With Labour yet again demonstrating that they are very much part of the British establishment and share its profound racism and authoritarianism, we need to think hard about how we oppose them.
The basic principle must be opposition to the order that they espouse, 'against Starmer and his world' rather than 'refugees are welcome here'. We must call them what they are, racists, not think that they are pandering to the far right.
Starmer's opposition to immigration is ultimately about the maintenance of a social order in which the world is run by and for the owners of capital, but both access to capital and, importantly, access to the power that comes with capital is racialialised (and gendered). Whiteness (and maleness) are preconditions of control.
The bureaucratic administrative state is a tool of that racism. It maintains that social order. It is oppressive and felt as oppressive by anyone, black or white, without capital. The ruling class promotes loyalty to that state by presenting it as the nation, and in more liberal versions as loyalty to the republic and its constitution.
More specifically the ruling class demands unity with them from the oppressed either in the guise of their hierarchical authoritarianism or in their guise of a neutral arbitrator mediating between autonomous units each pursuing their own interests.
It tells you that you belong because you are British (or French or German) and so their British interests and values are your interests and values. The non-white must know their place, which is to be perennially outside.
Alternatively, it demands unity under the rule of law. It presents society as a giant multiparty contract to which 'we' have all individually signed up. The state then becomes the arbitrator and enforcer of that contract. But of course the terms of the contract are that capital brings power if you are white enough. That is because the 'we', the contracting parties, must be white. Those dependent on the wage and those racialized have, according to this contract, limited power. Your participation and your rights are limited to what is given as a concession from the ruling class in consideration for your labour or even your presence.
We must be disloyal both because it is a condition of liberation, but also tactically. If we call for safe and legal routes or say that we need immigrants, we endorse the administrative state. We accept its oppression. We ally ourselves with the lawyers, the managers, and administrators who immiserate our lives and prevent our liberation. We will be seen as of them, the ruling class, because we will be accepting unity with them on the basis of their exclusionary and oppressive contract.
#UKPol, #Migration, #AgainstStarmerAndHisWorld, #NoBorders, #Racism, #FreeMovement, #FortressEurope, #AbolishFrontex