by Finbar Geaney
member Irish Labor Party
Member, Executive Committee of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions
Brexit
is not an event, it is a process; and the process is being driven by right-wing
interests within the UK and other countries. It is essential that socialist
forces and mass workers organisations resist this right-ward political shift in
its entirety. Delay and continuing confusion have characterised much of the
left response to this dangerous development in global politics. A raft of
meaningless terms has been thrown about by left-wing spokespeople that only
serve to obfuscate. There is no ‘soft Brexit’, ‘hard Brexit’, ‘Tory Brexit’,
‘Labour Brexit’, or ‘Lexit’. Still less is there a ‘workers Brexit’ or (…and
the winner is…) a ‘socialist Brexit’. Brexit is the material precipitation of
the forces of the right in Britain. Nobody can any longer doubt that the only
force that gained from the Referendum result is the Right.
Brexit began as a right-wing, nationalist split in the British Tory Party and
went on to generate UKIP as a serious political force. It then dragged in from
obscurity a range of right-wing MPs such as Ian Duncan Smith, David Davies,
Michael Gove, Teresa May and Michael Fox and in addition breathed new life into
right-wing lunatics like Rees Mogg and Boris Johnston. Then against their
wildest dreams they won a vote fifteen months ago. The negative Referendum
result was assisted unfortunately by a residual confusion among some Labour
Party MPs and workers’ leaders about the nature of the European Union. I have written about this in an earlier post. Jeremy Corbyn and others of the Campaign
Group in the past mistakenly juxtaposed the European Union and socialist
democracy as polar opposites. Corbyn himself supported the Bill that called for
a Referendum.
The most recent stated position of the British Labour Party is ridiculous. They
say that Britain should remain within the Single Market as well as the Customs
Union and should also accept the decisions of the European Court of Justice for
what they call a ‘transitional period’. If that is their position now then why
bother leaving the European at all! And when they refer to ‘transitional’
arrangements, to what are they ‘transitioning’! Better to be honest and to
accept that they have been taking an incorrect approach and that the UK should
remain within the EU.
The UK has not left the European Union. It is not inevitable that it will. A
reversal of the decision of June 26th 2016 would represent a major defeat for
the forces of the right, and not just in Britain. Trump welcomed Farage to the
White House shortly after his inauguration, the latest Breitbart departure from
his Administration lauded Brexit. Marine LePen, Wilders and others are trying
to build their right-wing forces through association with the victory of the
right in Britain as manifested in Brexit.
Labour leaders need to face up to the reality of what is happening all around
them. They need to muster the courage to say clearly that the decision of the
Referendum last year was wrong, opens the way for the ascendancy of the right
and needs to be changed. To borrow a Mexican term cojónes are required in this
situation.
Any political decision can be changed. Any democratic decision can be reversed
by another democratic decision. There is no challenge to the principles of
democracy in that.
Now is the time to link up the socialist forces and mass workers’ organisations
across Europe in a united political campaign against the right. A common
programme of anti-capitalist policies and socialist demands can be built around
a new campaign on the EU. There is clearly disillusionment across Europe at the
dominance of conservative forces in all the institutions of the EU. This is a
consequence of the election of conservative governments in several European
countries. The stranglehold that the conservatives have over the institutions
of the EU can be broken. European Treaties can be changed.
A new opportunity now presents itself. The labour movement in Britain can
become the centre of a continent-wide movement to reverse the tide of
right-wing dominance in economics and politics. Reversing the decision of June
2016 could become the focus.
The Tories say that they can negotiate a good deal for Britain and its
citizens. Then let them tell the British people now what it is that they are
negotiating for. This would provide an opportunity for a vote. If they insist
on negotiating the whole package first then let there be a nationwide vote at
the end of the negotiation and let the result of that vote be the second vote
on the proposal to leave the EU. In the context of a new Referendum, a campaign
for a socialist Europe would be entirely different from the right-wing jamboree
of 2016. If Brexit were to be rejected, and especially it were rejected in
favour of building support for international socialism, what a serious defeat
that would be for the right across the world!
If you have opinions about the subject matter of posts on this blog please share them. Do you have a story about how the system affects you at work school or home, or just in general? This is a place to share it.
1 comment:
An excellent well thought out article. However common sense will not change a referendum decision. The dye is cast and the wishes of the voters must be carried out. The fact that it may well lead to a Greek tragedy cannot be prevented.
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