119] The CPA, confused over the attack upon “Tokyo-Joh Petersen” and ANA’s references to Lang, Lawson, The Bulletin nationalists and use of the Eureka Flag – denounced it as ‘Nazi’ or fascist.[120] Together, the CPA and SPA accepted the commentary of Al Grassby, Commissioner for Community Relations, and united with him and other liberals in a 1979–80 Movement Against Fascism And Racism (MAFAR) with its programme for “anti-racial vilification legislation”.[121]

ANA had three effects on the Left. First, it worsened divisions amongst the major currents on ideological matters and methods to combat the new threat.[122] Second, the 1977-8 cadre split in Maoism (Chapter Five) was sharpened through ANA’s destabilizing activism. Third, by driving some leftists via MAFAR into alliance with Grassby’s Race Discrimination ‘qango’, the first step was taken in the satellitization of the Left on the issue of race.

4. THE POLITICAL FAILURE OF THE EXTREME RIGHT 1975-82

In this Section, conclusions are advanced on the character of Extreme Right activism

in the 1975-82 period; particular events that finalized one period of the Right’s evolution and acted as a prelude to new developments are examined.

Al Grassby concluded of the Extreme Right’s electoral failure:

The end result of racist activities in the election is an indication of how it is possible to mobilize a lunatic fringe. It may be said that an average vote of 1% is hardly a matter of deep concern … Despite the million pamphlets, attempted intimidation, overseas funds and the cancer of unemployment, the racists have failed in their objective of mass recruiting …[123]

The weak 1980 results demonstrated the limited appeal of the Extreme Right. Paddy McGuinness’s announcement of an operative “conspiracy of silence” between media and government on the continuing refugee influx,[124] may suggest that publicity-starvation was applied to cripple the anti-immigrationists after their 1979 surge.

The PCP/ANA merger produced the ‘Progressive Nationalist Party’ (PNP). This organization stayed relaxed and uncoordinated, fielding a candidate in a Sydney by-election[125] and campaigning against the 1981 Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting.[126] In early 1982, Clark, fearing PNP might take the confrontationist road, withdrew to re-launch ICA, but soon after dissolved it because of the disinterestedness of PNP’s paper members.[127]

On the ground, the anti-immigration Extreme Right seemed exhausted. The legacy of the 1975–82 period was mixed. Clark considered the ICA/PCP a sort of “culmination” of previous anti-immigration groups. He had “settled the question” of whether a party or a lobby group was required and although he favoured a “conservative” signpost for “respectability”, he considered the group “Nationalist”. While critical of both myopic anti-communism and “Eureka-Flag radicals” he built a provocative but non-confrontational group.[128]

The ICA/PCP had fought a rear-guard action. The Fraser years provided opportunities for agitation arising from the pro-immigration and deindustrialization policies advocated in the Galbally and Harries Reports, economic structural crisis and Vietnamese refugee arrivals. However, ICA/PCP narrowed itself towards electoralism which depended upon ballot box success, and which in turn, required enthusiasm and money. A ‘party of the National Right’, which married PCP’s limited finances and ANA’s enthusiasm, might have fared just a little better.

The friction between ICA/PCP and ANA was generational. Clark’s followers (1975–82) tended to be older (45–70 years), financially secure and former Coalition supporters.[129] National Alliance numbers were younger, less established and devoid of nostalgia for 1950’s Australia.[130] Whereas ICA/PCP bemoaned foreign aid for short-changing pensioners, and immigration for neighbourhood deterioration, ANA maintained the propagandistic vulgarity of “Jobs Not Refugees”[131] and the more intricate warning – “No To The Peking Tokyo Washington Axis”.[132] However, both regularly criticized the ‘Anglo-Saxonism’ of the old Right and moved beyond laissez-faire economics towards a populist anti-capitalism.[133]

The marriage of palingenetic nationalism with an Extreme Right membership base missed its propitious moment. Significantly, the Fraser years exhausted the Left cadres, the various general staffs of the proletariat drawn into street adventurism whilst the Left union and community sub-cultures were undermined. The new order was also vulnerable to disruption from rightist challenge and an opportunity was open for an aggressive Extreme Right organization. However, the Extreme Right had been limited by conservative anti-immigration competition, neo-nazi provocation and the failed NFA experiment. An unfriendly or silent media was another impediment. The apocalyptic crisis-mythos of ANA’s propaganda, neither overwhelmed the conservatives nor remoulded ICA/PCP into a cadre-electoral machine. It failed to inspire its many ‘recruits’ to disciplined politics. Nonetheless, the defeated Extreme Right had gained a certain fringe permanence.

