Stand up to Racism
For democracy and social justice
No to all Immigration Controls
Steve Freeman, the Republican Socialist candidate for Bermondsey says that “Immigration controls are an evil that must be totally opposed. The real problem is poverty not people or immigration”. The Westminster system has done nothing about growing poverty. We need real democracy if we want social justice.
Britain is a place where rising levels of poverty and grotesque concentrations of wealth exist side by side. Low wages, long hours, poor housing, unemployment, unfair taxes and cuts in the social wage raise major issues. Poverty is not caused by immigration. Businesses and governments are to blame, holding down wages and cutting spending on health, housing and education etc.
Westminster is a façade behind which the Crown governs the country with the backing of the City of London. Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Bank of England determine economic policy on interest rates, taxes and spending and hence on jobs, pay and public services. These ‘partners in crime’ have carried out a massive redistribution of income and wealth from ordinary people to the banks and wealthy financiers.
Without democracy there can be no social justice. Republican socialists make the fight for democracy the priority at this election. There is no quick solution to poverty and social justice without solving the democratic deficit. The Westminster system is useless, dangerous and corrupt. Whoever forms the next government, HM Treasury and the Bank of England will still rule the roost. Westminster will continue to play at Pantomime Democracy and Punch and Judy politics.
The Republican Socialist message is straightforward because it says what must be done. Democracy, Democracy, Democracy” is the question and the answer. Demand every party explain their democratic programme. Don’t vote for any party which is loyal to the Westminster system and Crown-in-Parliament. Support our call for a republican socialist party.
Why we say No Immigration Controls
Migration or the movement of working people across the world is a consequence of capitalism. America, Canada and Australia were built on it. Post war European expansion was fuelled by it. Capitalism demands an expanding supply of labour. Migrant workers are cheap. They are forced to live on the lowest wages in the worst housing. Their education has been paid for by tax payers in other countries.
Immigration is a fact of life because capitalism depends on profit. Immigration controls will not stop immigration. You might as well pass a law ordering the sun to stop shining. If it was as stupid and irrelevant as that we could ignore it. In fact immigration control is a dangerous mirage. It has created a whole industry of people trafficking.
In a democratic society every person must have the freedom of movement. The freedom to leave or stay and the freedom to go somewhere else, without let or hindrance, is a human right. In concentration camps, the Gaza strip, behind the Berlin Wall or in apartheid South Africa such freedom is denied. Removing or limiting that right is incompatible with a democratic society.
Today business is free to move jobs around the world in search of greater profits. Workers must have the basic right to work or find work. This right must include the freedom to move to different cities, regions and countries with the hope of making a better life for themselves and their families. Immigration controls make ordinary people into criminals.
Immigration controls will not stop people trying to find work. But they create an illegal market for criminals to exploit. They encourage people to blame their poverty on ‘foreign’ or migrant workers. Poverty is not caused by too many people chasing too few resources but by the few (one percent) looting the wealth created by the many.
Oppose Immigration Controls
Fight for democracy and social justice
Steve Freeman
