The Daily Bilge is full of dire predictions of loss of identity, profits, welfare provisions and job security because of 3000 migrants camped rough on a rubbish dump in Calais! More than 8,000 bright sparks signed a petition to HM Government calling for the abolishment of benefits for illegal migrants that DO NOT, in fact, exist.
Yet at one and the same time, surveys show the British
public to be politically way to the left of the government (sadly, also way to the
left of the current Labour leadership!) on almost every other major issue, from
the NHS to Trident. What on Earth is going on?
The Nazi propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, would have understood this
completely: if you repeat a Big Lie aften enough and brazenly enough, people
will begin to believe you. And no Big Lie in recent history has been so often and
so brazenly touted as the one about migration. Those whom the Gods would
bring down, they first make mad!
Migration is the Achilles Heel through which the boss class hopes to destroy
working class resistance to the austerity programme, which is overseeing the
the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich since the birth of
Capitalism. Ironically, the Big Lie feeds on the very fears and insecurities that
the austerity programme has itself created. It is, in short, a cover-up!
THE FACTS:
*Most migration is from within the EU, is entirely legal and has benefitted
Britain Ltd by around £23 billion in the last decade. Why? Because migrants
only come when there are jobs to be filled. Britain does not pay for their
schooling, nor their pension (most go home: at the end of the last mini-boom,
50,000 Poles left the UK to return to Poland). Any benefits they claim, limited
to 6 months, are reimbursed though European agreements. They usually work,
pay taxes and contribute to the local economy through their spending. They
are less likely to claim benefits than indigenous Brits. There are 2 million British
migrants in Europe. Would we want their host countries to treat them as
money-grubbing scroungers? Would we want them all kicked out back here at
once?
*Some industries, like farming and the NHS, would collapse without migrant
labour. They cannot get indigenous workers to do the jobs. The NHS, and many
transport systems, have been built on migrant labour. Irish labour built much
of the railways and Afro-Caribbeans were enticed to come to Britain in the
1950s to work in the NHS and London Transport by none other than Enoch
Powell, as Health Minister 1960-1963. Migration consequently has NO net
impact on local unemployment levels or wages. What DOES effect employment
rights and wages is whether or not the workers, indigenous, migrant or mixed,
are in a trade union. When they are largely NOT, as in farming, conditions for
both migrant and indigenous labour are generally appalling. The fault is not
with the migrants, who are equally or more the victims, but with the bosses
who are so blatantly exploiting their workers. The answer is not to condemn
another set of workers, but to organise for an equal and fair share for ALL
workers!
*”Illegal” migration is usually caused by social disaster or wars. Ther is no such
thing as “economic migration” in this case. Be logical> would YOU abandon
your home, friends and country, without papers; cross a desert on foot and
pay your life savings for a potentially lethal sea trip for a miserable pay rise? Of
course you would not! Nor do they. They are fleeing bombs, torture, rape and
famine, which are most likely caused by OUR government`spast or present
meddling in THEIR countries. Most refugees make it to next country along. The
ones that get as far as Calais are the better-off, better educated people; those
who actually had life savings to sacrifice. They are doctors, engineers,
administrators, academics, people whose skills could be put to good use and to
whom we owe a moral debt for our government`s aiding and abetting the
destruction of their countries. Syrians, Palestinians, Sudanese; Muslim and
Christian: the most desperate people who deserve our humanity and solidarity,
not xenophobic fear and hatred! Examine their stories, think what You would
do to save your kids or keep your family from harm.
DEHUMANISATION
In the last century, the Nazis were only able to get away with slaughtering 6
million Jews by dehumanising them in the eyes of the general populace, with
varying success. They called them “Untermensch” – “less than people” or
“lower beings”. This is what our Press, our Government, and, shamefully, some
of our Labour Party leaders too, is doing to the lost souls in Calais. Most of
them would prefer to stay in France, given the welcome our country has
offered them.
CONCLUSION
Migration has benefited the people of Britain – good grief, the country is
composed of ex-migrants in its entirety – and 3,000 people in Calais would
scarcely make a ripple in our 65 million population. Humanity demands we
help those in need. Solidarity demands that we embrace all workers as
brothers and sisters in the fight against the system that lies to us and divides us
to further enrich the very richest in our lands at the expense of those who have
almost nothing.
Tim Nicholls
On 15th September some of the Dorset Eye team are travelling to Calais to take clothes, books, toiletries… and anything else that would be useful to our fellow species in their time of need. If you would like us to take anything on your behalf please contacts us via https://www.facebook.com/dorset.eye or [email protected] or support our trip.
Thank you.
