Ceuta: Capitalists spread racist poison
At the same time, politicians at your service persecute immigrants.
No surprise, the new invasion of Ceuta announced for the 15 of August did not take place. Instead, The Moroccan police were able to demonstrate their determination to defend the Ceuta border by hitting with batons, gassing and imprisoning those between 300 Y 400 migrants hoping to pass. So that his brutality had no witnesses, The police expelled Spanish television.
This new episode is dramatic because the vast majority of these violently repressed migrants came from sub-Saharan Africa., a region at war, and they had crossed Morocco, where they are not welcome, They are mistreated and forced to live underground. There is great concern about their fate in a country that does not want them, but that prevented them from reaching the Spanish colony of Ceuta, where they could have applied for political refugee status.
At least, in theory. Because not only the right and the extreme right unleashed, but also some “socialists”, They demand the expulsion of all irregular migrants who are still in Ceuta, without distinction of nationality and including children and adolescents. The immediate task is to prevent this outrage. We revolutionaries are together with the associations and volunteers who help migrants, in Ceuta, where the needs are immense, and everywhere. We need a fighting front, a social and democratic emergency plan in defense of our threatened sisters and brothers, to impose immediate aid and recognition of their rights.
But, at the same time, we must explain and show how capitalists, with the media they control and the politicians of the true right and the false left, They use racism to divide the popular classes and divert their indignation.
Capitalist Europe shields its borders
“More walls, “less Moors”. VOX's racist slogan makes fortune in all the countries of the old continent. Of the “immigration issue” went to "problem" and then to "risk"; After the tragedy of Ceuta we would be facing a "invasion". The barbarians would be at our doors. According to this speech, borders must be protected and controlled even more. Meloni takes measures to prevent migrants who have swum across the strait from setting foot in Italy, and the Danish social democrats are in the same line.
But European leaders did not wait for Ceuta to build a “Fortress Europe”, to prohibit immigration or limit it to employers' needs. They reinforced the border police, They created Frontex and delegated the blocking of migrants to third countries considered “safe”, like morocco, or even in other less safe ones, like libya. This policy is responsible for thousands of deaths at sea, while some governments criminalize rescue teams and associations that help migrants.
“France cannot accommodate all the misery in the world” (“France cannot accommodate all the misery in the world”). The phrase belongs to Michel Rocard, Mitterrand's socialist prime minister. It was very successful. In European language it means: we know that misery exists, but we can't do more to remedy it. And unemployment is invoked, the housing crisis and the saturation of public services, that the arrival of migrants would aggravate. They talk about it as if they were natural disasters and, especially, as if the rulers who support these arguments had no responsibility for the deterioration of the social and economic situation. This argument does not hold water: even within the current system, A larger population means more needs and, so, more production of goods and services, more jobs and greater tax and social income. But the goal is to present migrants as a burden, like useless mouths that will reduce each person's share of the pie.
Even more pernicious, the second argument is blatantly racist. It refers to the capacity and willingness of migrants to integrate into the societies that receive them.; said more directly, to the compatibility of their customs with “our values”, without specifying whether these values are those of the Enlightenment or those of VOX and Franco's national Catholicism, sexist and homophobic. You don't have to look hard to find a barely concealed Islamophobia, the fear of the “great replacement” and Islamist penetration. The most serious thing is that this discourse is not exclusive to the extreme right and that the so-called left takes it up in its own way in the name of secularism..
But returning to Ceuta, the Moroccan Government is accused. He would not have fulfilled his job as external guardian of European borders. Its gendarmes let tens of thousands of migrants through. Should they have been shot? Was Morocco complicit?, or even instigator, of the invasion – otherwise peaceful – of the small colonial enclave of Ceuta? Y, if so, for what reason? It's hard to see what else can be expected from Sánchez, that recognized the Moroccan “right” to occupy Western Sahara and abandoned the Polisario Front, and the events have rather damaged the credibility of the Moroccan State, of its police and intelligence services. But denouncing Morocco and proposing to punish it by depriving it of the World Cup – a common proposal to VOX and SUMAR – allows it to be placed on the side of the barbarians who besiege civilization..
