As part of his ongoing crusade against Muslims and ‘The Left’, today Shermon Burgess (aka ‘The Great Aussie Patriot’) announced that the Reclaim Australia (RA) splinter group the ‘United Patriots Front’ (UPF) will be holding a rally at 1pm on Saturday, July 18 at Parliament House in Melbourne.

The first and to this date only rally organised by the UPF took place in Richmond on Sunday, May 31. The rally attracted around 50-70 people while a counter-rally drew several hundred in opposition. Previously, the RA rally of April 4 attracted hundreds of supporters and many more counter-protesters.

The leadership of the UPF in Melbourne consist of Blair Cottrell (aka ‘National Democratic Party of Australia’) and Neil Erikson (aka ‘Nationalist Republican Guard’/’European Australian Civil Rights League’). Both men are neo-Nazis, with Erikson having a criminal conviction for harrassing a local rabbi (Dovid Gutnick) and Cottrell both despising Jews (whom he holds responsible for The Decline of Western Civilization) and claiming to have been imprisoned for arson.

The last time the far right rallied at Parliament House was on March 18, 1995, when neo-Nazi group ‘National Action’ assembled 40 or so members and supporters, ostensibly in order to protest a racial vilification bill (later the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001). NA’s fuehrer Michael Brander was later charged and convicted of assault after he struck a counter-protester with a flagpole.

It’s unclear at this stage if ‘Reclaim Australia Melbourne’ (aka Monika Evers) will be joining the UPF, having previously stated that their rally would take place at Flagstaff Gardens. In any case, the UPF is pulling out all stops for July 18 and every far right grouping in the country has pledged support, from the Sydney-based Australia First Party through to Nationalist Alternative in Melbourne and every anti-Muslim and anti-leftist Facebook group in-between. ‘Patriots’ from around the country have similarly pledged to travel from interstate to supplement the UPF’s rather modest support base in Melbourne.

Two Facebook pages have been established to promote attendance at a counter-rally on July 18 : RALLY AGAINST RACISM – Stop ‘Reclaim Australia’ – Melbourne and Melbourne Counter-Rally Against racism, Islamophobia and the far right.

#UnitedPatriotsFront rally @ Parliament House, July 18 #Melbourne