National Action (Australia)

Not to be confused with National Action (UK).

National Action
FoundersJim Saleam
David Greason
LeaderJim Saleam
Foundation1982
Dissolved1991
CountryAustralia
HeadquartersTempe, New South Wales
NewspaperAdvance (1983–1989)[2]
IdeologyAustralian nationalism[3][4]
White nationalism[5]
Anti-multiculturalism
Anti-immigration[6]
Political positionRight-wing[7][8] to far-right[5]
Size~500 (1989)[9]
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National Action was a militant Australian white nationalist group founded in 1982 by Jim Saleam, a far-right activist, and David Greason.[10][11] Saleam had been a member of the short-lived National Socialist Party of Australia as a teenager during the 1970s.[12]

Jim Saleam's criminal convictions include property offenses and fraud in 1984 and being an accessory before the fact in regard to organising a shotgun attack in 1989 on African National Congress representative Eddie Funde.[5] Saleam served jail terms for both crimes.[11] He pleaded not guilty to both charges, claiming that he was set up by police.[5][11]

The group was disbanded following the murder of a member, Wayne "Bovver" Smith, in the group's headquarters at Tempe.[11] Saleam later became the New South Wales chairman of the Australia First Party,[11] and stood as its endorsed candidate several times.

The National Action co-founder David Greason's book, I was a Teenage Fascist, tells of Greason's own time within the Australian fascist movement and the events behind the founding of National Action.[13]

  1. ^ "Eureka: a short war that's long on history". The Age. Nine Entertainment. 3 November 2004. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  2. ^ Saleam 1999, p. 474.
  3. ^ Whitford 2013, p. 40-41.
  4. ^ "Fitzgerald Immigration Enquiry A Fraud". White Australia News. No. 12. National Action. 1988. p. 2.
  5. ^ a b c d West, Andrew (29 February 2004). "White separatist takes on Marrickville". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  6. ^ Whitford 2013, p. 42.
  7. ^ Whitford 2013, p. 43.
  8. ^ "Item HT 8520". Museums Victoria Collections. Melbourne: Museums Victoria. Retrieved 17 May 2024. National Action, a right-wing organization that promoted, amongst other things, a return to a White Australia policy, and was particularly against immigration from Asia.
  9. ^ Saleam 1999, p. 190.
  10. ^ Greason 1994, p. 276.
  11. ^ a b c d e West, Andrew (29 February 2004). "No Apology For White Australia Policy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  12. ^ Greason 1994, p. 283-284.
  13. ^ Greason 1994, p. 5.