cont..
You know as well as I do who the "Nazis" work for and why they were present at the rallies and Rise Up! wear their hearts on their sleeves.
It seems mystifying to outsiders why swastika tattooed skinheads would be forming a line to protect people waving Israeli flags and fundamentalist christians like Danny Nalliah but you and I know why such a bizarre contradiction can exist...at least I hope you do.
The Young Liberals have been busted trying to recruit and grow "neo Nazi" groups to carry out provocations:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victoria-state-election-2014/liberal-party-campaigner-scott-harrison-a-former-neonazi-20141112-11l1dx.html
The same thing is happening in Sydney with a group called Squadron 88,
the way they operate is to portray the skinheads as "patriotic" muscle who will protect the usually older and more frail right wingers from the rabid "ferals" on the other side of the line, that's how we ended up with a line of "Nazis" standing with Rise Up! and Zionist activists last Saturday and earlier in the year up at Penrith.
Nazis...
http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2014/12/09/1227149/366871-9da5b42c-7ec7-11e4-bb60-b869b40cfa0e.jpg
...working alongside Zionists:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SQxtiADUVsY/maxresdefault.jpg

Paul,

"These people are all micro groups of fermented fruit cakes."

Yes, it was quite a sight to see!

I did have one discussion on twitter after I posted a hilarious pic taken in Martin place of a motley collection of signs, three or four odd-bods and what appeared to be a Centurion and a Spartan - all waiting for the party to start.

The tweeter's name was Kevo (or some such riveting twitter handle) from Cronulla, and he informed me most eloquently that my pic did not represent the true numbers of the gathering. His initial tweet went thus:

"bull%#&* there was 1500 there"

He then tweeted me a pic of twenty or so disaffected looking bogans and their signs - to which I replied that it wasn't very inspiring.

Then he tweeted that he was "against halal and sharia, that's all. Don't hate people....I care"

So a lot of these folks of the likes of Kevo came out because they genuinely believe all the dog-whistling about Muslims - and because they believe it, they are genuinely fearful. They thought it was an opportunity to vent their collective fears and grievances.

I'll add that I don't usually have discussions with people like Kevo,(and we did manage to keep it polite and we both agreed on the right to freedom of speech) but it did give me an insight into why he turned out at the rally.

"Jay, the police are all part of some radical leftists conspiracy. Those links of yours are hardly compelling evidence!"

It is amusing coming to this forum nowadays. Most of the posts I read are a non-stop narrative on how lefties, progressives feminists, etc are responsible for "everything"....doesn't make for a vital interactive place to visit. In fact these days it seems to settling into its role as a right-wing backwater, which is a shame.

As rallies go, it was like someone lifted up a rock and the many-legged underbelly of Oz crawled out.

Poirot,
The Sydney event went ahead as planned where ordinary, working class people like "Kevo" were allowed to attend their rally, the NSW Police by all accounts did their job and kept the counter protestors out of sight of the Reclaim gathering. The Sydney Reclaim event was addressed by several speakers including a young woman who'd survived a pack rape by a Lebanese gang, bear in mind that it was bucketing down rain on the day so the bulk of the 600 or so attendees were taking shelter under awnings and whatnot while only a few stood in the plaza.
The situation was different in Melbourne because the event was hijacked by Rise Up! and the Liberal party's "Neo Nazi" stooges, the Reclaim Australia supporters were prevented from attending by the Police working in concert with their allies and informers in the Socialist counter protest.

When I read that Mel Gregson was spokeperson for the Left and Danny Nalliah had taken over the Reclaim event I immediately knew what was afoot and decided not to attend as it would have been a total waste of time, I oppose both groups because they're simply trying to protect the status quo by denigrating grass roots activism and scaring ordinary people away from protesting by staging violent confrontations.
You should go if there's another one especially if you're in Melbourne because it's a great lark, I've been to rallies where no "Fascists" have turned up at all yet the Socialists do this pantomimed "They're over there!" and start screaming at nobody in particular or announce that their flying pickets have intercepted large groups of "racists" in the side streets and beaten them back.
It's hilarious, people are standing about asking each other "Who are we yelling at, I can't see anyone over there?", after a while someone will announce that "The Fascists have fled! The people have taken the square!" and people cheer, hug each other and even burst into tears though nothing has actually happened.

Hi Poirot, these people are on the extreme fringe of Australian politics and have never gained the traction they so desire. As part of the loony right they tend to be ridiculed and pitied rather than be taken serious. These bogans were part of the crazy 1% when I was young, and they still are part of that crazy 1%.

What is far more disturbing is when the likes of Abbott and others, who are part of accepted mainstream conservatism in Australia have flirtations with radical notations of racism, for some crass political advantage. John Howard and his 'Children Overboard' is a prime example of a politician using an blatant untruth to generate an extreme racists reaction for political advantage. We have seen this too often from our political leadership on both sides in recent years. These politicians see this stoking of the racial fire as something they can control for advantage, and certainly not over the top in their mind, but given some circumstances these things can get out of control in the community. The Cronulla riots had the beginnings of bad radical behavior by some and acceptance by others. This is where the real danger lies, mainstream conservatives playing the race card for political advantage.

Paul 1405 the "Refugees" held up their children as blackmail and then sunk their boat so everyone had to be rescued. That is what happened and no amount of your rubbish will change those facts. Allow refugees to get TPVs and see how many want to come where there is no public money, housing etc. Then if they cannot trot back home as a TPV stops travel watch the numbers disappear.
In Italy the "Refugees" invariably land in Italy but immediately de-camp to Germany or the UK where the money is so much better.
We can do so much better with so many good people in the world suffering, why take these FGM and oppressive types.

Ch,
Are you sure you have the right webpage? What makes you think the link you gave has anything to do with the Rally

I can see no link between the link you gave and the Reclaim Australia Rally website, which is reclaim Australia.com

I also note there are a few other organizations and apparent businesses with the word 'reclaim' in their name

Maybe you need to look a bit further