It's time.
For months, UKIP and the Tories have been running a campaign against immigrants and the free movement of people. Across Britain, a wave of hate and scapegoating is spreading. Progressives have stayed too quiet and done too little.
That ends today, with the launch of the Alliance for Free Movement. Along with allies, we are going to make the unequivocal case to defend the right to live, work and study in the context of the Brexit negotiations. We cannot give an inch to the lie that a lack of housing, jobs and public services is the result of immigration - when we know that it is a result of exploitation by bosses and failed government policy.
For months, UKIP and the Tories have been running a campaign against immigrants and the free movement of people. Across Britain, a wave of hate and scapegoating is spreading. Progressives have stayed too quiet and done too little.
That ends today, with the launch of the Alliance for Free Movement. Along with allies, we are going to make the unequivocal case to defend the right to live, work and study in the context of the Brexit negotiations. We cannot give an inch to the lie that a lack of housing, jobs and public services is the result of immigration - when we know that it is a result of exploitation by bosses and failed government policy.
This statement was published in the Guardian on 11/01/17. It is a broad statement of principle, and not all signatories are necessarily initiators of the Alliance for Free Movement.
A wave of hatred is sweeping Britain, with migrants blamed for a range of social ills. But migrants have not run down our public services, it’s not them that failed to build enough houses our economy needs and they don’t cause a race to the bottom on wages or conditions. These are the results of political choices made by governments and corporations.
In fact, the free movement of people can build our collective power and creativity in the face of attempts of the super-rich to turn the world into a gigantic marketplace in which we are all isolated individuals competing against one another in a race that never ends. Fear and hate further drives this isolation and undermines our ability to cooperate. It allows the already rich and powerful who have done so much damage to our country to win.
We are therefore alarmed by the way more MPs are now also turning their fire power on immigration. While we cannot ignore the concerns of anyone struggling and feeling insecure in a country that still has huge but concentrated wealth, we cannot pander to anti-immigrant sentiment in a race we cannot win and should never want to. A democracy must defend the most vulnerable in society – all of them. And we must provide the services and homes for people who come to this country who add to its economy and its culture.
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