The European right and extreme right take Sánchez as a target. The laxity of his government towards irregular immigrants and, even worse, ongoing regularization would weaken Europe. But wasn't Sánchez himself the one who endorsed this speech when he denounced an attack on the integrity of the Spanish and European territories?? And the first measure of his government was to send more police and military to protect the colonies of Ceuta and Melilla., to give guarantees to the European Union.
In this lying poker game, complaints and false appearances, there is a notable absence: the migrants themselves, those men and women who, perhaps trapped by false information about an opportunity for safe passage, They tried to flee Morocco and reach a European country. Dwelling on your motivations could call into question the good reputation of your country and the economic relations that accompany it.. Deaths become common: They join the long list of drowned people who lost their lives because they could not reach “Fortress Europe” in any other way than in precarious boats.. As for the children, adolescents and “unaccompanied minors”… are not human beings, They are “problems”.
Racism and persecution of migrants are not European specificities. We immediately think of the sinister ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), commissioned by Trump to persecute, detain and expel foreigners in an irregular situation. ICE troops were considerably reinforced, its expanded powers and, in the facts, This is a militia that has permission to kill. Beyond the “clandestine”, Their targets are all racialized people., black, asian, Indian or mestizo. Trump's delirious speeches, for example against Haitians who would supposedly eat dogs and cats, serve to support this persecution, but all Latin American citizens are singled out: They are prohibited from entering the American fortress and those who managed to cross the border must be deported..
In a world where the migrant is presented as an enemy
Fortunately, ICE atrocities, that even went as far as murder, provoked important popular mobilizations; Threatened migrants were hidden and helped in the neighborhoods. Trump militiamen were sometimes persecuted and banned from certain cities. This is part of the strong social and political polarization: against the ultra reactionary bloc, racist, sexist and homophobic who supports Trump, a radical resistance force emerges, in the streets and even in the elections.
The rejection of migrants goes beyond Europe and the United States. Glen, Japan and Australia have passed restrictive laws and expel those “without papers”, denomination that includes foreigners who arrived legally but whose residence permit was not renewed—a situation also common in Spain, where Latin Americans represent two thirds of regularization applicants—. But the reactionary discourse about the “great replacement” does not only affect imperialist countries.. For example, The Tunisian government thus attempts to divert popular discontent through a racist campaign against Libyan and sub-Saharan African refugees..
Other countries have pledged to close their own borders to migrants “in transit” to block their path to stronghold Europe or the United States., sometimes openly and in exchange for compensation, as happens with Morocco, and other times in a shameful way, like the progressive government of Mexico, who does not want to antagonize the powerful neighbor to the north. The men and women who try to escape misery, of war and climate catastrophes caused by the capitalist system, who dream of a future for themselves and their children, They are ordered to stay and die in their countries. Those who disobey and survive the dangers of the journey are treated as criminals..
Capitalists have adopted different attitudes towards immigration depending on their current economic interests.. In the '50s and '60s, The employers of the most developed European countries needed low-skilled workers in factories and on construction sites.. The labor shortage was real, unemployment was at a minimum and, in the absence of that “industrial reserve army”, of those “ten who are willing to take your place”, workers could be more demanding. Turn to migrant workers, poorly paid, monitored by the services of their countries and kept outside the workers' confederations, It was therefore an opportunity for the capitalists. Turcos, spanish, Portuguese, Africans—sometimes brought from their villages by recruitment agencies—made their way to France., Germany, Switzerland and northern European countries. These young men, who sent money to their families and planned to return to their countries after a few years with the savings accumulated through deprivation, They accepted precarious conditions to avoid losing their jobs..
Capitalists and immigration: divide to exploit better
But if capitalists could benefit in certain periods from immigration, They were always aware that the proletariat could become their gravedigger. They know that if the strength of workers lies in their numbers, without unity the number is not strength: divide and rule has always been the method of the powerful. Racism has been an instrument of division, on both sides of the Atlantic and also in colonized countries. Unfortunately, The political and union leaderships of the labor movement did not combat this division and, sometimes, They were even her accomplices., accusing immigrants and racialized people of “coming to steal jobs” from natives and making them responsible for the pressure on wages.
