A blind eye

Jimmy Mubenga died as three security guards restrained him with what is believed to be excessive force while being deported to Angola. Last month, a senior journalist at a radio station, accused by the ruling party of trying to incite rebellion, was shot dead in Luanda. In 2004, Mfulumpinga Nlandu Victor, an outspoken politician, was also shot dead in the capital. In 2007, the leader of the main opposition party, Isaías Samakuva, survived an assassination attempt unharmed. There are many lesser known cases of systematic abuse, detentions, torture, deaths, but none of these appear on the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) country profile. Unlike nearby Zimbabwe, Angola does not even feature in the UK's list of countries whose human rights record are of concern.

British business interests, particularly oil interests, are undoubtedly the underlying reason. Angola produces about 1.9m barrels of oil a day. One of the UK's largest companies, BP, has substantial interests there and describes Angola as one of its "six new profit centres". BP's involvement in the country began four decades ago: to date it has invested $8bn. Other British businesses operating in Angola include De La Rue, Lonrho plc, Crown Agents, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Standard Chartered and KPMG. According to Oxfam, British arms brokers were actively selling arms to Angola during the war.

The irony is that many British people take it for granted that our respect for human rights and justice is second to none. Often, when talking about dictatorships in other parts of the world, we assume we have a moral authority that other nations can only envy. The death of Mubenga while in the care of the British justice system suggests otherwise.

Cab-Ride to Capitalism: Servitude by the Majority

Socialist Banner thought it worthwhile to re-post this article from the magazine Socialist Standard .

It only takes a cab ride in a city to see which class has the most power and influence in capitalist society
Everyday taxicab rides may appear to be lacklustre experiences that are quickly forgotten. However, this might not always be the case. Sometimes our views of events may become clouded and we cannot see things for what they really are. However, after taking many cab-rides in an urban city, I began to see things in a different way. On one of my jaunts in a taxicab I decided to investigate what it is that made people come to developed capitalist countries from less developed parts of the world.

In speaking to a cab driver, who left Ethiopia to come to Canada, I found my answer. I asked, “do people tend to be more happy in Western societies than in Ethiopia?” He answered that, “Ethiopia was a poor country.” In his words I could see the influence capitalism now had on his life: he equated how much money one has to how happy they are in life. This is reminiscent of one of the trademark idioms of capitalism that money can buy happiness. This is now disputed even by some who are otherwise supporters of capitalism, but if it were wholly refuted then this could undermine the entire capitalist system. Unfortunately, many people do believe that money can buy happiness in the owning class and force those who do not make as much money into the service industry, which in its very nature seeks to serve the owning class.

Your life is influenced by where you are born

Your life is partly determined by where you are born. For example, if you are born in Ethiopia then your life will be determined by Ethiopian standards and culture. In the United States, Canada or the UK your life is determined by a more developed capitalist system. Someone may come from Ethiopia to experience the “freedoms” countries like these employ, but there is another factor at work here: class. It is easy to show that the system boasts of false promises: Sally wishes to go to university, but Sally’s parents cannot afford to pay for it because in the capitalist system one must pay for everything. Sally’s life path has now been influenced by what class she was born into. Therefore, what the Ethiopian will notice is that “freedoms” have a price and are largely determined by what class one is born into.

Along the same lines, immigrants often receive low paying work in the service industry once they enter the developed capitalist system and they can never afford the education to gain higher paying jobs. As a result they stay in the service industry their entire lives, being some of the most lowly-paid members of the working class of wage and salary earners. It is education and money that allows one to move up in a capitalist society but even if one is to move up the ‘social ladder’, it is only usually to a less badly paid section of the same subservient class.

Finding and maintaining a job is difficult enough for people in poor countries and therefore receiving an education is but a luxury. In fact, the cab driver I spoke to said that he was working to make sure that his daughter would be able to go to university. He has to spend his years driving a car all day long so that his daughter will not have to do the same job and will have a better future. If someone cannot improve their station in life because they have no money to begin with, they also cannot afford to improve their station through higher education. This means that they are left work for the class that owns and controls society. This is because capitalism is not really based on merit, but on how much money one has. This is irrational as merit should never have a price, it should be free and depend on nothing but itself.

