A-Infos (en) Spaine, CGT: [CGTPV] Antonio Pérez Collado*: Homo insolidarius vs homo sapiens (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The tragedy suffered by a group of immigrants near the Italian coast, with the 
result of 69 deaths (the balance could exceed one hundred fatalities if we take 
into account the missing) once again points to those responsible for European 
border policy. The Schengen Agreement and the Border and Coast Guard Agency 
(Frontex) have meant the closure of the European space to anyone who tries to 
reach the old continent in search of refuge or in some way to survive the 
hardships that force them to leave their land and risk their lives in the 
Mediterranean or in the waters of the Canary Islands.
This recent disaster in Calabria joins many others that have occurred in recent 
years and which already leave a mark, at least in some consciences, of several 
thousand deaths and disappearances. Europe spends many millions of euros to build 
border fences and surveillance equipment in a futile attempt to prevent human 
beings lacking the essentials to live from reaching the gates of consumer 
paradise. In many cases these people come from countries that until not so long 
ago were colonies of the main European powers and even today continue to suffer 
the plunder of their resources for the benefit of large companies in the 
developed world.

In the case of this last misfortune, all the limits of human insensitivity have 
been exceeded, since apparently the Italian authorities knew that the precarious 
boat with which these migrants left Turkey was sinking and, knowing their 
obligation to provide help, they did not send relief ships or allow humanitarian 
organizations to carry out rescue work in jurisdictional waters, in compliance 
with the new xenophobic rules imposed by the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni.

With great cynicism, the Italian Minister of the Interior went so far as to 
declare that they knew what was happening, but that they did nothing to avoid the 
maximum amount of misfortune because nobody forces immigrants to get on a boat, 
much less to do it with children. We are facing a new example of institutional 
xenophobia and breach of human rights by the government of a democratic country.

These racist and unsupportive policies towards people seeking refuge have been 
applied by European states for years, regardless of the fact that in some cases 
(such as the wars in Syria and Ukraine) a small part of the exodus has been 
accepted caused by these armed conflicts.

Unfortunately, political parties with clearly racist and ultranationalist 
programs are increasing throughout Europe, which, despite their anti-democratic 
messages, achieve the electoral support of an important sector of the population. 
The left, the little that remains of it, instead of effectively combating these 
retrograde ideas, moderates its discourse to win the electorate and assumes 
restrictive proposals on immigration policies.

Deprived of society of discourses in favor of solidarity between peoples and the 
free movement of people (at least at the same level as goods), racist behavior, 
aggression and hatred of foreigners settle in our cities, impoverishing 
coexistence, democracy and dialogue between cultures.

But rejection and lack of solidarity are no longer limited to the foreigner, to 
the one with a darker skin tone, to the one who follows other customs, etc. Now 
the poor are beginning to be looked down upon, those who do not have a job, those 
who lose their homes, those who need to resort to social services. Recently, the 
Madrid Deputy Minister of Health came to wonder publicly if it makes sense for a 
chronically ill person to live free of the system. Without ceasing to be 
nonsense, the reflection of this pathetic character is nothing more than the 
follow-up of the capitalist plan to ensure that health, education and the rest of 
the public services are privatized as soon as possible... and whoever cannot pay 
for them, let it go away A sad social panorama, without a doubt.

*Antonio Pérez Collado, General Confederation of Labor for the Valencian Country 
and Murcia

CGT-PVyM
--
Communication Office of the General Confederation of Labor of the Valencian 
Country and Murcia
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