From Socialist Worker, No. 107, 1 February 1969, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
TORY LEADER Edward Heath made another bid in the new political game which is fascinating commentators at Westminster: The Immigration Auction Game.
There are no rules. The prize – estimated at approximately one million votes – goes to the man who can declare the strictest control of coloured immigration as the policy of his party by the next election.
There was, before 1968, a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ in which no one could overbid by too big a margin.
This agreement was broken by Enoch Powell.
Now Heath is hopelessly trying to keep up by demanding that the government introduce tougher controls on dependents and ‘reserves the right’ to ban all immigrants ‘if the situation arises’.
The bold Labour government has responded immediately by withdrawing the concession of entry for fiancees of immigrants already here.
Powell, with the help of Nazi Colin Jordan’s bestselling sticker Powell was Right, is winning all, down the line.
None of this has anything to do with the real situation, even the capitalist situation. The number of dependents of coloured immigrants is already declining as the tough controls of August 1965 start to bite.
The number of immigrant workers coming in is now down to 4,000 a year. Almost all of these are skilled or professional people.
Capitalism, in short, is not threatened in the least degree by immigration. The immigration auction game is restricted entirely to opportunists, men who care for nothing whatever except winning racialist votes.
That appears to include almost everyone active in the Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties.
Last updated on 26 October 2020