It is the fundamental responsibility of the organised workers’ movement to respond to the attacks by the far right on asylum seekers and Asian communities, such as those we have seen in the last week. They have been organised with the sole aim of intimidating and physically attacking Asian communities in general and Muslims in particular.
The labour movement must respond, not only in terms of helping to defend Asian communities and places where asylum seekers are housed, but in terms of political answers to those social problems that are the pretext for these violent assaults.
In the last week, not only have mosques been attacked by gangs of bullies and sociopaths, but so also have shops, cafes and restaurants that are Asian-owned. In one instance a car was destroyed and its occupants forced to flee when the mob saw that the driver and passengers were clearly Asian.
From Belfast in Northern Ireland to Weymouth on the south coast of England, gangs of thugs have created mayhem and have instilled fear into some local communities. As if it is not enough for asylum seekers to be forced to flee from war, famine, economic dislocation and physical threats to themselves and their families, it is a disgrace that they are forced to live in miserable hotels, instead of being allowed to integrate into society…and then subjected to attacks and intimidation by these hooligans.
The same type of sociopaths were Nazis in the 1930s
These attacks are in reality pogroms, an activity with a long tradition that goes back centuries, to the organised assaults on the Jewish communities in Russia and eastern Europe. We do not yet have in this country a fully-developed fascist movement, but there should be no mistake. These thugs, draping themselves in the flag of St George, are the same types of petty-criminals, bullies, brawlers and social misfits who wore brown Nazi uniforms and – with official sanction – smashed up Jewish-owned properties and beat up their owners in Germany in the 1930s. At a later stage, they were in SS uniforms, participating in mass killings.
One of the key architects of these riots, millionaire Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a man who styles himself as “Tommy Robinson” because it sounds more working class, is sunning himself in a holiday resort in Cyprus, while he is goading on his followers using social media. We expect nothing else from this scumbag. But it is notable that the media platforms he uses do little or nothing to control the spread of deliberate misinformation – and why would they? It is profitable for them.
The overwhelming majority of ordinary workers are appalled by the behaviour of far right yobbos this week. Those in the populist or right wing media who suggest that they are the legitimate voices of the “white working class” are deliberately misleading people. Neither should we forget that the mobs are being whipped up in a political atmosphere created by supposedly more ‘respectable’ politicians and media.
Newspapers like the Mail (see sample of headlines below), the Express and the Sun, together with right-wing broadcasters – all of them owned by billionaire tax-dodgers – have headlined “small boats” and asylum seekers for years, sometimes for days on end. Tory MPs and ministers like Suella Braverman and Priti Patel, have ‘normalised’ offensive and insulting language about those desperate people whose only ‘crime’ is to have fled conflict abroad and who have no other means to attempting to flee to Europe or the UK, except by so-called ‘illegal’ means.
Immigration has a net positive effect on the economy
All of the serious economic analyses show that immigration is a net addition to any economy, not excluding the UK, because migrants are usually economically active and when they are allowed to do so, can work, pay taxes and contribute to economic life. Right-wing politicians, however, never let real facts stand in the way of a useful narrative and migrants are useful for them as a means of dividing the working class and diverting attention away from the real cause of economic decay – capitalism.
From before the time of the Brexit referendum in 2016, right wing leaders like Nigel Farage, have used migrants as a scapegoat for every social ill they can find. Farage’s key slogan in that referendum was that the UK was ‘full up’.
This week, he has poured petrol on the flames. While giving an obligatory nod to ‘law and order’, he has stoked the flames by suggesting, after the murder of three young girls in Southport, that the police were ‘withholding information’ about the person responsible. That was a coded signal to his lunatic followers that read ‘Muslim’ and ‘asylum seeker’, even though the person charged with that awful crime is neither.
It is the politics of the Tory right wing and Nigel Farage that has prepared the ground for the pogroms we have seen this week. Instead of trying to seek some supposed ‘balance’ in its reporting, it is about time the BBC cancelled its ‘season ticket’ for Farage, to stop him making so many TV appearances.
“Acquaint their heads with the pavement”
How should the labour movement respond? No-one will shed any tears if any of the thugs responsible for these pogroms are banged up in prison for a few months or years. But we will take note of how they are dealt with. Will their treatment be comparable, for example, to the years that young people were sentenced to, for crimes like stealing a pair of trainers, after the inner-city riots in 2011? That was at a time, it should be noted, when Keir Starmer, now Prime Minister, was the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Nor will labour movement activists be too worried about seeing a few EDL heads being cracked by police batons – fascist heads, as Trotsky once graphically put it, “should be acquainted with the pavement”. But on the other hand, the labour movement should put no confidence in police or legal processes, or Keir Starmer’s shiny new ‘standing army’ of riot police, to protect its own organisations or Asian communities from pogromists.
