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Sunday, July 27, 2014

What promised land?

From humanity's beginning, until today, humans have roamed ceaselessly all over this planet. The reasons are many. In the hunter-gatherer days, people followed the great herds of animals, which provided them with food and, in some cases, clothing. Escaping from a hostile climate, a natural catastrophe, religious or political persecution, an invading army or simply to enjoy a marginally higher standard of living, have all contributed to humanity's movements.

This aspect of human behaviour has been constant and is, at present, the greatest it's been since WW II. By the end of 2013, 51.2 million people were forcibly displaced due to war, persecution, violence and human rights violations, according to the recent global report issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. This is six million more than the previous year when there were 45.2 million displaced in the world, according to the Agency's figures.

In what must qualify as a masterpiece of understatement, UN Commissioner, Antonio Gutteres, said, "The world has shown a limited capacity to prevent conflicts and to find a timely solution for them."

To top himself in stating the obvious in an eloquent matter, Gutteres continued, "Today we not only have an absence of a global governance system, but we have sort of an unclear sense of power in the world." This was said in Beirut on June 20th, when the global report was issued. The increase is largely the result of Syria's civil war. By the end of 2013, 2.5 million Syrians had become refugees in other countries and 6.5 million had been displaced within Syria, the UN Agency said.

The numbers have been swelled by people escaping conflicts and persecution in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Forty-two thousand people have fled to Italy in the first four months of 2014, said a spokesperson for the European Union's Border Agency, Frontex. The majority come in overcrowded, hence, dangerous, boats. As one escapee said, "There were 56 of us on a boat made to carry twenty, but no one complained." Those bound for Greece have to stay below deck in almost suffocating conditions for fear the Greek Coast Guard will see them and be turned back - shades of the "Exodus", proving, under capitalism, nothing changes.

Obviously, some do not make the crossing. In fact, 170 died at sea trying to reach Europe this year and 366 migrants died off the coast of Italy last autumn. Many who reach Italy are from Libya and intend to head to other destinations in the EU, causing problems for the EU and the various governments where they settle, regarding employment and housing.

The most terrible aspect of this entire matter is the treatment of refugees in Libyan detention centres, who are waiting for boats to take them to Italy. There are 19 such Centres, run by the Libyan government, which hold anywhere between 1,000 and 6,000 people. Human Rights Watch (HRW) was allowed to send researchers into nine of them and interview 138 detainees, 100 of whom reported some form of torture.

Refugees were hung upside down from trees and whipped. Migrant women and girls were strip-searched and violated. Dozens were crammed into tiny cells with blocked and overflowing toilets. Boys, as young as 14, told researchers from HRW that they were regularly assaulted by being beaten with iron rods or rifle butts, whipped with cables and hoses, burned by cigarettes, kicked and punched, shot with Tasers, probed with electric shocks and hung upside down and beaten. Researchers found up to 60 men and boys crammed into rooms as small as 30 square metres. They also found detainees held in shipping containers.

"We were shocked at the level of extreme violence used by guards at defenseless migrants and asylum seekers", said Hanan Salah, a researcher for HRW in Tripoli. "The stench, filth and overcrowding in some of the detention facilities, were almost unbearable at times", she said, adding, HRW personnel "Found rampant ill-treatment, torture and unfavourable conditions for men, women and children in all nine of the Centres visited, which included, beatings, whipping with cables, electric shocks and intrusive body searches." Some of the violence was a form of punishment for attempts to flee, but mostly, there was, "No apparent reason for it", Salah said. Her suggestion is that Italy and the EU, which financially support many of the detention centres and, in fact, have a budget of 12 million euros for the next four years, should, "Immediately suspend all aid until the Libyan authorities launch an investigation into these abuses and the UN is able to verify they have been stopped."

As terrible as this is and as urgent the need to terminate it, the plain, brutal fact is, that as long as capitalism lasts there will always be human rights abuses. As normal as it is for people to flee oppression, this doesn't mean it will never occur again in any land they go to. Some of the Jews who perished in Nazi Germany had gone there years before, to escape the pogroms in Poland and Russia.

It may well be that many who are now fleeing countries in turmoil were patriotic, before the troubles started and some may even wonder if there is any country where one may go and feel safe and the answer is - "Not permanently."

Nor, can it be argued these types of abuses do not happen under democratically elected governments. The World Socialist Movement has clearly shown such governments are sometimes as brutal as dictatorships; the genocide of North America's Aboriginal People being a typical example.

A socialist recognizes only two countries that of the capitalist class, who own the tools of production and most of the world's wealth and that of the working class who do not. One may like certain things about a country one lives in, but one must never confuse one's liking for a land with it as a political entity. As such, every country, is a means whereby the few live at the expense of the many.

The need to capture raw materials and access to markets, inevitably force competing sections of the capitalist class into war. Furthermore, the capitalist class, wherever they may be, will use repression to maintain their rule, even if those who overthrow them, such as in the Arab Spring, wish for a continuation of the status quo.

In a socialist society where the production of wealth will be for the benefit of all humanity and where all will stand equal in relation to the tools of production, there will be no wars, abuse of human rights or any of the myriad problems capitalism throws at us.

Perhaps, nobody said it better than Charlie Chaplin in 'The Great Dictator' - "You, the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make life a wonderful adventure." Then why not organize politically and consciously to have it happen?

STEVE SHANNON 
Socialist Party of Canada

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