[Bricktop]

Following is part of a transcript from one of the leading Current Affairs and News programs in Australia, LateLine. Last year, they ran a History Contest of sorts to get some history that was not known by Australians into the media. The most intriguing one i found was this. Oddly enough, the man, Michael Cathcart was my director in a musical i once performed in. anyway, here it is. Very interesting stuff.

As a young historian, Michael Cathcart found untold stories of secret right-wing armies ready to overthrow democracy in the 1930s.

It was a time when the sectarian divide in this country was wide and deep, a time when some Australians considered shooting other Australians.

Tonight, Michael Cathcart tells us the little-known story of a day in March 1931 in rural Victoria.

It was a day when a rumour spread -

MICHAEL CATHCART: ..through the western districts, through the Mallee and the Wimmera, that the Communists and the Catholics are on the move.

They believed there was an alliance between communists and Catholics.

They became convinced in March 1931 that there was going to be a revolution, and the reason for that was that there was a big unemployment demonstration scheduled for that day and they were sure that the Catholics were going to mass at the convents, the unemployed were going to mass at the unemployed camps, the communists were going to arrive, mobilise the whole thing and there was going to be a revolutionary overthrow of the civil order.

So old soldiers and well-to-do young men who'd missed out on the First World War dug trenches in Ouyen, for example, guarded the banks in towns through central Victoria - they went on patrol one night in 1931.

MARGOT O'NEILL: This was no mock drill.

In Victoria alone, federal intelligence agents estimated the white guard had 30,000 members and that they had ready access to the armouries of the army reserve.

MICHAEL CATHCART: And its assessment was that they had the capacity and the will and the weapons to overthrow the elected government of the day and install a military junta because they were so alarmed at the way in which politics under Jim Scullin federally and Jack Lang in NSW were going.

MARGOT O'NEILL: In Sydney, a member of the new guard, Francis De Groot, rode his horse to crash the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge because he wanted to cut the ribbon instead of Labor Premier Jack Lang.

Nation-wide there were up to 100,000 members in these fascist groups.

MICHAEL CATHCART: What they shared was a belief that democracy was an experiment that had failed.

MARGOT O'NEILL: MARGOT O'NEILL: That day, in March in western Victoria, as some Australians contemplated civil war, other patriots were also stirred to action.

MICHAEL CATHCART: Of course nothing happened - there was no uprising, there wasn't a revolution, the nuns did not hand out .303s to the rebels outside.

And this misfire triggered the attention of members of the police force and members of the military who were not sympathetic to what was going on.

And the key figure who was not sympathetic to what was going on was General John Monash because Monash knew the price of fascism because Monash was a Jew.

And Monash saw what was happening and he's part of a group within the military that starts to mobilise to hose this kind of activity down.

But it was very serious.

MARGOT O'NEILL: As it turned out, Jack Lang was sacked by the NSW governor and the Scullin government was voted out in Canberra.

The threat of civil war was averted.

MICHAEL CATHCART: Those members of the secret army really only wanted one account of Australia - their account of Australia, which was male, conservative, Protestant, British.

They were frightened by Irish Catholics.

They were frightened by Italians.

They were frightened by the unemployed.

They believed that their version of what is right, what is moral, what is true, what is British, what is Australian is total and they will not allow any other version to be heard.

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2003/s937662.htm

Drummond

[liberalist]

Yeh, its a pretty interesting story in our short history. However, when I saw this on Lateline I had one problem with it... and I still do.

Michael Cathcart tells us the little-known story of a day in March 1931 in rural Victoria. ... And the key figure who was not sympathetic to what was going on was General John Monash because Monash knew the price of fascism because Monash was a Jew.

Hitler and the Nazi's got power in Germany in 1933. Although fascism had been around for 10 years in Italy, anti-semitism was not a major part of the ideology (no more than it was in Europe generally.) So there was no way that in 1931 Monash could have known "the price of fascism because Monash was a Jew." It defies chronology. Nazism didnt begin its reign until 2 years later!

[Bricktop]

Yes but the Nazi's had been active for many years before hand. Wasnt Mein Kampf written in 1923?

Still, i had a little problem with the comment myself. Just because someone was Jewish does not mean they know the dangers of Fascism more than anyone else.

Drummond

[Jesse]

Fascism doesn't necessarily include anti-semitism. Its doubtful that a single Jew in Italy would have been harmed if it were not for the pressure put upon Il Duce by the Furher to hand them over.

[Ocker]

Now history rescues us from that kind of arrogance.

History is one of the places where we ventilate democracy.

This is one of the few times I am going to disagree with someone from ABC.

I love reading about the New Guard etc., but this articles is a little bit too liberal for me

[Bricktop]

Michael Cathcart IMHO is a deluded wanker, but some of his ideas and thoughts are cool, like digging this sorta stuff up, or at least taking an interest in it. I found a 46 page essay on Fascist groups in Australia between 1919-1945. If anyone would like to read it, PM me (i cannot remember the url i found it at )

Drummond

[Phoenix]

Now i recall that captain of the New Guard actually was the first (unoffical) person to open the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
He went on the horse, and cut the red ribbon before the (I think it was) Governor General or a Premier cut it. So the authorities had to scramble to get the red ribbon up again to offically open it. The captain was arrested aftewards. The New Guards have some sypathy to Hitler, the leader have been photographed showing the Nazi Salute.