Govanhill Remembers the Devouring

A memorial to Roma victims of the Nazis which was destroyed by vandals in Glasgow is to be replaced by a robust granite plinth. Charity leaders said they were "disgusted" at the vandalism last month.

The plaque was dedicated to "all of those Roma who were murdered during the Holocaust".

The rose tree was planted to mark the Roma Genocide Memorial Day along with a plaque in Queen's Park, Govanhill. The original memorial was organised by charity Romano Lav - a group which works for the inclusion of Roma people. A spokesperson posted online: "Roma Genocide Memorial Day is about remembrance, but it is also about resistance. That this hateful act occurred at all underscores the need for this memorial.

"We will continue to honour the memory of those who lost their lives during the Holocaust, whilst fighting against the racism that marks our contemporary political moment, and that is a scourge on our society and communities."

Govanhill not only has the highest population of Roma in Scotland, but is also one of the country's most diverse populations.

• Europe's Roma and Sinti people (often labelled as gypsies' historically) were targeted by the Nazis for destruction.
• About 200,000 people, about 25% of the pre-war population were murdered or died of starvation or disease, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
• Many more were imprisoned or used as forced labour. Others were subjected to forced sterilisation or medical experimentation.
• The persecution is known at The Porrajmos which translates as the Devouring
• About 20,000 were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, which had its own Gypsy Camp.
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“Fresh air and freedom, everyone should taste it.”

While the Nackin people, who first appear in official records in the twelfth century in Scotland, have adapted their lives to keep up with economic change over the centuries, this commitment to a life on the road has remained resolute. The word ‘Gypsy’ comes from English medieval references to the Roma people, who scholars believed came from Egypt. In fact, DNA testing and linguistic studies show that the Roma originated in the Punjab, and many words in the Romanis language have their roots in Sanskrit. The Scottish Nackin, meanwhile, speak Cant, which has Scots, Gaelic and Norse roots, with some Romani influences from when the Roma reached the British Isles. One such word, ‘gadgie’, is a commonly used Scots slang word and is the Cant word for man. In Romani, the word ‘gaji’ is from the ancient Sanskrit word for civilian.

Most of the Roma in Scotland now are immigrants from Europe, alongside English Gypsies and Welsh Kali, both of whom have Romani roots.

Irish Travellers, usually called Pavees or Minkiers, also settle in Scotland and, like the Nackin, have their own history and language.Finally, there are also professionally nomadic folk, like show people, with their own communities. 

We’ve always lived on the margins of society. And we’ve always tended to do something to get by and survive,” 20-year-old Traveller advocate and activist Davie Donaldson tells Holyrood.

The commitment to stay mobile has meant the Nackin have valued self-employment, first as tin and silversmiths, making and repairing weapons for the clans, then in more recent years at seasonal agricultural work, he says. 

When farms grew, consolidated and turned to migrant labour, many travellers then picked up trades such as landscaping and roofing.

“There’s always that want to be self-employed, in control of yourself,” says Donaldson.

 The travelling community tends to experience poorer health and education outcomes than almost any other minority group in Scotland.  Put bluntly, travellers can expect shorter lives, with only four per cent of the community aged 70 or over, compared to 12 per cent of the population as a whole.

A huge distrust of social work, for example, stems from an era when Traveller children were frequently taken into care, he says.

Religious institutions forcibly took traveller children in the first half of the 20th century after an 1895 report had called for them to be saved from their “vagrant” parents. Other children were deported to be servants in Australia and Canada.

Full article can be read here

https://www.holyrood.com/articles/inside-politics/scotlands-travelling-communities-right-roam

Who are the Gypsies?

Although they have been living in our own continent for over eight centuries,  this is a question still widespread among European people, as an inexplicable enigma. In their travels - often running away from the hostility of who, not knowing them, fear them and does n’t want to be their neighbours - when Gypsies arrive in a city and decide to settle in a district, people immediately watch them with open hostility. In those eyes full of distrust and fear there is always the same question: who are you?

Over the centuries Roma people have been defined by many names. Their assumed Egyptian origin is the reason of the name “gypsies”. Historians and linguists now agree on the Indian origin of Roma people. The Romani (or Romanes)  language is a neo-Aryan language related to the ancient Sanskrit, and it is now spoken, in different dialects, in several Asiatic and European countries. It is undeniable that Roma has been subjected to prejudice and slander, sources of discriminatory attitudes and violent persecution. Since their arrival in Europe, they have been received with suspicion and irrational fear. Observing their nomad life, their ethnic traditions, and their religious costumes, they were assumed by people with no law and no moral code. They were supposed to worshiping Pagan Gods and devoting themselves to divination and witchcraft. It was said that, as the  Jews were responsible of Jesus’ death, the Gypsies, excellent smiths, forged the nails used to crucify him; for this reason, they were damned people, doomed to travel forever, without any homeland. Roma, as reported in the ancient chronicles, were greeted by European citizens with initial suspicion mixed with curiosity, but soon their appearance, their clothes, their mysterious language and their customs aroused irrational fears, followed by intolerance and rejection, as it still happens today.