Labour movement must act on its own behalf
These thugs are attacking Asian shops and hotels housing asylum-seekers today, but they will just as easily attack trade union picket lines tomorrow. We know from the experiences of the miners’ strike of 1984-85 which side the police take in big industrial disputes, and the statute book has been stuffed with new anti-democratic laws, not against the far right, but aimed at the left.
The labour movement must act by itself and on its own behalf. Some trade unions have issued statements on the pogroms, the most notable being from Matt Wrack of the FBU (see below) and Sharon Graham of Unite. “It wasn’t the migrant who crashed our financial system in 2008” she wrote, in an email to all Unite members. “It wasn’t the migrant who imposed austerity. It wasn’t the migrant who revelled in Downing Street while people couldn’t bury their dead or who let corporations profit while workers had their pay cut”.
Sharon Graham pointed at the real political issues behind the pogroms and the rise of the far right. “The economic system has failed,” she wrote, “Britain isn’t working: Rampant inequality, crumbling public services, poor jobs and bad pay. We don’t make anything any more and we’ve sold the family silver. When 50 families in this country have more wealth than 30 million of their fellow citizens, something has gone badly wrong.
The trade union movement, she argued, must “step up to the plate.” That is absolutely true. But the labour movement must also take concrete steps and concrete actions in the face of the outrages we have seen. Trade union branches, shop-stewards’ committees and trades councils must make approaches to local Asian communities to offer assistance in their self-defence.
If the labour movement does not act, then, at least in the largest cities, Muslim youth will organise themselves to defend their mosques and communities and we cannot blame them for that, and they have a right to self-defence. But it is for the labour movement to reach out and initiate solidarity with them in their time of need. As the Unite circular said, “solidarity is strength.”
“We need change now, not waffle…”
The trade union movement, through the TUC or even individual unions, should organise mass demonstrations against racism and the far right, in at least one major city in every region. It is all very well condemning the far right, but there comes a time when the labour movement must make a public show of its strength.
Perhaps the most important part of the Unite circular to members, is that part that deals with policies. Sharon Graham correctly points out that we are at a turning point. “We need change now” she writes. And in a direct tilt at the Labour government, she demands, “Not waffle about responsible spending or fiscal rules. None of this talks to the worker or their community. It addresses no issues”.
In an article in the Daily Mirror last week, she wrote: “We have to make sure we do not pit pensioners against public sector workers. The 50 richest families in Britain are worth £500 billion, which is the same as half the population. If you tax the top 1%, 1% of their net assets, that would give you £23 billion, meaning the black hole would be gone. Why is that such an awkward choice to make?”
This is the nub of the issue. The Labour government must make a real difference to the lives and livelihoods of the mass of working class people. They have to make a difference. The woman in the street who asked a BBC interviewer, “why aren’t other homeless people put up in hotels?” must be given an answer. Homeless people should be temporarily housed in empty hotels and empty houses, but Labour needs to build social housing on a mass scale to resolve the housing crisis.
UK is still astonishly wealthy – but money is in wrong hands
The UK economy is still enormously wealthy, in terms of its resources, skills and the potential. After the financial crash of 2008, the Bank of England “created” £875bn of new money to save the banks and financial institutions. The organisation ‘tax justice’ estimates that UK residents hoard a huge £570bn in tax havens, while the tax authorities, HMRC, look the other way. The wealth is there…it is simply in the wrong hands.
In the social and economic emergency faced by working class people, urgent measures need to be taken. It is possible to invest in the NHS, to pay the staff a decent wage, to build homes and schools, and invest in public services and infrastructure. It is possible, however, only on the basis that a socialist Labour government takes the banks and finance houses into public ownership, along with land and industrial and infrastructural resources, to plan their use for the benefit of all.
Unite and other unions affiliated to the Labour Party are right to stand up to the pogroms we have seen in Britain this last week. But they must also follow through with the political measures. They must start to use their power and influence in the party to campaign for real socialist measures that challenge the vested interests of the super-rich and powerful.
As Sharon Graham wrote – and she is right – if Labour fail to deliver, “the populist right will emerge ever stronger”. But it is the responsibility of all the trade union leaders, and all Labour activists, to fight for a party that will deliver.
Picture top from Wikimedia Commons, here.
