Bill C-63: International Solidarity Begins at Home


by Thair Kifach
New Socialist Magazine, September - October 1999


There are an estimated 30 million people a year who make up the world's growing refugee population. Keep in mind that this number is a low estimate of those known to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and that the real number is most likely several times larger. Refugee populations in excess of 10 000 can be found in 70 countries around the world.

At no time in the recent history of capitalism has the number of displaced people been so high. The great majority of the world's refugees are being held in a form of stasis in refugee camps and are kept separate from the resident populace by fences, barbed wire and soldiers. In these camps refugees wait. They wait for food, they wait for water, they wait for news about loved ones, and they wait for politicians to decide their fate. The Canadian state has come to see these camps on its shores. Most recently, over five thousand refugees from Kosova were kept in various army bases. Hundreds of Asian refugees are being kept in similar conditions.

At the same time thousands of immigrants apply for legal citizenship, looking for a better life or escaping from economic and social oppression. For working-class and poor immigrants and refugees the Canadian state all but shuts the door completely. Thousands of immigrants and refugees are either awaiting deportation, are in jail or in hiding. The state, along with its partners in big business, is working hard to make it easier for capital to flow freely across borders while making it harder for working people to do the same. This is an effort to control and regulate the international working class.

Sadly the trade union movement bureaucracy and the traditional party of the left, the NDP, have done little to combat this move. In a document obtained at its most recent convention, the Canadian Labour Congress goes so far as to commend the federal government for Bill C-63, of which it makes only a few minor criticisms. The NDP has all but completely abandoned anything remotely connected with internationalism, with even those on the left of the NDP typically framing their arguments in nationalist terms and never discussing immigrant and refugee rights. It is obvious that the trade union bureaucracy and the NDP will not fight to allow members of our class to move freely across borders. The capitalist class uses the limitations on our mobility as a tool to increase exploitation. We must remember that the repression of immigrants and refugees has a negative effect on the rights, living standards, and job security of all workers.

Fortunately, there are activists who are challenging current and proposed immigration policies. In Ontario, there is the Campaign to Defend Immigrants and Refugees-Stop C-63 Coalition, and in British Columbia there is the Committee Against Bill C-63. Both are small groups of activists fighting for immigrant and refugee rights, for workers' and women's rights, and against poverty and racism. They plan to try to build a larger movement in support of immigrant and refugee rights in Canada and are currently involved with organizing educational and agitational actions and events in order to defeat Bill C-63. Anyone who is concerned with issues of racism and international working-class solidarity should strongly consider joining this struggle.

For more information contact: In British Columbia