Vol. 79/No. 17      May 11, 2015

“With nearly 2,000 drowned since the start of the year there is only one answer that can both provide a safe haven and end the succession of deaths at sea,” said a statement building the action by Paul Davies, Communist League parliamentary candidate for Manchester Central in the May 7 elections. “I call for the U.K. and EU to open their borders.”

The majority of the 35,000 who are estimated to have made the attempt are Syrians, fleeing the bombs and sieges of the dictatorial Bashar al-Assad regime there as well as the reactionary Islamic State. Others are fleeing fighting and dire living conditions in Nigeria, Eritrea and Mali.

Some passing by the speakout stopped to listen. One picked up a subscription to the Militant. A Syrian TV channel covered the protest.

Nearly 4 million have fled Syria to neighboring countries and up to 6.5 million are internally displaced, Alhamwi, who is a leader of the British Syrian Community of Manchester, told the crowd. “But the U.K. has only agreed to admit 500 as refugees.”

“Across Europe working people solidarize with these workers,” Davies told the gathering. He described how crowds gathered the night the boat capsized in Catania, Sicily, to aid those who survived.

“These values of working-class solidarity are in total contrast to that of the capitalist governments of the EU, who seek to use immigration laws to restrict the numbers who come,” Davies said. “These deaths are no accident, they are a direct result of these policies. The bosses and their governments want immigrant workers to arrive desperate and prepared to accept any wages or conditions to have a life.”

“People are running away from war. But where do the wars come from, they come from capitalism,” Kazim Asutay from the Kurdish Cultural Centre told the crowd. Asutay and the Centre helped win support for Kurds fighting Islamic State in Kobani, Syria, and promote the broader fight for a Kurdish homeland.

“The Mediterranean Sea is carpeted with desperate people. They risk their lives because the odds for them are better here,” said Amanda Jones-Said, who works for the refugee support group Rainbow Haven. “We should ensure their stories are heard by demanding they be allowed to come safely over land, not by sea.”

Capitalist powers in Europe scuttled an Italian-organized Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue program last October, which had saved an estimated 100,000 lives of immigrant workers on boats crossing from Libya last year. It was replaced by a smaller, weaker program known as Triton. The switch was made because the rulers believed robust rescue efforts encourage “smugglers and migrants to organise more trips,” the Guardian reported the day of the disaster.

“The U.K. and EU governments blame the small-time traffickers, but if the borders were open there would be no market for the traffickers,” said Catharina Tirsén, Communist League candidate for the Bradford ward of Manchester City Council.

The question of immigration and refugees has been hotly debated as the May 7 election nears. In addition to those fleeing from the Middle East and Africa, the largest number of immigrants in the U.K. come from Europe, especially eastern Europe. There is free migration between EU-member countries. The Conservative government has called for restrictions on immigration, but has not stopped the flow.

The opposition Labour Party issued a 10-point immigration plan April 28 aimed at further reducing immigration and restricting the rights of immigrant workers, including those from the EU. The plan calls for putting an additional 1,000 agents on the border, setting a firm cap on workers from outside the EU, preventing immigrant workers from claiming social benefits for at least two years and requiring those who get jobs in public positions in government services to speak English.

“Most workers I talked to campaigning door to door were angered by the U.K. government’s response,” Davies told the Militant. “Though few agreed right away when I told them I was calling for the government to open the borders, people wanted to discuss it.”

Davies and campaign volunteers distributed his campaign statement at an April 23 picket line at the University of Salford protesting the sacking of two lecturers and at a vigil the following day protesting the U.K. government’s response to the refugees’ deaths.

“We can’t take them all, our housing can’t deal with it, our transport infrastructure can’t deal with it,” said Philip Eckersley, a parliamentary candidate in Manchester Gorton for the U.K. Independence Party, at an April 22 candidates’ debate. The party is known for its opposition to immigration. “People shouldn’t have to get on a boat to get a job, they should be able to get a job in their own country,” said Kevin Peel, Labour Party candidate for the City Center ward of Manchester City Council.

Other capitalist parties in the election back further restrictions on immigrant entry to the U.K.

“It’s capitalism that relegates some to a second-class status,” Davies told the audience. “It serves the propertied rulers’ interests to keep us divided and competing for jobs and housing. But it’s in our interests as workers to overcome this. These workers can teach us a lot from their experiences fighting the Assad regime in Syria and other struggles about how to do battle with the government and employers here.”

“The U.K. government ended its support for naval search and rescue operations in October 2014. They bear responsibility for what has happened,” said Davies at a second debate April 24. “In fact, they don’t intend to actually stop immigrants. They want this source of labor, but as desperate cheap labor to force down wages and erode conditions to bolster their profits. Calling for opening the borders is the strongest way workers can deal a blow to this.”  
 
 
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