The capitalist system is marketed on its promises of equality and freedoms through purchasing power. Prospective immigrants are given rhetoric about how capitalism makes anything possible – if one has money. However, nothing appears possible, let alone free and equal about the owning class being served daily by an exploited working class, who are actually the majority and whose freedom is rationed and limited by their pay packets and salary cheques.

Moreover, how successful you will be in life is largely determined by what class you are born into, and is out of your control. The cab driver from Ethiopia realised that he, or his daughter, would not be able to influence society in a poor country because all of the rich capitalist countries such as those in the G8 are the most influential and have the highest standards of living. However, even though he came to one of these developed capitalist countries, he will almost inevitably remain in the service industry for the rest of his life. This is because capitalism is not based on talent or merit like a truly equal system would be such as socialism where everyone would have an equal opportunity to pursue their true interests in life. In capitalism, your success typically still depends on how rich a family or area you are born into and what kind of a reputation it has. If you are unlucky and are born into the majority, the working class, it is likely that you will remain there to serve the upper class for the duration of your life.

Capitalism Promises Freedoms, But for Who?

It is taught in school that capitalist countries are mosaic countries, small units of various cultures existing within a larger schema or government. This view is marketed so that potential immigrants will not have to leave their customs behind and still be able to reap the so-called rewards of capitalist society. In reality, what exists is a melting pot where these cultures are eventually assimilated. The opposite of a mosaic, melting pot, a term with a negative connotation, is often used to describe societies experiencing large-scale immigration from many different countries that seem to “melt” into the existing society. For example, Muslims are being assimilated into Western culture by way of developed capitalism. Only those who assimilate into the capitalist system are able to experience the "freedoms" it promises, but at often cost to their culture. It follows that people who come to developed capitalist countries work to serve the needs of the majority, who are of a different culture, often by forgoing their own so that they might fit in the prevailing market-driven norms.

Two of the most prominent examples of the melting-pot theory are the African Americans who were enslaved by white people through trade and the Native Americans who were wiped out, enslaved or displaced during European colonization. Though these cultures, mainly the African Americans, regained somewhat of their dignity many years later, they still lost the connection to their homeland, lost their culture and were forced to “melt” into the capitalist system.

The natives of North America are an example of not only assimilation to benefit the capitalist class but of the deception of such a system. The natives did not have money or a use for money until the European settlers arrived. These initiated trade and the natives would work hard to gather furs. They would sell their furs, specifically beaver pelts, which were very expensive items in European society at the time. In return they would receive trinkets such as forks as well detrimental items like firearms and liquor. Further, the economy that was run during colonization was one that the Europeans implemented and operated themselves, i.e. capitalism. Also, when the natives finally became wary of the situation, they lost their land. Treaties for land exchange were deceitfully created in a language foreign to them so that they could not have possibly known that they were signing away their land. They were taken advantage of and most importantly, lost their autonomy and freedom. Additionally, the native clans that do remain in North America are being assimilated, or waiting to be assimilated, into society. One way where this can be seen is through the media impact on younger generations who are lured into Western society with its market-driven imperatives and away from their cultural heritage.

Servitude

It seems almost unbelievable to think that servitude exists today in a society that is supposed to be ‘meritocratic’. This is because it is unnecessary that there should even be a servant class in society at all, even if the modern form of slavery is wage slavery.

There is no doubt that if one were to ask the Ethiopian cab driver if he would drive a cab all day if he didn’t have to, he would say no. The majority of people work unsatisfying and unchallenging jobs in the service industry and this is not necessary. It is socially demeaning and it is servitude, plain and simple. Capitalism has wrought its negative influences on the African Americans and North American natives. These people were exploited and subordinate classes until they melted into the capitalist society causing social alienation and loss of cultural identity. Further, those that work in the service industry today are not far off from these fates. Their lives may be better now that they can purchase “freedom” but it is at a great cost to their dignity as they spend their lives in servitude based on the amount of money they (do not) have instead of what talents they possess. Moreover, it only takes a cab ride in a city to see which class has the most power and influence in a capitalist society and chances are it isn’t the class of the Ethiopian behind the wheel.