In England, in 1530 the first laws  allowing the expulsion of Roma motivated only by their race were introduced. King Henry VIII was  not in a good mood that year, when the Pope forbade him to marry Anne Boleyn and demanded her  expulsion from the court. It was the straw that breaks the camel's back: Henry VIII declared himself  head of the Church of England and married Anna. It was one of those "epochal" changes, and it gave way to the Lutheran Reformation. However, this innovative spirit did not light the king when  he faced the issue of Gypsies. To correct what he considered an emergency, he forbade the  transportation of Roma to the UK, imposing a fine of 40 pounds for the master or the ship-owner  who would have disobeyed the decree. The penalty for Roma immigrants was the hanging. Some  years later, in 1547, Edward VI of England, after the death of his father Henry VIII, listened to his  advisers and changed the laws concerning Roma. The new rules, however, were equally ruthless, but the death penalty was cancelled: Gypsies had to be arrested and branded with a V on their  chest, and then enslaved for a period of two years. If they tried to escape and were caught, they were marked with an S and made slaves for life. On July 25th 1554, the day of  the marriage between Mary Tudor and Philip II of Spain, the terror of the Inquisition materialized  for the gypsies living in England and Ireland. Bloody Mary's commitment to restore Catholicism  also targeted Roma living in the territory of the kingdom. An act was issued which established the  capital punishment not only for Roma but also for anyone serving in their communities. Eight years  later, under the reign of Elizabeth I, a new law was enacted, under which the Gypsies born in  England and Wales had to leave the country, or waive their traditions and dissolve their  communities. All others Roma would have had suffer the confiscation of land and property and the  death sentence. In 1596, during the reign of Elizabeth I 106 travellers were sentenced to death in the city of York, with no indictment out of belonging to a race hated by the authorities and the public. Nine sentences were executed, while the  others managed to prove that they were born in England. Executions on the basis of race continued  until 1650, the year after the execution of Charles I, when the era of Oliver Cromwell began and the  English interregnum, first with the republic called the Commonwealth of England, then with the  Protectorate of England, Scotland and Ireland. Despite the atmosphere of political and social  change, that year a Roma was executed in Suffolk, while others were deported to America.

Scotland,  that in 1540 had allowed Roma to live within the country while maintaining their traditions, had a  sudden afterthought and the following year enacted laws against the Gypsies. In 1573, the Gypsies hiding in Scotland were ordered to get married and develop a  stable working activity, otherwise leave the country.

From nine to twelve million Roma are currently living in Europe. In Romania the estimated Roma population is between one million and a half to two and a half; in Bulgaria from 700,000 to  800,000; in Spain - where they are called Gypsies or Kale - around 600,000; in France half a  million. In 2006, about 160,000 Roma lived in Italy, then reduced to less than half due to the indiscriminate evictions and the institutional persecution, which forced them to seek refuge in other countries, causing in the meantime a high degree of mortality within the settlements. Roma from  Eastern Europe constitute about 85% of the total, Kale - or Gypsies - 10%, Sintis (in France called Manouche) 4% and Romanichal in UK 0.5 %. In Europe Roma are primarily sedentary, although the persecution often obliges them to a form of forced nomadism. The stereotypes on Roma community during a thousand years are always the same: they are children rapers, thieves, lawless and dirty people etc. Most European citizens are frightened by misinformation concerning Roma people, and the role the media play in this case, cannot be considered negligible. For centuries the marginalization and mistrust towards Roma people have not changed and Roma communities are quite always and everywhere discriminated, ghettoised and kept away from citizens, mass media and often from public administrations also. The decades spent in this situation of neglect have brought communities to a complete isolation causing distrust and rancor towards the host countries.

Scottish Racism

Racist murders are more common in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, according to a shock academic study into the extent of prejudice.

A new book insists the belief Scotland is immune to racism and “culturally different” to England is condemned as a “misleading fantasy”. The authors of No Problem Here: Understanding Racism in Scotland cite official crime figures to prove there is a very real problem.

The analysis shows the rate of racist murders is higher on average in Scotland than in the UK as a whole. Between 2000 and 2013, there were 1.8 murders per million people with a known or suspected race element in Scotland. The equivalent figure for the UK was just 1.3 murders per million people.

Carol Young, senior policy officer for the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, said the stats show the idea that Scotland doesn’t have a problem with racism is false.  “There’s a perception that Scotland has less of a problem with racism than other areas of the UK, perhaps best summed up by the phrase, ‘we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns’.But, regardless of popular opinion, the statistics suggest otherwise. In 2013-2014, 4807 racist incidents were recorded by police in Scotland. That’s equivalent of 92 incidents every week, without accounting for the many cases that go unreported.” Young added: “You could be white-skinned and still identifiably minority ethnic in many circumstances. Skin tone has not protected Jewish people, Irish people, Gypsy/traveller communities or new European migrants from racism.”

Neil Davidson, a sociology lecturer at Glasgow University said: “The idea that there is ‘no problem’, or at least much less of a problem, has grown for three reasons. One is that the Irish-Catholic presence – the largest-ever migrant group to settle in Scotland – tends to be discussed in the context of ‘sectarianism’, a concept which treats Catholics and Protestants as equivalent and ignore the racism directed towards the former. The second is the relatively small size of the migration to Scotland from the Indian sub-continent and especially from the Caribbean, which did not mean that migrants did not suffer racism, just that it was much less visible than in Birmingham or London.

“Finally, the movements for devolution and independence have involved the idea that Scotland is ‘culturally’ different from England, and that part of this difference involves the Scots being more ‘welcoming’, ‘tolerant’ and so on...these are misleading fantasies, which ignore the historical experience of Irish Catholics and the contemporary experience of Muslims, Roma and other BAME groups...'

The Roma "Child Sex Scandal"

The Socialist Standard highlighted the persecution of the Roma, particularly in Eastern Europe. But the scapegoating also exists here in Scotland.

A charity group which works to support Roma communities in Glasgow has hit out at claims children as young as primary school age are being forced into prostitution on the streets of Govanhill. Friends of Romano Lav (FoRL) have now released a statement which blasts the "spurious and unevidenced" allegations. Members say they have "not encountered any instances of the child protection issues" highlighted this week. "They would say that," is the response. It's a no-win situation for Roma community workers. If you don't speak, you will never influence or integrate. If you speak, you will not be believed.

Police Scotland said there was "no information or intelligence to substantiate the concerns" 

 The Times recent lurid investigative report by journalist Marc Horne stated that ‘children [are being] sold for sex on the streets of Govanhill’. Yet this claim was not supported by evidence taken to the police, but rather on pub gossip and local hearsay. . The nature of the reporting on Govanhill was remarkably similar to the moral panic over the case of ‘Maria’, supposedly ‘stolen by Gypsies’ in Greece in 2013. That the Roma have a proclivity for selling their children is a racist story that follows them. It is a story hundreds of years old; it is a story that always finds new traction. When the Roma began moving to Sheffield in 2013, newspapers reported that a Roma family tried to sell a child to a chip-shop owner.

