The following article has been published on ABC Religion & Ethics.

On the fringes of society, beyond the gaze of main­stream politics, there is a network of people propagat­ing and planning an insidious, total­it­ari­an goal: ethnic cleansing and genocide, under the rubric of their catch-cry, “Race War Now.” This is not only occurring in Australia, but is part of an inter­na­tion­al racialist movement, and one that is gaining ground. This racialist camp is composed of ultra-nation­al­ists, white suprem­acists and neo-Nazis. I use the term “racial­ists” rather than “racists” to indicate that an ideology is the base of their racist views, rather than sheer bigotry. In short, racial­ists are hostile to all people they consider to be non-Europeans, but Jews are seen as the primary enemy.

The ideas behind the push for a ‘Race War Now’ can be traced back to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a com­pletely fab­ric­ated document concocted by the Czarist secret police in the early 1900s which anti­semites claim “proves” that “the Jews” are plotting to control the world. The updated and mod­ern­ised version of this racialist con­spir­acy theory has become con­cret­ised around the twin ideas of ‘Cultural Marxism’ and ‘White Genocide’.

The ‘Cultural Marxism’ thesis is a con­spir­acy theory con­cern­ing an alleged plot sup­posedly conceived for the most part by Jewish academics of the Frankfurt School of social theory and philo­sophy who seek to undermine and destroy European Western culture. This plot is said to be achieved through the promotion of equality, human rights, civil rights, feminism, homo­sexu­al rights, abortion, mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, sec­u­lar­ism and inter­na­tion­al­ism. In this way, ‘Cultural Marxism’ is portrayed as the ideo­lo­gic­al weapon by which “tra­di­tion­al” Western societal values are being under­mined, and the resi­li­ence of “white people” to stand up for their own tra­di­tion­al culture is being dimin­ished.
In similar fashion, the related concept of “White Genocide” is an alleg­a­tion of a Jewish plot to “destroy” the European races. The mythology is that the Jews ― along with their lackeys, in the form of other non-whites and leftists ― are plotting a form of racial dilution cum extinc­tion through mass immig­ra­tion of people of non-European back­ground into “white majority” countries. Those who subscribe to the theory of “White Genocide” believe that in this way, people of ethnic European back­ground will become a minority group, out­numbered and dominated in the countries of Europe, North America and Aus­tralasia where once they were a majority of the pop­u­la­tion. This is the kind of feared replace­ment that the marchers at the “Unite the Right” rally in Char­lottes­ville, North Carolina, in August 2017 were evoking when they chanted, “Jews will not replace us!”

A crude expres­sion of this idea takes the form of a poster produced by the Aus­trali­an neo-Nazi group, Anti­podean Res­ist­ance. Its slogan is “Stop the Hordes” ― with the “hordes” being iden­ti­fied in grossly racist terms as immig­rants of Arab, Indian, African and Chinese back­ground, and it is “the Jews” sym­bol­ised by the Jewish Star of David, who are portrayed as the hidden hand behind non-white immig­ra­tion into Australia, and other countries with ethnic European major­it­ies. The response to “White Genocide”, as espoused by many neo-Nazi and white suprem­acist groups, is White Revolu­tion.
The slogan “White Genocide” is not, however, simply a theory. It is incite­ment to murder. On 27 October in Pitt­s­burgh, Pennsylvania, Robert Bowers, armed with an AR-15 rifle and three handguns, entered a synagogue shouting at one point, “All Jews must die!” He shot and killed eleven Jews at prayer and wounded six others (including four police officers). Bowers was linked to neo-Nazi activity online. He was not an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump (writing in one social media post, “I did not vote for him nor have I owned, worn or even touched a Maga [Make American Great Again] hat”), but he did subscribe to the “White Genocide” theory and often wrote about it on his Gab account. He posted on Gab that Jews were “bringing in invaders that kill our people.” On the morning of the attack, Bowers wrote “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in” ― he then proceeded to murder Jews in a synagogue.

Those racial­ists and white suprem­acists who subscribe to the ideas of an inter­na­tion­al Jewish con­spir­acy to control the world, including the ideas of “Cultural Marxism” and “White Genocide” ― have for­mu­lated their response: GTKRWN, an acronym standing for “Gas The Kikes, Race War Now” (“Kike” is a grossly derog­at­ory term for “Jew”). The acronym GTKRWN is increas­ingly being used on thousands of websites, social media pages, memes, images and hashtags.

There is a plethora of calls online urging people to kill Jews, and of images of Jews being hung, stabbed and shot, posted as joyful and inspir­a­tion­al expres­sions of what indi­vidu­als and groups desire. The pro­voc­at­ive and murderous pro­pa­ganda posters by the Aus­trali­an neo-Nazi group, Anti­podean Res­ist­ance, calling to “Legalise the Execution of Jews” provides a chilling example of the genocidal mindset of racial­ists and their will­ing­ness to publicly display and promote their views.

So that is what the “Race War Now” narrative espouses. But what do its adherents actually plan to do?
In general, these racial­ists have a three-step plan: stop all non-white immig­ra­tion, deport all non-whites (people of African, Asian, Arab and other non-European back­ground) and kill all Jews. Some include Muslims in the deport­a­tion plan, others do not: once the Jews are elim­in­ated, then any problem with “the Muslims” will be con­sidered either man­age­able or at an end, because these racial­ists see “the Muslim problem” as being orches­trated by the Jews as part of the “Jewish plot” to destroy the West. How such a plan would actually be imple­men­ted is not readily known, although there is an abundance of lit­er­at­ure from which the racial­ists draw their inspir­a­tion.

One major influence is The Turner Diaries by William Pierce, published in 1978. It is a novel con­sist­ing of the diary of the central fictional character, Earl Turner, set in 1991 – 1993. The diary covers the revolu­tion by ‘The Organ­iz­a­tion’, a neo-Nazi and white suprem­acist group, who wage military war against ‘The System’ – that is, the U.S. gov­ern­ment. The book advocates the violent overthrow of demo­crat­ic gov­ern­ments by military actions, weaponry and bombs, mayhem and murder, and embraces an anti-Jewish and anti-black ideology. When the vic­tori­ous neo-Nazis establish their first state in a part of Cali­for­nia, the Jews are rounded up and killed, the blacks and other non-whites are expelled, and the so-called “race-traitors” are hanged from lamp-posts in the streets in an event known as the “Day of the Rope.”

Another increas­ingly popular inspir­a­tion is Siege by James Mason. Siege is a series of short essays written in the 1980s compiled into a 457-page book. According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, “Mason and his writings preach the praxis of lead­er­less, cell-struc­tured terrorism and white revolu­tion.” According to ProP­ub­lica, Siege commands that: “Now was the time for true believers to go under­ground and launch a clandes­tine guerrilla war aimed at bringing down ‘The System’.”

Clearly, these “Race War Now” indi­vidu­als and groups have no illusions that they could win power by means of a popular vote in a demo­crat­ic election. Their only chance at power is through violence, murder, terrorism and guerrilla warfare. But first, they need to lay the ground­work and plant the seeds for “White Revolu­tion.” The unfolding of this plan is in its early stages in Australia, but it is occurring, albeit on the fringes of society. Racial­ists are crawling out from their dark crevices and openly seeking a pathway towards ethnic cleansing and genocide.

The “Race War Now” ideology and its adherents are not on the con­ven­tion­al political radar. But given their existence and the murderous threat they pose to people and to freedom and democracy, they should not be ignored. They need to be exposed to the clear light of day, and the full force of the law should be brought to bear upon them whenever they incite or carry out acts of violence.

Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry.