Experts say there are a number of driving forces behind the extreme right -wing, anti-immigration Mobilization in the UK and Australia in recent months, but the meetings themselves are “not particularly exceptional”.
More than 100,000 anti-immigration demonstrators marched through the streets of Central London on Saturday under the banner of ‘Unite the Kingdom’ in one of the largest extreme right-wing demonstrations of the country.
The Marsen, organized by anti-immigration, brought anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon known as Tommy Robinson-Zeer and police officers described physically and affected by flying projectiles.
The Rally on Saturday in London was organized by extreme right -wing activist Tommy Robinson and attended by more than 100,000 people. Source: MONKEY / Christian Elek
X -owner Elon Musk spoke through a video link to the crowd that called for a dissolution of the British government and warned demonstrators that “violence” and says they have to “fight back” or die.
In recent months, the UK has seen many anti-immigration protests in London, Bristol and Birmingham, including some staged hotels with migrants.
Red and white English flags have spread and painted on roads. Proponents call it a spontaneous campaign of national pride, but campaigners see anti-racism a message of hostility to foreigners.
Anti-immigration-sentiment is currently also highly reflected in political opinion polls in the UK, with a recent survey that populist leader Nigel Farage’s reform of the British party would be found, would be the biggest political party if an election were now held.
Australia has also seen a number of anti-immigration marches in recent weeks.
On Saturday, protesters marched in capitals in which they asked to put an end to “massive migration”. The main organizers of that event posted a notification on their website that is disturbed by any connection with Tommy Robinson or his opinion.
Two weeks earlier there were the national ‘March for Australia’ rallies, which were attended by members of the Neo-Nazi National Socialist Network and neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell were addressed to tackle crowds in Melbourne.
The March for Australia meetings also received remarkable support from extreme right-wing figures, including Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk.
So what drives these movements?
‘Scapegoat’ groups
Callum Jones, a researcher of the political extremism of Monash University, told SBS News such as economic and social uncertainty playing a role in political mobilization for the far right and these groups benefit from issues such as housing and the high costs of living to win Momentum.
“In the same way we saw large-scale political mobilization around the COVID-19 period in which you had showed many people [to protests] Because of the observed infringements of civil liberties and they turned to protest against things such as mask mandates and vaccine mandates, “he said.
Jones said that extreme right -wing politics focuses on complaints and perceptions around “rights or privileges or access to resources that are removed” and “certain groups are scapegoat as the people who have removed those who have previously accessible resources or privileges”.
The role of social media
Far groups use social media platforms to argue for their business, to show support for similar organizations and to recruit new members, with young people who are particularly vulnerable to extremist propaganda online.
Asio boss Mike Burgess has referred to the internet as the ‘most powerful incubator of extremism’ world and ‘social media is the world’s most powerful accelerator of that extremism “.
On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke about the recent anti-immigration marches and said that the political discourse “more negative” and “more aggressive” and social media blamed for this trend.
“It pushes people – the algorithms push people to the limit, whether they are extremely left or the extreme right,” he said.
In a recent piece that he had a co-author in the conversation, Jones argued that there are growing transnational ties between extreme right-wing movements that consider themselves united “about the defense of the so-called” Western civilization “, opposition to mass immigration” and the “retention of white identity”.
Jones told SBS News that social media make it easier for extreme right -wing actors to spread propaganda and break down geographical barriers.
He also said that the spread of extreme right -wing ideologies worldwide has been made easy online because the broad principles of ideology can easily be adapted to local problems.
“Something like immigration – it’s a very broadstroke concept, but it can be easily located in a national context.”
Dr. Liam Gillespie, a researcher in extreme right-wing political violence from the University of Melbourne, agrees that social media strengthens the messages from the right right and create “hyper-connected nationalist groups that imagine that they are united against” mass immigration, Islam or resource scarcity.
However, he warned of simply pointing his finger on social media for leading to political polarization and says that it cannot reinforce feelings that do not yet exist.
Gillespie also said that there have long been established transnational ties between the extreme right -wing organizations.
“These groups are also connected in their own way – we have a long history of white supremacist groups and white supremacist militia in the US connected to groups in Australia or the UK or South Africa,” he says.
“It’s just that kind of connections are being accelerated now.”
Standardization in politics
Normalized anti-immigration rhetoric in the government and media has also contributed to these extreme right-wing movements, Gillespie said.
Although it is tempting to point out extreme actors such as the catalyst for extreme right -wing movements, Gillespie believes that “exclusion policy” can lay the foundation for “people and then take to the streets and then take out political violence, which can seem as if it just appears out of nowhere”.
Anti-immigration discourse such as Demonizing international studentsOffshore -detention and even political language such as referring to refugees and asylum seekers such as “boat people” can all contribute to these movements, Gillespie said.
‘Not particularly exceptional’
However, Gillespie also emphasized that the extreme right-wing anti-immigration vallures that have recently taken place are far from exceptional in recent history.
Gillespie said that many of the same actors who have led the recent Marsen have established the history to deal with this kind of behavior in recent decades.
Tommy Robinson, for example, was the former leader of the extreme right-wing and Islamophobic English Defense League, who was active in the UK and organized frequent demonstrations from 2009 to 2016.
Although Gillespie said it seems as if these movements are “at a time”, he also said that it is important to acknowledge that these marches are “not particularly exceptional” in the historical context of events such as the Cronulla riots from 2005 in Sydney and the Charlottesville Rally 2017 in the US.
Jones agreed and said that although the British march was large, there is a “cyclical” nature for extreme right -wing protests. He also emphasized that the suggestion of the moment in the extreme right-wing movement is unique can be dangerous.
“These groups must seem like their ideology is not frills and extreme, but rather mainstream and tasty and grows in terms of its acceptance within regular society – because it is easier to agree to someone if they don’t think they are taking an extreme attitude.”
With additional reporting by the Reuters news agency.
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