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The unpopularity of immigration remains a dilemma for the left
The left must confront both far-right bigotry and the undeniable problems the exploitation of migrant workers by the ruling class creates — but there are few lessons from the global left on how to strike this balance, laments NICK WRIGHT
ANGER GROWS: Protesters demonstrate in Dover against migrants in small boats crossing the Channel from France, 2020

IF the world turned upside down by recent events — encompassing the never-ending wars of imperialism, the 2008 financial crash, Labour’s complete degeneration and the cataclysmic split in the US ruling class — has taught us one thing it is that elaborate programmatic schemes inevitably come to grief on the rocks of a reality that is impossible to predict with any certainty.

In the Manifesto of the Communist Party drawn up in 1848 for the First International, its authors argued that the formulation “Workers of all lands unite” should replace the motto adopted by the utopian League of the Just: “All men are brothers.”

This recognised that in the actually existing capitalist society, every moral and political issue means something different to different classes.

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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is accompanied by councillor Brian Collins (left) and the Head of Kent County Council, Linden Kemkaran (right) as he poses for a photo with members of Kent County Council, County Hall, Maidstone, July 7, 2025
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