(Declaration of Red Front, Polish section of TMI), November 17, 2021.
The crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus continues to escalate. On November 8, around 4,000 refugees arrived in the Kuźnica region, and tried to cross the border barriers. Polish border guards shot them with tear gas. The number of refugees at the border is increasing day by day. The Polish state has already dispatched numerous units of border guards, soldiers, police and even anti-terrorist forces. Extremist nationalist groups have also started to organize volunteer border patrols. At least five people have already frozen to death in the frozen “no-man’s-land” that separates the two countries.
The conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), in power, and the liberal opposition agree on the essentials about Poland’s response to this crisis. According to them, the border must be defended at all costs and the refugees must be pushed back. During an extraordinary parliamentary session on this situation, thanks were addressed to “all the officers and soldiers of the Polish army who defend our border”. The only criticism voiced by the Liberals was to accuse the government of not having a clear plan to resolve the crisis.
The European Union also approves of Poland pushing refugees back to the border. Some member states, such as France or Germany, have even expressed their solidarity with the Polish government. Members of the European Parliament called on the EU to finance the construction of border infrastructure to defend Europe’s “common” borders.
The only criticism expressed by Brussels was to reproach the Polish government for refusing the assistance of the device. Frontex : it is about the service of European border guards which is illustrated by its brutality on the Greek-Turkish border. Belarus is going to be subjected to brutal economic sanctions, and there is no doubt that it is the working class who will bear the brunt of the economic crisis they will cause.
The border crisis is intensifying, and neither the EU nor Belarus (supported by Russia) want to back down. Instead of helping people fleeing their countries ravaged by imperialist wars, the European Union prefers to strengthen border security measures. All the noble “European values” of “democracy” and “humanitarianism” are thrown away as soon as the interests of the bourgeois states that make up the Union are brought into play. It is all the more repulsive as many of these refugees are fleeing the wars and chaos caused by the militarism of the United States and NATO, which have destabilized the Middle East. Rather than offering them a safe haven, European capitalists find it more practical to strengthen their borders and leave the victims of their own imperialism to their fate.
Red Front (Front Rouge – the Polish section of the IMT) condemns the policy pursued by the Member States of the EU as well as by Belarus. We demand that immediate assistance be given to all refugees, that they be allowed to return to Poland and that they be granted the right of asylum! We refuse to allow people fleeing wars to be kept in conditions which are an insult to human dignity!
Down with imperialism, borders, and barbarism! An attack on one of us is an attack on all!
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