There is no Lexit - Leaving the EU is a Project of the Right and far-Right
Barring a
miracle Theresa May’s deal with Europe, backstop and all, is likely to be rejected
by a hefty majority in the Commons tomorrow. It is quite possible that May
herself will resign although it is equally possible that she will have to be dragged
out of Downing Street kicking and screaming.
Of one
thing we can be sure. There is nothing at all progressive or socialist in
cutting our ties with the European Union. The problem with the EU is not that
it is leading to European integration or the loss of a mythical sovereignty but
that capitalism, based as it is on nation states, is incapable of achieving the
goal of European integration.
 |
| The original 6 members of the EEC |
The project
for European unity began as a consequence of World War 2 with the formation of
the European
Coal and Steel Community in 1951. A common market in iron and steel was
created under the control of a supranational Higher Authority. Iron and steel competition
had symbolised the drive to war in previous decades.
At the time
the UK, which still had an Empire, refused to join what became the European Common
Market. It was only with the humiliation of the Suez War, when the United
States forced Britain into retreating that the UK began to orientate to the
EEC. As Dean Acheson, Harry Truman’s Secretary of State observed,
“Great Britain had lost an Empire and not
yet found a role.” It was a way of casting scorn on the special relationship’ with the United
States.
 |
| Charles de Gaulle - French President |
Three
times, Britain applied to join the Common Market. The first application, in
July 1961 by Harold MacMillan, was vetoed
by the French President Charles de Gaulle. The second application in May 1967
under Harold Wilson was also
vetoed by de Gaulle. It was only the third application under Ted Heath, by
which time de Gaulle was dead, that was successful.
The Labour
Party came to power in February 1974, in the wake of the Miners Strike when Ted
Heath called a General Election under the banner ‘Who Rules the Country’ – he got a rude shock when the electorate
said it wasn’t him! Harold Wilson had held the Labour Party together by
promising to renegotiate our terms of entry and then hold a referendum. After
gaining minor concessions the referendum in 1975 produced a 2-1 majority in
favour of remaining in the EEC.
The left of the Labour Party, Tony Benn,
Michael Foot and Barbara Castle joined forces with the Tory Right – people such
as Enoch Powell and Teddy Taylor – to campaign on an openly nationalist basis
against the EEC. The Out campaign warned that the EEC ‘"sets out by stages to merge Britain with
France, Germany, Italy and other countries into a single nation," in which
Britain would be a "mere province". What a terrible thing!
The opposition of the Labour Left to
the EU has always been a pale reflection of the Right, based on a nostalgia for
when Britain was ‘great’. At a time when
MAGA is the slogan of Trump and the alt-Right it should not be difficult to see
the parallels.
The 1970’s were a time of
unparalleled class struggle, the likes of which we haven’t seen since. In 1972
and 1974 the National Union of Miners went on strike twice and and it brought the
government of Ted Heath to its knees. The industrial and political struggle
against the Industrial Relations Act led to the defiance and then repeal of the
Industrial Relations Act by the dockers in 1972 with the gaoling
of the Pentonville 5. When the TUC called
a one-day General Strike the courts, in the form of Lord Denning, caved in.
It was in this context that the
Labour left, which had made its peace with Labour’s class collaborationist ‘social
contract’ with Capital turned its attention to opposition to Britain’s
membership of the EEC. The campaign against the EEC, alongside the Tory Right was
politically disastrous and weakened the Left. After the referendum Wilson demoted
Tony Benn moving him from his powerful position as Minister of Trade and
Industry to Minister of Energy.
In short the Labour Left’s opposition
to the EU has been a disastrous capitulation to the forces of nationalism and
an abandonment of class struggle politics from its inception. The Labour left
took its lead from the Communist Party and its British
Road to Socialism which posits the Stalinist idea that you can achieve
socialism in one country.
There is nothing progressive or socialist and never has been in
opposition to the European Union.
Opposition to the EU has at its heart
opposition to the free movement of labour. Capital in today’s world can move wherever
it wants but workers are forced to stay where they are and compete against each
other. Those who argue that free movement of labour undercuts the wages and
conditions of native workers are conceding to the idea that British workers and
bosses have more in common than with foreign workers. It is no surprise that it
is the same anti-trade union right which employs this same argument as it did
against Jewish workers in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.
