@e_flux wrote:
In The Nation, David Adler examines the nationalist tendencies of several prominent politicians on the European left, including Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France, and Sahra Wagenknecht in Germany. These figures believe that restricted migration is crucial to bolstering their national working classes and to undermining the power of transnational capital. But as Adler explains, there is not only scant evidence to suggest that such policies would be effective; they also fly in the face of the radical socialist tradition of free movement advocated by Lenin and Marx, among others. Here’s an excerpt:
Forget The Communist Manifesto ’s refrain that “the working men have no country”; the new face of the European left takes a radically different view. Free movement is, to quote Wagenknecht, “the opposite of what is left-wing”: It encourages exploitation, erodes community, and denies popular sovereignty. To advocate open borders, in this view, is to oppose the interests of the working class.
By popularizing this argument, these new movements are not just challenging migration policy in Europe; they are redefining the boundaries of left politics in a dangerous, and inopportune, direction. Over the next few decades, global migration is set to explode: By 2100, up to 1 million migrants will be applying to enter the European Union each year.
Right-wing populists have already begun their assault on migrants: In Italy, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has called for “mass cleaning,” while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has proposed that recent arrivals should be sent “back to Africa.” As left-nationalist movements charge ahead in the polls, it is not immediately clear who will challenge their pessimistic view of migration and fight for the right to free movement
Image: Left-wing French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the organization La France Insoumise. Via Al Jazeera.
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