Fascism and Anti-fascism in Perth in the 1980s

Between 1984 and 1989 over forty thousand lampposts, letter boxes and bus stops in suburbs across Perth in Western Australia, were covered with neo Nazi posters declaring amongst other things: ‘No Asians’, ‘No Coloureds’, ‘White Revolution the only solution’ and ‘Jews Are Ruining your Life’. This postering campaign, initiated and organised by the Australian Nationalists Movement (ANM), was merely the opening salvo in an increasingly violent, and criminal campaign of terror, designed to end Asian migration and prompt a neo-Nazi revolution. The ANM’s activities, which culminated in firebombing and murder, constituted one of the longest running and most high-profile neo-Nazi campaigns in Australian history. This chapter details this campaign and the response from antiracist and antifascist activists in Perth.