Job losses are caused by the market not migrants
SP Newsletter No.318
Thousands of workers Australia-wide face the reality, or threat, of job losses or cuts to working hours. Bosses are trying everything they can to make workers pay for the global crisis of their system.
The crisis has already led to the axing of 16 million jobs worldwide and destabilised a number of governments around the globe. The risk of a double dip recession also remains, which would heap further pain and suffering on workers and the poor worldwide.
So who do the bosses and the media blame when Australian workers lose their jobs? Migrants and refugees! Yet how many speculators and stock market gamblers, who paid themselves millions in bonuses and triggered this crisis, are moving to Australia? Not many.
But of course these aren’t the migrants the bosses, their politicians and their media mean. The migrants that the major parties and their mouth-pieces in the media attack are usually members of an ethnic or religious minority.
When times are good the bosses exploit migrants as a source of cheap labour to do the jobs no-one else wants to do. When times are bad the bosses exploit migrants by blaming them for the unemployment that the capitalist system has created.
While the bosses are busy blaming migrants and refugees for all our problems, research demonstrates that immigration is actually good for the economy. The government’s own figures show that immigration boosts the economy through an increase in spending. This leads to an expansion of the economy as well as more skills and capital coming into Australia.
Migrants contribute much more in taxes than they consume in benefits and government services. So when the bosses and the media try to blame migrants for job losses they are lying.
The bosses are trying to make ordinary people pay for the crisis in their system. By blaming migrants this distracts workers from those who administer the system and focuses their anger on one of the most marginalised groups in society.
This tactic also has another major bonus for the bosses. By whipping up fear and prejudice against migrants employers try and divide Australian workers.
Bosses know that workers are stronger when they stick together. When workers are divided and arguing amongst themselves it is much easier for employers to push through their cuts. Trade unions need to resist this attempt at ‘divide and rule’ by organising migrant workers and refugees. We need industrial action to defend every job, service and hard won condition.
Socialists put the blame for unemployment where it really belongs – on the capitalist system and the bosses that caused it. That’s why while fighting to defend jobs and conditions we are also fighting to replace capitalism with a system that shares out the world’s work and resources.
Upcoming SP meetings
The Melbourne Branch of the Socialist Party meets every Wednesday 7pm at Trades Hall on the corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. Upcoming meetings include:
14/7 – Colombia: The political situation today
21/7 – South Africa: Stephen Jolly reports on his recent visit (6.30pm @ NIBS)
28/7 – The politics of the Black Panthers
4/8 – The NT Intervention 3 years on
11/8 – Report from CWI world school
For more information or for details of meetings in other parts of Australia contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111.
News links:
ESF Istanbul 2010: Another Social Forum was possible
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/4389
Bolivia: At the crossroads
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/4388
Spain/Basque country: General strike shows workers’ strength
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/4385
Join the Socialist Party
If you agree with what you have read in our newsletter or on our website you should consider joining SP. The Socialist Party has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth as well as members and supporters in all other states.
We are involved in trade union work and student work. We also run community, anti-war and environmental campaigns. But most of all we want to build a party that will fight to get rid of the capitalist system, the system that is at the root of all of these problems. We fight for socialism - a system that will bring an end to wars, poverty and environmental destruction. To join SP contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a membership application form.
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Socialist Party contact details
Melbourne: Phone Anthony on 0396399111.
Sydney: Phone Gary on 0297287727.
Newcastle: Phone Samantha on 0249681545.
Adelaide: Phone David on 0883441474.
Perth: Phone John on 0894020728.
Rest of Australia: Phone our National Office on 0396399111.
Rest of the world: Phone our International Office on ++ 44 20 8988 8760.
The Socialist Party is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is organised in over 40 countries across the world.
