| Part of a series on |
| Far-right politics in Australia |
|---|
 |
Fascism in New Zealand has never gained much support, but the organised advocacy of fascist, far-right, neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and anti-Semitic views has often been present in New Zealand to a limited extent.
As in most Western societies, a certain amount of anti-Semitic feeling has been present in New Zealand for quite some time. [1] This feeling was not particularly strong, however, as evidenced by the fact that Julius Vogel, a practising Jew, was able to become Premier in 1873. Vogel did, however, suffer jibes about his faith, and political cartoonists frequently employed various Jewish stereotypes against him. The fact that he served as treasurer was particularly played upon, with stereotypes of Jewish bankers and moneylenders being brought out. However, none of this anti-Semitism was conducted in an organised fashion, being simply the views of individuals rather than any sort of political movement.
New Zealander Arthur Desmond, "possibly the most widely read and influential political writer New Zealand has ever produced", incorporated anti-semitism into his writing, particularly his 1896 political treatise Might Is Right . Numerous editions of the book have been printed and it found new popularity with neo-Nazi groups in the 21st century. [2]
In the early 20th century, another more disciplined strain of anti-Semitism crystallised around the social credit theory. This theory, set out by the British engineer C. H. Douglas, was highly critical of bankers and financiers, believing that debt was being used to undermine people's rights. While by no means all creditists were anti-Semitic, the complaints made by Social Credit fit well with existing anti-Semitic theories that Jews controlled financial institutions. As such, many anti-Semites gathered around social credit organisations, and in some cases, became powerful.
Initially, most supporters of social credit were supporters of the Labour Party, which meant that any anti-Semitic sentiments were considerably diluted. Later, however, an independent Social Credit Party was founded, and some allege that the new group contained many anti-Semitic elements.[ citation needed ] Gradually, rifts emerged in the party over anti-Semitic views, and the faction opposed to anti-Semitism was victorious. By the late 1960s, any anti-Semitic strain had been virtually expelled from the Social Credit Party. Many anti-Semites supported the League of Rights, an organisation originating in Australia which also had links to the social credit movement.
Unlike some countries, New Zealand did not have any notable fascist organisations in the first half of the 20th century, although the New Zealand Legion was sometimes accused of having fascist leanings. There were no real equivalents to the British Union of Fascists or the Silver Legion of America, although certain individuals, notably Lionel Terry and Arthur Nelson Field, promoted white supremacist ideals.
In the post-war period, however, a number of fascist organisations became active. In 1968, the fascist activist Colin King-Ansell was jailed for an attack on a synagogue. The following year, he established the National Socialist Party of New Zealand, and contested a number of elections under its banner. Later, he led a group called the National Socialist White People's Party, modelled after the party established by George Lincoln Rockwell in the United States. In 1979, King-Ansell was fined for breaching the Race Relations Act by distributing several thousand anti-Semitic leaflets.
Another allegedly fascist group established in this period was the New Zealand National Front (NZNF). The National Front was established by Brian Thompson of Ashburton in 1968, although its initial operations were erratic. Eventually, in 1989, a new organisation called the Conservative Front (founded by Anton Foljambe) absorbed the National Front and adopted its name. The now-defunct New Zealand Democratic Nationalist Party also dates from this time period.
In 1981, a group called the New Force was founded. One of its founders and a member of its directorates was Kerry Bolton, who was also involved in the NZNF. [3] In 1983, the New Force was renamed the Nationalist Workers Party.
In 1981, a visit by South Africa's rugby team generated huge controversy due to South Africa's apartheid policies at the time. Colin King-Ansell and a number of other fascist figures took part in counter-demonstrations against anti-tour protesters.
In the 1990s, there was something of a resurgence in New Zealand fascism. A number of gangs with fascist views, notably Unit 88, gained considerable public attention. Colin King-Ansell was once again involved, although he distanced himself from Unit 88 when the media focused on it. Later, in March 1997, King-Ansell founded the New Zealand Fascist Union, which described itself as being more closely modelled on Mussolini's Italy and Perón's Argentina than on Nazi Germany. The Fascist Union at one time claimed to have 500 members, the necessary number for official party registration, but the Union was never registered.[ citation needed ]
Also in 1997, Anton Foljambe resigned as leader of the National Front. Kyle Chapman resigned as leader in May 2005, and he and Foljambe have since established the moderate National Democrats Party. Kyle Chapman has established the Right Wing Resistance (RWR), an openly White Pride skinhead organization. The RWR has been distributing pamphlets throughout Christchurch, Auckland, Hastings, Nelson, Invercargill, Wellington and Palmerston North. RWR join with the National Front and small organisations at demonstrations. The introduction of black uniforms along the lines of Fascist Italy and the British Union of Fascists is now in place.[ citation needed ]
Foljambe resigned from the National Democrats Party in 2007 and since then the party has been defunct.