The socialist argument is quite
simple. Organise migrant labour don’t exclude it alongside reactionary and
racist Toryism. Class action and trade
union organisation between migrant and indigenous labour is the best way of
protecting wages and conditions.
Opposition to the EU is based on the
idea that an independent British capitalist state is preferable. It is a
harking back to the days of Empire. Only last week Jeremy Hunt visited
Singapore saying
that after Brexit Britain could adopt the Singaporean model of low taxes. Those
who argue for Brexit are playing with fire – they are laying the basis for a
low wage, low tax economy in which we effectively undercut wages in Europe. This is the ‘socialist’ solution of our
so-called Left. Unfortunately Jeremy
Corbyn has always been part of this left.
General Election
If and when the Commons rejects Theresa
May’s Deal tomorrow, it is essential that Labour does more than call for a
General Election. It should take over the campaign for a referendum. The defeat
of Brexit at a second referendum would almost guarantee the victory of Labour
at a General Election. It would also nip in the bud the moves for some form of
national coalition between the Labour Right and Tory anti-Brexiteers.
The argument that a second referendum
doesn’t respect the first referendum is barely worth arguing against. People
are clearly in possession of more information now about the consequences of
Brexit, leaving aside the fraudulent use of money at the last referendum. A
strong campaign by Labour can not only overturn the 2016 referendum but it will
strike a decisive blow against the far-Right in this country which is riding on
the coat tails of Brexit.
A successful rejection of Brexit will
provide an unstoppable momentum for a General Election. Far from damaging Labour’s
chances the rejection of Brexit would enhance them enormously. It should be able
to capture significant territory in the anti-Brexit South, London and the Home
Counties. By taking head on the anti-migrant narrative in the North, viz. that
deindustrialisation and austerity are the product of the EU rather than the
politics of the free market and Austerity, Labour can overcome any Tory
campaign. Labour should argue that what motivated people to vote No in 2016
were policies that made the working class pay for the financial crisis of
2008-9, Those who say we should ‘respect’ the first referendum result are
really saying they have no confidence in being able to challenge this racist
and nationalist narrative.
The 2016 Referendum led to an
increase in racist attacks and
xenophobia. It was the far-Right who felt emboldened by the result. We have seen with James
Duggard and his far-Right acolytes last week exactly who stands to benefit
from Brexit.
All over Europe the far-Right has
grown on the back of a Euro-scepticism allied to anti- refugee feeling. The
Brexit vote in the 2016 referendum was a visible sign of that and those who say
we should ‘respect’ it are in essence saying that we should not challenge the
racist Right any longer.
It is also obvious that the alt-Right
and Trump in the United States welcome
Brexit as the first instalment in the break up of the European Union. The idea
that Britain would become independent is for the birds. It would tie Britain
hand and foot to US capitalism.
Socialists should counter the message
that Europe is the cause of austerity and unemployment. We should also be clear
that we do not accept the neo-liberal policies of Europe and its competition
law either but that the place to fight them is inside not outside. We should
take our lead from French workers who have been in the forefront of the fight
against Macron and his Blairite economic policies. Cutting our ties with Europe
is a strange way of building working class alliances with European workers.
Jeremy Corbyn’s strategy of wanting a
‘Jobs
First Brexit’ is politically and economically absurd. Brexit has already
led to the loss of thousands of jobs and will lead to many more as firms transfer
investment to mainland Europe. One may as well talk about a ‘life enhancing
suicide’ or a healthy heart attack. It is an oxymoron.
We are entering into the territory of
a constitutional
crisis with a Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, who is prepared
to tear up precedent and existing procedure in order to enable the Commons to
override a government that has lost its majority. The Sunday Times at the
weekend speculated
on a plot to suspend Standing Order 14 which gives precedence to government motions. If true then the government will have lost
control.
Labour has a golden opportunity to
use the ruling class crisis over Brexit to its advantage and ride to power in
its wake. The alternative could also be
that the Corbyn phenomenon is derailed entirely.
Tony Greenstein
