Posters imitate far-right

Racist leaflets from a far-right white supremacist group will be stripped off Feilding bus stops.

Pamphlets promoting an activist organisation named The Dominion Movement have been branded on bus shelters in the Manawatu¯ town, bearing the slogans ‘‘reclaim your past, seize your future’’, ‘‘our inheritance and our legacy’’ and ‘‘we are growing stronger’’.

Another poster features the catchcry: ‘‘Kill the Boere. Kill the farmer. Boer refugees welcome’’.

Manawatu¯ District Council will remove the highly offensive material.

Feilding and District Promotion chairman Jason Smith said the posters made him ‘‘sick to the stomach’’, and violated the town’s friendly image.

‘‘There is no place in our society for racism. It is a sign of ignorance, in my opinion.

‘‘We all need to make sure racism is not alive in our community. However, we cannot let racism go underground, rather combat it and discuss it. Racism is a learned behaviour that can be unlearned.’’

The organisation didn’t respond to requests for comment, but on its website described itself as a ‘‘grass-roots identitarian activist organisation committed to the revitalisation of our country and our people: White New Zealanders.’’

The Dominion Movement may promote the

‘‘revitalisation’’ of white New Zealanders, but it blurs the faces of its members in photographs.

It also decries consumerism, transgenderism and immigration.

A Feilding resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said the advertisements bore a striking resemblance to propaganda pushed by the Nazi Party in Germany last century.

‘‘The similarities ... are very eerie. I actually wonder if that’s where it’s been cribbed from.

‘‘I know my history, I recognise the themes and insignias those flyers contained. This is not acceptable. We are ‘Friendly Feilding’.

‘‘This kind of hate and intolerance should not and must not ever be welcomed in our neighbourhood.’’

The flyers had been lathered with glue and could not be easily pulled off, she said.

‘‘There is no place in our society for racism. It is a sign of ignorance, in my opinion.’’ Jason Smith

‘‘They are acting like white people are oppressed. We’ve never been oppressed, we’ve just got to share the playground.’’

Manawatu¯ mayor Helen Worboys said the posters advocated discrimination and would be taken down.

‘‘It is very disappointing that someone thinks that they can deface our town with posters on public facilities, let alone ones promoting discrimination. We now need to get them removed.’’