Ceuta: Fight racism, promote solidarity

The Ceuta crisis once again highlights institutional racism, the xenophobia and colonialist arrogance of European governments. Against this, it is necessary to organize solidarity and defend the rights of migrants alongside them.

By Gérard Florenson

Anyone who sees the images of the situation of women and men, mostly young, who have managed to reach the city of Ceuta, I should feel both compassion and disgust. Compassion: How can we remain indifferent to the desperation of human beings who wander homeless?, who have suffered thirst and hunger, some of whom are injured and many traumatized? And disgust when reading and hearing the cynical comments and racist insults directed against these migrants, whose only crime is wanting to escape misery.

Tens of thousands returned to Morocco, forced by the military and police, full of bitterness and disappointment and, many of them, willing to try this dangerous adventure again, why, even if unscrupulous traffickers take advantage of their desperation, this is very real. Nobody leaves their country, your family and loved ones, endangering your life, if it is not because he is driven by misery, open or covert repression and, sometimes, We revolutionary socialists have before us a challenge of confluence (among the migrants there are Sudanese and Libyans who, before arriving in Ceuta, They had already come a long way).

Tens of thousands returned, thousands remained, including men and women from countries other than Morocco, who does not wish to welcome them, as well as more than a thousand minors, some of them very young, of which politicians only talk to discuss their distribution, as if they were not human beings but harmful animals.

The Government took less time to reinforce police forces than to send food, medicines and hygiene products to respond to the urgent needs of new arrivals, when logically the city of Ceuta did not have the necessary reserves. Fortunately, after a period of understandable fear, Many residents were moved by the desperate situation of the migrants and made efforts to help them., together with local associations. This does not exempt the Government from its responsibilities., as immediate needs remain considerable.

But this is not the priority for everyone.: some argue about the responsibilities of the Moroccan monarchy, others about the supposed "call effect" caused by the regularization law... Racists shout, "progressives" respond weakly, and everyone advocates protecting the borders even more, reminding the Moroccan State of its obligations to monitor them on behalf of capitalist Europe. Their response is to deploy more police, and the only small divergence lies in the length of the batons.

The factory of racism

Even before the events in Ceuta, the tone was already set, and not only in the Spanish State. On the "immigration issue", an almost neutral term, journalists at the service of Capital had moved on to the "immigration problem", before talking about "threat". And now the "threat" takes the form of an "invasion": The Moors are preparing to pounce on old Europe... and the fascists who think that the immigrants have already occupied almost the entire Iberian Peninsula take this logic to the end and call for the Reconquista.

But, without reaching those extremes, Sánchez's thunderous indignation at an alleged violation of the integrity of Spanish and European territory - he must ignore that Ceuta is in Africa - goes in the same direction and legitimizes the speeches about the "threat".

They inoculate the flu and then measure the increase in fever. They insist every day that the main problem is not insufficient salaries, the deficiencies of public services nor the housing scandal, but immigration, that would be the cause of everything that goes wrong. Immigrants drive down wages, saturate public services, They monopolize the homes… The businessmen, Politicians and vulture funds have nothing to do with each other. To complete the picture, the “insecurity” section is added, of which foreigners, including minors, would be the main responsible.

And then they publish surveys that show that these lies influence, at least in part, about the population. It even seems that, for the majority of Spaniards, Mohamed VI is more dangerous than Trump or Putin… Scoundrels!

Fortunately, as we have just seen once again in Ceuta, the reflections of solidarity are still very present. In France, where expulsions are commonplace, We attended demonstrations by high school students and parents to prevent the expulsion of a classmate, or the mobilization of an entire town to defend the young employee of a restaurant or a bakery. The way the fascists had to abandon Ceuta is really encouraging.

The different faces of xenophobia and colonialist arrogance

The Ceuta crisis has been a revelation. Not the assumed racism of the extreme right nor the shameful racism of the Popular Party, well-known horrors, although the precautions in language that still existed have disappeared. Migrants must be rejected without hesitating to use force; The difference is between those who propose "only" weapons considered non-lethal, batons and water cannons to push back the "invaders", and those who would contemplate shooting into the crowd with live ammunition. Those who have managed to cross the border must be expelled, also by all means, including violent ones. The fascists go even further: they would want to expel all immigrants or, at least, to the "moors", as in the times of the Catholic Monarchs, what, to complete the task, They also expelled the Jews.

The novelty is that minors should suffer the same fate as adults, with the hypocritical argument of not separating families. Small beings considered harmful that must be returned to their hole, where they have practically no possibility of studying or receiving vocational training, receive medical care or live a decent life: all things that any father and mother want for their children.

In the "progressive" camp, the responses are apparently less violent, but racism surfaces in controversial speeches about Morocco's responsibility, that unreliable nation in charge, in exchange for remuneration, to protect the borders of the civilized world.

Do the "socialists" know Morocco? Many, even without owning a beautiful property like Felipe González's, they know a part of the country. They have spent time in residences or luxury hotels and, sometimes, They have ventured to visit the souks. The best connected may have known the King, that great friend of the imperialists, or your environment.

From the town you may have seen the women who came to clean, barely paid for hard work, and then they found his apartment clean and tidy. The most daring will be able to, on a guided tour, go photograph very nice children in small traditional huts.

Have you heard about the working conditions?, miserable salaries and the absence of social rights, since these facts are mentioned to denounce the "unfair competition" that harms Spanish producers. But from there to questioning the regime... Until the Ceuta episode, the criticism had been very discreet. In a previous article we analyzed Morocco's relations with Spain and the other imperialist countries. And we have not waited for the current crisis to denounce the Moroccan monarchy!!

With a typically colonialist arrogance, Sánchez proclaimed that Ceuta and Melilla were Spanish forever and affirmed his unwavering will to defend European territory. He did not add "against the barbarians"...

We cannot ignore the latest villainy of JUNTS, which adds more xenophobia to the situation and affirms that an independent Catalonia would better defend fortress Europe than this incapable Sánchez. Party of businessmen and rentiers, heir of reactionary Catalanism, xenophobic… no agreement with this Catalan right!

Against racism, for immediate humanitarian aid to the migrants of Ceuta

It has been said that, to defend a good cause, one could even ally with the devil and his grandmother. There is no objection to acting in common with secular or confessional associations that really want to fight to eradicate racism., nor to demand together with them the necessary means to feed the migrants, accommodate them and respond to their needs. We must act immediately to guarantee these human rights and also to defend the children and adolescents that the reactionaries want to expel..

Nevertheless, in this common struggle we must explain and, if possible, achieve the sharing of positions that seem fundamental to us. Racism cannot be reversed through simple moral arguments. It is not the people who are racist, but the rulers, at the service of capitalists, who have an interest in dividing and ruling and who inoculate the poison of racism. If racism were inscribed in human nature, Its influence would be constant and we would not talk about its rise. Of course, Some people can be convinced of the harmfulness of racism through dialogue, but its eradication requires combating and defeating not only racist propaganda, but also and, especially, the discriminatory policies of the bourgeois state.

On the other hand, although we welcome the commitment of numerous associative activists, The responsibility of promoting a social and democratic emergency plan that goes beyond the immediate defense of migrants blocked in Ceuta must be assumed by union organizations.. And this fight should not be carried out "for" the migrants, but with them, favoring its own organization in unity with all workers' organizations. We call on all forces, to all the groups of the authentic political and union left, to take on this fight.