Knopfelmacher’s 1978 insight was valuable:

There is the large unemployment amongst the young, particularly the working class young. The noise, entertainment and excitement of a new movement could appeal to them. Also many young people, like many older ones are disillusioned with the government and institutions. And there is the disappearance of the DLP. It was a reasonably rational right-wing alternative. Now there is a vacuum to the Right …[134]

Finally, some Radical-Nationalists observed that the era of anti-communist auxiliary rightism had waned and the Extreme Right would fish in the waters of alienation. In as many words, this was finally recognized by Right militants.[135]

---

[1] E.F. Hill, The Great Cause Of Australian Independence, Melbourne, 1977, pp. 97–108, 142; For Independence And Socialism, CPA(M-L) pamphlet, February 1978; The Semi-Fascist Coup,

CPA(M-L) leaflet, 1976.

[2] From a general survey of Direct Action, Labour Press/Workers News, Australasian Spartacist,

1976–80.

[3] For The Republic Of Australia, CFD leaflet, 1976.

[4] Editorial, “The Growing Threat From The Left”, The Australian, June 16 1976, p. 6.

[5] Robert Catley and Bruce McFarlane, Australian Capitalism In Boom And Depression: Options For The 1980’s, Chippendale, 1981, pp. 94–121.

[6] David Marcus, “The Multinational Alignment: The Trilateral Commission”, Arena, No. 52, 1979, pp. 103. Marcus’s bibliography included Eric Butler, “The Grand Design Unfolds: Behind The Trilateral Banner”, The New Times, Vol. 43, No. 5, May 1978, pp. 1–3.

[7] Vote Australia First On December 10, League Of Rights leaflet, 1977.

[8] “At Last, A Realist”, Viewpoint, No. 29, March–April 1976, p. 1. “Was Whitlam Right About Malcolm Fraser?”, The Australian Conservative News And Views, April 1977, p. 1.

[9] “Australia Now Has The Welcome Mat And A Wide Open Door To All And Any South-East Asians”, Viewpoint, No. 36, September–November 1977, p. 1.

[10] Australian Conservative Party Members’ Letter, April 27 1977.

[11] “The Boat People – A Peaceful Asian Invasion. What Will This Dangerous Precedent Lead To?” Viewpoint, No. 40, September – October 1978, p. 3.

[12] Campaign Against Illegal Immigration Members’ Letter, May 1978. CAII utilized newspaper advertisements and letters columns.

[13] Migrant Policy Action Group Newsletter, May 26 1978. MPAG utilized leafleting, letters columns, raised funds, held private meetings.

[14] Gerard O’Neill, Interview, 1996; EAA placed newspaper advertisements and distributed stickers. O’Neill became a stalwart of several groups thereafter.

[15] ICC was a sophisticated group; See: Submission On Proposed New And Amending Legislation Of The Racial Discrimination Act. ICC gave some support to PCP. Linke was a jeweller.

[16] Brenda Macintyre; Gerard O’Neill. This course of events unfolded over the two preceding years. See: Norman Aisbett, “Send Them Home Says Mr Clark”, The West Australian, September 22 1978, p. 7.

[17] Christopher Steele, Interview, 1996.

[18] “Why, Why?”, Viewpoint, No. 38, April–June 1978, p. 3.

[19] “Yeppoon–Jappoon: Australia’s Trojan Horse”, Viewpoint, No. 47, July–August 1979, pp. 1–2.

[20] Vincent Lowe, Letter To J.C.A. Dique, President ICA (Queensland), May 8 1980, referred to League Of Rights, ICA(Q) for “softness”.

[21] The author was shown this list in 1981.

[22] Immigration Control Association Members’ Letter, January 3 1979; Immigration Control Association Members’ Letter, March 20 1979; Robert Clark; Ian Hampel.

