* THREE years on, we don’t know WHEN, HOW or even IF we’ll leave
* People voted LEAVE, but Parliament backs REMAIN
* MPs are determined NOT to allow a REAL Brexit to take place
* MPs and media stand exposed as SERVANTS of the RICH
* This euro election is being seen by workers as BREXIT REF 2.0
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Sham democracy
Day by day, we are witnessing the true nature of Britain’s parliament: which in reality is a hollow talking-shop; a distraction that hides the iron fist of the state apparatus and the dictatorial rule of the wealthy ruling-class elite.
Despite the triumphalist broadcasting by the BBC and others of anti-Brexit marches and online petitions, the issue of Brexit, far from going quietly away, looks set to upset the applecart of capitalist politics in a fairly extreme way.
When George Galloway declared his intention of voting for the Brexit party in the 23 May European elections, many on the fake left were up in arms, calling him a ‘fascist’ for even considering having anything to do with banker-turned-Brexit-campaigner Nigel Farage.
But as Galloway himself pointed out: “The left-wing predilection to call everyone to the right of you a ‘racist’ or even a ‘fascist’ is not just juvenile, cretinous, but totally counterproductive, driving the [working class] irredeemably beyond your political grasp …
“Much of the outrage against my voting intentions comes from people who voted for Tony Blair in 2005, when he was dripping in blood from the invasion of Iraq – an act which would lead to the death of a million Iraqis – now THAT is racism! Farage, incidentally, opposed the war on Iraq, and Libya, and Syria – unlike the great majority of Labour MPs …
“More than three-quarters of the Labour party’s candidates in this election openly reject the result of the Brexit referendum, demanding a re-run of the vote … Their lead candidate, Lord Adonis, live on radio said he hoped that Brexit supporters would not vote Labour.”
We agree with George when he says that Brexit is being stolen from the voters who won it by establishment politicians of ALL the main parties, both ‘left’ and right. Every party in parliament stands for remain; they all stand for shoring up the neoliberal status quo at the expense of the poor and oppressed in Britain and abroad. The only point on which they differ is how best to achieve that aim.
Labour party social democrats may be up in arms at this unashamed statement of fact, but then they have spent a lifetime telling us that we must vote Labour … “to keep the Tories / Ukip / BNP / whoever out”. Their entire politics, in fact, consist of calling for votes for Labour as the answer to every question.
But British workers are realising intuitively and by experience, that Labour is another capitalist party, just like all the others, even though most of these workers may not yet define themselves as anti-capitalist. Capitalism is the system in which men make profit from the work of others. Imperialism is this system on an international scale, where a tiny elite exploit the labour of those at home and abroad to make superprofits.
The days after the collapse of the banks in 2008, when everyone was demanding action against the bankers, have been transformed by capitalist politicians and media into ‘the people’ apparently demanding action against immigration. They have perpetuated this fraud in order to protect the rich and victimise the poor, and all the capitalist parties have played their part in propagating endless lies about the ‘problem’ of immigration, Labour first among them.
But what is at issue here and now is the fact that workers are realising that Labour is as much and more the agent of their misery as any other representative of the ruling class.
This is a development very much to be welcomed. It is the first step in realising that workers need an organisation of their own, that really represents their interests against the parties that represent the owners of capital.
The meaning of Brexit
Choosing to ‘stand with’ the EU imperialists (imperialist ‘internationalism’) or to ‘stand with’ the British imperialists (imperialist ‘nationalism’): is that the essence of Brexit?
No. Brexit hurts European, British and US imperialism alike, as our party has emphasised since the beginning of the debate leading up to the referendum (in which 17.4 million voted to leave the EU, as opposed to 16.1 million who voted to remain).
To vote for Brexit does not make you a racist, even if there are people making racist, xenophobic or anti-immigrant arguments in favour of Brexit. Our party has always pointed out that the anti-immigration lies that are peddled to workers by all the capitalist parties, Labour included, are aimed at dividing us against one another and stopping us from putting the blame for our problems where it really lies – with the capitalist system.
Moreover, the EU imperial project itself is most definitely a racist one, with its ‘Fortress Europe’ plan (complete with detention centres for non-European immigrants), its two-tier system of privileges for those who originate in the imperialist core countries (France, Germany, UK) and those whose countries were only admitted so they could provide a cheap, mobile and non-unionised labour force (the former socialist republics in particular), and its backing for wars against any country in the world that tries to stand up against imperialist control (Yugoslavia, Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, etc).
