Multiculturalism appears to be everywhere right now- from the Diversity units of the Metropolitan police to the inane ramblings of ‘Ordinary Bloke’ (and Ubertoff) Dave Cameron, Multiculturalist ideas and practices have become the official policy spanning Government and media. It has become one of the ideological planks of the Blair era. Suddenly the entire establishment appears to be casting off centuries of racism and discrimination and embracing a brave new world of tolerance in which the views and beliefs of all are valued and respected.
In the true spirit of this Brave New World, History itself is being rewritten as the crimes of the past are expunged through the copious application of apologies. In Blair’s world politics is…. Only having to say you’re Sorry… but only for those acts committed by men long dead.
The lefty and liberal press have embraced multiculturalism and denounce any who question its tenets as racist and reactionaries lower than amoeba. Who then would argue against it?
Surely these visions of a contented multiracial society in which the ideas and beliefs of all are respected are so clearly positive and good that no one but the reddest necked boneheaded tosser could object.
Actually, Multiculturalism is anything but about ending oppression and building a fairer society. It is a Cop Ideology, in its design and in its practice it seeks to divides working class communities against themselves and foists state approved ‘community leaders’ upon us who scrabble against each other for the chance to win the approval of the ‘soft pig’ middle class do-gooder professionals who decide which ‘community’ is most docily deserving of the largest share of the limited resources available.
Borrowing a hodgepodge of ideas from feminism, 1980s Political correctness, and academic anthropology the supporters of multiculturalism argue that Human beings are defined not by their individual personalities or membership of a particular social class but instead as members of distinct ‘cultures’. Instead of looking for what unites us all- our local community, our class or even our common humanity what is of prime importance is the one thing that divides us whether that is our race, gender, sexual identity or whatever.
To criticise these ’values’ from the vantage point of another ‘cultural grouping’ is to indulge in an act of ‘cultural imperialism’-a definite sin in the eyes of the multiculturalists and one for which you will be likely to get your collar felt for when the Religious Hatred Act becomes law.
Despite the support Multiculturalism gets from both lefties and Liberals it is in fact a highly conservative ideology. By its insistence that all differing cultures are of equal value multiculturalism denies most fundamental of liberal assumptions dating right back to the French and American Revolutions, the Universality of Human Rights. To condemn the hanging of gays in Iran or the mutilation of the genitals of young girls in sub-Saharan Africa is failing to account for “the legitimacy of their cultural experience and exposes our inherent racism” and again culturally imperialist.
Not only does multiculturalism denies that Class has any role but neither does it allow any room for progress or change in society as this would involve the challenging or changing of cultural values. The multiculturalists have an Idealised view of modern society-seeing it as the best that can be achieved, needing only the slightest of tweaks to remove the ‘privileges’ from which white working class people allegedly benefit, which in multiculturalist eyes form the basis of racism.
Multiculturalism claims that it is against hierarchies and yet it is intrinsically elitist, it demands that all cultures and groups be represented by ‘community leaders’ to ‘speak for’ and embody that community. Government promotion of ‘moderates’ within communities along with the fact that those who are most vocal are those who identify themselves most closely with the defining feature of their ‘culture’ leads to the most conservative elements tending to take a leading role and their reactionary interpretations of what embodies ‘their culture’ becoming the mainstream. The promotion of the more reactionary of community leaders simply exacerbates a glaring contradiction at the heart of the multiculturalist dream of a society of separate and distinct cultures and groups; what to do when the beliefs and tenets of one culture directly impinge on the rights of another? How does a society satisfy (for example) the needs and aspirations of a career woman, a gay man, an evangelical Christian and an Imam?
Into the breach boldly step the ‘highly trained’ professionals of the cultural diversity units and social services departments who can arbitrate between the competing claims and negotiate solutions and distribute funding and resources to those community leaders who can keep their respective communities quiet and suitably respectful.
Whilst the police have always been in the front line in the Rich’s Class War against us, our rulers wouldn’t survive long without the army of auxiliary cops dedicated to convincing us through persuasion and coercion that the system in which we live is the best of all possible and that our position within it is natural and unchangeable.
These auxiliary cops are the teachers, social workers, probation officers, etc., who try to con us that whilst they have the power to punish us; fine us, take away our benefits, our homes, our kids, our liberty or our future, that they are in reality on our side.
They are recruited from the university educated middle classes- the very people upon whom the Leninist vampire parties prey for their cannon fodder and they all share that same Guardianista ‘concerned’ radicalism that wishes to bring enlightenment to the poor misguided proles whether we want it or not.
Multiculturalism masquerades as being the means of putting an end to racism forever and yet it has provided new life and opportunities for the Fascists.
Griffin and his cronies have pursued a successful twin pronged strategy; firstly, feeding upon the bitterness felt within white working class areas at the effects of both the real and imagined passing over of those communities in favour of other more ‘deserving’ more ‘oppressed’ cultural communities and, secondly, presenting themselves within ‘the community of distinct cultures’ as community leaders and the ‘genuine’ voice of the white community.
Criticism of multiculturalism is not received well and is usually dismissed as attacks upon minority groups and evidence of the critic’s inherent racism. The multiculturalists reserve their bile however for those who refuse to remain within the confines of their respective cultural groupings; the breakers of the rules.
Women, such as the Iranian communist Maryam Namazie, from muslim communities who refuse the veil and argue for secular concepts of women’s equality are denounced as the tools of imperialism and
Peddlers of Islamophobia.
Trevor Philips, who has made a good living as one of the prime architects of Multiculturalism, and is head of the newly unified The Commission for Equality and Human Rights made some minor criticisms of its effects and how it aided segregation in some Northern cities and found himself condemned by London Mayor ken Livingstone as “well on the way to joining the BNP”!!
If critics in Britain get abuse it is far more serious for those who deviate from community values abroad but the multiculturalists commitment to ‘diversity’is never stretches to defend their rights; when gays were murdered in Jamaica, protests against the killings were attacked as racist and showing ‘insufficient understanding of Jamaican culture’. Similarly, protests against the state murder of young gays in Iran were condemned as pandering to American Imperialism, just as opposing the killing of gays in palestine was supporting the zionist occupier.
Although multiculturalism is most associated with the ‘soft pigs’ it has also made its presence felt in the regular police- the black police association and gay police associations have both been given official recognition and have made high profile political statements and interventions in support of laws and initiatives of which they approve. This has been part and parcelof a explicit politicisation of the police force as a whole over the last ten years. Previously in Class War we have exposed the links between senior police officers and fundamentalist christian groups.
Multiculturalism claims to be the solution to the oppression and discrimination within capitalist society, in reality it is a deeply conservative elitist ideology concerned above all with dividing our class against itself in order to best ensure the Ruling Classes continued domination. What is clear is that we will never be free until both the hard pigs and the soft pigs and the class they defend are smashed.
