CHARLES Sturt University has strongly condemned a series of Nazi Youth posters that were plastered across the Bathurst campus over Christmas and New Year.
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The recruitment posters promoting extreme right-wing group Antipodean Resistance featured images of Nazi swastikas and nationalist slogans such as “Australia Awake”.
A representative from Antipodean Resistance told Fairfax Media the group supported a message of white supremacy.
“We are an Australian movement and we will spread our message everywhere through the country. White Australians must be shown the truth of National Socialism,” the spokesperson said in a written response.
“Our people are being brainwashed by the education system and media to hate themselves, their culture and traditions. This leads to the destruction of community, alienation and hopelessness for our youth.
“We are being replaced by foreign hordes, in the nation that we had made into one of the best countries in the world due to the labour and struggle of our white European people.”
CSU moved quickly to take down the posters, labelling them offensive material.
“The posters were detected by campus security staff over the weekend and were removed at the earliest possible opportunity,” CSU Bathurst head of campus professor Chika Anyanwu said.
“As an organisation driven by values – insightful, inclusive, impactful and inspiring – (CSU) will not tolerate such offensive material.”
Nazi signs such as swastikas, as well as phrases like ‘white power’ were spray painted on walls and fences, even on a tree.
At the time, mayor Ben Shields said he was sickened and angers by the action.
“To think that there is someone in Dubbo who is either hopelessly naive or brutally nasty enough to graffiti the Nazi swastika is around our city sickens and angers me,” he said.
“The reports and pictures that are alarmingly doing the rounds on social media is devastating. It is not only a vicious insult to all those who are considered a minority group but to all of us who cherish our freedoms.”
It is not known if the graffiti is related to the incident in Bathurst.
Antipodean Resistance has attracted previous attention for its Nazi-inspired vandalism in major cities across Australia, including anti-Semitic posters that have called for the legalisation of the execution of Jews.
However, the group has strongly rejected the label of “hate speech” for its views.
“When people put up ‘It’s okay to be white’ posters, both here and abroad, they are attacked by being ‘hateful’,” the group representative said.
“In contrast, other ethnic groups are freely able to display pride for their own cultures and this is not considered to be hateful.
“As such, we totally reject the definition of ‘hate speech’ and the system’s double standards.”
The group, which was founded in 2016, has called its members “the Hitlers you’ve been waiting for” on its website.
It also adheres to strict requirements for joining members, including not being “black, Asian, Jew or any mixed abomination” and not allowing homosexuals and “sexual deviants” to join.