Brenton Harrison Tarrant, the Australian-born perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, was an admitted fascist who followed eco-fascism and admired Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British fascist organization British Union of Fascists (BUF), who is also quoted in the shooter's manifesto The Great Replacement (named after the French far-right theory of the same name). [4] [5]
Organisations
People
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia and anti-immigration sentiment as well as opposition to liberal democracy, parliamentarianism, liberalism, Marxism, communism and socialism.
Neo-Nazism refers to the post-World War II militant, social, and political movements seeking to revive and implement Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis seek to employ their ideology to promote hatred and white supremacy, attack racial and ethnic minorities, and in some cases to create a fascist state.
The New Zealand National Front is a small white nationalist organisation in New Zealand.
Clerical fascism is an ideology that combines the political and economic doctrines of fascism with clericalism. The term has been used to describe organizations and movements that combine religious elements with fascism, receive support from religious organizations which espouse sympathy for fascism, or fascist regimes in which clergy play a leading role.
The Third Position is a set of neo-fascist political ideologies that developed in Western Europe following the Second World War. Developed in the context of the Cold War, it developed its name through the claim that it represented a third position between the capitalism of the Western Bloc and the communism of the Eastern Bloc.
Kerry Raymond Bolton is a writer and political activist. He is involved in several nationalist and fascist political groups in New Zealand.
The Nordic League was a far right organisation in the United Kingdom from 1935 to 1939 that sought to serve as a co-ordinating body for the various extremist movements whilst also seeking to promote Nazism. The League was a private organisation that did not organise any public events.
Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International (Comintern) and affiliated communist parties in the early 1930s that held that social democracy was a variant of fascism because it stood in the way of a dictatorship of the proletariat, in addition to a shared corporatist economic model.
Colin King-Ansell is a prominent figure in far-right politics in New Zealand. He has been described as "New Zealand’s most notorious Nazi cheerleader and Holocaust denier".
Unit 88 was a neo-Nazi organisation founded in Wellington by Collin Wilson and it based itself in Auckland, New Zealand. They were most active from 1997-1998 and are now defunct.
The British People's Party (BPP) was a British far-right political party founded in 1939 and led by ex-British Union of Fascists (BUF) member and Labour Party Member of Parliament John Beckett.
Antifaschistische Aktion was a militant anti-fascist organisation in the Weimar Republic started by members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) that existed from 1932 to 1933. It was primarily active as a KPD campaign during the 1932 German federal elections and was described by the KPD as a "red united front under the leadership of the only anti-fascist party, the KPD."
The Fatherland Front was the right-wing to far-right nationalist and corporatist ruling political organisation of the Federal State of Austria. It claimed to be a nonpartisan movement, and aimed to unite all the people of Austria, overcoming political and social divisions. Established on 20 May 1933 by Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss as the only legally permitted party in the country, it was organised along the lines of Italian Fascism, except that the Fatherland Front was fully aligned with the Catholic Church and did not advocate any racial ideology, as later Italian Fascism did. It advocated Austrian nationalism and independence from Germany on the basis of protecting Austria's Catholic religious identity from what they considered a Protestant-dominated German state.
The National Democrats Party (NDP) was a small right-wing political party in New Zealand, formed in 1999 by Anton Foljambe.
The far right in Switzerland was established in the course of the rise of fascism in Europe in the interwar period. It was a mostly marginal phenomenon in the Cold War period, excepting a surge of radical right-wing populism during the early 1970s, and has again attracted some media attention since 2000. In 2019, 29 incidents related to right-wing extremism were reported in Switzerland compared to 207 of left-wing extremism. Only one incident involved violence.
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were opposed by many countries forming the Allies of World War II and dozens of resistance movements worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism, communism, pacifism, republicanism, social democracy, socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist, conservative, liberal and nationalist viewpoints.
Far-right politics in Australia began in earnest with the formation in 1931 of the New Guard in Sydney and its offshoot, the Centre Party in 1933. These proto-fascist groups were monarchist, anti-communist and authoritarian in outlook. These early far-right groups were followed by the explicitly fascist Australia First Movement (1941). Far right groups and individuals in Australia went on to adopt more explicitly racial positions during the 1960s and 1970s, morphing into self-proclaimed Nazi, fascist and anti-Semitic movements, organisations that opposed non-white and non-Christian immigration, such as the neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of Australia (1967) and the militant white supremacist group National Action (Australia) (1982). An early exponent of fascist ideology in Australia, operating well before the New Guard, was the writer and poet William Baylebridge, who was later associated with P. R. Stephensen and the Australia First Movement.
