Australian Nationalism Vs. Anglo-Saxonism, part 4 of 4
Australia's former British connections are painted by the Anglo-Saxonists as all but idyllic; this, they never were. From the moment an Australian Identity began to crystallise, an Australian Nationalism emerged. Several historians have shown that this emergent nationalism necessarily took on an anti-Imperial/British impulse. Australia's greatest writers and its trade union movement marched in this stream. They were anxious to free Australia of a foreign vice. Today, of course, Britain has no power over Australia. It claims none. Yesteryear, nonetheless, serves to give valuable lessons to the nationalists of today.
Around the 1890s and early 1900s, Australia's interests markedly diverged from Britain's interests. Britain's alliance with Japan was an early sign of this in foreign policy, while our political subservience to Britain allowed the British Government to quash anti-coloured immigration laws passed by Australian parliaments. In plain language, Australia's Imperial commitments had endangered her. Was it desirable for Australia to trade her independence for imperial policy? Most definitely not. Australia's interests had already diverged from Britain in other areas.
Consider settlement. Many Australians bemoan the fact that we failed to attract mass white immigration in the 19th century; they feel it was unfortunate that our population is huddled together in a few cities and the "coastal strip". This situation arose precisely from imperial policy. Australia was "designed" as a pastoral country, a gigantic storehouse of foodstuffs. Open settlement, it was felt, would lead to an American situation - independence. Australia's national development and economic growth was deliberately stunted. An interesting and very moving poem by Ian Mudie, "This is Australia", brings this to the fore. Mudie wrote that Australia's national destiny had continually been thwarted by overseas machinations. It was a lament to what was lost, but what could still be. Mudie makes it clear that it was NEVER Britain's policy to develop Australian manufacturing, shipping, identity, or much else. Britain never planned the growth of a new country. There was no profit in that. Is it "anti-British" to tell the truth? Does it mean we'd abuse the British people? Of course not. But it does mean that we recognise the point raised by Percy Stephensen in his Foundations of Culture in Australia: that the British Empire was a monstrous "mother" who managed successfully to live off its children while convincing them that it was acting in their interest.
The point is now moot. For the Anglo-Saxonists to accuse us of being "anti-British", the McCarthyist byword of the 1930s, is ridiculous. We have simply learned a lesson; we know that he who crawls like a dog - and who wags his tail on command like a dog - gets treated like a dog. As Nationalists we are tired of any doctrine which demands Australian subservience. The "British Ideology" was one such creed; there are others today (such as Multiculturalism and Asianisation). Australia has had enough of this. We now require an Australian ideology for the new century. Our national destiny WILL be realised.
Let us state our conception of the elements of Australian Heritage, Australian Nationalists argue that there are FOUR aspects to our national heritage: the British, the Irish, the Continental European, and the Native-Australian. The revival of interest in the latter is the mood of the times. It may be an automatic recognition by a wide strata of the People as to what is the most important part of their make-up. Today we are under attack by "Multiculturalism", the doctrine which denies Australia a SINGLE IDENTITY in favour of ethnic ghettoisation. INTERESTINGLY, OUR ANGLO-SAXONISTS DO NOT RISE TO ASSERT OUR NATIVE HERITAGE AGAINST MULTICULTURALISM, BUT INSTEAD PROMOTE ITS REVERSE MIRROR IMAGE: THE "BRITISH HERITAGE". Since it often appears that many Multiculturalists hate all things Anglo-Saxon, the Anglo-Saxonists automatically defend all which they consider to be Anglo-Saxon. The obsessions of many multiculturalists (particularly those from the same mould as Al Grassby) against the British people fuels a counter movement. We say that MULTICULTURALISM IS NOT SO MUCH CONCERNED WITH DESTROYING OUR BRITISH HERITAGE, BUT IS ATTEMPTING TO DESTROY OUR NATIVE-AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE - THE PROMISE OF A NEW AUSTRALIAN NATION. Will the Anglo-Saxonists ever understand this? We pray so. We agree with the Anglo-Saxonists that Multiculturalism is a blight and must be replaced by ONE AUSTRALIAN IDENTITY, but we disagree on what that identity is to be: British-Australian or home-grown Native-Australian. Our concept of this has already been stated. But why is this issue so important? BECAUSE OF EXTERNAL DANGER.
Australia faces the gravest trial in its short history, the combined dangers of Third World overpopulation, economic imperialism, and cultural disintegration. Only a united people can survive. Our national poet, Henry Lawson, warned that "we are fated to stand alone" in the coming fight. Isolated and really without allies, or at least viable allies, we must make the best of what we possess. We must fight with the best weapon we have: the confident assertion of the Australian Identity. Is there any "value" in asserting "British Heritage" in a struggle which is not Britain's and in which there will be no British support? Should we assert German links, or Italian links, or Irish links? There would be little purpose to any of that, also.