Scottish Nationalism and European Nationalism

Nationalism, as we have seen, is always the tool of the bourgeoisie, historically.  The Socialist Party will argue in this June the 8^th General Election that liberation for Scottish workers can come about only by overthrowing capitalism itself. If this is not done, no amount of sovereignty can ever succeed in bringing freedom, but the only diversion. At present Scottish nationalism and the SNP have the appearance of being a progressive movement to some honest people and those sincere people in and around the nationalist movement will only discover, in some years’ time, that they have been most cruelly misled and have been wasting their time.  Instead of tragically wasting their time fostering nationalism (in whatever form), they must build a powerful socialist movement.

Many who will vote for the SNP will do so in the hope that eventual Scottish independence will bring re-membership with the EU which is routinely presented as an internationalist project for an ever closer union between peoples of the region as a means of overcoming national differences and state rivalries which therefore appeals to many on the left, who often identify the EU with modernisation, economic and social advance.  Although it was not a nation state, the EU is already mimicking the state ideologically, producing a Europeanism constructed of nationalism. The EU has the appearance of a body in which national differences, if not dissolved, are at least partly reconciled. While Eurocrats and politicians in member states have declared for internationalism and harmony, they have simultaneously organised a regime of exclusion which divides ‘Europeans’ from ‘non-Europeans’ as effectively as any imagined differences which were earlier said to separate Germans, French, or Italians. Fortress Europe has a class character, intended to deny entry to almost all of those seeking a buyer for their semi- and unskilled labour power, as well as those seeking sanctuary from civil conflict and repression. The vast majority of those denied entries are poor and vulnerable; those with wealth and privilege are invariably admitted such as the Russian oligarchs with well-padded bank accounts to buy up football clubs.

‘Fortress Europe’ in fact draws upon ideas which earlier underpinned Europe’s rival nationalisms. It has encouraged racism in general and helped to provide rationales for the extreme right, where the vocabulary of Nazism has reappeared in the form of defending “European” and “Christian” culture. The EU has begun to construct its exclusionary regime with razor wire and border police, with the idea of securing Europe against ‘threats’ from without. EU states were focused intently upon removing migrants and refugees deemed ‘bogus’, ‘clandestine’ or ‘illegal’.  The vast majority of those targeted were poor and vulnerable people, almost invariably of African or Middle Eastern origin. But EU states have also targeted an ‘enemy’ long present within European territorial boundaries. Roma people were identified by fascist movements of the 1920s and 1930s as one of their two greatest enemies: conservatively at least 200,000 Gypsies were sent to the death camps. In a crisis-stricken Europe images of the divided past are returning. Immigration policies are now formed in response to the collective insecurities and imaginings of public opinion; the clampdown on illegal immigrants, the need for tighter border controls, the threat of religious fundamentalism, the perceived loss of national identity, and the fears of demographic invasion are characteristic reactions of the right-wing revival. The media regularly carries stories of an Islamic menace, with Europe depicted as a target zone for migrants who could make common cause with resident Muslim communities which are increasingly depicted as a fifth-column within European society. The EU’s progress towards a fortified Europe and the heavy cost in terms of intensified racism and growth of the right presents a dismal picture.

Yet SNP propaganda depicts a happy transnational Europe in which old conflicts are being erased but it is the commercial trade-offs that drive the SNP to remain with the EU.

Forlorn hopes in Govanhill

SOUTHSIDE Central contains what are two of the most notorious areas of the city – the Gorbals and Govanhill.

With high levels of poverty, overcrowding and fly tipping, it’s easy to overlook the many positives - community spirit, excellent amenities, great transport links. Jim Monaghan is a community campaigner who works for Govanhill Community Baths said: “The best thing about Govanhill is the mix of people. You’ve got the kind of hipster artists and working class people who have been in the area for decades and migrants who have just come here. The diversity is not just in terms of race but also social cultures, which makes it a really interesting place to be a place that no matter what your community or culture is, whether ethnic or social, you’ll find someone like you.” 

On the other hand, Jim says poverty is a huge issue.

He said: “What I like least is the poverty, which you see in the overcrowded housing. Because of the mix of housing here being low rent, poor quality and easy to get, people who struggle to get references or deposits gravitate here and so it becomes a cycle. 

“Poverty, lack of opportunity, poor housing – everything is linked. People will say the problem is the Roma or landlords but the issues are linked to the same thing: poverty.”

To fix the problems in Govanhill, and the ward more widely, Jim believes a joined-up political approach is necessary.

He said: “The ward needs housing. It needs people to be serious about it. People use the area as a political football most of the time...'

Looking to the future, Jim believes things can get better.“There’s an opportunity to make it that 20 years from now people will say ‘Look at that wonderful place’.”

Jim understands the problem but does he realise the cure? Can he trust that the capitalist system can fulfil what he hopes for.

The Govanhill Slums (2)

In the Govanhill area of Glasgow, poverty is high and worker exploitation is commonplace. Parts of Govanhill are ranked among the most deprived in the country, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. Local agencies highlight overcrowding, poor housing and rogue landlords as the key problem.

Figures obtained by the BBC show that of a study of 310 local Roma people, most were working but that more than a third were receiving less than the minimum wage. Govanhill has one of the largest concentrations of Roma people in the UK. There are 42 different languages spoken in Govanhill, but a glance at social media would suggest that all the migrants in the area are Roma. They are often blamed for what goes wrong in the community.

Ch Insp Graham McInarlin, the area commander, said Govanhill did not merit its reputation "There are a number of myths in the area. If we are to believe everything we read then the Roma are responsible for all crime in the area. In actual fact we know that is not the case. We do know that a number of Eastern Europeans in the area are very reluctant to report crime."

