The New Guard was an Australian fascist paramilitary organisation during the Great Depression. It was the largest and most successful fascist organisation in Australian history.
The New Guard, known for its violent agitation against NSW Premier Jack Lang, was founded and led by Eric Campbell. At its peak, membership was estimated to be around 50,000. The group's membership was predominantly made up of Anglo-Protestant, monarchist and anti-communist elements.
The organisation attracted great publicity when member Captain Francis de Groot, on horseback and at Campbell's direction, upstaged Lang in cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in protest at the latter's anti-monarchist ideology.
After Lang's dismissal in 1932, the New Guard's membership declined rapidly. Campbell met with fascists and National Socialists such as Sir Oswald Mosley and Joachim von Ribbentrop and, in 1934, published his manifesto The New Road, signalling an ideological transition towards Italian corporate statism. As the Centre Party, it unsuccessfully contested five seats at the 1935 New South Wales state election. The party failed to win a single seat, polling 0.60 per cent of the vote. Following the election, Campbell withdrew from public life. Both the party and the New Guard disbanded shortly afterwards.
History Old Guard In response to the election of Jack Lang as Premier of New South Wales, and rising pressure from trade unionists, counter-movements began to rise in opposition to the Labor Party. Among them was the Old Guard, a secret organisation purported to exist as early as 1917, which at the time of the Great Depression was administrated primarily by businessmen Roger Goldfinch and Robert Gillespie, among other anonymous committee members. The Old Guard was a coalition of imperial loyalists, devoted to the British Empire and ready to act preemptively to prevent a socialist revolution from taking place. At the height of its popularity the organisation enjoyed close ties with the NSW Police Force, Attorney-General's Department and the Department of Defence, and boasted 30,000 members comprising strongly of rural New South Welshmen and wealthy Protestant Anglo-Saxons.
Old-New Guard schism Among the Old Guard's members was World War I veteran Eric Campbell, an army officer and former gunner with the First Australian Imperial Force. Campbell had been introduced to the Old Guard by John Scott, a fellow member of the board of Sydney insurance company Sun Insurance.
Over time, Campbell grew discontented with the Old Guard. The organisation was sworn to absolute secrecy of membership, and was divided into cells as to conceal the identity of its leadership. Campbell disagreed with this arrangement, asserting that the uncommunicative nature of its leadership to its members, mostly returned servicemen, was ill-fitting to their nature as soldiers. He believed that without clear authority and direction, the Old Guard would be unable to retain members. Unable to convince the committee to change its administrative strategy, he and John Scott left the Old Guard. A week after Campbell's resignation, he and others from the Old Guard agreed, in mid-February, to form a separate body which would be diametrically opposed to the Old Guard's secrecy and what they considered its inaction.
The New Guard was officially formed on 16 March 1931, built on a common ideological system of monarchism, classic liberalism and anti-communism. Campbell was voted Chief Commander. Within a few weeks its membership had swelled.
Anti-leftist action (1931-32)
The New Guard was a paramilitary group, its military capability was extremely limited and vastly overstated by its leadership. It was amateurish, ineffectual and likened to the Keystone Cops. During the initial growth of the movement, Campbell was able to attract many ex-soldiers and ex-commanders to the movement, with ex-military making up the majority of the group's membership, including the likes of early aviator Charles Kingsford Smith and North Sydney Mayor Hubert Primrose. As general commanding officer, Campbell organised it on military lines. He claimed that, in an 'emergency', it could maintain essential services including Bunnerong power house and the police attested to the Guard's efficiency. With a peak membership of over 50,000, the Guard rallied in public, broke up 'Communist' meetings, drilled, vilified the Labor Party and demanded the deportation of Communists. Campbell and his New Guard proceeded to secure connections and weapons so that, in the event of a statewide communist revolt in which the police had become ineffective, he could seize control of essential services and keep them operational. An attempt to clothe its members in uniforms failed, however, when the Guard could not go through with its order for lack of funds. Campbell's naïve offer to step in to break a seamen's strike in October 1931 was rebuffed by shipowners.
Violent clashes Assisted by motorcar, the New Guard developed a strategy of regularly disrupting left-wing workers' meetings, spending much of the 1932 summer doing so. During December 1931, Captain Francis de Groot organised around 1,000 New Guardsmen to attack leftist meetings. On 11 December 1931, three policemen were injured in a fight between New Guardsmen and communists in Darlinghurst. On 13 February 1932, 700 New Guardsmen practised military drills in Belmore and a number of journalists who attempted to document the drills were assaulted. A few days later, 13 members of the New Guard were arrested after violently disrupting a political meeting in Coffs Harbour. Violent attacks on leftist meetings continued for weeks as part of a 'general mobilisation'.