[23] Nick Maina; Peter Applin, Interview, 1978 (Applin, a former British NF member moved between NAA and Liberal Party Right). Both said NAA was driven by a fear of a Left and Labor united front.

[24] We Defend Sir John Kerr, NAA leaflet, 1976; Loyal Petition To Sir John Kerr, NAA leaflet, 1976.

[25] A Humble Prayer And Petition, NAA(Sydney) leaflet, 1976; “Editorial”, National Australia Association Newsletter, August 1976, pp. 2–3.

[26] “Sir Robert Menzies”, National Australia Association Newsletter, May 1976, p. 3.

[27] “White Australia Group: Menzies Patron”, The Sun, March 23 1976, p. 1. “Menzies Denies Racism”, Daily Telegraph, March 24 1976, p. 3.

[28] “Racist Group’s New Patron: Bjelke Replaces Menzies”, The Sun, September 16 1976, p. 1; “Group’s Actions Too Much For Bjelke”, The Australian, September 17 1976, p. 4.

[29] “Quarterly General Meeting”, National Australia Association Newsletter, November 1976, p. 4. NAA was addressed by Dr Lindsay Grant of the “Tinker Taylor” religious sect and owner of the Commonwealth Club in Castlereagh Street Sydney, venue for various rightist functions; Grant was a member of the Liberal State Convention. For Tinker Taylor and its Right links: Carol Dianne Thornton, “The Crusader Union Of New South Wales: A Political And Administrative History”, BA(Hons) Thesis, University of Sydney, 1978, p. 67–70.

[30] “Editorial”, National Australia Association Newsletter, February 1976, p. 6.

[31] “Unity With Heritage Society”, National Australia Association Newsletter, August 1977, p. 4.

[32] Nick Maina.

[33] The Grassby-Mackellar Immigration Policy, League Of Rights leaflet, 1980.

[34] Vincent Lowe; Robert Clark; Ian Hampel; Gerard O’Neill, Brenda Macintyre. The author has attended ‘Conservative Speakers Club’ functions and heard such comments from Jeremy Lee, former Assistant National Director of the League.

[35] 1980 Election Appeal: $20000 Wanted Urgently, PCP Members’ Letter, 1980.

[36] Frazer Guild, “War On The Asians”, Weekend News, August 18 1979, 20–21.

[37] “The Liberals Have Made Australia A U.N. Puppet”, The Progressive Conservative News And Views, No. 2, June–July 1980, p. 1.

[38] Commonwealth Electoral Office, House Of Representatives Election: By Division And Subdivision, AGPS, 1980; Commonwealth Electoral Office, Senate Election: South Australia, AGPS, 1980, p. 3; Commonwealth Electoral Office, Senate Election: Western Australia, AGPS, 1980, p. 3.

[39] Australian Nationalist, No. 4, April 1978, p. 5; “Keep Asians Out”, Frontline, No. 2, July 1978, p. 5.

[40] “Editorial”, Frontline, No. 8, January 1979, p. 1.

[41] Pat Leyman, Interview, 1995. (Leyman was a foundation NF member in Sydney).

[42] “Farrago Elections”, Farrago, October 3 1975.

[43] “Fascists Attempts To Organize Amongst Students Must Be Nipped In The Bud”, Vanguard, September 25 1976, p. 4.

[44] “People’s Justice”, Vanguard, November 4 1976, p. 4. Charges against a Maoist student were dismissed: “Ex-Nazi’s Story Not Acceptable”, The Age, January 29 1977, p. 11.

[45] Ultra (Broadsheet Of The Eureka Students League), No. 1, on Eureka Stockade; Ultra, No. 2, on Henry Lawson; Ultra, No. 5, on Jack Lang; Ultra, No. 6, on working class, White Australia agitation; Ultra, No. 8, on William Lane.

[46] Simon Margison, “People Against Communism’s Anti-Semite Leaders”, Axis, October 18 1976, p. 11.

[47] Australian Nationalist, No. 4, April 1978, p. 2.

[48] Australian Nationalist, No. 3, March 1978, p. 1.

[49] “Editorial”, Australian Nationalist, No. 4, April 1978, p. 1. This ‘prejudice’ was developed in “Euro Nationalism Not For Us”, Frontline, No. 4, September 1978, pp. 1–5.