Marek Balog, originally from Slovakia said: "People are coming to Scotland to work, not live off benefits. They are willing to work for less than the minimum wage. About 30-40% work for less than the minimum wage. Some have to do it to survive.” Calina Toqer, from Romania said some women were so poor they raked through the charity clothes bins.

Jim Monaghan, head of the Govanhill Baths Community Trust,

said: "Poverty is the main problem in the area and has been for a long time. The problems came here before the Roma. Sometimes it's exacerbated by the amount of people and lack of housing but that's not about who the people are. There's a lot of one-bedroom flats. They're easy to get without references and so people gravitate here. People that already have problems gravitate here. There's far too many people living here. Years ago it was 8,500. Now it's 14,000."

 A study found that local Roma were fed-up with the rubbish on the streets and in the closes. New figures show that since January the council has collected 900 tonnes of waste and recyclable material from domestic and commercial premises in the area. In addition, they've collected 485 tonnes of illegally fly-tipped material from pavements and lanes.

In the past four years there have been 1,428 incidences of mites such as bed bugs and fleas, and 1,864 incidences of cockroaches. Rachel Moon, of Govanhill Law Centre, said: "Govanhill has the highest concentration of cockroaches in Scotland. Quite often they just travel up and down the flats and it is really difficult to eradicate them. It is made so much worse by fly-tipping by private landlords. Rather than buying new mattresses they just take them from the street and it goes round in a circle. We have had clients with pock marks all over their arms and their children have pock marks all over their arms and they are sitting scratching because of all the lice and bed bugs. Often people don't want to have anything to do with public authority. They don't want to give evidence or take a case. They just want somewhere to live. Many clients are getting paid less than the minimum wage but they say they are happy to have a job."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-37180037

Minorities in Scotland

The proportion of the population from non-white ethnic groups is just 4% in Scotland, compared with around 13% across the UK.

People from ethnic minorities in Scotland are four times more likely than the general population to live in overcrowded accommodation, 11.8% compared with 2.9%, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

They are also twice as likely to be poor and out of work.

After housing costs, 36% of people from ethnic minorities were in poverty, compared with 17% of white people.

Unemployment rates for people from ethnic minorities in 2013 were significantly higher than for the population as a whole - 13.2% compared with 6.9%.

Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children do much worse at school than their white classmates.

Just over half of Gypsies and Travellers in Scotland are economically inactive, and many live in what the Scottish Parliament's Equal Opportunities Committee described as "horrendous conditions". In Scotland, a greater proportion of Gypsy/Travellers rated their health as "bad" or "very bad" (15%) compared with the average for Scotland (6%).

A Scottish government analysis of the 2011 Census found that older Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women report considerably worse health than older men in these ethnic minorities.

Research by the Marie Curie terminal care charity found that Black, Asian and "Other" ethnic minority communities are underrepresented among those using palliative care services at the end of life.

There are more foetal and infant deaths where the mother identifies as "South Asian" or "Other" ethnicity than would be expected.

The report also highlights what it calls "significant occupational segregation". People from an ethnic minority background are underrepresented in senior management jobs in Scotland; in the police and criminal justice system; on local councils; and in take-up of Modern Apprenticeships. Indians living in Scotland, 38% work in wholesale or retail (compared with 15% for the general population). And almost a third of Chinese people here are employed in the accommodation and food industries (against a 6% national figure).

Polish people had the highest rates of work - 81% are either employed or self-employed.

Bread and Circuses

 Abolish the wages and prices system. There is no such thing as a fair day’s pay. Wages are only ever a rationing of access to the massive wealth collectively produced. Wage workers are exploited at the point of production for the surplus value which they produce in order for the parasite capitalist class to amass huge profits. Businesses such as Celtic football club are no different in this respect regardless of the founding ethos. Sectarian divisions in Scotland and elsewhere have workers at each other’s throats rather than pursuing their common interest, which is getting rid of the parasitic capitalist system and establishing a free access, moneyless, government less, social system. Such are the modern versions of bread and circuses. Establish common ownership of all wealth production and distribution rendering boardrooms obsolete.

"When sport is considered only in economic terms and consequently for victory at every cost, it risks reducing athletes to mere trading material from whom profits are extracted” Pope Francis

The State is the governance and control of the vast majority by a dominant minority class in its interests. Working people have no country. It is in the interests of the vast majority to do away with this ownership and control of the earth's resources by this parasitic minority, whether control is exercised through national, regional, or global coercive, i.e. governing apparatus. The fact that this government is by assent through the chimera of the elective process, into which the rich buy privileged input, doesn't remove the domination of the vast majority and their compulsion into conditions of wage slavery in order to profit the capitalist class. We have more in common with workers in England, Poland, Bangladesh etc. than we will ever have with the parasite class who wish to exploit us. Instead of opting for government over us for a pittance of a wage or salary, opt for the whole world to be owned in common and controlled democratically without governments, nation states or politicians. It is your world to be won, make common cause with your fellow worker, don't slavishly settle for anything less.

It would be nice if struggles for national independence could magically result in a classless society, but that's, unfortunately, not the way societies progress. Scottish capitalism is not only tied to the British capitalism but also to international capitalism. Any kind of Scottish state that didn't offer benefits to corporations would see capital flight and a serious drop in its economy -- the Scottish socialist economy is a myth. Nationalism just replaces one set of bosses with another, and also helps to divide the working class. As if an "independent" Scotland would be any less affected by the world slump or being sacked by a Scottish boss be more agreeable. Will a social revolution come about through constitutional moves towards independence? No! All moves towards independence have entrenched the power of the Scottish elite. The SNP have been bank-rolled by millionaires like Tom Farmer and Brian Soutar. National independence is a chimera. Scottish independence is a distraction from building working class solidarity against capitalism. Nationalism is, at best, a dead-end and, at worst, reactionary. The socialist objective is to liberate humanity, not liberate nations.

