Text of the Socialist Party leaflet for today’s #IrelandForAll Protest
The emergence of far-right protests and the spreading of racist lies about vulnerable refugees is a dangerous threat to our society – that we must mobilise against.
The horrific attack by racist thugs on a camp of migrants in Ashtown, Dublin 15, at the end of January was an example of what happens when their poisonous ideas gain a foothold.
The far-right threat:
– The far right wants to blame refugees and migrants for the housing crisis created by the greed of corporate landlords and developers, and the policies of successive governments. There’s enough land and resources to provide everyone with decent housing, and it could be done if profiteering was eliminated.
– By referring to “unvetted males” the far right is playing on a disgusting racist stereotype of men of colour being sexual predators. They want to play on real fears around gender-based violence – but 83% of sexual offences last year involved a reported suspect known to the victim.
– The far-right promotes misogynistic ideas that legitimise men’s violence against women. They opposed the campaigns for abortion rights in 2018 and marriage equality in 2015. Their racism goes hand in hand with homophobia and transphobia – we won’t accept turning back the clock on LGBTQ+ rights.
A racist government of the rich
We need to build a united, multi-racial, multi-gendered, working-class movement of struggle and solidarity against these forces and their vile ideas. It must also be a movement that takes on this government of the super-rich and big business – it has created the fertile soil for the far-right to grow. Just look at their record:
– There are over 11,600 people living in emergency accommodation. And this is just the tip of the housing crisis iceberg. They continue to force asylum seekers to live in the inhumane system of Direct Provision.
– Leo Varadkar has talked of having a “firm and hard” policy when it comes to refugees. Last month, they announced that refugees arriving here would be denied accommodation by the state, and 130 people were deported. They are firm supporters of the EU’s racist “Fortress Europe” policy, which has left thousands of migrants to drown in the Mediterranean.
– These racist policies and this racist rhetoric have legitimised the far right’s main talking points.
Workers – unite against division
We need an anti-racist movement organised in our workplaces and communities that combats the lies of the far right with solutions to the real problems in our society – and those responsible for it, including the richest 1% who own 27% of the wealth (€232 billion). On housing, this means demanding a permanent ban on evictions; the slashing and freezing of rents at affordable levels; and a major house-building programme on public land.
It is welcome that several trade unions have backed today’s protest. There are 500,000 trade union members in this state, and they make up the most powerful force that can be mobilised as part of the anti-racist and anti-fascist resistance.
“You can’t have capitalism without racism”–Malcolm X
Capitalism today means multiple permanent crises. This system is killing our planet for profit; it is fuelling wars for imperialist domination; it is creating billionaires by impoverishing billions of people; and it is built on brutal exploitation and oppression. All of this is forcing millions more refugees to flee their homes.
Historically, capitalism has always relied on racism to justify its crimes – from slavery to colonialism – and to divide working-class people. Globally, the system’s decay has thrown up obnoxious far-right and racist figures like Trump in the US and Bolsonaro in Brazil, while far-right parties have taken power in Italy and Hungary and made significant electoral gains in France and Sweden.
We need to break with this system urgently, and fight for a democratic socialist society built on solidarity and cooperation, not division and competition. This means taking society’s wealth and resources into democratic public ownership and planning their use to meet the needs of all people and the planet.
Join the socialists today.
