Antifascist combat training is about feeling safe, not tough, writesTom Tanuki.

WRITING INRed Flagabout why we should carefully consider what tactics we use when mobilising against white supremacists, Socialist Alternatives (SAlt)Omar Hassanwrites:

I agree that the aftermath of the second March for Australia counter-rally made the cost to the authorities of state repression a bit lower. (If the cost of repression can get any lower in this climate at all, when seemingly every rally leads to more anti-democratic legislation.)

After the 19 October anti-fascist counter-rally, there was great scrutiny on the activist left by mainstream media, politicians and the justice system. Certain protesters were observed throwing big rocks at VicPol, who responded by incapacitating randoms with deadly, military-grade munitions.

Australias far-right marches have gone from working-class rage to white nationalist delusion.

Amid the resultant media-fomented outcry, the Herald Sunshareda picture of a meme on a pre-rally Campaign Against Racism & Fascism (CARF) presentation slide suggesting that it revealed CARF, the largest group promoting and populating Melbournes counter-protests, was scheming to bring the big rocks. VicPol went on to declare the CBD as a "designated area" for six whole months, meaning they can inspect peoples bodies and personal possessions and remove their masks without a warrant for half a year. (I remember the days where one day of "designated areas" was considered anti-democratic!)

The aftermath suggests that the acceptable response is to freak out about rocks, while blithely accepting that weaponry like deadly stinger grenades being fired at random citizens is a reasonable public safety measure.

I dislike that in the absence from the discussion of those who unilaterally elected to throw those rocks, it was groups like CARF generally seen to the local activist left as reluctant to fall afoul of the law left holding the bag. But Omar has taken his response to the moment much further, dismissing a variety of anti-fascist tactics he describes as "black bloc".

"Sheeple" is an odd word to derisively deploy. Thats a (dated) word more in the domain of conspiracists than the typical black bloc proponent.This reaffirms my sense that SAlt people, bless their hearts, dont get out much (to anything that isnt aSAltevent).

Similarly, Omar also neglected to weigh up decent reasons to don black bloc, or even measures such as "grey bloc" (anonymous attire that doesnt necessarily stand out in a uniform-like fashion like black bloc). Protecting ones privacy against the kind of state that expands in its repression of protest all the time, for example. Or wanting to not get doxxed by fascists.

But its a specific set of tactics Omar is fundamentally concerned with, and thus he goes on to lump in rock-throwing with fighting fascists as acts of "feeling tough".

There has been some intra-left fallout over those rocks and their consequences. Those who whipped them out were said to have done so unilaterally and, Im told, without the consent of the coalition driving the rallies.

March for Australia organisers and thugs suffered a huge loss of numbers that day (Icalculatedan 85 per cent reduction). But precisely none of us got to talk about the bottom falling out of the Marchs nascent nationalist movement, because we were all too busy getting lectured about our rocks.

Cops werent the strategic or relevant opponent to target that day, in my view, even if I dislike them and their repressive presence. The white supremacist rally was the target. And in fact, given the astounding loss of numbers at the second March, 19 October would have been an easy win if certain people had just, in the words ofBrown Cardigan, Done Heaps Less.

But Omars throwing the baby out with the bathwater, quite intentionally.And I take issue with this "feeling tough"thing as regards physical resistance.

When he dismisses bashing a few fascists, I believe hes referring to an attempt by other activists, at the first March for Australia on 31 August, tophysically preventthe National Socialist Network (NSN) from entering the space.

They had a fight. The NSN werent stopped.

Omar clearly doesnt see the point of this sort of thing. Allow me to "feel tough"for a moment, then.

If those activists had managed to stop the NSN with their hands that day and they came closer than anyone else to doing so then the NSN would not have been able to do what they did on 31 August. They would not have collected all the media propaganda they did, and they couldnt have used that propaganda to recruit all the new blood they did.

Three years on from the firebombing of the home of Jordan Shanks, AKA friendlyjordies, an ABC Four Corners reporter has allegedly made death threats against the YouTuber.

A real reason to attempt stopping the NSNs activist and propagandising activities, including with physical barriers and defence, is because the more people they recruit now, the more sizeable a fringe there will be later when disillusioned members make a move after the NSN (eventually, and in my view, inevitably) falls apart.

Brenton Tarrantwas among the fringe of the late-2010s patriot movement. In 2017, he was arguing that the United Patriots Front (UPF) was a political movement of peace, as I located evidence of him telling someone on Facebook that year:

By the time that movement had fallen apart, two years later, Tarrant was carrying out the largest ever mass-murder by an Australian citizen.

So we fear that it will be with the fringe of the NSNs fringe.

Thats one reason an auxiliary movement of permanent anti-fascist activists, however niche and small, needs to exist. Yes, in concert with or in support of a broader mass movement. And, yes, sometimes deploying physical resistance.

Omar wants a mass movement of passive sympathisers to join in the struggle. Me too.

But I note that what he actually said was:

No organiser wants to lose new blood after one or two actions. But this line speaks to a regular criticism that leftists have of SAlt, which is the vibe people have that theyre mostly participating in these struggles against Nazis in order to rope people into the next Marxism Conference.

Is that a reduction or an oversimplification of SAlts intentions? Theyd probably say so. Well, so is dismissing all anti-fascist physical resistance as "purely performative" and "feeling tough".

There are posers around, sure. There are also people trying in earnest to deploy methods that work to stop more Christchurch massacres.

One of this lot has beenchargedin Canberra after detailed plans to attack a commie meeting or march in Canberra were discovered, along with bomb materials and chlorine gas. He could well have been thinking of a SAlt meet. NSNs professional propaganda materials are explicitly encouraging this kind of violence.

If anti-fascists are undertaking combat training right now, and they are, then Omars lot should think about the merits of doing the same to protect their mass movement. I want our new blood to feel safe, not "tough".

Tom Tanukiis an IA columnist, writer, satirist and anti-fascist activist whose weekly videos commenting on the Australian political fringe appear onYouTube. You can follow him/X@tom_tanuki.