times have changed. The capitalists of the imperialist countries have relocated an important part of industrial production, as well as services such as call centers, to exploit on the ground a cheap labor force controlled by authoritarian governments. The doors open to mass immigration are no longer useful to them, but that does not mean zero immigration. The trend is towards short residence permits, with equally short contracts and guarantees of return to the countries of origin, for “hard-to-fill jobs” and seasonal jobs. we need you, can come, and when we no longer need you, we miss you; and if you have claimed or protested, You don't have to apply again next year.. This does not mean that the classical mechanisms have disappeared.: the exploitation of immigrants, with or without residence permit, but always in a precarious situation, remains the norm in restoration, agricultural holdings, cleaning, construction and public works, directly or through subcontracting companies.
The cries of the extreme right, increasingly spread by the traditional right, serve the interests of capitalists. The speech has changed a little: in addition to stealing our jobs, Migrants are accused of coming to take advantage of our social benefits, to receive social housing as a priority... and their children are responsible for the worst crimes. Anti-Muslim racism has taken on great importance. These stigmatization campaigns always have the same objective: pit the popular classes against each other, point out the neighbor as the enemy and make us forget the responsibility of the exploiters in the deterioration of our living and working conditions. The “progressive” parties intend to oppose, but, while distancing themselves from the most cartoonish expressions, They are also situated in the field of a supposed “national interest” that justifies the domination of imperialist countries over the rest of the world..
To measure the responsibility of capitalism in disinformation, slander and hate calls, just look at who owns the newspapers, the radio stations and television networks that broadcast them with enthusiasm. The media treatment of the events in Ceuta clearly reveals this: deaths and injuries are silenced or attributed to Moroccan inaction, while children and adolescents are treated like harmful animals. The reasons why tens of thousands of people, mostly young, who risk their lives to leave their countries are reduced to mafia affairs. The threat of an “invasion” occupies the front pages and relegates the daily difficulties of the popular classes to the background.
For a social and democratic emergency plan
Hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants were beaten and detained by the Moroccan police and we do not know their fate in a country where they are undesirable foreigners. Every consistent democrat must demand explanations from Morocco and mobilize so that these people receive material and legal assistance.. Thousands are trapped in Ceuta and the living conditions of the majority are similar to those of Spanish refugees from 1939, crowded on the beaches of the south of France. The needs are immense and the notable solidarity of the secular or confessional associations of Ceuta cannot be enough.
The Spanish State helps with a dropper when it should send shelters, foods, clothing and hygiene products, strengthen medical care and guarantee the safety of all minors as a priority. But the Government fears being accused of laxity by the right and/or is speculating with new “voluntary” departures..
Minor protection laws must be applied
The protection of asylum seekers should not suffer any exceptions. All migrants must be able to reach the Iberian Peninsula. More broadly, us, the revolutionaries, We campaign for the free movement of men and women: no human being should be illegal, borders must fall. We demand the abolition of all anti-immigrant laws, true regularization in all countries, the same social and political rights for all. We must establish and impose a social and democratic emergency plan against misery and oppression. We fight the rotten propaganda of the media at the service of capital and the politicians at its service who impose laws of social regression. We are always ready to fight alongside those who mobilize for social and democratic freedoms and rights.. From the flotilla to Gaza to the Convoy in preparation for the Ukrainian people, we work in that sense.
Of course, our program goes further
We want to end neocolonialism, looting of natural resources, the appropriation of land by imperialist powers and the unequal exchange that benefits the latter; put an end to the shameless exploitation of the working class and the small farmers who, especially in Asia and Africa, They are subjected to unbearable living and working conditions in exchange for ridiculous incomes.. The large groups that relocate and outsource the production of goods and even services—call centers—do not do so to create jobs., but to increase their profits.
In one word, We fight capitalism that crushes people and destroys the planet. We fight for socialism on a planetary scale, for a world freed from exploitation and all oppressions. At the same time that we commit ourselves to the immediate struggles, We want to share our conviction that lasting victories cannot be achieved without ending capitalism.
France met, at the beginning of the 19th century, a great labor mobilization: that of the silk workers, called canuts. It was crushed by the monarchy, but she left a song that ends like this: “We will weave the shroud of the old world, because you can already hear the revolt that is roaring.”. This will be the conclusion of this article.
