TAKE a global climate crisis which puts millions on the move towards cooler climes; add in decades of imperial wars that have devastated entire nations; set this against a Europe relatively rich compared to the impoverished reality of former colonial states.

Place into this toxic cocktail a rapacious constellation of ruling elites whose “fiscally responsible” economic polices simultaneously deny workers the opportunities that advanced economies could provide. Add to this mix a conspiracy of silence between governments and employers which licences indentured labour with permits to migrate and you have the situation which prevails today in our country.

In essence our government is a people-trafficker, dishing out visas and work permits at the behest of employers. Its measures are designed to maximise profits and to plug gaps in the labour market with migrant labour trained at the expense of others, rather than rebuilding local economies, paying affordable wages, building affordable homes and providing skills training for sustainable employment that would allow working people to build families and communities.

Our beach is our border. Throughout the world millions of refugees find their way to a safer haven, usually in countries to which their own neighbours. But refugees and migrants whose natural destination is Britain — usually because English is their second or first language and where, because of colonial history they already have family and established host communities — have to find a way across the English Channel.

This provides the unscrupulous government ministers, political strategists, malign media moguls and, in this moment, fascist agitators on the model of that consummate grifter and media creation “Tommy Robinson”— aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — an opportunity to grandstand.

Boat people are a small minority of the migrant flow to capitalist Britain, but the political controversy surrounding their arrival is manufactured. But pointing this out is not enough to convince many working-class people who understand they are ignored and disrespected by a political class.

In present circumstances — a chronic housing shortage — our government has decided to house people awaiting a decision on their refugee and migrant status in hotels while refusing them the opportunity to work, find their own accommodation, learn, meet others in local communities or even engage in basic recreational opportunities like kicking a football around.

The consequence is inevitably a situation, like in Epping but with echoes across Britain, where a community finds itself host to substantial numbers, mostly of single young men.

These are the ones who can traverse hostile borders most easily and in whose person their families have invested both money and hopes — and who have uncounted hours to fill. And for those damaged by their journey or war, little is made available by way of mental health support.

The fascist fringe has already rendered the Epping situation toxic without the malign presence of Robinson, whose role in this drama is entirely devoted to generating publicity and revenues for his various social media enterprises the better to sustain his lifestyle.

The routine tactical response of the anti-racist movement in these circumstances is to turn up in defence of refugees. The problem is that the initiative almost always lies with the fascist provocateurs for whom now is the “marching season.” Our campaigning is at its most successful when conducted in the streets and workplaces in local communities, not in wandering round Whitehall or wherever, chasing after cartoon characters like Yaxley-Lennon.

We need a strategic rethink on anti-racist and anti-fascist campaigning and begin to focus our fire on those in government who treat both local communities and migrants with contempt and neglect.