Anyway, the debate on Red Action, the BNP and immigration politics in the UK misses out some pretty key points. The SWP's slogan 'Refugees are welcome here' combines two tendencies that are unfortunately deeply embedded in the way they work - on the one hand, playing into the genuine refugees vs. 'illegal immigrants' division which is the bastion of liberal capitalist xenophobia, and on the other hand, maintaining the distinction between refugees/migrants and the 'British people'. [snip ends]
Nicely sums up the problem. Either the slogan contains a fair amount of wishful thinking - in that the refugees are _not_ welcome here most of the time, thanks to racism. Or the slogan drives the familiar wedge between nice, 'genuine' refugees who need admitting to Britain out of a sense of British fair play, and the illegal immigrant or 'bogus asylum seeker'. The point is to fight for freedom of movement for all. Whether that means exposing the stories of 'gypsy castles' which filled the British press three months ago, or taking on the latest scare (asylum seekers jump queue for IVF treatment, says the Sun today) is a tactical question. It's worth bearing in mind that in Blair's Britain the official line is that racism always comes from the white working class, never from official immigration policy. Whether or not campaigners should flypost is neither here nor there. Graham B. Fax. +44 (0)870 7345198 Editor, Culture Matters CMCRC strand http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/cent_com/culmats.htm