How We Separate Ourselves from the Constraints of the Nation State. It's Class Stupid.

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

HEO/GED

8-29-25

I'm very proud of many things about the UK. No, not the inbreds that ponce off the taxpayer, not the rise of the right wing nationalists that take advantage of the trade union leadership and Labor Party's failure to address the multitude of problems British workers face, (poverty housing, health, immigration, etc) by blaming the victims. I saw one sign telling refugees and immigrants to go home. But they have no homes left, the US, British and other declining western powers have bombed them all.

All these crises are a by-product of British colonialism/Imperialism in the dying days of the capitalist system but the culprits need to deflect the blame that is theirs on to the weak, the poor, the dispossessed spreading fear in the minds of the resident population that they will lose their culture, their "Britishness" whatever the fuck that is as many of us have Celtic, Norse, French, German, Roman, Greek, Arabic and Iberian blood in our veins. 

Behind every English first poster, British first poster and other nice sounding names lies the scourge of fascism. It’s important to reflect on the fact that the color and ethnic origins of the vast majority of people that died at fascism's hand was white and European.

When I am asked about by Englishness, and I consider myself a hybrid here in the US, I have my feet strongly rooted in English soil as well as here, even though I was born in Burma/Myanmar and raised as a small Child in Nigeria. I have a strong connection to Nigeria that's never left me and the picture I include is of a Yoruba man named Abel that cared for me and warned me to not mess with the Ju Ju symbols as he took me out walking. He is showing us a Nigerian girl, an Albino with white skin. It's the only photo I have of him and he died in the Biafra War.  Why was I in those countries you ask? Well British capitalism was spreading democracy and peace all around the world silly.

I don't fall in to the bullshit patriotism line when I get off that plane at Heathrow that I will likely not be doing again; and I love to feel that ground beneath my feet. I love the ride on the Piccadilly line in to town, although now the Elizabeth line has replaced it somewhat, made the journey quicker. I feel at home. When I come back to the US I feel at home here too. But when people ask if I'm proud to be English I don't say yes to that question because I am not proud of colonialism, slavery, the stealing of land and everything we know about colonial powers in Africa, India, Ireland etc.  I also want to separate myself from all the frauds, the right wingers and wannbee fascists who make these claims. I was drawn to right wing ideas for a brief moment in the Enoch Powell era and am aware of the dangers.

The easiest way to separate myself from British colonial history and the orchestrators of it is to be proud of the identity that matters most. I am proud to be from the English/British working class, and a worker of the world. I am proud to be a member of the US working class. I don't identify with Trump, Obama, Biden and the history of the ruling class here and I don't identify with the inbred Royal Family their rotten lives and the British ruling class and their history. It's not my history like Peterloo is or the great Miner’s Strike in the 1980's or the Tolpuddle Martyr's or the levellers or the Chartists.

The first step is recognising our place in the world as it really is, working class people whose subsistence is earned through the selling of our labor power, not purchasing the labor power of others. Then when I go to a former colonial country and am asked what I am I say US working class or English working class. The King has the same skin tone as me and might like a cup of tea here and there, our similarity ends there.

Oh, one of the things I'm really proud of is that in the 2021 census published by the Office of National Statistics in the UK,  it shows the number of people in England and Wales identifying with ‘No religion’ jumped by over 8 million, from 25% to 37% between 2011 and 2021. This is what I call progress. Watch out for the US missionaries they send around the world to save us all and promote capitalism and the free market, mostly Protestant sects of one type or another, the Mormons being one of them. 

And if you're a British person of color and are approached by the Mormon recruiter, do not lose sight of the fact that they barred you from joining their club for a long time until the growth of the Black middle class in the US due to the Civil Rights movement and Black revolt meant there was some money to be found in that community.

 

Remember what one famous person said of the rotten system in which we live and work, as it arose from the ashes of feudalism:

 

“Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.”

 

Have a nice day and don’t lose sight of what you really are.

 

Note: I chose that picture not because I am a huge fan of Gandhi, and I do not believe in a supreme being, but as a concession to the many dedicated fighters throughout history including in my small world, that do have a personal relationship or spiritual relationship with some form of higher power that, without doubt, has given them the strength to give their lives for all the oppressed people of the world.