Many believe that immigrant labour is scab labour, since the
bosses had a long tradition of importing foreign workers to break strikes or
cut wages. It was one of the reasons to stop scab trade that the International
Working Men’s Association (the First International), was formed in 1864. Some
on the Left today declare ‘Let’s have a debate on immigration’. And bewail the
high numbers of immigrants, and that the ruling class use this increased supply
of labour to cut wages in several unskilled and low-skilled job sectors,
hitting the indigenous working class. They claim extra demand for housing has
forced prices and rents higher, and in many cities local children cannot get
into local schools and that the waiting time at the hospital has grown because
of foreigners in the line for treatment. These claims are drip-fed daily to
workers in order to divide them along the lines of colour and/or
nationality/race (and religion), i.e., workers from ‘outside’ lower your wages,
take your jobs, put up your rents, deny your children a decent education, etc.,
etc. Capitalism has always been an international system with capital going to
where it will realise the highest returns rather than maintaining loyalty to a
nation-state. Even Thomas Jefferson had to admit that ‘merchants have no
country’.
But is an increase in the supply of labour to be explained
solely by citing immigration figures and playing with the figures? What of new technology?
While not increasing the number of workers it can reduce the number jobs. Are
we to become machine-wreckers once again? Then, of course, there is the export
of capital to abroad, where it will be used to manufacture commodities cheaply
and compete with home products. The point is quite simple for those who choose
to see it: it is the owner of the means of production who will decide who will
work, with what technology, for what wages, where the work will be sited and
what level of unemployment (surplus labour, indigenous or foreign) will be best
for his maximum profit. That is not always an easy thing to explain in a
country where the working class movement is so pitifully weak ideologically,
yet that is what socialists must do. It is the height of treachery to our class
(remembering that the working class stretches far beyond Britain’s boundaries),
blatant racism, and opportunism to opt instead for a policy of blaming the
immigrant for all British workers’ woes, even if this will strike a chord with
the basest instincts of many workers. While we are on the subject of the
‘indigenous working class’ just who are they? At what point does an immigrant
family become an indigenous family? If the answer to that question is never
than even someone with the flimsiest grasp of British history would have to
draw the conclusion that there are very few members of the indigenous working
class about. The question of house prices, rents, etc., being the fault of
immigrants is pure bunkum. Immigrants tend to live in the lowest quality (if
any at all) housing, unless, of course, one subscribes to the somewhat popular,
but totally incorrect, view that ‘they come over here with nothing and are
given the best houses by the council’ that can be heard in any working class
area and is merely a reflection of the anti-working class repeating the pap
that fills the pages of the gutter press. Workers do say these things and, if
not shown the errors of these views, will tend to believe them. The Socialist
Party will not pander to these simplistic views or try to give these opinions credibility.
Another point about housing is that if immigrants really are causing rents and
prices to rise then one must suppose that this is due to a housing shortage,
which would be alleviated by, yes, you guessed it, building more homes which
would create jobs wouldn’t it?
For sure it cannot be denied that the majority of the UK population
now wants far stricter limits on immigration numbers. Our exposure of the level
of ignorance and backwardness in the working class, its atrocious level of
disunity, should not be cause for celebration or smugness. The fact that this
level of ignorance exists does not make it either right or desirable, it only
goes to show the staggering amount of work that socialists have to do to bring
education, enlightenment and unity to the working class in this country. The
Socialist Party is not afraid to take a minority position that is correct
merely because it is unpopular with the working class at present. But our
approach is to assign blame where it lies, squarely with the rich and not with
the average person. The rich are trying to make the people pay for the crisis.
Xenophobia and racism are not the exclusive domain of the right.
