Listen up

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

When I was in New York in January I met some of the people from United for Peace and Justice, the US anti war organisation. They told me then about the planned mass march there at the end of April which they were hoping would bring the anti war movement together.

Looks like they succeeded. They describe at least 350,000 marching on Saturday and the pictures look great. They represent a growing movement against George Bush's policy. Let's hope it makes Washington think twice about attacking Iran. When added to the mass mobilisations of immigrant workers this weekend, you really begin to feel that something is on the move in the US.

Just as here, it's not just the war, stupid. When I was in the States people were concerned about the whole Hurricane Katrina issue and what that said about race nad class in America. The immigrants' stayaway yesterday shut restaurants and diners across the country, closed the meatpacking plants in the midwest, and left the California fields empty.

Instead these 'hidden' workers took to the streets of the major cities to demand they are treated as human beings, not criminals, for helping to keep the US economy going.

It made me feel good to see them. The immigration debate is so much dominated by the right and the racists and they've been pushed onto the defensive. Immigrant workers made one very central point: without us you couldn't cope.

In Norway at the weekend for a good debate on the future of Europe's left at a forum called Eurovisions, I was struck by the same thing. The rich European countries all depend heavily on immigrant labour yet many of them allow immigrants few rights and have right wing populist parties bidding to curtail even those still further.

The hijab, Muslim schools, raising the marriage age to stop arranged marriages, are all issues now. Maybe the immigrants of Europe should follow the Americans in demanding not to be criminalised and to be treated equally. Time for a new civil rights movement.

Perhaps as a contribution to this our governments should stop attacking other people's countries, destroying their livelihoods, making them refugees, and then when they get to our countries, treating them as outsiders or even criminals.

That made sense to the young audience in Norway, who like most people don't want to live in a divided society. What a pity _as Britain takes over Afghanistan's dangerous Helmand province and the screw is tightened on Iran_ that our governments aren't listening.

That's where this weekend's demos come in.

5/02/2006 04:17:00 PM | Permalink