08.06.1995

Anti-family state

THE IMMIGRATION acts have caused countless individual acts of injustice. One came to my attention recently as a result of a meeting against the immigration laws organised by Brent Communist Party.

Margaret Forsen came from Nigeria in 1982 as a student, married a British citizen and has a seven year old son, Raymond. When her husband abandoned his family, the Home Office demanded she leave the country by June 14. Margaret is a nursery worker in Westminster, active in her local Labour Party. She has made her life here and has nothing to return to in Nigeria.

Strange that the ‘party of individual opportunity’ should attack such an individual. Stranger still that the party of ‘back to basics’ happily destroys a family’s life.  It does not call on the father to ‘shoulder his responsibilities’.

Perhaps not so strange after all; hypocrisy has entered its soul. Government policy is consistent; it attacks workers irrespective of sex, creed or country. The individual has no right to human dignity. The state can do whatever it pleases.

Margaret could mount a personal defence campaign, but she is too upset and ashamed to pursue it. She is putting her hopes on the whim of an unelected bureaucrat’s merciful nature.

Her Labour friends have given support that falls just short of being useful. Tony Blair wrote a letter to the Home Office on her behalf, which is no more than Ted Heath did. Neither parliamentarian was prepared to go beyond polite entreaties.

Remember how the Labourites declaimed against the iniquity of the poll tax, but - as magistrates and councillors - persecuted all who stood against it in practice. They talk about helping the poor and downtrodden, but always end up protecting the rich and powerful. The simple reason for this is that Labour intends to run the present system in the present way.

To mount an effective campaign for human rights we need a positive programme capable of uniting people around what they need, around what is possible if workers take power into their own hands.

Phil Kent