Every day, thousands of working-class families trying to escape war are facing militarized cops, razor-wire fences, concentration camps, and death. These refugees are fleeing an un-natural disaster—capitalist wars over resources such as oil—that have torn their homes apart and left them with a choice between risking their lives to escape and risking their lives by staying. The refugee crisis is exposing how there is no such thing as a safe place under capitalism.
Last week rebelling refugees were slandered as “armed mobs” by the Hungarian government who vow to defend “Christian Europe” against the mainly Muslim refugees. The refugees threw rocks and other projectiles at the Hungarian police who were blocking them from crossing the border. Just like in Ferguson, Missouri, the cops’ work is to defend capitalist inequality – defend the system that creates haves and have nots. Just like in Ferguson, some courageous workers refuse to accept police repression.
The refugee crisis is exposing the injustice of an unequal world in which a few rich countries profit from the poverty of hundreds of poor countries. We workers must do the crucial work of breaking down language, religious, ethnic, and gender-based barriers and unite as one international working class. We workers, all over the world, must support the refugees as they defy and break down capitalist borders!
Refugees of Imperialist War The bosses’ media incorrectly calls this a migrant crisis. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria have created millions of refugees. These wars are mainly proxy wars, where the imperialists support and arm local bosses against each other. Now in its fifth year, the war in Syria is actually between Iran, Russia versus the U.S. and most of Europe. More than four million Syrians have fled the country. Another 6.5 million have been forced out of their homes but are still in Syria. As tension heats up among chief imperialist rivals like Russia, U.S., and China, there will be more war. And more refugees from the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia, and Latin America.
Capitalism creates problems it cannot solve. European governments are trying to fix the crisis by closing borders, setting quotas, demanding documents from people fleeing for their lives, and passing laws to search homes for migrants in hiding. Is this going to help the refugees? Is this going to stop more refugees from fleeing the mass disruption caused by the bosses profit wars? To the extent that countries like Germany are welcoming refugees, it is to use them as a source of cheap labor in a country that needs low wage workers. Is this a long range solution for refugee families?
Fight for Communism In the faces of the fleeing refugees we can see the urgent need for a new system—one that is organized to serve humanity and solve our problems collectively. How about a system that will guarantee all workers and youth a place to live, food to eat, and a job? A system that workers run for our own needs. We don’t need a system based on money and profits; we need communism.
We have a responsibility to respond! Workers have a history of responding to disasters — from Hurricane Katrina to the earthquake in Haiti. Today, too, large numbers of workers in Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, England, and France are welcoming the refugees, showing us, once again, the kind of world workers could build if our class had power. Where ever workers come from and where ever they are going, we need to fight the racist forces that blame our sisters and brothers and cause them to die. Respond to this capitalist refugee crisis with antiracist solidarity!
Let’s draw the connections of the war against workers inside and outside the U.S. borders. Raise the idea of international solidarity in our classrooms. Organize a forum fighting anti-immigrant racism. Protest in front of the European consulates. Organize solidarity campaigns through the unions. Fight for a world without borders! Fight for communism!