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This is excerpted from the latest issue of Fightback magazine. To subscribe, click here.
Ani White is a Pākehā postgraduate student/tutor in Media Studies, a member of Fightback, and the coordinating editor of this issue.
In the lead-up to Aotearoa/New Zealand’s 2017 General Election, Fightback and others have co- launched the Migrant and Refugee Rights Campaign. In the context of rising international xenophobic populism, and the failure of NZ parliamentary ‘Left’ parties to take a consistent stand for migrants, we considered this an important political focus.
The following articles were initially solicited as a part of the campaign. However, as they came together, it became clear that this discussion must be broader and more multifaceted than the theme ‘Migrant and Refugee Rights’ captures; the struggle must be rooted in an understanding of colonisation.
Arama Rata’s excellent article which opens the issue, on the problem of euphemistic discussion of racism, frames the fight against racism against the backdrop of Aotearoa’s colonisation. Relatedly, The Guardian’s David Wearing argues that British xenophobia is inseparable from the country’s colonial past.
This broader post-colonial perspective must frame and inform the street movement for migrant/refugee rights, which the remaining pages focus on – with articles on Brexit, the German far-right, the meaning of the monarch butterfly symbol, and finally the fight against xenophobia in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
The issue concludes with the kaupapa statement of the Migrant and Refugee Rights Campaign. Contrary to dominant discourse which pits migrants/refugees against the ‘white working class’, we argue that what’s best for migrant workers is best for everyone; universal cheap high-quality housing, Living Wages, the right to join unions alongside other workers.
You can find out more about this campaign at marrc.org.nz, or Facebook.com/marrc.nz.
Contents
- Watered-down biculturalism: How avoiding the ‘r-word’ undermines our liberation movement, by Arama Rata
- Immigration will remain a toxic issue until Britain faces up to its colonial past, by David Wearing
- Brexit, Democracy and Oppression, by Neil Faulkner
- The “Alternative for Germany”: A chronicle of the rise of a far-right party, by JoJo
- What do butterflies have to do with open borders? Migration is beautiful, by John Lee
- Migrants are welcome – leftist xenophobia is not, by Daphne Lawless
- Interview: Why Gayaal is standing for Wellington Central
- Myths about Migrants and Refugees
- Migrant and Refugee Rights Campaign Kaupapa and Demands
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
