European and Australian Fascisms: The Case of Ferenc Molnár and National Socialism in Cold War Australia

Evan Smith, Jayne Persian

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract


The relationship between the Australian far right and Central/Eastern European migrant groups in the 1960s and 1970s has been highlighted by some scholars. Predominantly linked by an extreme anti-communism, with an underlying anti-Semitism and white supremacism, the neo-Nazi groups in Australia closely aligned with certain Hungarian, Ukrainian and Croatian nationalist organisations, primarily made up of people that had emigrated during in the early post-war era. However, for the most part, they remained separate organisations. This chapter looks an exception to this. Ferenc (or Frank) Molnar was a Hungarian migrant to Australia who arrived in the late 1940s and in the mid-1960s, co-founded the National Socialist Party of Australia in Canberra with Edward (or Ted) Robert Cawthron. The rest of his NSPA colleagues were predominantly Anglo-Australian, with Molnar representing the in-roads that the Australian far right were attempting to make into the European migrant communities that had arrived in the post-war period. By exploring the security files that were held on Molnar and the publications of the NSPA, this chapter seeks to outline how Central/Eastern European nationalism and racial politics developed amongst these diasporas in Cold War Australia, and how they interacted with an Anglicised fascism that had developed in a settler colonial environment. Molnar represents a nexus point for these overlapping movements and helps us understand how the Australian far right was fostered within an international and transnational context.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHistories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia
EditorsEvan Smith, Jayne Persian, Vashti Jane Fox
Place of PublicationAbingdon, Oxon; New York, NY
PublisherTaylor and Francis - Balkema
Chapter8
Pages140-157
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9781003120964
ISBN (Print)9780367638122
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Publication series

NameRoutledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right
PublisherRoutledge

Keywords

  • Displaced Persons
  • Emigration and Immigration
  • International Refugee Organisation
  • European and Australian Fascisms
  • Cold War Australia

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