‘People at top of sPeople need to turn their anger against those really responsible for the economic crisis and its consequences, i.e. politicians and businessmen, not against immigrants who only benefit Britain, the Socialist Workers Party’s Charlie Kimber told RT.
The contradictory Home Office anti-immigration ‘go home’ campaign has been running for several months and is strongly criticized by many people. Indignation has skyrocketed since the appearance of ‘immigration vans’ in the streets and then after an estimated 58,000 text messages were sent to people accusing them of being in the UK illegally and warning them to leave the country. The migration issue has once again emphasized the difference between political approaches of incumbent Conservatives and UK Labour supporters and Socialists, who are favorable to migrants and call to stop this racist campaign. society are to blame for crisis, not immigrants’
As Charlie Kimber told RT, the anti-immigration campaign is a terrible policy since “it is designed to make us choose the wrong targets for our anger” and accuse instead of welcome those [immigrants], who make great contribution to the development of the British socio-economic system.
‘Children of Men’is a 2006 science fiction film directed by Alfonso Cuaron, which presents a world coming to an end. In 2027, after two decades of global human infertility, civilization is on the brink of collapse as humanity faces the grim reality of extinction. The UK, one of the few stable states with a functioning government, has been inundated by immigrants from around the world, fleeing from the chaos and war. In response, Britain becomes a militarized police state as British forces round up and detain immigrants.
RT: The movie ‘Children of Men’ is set in a grim future, but some parts of it seem to be very familiar. Do you think this anti-immigrant campaign is a worrying indication of where the UK is heading now?
Charlie Kimber: I think it’s a very dangerous and toxic policy which does indeed threaten to create these sorts of conditions, which that film we have just seen indicated. Somewhere it’s a throwback to the racist and fascist policies of the 1930s. I think we are seeing a two-pronged attack: one is to strike fear, to intimidate immigrants, to tell them they are not welcome here, to try and stop them coming here and to reduce the rights of people who have come to Britain to work and to study. The other and, indeed, what’s more important from the government terms, is to offer up immigrants as scapegoats to the rest of the population to say that there are real problems in society: bad housing, lack of jobs, no future for young people, and instead of blaming those who are really responsible – the politicians, the big businessmen and the bankers – instead we are encouraged to blame our neighbor, workmate, someone at school with us and to say that the immigrant is the problem, not the rich. It’s a terrible policy, it’s a racist policy, and it’s a class policy which is designed to make us choose the wrong targets for our anger.
RT: So you think that this campaign has been accurate in choosing the right people to warn, right?
CK: Well, I think any immigrants are not the right targets. I think it’s extraordinary the casual way in which those people have been chosen by the Home Office and it’s certainly a very interesting question of how they have obtained their phone numbers. But I’m against all the attacks on immigrants. I think this notion of illegals, the notion of people who don’t have rights in Britain, we should remember that immigrants contribute far more to the economy than they ever take out. Far from being a drain on the welfare state, these are the people who build the whole service, who build the education service, who build the social care service in Britain, without them those services would collapse and instead of attacking immigrants we should be uniting with them.
RT: But immigration has to be controlled, what do you think?
CK: Before the First World War in Britain there were no immigration controls - that’s an extraordinary fact that most people wouldn’t know. I think immigrants are the tremendous benefit for Britain. They have brought huge educational, economic, cultural benefits to Britain, we have gained far more from immigration than we have ever lost and we should be less defensive about it and say that immigrants are welcome here, they have improved Britain instead of turning against them, we should be welcoming our sisters and brothers and turn our real anger against the people at the top of society who brought us to this economic crisis.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
