Abstract
In the early 1960s, the American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was invited by neo-Nazi groups in Australia and Britain to come to their respective countries. On both occasions, the minister for immigration in Australia and the home secretary in Britain sought to deny Rockwell entry to the country on the grounds that he was not conducive to the public good and threatened disorder. This was done using the border control and visa system that existed in both countries, which allowed the government to exclude from entry certain individuals that were proponents of extreme or “dangerous” political ideologies. In the post-war period, explicit neo-Nazism was seen as a dangerous ideology and was grounds for exclusion of foreigners, even though domestic political parties espousing the same ideology were allowed to exist. Rockwell never came to Australia, but illicitly entered Britain via Ireland in 1962 before being deported, which highlighted potential problems for the British controlling passage across the Irish Sea. Rockwell’s exclusion and deportation also became a touchpoint for future debates in British politics about the denial of entry and deportation of political figures. This article reveals that the Australian and British governments, while allowing far-right organisations to lawfully exist in their countries, also sought to ban the entry of foreign actors who espoused similar politics. This was due to concerns about potential public disorder and violence, but also allowed both governments to portray white supremacism and racial violence as foreign to their own countries.
Highlights
One of the tenets of modern liberal democracy in both Britain and Australia is the freedom of political association, this freedom has not always been so straight forward in practice.Throughout the twentieth century, it was rare for a political organisation to be proscribed in either country and cases where the government sought to impede this have become infamous, such as the banning of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) during the Second World War or the dissolution of the Communist Party of Australia in the early 1950s
While the British and Australian governments have been reluctant to proscribe political groups in the domestic sphere, they have seen a number of political ideologies on the right and left as “subversive” and “foreign” to the political landscape in both countries
Concerned about the introduction of foreign political ideologies into domestic politics, both governments have sought to keep out individuals belonging to political organisations and campaigns that have been seen as political threats
Summary
One of the tenets of modern liberal democracy in both Britain and Australia is the freedom of political association, this freedom has not always been so straight forward in practice. While the British and Australian governments have been reluctant to proscribe political groups in the domestic sphere, they have seen a number of political ideologies on the right and left as “subversive” and “foreign” to the political landscape in both countries These have included fascism, anarchism, communism, and anti-colonialism (to name a few). The following year, the British government took a similar stance, but Rockwell entered the country illegally and was subsequently deported In both instances, Rockwell had been invited by neo-Nazi organisations in Australia and Britain , which were allowed to legally operate as political groups ( arrests were made for party members involved in weapons offences) This article will explore why Rockwell, as a controversial public figure, was denied entry into Australia and Britain in the early 1960s and describe the changing perception of fascism in the post-war period, as well as how the border control system operated as a filter on undesirable politics coming into the country
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