Melbourne neo-Nazis were paraders and provokers, not protectors
What they were doing around Posie Parker’s women’s rally on March 18…
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A small group of unashamed neo-Nazis triggered extreme reactions from political leaders in Australia and New Zealand when they made a public appearance in the heart of Melbourne on March 18, 2023.
The neo-Nazis did their thing alongside the Let Women Speak rally led by Posie Parker (Kellie-Jay Keen), on the steps of Victoria’s Parliament House, as an angry crowd was holding a counter-protest on the other side of Spring St.
So what sort of thing were the neo-Nazis actually doing?
A sensational claim
A claim that went viral is that the neo-Nazis were protectors of Posie Parker’s rally.
This sensational claim was pushed on Twitter by one of Australia’s best known progressives, Greens leader Adam Bandt.
Note the number of views: 474.6K (as at April 12).
Adam Bandt’s account of what happened was immediately contested:
Another reply to Bandt described the neo-Nazis as invaders of the LWS rally…
The source of the claim
How did Adam Bandt know (or think he knew) that the neo-Nazis came to Spring Street to protect Posie Parker’s rally? His tweet doesn’t say.
A few days later, the Victorian Greens made a public statement repeating the Nazis-as-protectors meme, but this time indicating its source:
“members of Melbourne’s far right… gave Nazi salutes to counter-protestors, and… publicly announced their presence as protectors and allies of the rally.”
In other words, the Greens felt certain that the neo-Nazis were protectors of the rally because the neo-Nazis said so.
To check the source used by the Greens, I went to the Telegram site of the group concerned: the National Socialist Network.
