Invasion Day is truly worth protecting

While white nationalists try to “take back” Australia Day, Invasion Day remains a genuine counter-rally against racism. Tom Tanuki reports.

AT MELBOURNE’S FIRST March Australia (MFA) on August 31 last year, organizers saw the next steps reflected in the size of the crowd. A speaker and organizer took the microphone during the speeches to call for a follow-up event to “take back” Australia Day.

Even though months had passed at the time, they sensed an opportunity. These organizers were all white nationalists, although they did not explicitly state that they were neo-Nazis; they all feel their national patriotism day has been stolen from them due to paradigm shifts in Australia’s sociopolitical landscape.

The group organizing Gadigal has called for a boost for Invasion Day 2026. Blak Group wrote:

“Shamefully, the racist Australia March group will hold a demonstration on January 26 to ‘take back Australia Day’ and protest immigration. We condemn this rally and call for it to be cancelled.”

What March for Australia (MFA) organizers hope to do on January 26 is to “undo” and “undo” Australia Day specifically from change. Not reintroducing flag waving as a national pastime.

Dr., an independent researcher on the Australian far right. I asked Kaz Ross about his motivations:

“The MFA is trying to bet it both ways: It’s supposedly about celebrating Australia’s founding, but it’s also a protest against immigration. But because the MFA is based on crude white supremacy, leaders feel no cognitive dissonance.”

What they are trying to do, with or without direct confrontation, is a counter-rally against the driver of much of the recent change: the grassroots movement around the events of Invasion Day.

Tarneen onus-Williams He joined the Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) As a young organizer in 2015, he initially helped organize small Invasion Day rallies in Melbourne and Portland. They watched the rallies grow and grow; Their numbers first reached thousands, and then tens of thousands. Then institutions began to react accordingly.

“Then the Australia Day parade was abolished. And many councils started changing the days. [to hold citizenship ceremonies]“

Tarneen observed that the nature of the events of Invasion Day evolved during this time.

a time for this [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people] To talk about issues that affect us. Obviously this points to the invasion of the continent, but we have also made it a national day of protest. I liken it to the May 1st of the unions. The day of protest is our day.

It was truly devastating to see so many people come out in support of Invasion Day.

There is a two-pronged threat to these events, and the biggest one comes from the state. State and federal governments are rapidly stripping away our legal right to protest nationwide. in NSW, Chris Minns He said Invasion Day was exempt from deeply anti-democratic moves to destroy freedom of assembly, but protesters were right to be concerned about how NSW Police would respond on the day.

In Victoria, police declared a large area surrounding the entire CBD a “designated area” for six months, allowing police to search people, force them to cover their faces, etc. made it possible.

There’s another reason to keep showing up, Tarneen observes:

“We now need to defend these protests,” he said.

Many anti-fascists ask whether there were actions against the State Department nationalist rallies that day.

Of course, they are right to ask. But we need to remember here that the real threat to nationalism is January 26, the great, beautiful activist movement created by the energy and will of many generations of Indigenous activists and organizers. It is this threat that they are trying to parasitize.

Dr. Goose Ross he stated:

“Counter-protesting MFA not only legitimizes their ridiculous sense of oppression and righteousness, but also brings them more media attention. They want to be taken seriously. Depriving them of attention to show how uninterested they are is the best strategy to hasten MFA’s inevitable decline.”

The counter-demonstrators here are neo-Nazis; Nationalists are parasites. Like all anti-racists and supporters of Indigenous sovereignty and rights, anti-fascists actually have something worth rallying to protect that day.

Talking about the impact and future of Invasion Days, Tarneen said it best:

“I think of our events as a rally against Australia Day! They are a counter to this colonial state, to nationalism, to white supremacy. The Invasion Day rallies made possible many changes, like the treaty and truth telling in Victoria, changes to public drunkenness laws, and changed the way Australians think about their national identity. These are truth telling places for First Nations people.”

Tom Tanuki is an IA columnist, author, satirist and anti-fascist activist whose weekly videos commenting on Australia’s political wing are published on: YouTube. You can follow him on Twitter/X @tom_tanuki.

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