Significance of the Brexit party
The Brexit party has been formed and launched with a single policy and a single intention: to pressure the government into carrying out the result of the 2016 EU referendum.
It is therefore only on this question that we need to ask ourselves whether we agree or disagree; whether there is anything useful to be gained from supporting the party at the ballot box.
The ongoing campaign in the Guardian and other liberal imperialist media to scare workers away from supporting the Brexit party with lurid stories of the racist views of some of its candidates and backers is a re-run of the campaign that such outlets ran during the referendum itself. They are continuing to push the narrative that voting for Brexit makes you a racist, and they are hiding the fact that there are PROGRESSIVE reasons why workers should vote to leave the European Union.
The truth is that there are racists on both sides of the Brexit debate, and those whose voices we hear in the mainstream media, whether leave or remain, are almost all racist supporters of a racist system. In which case the question is not ‘Is it ok to be on the same side as a racist?’, but ‘Is there an outcome that will damage the interests of the ruling elites?’
And the answer to that is YES. A REAL Brexit will deepen the divisions between the imperialists on a global scale and exacerbate the splits amongst our rulers at home. The harder the Brexit, the more the imperialists will be set back. Why else are our parliamentarians so desperate to find a way to overturn it? Why is it taking up all the resources and attention of our politicians to the exclusion of everything else?
The majority of the ruling class in Britain is desperate to find a way to overturn Brexit without causing social unrest in the process. Most of their arguments are simply about whether they should do this by directly overturning the vote or by delivering a Brexit that is ‘Brexit’ in name only (ie, Theresa May’s ‘deal’ or Labour’s proposed customs union).
It’s the capitalist economy, stupid
‘Socialists’ who worry about the ‘damage to the economy’ that Brexit will do are in a bit of a logical pickle.
The capitalist-imperialist economy is designed to favour the financial magnates; the super-rich billionaire owners of capital and controllers of government. What is ‘good for the economy’, according to them, is what will strengthen their grip on the means of production and their hold on the exploitation of workers’ labour-power.
Climate catastrophe, environmental degradation, low pay, poor social housing, abolishing the NHS, bailing out banks, austerity and cuts for the working class, superexploitation of the oppressed world, famine, disease, global poverty, prostitution, drug addiction, obscene military spending and perpetual war are all ‘good for the economy’.
The EU imperialist alliance is a source of strength to the free-market-fundamentalist devastators of workers’ lives and of our shared planet.
The global capitalist economy is already in profound and deepening crisis – because the imperialists have impoverished the world’s population to an unbearable degree.
The fact that large imperialist interests are hurt by Brexit should not concern us. The notion that we are all in this imperialist project ‘together’ is a profound lie. It is the very essence of capitalist economy to rob the workers.
It is the failure of the capitalists to be able to provide employment and decent living standards for workers even in the richest heartlands of imperialism like Britain and France that is smashing the EU project. Not Farage. Not ‘racism’.
Our papers are filled with juvenile and apocalyptic stories of impending starvation and lack of medicines, as if Britain were incapable of switching to other forms of production and economy. We are told that there is no life beyond the EU and no life beyond capitalism, but both assertions are wrong.
In the first instance, the poor of Britain, Greece and the rest of Europe are ALREADY suffering from lack of food and medicine. And what’s true for them is true for billions more workers across the world. Since when have our ruling classes cared a jot for the wellbeing of anyone but themselves when drawing up their global domination plans?
Submitting to the imperial ruling classes’ bullying on the basis that it will ‘help the economy’ is simply another way of saying: “Workers, know your place: accept cuts, accept austerity and help make our businesses profitable through your increased subservience and deeper exploitation.”
It is the capitalist economy that is impoverishing the world’s people and destroying the planet. The last thing on earth any sane person should be doing is attempting to ‘save’ or perpetuate that capitalist economy.
The Brexit party’s arrival on the scene in time for this European election has presented workers with an opportunity to express their anger and let the ruling class know that they won’t be content to sit back and watch the Brexit vote be betrayed.
A VOTE FOR THE BREXIT PARTY IS A VOTE FOR BREXIT!