De Groot had stated that he 'felt that, the best reply to force, was greater force' and by May 1932 Campbell had started inciting street brawls, and came close to staging a coup d'état against the Lang government. Against this backdrop, the state Labor party formed a number of militias including the Workers' Defence Army (WDA), the Labor Defence Corps (LDC) and the Australian Labor Army (ALA), formed by Lang's supporters. Street fights between Lang's Labor Army and fascist paramilitary groups, including Sir Thomas Blamey's Victorian-based "White Army, also known as the League of National Security, and the New Guard became increasingly common as the New Guard attempted to discredit the left by starting brawls or other breaches of the peace.
Though the New Guard sought to work as a supplement to the police in the event of a socialist revolution, they were significantly opposed under orders from the Lang government. Of particular use to Lang in opposing the New Guard was William John MacKay, who was appointed Acting Metropolitan Superintendent following the 'Battle of Bankstown' on 26 February 1932. Following MacKay's commencement of a campaign of surveillance and legal persecution, the New Guard attempted to measure the strength of the Sydney police force by organising many small unapproved street meetings across the city in an attempt to stretch their men thin. When forced to disperse by police, each group of New Guardsmen would peacefully disperse and simply reform nearby. According to a contact Campbell had in the NSW Police Force, the police were reporting large street gatherings and were requesting reinforcements from all over the city.
Opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge On 19 March 1932, the New Guard interrupted the much-anticipated opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The New Guard had wanted to have Sir Philip Game open the bridge on behalf of King George V, but Lang refused, stating that "I will open it myself, it'll be cheaper". The New Guard declared that Lang would not perform the ceremony, with Campbell calling Lang a 'tyrant and scoundrel' and declaring that Lang would never open the Harbour Bridge. Rumours began to circulate of a plot to kidnap Lang.
During the opening ceremony, army officer and zone commander Francis de Groot upstaged Jack Lang by slashing the ceremonial ribbon with his sword. De Groot was supplied with a horse by fellow New Guardsmen Albert Reichard and he rode to the ceremony in his World War I 15th Hussars uniform, managing to slash the ribbon before Lang. De Groot was pulled from his horse and detained, later being fined £9 (equivalent to $859.99 in 2017). The Mayor of North Sydney, Hubert Primrose, an official participant at the opening ceremony, was also a member of the New Guard.
Assault on Jock Garden On 6 May 1932, Trades and Labour Council secretary John (Jock) Garden, an influential member of Lang's inner circle, was assaulted by members a New Guard faction known as the Fascist Legion. Garden was assaulted at his home by eight hooded men in Ku Klux Klan-like gowns. The incident caused massive resignations from the New Guard.
Decline 1932 constitutional crisis
On 13 May 1932, Lang was dismissed from his premiership. Along with an inner faction of the New Guard's involvement in orchestrating the assault upon of Communist Party of Australia founder Jock Garden, the New Guard began to lose popularity as the organisation's purpose was perceived as having been fulfilled. The activities of militant splinter groups emerging from the New Guard, such as the Fascist Legion, also contributed to a rush of resignations which began even before Lang's dismissal.
By mid-1932, the New Guard was largely a spent force. With their main objective complete – the removal of Lang from office – the New Guard continued to lose members as it drifted into the mid-1930s. Even de Groot left the organisation in November 1932, pursuing collaboration with the Melbourne-based League of National Security by which the White Army was also known. It was during this time that Campbell began to outline more fully his political beliefs, producing a series of broadcasts in which he developed a "complete credo for a fascist State", most notably incorporating a "non-elective cabinet or commission, a corporative assembly, vocational franchise and a charter of liberty". He also stated his intentions to contest the next state election, a date for which had not yet been set.
1933: Exploration into fascism Campbell's memoirs state that due to the New Guard's opposition to party politics and unwillingness to align themselves with either side, they were often dubbed "fascists". Though the New Guard bore resemblance to the militant Blackshirts in Italy, its strong adherence to individualism found it disqualified it from this definition. Campbell was curious to learn about fascism from the source however, so in 1933 during an overseas business trip, he met with Sir Oswald Mosley and wife Lady Cynthia at their London home to discuss the matter. His experience was overall positive, and while unimpressed with the members of Mosley's British Union of Fascists, he was reminded of his own New Guardmen when he attended an Imperial Fascist League meeting.