[50] “Leader Of Racist Group Is In Army Reserve”, The Age, June 8 1978, p. 1.

[51] Instant Money, leaflet 1978; see articles in Frontline, No. 13, June 1979, No. 15, August 1979, No. 24, May 1980, were all reprints from Victor Robb’s Ipswich Social Credit group which was connected to the LOR.

[52] “Commonwealth National Front”, Frontline, No. 1, June 1978, pp. 3–4.

[53] National Front Objectives, 1978; Alain Birtley, Interview, 1995; “The Bulldog Breed”, Frontline, No. 12, May 1979, pp. 1–3.

[54] Victor Robb, Letter To “Ian”, September 27 1981.

[55] Commonwealth Electoral Office, Senate Election Queensland, 1980.

[56] Richard Thurlow, Fascism In Britain, pp. 276–8; Martin Walker, The National Front, London, 1977, pp. 68–107.

[57] ibid., pp. 47, 78-81; John Tyndall, Britain: World Power Or Pauper State, London, 1977.

[58] Jim Saleam, Never In Nazi Uniform, p. 14; Ray Gillespie.

[59] Joan Coxsedge, Rooted In Secrecy: The Clandestine Element In Australian Politics, Melbourne, 1982, pp. 155–6.

[60] “Australian National Front Is Formed”, The Age, June 5 1978, p. 1; “Right-Wing Group Formed In Secret”, The Age, June 5 1978, p. 1.

[61] Malcolm Brown, “Racist Group Expects Nation-Wide Membership”, Sydney Morning Herald, June 8 1978, p. 3; “The Man Who Would Be Leader”, The Australian, June 9 1978, p. 2.

[62] “Time Bomb Murder Plot”, Daily Mirror, June 16 1978, pp. 1–2.

[63] “Bomb Plot Murder Charges”, Telegraph (Brisbane), June 16 1978, p. 1.

[64] Tom Molomby, Spies, Bombs And The Path Of Bliss, Sydney, 1986. For the importance of the Hilton case to the political position of security services: David Marr, “Biggest Security Case Since Petrov”, The National Times, August 5 1978, pp. 7–8.

[65] David Greason’s version was given to: Pat Leyman, James Saleam, Alex Norwick; previously the payment of $1,500 but not the paymaster was known – see: E. Azzopardi, “What’s In A Name?”, Alliance News, No. 2, undated, p. 3.

[66] Jim Saleam, Never In Nazi Uniform, p. 14; “Capitalist Class Keeps Fascist Groups In Reserve”, Vanguard, October 6 1982, p. 4.

[67] “Front Man Quits. I Was Set Up”, The Australian, June 15 1978, p. 2.

[68] NF Bulletin (Queensland Branch), No. 4, January 1980, p. 1.

[69] Paul Lyneham, “Jackboots Are On The March Again”, Pol, June 1979, pp. 51–56.

[70] Lyenko Urbanchich, conversation with author, 1987. Urbanchich referred to “radio” and “ethnic press” commentary.

[71] “Front Is ‘Neither Right Nor Left But Above’”, The Age, June 7 1978, pp. 1, 3.

[72] “Euro-Nationalism Not For Us”, Frontline, No. 4, September 1978, p. 4.

[73] ARC Newsletter, No. 1, August 1976, p. 2.

[74] ARC Newsletter, No. 2, October 1976, pp. 1–2; for the allegedly terrorist group, Patrice Chairoff, Dossier Neo-Nazisme, Paris 1979. It is understood Chairoff was a provocateur for the Gaullist SAC.

[75] ARC Newsletter, No. 1, op.cit.

[76] Nationalist News, No. 3, December 1976, p. 1.

[77] Nationalist News, No. 4. February 1977, p. 1.

[78] Nationalist News, No. 8, April 1977, p. 1 and passim.

[79] Nationalist News, No. 7, August 1977, p. 1.

[80] John Tyndall, Letter To Neil Garland (undated) 1977, referred to in Jim Saleam, What Is To Be Done?, Sydney 1985, p. 2. Tyndall was Chairman of the British NF.

[81] E.F. Azzopardi, “Un Australian Activities: The National Front”, Audacity, No. 5, August 1978, p. 5.

[82] Audacity, NR student broadsheet, 1977 (no other details), in possession of author.

