Re: [Marxism] Immigration in the Australian Economy

["Calvin Broadbent" <calvinbroadbent@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To be fair to Louis, he is *far from* the only person I have heard on the
left saying that foreign immigrants are dragging the living standards of the
Western working class down (the British SWP, allied as it is with the
British Labour Party, has refused to adopt an end to immigration controls as
part of its party program). Most socialist groups don't point out that the
living standards of the western working class are high *because* they
benefit from imperialism, but instead assert that *foreign workers* are
causing their increased poverty. Most on the 'far left' point out that it is
the bosses using foreign workers to drive wages down (a point Louis Godena
also makes), but fail to make the point that it is the boss class's
exploitation of foreign workers on foreign soil, and the national oppression
of their states by their own government's imperialism, that keeps
imperialist country workers in jobs in the first place. I think it is vital
that the ethnic minority workforce be organised in the same trade union
movement as the white workforce and with the same exact rights. The language
barrier is *not* an insurmountable obstacle to this occurring. But there are
other more significant obstacles (the weakness and insignificance of the
Western working class being the major one).

I think that whilst immigration is not the only issue facing socialists, it
is a vital issue, because it dovetails so completely with how we analyze and
fight against imperialism (which, incidentally, the British SWP considers
Britain not to practice).

Anyway, this is definitely all I'll say. The subject of the labor
aristocracy seems to be a *very* thorny one indeed, and one which seems to
tear very productive lists apart. But the question of immigration in an
imperialist country (though not, say, in Cuba) *is* the question of labor
aristocratic privilege.

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