“The only thing this politics of distraction, hatred and division achieves is to protect our rigged economic system – so that the super-rich can keep getting richer, while everyone else is left worse off.”
With the rise of far-right scapegoating and fearmongering of refugees in recent weeks, Richard Burgon MP published the following statements against divide and rule racism and for the real culprits to be held to account for the crisis.
We’re at a dangerous moment in our country – where refugees are being blamed for all society’s problems. While the super-rich, who really caused these problems, are busy taking more and more wealth from working class people.
For 40 years, the ideas launched by Thatcher – cuts, deregulation and privatisation – have meant attack after attack on working-class living standards. The last decade and a half of austerity made things even worse.
Instead of holding the billionaire class to account – those who have stolen the wealth created by ordinary people – Farage and his allies are scapegoating refugees and are being cheered on by our billionaire-owned media.
But hatred and division won’t build a single council house. It won’t put a penny more into the NHS. It won’t deliver higher wages. In fact, Farage and his mates voted against stronger workers’ rights in Parliament recently. They want the NHS replaced with a private system.
The only thing this politics of distraction, hatred and division achieves is to protect our rigged economic system – so that the super-rich can keep getting richer, while everyone else is left worse off.
Let’s be clear: the cause of the problems in our society is the tiny elite hoarding the vast majority of our country’s wealth. Refugees fleeing war and persecution are not to blame for collapsing living standards, falling wages, or bringing our NHS to its knees.
So instead of this ‘divide and rule’, let’s unite and build a country that really serves the 99% – not the super-rich. Let’s impose a wealth tax on the ultra-rich, let’s build huge numbers of council houses, let’s bring water and energy back into public ownership and let’s kick the profiteers out of our NHS.
That’s how we can build a better future for ordinary people.
UPDATE 2 September: Richard has published a subsequent statement on the escalating rhetoric around migration which is emboldening the far-right around the country.
The toxic rhetoric around migration in recent weeks has emboldened far-right thugs – who are now abusing and intimidating people in the street they see as “foreign”, who are now vandalising their homes, businesses and places of worship with racist graffiti, and who are spreading division in our communities.
As I’ve said before, I believe the scapegoating of refugees and migrants for society’s problems is totally wrong. The real responsibility for the deep problems we face lies with the super-rich and those in power who have profited from our rigged economic system, who sold off our public services and attacked workers’ rights. They – not refugees and migrants – have driven down wages, starved our NHS, and fuelled the housing crisis.
That’s why I’m campaigning for a wealth tax on the super-rich, to build huge numbers of council houses, to bring water and energy back into public ownership and to kick the profiteers out of our NHS. But whatever people’s views, we should all agree on this: racist intimidation, violence, attacks on people and their property and other criminal activity are completely unacceptable.
Every politician has a duty to speak out, to condemn this far-right thuggery, and to do all they can to stop the stoking of the hatred that fuels this wave of far-right violence and intimidation.
- Richard Burgon is the MP for Leeds East, the Secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
You tax the super-rich by reintroducting Atlee’s Development Charge, which the Tories abolished in 1954, and collecting it on all the development gains arising between 1954 and today
WANKEIR IS A SUPER RICH CUNT THIS BASTARD NEEDS TO REALISE WE DONT WANT A TORY SCUM BAG LIKE HIM SO THE FACIST CUNT CAN FUCK OFF!