Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
 
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migration

Calais stories

Mitch Mitchell is a regular visitor to Calais a part of his work with Refugee Lifeboat.

‘Legitimate Concerns’: the Language of Division

How does the language of “legitimate concerns” play into racist narratives? Hanna Gal argues against making any concessions to the discourse of the right.

Welcome to The Jungle

Colin Revolting and his son were moved to tears by the new play The Jungle, currently showing at the Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End.

Labour is letting down sex workers

The narrow space left in UK law for sex workers to operate in is under threat of being further restricted.

Life at the frontier: Samos in 2018

A report from the Greek island of Samos, home to many refugees seeking to enter Europe.

Race, Gender and Social Reproduction in British Capitalism 1945-78

How can we understand the ways that capitalism comes to be gendered and racialised?

50 years from May ‘68, students in France are mobilising again

France is again in the midst of a wave of intense social action, with universities disrupted for months and mass arrests in Mayday protests.

Marooned at Moria: Europe’s suppressed migration crisis

A report from the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

“No human is illegal”: NHS staff speak out on Windrush

The Windrush scandal was the inevitable result of the “hostile environment”- we need to push back and support the rights of all migrants

Windrush and the politics of unconditional solidarity

Outrage over the treatment of the Windrush generation is welcome – but we must also reject the narrative of “good” and “bad” migrants

Refugees – remember them?

Mitch Mitchell writes on Refugee Lifeboat, a new organisation that aims to marry humanitarian aid for refugees with an uncompromising political stand against state racism

Stop detention without trial! Stop deportations!

Anti-terror laws are being used against the #‎Stansted15‬, a group of activists who blocked a charter flight carrying deported migrants out of the country.

These Walls Must Fall: solidarity with Yarl’s Wood detainees

A photo report from the Yarl’s Wood hunger strike solidarity demonstration in Manchester, 8 March 2018

‘But we will stand upright’ – migrant hunger strike in Athens

Migrants awaiting reunification with their families in accordance with EU law have been on hunger strike in Greece and Germany for several days. Ida-Sofie Picard and Will Searby report from Athens. The hunger strike in Syntagma square has been ongoing for eight days now. In Lesvos migrants have been on hunger strike for 15 days. […]

Video: Breaking the silence – voices of the British children of refugees from Nazism

Merilyn Moos speaks on her book Breaking the Silence: Voices of the British children of refugees from Nazism.

Remembering Lewisham

Forty years ago, British fascism suffered a historic defeat, as several hundred members of the fascist National Front (NF) were successfully beaten back by thousands of socialists and local residents, despite a huge deployment of police in defence of the NF. The confrontation became known as the Battle of Lewisham. As racism and support for […]

Does migration undermine workers’ rights? A case study from waste management

Kate Bradley asks what labour stratification in the waste management industry tells us about British capitalism – and whether ‘managed migration’ would be the answer to the sector’s poor working conditions. Following Jeremy Corbyn’s speech last week on big companies’ abuse of migration, many media outlets including The Guardian have published critical responses. A New […]

#GE2017: Immigration, Labour and the left

Any concession to restricting immigration necessarily involves the notion that immigrants are a problem, and contributes to hostility and racism against all immigrants.

#GE2017: More police and prison officers won’t make us safer

Socialism requires a belief that building a world without punishment and incarceration is possible.

#GE2017: Why does Labour make concessions to the right when it comes to immigration?

Jonas Liston reflects on Angela Rayner’s recent appearance on Question Time. How can she be awful on immigration whilst savaging the Tories on everything else?

Free movement is a workers’ right – Unite must defend it

Lisa Leak argues that defending freedom of movement for migrant workers is the only way forward for British trade unions. On Monday (27 March) Unite members started to vote on who will be their next General Secretary – the centrist incumbent, Len McCluskey; the right-winger, Gerard Coyne; or the socialist, rank-and-file candidate, Ian Allinson. We are currently […]

Fortress UK, migration and Brexit: a briefing

Mike Haynes puts forward a briefing on some of the facts showing the difficult situation migrants already face trying to obtain legal permission to live in the UK Socialists argue for the free movement of people – it should be a human right for people to go anywhere; attempts to control movement are racist and divisive; […]

One Day Without Us – an interview with Laura Stringhetti

Steve Eason spoke to Laura Stringhetti from the One Day Without Us campaign about the migrant solidarity day of action on 20 February What is your campaign about and where did you get the idea from? Our campaign is called One Day Without Us. It was created after the Tory conference, as a reaction against the […]

Challenging racism on the Kent coast

The need for a mass anti-racist movement in Britain needs to be at the very heart of socialist politics today. Here Bunny La Roche and Ben Millard reflect on the experience of anti-racist organising in Kent over the last twelve months.   Kent Anti Racism Network (KARN) has been busy over the last year. But it […]

Lessons from Fawley: From ‘British jobs’ to migrant solidarity

In 2011 the ‘British jobs for British workers’ slogan sent shivers down the spine of anyone championing the rights of migrants. Brian Parkin assesses a recent watershed dispute at Fawley and discusses how – and why – the tide has turned On Wednesday 27 July at 10.00 am, just four hours before workers at the […]

Racism renewed

Anindya Bhattacharyya traces the roots of the current anti-migrant racism back to the contradiction at the heart of New Labour’s immigration policy. Here he argues that changed circumstances necessitate a radical popular movement against racism. Everyone Who Is Here Is From Here, a one-day organising forum against racism and for migrant justice is taking place this Saturday (5 […]

Building an anti-war movement

Pete Cannell reflects on the debates surrounding Syria and suggests how we move forward.

15 October could be a dark day for refugees in Calais

It has been strongly rumoured that the threatened closure and demolition of the refugee camp in Calais, often referred to as “The Jungle” will commence on 15 October at 5am.

A poem by Alan Gibbons

Alan Gibbons, poet and novelist, penned this poem in response to Theresa May’s vile racist speech at the Conservative conference. We are proud to republish it for National Poetry Day   There was an Irish immigrant Who dug the canals And built the bridges, Who carved the tunnels And made the roads And only consumed […]

Tim Farron – no friend to refugees

Seb Cooke discusses why Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is no friend to refugees Tim Farron gave a speech at the Lib Dem conference on Tuesday where he told a story about the time he was handing out water to refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos. In his story, as he […]