The phrase ‘Nation-State’ itself assumes that the states into which the world is divided are the political expression of pre-existing ‘nations’. In fact, it’s the other way round. It is the ‘nation’ that is the creation of the state. States inculcate into their subjects the idea that they form a community with a common interest and that the state represents that interest. The result is that people come to refer to themselves and other subjects of the same state as ‘we’ and ‘us’.

Real socialists do not speak of ‘we’ and ‘us’ in relation to so-called ‘Nation-States’ in which they happen to have been born or live. We know that, in every state, there are two classes with opposed interests: the class of those who own and control the means of production and the rest, the vast majority, who do not and, to live, have to sell their mental and physical energies to those who do for a wage or a salary.

It is not difficult to believe that the political scum of all parties, very public stance against eastern European (aka Roma) immigration is fuelled largely by a desire to appeal to the populist vote and is a demagogic tactic aimed at seducing the Far Right. Each year we are reminded by the government of the day to remember the Jewish Holocaust, yet the Roma Devouring stays forgotten. August the 2nd is the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, marking the start of the liquidation by the Nazis of the ’gypsy’ camp at Auschwitz. The silence of British politicians was deafening. Our rulers have a long history of camouflaging the failures of capitalism, particularly in times of economic slump, by seeking out scapegoats.

Wage and salary workers in one state have the same basic interest as their counterparts in other states. We are all members of the world working class and have a common interest in working together to establish a world without frontiers in which the resources of the globe will have become the common heritage of all the people of the world and used for the benefit of all. In a free access socialist society there is no need for a capitalists, or their policing governments, as the capitalists produce nothing and only bring exploitation to the table. Workers produce all wealth and are rationed in their access to it by wages. They build the houses produce food, clothing, shelter, anything you care to name. The Great Money Trick chapter in the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists describes the robbery. Capitalism is a system of organised scarcity. Governments of all stripes attempt to manage this, but the fact is the system manages them. We can't have the 'fairer capitalism ' of social reformers. It is an anarchic market system which will waste human resources as soon as it is necessary for shoring up profits. Production is always choked off before human needs can be satisfied. Indeed the satisfaction of human needs isn't the purpose of capitalism. Profit is. Capitalism can't be reformed any meaningful way. We all must seize hold of our personal responsibility to work for its demise and replacement with a world of free access, wage-less price-free socialism, without competition, governments or nation states eye-balling each other up over control of resources on land under sea and elsewhere in space. Only with a world of common ownership and democratic control of all wealth, food, clothing, housing, fuel and all resources based around the tenet of, "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs” can humankind become truly human. The fact that present society is not one of conscious motivation, directed towards social ends, but of profit motivation, places grave restrictions on its productive powers and hence consuming powers. As Marx points out,

"... It is not a fact that too much wealth is produced. But it is true that there is a periodical over-production of wealth in its capitalistic and self-contradictory form. . . . The capitalist mode of production for this reason meets with barriers at a certain scale of production which would be inadequate under different conditions. It comes to a standstill at a point determined by the production and realisation of profit, not by the satisfaction of social needs." Capital, Vol. 3.

This is why Marx indicted capitalism as a system of organised scarcity. Only you can end it and establish a classless society with politicians redundant along with their mentors. Capitalism cannot meet the needs of the majority of us, the workers (or proletariat) of the world, no matter how progressive it might become in the future.

It is not 'our' welfare state but the capitalist class' welfare state. It was set up to maintain the reserve labour force for when an economic downturn occurred. Cradle to grave provision happened out of political expediency to buy off discontent. Especially after the war. Its cost is a burden on the capitalist class. If you work for a wage or salary your tax is deducted from the employers wage bill, what you receive is the bottom line. The nominal National Insurance and other contributions workers’ pay are a con in order to gull you into the impression it is 'your'' welfare state. Your target is the capitalist class who have collectively reneged on the promised provision, the employers who have a done deal on pensions, often in lieu of wage settlements in the past and now protest their unaffordability. Your discontent should be channeled into making common cause with workers of all lands and none to remove the parasitic capitalist class, who produce nothing but live off the fat of the land everywhere. Abolish the wages system and establish a global, free access socialist system where production is for use, without rationing of access by prices, wages or private ownership of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth. Let all wealth be owned in common and controlled democratically without elites, by the whole population.

Racism, Nationalism, Patriotism, Xenophobia and Bigotry

Working class people are tired of living in poverty, tired of living payslip to payslip, tired of seeing the products of their hard efforts evaporate before their very eyes. The times are tough for many of us, where we don't know how we're going to survive. Politician after politician makes empty promises, and still there's no relief for us workers. So we start to look around at who to blame, and it's easy enough... we blame black people, brown people, immigrants. It's simple enough. We're in competition with these people for jobs and resources, so it seems like a logical enough conclusion to come to. Historically, we've always been at odds with foreigners. We can better relate to others born here, no matter how poor or rich. They're more like us, and that's something we can identify with, come to terms with. So, obviously, our natural enemies become those not from here. 

The only problem with this idea is that we've had it wrong for centuries. The lynch-mob approach, the ganging-up on victims defined as of lesser importance, appeals to bullies, whose humanity is stunted and who lack any notion of fair play. We've been kept blind to the true nature of what is really going on. Look around. Who fills council estates and inner city slums with us? Who works in the factories or fast food restaurants with us? Who is beside us working in the fields, picking produce that we'll never really be able to afford? Is it rich people? Hell no, it isn't. It's brown people, black people, yellow people. It's people with different accents than us. They are the people that are in similar situations to us, living paycheck to paycheck, suffering like we do. So why then would we view them as our enemy? When you walk into your workplace tomorrow, where are the majority of the blacks? Or brown-skinned people? Or migrants? Are they in positions of power over us? Sure, a few might be. But where are the majority of those that are at our workplace? That's right: side by side with us, experiencing the same drudgery and wage slavery as us. So, logic might tell us that they should also be side by side with us in our fight for liberty and an end to oppression. Wouldn't that make more sense than working side by side with the same people that rob our paychecks and swindle us out of the products of our labor?

