They've been running these 'forgotten Australian history' segments on the late news on the ABC. The one they had on last night was suprising and frightening. There was nearly an uprising of fascist militias in the western district of Victoria in the early nineteen thirties. They had mobilised to fight off a supposed revolution involving the communists, the unemployed and the catholics, basically anyone they didn't like, and had weapons supplied to them by sympathetic members of the army reserve. Of course, there was no revolution of the evil downtrodden, but the armed military force of 30,000 fascists that had turned out to stop them was real. Who the hell knows what might have happened if the army and the police hadn't acted to disarm them. It feels strange saying that about the place I'm from. Around here we're told that things like that only happen deep in the past or in other places.