By Dr. Sawraj Singh
The recent victory of Angela Merkel in the German elections looks more like a defeat than a victory. Her party got the lowest number of votes in seventy years. She cannot form a government on her own, and will have to make a coalition government with parties with whom she has fundamental differences. Moreover, she will need more than one party for the coalition and these parties have very divergent views. The end result of this will be fragmentation of German politics, and Germany will lose its status of the most powerful country in Europe.
Germany was the last country in Western Europe to lose a powerful leader. England and France, the other major countries, already have weak leaders. Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron are neither very powerful nor very effective leaders. Angela Merkel was the last leader who was holding the bastion of Capitalism in Europe. Her fall leaves the field wide open for Putin to be the only powerful and effective leader in Europe.
The anti-immigration and anti-globalization forces were the real winners in this election. The AfD (Alternative for Germany) party was the biggest winner. It got more than 12% of the votes. For the first time, it will have representation in the German Parliament. This ultra-nationalist party opposes immigration and globalization. This party, like the other nationalist parties, favors to improve relations with Russia. All the nationalist parties in Western Europe oppose American domination of Europe and want better relations with Russia.
We should try to understand that basically, the nationalist parties associate America with globalization, and for them, Russia represents nationalism. Putin is the greatest nationalist leader for them. They feel that Putin has stood up against American hegemony and has restored Russia’s status and prestige in the world. They also look at Putin as a symbol and protector of the European Christian civilization. They feel that America and its allies in Europe want to replace the European Christian civilization with consumer culture of globalization.
The nationalists in Europe seem to feel that there is a conspiracy hatched by America and its globalization allies in Europe to use Islam and Muslim refugees to weaken the European Christian civilization. If we look at what happened in Serbia, then we can understand why they feel like this. In Yugoslavia, America sided with the Muslims there to break up Yugoslavia and then inflict very heavy damage on Serbia. We can also see that the Serbs were considered one of the closest allies of Russia and were seen as defenders of the European Christian civilization.
Under capitalism, both immigration and globalization are motivated by capitalist greed rather than needs of society. America brought blacks from Africa by forced immigration. This is the first example of forced unnatural immigration at a large scale by the capitalists in modern society. The super-exploitation of these slaves in a modern capitalist society gave America a big advantage in comparison to other capitalist countries, and was one of the major factors for America’s rise as a major power in the world.
Nothing has changed; the forced immigration still continues. Instead of visible chains, modern slaves are bound by invisible chains. Capitalists have not allowed their countries to develop properly. Therefore, there are no jobs or no good jobs available for them there. Capitalists have destroyed their culture and value system, and have imposed their consumer culture over them. These newly-converted consumers see the capitalist countries as a paradise where all their consumerist dreams can be fulfilled. Both these factors act like invisible chains which bring these immigrants to the capitalist countries.
Globalization, the highest state of capitalism, has only aggravated this problem. It has widened the gap between the developed countries and the developing countries. It has also increased the problems of cultural erosion and loss of value system. Any statistics will easily show that globalization has increased immigration tremendously. The refugee problem is also a concealed form of forced immigration.
Anyone who feels that the western capitalists have become humanitarians and they want to help the refugees does not understand even the basics of capitalism. Leopards cannot change their spots, and capitalists can never overcome their greed. Angela Merkel did not bring one million Muslims to her country for humanitarian reasons. This can be called the contemporary version of bringing Black slaves to America.
There is growing opposition to immigration and policies of globalization which promote it in the western capitalist countries. The opposition is coming at two levels. First, from the ordinary people who have to face negative impacts of immigration like lowering of their wages and the consequences of social instability which this scale of immigration brings with it. These immigrants increase supply of labor. Wages in capitalism are still determined by supply and demand. Therefore, wages come down as supply increases. Social instability leads to problems like increased crime and making society unsafe.
A section of capitalists like Trump are also feeling that instead of bringing more immigrants, it is more efficient and profitable to develop robots and automated technology. These capitalists have become populists and have broadened their base in the people. This phenomenon is responsible for the rising anti-immigration and anti-globalization sentiments in the western capitalist countries. First, we saw the Brexit voting in England then Trump’s victory in America. Now we are seeing this in the futile victory of Merkel in Germany.
The only way to solve problems associated with immigration is to change the present western-led imperialist globalization to a new globalization which Russia and China are trying to bring. In this new globalization, all countries will have equal opportunity to develop properly. This will help to reduce the gap between the developed countries and the developing countries. This development will help to break the invisible chains which are binding the people. India should join Russia and China to change the present globalization to a new globalization.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
