Global Refugee Crisis:
Criminal Arsonists Aren’t Humanitarians

September 7, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

September 2, 2015. A three-year-old Kurdish boy face down in the sand, washed up on a Turkish beach, drowned. Nine hundred miles west, bodies litter beaches in Zuwara, Libya. In Hungary, a Syrian man--with his wife and young child--lies down on railroad tracks, trying to push away police, saying in effect, we’d rather die a gruesome death than be returned to the fiery hell we fled.

As the world reacts with shock and outrage to such scenes, the rulers of Europe—big powers like Germany, as well as those lower down on the European pecking order—proclaim themselves great humanitarians. This sick hypocrisy is like a criminal arsonist setting millions of people's homes on fire and then proclaiming themselves gracious hosts for providing a few of the victims with a cot out in the back alley next to the garbage and the rats.

Yes, the European powers are criminal arsonists.

Sometimes literally—with drones, bombs, and brutal wars. They and their big-brother-in-crime, the U.S., set fire to whole countries to advance their interests and contend with rivals. Yes, they are criminal arsonists, burning over 100 workers in a hyper-profitable garment sweatshop in Bangladesh in 2012.

Beyond that, the capitalist-imperialist system that produced the wealth, culture, military power, and relative stability of much of Europe has at its roots the horrific enslavement of millions of Africans and genocide in the Americas. And today that system feeds off exploitation and oppression around the world. It is a system whose workings—economic, political, and military—from Nigeria to Syria, from Somalia to Afghanistan, have made life simply impossible for hundreds of millions of people.

Now, under pressure, the European powers are allowing a relative handful of the tens of millions of people driven from their homes around the world to apply for asylum. Meanwhile, they lock up thousands in detention centers. They condemn others to sleep in the streets without food or water. They whip up and set loose fascist mobs and police to attack immigrants. And they leave thousands every year to drown in the Mediterranean Sea.

The United States is leader of the pack in the whole setup, and carries out attacks that are just as criminal on immigrants in the U.S.—deporting hundreds of thousands every year to parts of the world where the workings of their system have made life intolerable.

And then they all proclaim themselves Good Samaritans as they pass out a cup of tea to a handful of survivors of their crimes.

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There are caring people in Europe who are doing their best to aid the victims of capitalism-imperialism who are seeking refuge there. And there have been righteous protests of migrants and others demanding to be treated as human beings. The protests must be supported and joined by all with a shred of feeling for their fellow human beings. The European powers must be compelled to provide food, shelter, and rights for all refugees.

But those who have set the world on fire are the criminals responsible for this crisis. They are the problem, not the solution. In the name of “humanitarian aid” they must not be allowed to carry out further crimes against humanity within their borders or around the world. And the current horrific refugee crisis points to the urgency of revolution to end their global system once and for all.

 

 

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