Transnational capital is the real economic migrant

Date: 9 June 2014

By focussing purely on movement of people into the UK, the seven Labour MPs who wrote an open letter to Ed Miliband risk inflaming a dangerous discourse on immigration and race which ‘blames the victim’, and is anything but progressive.

There is no question that ‘globalisation’ as an economic strategy has seriously undermined workers’ rights and standards of living. What’s more, power is exercised in the European Union in a deeply undemocratic manner which has left ordinary people without a voice in the governance of their own societies.

But by focussing purely on movement of people into the UK, the seven Labour MPs who wrote an open letter to Ed Miliband risk inflaming a dangerous discourse on immigration and race which ‘blames the victim’, and is anything but progressive.

What we require from MPs instead is a clear sighted analysis that the real ‘economic migrant’ is transnational capital, which governments of all shades have spent 30 years freeing up to scour the world for resources and profits. The alternatives we need would restrict the movement of capital, put people back in control of their societies around the world, and limit the ability of big business and finance to pillage economies – including our own.

Simply cracking down on immigration, already severely restricted in global terms, does nothing to stop workers being left at the mercy of capital, and actually weakens them even further by setting them at each other’s throats.

If they want to strengthen workers, Field and colleagues should use their power as MPs to rein in the power of those that exploit them. They could start by opposing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – part of the next wave of ‘free capital’ reforms – which is currently being negotiated in our name by the EU Trade commissioner.