All of the media, judicial, and political comment
on Brenton Tarrant, mass murderer and terrorist, talked about his ideology.
But what is it? "Racist", "far
Right", "Islamophobe". All correct as far as they go but
something is missing. The F word. Fascism.
This word tends to get bandied about loosely and/or
is regarded as a historical curiosity from 80 years ago that is mentioned
annually on Anzac Day.
But Tarrant defined himself as a fascist, in both
his "manifesto" and his livestreaming of his atrocity. He was
radicalised in the online world of Australian and international fascists. His
extensive international travels touched base with global fascist groups. He
referenced Nazis and fascists in his written "justification".
Fascism is foreign in every sense of the word and
thus of great interest to the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa
(CAFCA). The ideological essence of fascism is the physical extermination of
those decreed to be The Other. That defines Tarrant to a T.
His "manifesto" is banned in New Zealand,
so an outside perspective is invaluable.
We recommend Jeff Sparrow's excellent short book "Fascists
Among Us: Online Hate And The Christchurch Massacre" (see the review by Jeremy Agar, published in Foreign Control Watchdog 154, August
2020). It was published in Australia in 2019 but was not legally available in
New Zealand until after Tarrant pleaded guilty, in March 2020 (even getting the
book from overseas during Level 4 lockdown was an adventure in itself).
Sparrow never names Tarrant, referring to him
throughout as Person X.
Here is a key quote from Jeremy's review:
"The problem is not
that conventional discussion might give too much information about (in this
case, Australian) fascists but that it gives too little. Sparrow rejects
euphemisms that depict them as 'far Right' or 'nationalist' (some people use
'far Left' to denote people seeking social justice or a clean environment). The
more accurate term is the one Person X accurately deploys: they are
fascists'".
So, let's call Tarrant
what he calls himself: Mass murderer. Terrorist. Fascist.
Fascism is as much a
deadly virus as the one currently confronting New Zealand and the rest of the
world. And it needs to be dealt with by the same New Zealand approach - not
"living with it", "control" or "mitigation".
Elimination.