[83] Audacity, 1977 (no other details) in possession of author.

[84] ibid.

[85] “Australian Nationalism”, Advance, No. 1, undated, p. 1.

[86] Constitution And Rules Of National Resistance, October 1 1977.

[87] “Scientist Speaks Out”, Advance, No. 3, December 1977, pp. 2, 4. Also Baxter at Petersham Town Hall, 16 March 1979, Alliance News, No. 6, April 1979, p. 1. Baxter later obscured his NR/ANA link: “Top Scientist Denies ‘Keep Australia White’ Connection”, Weekend Australian, May 16 1981, p. 2.

[88] “The Student Right”, Spearhead (National Resistance schools broadsheet), undated, 1977.

[89] “The National Front: The Facts”, Advance, No. 1, p. 4.

[90] “The Old Order Crumbles”, Advance, No. 3, December 1977, p. 3.

[91] No Pact With Peking, ANA leaflet, 1978.

[92] “Australia Imperilled”, Audacity, undated, No. 6, pp. 1–2; “The Peking Alliance: The End Of White Australia”, Audacity, No. 7, March 1979, pp. 2, 10.

[93] Fiona Gillies, “National Alliance”, Newswit, November 1978, p. 9; Greg Schofield, “National Front On Campus”, Honi Soit, March 12 1979, p. 2; “Oppose All Racists”, SAI News, Vol. 4, No. 2 (undated), La Trobe University Maoist sheet, 1979.

[94] “It’s Time For Unity”, Alliance News, No. 6, April 1979, p. 1; “Unity”, Alliance News, No. 7, May 1979, p. 3, developed National Resistance: Australian Nationalist Movement, leaflet, 1977.

[95] “National Resistance”, News Digest International, September 1977, pp. 41–2; “Australian National Alliance”, News Digest International, December 1978, p. 40.

[96] “The Conservative Pastiche”, Audacity, undated, No. 5, p. 6.

[97] “Goodbye Lyenko”, Audacity, undated, No. 6, p. 3.

[98] “Turner’s Telescope”, News Digest International, No. 2, June 1978, p. 40.

[99] Dora Watts, “The Murder Of A Nation”, Advance, No. 3, January–February 1978, pp. 7–8. Dora Watts’ LOR pamphlets, The Equality Dogma Leads To Communism, Melbourne, 1966 and The Dangerous Myth Of Racial Equality: Genocide Of The White Race, 1968, were sold by ANA.

[100] Nicholas Lindemann, Japan Threat, the author, 1977; Nicholas Lindemann, “Times Change: Australia And The USSR”, Audacity, undated, No. 8, pp. 6–8.

[101] Roger Griffin, The Nature Of Fascism, pp. 26–7, 184–5; Joseph R. Llobera, The God Of Modernity: The Development Of Nationalism In Western Europe, Oxford, 1994, pp. 203–4.

[102] From a survey of Alliance News (Internal Bulletin Of National Alliance), 1978-9.

[103] C. Maltby, letter to Tharunka, March 3 1979; “Nationalists Defeat Marxists”, Alliance News, No. 6, April 1979, p. 2.

[104] Articles written by James Saleam or Myles Ormsby: “A New Rightist Threat”, Newswit, April 1979, p. 21; “National Alliance”, Honi Soit, April 2 1979, p. 3; “Racism Beneath The Southern Cross”, Farrago, August 9 1979, p. 57–9; “The Far Right Won’t Go Away”, The Bulletin, August 21 1979, pp. 24, 28–9. David Greason, “Trouble Brewing In Wills”, Rabelais, Vol. 13, No. 10, p. 9.

[105] “Racial Tensions Over Refugees”, Asiaweek, September 27 1979, p. 29; Stephanie Bunbury, “Everyone Wants To Be Fuehrer”, Lots Wife, October 29 1979, pp. 26–7.

[106] Anon, Lessons For Nationalists, Sydney, 1982, p. 1.

[107] Edward Azzopardi, “The Order Of The Day”, News Digest International, December 1977, p. 27.

[108] Anon, Move Forward, Sydney, 1979, set out ANA tactics; the reading list contained 22 items (see Chapter Ten).

[109] Anon, Lessons For Nationalists, p. 1.