The pressures for our national survival must forever change the Australian People. It would mould together the Old Australian and the New Australian in a single Identity, perhaps forged in bullets and blood. What of the Australian of 2030? The exact form we could not predict, but his cultural "roots" are already known to us.
Nationalists see the process of achieving real national unity as a CULTURAL REVOLUTION. Harsher values and harsher times require a different attitude to the bourgeois self-satisfaction of today. The process of national psychological mobilisation will hammer out the message of "Australianism"; such a mobilisation will be energetic and - to be successful - must touch the whole people. Its slogans would demand practicality and a degree of national conformity. They would have to arouse the most fundamental instincts of the People. Australian History, Mythology, and Identity: these are the weapons of such a mobilisation.
The ideology of the Anglo-Saxonists would just fail in these tasks.
The Anglo-Saxonists are not "bad" people. They suffer merely from a misappreciation of historical realities. They did not choose to advocate their ideology in bad faith. Generally, they are completely sincere. Their passion, however, is not the desire to lead Australia forwards to a new century, but to restore one aspect of the past: the cultural and political British Heritage. They usually style themselves as "conservatives"; and, as conservatives, their goal is to "conserve". Since this is not normally the goal of energetic activists and innovative minds, the average Anglo-Saxonist sees his duty as being to play a "lobbyist" role rather than a political role. Since there is much in the current legal order the Anglo-Saxonist likes, he is not likely to "rebel" against it. He therefore usually eschews political activity in favour of pressure tactics. The Establishment can be well pleased with him.
Whenever any Establishment politician uses "God, Queen, and Country" rhetoric, the Anglo-Saxonist mistakes it for his variety of patriotism. This leads to strange situations. In Queensland, for example, where one particular Anglo-Saxonist group is very active, we witnessed in the 1970s and 1980s most "right-wingers" rallying to the then Premier: Joh Bjelke Petersen. Joh was reasoned to stand for God, Monarchy, and the decentralisation of power (an alleged "British" attribute). Unfortunately, Petersen was selling Queensland to Japan! The Anglo-Saxonists refused to confront this fact.
It is also unfortunate that Anglo-Saxonism is decidedly a CLASS movement. If it were 1932, would the Anglo-Saxonists stand with Jack Lang against Imperial Finance, and for the rights of poor Australians? Or would they stand with the New Guard, and for the eviction of starving people from their homes?. We suspect we know the answer to this question. It is difficult to explain here without diverging from our subject, but it is true to state that Anglo-Saxonism was once the doctrine of the "haves", while Australian Nationalism was the hope of the "have-nots" of our society. Times have changed, and Anglo-Saxonism certainly does not inspire the new type of "upper class" politician of today; it is a doctrine trying to recapture these "haves" (through lobbying). We can therefore see that an UMBILICAL CHORD links the Anglo-Saxonists and the Establishment.
It is also a straight fact that while Anglo-Saxonist conservatives appear thoroughly "patriotic", many of them actually advocate measures leading to the decline of the Australian Nation. Consider the following examples of leading "British Heritage" conservatives:
Sir Colin Hines, RSL President for NSW, in 1979 supported the idea of using large numbers of Vietnamese refugees to populate northern Australia.(*2)
Sir William Keys, RSL National President, in 1988 endorsed multiculturalism, supported non-discriminatory immigration, and declared "we are part of Asia".(*3)
Bruce Ruxton, RSL President for Victoria, has loudly proclaimed the idea that hundreds of ex-British Army Gurkhas, and their families, should be allowed to migrate to Australia.(*4)
Just what do they think they're doing? Are these people willing to turn Australia into another multiracial shambles, just so long as the "heritage" and institutions of Australia remain "British"???
Our Anglo-Saxonists need to learn their lessons quickly. Already they seem to be on the wrong side of patriotism vs. treason (most inadvertently, some deliberately).
They must make a decision.
Two roads are open for the rising numbers of patriotic people concerned over the question of our European Civilisation. There is the road to nowhere and the modern road of Australian Nationalism. Australian Nationalists appreciate their British CULTURAL (as opposed to political) Heritage. They also appreciate the other aspects of our Heritage and realise that their task is to preside over the unfolding of a new People and Culture: The Australian. The Anglo-Saxonists may find the Party of Australian Nationalism unpalatable. So it must often be when a new doctrine emerges. Eventually our Anglo-Saxonist friends will be won over to Australian Nationalism. A vast popular movement will grow and overturn the present anti-Australian order. Australian Independence, Australian Identity, and an Australian Future will be won.
The Twenty-First Century: Australia's Century?
Australian Nationalism Vs. Anglo-Saxonism
Australian Nationalism Information Database - www.ausnatinfo.angelfire.com
