on Migrant workers & International Labour - no, we did not build this city on rock & roll
“Britain is a land built by migrants”...goes the latest article featured in The Socialist Worker (UK).
[Socialist Worker: Britain is a nation of migrants]
Whilst, on the one hand, many Socialists chant this mantra in the face of fascist impulses, and on the other, call for international solidarity amongst workers, what is not stated in the same breath is the fact that just about any nation is built, not only by migrants, but by international labour.
Foreign contribution to Britain’s economy, for instance, did not begin with the influx of migrants and foreign labour, but with the exploitation of resources in foreign climes. If not, why would the west have ‘scrambled for concessions’ in China, or colonised Africa, India, South America, s.e.Asia, et cetera? And are not products of varying origins, worked by a nationally fragmented labour force? The profits may be nationally accrued, or perhaps shared amongst a transnational elite, but the efforts put into are international in origin. No sir, we did not ‘build this city on (homegrown) rock & roll’ as juvenile minds once crooned. We built this city, any city, on the concerted efforts of nationally blinkered international labour. And hence, all are sleeping partners, silent investors, in the nation of of humanity despite nationality. If 'Rock & Roll' served any purpose, its most significant achievement is in presenting the proles with an impotent alternative to philosophers, and enabling the disempowered to live their significance vicariously. Pah!
The fascist shite-meisters populating all nations on the planet, and who require the continuation of the hallowed ‘nation-state’ to fragment labour and keep them toiling for them and against each other will have it no other way - at least till regions have been developed into culturally disparate superstates.
In this sense, to go on about how our nation is built by migrant workers, as I have myself in stating that singapore is largely a land of migrants and the xenophobic fascists ought to shut up about how foreigners are ‘taking our jobs’, sort of validates the nationally-fragmented status of labour does it not? But, no discredit to The Socialist Worker as they have, many a time, stated the need for international worker solidarity. But to the rest of of us, we ought to watch ourselves in our fight with fascism and not fight for the inclusion of foreigners, whilst validating the fragmentation of international labour by what is left unsaid.
a2ed
[Socialist Worker: Britain is a nation of migrants]
Whilst, on the one hand, many Socialists chant this mantra in the face of fascist impulses, and on the other, call for international solidarity amongst workers, what is not stated in the same breath is the fact that just about any nation is built, not only by migrants, but by international labour.
Foreign contribution to Britain’s economy, for instance, did not begin with the influx of migrants and foreign labour, but with the exploitation of resources in foreign climes. If not, why would the west have ‘scrambled for concessions’ in China, or colonised Africa, India, South America, s.e.Asia, et cetera? And are not products of varying origins, worked by a nationally fragmented labour force? The profits may be nationally accrued, or perhaps shared amongst a transnational elite, but the efforts put into are international in origin. No sir, we did not ‘build this city on (homegrown) rock & roll’ as juvenile minds once crooned. We built this city, any city, on the concerted efforts of nationally blinkered international labour. And hence, all are sleeping partners, silent investors, in the nation of of humanity despite nationality. If 'Rock & Roll' served any purpose, its most significant achievement is in presenting the proles with an impotent alternative to philosophers, and enabling the disempowered to live their significance vicariously. Pah!
The fascist shite-meisters populating all nations on the planet, and who require the continuation of the hallowed ‘nation-state’ to fragment labour and keep them toiling for them and against each other will have it no other way - at least till regions have been developed into culturally disparate superstates.
In this sense, to go on about how our nation is built by migrant workers, as I have myself in stating that singapore is largely a land of migrants and the xenophobic fascists ought to shut up about how foreigners are ‘taking our jobs’, sort of validates the nationally-fragmented status of labour does it not? But, no discredit to The Socialist Worker as they have, many a time, stated the need for international worker solidarity. But to the rest of of us, we ought to watch ourselves in our fight with fascism and not fight for the inclusion of foreigners, whilst validating the fragmentation of international labour by what is left unsaid.
a2ed
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