Skip to main content
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.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Immigration / 24 April 2025
24 April 2025

The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all 

FACING THE RIGHT:
Anti-racist protesters
in Walthamstow, 202
Features / 27 March 2025
27 March 2025
Xenophobic hysteria over the statistically insignificant number of small-boat crossings deliberately conceals how capitalism manipulates population flows for profit — if we can explain that, we’ll beat the right, argues NICK WRIGHT
PREMONITION OF DISASTER: Anonymous photographer, Fallen Stat
Book Review / 18 March 2025
18 March 2025
NICK WRIGHT delicately unpicks the eloquent writings on art of an intellectual pessimist who wears his Marxism lightly
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking during the Reform UK
Features / 11 March 2025
11 March 2025
NICK WRIGHT examines how Farage’s party has attracted five distinct voter tribes with incompatible views on economics, immigration and state intervention — presenting both a challenge and opportunity for left organising
Similar stories
A man stands in front of the logo at the far-right AfD party
Features / 27 February 2025
27 February 2025
In the recent federal elections the far-right AfD was able to reach sections of the working class on issues over which the left is divided and unable to articulate a coherent position, a situation that is replicated in a number of other European countries, argues NICK WRIGHT
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) and AfD co-leader Alice
Features / 3 January 2025
3 January 2025
With federal elections coming up in Germany in February, NICK WRIGHT takes a look at the class forces shaping the policies of the main parties, and sees little hope of a breakthrough for the left
The charismatic leader of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BS
Features / 26 September 2024
26 September 2024
The new party is growing and winning not only due to its refusal to beat the war drums over Ukraine, but because of its fearless scepticism of liberal orthodoxy from cancel culture to immigration, writes NICK WRIGHT
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage smoking outside the Westminste
Features / 12 September 2024
12 September 2024
As angry voters reject austerity, social insecurity and endless war across Europe, the left should be the beneficiary instead of the far right. NICK WRIGHT looks at the ideological hangups holding us back from connecting to these dissenters