Sep 23, 2025
In this episode, we speak with Iker Suárez, who authored a
searing piece in the Monthly Review titled "The Migrant Genocide: Toward a Third
World Analysis of European Class Struggle." In it, he
challenges the dominant humanitarian framing of migrant deaths at
sea, arguing that it isn’t a moral crisis but a structural
necessity of late imperialism. What unfolds on Europe’s shores, he
contends, is but a violent expression of global capital’s
unraveling.
Further, diving into the works of scholars like Ali Kadri and Samir
Amin, we explore how unresolved agrarian contradictions in the
Global South, the accumulation of waste, and the labor-capital
contradiction are converging in the form of the systemic genocide
of migrants. We unpack why immigration is not a peripheral issue,
but the return of capital’s deepest contradiction to the imperial
core—and how this rupture shapes Europe’s ideological terrain, from
the failures of social democracy to the rise of fascism.
Iker Suarez is an author and doctoral researcher. He studies
neocolonialism in Europe and organizes in socialist, anti-racist
and anti-imperialist movements in Madrid and New York. His work
revolves around European borders, class struggle, and immigration
politics from a political economy perspective grounded in the Third
World. He co-authored a book on Spain's southern border enclave in
northern Morocco (Melilla), focusing on the neocolonial dynamics
that undergird European social democracies. His current research
focuses on linking European state racism with a holistic
understanding of imperialism to better think through
strategy. You can follow his work at @ikersuarz.
If you like what we do and want to support our ability to have more
conversations like this. Please consider becoming a Patron. You can do so for as little as
a 1 Dollar a month.
Related:
Study Group Ali Kadri's Accumulation of Waste (only about 5 spots left)