Immigration, what's the solution?

[John Wilson]

According to many, Britain, or England (as some extremist 'nationialists' or 'denialists' call her, in their inexplicable attempt to expunge the national name) is in social meltdown. Could "New labour" (a curious phrase) or their close counterparts, the Conservatives, based upon the last decade, be stern enough to finally say 'enough is enough' to the apparent mass influx of Eastern European, African and other immigrants, many of whom are illegal and have disappeared into the system?

Can this tiny island take more of an influx on board? Should she have restricted entry to those with no provable income and capital? Or NO to everyone, using (for example) the military, and simply refused entry to the UK and returned people to France? A million questions beckon.

Or are such parties as the the BNP the answer?

Well, before we go screaming down the High St attacking anyone not white (surely the real meaning of the term 'British' that such extremists use? And not hounding out those , ie, mixed race people that were born here and love England/Britain, having fought for her?), let us think?

Are the likes of extreme right-wing parties, like the BNP (who now have convenienetly 'moved on' from being 1970's skinheaded bovver-boot wearers throwing bricks through asian & black family's windows, to wearing suits and using unresearched and emotive political campaigns) , for example, acceptable for a nation that suffered over 450,000 and 60,000 deaths due to the nazis in WWII?

My own beloved (WHITE) grandma was, in her aged desperation and generational and historical ignorance (by her own admission despite her 'favourite' grandson informing her about the real views of those 'nice' and now besuited "Politicians"- no different, in real terms, from the vicious and physically brutish and ultra-aggressive, but cowardly (IMO) NF -(National Front) thinking of voting for their disguise of 'respectability.

She, a wonderful 92 yr old British/English lady whose love for her nation and whose brave generation survived nazi bombs, fought back and thankfully, due to my own political influence and, yes, impartial information, has altered her view of these people. They that have the gall to use the Spitfire as some sick political 'national' badge in their warped political campaign (which resisted and beat the nazis).

Griffin comes from a wealthy family with a history of involvement in right-wing politics. His father, Edwin, a Conservative Party official in Halesworth, admits to having attended National Front meetings in the past, taking the young Nick with him often. Griffin's sister also stood as an NF candidate in a Suffolk county council election. His mother is the administration secretary of the BNP and was a candidate in the 2001 general election.

The NF, as I'm sure you're aware, embraced the ideology of the Italian Third Position as the Griffin faction took control, but they soon began to make some strange alliances.

The "political soldiers" wing was (hypocritically?) meeting representatives of Colonel Gaddafi's regime through the Libyan People's Bureau in London, and expressing support for it and for... Ayatollah Khomeini.

Writing in Nationalism Today in 1985, Griffin praised the black separatist Louis Farrakhan, saying,

"white nationalists everywhere wish [Farrakhan] well, for we share a common struggle for the same ends: Racial Separation and Racial Freedom".

Unsurprisingly this did not go down too well with rank and file members of the NF. And even today vicious BNP infighting pesists, despite their illusory "success" in recent by-elections?

But, how far do we as a nation have to/ want to go? If at all/

Edited October 9, 2009 by John Wilson

[Norman Pratt]

I am pleased to report that one of the BNP parish councillors in the village where I live resigned (quite soon after being elected) on discovering that most of the day-to-day issues that concern people have very little to do with immigration.

One nevertheless hears of more intelligent and better-informed people sometimes failing to question the assumption that our island will 'sink' if immigration isn't stopped. The 'population delusion' (on a world scale) is the subject of a series of articles in 'New Scientist' http://www.newscientist.com/special/population .

Edited October 9, 2009 by Norman Pratt

[John Dolva]

I reckon this is a critical topic. The spectre of fascism is never far away. It's such a dead end lemming dogma at best and unbridled psychosis at worst. The cloak changes, but the foul foundations do not.

[Guest]

I reckon this is a critical topic. The spectre of fascism is never far away. It's such a dead end lemming dogma at best and unbridled psychosis at worst. The cloak changes, but the foul foundations do not.

Let me throw in an idea -

The fantastic notion namely, that outside of us [outside of people] there exists objective sources of 'Good' and 'Evil' acting upon our essence is without foundation—there is no external good and evil.

[John Dolva]

I don't think that's a ''fantastic notion'' at all Andy. IT's not a new idea.

Many Great Teachers have said the same. Unfortunately tho their teachings often become Religions and thereby something ''outer'' which humans then have an external to project onto.