JESSICA FORDHAM (Socialist Party of Canada)

Drowning for Labour Fluidity

Socialist Banner has previously reported on the woes of the migrant and has repeatedly stated that workers have no borders. 200 migrants were feared dead off the coast of Libya, after the smugglers' boat which was supposed to take them to Italy capsized.The UN refugee agency estimates that more than 67,000 people undertook the dangerous voyage to Europe in smugglers' boats in 2008. More than 1,700 are known to have died, but that figure could be far higher.

Echoing much of our analysis is the head of the UN refugee agency, Antonio Guterres when he said :-

"I think it's important to recognise that in today's world where as we have seen, money moves so freely, and goods tend to move also more and more freely, there are still tremendous obstacles for people.People need to move because they can no longer live in their countries of origin because of war, because of environmental degradation, because of poverty, there are many reasons that force people to move."

The International Labour Organisation says that despite the current global financial crisis, falling birth rates across western Europe will cause a labour shortage over the next few years. It says Europe should think about making it easier for people from the developing world to come in and work.

"You have a strong demand for labour particularly in industrialised countries," explained Patrick Taran, a migrant labour specialist with the ILO."They need people to fill the low skilled jobs in agriculture and construction, manufacturing, domestic work, in health care, and you have a lot of people, including with skills, who need those jobs and are willing to come for them."

He adds "When there's no job at all at home, when you have a family to feed, you will take risks to make sure that you and your family have food on the table."

As socialists are concerned, it is not a case of chanting “Migrants are welcome here” , which implies we as workers have some right to say who is and isn't welcome in the first place; nor even of saying that the immigration laws should be relaxed. We understand that the thing which makes workers leave behind their communities, and go to a place where their language is not spoken, is the wages system itself. This underlies the need for us to recognise our identical position with regards to the wages system, and work together, as workers across the world, across boundaries, to create a commonly owned planet where all can live in security.

divide and rule

Socialist Banner has pointed out the threat of discrimination in South Africa against in-comers from other parts of the continent and now another news report high-lights the problem .

Human rights organisations in South Africa have condemned a spate of xenophobic attacks that have reportedly left four people dead and hundreds homeless.
"At least a 1,000 people have also been left homeless in the latest attack - we are really concerned," said Vincent Moaga, spokesman for the South African Human Rights Commission .

The United Nations Refugee Agency said it had recorded at least half a dozen attacks against foreign nationals in the past few weeks, including the fatal shooting of two migrants in another township outside Pretoria on 18 March. Following the killing, thousands of people went on a rampage, assaulting foreigners in four other informal settlements, reported local newspapers.

"Most of the attacks seem to stem from social tensions within the communities," said Jack Redden, UNHCR spokesman in South Africa. "Many foreign nationals unable to afford rentals in city centres have begun to relocate to townships - and have become the focus of simmering tensions within townships over lack of service delivery." Nearly 17 million strong labour force remain officially unemployed in South Africa. A further 3.5 million are classified as "discouraged work-seekers" or "unemployed." South Africa as the regional economic superpower has attracted migrants - both legal and illegal - from across the continent and beyond

"It is a new kind of racism," commented Annah Moyo, a human rights lawyer with the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF). "It is understandable, I think, because South Africans feel threatened as many employers prefer to hire foreign nationals because they can exploit them - but violence can never be justified."

Divide and rule to maintain whites in political power has been the history of Africa in the past but now industry and commerce , much of it black owned , now use the same tactic to weaken the working class to continue their control .

Shared exploitaion deserves the response of united resistance.

The Nationalist Madness

In September 2005, a Moroccan newspaper compared sub-Saharan African migrants to "black locusts" invading northern Morocco. Frequent round-ups have occurred in immigrant neighborhoods and in improvised ad-hoc camps close to the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and larger cities, and unauthorized migrants are regularly deported to the Algerian border.

Events in Morocco have brought to the fore the madness in the nationalist issue. Hundreds of West Africans who tried to enter Spain through Morocco are brutally maltreated by the Moroccan security services apparently at the instigation of the Spanish authorities. They are beaten, put in prison and many driven to the heart of the desert and left there to die.

In the wake of the brutal attacks on these West Africans, many human rights groups in Morocco came out in their numbers to protest against the inhuman act. Unfortunately most of these activists attributed the action of the Moroccan authorities to racism. This however is a gross misrepresentation of the issue.

