Table Of ContentThis is an original and timely book with a stellar line-up of scholars. While research
on the far right and fascism in Australia has grown over the years, anti-fascism and
resistance have remained under explored and this book flls this signifcant gap
magnifcently.
Aurelien Mondon, University of Bath, UK
This collection brings together the leading authorities on fascism and anti-fascism
in Australia with a new generation working in the archives. It challenges our
inherited understanding of the militant anti-fascism of the 1930s, and the early
movements against the White Australia immigration regime. Lively and accessible,
it documents the immediate predecessors to the racial populists of our own times,
and the generations who resisted them.
David Renton, author of No Free Speech for Fascists
In a world where right wing extremism continues to fourish, this history of
fascism and anti-fascism is both timely and illuminating. There is an impressive
depth of empirical research together with insights drawn from global fascism and
anti-fascism studies, and it’s all told with clarity and style. The chapters, by both
well-established and emerging scholars, explore in depth the shifting relationships
between extremist and mainstream political movements. A key theme is the
manner in which Australia’s distinctive forms of racism – expressed in Indigenous
and immigration policies, public discourse, and popular culture – have shaped
its historical experience of fascist ideas and movements. Histories of Fascism and
Anti-Fascism in Australia also explores the achievements as well as the limitations
and failures of anti-fascist movements in the past, making for a multi-faceted and
nuanced work of history with both scholarly and practical value.
Ann Curthoys, Professor Emerita, Australian National University,
and co-author with Shino Konishi and Alexandra Ludewig of
The Lives and Legacies of a Carceral Island: A Biographical
History of Wadjemup/Rottnest Island
HISTORIES OF FASCISM AND
ANTI-FASCISM IN AUSTRALIA
Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia provides a history of fascist movements
and anti-fascist resistance in Australia over the past century.
In recent years, the far right has become a resurgent force across the globe, resulting
in populist parties securing electoral victories, social movements organising on the
streets, and acts of right-wing terrorism. Australia has not been immune to this.
However, this is not merely a recent phenomenon; it has a long history of fascist and
far-right groups and individuals. These groups have attempted to situate themselves
within the wider settler colonial political landscape, often portraying themselves as
the inheritors of a violent and exclusionary colonial past. Concurrently, these groups
have linked into globalised anti-communist and white supremacist networks. At the
same time, Australia has often seen resistance to fascism and the far right, from the
political centre to the far left. Covering the period from the 1920s to the present day,
and featuring insights from historians, sociologists, and political scientists, this book
provides the most detailed account of this fascinating and important topic.
This book will be of interest to students and activists with an interest in the
extreme right and anti-fascism as well as Australian history, politics, and society.
Evan Smith is Lecturer in History in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social
Sciences at Flinders University in South Australia. He is also Visiting Research
Fellow with the School of Humanities at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Jayne Persian is a historian, predominantly of Central and Eastern Europe
displaced persons, many of whom migrated to Australia in the post-war period.
She is Co-chief Investigator on a 2022–25 ARC Discovery Project: Russian
Immigrants and Anti-Communism in Cold War Australia, 1946–1966.
Vashti Jane Fox is a PhD student at the University of Western Australia. She
writes on the history of anti-fascism in Australia in the post–World War II period.
She is also a socialist activist and an anti-fascist agitator.
Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right
Series editors: Nigel Copsey, Teesside University, UK and Graham Macklin,
Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX), University of Oslo, Norway.
This book series focuses upon national, transnational and global manifestations of
fascist, far right and right-wing politics primarily within a historical context but
also drawing on insights and approaches from other disciplinary perspectives. Its
scope also includes anti-fascism, radical-right populism, extreme-right violence
and terrorism, cultural manifestations of the far right, and points of convergence
and exchange with the mainstream and traditional right.
Titles include:
The Nazi Party and the German Communities Abroad
The Latin American Case
João Fábio Bertonha and Rafael Athaides
The Nature of Identitarianism
Göran Dahl
Nazi Occultism
Between the SS and Esotericism
Stéphane François
Inside the Black Box of ‘White Backlash’
Letters of Support to Enoch Powell (1968–1969)
Olivier Esteves
Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia
Edited by Evan Smith, Jayne Persian and Vashti Jane Fox
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Studies-in-Fascism-and-the-Far-Right/book-series/FFR
HISTORIES OF FASCISM
AND ANTI-FASCISM
IN AUSTRALIA
Edited by Evan Smith, Jayne Persian
and Vashti Jane Fox
Cover image: Photograph by Kenji Wardenclyfe
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Evan Smith, Jayne Persian and Vashti
Jane Fox; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Evan Smith, Jayne Persian and Vashti Jane Fox to be identifed
as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Please note that this book contains some profanity which readers may fnd
ofensive.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Smith, Evan, 1981– editor. | Persian, Jayne, editor. |
Fox, Vashti Jane, editor.
Title: Histories of fascism and anti-fascism in Australia / edited by Evan
Smith, Jayne Persian and Vashti Jane Fox.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Routledge studies in fascism and the far right | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2022031761 (print) | LCCN 2022031762 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367638122 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367638139 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003120964 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Fascism—Australia—History. | Anti-fascist movements—
Australia—History. | Political culture—Australia—History—20th century. |
Political culture—Australia—History—21st century. | Australia—Politics
and government—20th century. | Australia—Politics and government—
21st century.
Classifcation: LCC DU116 .H57 2023 (print) | LCC DU116 (ebook) |
DDC 320.53/30994—dc23/eng/20220822
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022031761
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022031762
ISBN: 978-0-367-63812-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-63813-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-12096-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003120964
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
We would like to thank all those who contributed to and attended
the original Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia
and New Zealand symposium held in December 2019 at Flinders
University in Adelaide, South Australia. We would also like to thank
Craig Fowlie and Hannah Rich at Routledge, as well as Nigel
Copsey and Graham Macklin from the Fascism and the Far Right
series, for their support for this volume.
They Shall Not Pass!
CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors xi
1 Introduction: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australian History 1
Evan Smith, Jayne Persian, and Vashti Jane Fox
2 An Uncomfortable Past: Historiographical Refections on
Fascism and Interwar Australia 20
Andrew Moore
3 Labour ‘Armies’ in the 1930s’ Depression: From Industrial
Disputes to Anti-Fascism 39
Phoebe Kelloway
4 Egon Kisch and Black Australia 61
Padraic Gibson
5 ‘The Renaissance of our Fatherland’: Fascist Rhetoric and
Intra-Communal Tension, Loveday Internment Group
Camp 14A, 28 October 1942 80
David Faber
6 ‘War on the Whiteman’: Australia in the Racial and Political
Imagination of Britain’s Far Right, 1945–1970 97
Luke LeCras
7 Fascism in Exile: Ustasha-Linked Organisations in Australia 115
Drew Cottle and Angela Keys
