Shock absorbers? Anti-migration rallies in the West: Masking crisis through division

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak 

There is little surprise in the presence of American billionaire Elon Musk at the far-right rally in London organised by Tommy Robinson. His inflammatory and venomous speech against migrants has shocked many liberal circles, while racists and right-wing reactionaries celebrate it. His remarks are an extension of a long-term racist project aimed at dividing people and diverting their attention from the many crises that societies face today. The ideals of figures like Elon Musk not only embody democratic, legal, and moral decay but also reveal the rotten core of conservatives who are hastily working to cushion systemic collapse under the guise of liberal progressivism.

There is nothing genuinely progressive about such individuals or their politics; their primary aim is to safeguard their economic interests through the support of the state and government, both domestically and abroad. Their loud yet dubious cries for freedom of expression, free choice, democracy and liberalism conceal the very chains that destroy the conditions necessary for the collective emancipation of human freedom in the true sense of the term. These elements represent freedom for the rich and chains for the working poor, regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexuality, or nationality.

These illiberal, reactionary, and right-wing forces are spreading the venom of social disharmony in the name of anti-migration and anti-Muslim rhetoric to cover up their failures to provide basic human needs while exploiting both people and the planet. They attack leftist, democratic, and progressive movements to undermine any viable alternatives. They vilify the left and progressive forces precisely because these are the only movements that unite the essence and emancipation of humanity in the pursuit of shared prosperity and global peace. The left envisions a world free from all forms of inequality and exploitation; therefore, it stands as the real enemy of forces represented by Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Tommy Robinson. These figures and their ideologies function as shock absorbers for ongoing crises.

The history of our economic systems is a history of recurring crises that perpetuate various forms of inequality and exploitation. These crises are not anomalies but integral to the system itself. Wars and conflicts are deliberately designed to divert attention from such failures and to divide people in the name of national, racial, and religious purity and dignity. Yet there can be no true dignity in race, religion, or nationality if there is no dignity for human beings as such. Human dignity is indivisible: the loss of dignity for one person is a loss of dignity for all. These crises undermine and destroy the interconnectedness of human freedom and dignity, enabling ongoing exploitation and oppression under the guise of human freedom, democracy, and national sovereignty.

The history of human civilisation is the history of migration. Migrants have shaped the world and continue to do so. Migrants contribute immensely to addressing and solving the contemporary challenges of today’s world. They are not threats but social, political, economic, and cultural assets in building a multicultural and diverse world. Today’s citizens were yesterday’s migrants, and today’s migrants are tomorrow’s citizens. Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s family lineages themselves reveal the dynamic history of migration. The dubious distinction between citizens and migrants—based merely on a piece of official paper issued by the state—is a construct of ruling elites to exploit working people regardless of their background. Therefore, the anti-migration and anti-Muslim rallies across the United States and Europe reveal the hollowness of racist leaders and their bankrupt ideology, which continue to exploit people while concealing their failures to provide prosperity and peace.

In this context, anti-migration rallies are yet another project designed to conceal crises and failures. Attacking migrants is, in essence, an attack on all human beings and a denial of our civilisational heritage of migration, the contributions of migrants, and the making of the modern world. The struggle to defend migration and migrants is a struggle to uphold the values of a modern, democratic, secular, and egalitarian world—values that anti-migrant rallies and their reactionary ideologies seek to destroy. These forces are enemies of both the people and the planet.