Gordon Brown’s Proposals for New Form of Slavery are Unconscionable

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

No One Is Illegal, Defend the Rights of All!
Gordon Brown’s Proposals for New Form of Slavery are Unconscionable

Campaign against Immigration Slavery
Appeal to Trade Unions, Local Authorities, and Voluntary Sector/ Community Organisations against Immigration Slave Labour

Supplement:
Diasporic Communities and Identity Formation: The post-colonial Kashmiri experience in Britain

Gordon Brown at a seminar on “Britishness” at the Commonwealth club in London has said that language texts and citizenship ceremonies do not go far enough. He recommended that immigrants carry out community work before receiving full citizenship.

            Gordon Brown’s speech on February 27 does not just embody proposals which seek to humiliate immigrants and treat them as criminals. It expresses the existing attitude and programme of the state which demands that the people should submit to the values and aims of a “Great Britain” or be actually treated outcasts, people who cannot be said to exist as members of civil society. This official state ideology is then used, as with Gordon Brown’s speech, to justify proposals on citizenship which impact on the whole of society. They are racist proposals which treat as subhuman all those which do not uphold as advanced what is in fact the backwardness and chauvinism of this state-manufactured notion of “Britishness”. They are of a piece with the agenda of the “war on terror”, which seeks to eradicate those states and peoples which will not agree to be submissive to the Anglo-American model of political institutions, way of life and economic model. In other words, Gordon Brown’s scenario is imbued with the doctrine of the “white man’s burden” which sought to bring “civilisation” to barbarous peoples and went hand in hand with the practice of slavery, the slave trade and all its justifications.

            Brown’s speech seeks to erase the identity of different peoples and cultures in the name of “citizenship” and constructing a “British identity”, in the context of re-writing the history of slavery and colonialism, and grotesquely reinstating the profile of the British empire as a positive chapter in human history. It seeks to justify the forced assimilation of national minorities into a “British” society and identity decreed by the government on behalf of the ruling interests, and must be met by the affirmation that all are united in defence of their humanity, irrespective of belief, life style, wealth or any other discriminatory criterion.

            Gordon Brown’s proposals are unconscionable. As the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants has pointed out, they would put immigrants in the same category as criminals. They are especially repugnant coming at a time when the government is preening itself on being the heirs of those who fought to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. It is not surprising that the government has refused to make a full apology for this crime against humanity of such enormity and to make reparations. Far from the Union flag being the hated symbol of empire, to Gordon Brown and the Labour government it represents a symbol of tolerance and working together! This is a criminal misrepresentation of history and an outrage and an insult to all human beings. But this is the chauvinism which informs the proposals for immigrants to perform “voluntary” community service.

            We call on the working class and all democratic forces to make a radical break with the retrogressive programme of the state which treats immigrants as criminals and national minorities as second class citizens who have to prove to the so-called “host” community that they are worthy because they accept “British values”. We call on everyone to defend the dignity of all human beings and work together to ensure that all cultures, with their languages, values and outlooks, are treated as equals and given encouragement to flourish within Britain, as well as internationally.

            The sentiment of the people is to stand as one against the state’s attempts to criminalise and humiliate immigrants and the national minority communities, as well as those of Muslim faith and outlook. These attempts embodied in the programme of Gordon Brown and the Labour government are designed to extinguish the identity of communities and cultures, and, just as with colonialism and slavery, to treat them as less than human, unworthy to be a British citizen. This chauvinist programme embodies the ideology of enslavement. It must not pass!

No One Is Illegal!

Stand Together in Defence of the Rights of All!

Leaflet produced by: No-One Is Illegal, www.noii.org.uk

Section 10 of Asylum and Immigration Act 2004 makes “hard case support” conditional on performance of community work.

            This leaflet explains why trade unions, voluntary sector groups and local authorities need to make a statement denouncing this clause and refusing to take advantage of such forced labour.

            A new section with severe implications was added at the last moment to the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004. This gives the Home Secretary power to make regulations providing for the continuation of the provision of accommodation for a failed asylum seeker to be conditional upon her or his performance of community services.

            Such “hard case support” is presently available under Section 4 of the 1999 Act in cases where a failed asylum seeker is unable to return home because of circumstances beyond his or her control – for instance because they are stateless or ill or (paradoxically in the case of a rejected asylum application) the country of return is too dangerous. Once regulations come into force this help will be dependant on what has hitherto been a punishment reserved for convicted criminals – namely obligatory community service.

            Full benefits should be available to all irrespective of immigration status – and people seeking asylum should have the choice to work (it is ironic that all other people who are seeking asylum are forbidden to work).

            Section 10 has been condemned by the Joint Committee on Human Rights of the House of Lords/House of Commons in its Fourteenth Report of Session 2003-04. In essence the criticism is one of slave labour. In particular the report attacks the section as being in breach of Article 4(2) of the European Convention of Human Rights (prohibition of forced labour), of Article 3 (prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment) and of Article 14 (no discrimination on grounds of nationality).

Why trade unions must oppose this scheme

            This legalisation of slave labour – transforming into slaves one of the most vulnerable and abused sections of our communities – is quite clearly something the labour movement must oppose. It is simply the logical conclusion of the super-exploitation of migrants, immigrants and refugees – a super exploitation that resulted in the deaths at Morecambe of the Chinese cockle-pickers.

Why local authorities must oppose this scheme

            It gets worse. The new section has an expectation that local authorities will collude in the implementation of this forced labour scheme. It states that: “A local authority or other person may undertake to manage or participate in arrangements for community activities”. This is a reminder of the old Poor Laws where parishes would contract in forced labour from the workhouse.

            Lord Rooker in the Committee stage of the 2004 Act said in the House of Lords that community service might involve refugees “contributing to the upkeep or maintenance of their own accommodation” This is a formula for the free repair of otherwise unlettable council (and voluntary sector or private property) to which asylum seekers are involuntarily “dispersed”– which can then be rented out at a profit once the slave is deported. In immigration newspeak, Rooker called this “social cohesion”. It is more like social disintegration

Why the voluntary sector must oppose this scheme

            It gets worse still. Lord Rooker also stated “We would be happy to see the voluntary and community…sectors involved in this way…consultation should take place with…the National Council for Voluntary Organisations”. . The Home Office is trying to ensure that voluntary organisations, like other welfare and social service providers, become agents of internal immigration control – through the increasing link between immigration status and welfare entitlements. The new section with its imposition of forced (slave) labour is politically the logical consequence of this.

What to do!

            (1) All trade unions, local authorities and voluntary sector organisations should write to the Home Secretary (Home Office, 50 Queen Anne’s Gate, London SW1H 9AT), to object to Section 10, to state that your organisation will refuse to participate in it – and to make this correspondence public.

            (2) All organisations should organise meetings against the exploitation of undocumented labour and for the non-implementation of Section 10.

            (3) Let’s develop this into a national campaign!

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