Britain: Defend Migrants and Ethnic Minorities from Racist and Fascist Attacks

Reject Attacks by Press Columnists on Migrants and the Oppressed.

By Laurence Humphries, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 27.5.2015, www.thecommunists.net

Kate Hopkins, who occasionally writes for the Sun, has published racist statements about the recent tragedy of migrants who died in the Mediterranean, statements which are even reminiscent of some made by the Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels during the 1930’s.

In quotes from the Sun and other media sources it was reported “She doesn’t care if Immigrants die as she reveals her violent solution for Immigration”. [1] She also referred to immigrants as “cockroaches” [2] also saying: “I don’t care show me pictures of coffins, show me the bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad.“ [3]

The press regulator IPSO rejected hundreds of complaints from readers and others who were appalled at Hopkins’s statement. [4] Even spokespersons of official bourgeois institutions like the United Nations Human Rights chief has also denounced the Sun over Hopkins’s statements. Without having any illusions regarding the real, imperialist motives of the UN and their inhuman policy, this denouncement shows how difficult it is for the more clever parts of the ruling class not to complain about the open spoken words of Hopkins. [5]

The UN Human rights chief has attacked the Sun Newspaper for publishing an article by columnist Katie Hopkins branding her use of the word “Cockroaches to describe migrants as reminiscent of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda”. [6]

The capitalist state fully supports the sentiments of Hopkins as does the owner of the Sun, Rupert Murdoch. They are just not as forthright and stupid as Hopkins is. The role of imperialism and its race hatred is well documented. Britain has a Race Relations Act but no prosecutions against possible infringers. The role of the press regulator shows that these organisations do not really defend migrant and colonial peoples. Hopkins’s column in the Sun demonstrates how the crises of capitalism and imperialism are made manifest in the extreme hatred expressed against migrants and members from ethnic communities.

The RCIT rejects these racist statements by Hopkins and calls upon the Labour movement to build a concerted campaign against the racist and fascist attacks upon migrants.

The RCIT calls for:

* For full citizenship rights and the abolition of all special laws for all migrants!

* Fight Islamaphobia. For the right to freely practice religion!

* Migrants are often under racist attacks, therefore we say: For the formation of joint self defence units of workers, migrants, and youth to defend migrants from such attacks.

* Join the RCIT! Become active in building a Pre-Revolutionary Organisation in Britain as part of the Fifth International, an international, revolutionary workers party.

NOTES

(1) Fay Strang: Katie Hopkins says she doesn’t care if Migrants die as she reveals her violent solution for immigration, Daily Mirror, 17.4.2015, http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/katie-hopkins-says-doesnt-care-5534471

(2) Katie Hopkins: Rescue Boats? I’d use gunships to stop illegal Migrants, Make no mistake these migrants are like Cockroaches, The Sun, 17.4.2015, http://www.sunnation.co.uk/hopkins-rescue-boats-id-use-gunships-to-stop-illegal-migrants/

(3) ibid

(4) Jasper Jackson: IPSO rejects complaints Katie Hopkins Migrant Column was discriminatory, The Guardian, 1.5.2015, http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/01/ipso-rejects-complaints-katie-hopkins-migrants-column-sun

(5) Sam Jones: UN Human Rights Chief denounces Sun over Katie Hopkins ‘Cockroach’ column, 24.4.2015, http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/24/katie-hopkins-cockroach-migrants-denounced-united-nations-human-rights-commissioner

(6) ibid