Aping populist attacks on migrants is not a winning strategy for the left | Kenan Malik

A dangerous, muddled stance on migration lets the far right claim to be the defender of workers’ interestsOn Christmas Eve 1980, Paul Mercieca, the communist mayor of Vitry, near Paris, led a gang of 60 men, mainly Communist party supporters, in a “direct action” to stop 300 Malian immigrants from being rehoused in the town.The gang turned off the water, gas and electricity at an immigrant hostel and used a bulldozer to smash up the building. Georges Marchais, general secretary