This misguided hatred of fellow human beings who happen not to have been born (or who have not been officially recognised as ‘citizens’) in certain parts of this world is not just found in Africa but everywhere in the world. This inhuman phenomenon makes nonsense of the oneness of the human race as preached by the UN, Christianity, Islam, etc. But this state of affairs could not have been otherwise in a world that is controlled by vampires whose only concern is profits and who place money on a higher pedestal than human beings.

The unfortunate aspect of this hatred towards the ‘foreigner’ or ‘alien’ is that the champions of nationalism use the working class of their countries against the working class of other countries. The truth however, is that the loyalty felt by many members of the working class to their country is a misplaced loyalty. Their so-called leaders actually hold them in the same measure of contempt as the ‘foreign’ members of the working class. In real terms there is no difference whatsoever between these ‘citizens’ who gleefully inflict the pain and the ‘foreigner’ on whom the pain is inflicted. The two groups are both exploited by the ruling class. In fact these African youth who were trying to enter Spain en route to inner Europe were actually forced to abandon their birthplaces by the actions of the ruling class of this world. No one in this world is unaware of the poverty and misery that is the lot of the African. And the capitalists cause this.

The only real division that exists between human beings is their access to the resources and wealth of the world. In this money-dominated world, the minority ruling class (the capitalists) own and control these resources and wealth – the land, factories, the transport and communication network, etc. The working class has no access to these and has to sell their mental and physical labour power the former in return for peanuts.

Nationalism is therefore an illusion that has no basis in reality. The working class in Morocco has more in common to the working class in sub-Saharan Africa (and indeed the working class of the whole world) than it has with its masters in Morocco and else where. The point, in a gist, is that nationalism is nothing short of an ideology that seeks to enhance the profit-making interests of the capitalist class.

However, the problem of nationalism cannot be wished away. To do away with it will mean to eliminate the present the system that fosters it. This system ensures that a minority owns and controls the means with which wealth is produced and distributed whilst the vast majority who actually does the production owns nothing. The resources and wealth of the world must be owned and controlled by all humanity. Under such an arrangement, no one will care who goes where or who belongs where. Then nationalism and its present brutalities would have been buried.

But this type of system – call it socialism – can only be possible when people make efforts to understand the workings of not just that system but also this capitalist system.

Editorial for the African Socialist , now The Socialist Banner, journal of World Socialism in Africa. Copies can be obtained (price £1.30, including postage and packaging) from 52 Clapham High, London, SW4 7UN.

DETENTION CAMPS IN BELGIUM ARE FOR BUSINESS

The author writes from personal experience having been imprisoned for 6 months at a Belgium detention camp .

The Kingdom of Belgium Government's inhuman Asylum and Immigration Laws are coming to a state of explosion. In 1998, Belgium built more than five detention camps and all are functioning proper. For example, VOTTEM, Liège detention camp is made up of four sections in a cross form. Each section is made up of twelve rooms. And each room is made up of two wooden double bunks that contain four persons in a room. This VOTTEM is a closed camp that you have no access to your freedom. And the same situation applies to other camps in Belgium. They used the same design as Hitler's detention camps in the 1930s and built their own.

It is unfortunate that the people kept there are mostly immigrants from Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. These people did not commit any crime. Only that they are on their asylum procedure. They are locked up for good eight months without release. Does that reflects democracy in a country that claims advance and the capital of Europe? There was an Algerian that was detained in Vottem for eleven good months because of papers , without compensation.

In every detention camps in Belgium contains one hundred and sixty (160) detainees. And the United Nations pay two hundred Dollars ($200.00) per person everyday. And these centres spend about ten Dollars ($10.00) per person everyday. Belgium is rated as the number one racist nation in the whole world. In 1998, five Belgium Gendarmerie killed a Nigerian lady called SAMIRA ADAMU and no compensation was made to the deceased's family. Belgium have formed many kangaroo tribunals that are made up of three to five persons to judge whether an illegal immigrant have the right to be released from the detention closed camp. These are businesses, they do nothing to help the immigrants but to detain them more in order to make more profits. These people appointed to head the tribunals cannot act as the law stipulates but wait for an instruction from the Office des Etrangers or the foreign office in Brussels. Therefore, the tribunal in Liege and other places in Belgium are there to mark time for the immigrants to stay more in the detention camps. In nutshell, the more months you stay in the detention camp, the more money they get for you.

