London stages this week brought into sharp focus the historical and ongoing exploitation of migrant labour, starkly contrasting with Europe's celebration of cultural heritage and capital's relentless pursuit of profit. Julia Wolfe’s multimedia oratorio, "Fire in My Mouth," reviewed in London, centered on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of Saturday 25 March 1911. On that day, 146 garment workers, predominantly recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women, died because management had locked stairwells and exits, trapping them inside. The piece, first performed seven years ago, is the third in Wolfe’s series examining the history of the American worker, revealing a brutal legacy of industrial negligence that resonates with today's border regime.
The Legacy of Exploitation
The London performance, described as a punchy opener to the Southbank Centre’s autumn season, featured the Philharmonia, an all-female professional chamber choir, and youth choruses. Jeff Sugg’s slow-strafing slideshow of black-and-white photographs and archive film footage underscored the grim reality. The score itself churned and whirred with kinetic energy, evoking sewing machines, the ocean, and the women crossing “without passports or anything.” This phrase cuts to the core of the issue: the criminalisation of movement for those seeking survival and opportunity, a practice that continues to define Fortress Europe. The work concludes with a litany of the names of the dead, a statement only made possible 15 years ago, in 2011, when the final victims were identified. This long struggle for recognition mirrors the fight for accountability for the thousands who die at Europe's borders each year.
The historical tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire finds a contemporary echo in the 2012 Bangladesh garment factory fire, which killed 124 workers. Both events highlight the global capitalist system's reliance on cheap, often migrant, labour and its consistent disregard for human life and safety. While Europe celebrates Azerbaijani musical traditions in Montreux, featuring around 200 artists and the State Symphony Orchestra, the human cost of its economic and border policies remains largely unacknowledged. The Swiss city marked the 80th anniversary of the Septembre Musical Montreux-Vevey festival, showcasing a rich cultural identity, yet the same continent erects fences against those seeking refuge.
Capital's Priorities: Dead Stars, Disposable Lives
Another of Wolfe’s works, "unEarth," opened her 2026 London season at the Barbican, serving as an earnest homily on the climate emergency. This focus on climate justice is critical, as the Global South, which contributed least to the crisis, faces its most devastating effects, driving migration that Europe then criminalises. The EU’s Green Deal, without centering climate justice and open borders, only exacerbates these inequalities.
Meanwhile, the entertainment industry is pouring massive investment into hyper-realistic digital avatars of musicians, living and dead. Unit1 Studio’s CEO Barney Wragg reported significant funding to simulate everything from tears evaporating to subcutaneous blood flow, aiming for absolute fidelity in recreating past performances. Wragg spoke of “time-travel tourism,” envisioning the recreation of Live Aid or Hendrix at Woodstock in multiple locations simultaneously. This technological ambition to resurrect dead stars for profit stands in stark contrast to the EU’s policies that actively deter and criminalise living human beings seeking safety and a future. Capital finds endless frontiers for profit, even in the digital resurrection of the dead, while Fortress Europe builds ever higher walls against the living.