The true interests of workers lie with other workers, no matter what their race or natuonality. Other workers, of all races, are exploited. We are exploited. We work to barely meet our needs, while bosses and the people in charge profit from that labor. We are born and we die in squalor or relative poverty while the rich and the politicians live in the lap of luxury. Who are these rich people? Who are these politicians? Tonight when we go to bed in our overcrowded apartments, our small damp houses they are the ones who will go to bed in luxury, in comfort, with no worries at all.

The blunt reality is that working class people have been used by rich people to colonise for, kill for, work for, and then better the living standards of those same white rich people, all the while sacrificing our own needs, wants, aspirations, and even lives. It really is as simple as that. No one denies the history of what has happened at working people's expenses. Wars, poverty, homelessness, wage slavery... these are all ills created by someone, and perpetuated by us... the same workers who suffer these ills. For centuries we've been used by the rich among our own country to promote their agenda and suffered because of it. Yet, somehow, we've still been convinced that our allegiance is to our nation, to these same rich elite that would just as soon see us die as they would be to help us as fellow citizens. Let's get real, how often do the rich actually give handouts to us poor kin-folk? Do you really think they care at all about our well-being? Where's the allegiance from them, the people that put us in the worst situations we face and spew out the racist, xenophobic speeches?

The heart of the matter is that we've been too busy fighting the people who should naturally be our allies against these injustices. The rich have used our skin colour against us, have blinded us with their nationalism and patriotism into fighting other working people of other nationalities while they sit on the sideline and reap the benefits. For far too long, the ignorant stooges of the wealthy within our own class used words like "red" and "commie" at folk that may have finally started to awaken to the truth of what's really happening. Real socialists hate Lenin, hate Stalin, hate Mao. But we also hate Cameron, Merkel and Obama. These people, all of them, are the ruling elites that we despise, who live in relative luxury while the rest of us work away our very existence to barely eat.

The time is now actually better our lives. It's time to see who our friends must be. For starters, we have to reject the ridiculous notion that immigrants from other countries are our enemy, that they are somehow stealing our jobs, that they somehow really threaten us. Let's get real. Who's really stealing our jobs? Who closes the factories, relocate the offices, off-shore the jobs. Who's really stealing our jobs? Poverty stricken Eastern Europeans or rich CEOs? We're fed ridiculous ideas of the "invading" foreigners. If we're busy fighting asylum seekers at the border, and busy trying to round up all the "illegals" working in restaurants then we're too busy to fight that real enemy, that one that keeps eluding us, the ruling class we keep talking about. If we want to defend our families and our communities, then fight our real enemy, the "enemy within" , our employers and landlords but in reality, we're weakening ourselves even more by attacking fellow workers. The rich people have us so confused that we'd rather be on the border hunting for foreigners than actually fighting those people that create the social conditions that we all collectively suffer in. Our blind hatred of non-native people will continue to be the nails in our coffins (Other nails will be the attitudes we show toward women, the old and the young, people with different sexual and gender identities, people with disabilities, and people of different religions.)

The rich have been very keen on dividing us up as much as they can, by distorting and magnifying existing divisions and differences among those of us that suffer at their hands. We would rather vote for somebody that stands against giving sanctuary to the suffering even though he will still steal our money and exploit us economically.  We consistently get used just to expand the power of those already above us. We'd rather fight against the newcomers than actually organise for higher pay and better conditions.

Deep down, we all know that no matter who we vote for, we're still going to be screwed, and we're still going to be ranting about our jobs being stolen or  the Roma being too ‘criminal’while ignoring the rich that rake in the profits and power. Wake up! We've fallen for this deceit for far too long! No Farage or UKIP is going to save us. Only we can do it... together, as people of all lands and backgrounds that are sick of living like this!

This is an open call to ignore the baiting of the right-wing EDL/BNP, to ignore the racist allegiances that the rich try to get us to buy into, to ignore the illogical and ridiculous calls among the ignorant among us. This is a call to reject the idea that our allegiance is somehow determined by what skin pigment we have or the place of our birth, no matter whether our real life situations are so different. Our enemy is the capitalist class. Our friends are those people who are forced to work for a living. Until we get these simple ideas into our head, then we're doomed. Doomed to repeat everything that's happened for the last centuries. We'll still be here trying to climb out of the squalor we find ourselves in, and our children will inherit that destiny as well, and their children after them, and so on... until finally, a generation of working people realises that we've been tricked. That we've been used by our masters. To meet other working people who really want a life worth living, you can join the Socialist Party.  Hurry. There's no time to lose. We've been losing for too long.

Greatly adapted from here

The immigration Issue

Migration is but yet another symptom of the bankruptcy of capitalism, yet another contradiction that cannot be solved on a capitalist basis. The only way to solve this, like all the other issues, is the socialist transformation of society which would remove the need for migration. The answer to people fleeing conflict, deprivation and brutal regimes is to remove the root causes of such nastiness—minority ownership and control of productive resources which generates rivalry for the upper hand, and restricts provision of, and access to, goods and services according to available profits and ability to pay. It is this exclusive possession and control of resources that also divides the world into separate competing countries and blocs, and the need for associated borders to prevent others from attempting to acquire these valuable assets by armed force, subversion or, in the case of migrants during economic downturns, "excess" demand (i.e., too many unemployed and unemployable people burdening state finances). And since these means of production responsible are possessed and run by ruling classes in all countries worldwide, worldwide socialism is the only solution. Then we will be able to truly live in peace, and all our brothers and sisters, wherever they may be in the world will be able to make a positive and meaningful contribution to the world we all live in and live as one, free from the exploitation and the barbarity that so blights the lives of so many of our fellow human beings at the present time.

