It’s into this toxic political environment that the far- and extreme-right attempts to insert themselves, simultaneously denouncing unions for their presumed complicity in the denial of the right of workers to sell their labour in the ‘free’ market and presenting themselves as the workers’ champions against tyrannical government control. Insofar as unions such as the CFMEU are understood to be in the pockets of a Labor government responsible for implementing some of the most severe and longest lockdowns in the world, they will become a lightning rod of dissent.

When a self-proclaimed ‘eco-fascist’ committed mass murder in Christchurch in March 2019, it drew attention to the influence on the far-right of ecological thought ¬– an ideological tendency most often understood to be of ‘leftist’ derivation.

While anarchist opposition to fascism is not, in fact, ten years later it remains the case that government agencies which target political ‘extremism’ are inadequate to addressing an emergent fascist movement. For this reason, anarchists and other anti-fascists must continue to monitor, document, challenge and disrupt fascist organising, whatever form this organisation takes, and do so with our energy, our intelligence and our steadfastness.

Galea's recent alleged embrace of Christianity and nonviolence may be a healthier response to his incarceration than might otherwise be expected, but the rampant paranoia and resentment that fuelled his actions remains widespread among his ilk on the outside. The constant platforming of racist and xenophobic propagandists, both on the fringe and in the mainstream, will only reinforce these reactionary tendencies. As such, and if US politics is anything to go by, it seems likely that there will be more Galeas in future.

Just a few months ago, it looked extremely unlikely that Jock Palfreeman, the Australian serving a twenty-year sentence for murder in Bulgaria, would ever be paroled. Originally convicted in December 2009 of the murder of law student Andrei Monov (and of the attempted murder of his friend Antoan Zahariev) during a street fight in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia in December 2007, Jock lost appeals against his conviction and sentence in 2010 and again in 2011. Now, in 2019, he’s won his parole.

It’s been almost ten years since 21-year-old Australian Jock Palfreeman found himself alone one night in Sofia, Bulgaria, confronted by a group of fascist football hooligans he’d witnessed attack two Roma men. In the ensuing altercation Jock was injured and one of the gang, a young man called Andrey Monov, was fatally stabbed.

While still considered unusual in the Australian context, most of the arguments about masking up at public protests are well-rehearsed. Perhaps the most important point to consider is that, prior to the emergence of the internet, the documentation of protest activity, including the identification of those involved, was largely a matter for the state and media. This is no longer the case. With the advent of social media, what happens at such events is now the subject of intense scrutiny by participants and observers, and there is an ongoing battle to shape the narrative surrounding them.

How the left should respond to Reclaim Australia is an intriguing question. There is some evidence to suggest that this may be a growing movement, one nurtured by a prevailing Islamophobia on the one hand and white anxiety on the other.

Anonymity is a funny thing. ‘The one barrier me and my buddies have regarding beating the shit out of you is your anonymity,’ an anonymous critic once informed me. I declined to provide the angry Aryan with my personal details, but his message, and many more like it, reinforced the idea that giving the general public – and hence neo-Nazis – my name and address would probably not be a good move.

In a context of chronic economic dysfunction and political upheaval, a small fascist party in Greece named Golden Dawn (Χρυσή Αυγή) gained international notoriety when it secured 7 per cent of the popular vote in national elections and eighteen seats in the Greek parliament in June 2012.

In Australia, the Q Society has emerged as the major ideological platform for anti-Muslim propaganda. The organisation states that it was ‘formed [in 2010] in response to growing concerns about the discrimination, violence and other anti-democratic practices linked to Islam’. The First International Symposium on Liberty and Islam in Australia (March 7—10) is a joint project of the Society, its merchandising arm SkipnGirl, and Stop Islamization of Nations (SION), a coalition of anti-Muslim groups in the UK, US and Europe founded in January 2012.

Clive Williams’ recent article on the threat anarchists pose to the G20 summit in Brisbane is poorly-researched and badly-argued. The ‘Black Rose Syndicat’, the anarchist group that Williams believes is a threat to the G20, is a scam.