THE evolution of humanity has always depended on migration, on those humans determined to risk everything to seek a better life. 

From the earliest humans during the Palaeolithic period who, 100,000 years ago, ventured out of Africa and migrated northwards, to modern-day migrants, all without exception demonstrating enormous prowess and initiative in their struggle to escape harsh and intolerable living conditions. 

It is normal, it is what humans do and have always done, it is what all life does to a greater or lesser degree. Without migration few species could evolve and life itself could not innovate or expand. 

But the neoliberalist global economic system which dominates today’s world does not have the psychological capacity to grasp or understand this truism, it knows only how to commodify life, all life, human and non-human. 

Home Secretary James Cleverly’s latest desperate and punitive measures to try to massively reduce migration to Britain is a graphic example of this. 

From hiking the qualifying salary of so called “legal” migrants by 50 per cent and withdrawing the rights of lower-paid essential workers in exempt professions from bringing dependents with them, to attempting to bypass international law by spending large amounts of public cash stationing British lawyers in Rwandan courts in a farcical venture to be seen to be tackling “illegal migration,” all of which are clearly nothing more than blatant electioneering stunts.  

Humanity is an extraordinary species, not only has it used migration to become the dominant species on this wondrously habitable world, it has also developed the ability to map, and to become aware of its own development and history and to pass this knowledge onto future generations. 

And yet our governing bodies seem lamentably incapable of learning from this history and applying the lessons to current conditions. 

It could arguably be stated that such resistance to evolutionary and revolutionary change might be a part of the energy and driving force that moves history, but these are important considerations that the world’s ruling political class is either too ignorant, fearful or apathetic to even contemplate. 

And yet here we are in the throes of humongous global upheavals which, with a modicum of insight and intelligence could be harnessed to catapult humanity and the world itself forward to a new era of evolutionary advancement. 

But here’s the rub, to achieve this would require co-operation, collaboration, mutuality, far-sighted strategic planning, and a recognition that resourceful humans who can persevere in the face of overwhelming, catastrophic conditions to seek a better life are in fact humanity’s greatest asset!
 
The global entrenchment of capitalist ideals and systems is the total opposite of all these qualities. It blindly worships at the altar of “individualism” and shrinks in horror at the concept of equality and collectivism, shrieking that adopting such a way of living would eat our individual identities and turn us into clones or zombies.

The sad thing is that the socially fossilised specimens who own and control almost everything, not only the means of production and the fruits of that production but also, and probably more germane to today’s world, they own and control the means of mass communication; they control the flow of ideas — the very thing they accuse the demonic enemy — socialism — of wanting to do!
 
Yet throughout human history it has always been those who have the least to lose that are the evolutionary and revolutionary drivers of change and progress. And so back to the question of modern-day migrants, and refugees. 

Much has been written about the dubious ethics which underpin most of the industrially developed world’s approach to migration and refugees and the glaring double standards it applies.

Such double-standards are always, without exception, fuelled by rapacity for capital and resource acquisition, as well as racism and classism. Humanitarian considerations have long-since ceased to be anything but an inconvenient side issue which requires lip service.
 
But ironically the blinkered troglodytes who still hold the global political and economic reins of power are completely oblivious to the fact that they are devaluing the most precious resource and wealth-creators the world has ever known: people.

It is not that surprising that forces of fear and hatred are now emerging in the form of hard-right groupings across all sectors of society. We have been here before, many, many times. 

When the power-brokers of the day start to unravel the very civilisation which they are charged with protecting, they always use the same tactic: scapegoating. 

And the scapegoats they use are always the marginalised, the disenfranchised, the weakest and most vulnerable, those who are least likely or able to hit back. 

The true purpose of this scapegoating tactic is of course to divide and rule; to whip up social suspicion and hatred against the marginalised, weakest and “outsiders” to encourage a vicious blame culture and further divide an already fractured social order. 

These are the conditions that far-right fascist groups thrive in and which they vociferously use to attract people into their orbit of influence by offering them easy targets to blame for their woes. Contrast this with the truth message of the Left; that the real enemy are the rich and powerful who are well protected and heavily armed! And it is not hard to understand the huge hurdle we face. 

And yet socialism and socialists persist. It is all too easy to forget how just eight years ago almost half a million genuine socialists eagerly joined the Labour Party making it the largest political party in Europe, and how every venue which the then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke at was crammed to over-capacity with thousands of supporters. 

I personally witnessed in October 2015 how a scheduled CWU meeting at Manchester Cathedral’s annexe hall, which holds 900, had to decamp outdoors when 11,000 turned up to hear the main speaker Jeremy Corbyn, and he had to deliver his speech to a cathedral square gridlocked with people.

Even though today socialists in Britain may be dispersed and fragmented, we are still active, particularly when it comes to defending refugees who are being targeted by far-right hate groups. 

We have seen this in action from the farthest south-west of Cornwall to the northern regions of Britain and everywhere in between; local socialists, trade unionists, anti-fascists and peace activists turning out in force to barricade refugee accommodation against racist onslaughts, and often outnumbering the haters by as much as 10 to one, and always ignored or down played by the mainstream media. 
 
So, the struggle continues. It is unlikely that the plutocratic global elite and their monopoly media will ever have an epiphany moment and realise that their power-lust, greed, and hatred will ultimately destroy everything, including them. 

And no doubt Cleverly and the Tory troglodytes will implement their demented madcap schemes, supported, and possibly even applauded by Keir Starmer and his inner circle of pseudo-Labour infiltrators.  

It is up to us and our persistence in advancing the principles of co-operation, communality, equality, and humanity to ensure that the neoliberal Neanderthals finally succumb to revolutionary and evolutionary forces and go the way of the dinosaurs.