Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
West Wales Socialist Party members supported and participated in the Furnace Action Committee’s protest march against the Tory Governments’ ‘hostile environment’ strategy of inappropriately housing 241 asylum seekers into just 77 rooms at the Stradey Park Hotel in Furnace, a small residential area of Llanelli.
The protest march was called in support of the 100+ workers, who have just been issued with redundancy notices from July 10th, to defend local services, supporting Carmarthenshire council’s successful policy of dispersing asylum seekers throughout the county and lambasting the Tories divisive, undemocratic and racist immigration policy.
Our Socialist Party leaflet was well received by the majority of participants and snapped up by residents supporting the march from their doorsteps en-route to the hotel.
Inevitably, a small number of far-right racists were present, spreading their poisonous propaganda and holding a couple of home-made placards but in no way did they represent the views of most local residents and the Action Committee organisers.
Despite a clear, prior demand from the Action Committee that “anyone attending on using racist or offensive attitudes is asked not to attend” three members of the racist, so-called ‘Voice of Wales’ a far-right media group, attempted to get video interviews at the beginning of the demo and ran up and down the sides of the march intimidating protestors, who mainly refused to speak to them.
Another handful of racist and far-right supporters mingled in the march while a few stood pathetically with a racist placard outside the hotel car park.
Darren Price, Plaid Cymru leader of Carmarthenshire County Council drew applause at the rally when he stated that we are not against housing asylum seekers in Carmarthenshire but are against the Tory government undemocratically forcing through, without any consultation, their unworkable and divisive plan for hundreds to be housed in the hotel.
When the hotel workers joined the closing rally in support of the demo they received a rapturous welcome with a promise of solidarity from the residents and trade unionists present to help them fight to retain their jobs against the millionaire hotel owners, whose only concern is making a profit out of the misery of asylum seekers!
To the credit of the Action Committee organisers, when the obnoxious ‘Voice of Wales’ reporters attempted to disrupt the rally at the end with their racist questioning, the main organiser not only dismissed them outright but the local residents also surrounded them and pointed them the way out, to another big applause from the crowd.
Trade unionists and socialists have an automatic obligation to defend refugees and asylum seekers who are victims of this Tory government and their rotten, racist and divisive capitalist system.
We also have a responsibility to address the genuine concerns of local residents, who have seen their living standards, jobs and services disappear down the plughole of a capitalist system in crisis.
It is a mistake to label all those fearful for their future as racist sympathisers, it is a mistake to allow a handful of far-right activists to go unchallenged and it is a mistake to wrongly assume that local residents do not understand the horrors without end that face asylum seekers.
The role of trade unionists and socialists is to offer concrete demands and to unite working class people around a socialist programme that can end the ongoing misery of capitalism.
