Vol. 72/No. 14      April 7, 2008

Crawford outlined the League’s campaign platform. “In the face of rising unemployment and inflation, and spreading wars and attacks on rights,” she said, “workers need to act politically to defend our class interests, refusing to subordinate our struggles to the bosses and their parties.”

Campaign cochairperson Andrés Mendoza, a student and member of the Young Socialists, explained that the week before, campaign supporters had joined thousands on an antiwar protest. “We took along a campaign banner that called for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all UK and coalition troops from Iraq and Afghanistan,” he reported.

A lively question-and-answer session followed the presentations. “What does the Communist League say about the environment?” asked student Dominic Sowa. “What’s your response to right-wing outfits who physically assault Black people and immigrants?” asked Henry Johnson, 23, who just moved to London from the United States.” Don’t the British like immigration as long as immigrant workers receive lower wages?” asked Wing Hong Ning, a retired worker of Singapore Chinese origin.

Responding to Wing’s question, Crawford said that “Ken Livingstone, standing for reelection as London mayor, ‘defends’ immigration in precisely such terms. He has spoken enthusiastically of how young immigrants coming here from abroad to work allow companies in London to enjoy ‘American levels of productivity.’ That’s because the employers subject them to substandard wages and working conditions.”

“Some workers and youth get wooed by Livingstone’s so-called proimmigration stance, alarmed at the use by his opponent, Conservative Boris Johnson, of terms like “piccaninnies” and “watermelon smiles” when speaking of people from Africa,” Crawford continued. In fact, she pointed out, Johnson has expressed views very similar to Livingstone in terms of the employers’ wanting and needing immigrant labor in order to increase their profits. “Our campaign offers a working-class alternative to them both,” Crawford said.

“The employers’ ‘productivity drives’ are aimed at making us work longer and harder for less,” she continued. “Super-exploitation of immigrants is part of this. Where I work, there are periodic raids against immigrant workers designed to divide the workforce and weaken us all. Defending the rights of immigrant workers is key to organizing and transforming the unions,” the communist candidate explained.  
 
 
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