RESPECT, the radical socialist alternative to New Labour, will face many challenges when it is launched on January 25. Not least of these is the question of racism, which today is at the cutting edge of the hostility to asylum seekers that is widespread across Europe.
This has, of course, been whipped up by government and media rhetoric over several years and by the criminalisation of migrants that is integral to building Fortress Europe.
Often racism towards asylum seekers merges into racism against other black or supposedly Middle Eastern or Muslim members of the population.
This article is intended to help get readers thinking about how they would like to see RESPECT acting to help turn the tide against racism. Why RESPECT should seek actively to challenge both popular racism against asylum seekers and government legislative changes I It is vital for socialists to keep in mind that thousands of people in Blair's Britain live in daily terror of being deported to countries which they fled because of wars, political persecution, torture and killings - countries such as Afghanistan, Columbia, Iran, Iraq, Kosova, People's Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Turkey, Zimbabwe, and many others.
Increasing numbers of refused asylum seekers are destitute because of section 55, which means they often go without food, shelter or medical care, sometimes unable to get to their solicitors, or relying on overstretched community support - inhabiting a nightmare world that is largely hidden from mainstream British society.
New Labour is now turning up the heat on asylum seekers even more, and not just by cutting off the legal avenues to safety. Growing numbers of people including children are being picked up and detained in often unbelievably harsh conditions, watched over by sadistic and brutal Group 4 security guards, as recently revealed by Nick ommerlad in The Mirror. ..... The Home Office have been gearing up for some time and are now removing several thousand more people per annum than two years ago.
An artificial panic about so-called "health tourism" is the latest weapon in the war on asylum seekers - and of course it is a weapon that will also attack the already settled migrant population.
'Fishing expeditions' are also on the increase. When we hear about deportations being stopped, these cases are only a tiny minority - the Home Office have been gearing up for some time and are now removing several thousand more people per annum than two years ago.
A party that stands for resistance and equality should be eager to fight hard to defend these people, and with the enthusiasm that this new party can generate, it should be able to contribute significantly to turning the situation round. • Secondly, the far right is on the rise in many parts of Europe, exploiting popular racism and European governments' xenophobic policies.
In the last three years the British and US governments, amongst others, have taken unprecedented powers that greatly increase the repressive apparatus of the state. So far these powers have mainly been used against suspect migrant communities. (Pre-existing legal powers would in any case have been sufficient to deal with accessories to incidents such as the September Il attack).
Failure to understand and combat all these developments could prove a disastrous Achilles' heel for working class and progressive movements as a whole.
Already ih Britain our collective inability so far to stem the tide of attacks on asylum seekers has contributed significantly to the atmosphere in which New Labour has been able to pass anti-terrorist legislation under the guise of the "War on Terror", as well as successive asylum legislation that has whittled asylum seekers' rights down to near zero. What can RESPECT do in this situation? • oppose the Asylum Bill and the upcoming Anti-Terrorism/ Special Powers legislation. But given the current balance of forces, it is unlikely that the present Asylum Bill can be defeated. (See below). • discuss and put forward strong arguments against racism, including towards asylum seekers. • Respect should not be afraid to carry articles in any publications we develop which debate the general question of immigration controls.
To support immigration controls, which are inevitably racist and discriminatory would not be acceptable, particularly at a time when such a vicious Asylum Bill is about to be passed. Dodging the issue leaves the prevailing assumptions unchallenged, and drastically weakens our ability to argue back.
The key argument which socialists, unlike most liberals, should make is that not only don't we support the right of people like Blair and Bush to run a world system based on wars, repression, exploitation, greed and environmental devastation, but that we also stand full square against the fact that they then blame, criminalise and try to exclude the refugees and economic migrants created by their system.
So we support the protection of political refugees and reject New Labour's disgraceful policy of pretending that most asylum seekers are not genuine, in order to keep the numbers down.