Lest I forget, the Belgium tribunals are made up of the judge, the clerk, the prosecutor, the accused immigrant, your lawyer and two policemen that will bring you out from the court cell in handcuffs to the tribunal panel. No observer or reporter is allowed to enter the tribunal hall. Everything about the tribunal is top secret. Also, they will not allow you to bring in your private lawyer. The immigrant is only allowed to go to tribunal with their own government appointed lawyer. Does this inhuman attitude reflect a thorough democracy as Belgium's claims to be?

In the detention camps AIDS can be easily transmitted through blood transfusion. This is because ten detainees use one disposable shaving stick per day. Of course it is not hygienic for anybody to use one disposal shaving stick with another person.

These groups of vandals, i.e. the Ministry of Interior, the Judiciary, the police and the airlines have connived to operate this kind of mafia capitalism in order to enrich themselves. In this situation, they take their so-called illegal immigrants to the Zaventum airport for deportation without the consent of the Embassy of that immigrant. The worst part of it is that the day of the deportation date the security in the detention camp will take you secretly without the knowledge of other detainees and put you alone in a solitary confinement where you will be ex-communicado till the day of your deportation. Surprisingly, you will see yourself to the tarmac where the plane is already waiting to fly and they will tell you to enter and go to your country just like that. Some immigrants fly home just because of fear of four policemen that will be mounting pressure for you to go back to your country. Already you will be traumatised after passing through mental torture. Some immigrants having no choice of help at that point in time will decide to fly irrespective of the danger awaiting them in their respective countries. Where on earth does this type of illegal action happen? Nowhere except in Belgium.

It is obligatory for Belgium to take immigrants to the airport for deportation. But, where the person refuse to travel to his or her country, they will feel happy to bring you back to the detention camp and keep you for extra two months or more in order to make more money from you. It is surprising to every detainee that before they bring you back to the detention camp a letter for refusing to travel is awaiting you from the foreign office to the detention camp for signing. And this happens even on weekends when no official duty is carried on. This will enable one to know that every detention camp in Belgium is for profit.

The food and drinks that they supply to prison and detention camps are free by from the manufacturers. Sometimes, it will remain some days to the expiring date and the detainees will still eat them because they have no choice.

In the Article 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention prohibits the imposition of penalties on account of illegal entry or presence of people seeking protection. Our higher courts have agreed. Large compensation payments continue to be made for wrongful convictions or detentions. But Belgium does the opposite.

In March 2003, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reminded all States to "take concrete steps to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers are not subject to punishment". But Belgium does the opposite. From the look of things, I don't think that the United Nations are doing enough to protect refugees in Belgium. Refugees and asylum seekers are facing a lot of police control in Belgium. And nobody comes to their aid. It is inimical and criminal that a country that calls herself a developed nation is still practising the Nazi system of 1930 ideology. It is the right time that the world should rise against the Belgium attitude of detaining immigrants unlawfully without compensation as stated by the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951.

Dele Iloyana , ex-detainee , 26 January 2004
kingdeleiloanya@hotmail.com

The Border Jumpers

The BBC carries the story of Monica from Zimbabwe . She has joined the exodus of Zimbabweans crossing illegally into South Africa - the so called "border jumpers". Monica was driven out of her homeland by poverty, hunger, and concern for her little girl.

"The situation is very bad," she said. "We will try by all means to get jobs. We can't go back. We are starving in Zimbabwe...We've got no jobs. We can't do anything in Zimbabwe. We are suffering."

In Zimbabwe there is 80% unemployment and the world's highest inflation rate - now 2,200%. The price of corn, the staple food in Zimbabwe, has just risen by a staggering 680%.

Plenty of illegal migrants are arrested and sent home. So far this year, 57,600 have been deported to Zimbabwe, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Today, with modern transportation and mass communications and world media , more people are motivated and able to move. The poor and disadvantaged can now see with their own eyes the wide disparity between their standard of living and that of the richer and more advantaged people in the world. They want to share in the wealth . The fortunate few may strike it lucky . But for most it is only a temporary respite before the new conditions and the new exploitation begin to wear them down again .

In Capitalism there is no real escape .