The Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, a Melbourne activist group, is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1563392254168040/">this week protesting</a> against a gym that trains Nazis.
Legacy Boxing Gym, located in Sunshine, came to national attention last year after an <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/coaches-at-boxing-gym-with-neo-nazi-links-have-registrations-cancelled-20221224-p5c8o0.html">Age investigation</a> uncovered its <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/inside-the-melbourne-boxing-gym-with-a-neo-nazi-underbelly-20221223-p5c8ga.html">links to the neo-Nazi movement</a>. In early December, fascists from around the country had gathered at the facility for a weekend of training and propaganda production, held to a backdrop of swastikas and SS flags.
The gathering was yet another reminder that the far-right is continuing to build its ranks and operate in a <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/aussie-neonazi-groups-now-targeting-society-at-large/news-story/f40f9f172df4db71c8980e9b0ca0dc8d">more confident and open manner</a>. 
In October, a group of fascists <a href="https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/melbourne-neo-nazis-target-drag-performer-at-family-friendly-youth-fest/217074">targeted a youth festival in Moonee Ponds</a> where drag artist Belial B’Zarr was performing. They held banners with homophobic and transphobic slogans and yelled “Sieg Heil!”—the greeting used in Germany under the rule of Adolf Hitler—at participants.
The Nazis have been active in other ways, organising <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/neo-nazis-go-bush-grampians-gathering-highlights-rise-of-australia-s-far-right-20210127-p56xbf.html">training camps in the Grampians</a> and <a href="https://www.ladbible.com/news/elwood-slams-neonazi-group-who-held-gathering-166491-20230118">holding events at Elwood beach</a>. Their most recent target was an Indigenous flag lowering ceremony in Coburg on Invasion day, where <a href="https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/nazis-fail-stop-day-mourning-merri-bek-council">a few dozen showed up</a> shouting racist slogans and carrying Australian flags.
But there has also been opposition to the fascists.
Just a week after the December gathering at the Sunshine gym, Nazis tried to intimidate another queer event in St Kilda. The council capitulated and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-08/glitter-nova-youth-pride-celebration-postponed-protest-threat/101751478">decided to postpone the event</a>. However, after a call was put on social media, <a href="https://twitter.com/MattSinapi/status/1600793220220620802">150 anti-fascists turned up</a> to show solidarity with the LBGT+ community, an important moment of solidarity and pride. 
Fascist groups have always used public displays to project their confidence, gain notoriety and recruit new people to their ranks. So counter-protesting and trying to build the ranks of anti-fascists is important. It was through relentless counter-protests that we were able to defeat the Nazis <a href="https://www.carf.melbourne/news/2015-11/counter-rally-reclaim-australia-neo-nazis">last time</a> they reared their heads.
This is why the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1563392254168040/">organising a rally</a> against the Nazi training centre in Sunshine. 
CARF is working with refugee, migrant and LGBT+ groups to make sure the Nazis know that they are not welcome in Sunshine, which is home to a rich mix of migrants, refugees and working-class people.
The more people who join the protest, the better we will be able to send this message.
Migrants and refugees Welcome! Nazi gyms are not!
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1563392254168040">Protest this Saturday, 25 February, 1pm at Sunshine train station</a>.

Ben Milne

Protest against Nazi Gym planned in Melbourne

RMIT University has signed a new deal with Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems. In response, students have initiated the “RMIT Stop Funding Apartheid” campaign to demand that the university cuts all ties with weapons manufacturers.
Elbit Systems provides around 85 percent of the drones Israel uses for the surveillance of and attacks against Palestinians. Elbit also produces surveillance towers used for Israel’s border control system.
The two-year research deal, signed in June, is the latest in a string that the university has made with some of the vilest companies in the world. 
The university’s Sir Lawrence Wackett Defence and Aerospace Centre boasts that RMIT was awarded “Academic Institute of the Year 2021” in the Australian Defence Industry Awards. Its website names as partners companies such as BAE Systems, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. 
BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin work closely with the Israeli state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to produce and market the naval Protector drones used to enforce the siege of Gaza. RMIT and BAE Systems were awarded more than $330,000 in joint funding by the minister for defence industry last year.
RMIT Students for Palestine, a coalition of campus activists, is organising a speakout against the research deal with Elbit Systems and against the university’s links with other companies complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. 
The speakout will be held on Thursday 11 August at 1pm on Bowen Street.

Protest against Nazi Gym planned in Melbourne

RMIT—stop funding apartheid!

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