[110] Alex Norwick; an electoral roll search of 1978-9 records revealed no ‘Max Davis’ at the address cited.

[111] Australian National Alliance, File: Graeme T. Royce.

[112] Frank K. Salter, Letter To Australian National Alliance, August 15 1980.

[113] Uranium, Superpowers, Independence, CPA(M-L) pamphlet, October 1977, passim; Independence And Socialism, CPA(M-L) pamphlet, 1977.

[114] Jon West, “Nationalism And The Labor Movement”, in Jon West, Dave Holmes, Gordon Adler, Socialism Or Nationalism: Which Road For The Australian Labour Movement?, Sydney, 1979, pp. 36–40; “Fascists Vie With Maoists For Eureka Flag”, Australasian Spartacist, No. 54, June 1978, p. 6.

[115] “Anti-Australian Activities: Peking’s Paid Patriots”, Audacity, No. 6, p. 4.

[116] “Rout The Fascists: Hold High The Eureka Flag Of Independence Amongst The People”, Vanguard, August 10 1978, p. 4; Louise King, conversations with author, 1983. King was an Adelaide Maoist organizer.

[117] “The Southern Cross Or ‘Eureka’ Flag Stands For Unity And Equality”, The National Times, March 30 – April 5 1980, p. 47.

[118] “No Platform For Fascists”, Australasian Spartacist, No. 55, July 1979, p. 3, discussed the divisions amongst Trotskyists on the issue.

[119] Stop The Nazi National Alliance, Socialist Party leaflet, June 1979.

[120] “Racism In Sydney’s Western Suburbs”, Tribune, February 27 1980, p. 12. For CPA’s ‘confusion’ “Between The Lines”, Tribune, August 9 1978, p. 9

[121] Turning Point (Newsletter of MAFAR), No. 1, November 1979; “The Racist Build Up In Australia”, The Socialist, October 10 1979, p. 5; “Meeting Against Racism”, Tribune, November 14 1979, p. 3.

[122] See Letters columns: Tribune, October 17 1979 and November 14 1979, for CPA/SPA debate.

[123] Hon. A.J. Grassby, Australia’s Racist Underground, Canberra, 1981, pp. 9, 16.

[124] P.P. McGuinness, quoted in, Susan Molloy, “Migrant ‘Myth’ Must Die - Macphee”, Sydney Morning Herald, July 21 1980, p. 1.

[125] “Liverpool Electorate Chosen”, The Progressive Nationalist News And Views, No. 3, August 1981, p. 1.

[126] CHOGM: A Menace, PNP leaflet, 1981.

[127] Vincent Lowe; Robert J. Clark, Letter To Gerard O’Neill, August 11 1982; Progressive Nationalist Party Members’ Letter, South Australia, undated.

[128] Robert J. Clark, Interview, January 1985. Clark’s commentary was used in Jim Saleam, What Is To Be Done?, pp. 1–3.

[129] Progressive Conservative Party: Introducing June Steene-Olsen, PCP leaflet, 1980; “Pamela Wells”, The Sound Advertiser, October 8 1980, p. 14; Who Is Syd Negus? PCP leaflet, 1980; Christopher Steele; see also Chapter 2.

[130] “The Road To Nationhood”, Audacity, No. 7, March 1979, pp. 5, 6, 14.

[131] Introducing The Jobs Not Refugees Campaign, ANA leaflet, 1979; Jobs Not Refugees, ANA poster, 1979.

[132] No To The Peking Tokyo Washington Axis, ANA leaflet, 1978; sticker of same title, 1979. The slogan was also taken up by the Socialist Party of Australia.

[133] The Progressive Nationalist Party: Objectives, Sydney, 1981, pp. 1, 2, 7 – an obvious synthesis of The Progressive Conservative Party Objectives, Sydney, 1980 and Australian National Alliance Manifesto, leaflet, 1978; J. Saleam, “Lang: The People’s Champion”, Audacity, No. 11 (undated), p. 3.

[134] Frank Knopfelmacher quoted in Martin Wilkinson, “Black Shadow Rising”, The Sun, June 6 1978, p. 8.

[135] “It Is Inevitable”, Progressive Nationalist News And Views, No. 2, July 1981, p. 3.