[John Dolva]

Granma International:

ARIZONA

Persecute, harass, discriminate

Nidia Diaz

• SOME people are already calling it the Hate Law. Others who are more committed to certain political positions, such as President Barack Obama, have tepidly referred to it as "irresponsible." The subject is the law passed in the U.S. state of Arizona, on the border with Mexico, by Governor Janice Brewer in late April — SB1070, which criminalizes undocumented immigrants.

ARIZONA: Persecute, harass, discriminateAs of April 25th in Arizona, persecution, harassment and discrimination are legal actions against anybody who might physically appear to be an illegal immigrant. The police are now empowered to ask for identification from anybody who is not blond and blue-eyed and who physically looks Hispanic. It is no coincidence that the racial element has been exposed at the heart of this new law.

Some analysts believe that this decision is motivated by electoral reasons, given that in times of crisis, certain layers of voters linked to the extreme right and racism believe that the "unemployment is brought about by foreigners, the ones who come to the country to take away work from citizens and to enjoy medical and educational services at the expense of residents’ money and taxes."

Actually, there is nothing further from the truth, because millions of undocumented immigrants who risk their lives to cross the U.S. border mostly find work in jobs that U.S. residents don’t want because of low pay, or in the case of farmwork, because it is seasonal. Above all, they continue arriving because – and this cannot be hidden – because the neoliberal models imposed in their home countries exclude them from productive sectors due to a lack of skills. Or, simply, because they are unemployed as a result of economic shock policies or a diminished state. In addition, there is the constant propaganda presenting the United States as paradise, as reflected in the media.

Of course, the new Arizona law is raising hackles in the Mexican administration, which has condemned it. According to news reports President Felipe Calderón has stated that "it is an obstacle to solving common problems in the border area."

With similar words, Mexican Foreign Minister not only condemned the law, but also warned that her government "will use all means available to support Mexicans in face of the effects of the new law, the harshest toward illegal immigration ever passed in the United States." Human and civil rights associations and immigrant rights’ groups have likewise spoken out, saying that such criminalization makes the very existence of Hispanics vulnerable in the United States, because they will be at the mercy of the police and their notoriously brutal method of identifying undocumented immigrants which, for them, is "reasonable suspicion."

Other observers have said that the new Arizona law is a challenge to the Obama government leading up to the November congressional elections, given that the president has not kept his campaign promises to raise the banner of justice on the immigration issue, which won him Hispanic votes.

As a candidate, he promised that in his first year in the White House, he would push forward immigration legislation allowing all undocumented workers to attain legal status. These are the kind of promises that took him to victory in 2008.

Nothing is further from the truth. Obama is in his second year of government, and the most heard from him – in this case referring to the Arizona law – is that it is "wrong," and that "the federal government should implement immigration reform on a national level, so as not to risk leaving the door open to the irresponsibility of certain people."

These are just words, because when journalists asked about the administration’s priorities, the issue was absent. Instead, the president’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, was crystal-clear when he said that "the top priorities after achieving the health reform are finance regulations, energy, and campaign financing."

At least Gibbs was frank: "It is not enough for the president to want to do something," he explained. "He needs strong support from Democrats and Republicans." Support that he obviously does not have.

Meanwhile, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, prepared to challenge the Arizona law in court, is arguing that the law will send that state into a spiral of constant fear, distrust in the community, a higher crime rate, and costly litigation, with repercussions on a national level.

Simulation, letting things happen, internal power struggles between the right and the extreme right, putting Democrats into crisis and Obama up against the wall are all elements of the immigration issue. Like everything concerning imperialist policy, it is motivated by the double standards that characterize those running the government and those who hold power – which are not always the same – given that, while they are all-out attacking Salvadoran, Mexican, Guatemalan and Latin American undocumented immigrants in general, pushed out of their homelands by extreme poverty, they are also opening the doors to an immigration "policy" which is part of their campaign of discredit against revolutionary and nationalist governments on the continent.

In the case of immigrants "fleeing persecution" by "dictatorial regimes," the undocumented issue does not exist. In the case of Cubans, they are protected by the so-called Cuban Adjustment Act, and for the criminals and thieves who are beginning to flock into Miami from Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, to list a few, everything is in order. For them, there will be no persecution, harassment or discrimination. That is the false nature of U.S. justice, be it in Arizona or Florida. •