BC NDP posts a meme about "foreign" workers -- Xenophobes show up in approval

There is a wing of the left -- and especially within the mainstream "social democratic" party, the NDP -- that thinks that the path to power is in part paved by pandering to what are traditionally right-wing populist narratives.

But that is, to say the least, a double-edged sword for a variety of reasons -- as the ONDP found out in the last provincial election.

Yesterday, the BC NDP, as part of its campaign to oppose BC Premier Christy Clark's LNG plan created and posted on Facebook the meme presented here.

It has been fairly widely shared. 

Whatever one thinks of the LNG plan or the Temporary Foreign Worker program, the clear intent here is to appeal to people who feel that too many "foreigners" are taking "Canadian" jobs from "Canadians". 

As one might expect, a variety of xenophobic and disturbing angry comments appeared on the BC NDP page -- comments that they did not see fit to moderate for whatever reason.

Sometimes undue commentary is unnecessary. You can judge the comments for yourselves. I have chosen to blank out the names of those who posted the comments despite them having posted these comments publicly and despite the fact that they are all still up on the page and under the meme as of the posting of this piece.

Warning. They are offensive. (Click on image to enlarge).

This is what you get when you try to pander to these views. There were, again at the time of posting, very few contrary comments. 

Why these comments were left up you can decide for yourself.

"Foreign" workers are not the problem. The bosses and our governments are. Trying to divide workers by race and nation and to turn them against each other is one of the oldest and most grotesque capitalist tactics. It is also a fundamental part of far right narratives that are very dangerous. 

While right-wing populists often play to this to get votes and stir up fear and division, surely we should expect better of the "left". 

Politicians and parties that play with this are playing with the most incendiary and reactionary fire.

I hope the BC NDP is proud.