We should point out that since Europe, including Britain, has a labour shortage, it is ridiculous for New Labour to be spending as little money as possible on educating and training young people in Britain, while simultaneously ensuring it is impossible for most would-be economic migrants (who like political refugees end up making a net contribution to the Treasury) to enter the country openly.
www.barbedwirebritain.org.uk. BARP WI. BRITAIN ork to end detentio fugees and migrants • Third, RESPECT can resolve to work seriously with existing refugee organisations and campaigns in defence of asylum-seekers and migrants, to try to increase the level of unity on issues of racism (for example by sharing platforms with speakers from Unite Against Fascism, which calls on voters to use their votes to defeat the far right, but does not recommend which party to vote for).
We should try to draw more people into organisations that fight to take back these rights and prevent further defeats. Progress can be made - Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees for example has had many new people getting involved as a direct result of the high profile battle around Dungavel Detention Centre and the Kurdish Ay family last summer.
The Ilisu Dam Campaign Refugee Project continues to build important links between refugee communities and environmental activists on issues such as the need to oppose the role of oil-grabbing multinational companies in the creation of refugees around the
RESPECT can build support for the European wide day of action against the detention of asylum seekers and migrants on 30/31 January, develop links with campaigners across Europe, protest at the outrageous and provocative proposal by President Chirac to ban the wearing of the veil in French schools, and so on. Current Legislation The latest asylum legislation will be enacted, perhaps with minor cosmetic modifications, early this year. The media has given the matter little coverage. The Refugee Council and Amnesty International have spoken out forcibly, calling the Bill "devastating". 46 or so Labour MPs voted against on the second reading.
The Bill has frightening implications for refugees, and we should not overlook what it reveals about the inhuman and barbaric mentality of the Home Office and the MPs who voted for it.
The three main elements are
(I) reducing appeal rights to one tier, and removing certain decisions by the Home Secretary from all judicial scrutiny;
(2) criminalisation of asylum seekers who arrive without valid documents (!)
and (3) severe curtailment of the right to the presence of solicitors and the right to legal aid to the point where many leading firms have told the government that they will no longer have any possibility of representing their dients properly.
Substantial briefings already exist on the proposals: see www.refugeecouncil.org.uk, www.jcwi.org.uk and www.ncadc.org.uk. The JCW briefing for example points out that the abolition of judicial review of decisions by the Home Secretary removes from part of the population a right that has been enjoyed since the Magna Carta.
So this government is not just destroying rights won in the last two hundred years, but even rights dating from the Middle Ages.
So far the opposition to the bill has been insufficient, even though a coalition of 90 plus organisations has come out against the proposals to make draconian cuts in legal aid for asylum seekers. (Contact CALAC, Campaign Against Legal Aid Cuts, c/o Liberty at [email protected], 0207 403 3888)
The National Assembly against Racism (NAAR) and the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (ILPA) have launched a campaign against the Bill, as has the Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers (CDAS). CDAS has also written to NAAR asking that the two campaigns come together as the most effective way to defeat this pernicious legislation.
All readers should get their organisations to press for such a broad open campaign to be created as quickly as possible in the New Year.
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resistente No Iraq occupation: Fight on for the right socialist A supplement to Socialist Resistance No more bloody war. To free education!
AGE 217 21 GRAND IN AND EDEBT Z
means less money for education. spend the money on education.
www.socialistresistance.net 20p _ NOT WIL RODUCE LUP FEES' ID HAVE ISLATED Tony Blair's war on Iraq has so far cost over £6 billion, whilst Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has admitted that the government budget deficit will be £10bn larger than he previously thought. That
To pay for the war the government want to charge top-up fees for university education and cut public services. Why should students and their families pay? Tony Blair and his friends in cabinet and big business all benefitted from free university education.
If there was any sanity, governments would not spend billions on war, whilst telling poorer students they don't deserve the money for education. New Labour should bring the troops home from Iraq and