The Socialist 23 June 2000

Victims of the Capitalist System

Asylum seekers: "We're not asking for charity"

Stand up to the Fascists

Labour's sell-off madness

Korean war 1950-1953: When the cold war caught fire

Korea today: Heading for reunification?

Previous issues, etc

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Victims of the Capitalist System

MOST PEOPLE were horrified when 58 migrants were found dead at Dover in a container meant to convey tomatoes. But the migrants weren't just killed by lack of air.

Brian Debus, chair Hackney UNISON

They were suffocated to death as a consequence of the Labour and Tory leaders' battle to show who can implement the harshest policies on immigration.

Last week, an Indonesian man took his daughter, who had been attacked, to hospital in Newport, south Wales. He was set upon by a gang of racist thugs in the hospital grounds and kicked to death.

Blair, Straw, Hague and Widdecombe should be put in the dock for creating fertile conditions for such attacks.

Issues of asylum and immigration have been used as a party political football. More detention centres, food vouchers, dispersal - all these policies are designed to deter and scapegoat asylum-seekers.

These people must be desperate to try to reach Britain, which offers only a voucher worth £36.54 and an opportunity to work for six months.

Straw and New Labour have made many of the problems in society worse - jobs are vanishing, services are being privatised or they're starved of cash. Labour are trying to hide this by scapegoating asylum-seekers.

New Labour backs the exploitative policies of neo-liberalism which create 'economic migrants'. Since the Berlin wall came down ten years ago, Western capitalism has lost no opportunity of trying to expand its markets.

They say it's OK for products to be sold world-wide, for information to be transmitted in seconds and finance to ricochet across the globe. But hard luck if you're a refugee or economic migrant escaping war, starvation, torture, illness and poverty.

Unfortunately, thanks to capitalist politicians, these deaths are unlikely to be the last.