When asylum seekers – children, women and men who have to flee their homes and families and make the hazardous and often outright dangerous journey across the globe – arrive in this state, their ordeal is far from over. Rather than being given the opportunity to rebuild their lives, they are often isolated from society. We live in a period in history where war and conflict are a more permanent feature affecting a huge proportion of the world population as never before.  Millions of people are displaced from their homes because of this, those who make it onto these shores should be guaranteed the opportunity to rebuild their lives. People want to move to improve their family’s finances, escape poverty or flee from war and persecution. In the same way, British people choose to live and work abroad, either where the money is, or to retire and where their meagre pensions go further.  Would those who want to restrict migration into Britain also want to stop British people moving abroad?

The legal system has always reflected the class interests of the ruling class, and indeed the need for laws reflects the tensions between the classes. Socialists support campaigns to reform oppressive laws, such as the Asylum Act, whilst pointing out these are preliminary skirmishes in the war to overthrow the rule of the capitalist class. Immigration law has always been determined by the requirements of the capitalist economy. Initially the needs of the British capitalists for extra labour in their expanding industries was supplied by dragging the rural poor to the growing towns, and then from their oldest and nearest colony, Ireland. We oppose the capitalists’ immigration laws for many of the same reasons the capitalists support them. Our interest are opposite. Most people who try to come to Britain are refugees from terror or economic migrants escaping poverty at home. They are mainly working people, and they will strengthen our class here. They will strengthen our links with workers and socialist parties in such places as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Caribbean. The capitalists oppose their entry because they are poor, and if they don’t require the extra labour see them only as a drain on their economy.

If all of the world’s refugees were to form one independent country, it would be the 24th largest, just behind Italy and ahead of South Africa. Capitalism produces unmanageable waste, human included. The reserve army of labor has long been filled, and so the remaining population is superfluous. Precarious, low-wage labor is the international norm, even increasingly so in the industrial north, where social-democratic protections are under steady assault. Nonetheless, conditions remain superior enough in these countries to attract millions of migrants each year. Some migrants wind up in camps that are essentially prisons, often for protracted periods.

In Dabaab, Kenya, there are three migrant towns operated by UNHCR, primarily housing refugees from the Somali Civil War. There are currently about 450,000 people in an area originally designed to handle only 90,000, and some have been there since the formation of the settlement in 1991. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 3.7 million refugees, with most coming from Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. The catalyst for these migrations is the growing instability of African states amidst civil war and regional sectarian conflicts, and the concomitant proliferation of terrorist organizations throughout the region.

France has closed the border near Ventimiglia, prompting Italian police to forcibly close a camp of mostly Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees. The Italian state is desperate for help from its European partners to absorb the flow, as some 57,000 displaced people have landed in the country so far this year. For its part, France has played a particularly disgusting role in this saga, which is hardly surprising given its recent history of treatment of minority communities within its borders. This is the land of the burka ban, where Nicolas Sarkozy rose to power on promises to hose the scum (“les racailles”) out of the streets of the suburban ghettos, and both he and his Socialist successor, Francois Hollande, forcibly expelled Roma communities in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Likewise, the French government has broken down several makeshift camps in recent years in the port city of Calais, and Human Rights Watch has documented widespread police abuse and harassment of migrants living there. Reports include unprovoked beatings and deployment of pepper-spray, even on people obeying orders. Volunteers have found evidence of physical abuse, including scars and broken bones, which victims claim were inflicted by French authorities.

The Socialist Party opposes the prejudiced populist attacks on asylum-seekers. The Socialist Party supports the rights of workers to be able to move freely around the world. We condemn and oppose the entire reactionary framework of ‘border controls’ and anti-immigrant legislation. The scapegoating of asylum seekers is rooted in the exploitation of nationalism for short term political ends. This politicking plays into genuine fears people hold for their own future and anger at a system that doesn’t work for them. The growing gap between rich and poor is being felt by many and they are looking for someone to blame. Socialists point people away from blaming those who are themselves victims of a rotten system and towards genuine solutions.

 In arguing for the right of complete freedom of movement for all people we must remember that ultimately it is capitalism which has created emigration system which often threats those who suffer its worst abuses as little better than animals. This is why the fight for refugee rights needs to go beyond simple appeals to people’s humanity and generosity. The strongest argument as to why people should support rights of migrants is because it is in their interest to do so. The Socialist Party will challenge workers who cannot see beyond the existing divisions of the world, and who believe in measures against labour from other countries. Marxists will continue to press for socialist internationalism. Workers of the world unite in the fight for world socialism!

Socialist Standard No. 1313 January 2014

• Editorial: 2014 - Year of Xenophobia?
• Pathfinders: Please Don’t Feed the Drones
• Letters
• Where Mandela Failed
• Halo Halo!
• Tribal Politics in Africa
• Cooking the Books: ‘I’m Not Going First’
• Material World: Myth of Peaceful Buddhism
• Greasy Pole: Catching The Eye
• What About the Roma?
• What is History?
• Nationalism and Destruction in the Balkans
• Marx, Co-operatives and Capitalism
• Cooking the Books: Co-ops Again
• Book Reviews: 'The Revolution Will Be Hilarious', ' Can Income Redistribution Rescue Capitalism?' & ' Spindleopolis - Oldham in 1913'
• Proper Gander: Screening The Working Class
• 50 Years Ago: Death of a President
• Action Replay: Counted Out
• Voice From the Back
• Cartoon: Free Lunch

Edinburgh, Scotland - Edinburg, Texas - The same poverty

In Edinburg, Texas, 200 miles south of San Antonio, Denise Acosta, 36, a mother of four children aged 14 and under, described how being laid off from her job as a healthcare administrator seven months ago  had caused a crisis.  An $800 medical bill, no longer covered by insurance, meant Acosta quickly fell behind on the $1,200 monthly payments on her house, then the car. She lost both, and was forced to move in with her sister.

In October, the family's food stamp scheme, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (Snap) benefits were $113 a month, a sum that lasts them about a week and a half. In November there was a $11 cut for each family member. An expansion of the programme designed to keep low-income Americans out of hunger put in place when the recession was biting deepest, was allowed to expire in November, cutting benefits.

