We are seeing racist-fascist lynch mobs, targeting refugees, asylum seekers, mosques, Asians and black people – anyone who looks as though they might be Muslim.
These racist pogroms have already seen people physically attacked, people dragged from their cars, shops and houses bricked, a local library trashed, and hotels housing asylum seekers in Tamworth and Rotherham set on fire, endangering the lives of those inside.
Those responsible are not only the far right demagogues, right-wing Reform and Tory politicians who have fuelled hostility to immigrants and refugees and whipped up anger at people arriving in desperation in ‘small boats’. Those responsible also include Labour leaders like Kier Starmer and all those who echo the right-wing noise about stopping asylum-seekers and clamping down on refugees and promising to ‘do something about’ this ‘problem’.
They have made anti-immigrant sentiment legitimate.
They have stoked the fire.
Now innocent people will burn.
Immigrants – whether economic migrants or refugees fleeing wars or persecution – are not responsible for the austerity measures imposed over the last two decades. They are not resonsible for the state of the NHS. In fact, migrant workers help to keep it going. They are not responsible for the lack of affordable housing, or the lack of decent jobs and decent wages. They are not responsible for the deterioration and disapearance of essential services.
The responsibility for all this lies fully with the bosses and their capitalist profit system, and with those politicians, both Tory and Labour, who implement austerity measures on the working class while the super-rich get even richer. The run-down, delapidated inner cities and towns are the product of capitalism, not immigration. Starmer and Reeves have the same financial approach to public services as the Tories – more austerity. They will not solve the problems; they will only make them worse.
The poison of racism does not arise naturally. It is injected into society by those who benefit from dividing the working class – setting one group against another. Racism, xenophobia, hostility towards immigrants and refugees are all deliberate devices used by the ruling class to divide and weaken the working class. Those who benefit are the bosses, the billionaires and their hangers-on who fear that their wealth would disappear if the working class become conscious of its power and recognise the real causes of poverty, inequality and social degradation – capitalism.
The racists and fascists use lies to target the weakest sections of society – minority ethnic groups, migrants and the refugees – while the real culprits – the capitalist ruling class – escape scrutiny or criticism.
In the midst of abandoned and impoverished towns and cities, and with no clear alternative presented from any significant working-class socialist/communist party it is no surprise that racism – blaming the ‘other’ – has grown.
The socialist left must push its agenda for real social and political change – fundamentally breaking with existing society, with its inequality, poverty and the absence of any possible way out of the dead-end facing so many.
Racism divides the working class. Yet we also see the magnificent response of ordinary working-class men, women and youth who have come out onto the streets to confront and halt the fascists.
Divided we are weak. United we are strong.
The fascists and the far right can be beaten.
The labour movement and the trade unions must take the lead in rallying to defend those targetted by these race riots.
But it requires more. To combat racism, we need to combat the capitalist system that generates racism. We socialists/communists need to show that this system is not all that is on offer. We must present our vision of a new and completely different society, based on providing for the needs of all – not for the profit of a few – in which everyone is cherished and protected.