Editing New Guard (section)

====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.<ref name=Moore>{{cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=Andrew |title=The New Guard and the Labour Movement, 1931-35 |journal=Labour History |issue=89 |publisher=Jstor |jstor=27516075 |year=2005 |pages=55–72 |doi=10.2307/27516075 }}</ref>{{rp|55–72}} 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, New South Wales|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'.<ref name=Moore/>{{rp|55–72}}

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.<ref name=Moore />{{rp|63}} Against this backdrop, the state Labor party formed a number of militias including the [[Workers Defence Corps|Workers' Defence Army]] (WDA), the Labor Defence Corps (LDC) and the Australian Labor Army (ALA), formed by Lang's supporters.<ref name=Moore/>{{rp|55–72}} 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]],<ref name=Cathcart1>{{cite book|last=Cathcart|first=Michael|title=Defending the National Tuckshop|date=1988|publisher=McPhee Gribble Publishers|isbn=014011629X|edition=1st}}</ref>{{rp|56–7}} 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.<ref name=Cathcart>{{cite book |last1=Cathcart |first1=Michael |title=Defending the National Tuckshop: Australia's Secret Army Intrigue of 1931 |date=25 August 1988 |publisher=McPhee Gribble Publishers |location=Melbourne |isbn=978-0869140772 |edition=Second }}</ref>

Though the New Guard sought to work as a supplement to the police in the event of a socialist revolution,<ref name="The New Guard">{{cite web |title=The New Guard |url=https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=1110591&isAv=N |website=National Archives of Australia |publisher=Federal Australian Government |access-date=24 April 2019}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Moore/>{{rp|55–72}} 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.<ref name=Cathcart/>