Acosta has learned to be creative with the children's meals. “ I used to buy Lunchables [lunch packs] for snacks, now I get a big pack of ham and cheese and we make our own. They say: 'Why can't we have Lunchables?' I tell them, 'This way they get more.' I buy larger packs of cheaper meat and stretch it out...The younger ones will have a tuna sandwich or Roma noodles, around 19 cents a pack. The older ones say 'This isn't even a meal.' ”

As these cuts begin to bite, even harsher reductions are in prospect. Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed $38bn cuts over 10 years, in their latest version of a long-delayed farm bill that would also require new work requirements and drug tests for food stamp recipients. The House bill would deny Snap to 3.8 million low-income people in 2014, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, and to an average of 3 million people a year for 10 years. Those who would find themselves no longer eligible include some of the nation's neediest individuals, working families, children and senior citizens. In addition, 200,000 families would lose access to subsidised school meals.

That would make it really difficult for people who struggle to find work like me to get back on their feet,” Acosta said.

Even since the November cuts took effect, those involved in emergency food distribution reported higher demand and longer lines, with new clients they had not seen before.  Demand is outpacing supply. Of the 58,000 clients fed by the San Antonio Food Bank every week, Cooper said, half are working families, many are underemployed, the rest are seniors and people who, through mental or physical disability, cannot work. There are a lot of veterans in Texas, some of whom have been disabled through military service. But on the whole, Eric Cooper, the CEO said “Hunger is biased towards women and kids. A divorce, a separation can put a lot of women in poverty.”

"I'm not racist, but....”

Scotland’s immigrant population is 369,284 -7% of the total population. Edinburgh has the highest number of immigrants with 75,696, but Aberdeen’s 35,436 is the largest proportionately, representing 16 per cent of the population. And Glasgow has seen the largest increase in numbers, up by almost 40,000 in a decade. 55,231 Poles were living in Scotland in 2011, more than 20 times higher than in 2001.

Europe as an ethnically homogenous nation-state is just a dream, and a pretty nasty one at that.  The free movement of labour is one of the basic premises of EU membership. It is always the way with  nationalists to hide racism under a cloak of caring about social conditions and forget that these were just as bad before any influx of immigrants. As the recession continues to bite, negative attitudes towards foreigners are becoming more common. Integration is often regarded as the key factor, but immigrant advocates say the whole burden of adjustment should not be borne by migrants themselves. Integration is the Holy Grail of immigration policy, accepted and promoted by all major political parties. There is the expectation  that they have to become like us and many are against cultural diversity.

We recently had Tom Harris, Labour MP for Glasgow South, offering his tuppence-worth in the Daily Telegraph which i am sure all his constituents read. He repeats all the usual stereotypes about the Roma, such as aggressive begging, even though laws presently exist  to stop that sort of thing and plenty of other laws against  all  the other alleged anti-social behaviour from happening. But par for the course as a Labour MP he never asks why the Roma are begging, appearing to believe its a comfortable desirable occupation to walk cold, windy, wet  Scottish streets, pleading for charity. It is because Romanians and Bulgarians are stopped from working and are refused benefits, legislation brought in by his government  that many beg as an alternative to starving.
He says "my constituents become angrier and more resentful, because the lives they have worked so hard to build for themselves and their families are being impinged upon by people whose culture, way of life and attitude to authority and those around them are utterly alien" [my emphasis] Then he goes on to associate accepting different cultures with the custom of female genital mutilation. He then implies that Labour should follow the Tory policy of further cutting benefits to migrant workers because "[Cameron] is speaking to a lot more people than just his own party’s Right wing."
So, his argument is not one of let us not challenge attitudes and try to change them, but rather, let us make sure we agree with the racists because it is not nice to call them prejudiced - especially if they are voters!!

We need people who want to make things better rather than scare-mongering MPs out to court popularity. Harris tries a mealy mouthed get out that he is not being racist and a xenophobe but he conveniently forgets that almost everywhere in Europe the Roma are exposed to a growing discrimination, ranging from exclusion from education and employment to racially motivated attacks. If we keep reading and hearing all the same tired old images of beggars and poverty it reinforces the prejudices. We'll fail to see the normality that are the experience of huge swathes of Romani society who are happily integrating - not to mention the common threads that bind us all.

 What people don't understand they tend to fear. There is a cycle of suspicion and hostility that generates anti-Roma sentiment, which in turn deepens prejudice and further pushes the community from the society into which we expect them to assimilate. Groups of men and socialise in the street, noisily chatting in Romani and gesticulating while their children play in the street. You can see how that is intimidating to a society that no longer know their neighbours in the same tenement building!

 The Roma distrust of authority is understandable, given their history of persecution and attempted genocide. In Eastern Europe there have been increased instances of firebombing, shooting, stabbing, beating and other violence towards the Roma community. France, Germany and Italy have expelled thousands of Roma.

Fotis Filippou of  Amnesty International said:
"Roma across Europe are being pushed to the margins of society as a result of forced evictions; they are attacked on ethnic basis, used as a scapegoat for wider societal problems, denied access to education and basic rights. The language used by media outlets across the region when reporting stories on Roma and the stereotyping rhetoric often used by politicians and public figures could have serious repercussions for the Roma all over Europe. It may further fuel the already existing prejudices against them and lead to stigmatisation and discrimination. Amnesty International calls on national and European authorities and media outlets to refrain from intentionally or unintentionally targeting Roma as an ethnic minority – and creating the perception in doing so that ethnicity can be linked to criminality – this is directly and unambiguously discriminatory, the effects of which could be disastrous.”
There is little chance of the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Sun and the Daily Express of heeding such cautionary advice but let us not be mistaken even the “liberal” media has enthusiastically joined in the scape-goating of the Roma. Malcom X said “ If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing”

 "Man tae man the world o'er shall brithers be, for a' that"