This week began with Johnson repeating again and again in the Commons that, here, workers enjoy "the best rights in the world" and that we will continue to do so after Brexit. As if an upper-class toff like Johnson would know anything about being a worker - i.e. making a living by doing something useful for society!
Then this Wednesday morning, 39 workers were found dead in the back of a trailer, in an Essex industrial estate, after travelling all the way from Bulgaria - in the desperate hope of a job. What rights did they ever have the chance to enjoy? None! Not even the right to breathe, for fear of being discovered by Johnson and Patel's Home Office cops!
The real mafia is in high places
In fact these 39 men could instead have been among the hundreds of thousands of youth and poor who defiantly took to the streets of Chile, Bolivia, the Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Niger and a few other poor countries, over the past weeks, in a bid to end the parasitism of their greedy capitalists and corrupt politicians.
But they probably did not even have the option of standing up against their oppressors. Like so many others, they were probably fleeing one of the many regions of the Middle East and Africa where decades of meddling and looting by the British state and its western allies, has produced a permanent state of war and starvation.
In any case, refugee or not, these 39 were just like the rest of us - workers in search of a decent life. They were our class brothers. And, for that reason and that reason only, the borders of Johnson's Britain were closed to them.
Of course, ever since the 39 bodies were found, the media has been full of police statements pointing the finger of blame at an unknown mafia of "human traffickers".
But would these gangs be able to operate without the anti-immigrant policies of successive governments? Without the further tightening of border controls in line with the so-called “hostile environment” created by Theresa May, in order to divert attention from the drastic cuts the Tory government was making? Or the anti-migrant demagogy which has become an integral part of the Brexit saga? This resulted in even more senseless border controls - making it virtually impossible to obtain refugee status in Britain. It leaves migrants no option but to put their lives into the hands of gangs of traffickers.
So, contrary to what the police claim, there is no need for a "long investigation" to find the criminals. The mafiosi who choose to whip up anti-foreign, anti-migrant fears in order to bolster their careers, are all very well-known - they are called Cameron and May, Johnson and Patel, Gove and Farage, among others! These are the real criminals!
Only our fights will protect our rights!
So, going back to Johnson's boasting about workers' rights, should the working class have any illusions whatsoever in these politicians whose hands are stained with the blood of the Essex 39?
Of course not! But there are plenty of other reasons why, behind their hypocritical words, Johnson and his ministers are so obviously enemies of our class. Johnson has already managed to reduce any commitment to protecting workers' rights in the EU withdrawal agreement to zilch. Which should come as no surprise from a politician whose Brexit "model" is to turn Britain into a European Singapore: a low-cost, low-tax, low-regulation economy!
And of course this "model" means, among other things, that labour costs - i.e. our living standards -will come under the axe if he gets his way.
In fact, this would be merely in line with the policies of the City over the past decade. It wasn't because of EU membership that casualisation, self-employment and zero-hours contracts came to dominate the economy. If, today, Britain is the sixth worst country among the EU 28, in terms of zero-hours contracts, it is and can only be, due to the policy of its own capitalist class and politicians!
We have already seen on-going deterioration in our conditions of employment in many industries - from 2-tier status and the systematic use of agency temps in the car industry, to outright cuts in pensions at Royal Mail. Meanwhile, today, ASDA's over 100,000 employees have been given until 2 November to sign a new contract giving them a small increase in hourly pay in return for full flexibility in their working patterns and ending paid breaks! Those who don't sign by the deadline are threatened with the sack!
This is the line of attack chosen by British capital with Johnson's support. Our enemies know that our best defence is to go onto the offensive, which is why they try so hard to divide our ranks along the lines of nationality. They hope this will paralyse a collective fight back. What we have to do is to prove them wrong!