Lindsey German on how the Tories divide to rule and the return of stagflation

It’s difficult to process the information – there appear to be no women or children survivors from the refugee boat which sank off the coast of Greece last week, drowning hundreds of people who are some of the most desperate in the world from Libya to Europe. The women and children were, according to some reports, locked in the hold of the boat, and stood no chance of escape when it capsized. The victims came from Pakistan and the Middle East. Only a small minority of those who boarded this dangerously overcrowded and unseaworthy craft are thought to have survived.

The scale of the horror is such that it has created a political scandal in Greece. Blame is being apportioned to those involved. I have no problem with prosecutions of people smugglers, nor with criticising the Greek coastguard if it did, as some suggest, delay its response to a vessel in distress and then lie about it. But surely the greatest part of blame must lie with the governments of Europe whose treatment of refugees makes it certain that tragedies like these will be repeated, and that even those who survived the disaster will be put in camps and treated abysmally, including being deported back to the countries they were fleeing.

The policy of these governments is callous in the extreme. Safe and legal routes are denied to refugees, so they resort to dangerous and illegal ways of crossing the Mediterranean and the English Channel. This itself is then created as a ‘problem’ needing draconian measures. Worse, all sorts of illegal measures are then used to make it harder for refugees to cross. In Italy, search and rescue boats are compelled to return to port after one rescue, passing other vessels in distress as they do so. The government, led by fascist Georgia Meloni, is leading the way with repression and scapegoating of refugees. But others are employing similar tactics and politics. In Greece, there are accusations that the coastguard is deliberately delaying both rescues and going to the assistance of distressed boats.

According to a German academic, Maurice Stierl, reported in The Guardian, this is a much wider European policy:

‘Stierl accused many EU countries of “weaponising time” by delaying rescue as long as they can, or what he called a “phase of strategic neglect and abandonment.” He said: “They have managed to build in delays into European engagement at sea. They’re actively sort of hiding, in fact, from migrant boats, so that they are not drawn into rescue operations. We can see how a strategy is being created, that slows down –actively and consciously slows down – rescue efforts.”’

There is no other word for this than criminal. It allows victims of war and economic devastation to suffer, often fatally, rather than take any responsibility for their plight. It is a brutal and politics-led policy. Both the far right and mainstream politicians use the refugee question to create fears and division and to force the whole agenda further to the right. The British government’s record is appalling, including as it does Suella Braverman’s Rwanda deportation policy and one of Rishi Sunak’s five political pledges being ‘stop the boats’. This is deliberate scapegoating – there is no similar pledge to ‘stop sewage being poured into rivers’ or ‘stop price profiteering’. And the aim is both obvious and simple: blame the housing crisis, or crime, or lousy jobs, on someone who is in an even worse situation, rather than on the privatisers and profiteers who have caused the problems. Labour puts up no serious opposition to the government policy, merely saying that they would be more efficient in ‘stopping the boats’.

There are many very good arguments for welcoming refugees – not just that they may be in a desperate situation but also that they contribute to the host country. But even leaving these aside, we are facing immense changes and dangers in the world, which our rulers have exacerbated. Climate change is destroying livelihoods and land in part of the world. The floods in Pakistan have affected many millions of people. Wars are creating far more refugees. Economic devastation is rife in much of the developing world.

The richest countries can afford to do much more, both in direct aid and helping refugees. Poland and Germany have, quite rightly, taken in 1 million refugees each from neighbouring war torn Ukraine. Why then can’t Britain take in refugees from Pakistan, a former colony and with many citizens of Pakistani descent here? Racism and scapegoating are embedded into European politics and they are aiding the far right.

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush arriving from Jamaica. Those on board weren’t refugees but people escaping poverty and coming to work in a time of desperate labour shortages. They suffered racism and discrimination – and still do. Racism takes many forms but today one major form is the treatment of refugees, most of them black or brown, many of them Muslim. The EU and this government pay lip service to equality, but allows this vile treatment to continue. Working class people should recognise it for what it is – the 21st century divide and rule.

This is particularly important given what we are facing. The Tories are in absolute meltdown over Boris Johnson’s departure. Now a fourth MP is stepping down to cause a by election. I guess all four will be lost by the Tories to either Labour or the Libdems. Johnson threatens further mayhem, with a weekly column in the Daily Mail and a determination to destroy Sunak, which may not be too difficult. Meanwhile in the real world another crunch is coming with the huge rises in mortgage rates forcing many into crisis and some into homelessness. This is at a time when rents are rising to ridiculous levels, not just in London but in most urban and tourist areas and are simply unaffordable.

The Tories and Bank of England are determined to keep raising interest rates ‘to stamp out inflation’ even though it clearly isn’t working and isn’t going to work. Britain is now experiencing stagflation – high rates of inflation while the economy is essentially stagnant. The last time this happened in the 1970s, the government launched a major assault on working class living standards which was honed by Thatcher and involved fundamentally weakening the unions. It will attempt to do so again. Despite Labour’s claim to be an alternative, a government headed by Keir Starmer will carry on that work, and will try to make working class people pay.

This makes it all the more important to support the strikes such as those of the teachers and rail workers last month, and of the junior doctors last week. We need to spread and increase industrial action if we are to assert the right for workers to get a bigger share of the wealth they produce. It also means linking that with fighting on a range of other issues, including opposing these attacks on refugees, which are being used by a bankrupt government to shore up its dwindling support. 

This week: I will be speaking at an online meeting in support of the anti-war motion passed at UCU conference, in the face of attempts to deny the democratic process. I will also be in Colchester on Thursday and at the event highlighting denial of free speech in the Julian Assange case on Saturday. I also hope to finish my reading of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. I have read the first and last books over the years, and heard some of it recited, but decided to attempt all 12 books by the revolutionary 17th century poet. I’ve now finished book 10 so only two to go and would highly recommend it. It’s hard to describe how powerful and original the language is.