Extremism researchers say neo-Nazi gatherings over three days in Sydney were a propaganda stunt and an attempt to bolster the group’s presence in New South Wales.
A masked group, dressed in black and carrying flags and a banner that read “Australia for the white man”, boarded a train in Artarmon on Friday but were stopped at North Sydney station by police and prevented from travelling into the city.
The group attempted to meet on Saturday around a public hall in Turramurra which had been booked for “a combined casual 30th birthday party and belated Australia Day weekend get-together” and “a family friendly event”. About 30 black-clad men who had gathered in an Artarmon reserve on Sunday were also moved on by police.
The weekend’s events were a national meet-up for the white supremacist group the National Socialist Network, according to anti-fascist researchers White Rose Society and other extremism experts.
“Whatever success they claimed was not the success they planned on,” a White Rose Society spokesperson said. “Success means for them a stunt, with a media placement, in the place and time of their choosing. They failed every objective.”
Six people were arrested on Friday and 57 were issued with infringement notices for offensive behaviour, according to police.
Most Australian states were represented among those attending: it is understood four were from Tasmania, six from South Australia and five from Queensland. Of those from NSW, 16 were from Sydney and 11 from regional areas.
There were 24 Victorians present, including neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell, who identified himself on the Telegram messaging app as part of Friday’s event. Sewell was convicted of violent affray in October for attacking a group of hikers in a Victorian state park.
He shared a video on Friday in which a police officer notified the group it was banned from entering the Sydney city local government area due to “a serious risk to public safety”.
“This is based on your ideological links, including your associates, your previous attendance at ideologically motivated public order incidents, your criminal history of assaulting members of the public and your goal of intimidating and provoking people,” an officer from the public order and riot squad states in the video.
Kaz Ross, a researcher who monitors far-right movements, said: “The purpose of their activities over the weekend [was] to solidify the national nature of their movement, to strengthen the NSW branch of their movement and to basically create some propaganda possibilities by parading through the streets of Sydney.
“They were definitely successful in gaining attention from the media and police, but I don’t believe it was the attention they had in mind.”
The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, told media on Monday that the group “may well be recruiting” but were disrupted in that goal by police.
“The reality is that the police’s swift action ensured that they were not able to achieve their goal, and that was to spread their toxicity, to go into the city and to disrupt,” she said.
Ross suggested the events of the weekend were a “big wake-up call to Sydney”.
“You thought it was a Victorian problem – it isn’t. It’s a national problem,” she said.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, also flagged he would be open to strengthening laws that ban Nazi symbols, but experts warn more needs to be done to address the ability of such groups to recruit.
“[It’s] positive to see possible legislative change,” said Levi West, director at national security consulting firm Praxis Advisory. “But that doesn’t address the underlying appeal or drive for involvement, which is more complex.”
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