Some of those Leftists calling for an end to immigration argue that immigration
is and has always been a mechanism for depressing wages and undermining working
class organisation. And some will cite evidence that West Indian immigrants who
came here in the fifties and sixties were invited to take the low-paid jobs
that British workers could not afford to take. This helped to maintain the low
wages of those jobs. The idea that immigrants can only have a negative effect
on wages, etc., is strange that we still remember the Grunwick dispute where
immigrants, many first generation, organised themselves and fought courageously
for reinstatement and union recognition, being defeated only through the
treachery of the Labour Government of the day. Yet, even in defeat, these
immigrants achieved higher wages and better conditions for those left inside
the Grunwick’s plants. The picture is presented of immigrants coming here to
live because we British workers have made life in our country so wonderful
through our organisation and principled struggle. What nonsense! If people from
the South of England start to migrate North for the cheaper housing, should we
drive them back at Watford Gap telling them to go and fight for cheaper housing
in the South? When British dockyards, with the full backing of their
workforces, compete with each other for shipbuilding contracts and try to win
work to their area away from other workers in Britain does this not usually
involve bringing down wages and conditions and boosting productivity? The
anti-immigrant argument, apart from freeing the employers of all responsibility
for the things that they actually have control over, is not just silly but very
dangerous and can easily incite regionalism as it already has Scottish and
Welsh nationalism.
We in the Socialist Party have the task to educate all
workers to realise the need to destroy capitalism and build socialism. No worker
should be declared illegal for wanting to work or to better him or herself.
Capitalism is the enemy of all workers. It is the system of capitalist
production that produces unemployment, homelessness, destitution and crumbling
social services (not to mention the incessant wars that creates refugees flee
to safety) – not workers, be they ’indigenous’ or foreign. We are all wage
slaves and we should not permit the media to constantly slander a section of us
by blaming them for the problems created by the capitalist class itself – such
as unemployment and homelessness. Red herrings are part of the poison of political
life and demonizing those unable to defend themselves is an easy way to divert
attention. The capitalists try to turn groups of workers against each other,
competing ever more fiercely for dwindling jobs and falling wages in a war of
all against all. Workers of every
country are forced to compete with each other in order to force down wages
everywhere. Working people have only two choices: either let the bosses play us
off each other until we hit bottom, or to unite and fight for decent wages and
benefits for all.
One very basic idea, unity of the working class is critical.
In capitalist society, a tiny class of people owns the means of production and
profits by exploiting the workers’ labour. United, the overwhelming tendency of
the working class would be to fight for a decent life for all, which is
incompatible with capitalism. Powerful united struggles of the working class
would inevitably demonstrate the need to overthrow capitalism altogether. Since
the working class is the only class with the power to overturn capitalism, the
capitalists use every possible divide-and-conquer tactic to prevent this
development. The bosses hope to keep the workers fighting with each other over
shrinking pieces of a small pie instead of uniting for better pay and
conditions and a higher standard of living for everyone. Workers have nothing
to gain by falling prey to any type of anti-immigrant scapegoating. We have to
reject all laws that divide the working class into legals and illegals. The
rich are the exploiters, a class of idle parasites who live off the toil and
sweat of the workers. These big money-bags have only one interest: profits, and
not just any kind of profits, but maximum profits. Hence, the rich use nationalism
to wring maximum profits out of their employees and to make it easier to rule
over the people. They use nationalism to single out certain sections of the
people, the immigrant communities, for the worst kind of exploitation and to
incite other sections of the people to attack the immigrants. This is the
standard tactic of all minorities with state power: divide and rule. Politicians
will continue to distract the public by blaming the individual and minority
groups, and in particular newcomers and strangers rather than the economic
system and the austerity policies it require to survive as the root cause of
the problem.
As the gulf between rich and poor becomes greater so too
will the desire of the capitalist class to use all weapons to divide working
people. The response is to fight for the common interest of working class
unity. But unity is not an automatic process. Create and perpetuating national divisions
within the working class has always been an essential feature of the capitalist
system. This was a point that Marx recognised over 100 years ago when he talked
about the prejudice directed by English workers against migrant Irish workers.
He called this antagonism the ‘secret of the impotence of the English working
class ... It is the secret by which the capitalist class maintains its power.’
The Socialist Party has always approached the question of not
from the standpoint of a particular capitalist state, but from the standpoint
of the interests of the world’s working class. These are best served by the
free movement of workers around the globe. Not only does this enable workers as
a whole to get the best price for the sale of their labour power, it also
increases the proletarisation of previously peasants and also aids
international unification. We therefore reject completely all attempts by the
ruling class to restrict or control the international migration of labour.
“I mean, your
society's broken, so who should we blame? Should we blame the rich, powerful
people who caused it? No, let's blame the people with no power and no money and
these immigrants who don't even have the vote, yeah it must be their fucking
fault.” - Iain Banks
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