Steve White

Refugees' Luggage

Friday 26th January 2024 7:40 pm

They came with orders
And transporters
Souls with borders
Who are you we’re moving you
Off you go

Tentative roots in a new community
Ripped out fast with the impunity
Of cruelty to the refugee
Being Party policy
Who are you we’re moving you
Off you go

From one uncaring mean hotel
To the next uncaring mean hotel
No pleased as man with man to dwell
No fond farewell
Who are you we’re moving you
Off you go

What you can carry’s what you can bring
What’s left behind you know they’ll sling
Don’t you dare say a fucking thing
Who are you we’re moving you
Off you go

And all that’s left is the refugees’ luggage
That the hotel will throw in the bin
This is England this is right now
These are the fascists that you voted in

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68080820

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Comments

M.C. Newberry

Sun 28th Jan 2024 11:42

GS - your gentle admonition is entirely suitable to your role
and respected. It is, howeve, not always possible to separate
the content (and intent) of a poem and its language from
its creator's motives and personal stance. If the content is
of a disputatious nature, then a reaction/challenge is to be
expected. I try to maintain a level of humour and politeness,
refraining from invective in my observations but even that
reticence/courtesy isn't always enough for some to accept and debate in a well-mannered open-minded way. "Obsessive"
can be a trait in various contributions, not least those of a
political nature, which can become heated...all well and good as
long as two-way discourse is maintained. Anyway...enough
from me. Keep up the good work in your efforts to maintain
some balance and decorum on WOL.

Graham Sherwood

Sun 28th Jan 2024 09:19

All too quickly the commentary swerves away from the actual poem and becomes a series of attacks on people’s viewpoints. A big shame!

Steve White

Sun 28th Jan 2024 09:00

M.C., I wrote a poem about the suffering of a group of refugees at the hands of a government contractor. You turned a blind eye to the cruelty with which they've been treated and dismissed them as "cherry pickers". That's the kind of thing a fascist might say.

In the poem, I have described the actions of the current government toward refugees as fascism and in so doing I have carefully compared them to Umberto Eco's 14 typical elements of fascism, to which I have provided a link in a previous comment.

When we remember the Holocaust, we have a tendency in this country to forget that we did not always welcome Jewish refugees with open arms. No one talks about the parents of the children on the Kindertransport who we would not admit or how, in 1940 we interned up to 30,000 German and Austrian Jews in camps, some of whom we subsequently deported to Australia and Canada.

It seems we still have a lot to learn.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jun/08/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices
https://www.gale.com/intl/essays/rachel-pistol-refugees-national-socialism-great-britain-1933-1945
https://www.timesofisrael.com/they-fled-persecution-in-nazi-germany-then-the-british-put-them-behind-barbed-wire/

Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh

Sat 27th Jan 2024 18:48

‘…who mentions ‘fascism" in that dreadful authoritarian context?’
I do, MC.
“Stalinist” is a frequently used word concerning some members of the Labour Party; I have also heard Jewish people use the word Fascist in connection with some Labour leaders.

I also use it in the context of the Gaza genocide, of its enablers and perpetrators; some genuine Democratic Socialist members of the Labour Party who have suffered from undemocratic purges have used the word "Stalinist".

I would certainly use the word fascist to describe those in the Tory party who have no problem allowing self-described Nazis, carrying swastika regalia into the UK.

M.C. Newberry

Sat 27th Jan 2024 17:26

I don't mind being in a minority in an important debate, but KJ's
easy assumption that I am a fascist is arguably a failing of
virtue signallers everywhere. Like a few other "isms" around these days, "fascism" is overworked and weakened as a result.
Those who have suffered the "real thing" know enough not to
abuse its wider world meaning, as the reference to Holocaust
Memorial Day reminds us so tragically. There is a proper debate to be had that avoids trite claims and accusations of extreme right wing/authoritarian views when considering the effects, now and for the future, of uncontrolled numbers
from places far removed in assorted vital ways from this painfully evolved kingdom that has been centuries in the
making of a succesful largely settled and at ease with itself entity.
Telboy - don't forget the literally countless millions that lost their lives to the merciless paranoid Stalinist purges. But who mentions "fascism" in that dreadful authoritarian context?

Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh

Sat 27th Jan 2024 10:27

MC.
As the citizens of Preston, Lancashire know to their cost, Fascists, self-professed Nazis, and commemorators and admirers of Mosley and the British Union of Fascists (BUF) et al. are, thanks to the perverted affiliations of HM's Gov't and the silence of the so-called "opposition", free to come and go through Blighty's borders as they please...so much for Brexit's "taking back control"; the enemy is within.

Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh

Sat 27th Jan 2024 10:05

Sorry Telboy, that’s faint praise.
“…the lowest point ever in humanity” was the refusal of some of us, in the face of all the evidence, to learn the lessons from the horror of the Holocaust.

It was, and continues to be, our indulging in the kind of language which led up to such events; our willingness to inflict similar horrors on others; our staying silent about, and actively aiding and abetting those horrors for the price of a few million quid in various election coffers. Last but not least, is the libelling and slandering of those who would have spoken out against such horrors, those who stood, not on the side of the opressors, but on that of the opressed.

Telboy

Sat 27th Jan 2024 09:21

Whilst I support the 'stop the boats' initiative, having landed here the refugees must be treated as humanely as possible, therefore I deplore the behaviour of Clearsprings and others.

Thanks to UoC for reminding us that today is Holocaust Memorial Day, commemorating the lowest point ever in inhumanity.

Governments don't get voted in, they get voted out, and the Tories would have been voted out five years ago if some silly sods hadn't made Jeremy Corbyn leader of the Labour Party.

Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh

Sat 27th Jan 2024 09:11

Oh, come on folks, let’s have a bit of dickorum!
On Holocaust Memorial Day of all days, surely we’ve got better things to write about than the systematic abuse of people who are different from ourselves…?

kJ Walker

Sat 27th Jan 2024 08:31

A sad insight into the sad plight of the refugee, and the cruel treatment they receive at the hands of this unelected government.
Thanks for posting.

Thanks also for the comment MC. It is good to have ballance, and to see it from a fascist viewpoint.

Steve White

Sat 27th Jan 2024 08:22

Thanks Greg.

Greg Freeman

Sat 27th Jan 2024 08:21

Good political poem, Steve. This lot's time is nearly up. It can't come fast enough.

Steve White

Sat 27th Jan 2024 07:07

A thought...
In the context of women with babies being forced to leave cots, baby baths etc. behind because Clearsprings will only let them take two items of hand luggage while moving them to god knows where with very little notice, your 'cherry pickers' comment is at best insensitive.

You might find these links informative:

https://www.oasiscardiff.org/blog/why-do-refugees-leave-france-for-the-uk
https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/information/refugee-asylum-facts/the-truth-about-asylum/
https://www.asylum-welcome.org/why-did-asylum-seekers-2022/
https://www.faena.com/aleph/umberto-eco-a-practical-list-for-identifying-fascists

M.C. Newberry

Fri 26th Jan 2024 22:16

A thought...
Here's your invitation to the cherry pickers' dance
Admission free from La Belle France.
If "fascists" actually controlled Blighty's shore
You'd get no further than the dancehall door. 😏

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