For the sake of honestly, I will come clean; I have already addressed this in a previous piece. While I think that the EU is a neoliberal bosses club and I do not think it is capable of democratic reform (really, we will need to start completely from scratch to create a progressive version of the EU, forget the socialist states of Europe; democratic reform requires democratic mechanisms that are essentially non-existent in the EU), I supported a critical Remain position. Essentially, I (alongside of some others on the left) argued that the EU referendum campaign was going to be a right-wing campaign based on racism and xenophobia and that if Brexit succeeded, it would be a right-wing exit. The right-wing is in power in Britain and they would be leading the campaign and they would determine the exit from the EU; the dangers from Britain’s right-wing were essentially worse than the dangers of remaining in the EU.
The austerity, attacks on working class incomes and conditions of work would increase, the attacks on the welfare state would increase and the increased privatisation of the public sector (see the NHS and the care sector) will continue. In addition to this, the way that the Leave campaign was going to be run would increase racism and xenophobia throughout the country. There are times in your life that you wish you were wrong and this was one of them, but critical remain supporters were completely on target.
One of the strangest discussions I have had on facebook was in response to a statement by someone on the left that the same people that supported Grexit are the ones opposing Brexit in this referendum. The fact that someone on the left does not understand the differences in circumstances between the situation in Greece under Syriza and Britain under the Tories is impressive. It has elevated leaving the EU to a principle independent of the circumstances in which the fight is taking place. There are obvious differences between Greece (and for that matter, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Italy) and Britain. The first difference is that Britain is not a member of the Eurozone; the austerity and neoliberalism in Britain has not been foisted on Britain by the EU; it is a product of the British ruling class and its political proxies. Neoliberalism has its roots in Thatcher’s Britain and Ronnie Reagan’s US; it is not an external problem created by Troika. Second, and another obvious point; is that the British government is the most reactionary and right-wing in living memory (of course, we have the future to look forwards to); Greece under Syriza was a left-wing government born out of the pain of austerity and neoliberalism imposed by the Troika and the capitulation of its leaders (both New Democracy and PASOK). Brexit under a right-wing British government is based on reactionary right-wing populism. Grexit (if it had occurred under a left-wing Syriza) would have been based on the struggle of the working class against both its ruling class and a neoliberal EU, European Central Bank and the IMF imposing austerity. The two situations cannot be more sharply contrasted. On the one hand, we have a class revolt by the working class led by the left; on the other we have a right-wing populist campaign, weak trade unions and an ineffectual trade union leadership, an extremely weak left and a right-wing government. The fact that leaders of the some of the hard-left view the Brexit vote as a working class revolt against the rich and elite merely serves to demonstrate to me that not only have they overestimated the strength of the left in Britain (and that they are clearly delusional); but it is questionable whether they are capable of coherently understanding the objective and subjective conditions currently existent in Britain today.
This was a defeat of substantial proportions for the left commensurate with the election of Thatcher in its potential impact. Anyone that thinks this represents a victory for the left has badly misunderstood the EU referendum and the forces that brought Brexit to victory in the United Kingdom.
Brexit
The EU referendum was less a referendum on the EU than a referendum on immigration and xenophobia. Inherently undemocratic, those most affected by the referendum could not vote (neither those under age 18 nor EU citizens living in the United Kingdom were eligible to vote; this is in stark contrast to the Scottish referendum which allowed 16 year olds to participate along with all Scottish residents).
The mainstream and “grassroots” Leave campaigns employed xenophobic and racist arguments (rather than actually discuss the EU) and used all sorts of lies to manipulate large sectors of the population to get a leave vote. My favourite was the right-wing populist “sovereignty” argument, that is that Britain would be able to determine its own laws and spend money on its own; this is lovely as it carried that wonderful argument that somehow the EU was responsible for austerity and the misery in which large sectors of the British working class were living under was somehow the responsibility of the EU.
The fact that working class people bought this argument is rather disconcerting; they knew damn well that the politicians in this country do not give a damn about the needs and wants of the vast majority and for a country which understands the reality of class this understanding somehow disappeared during the referendum vote. To translate this argument for those that do not understand a right-wing populist version of the “sovereignty” argument; it is essentially to free the ruling class from constraints such as health and safety directives, working conditions directives, protections for disabled people, prohibitions against forced labour (see workfare) and guarantees protecting civil rights (yeah, those things).
The other two main points that the mainstream-right-wing populists ran under were migration: that it was somehow migration which was sucking up government funds and jobs and homes, etc; the third point offers a fake carrot and tied into the first and second points above which related to government spending: that money sent to the EU would be used for domestic investment in the NHS (of course not, if any money does exist, it will be used (as we have a right-wing government) to pay down the debt. Really folks, why would the people that support privatisation and have been introducing it stop doing it?!
There were 3 different Leave positions: 1) the “mainstream” Vote Leave - Take Control which included Tories and members of Labour; read Boris Johnson and Michael Gove; 2) the so-called “grassroots” campaign of Nigel Farage and UKIP cronies of Leave EU and 3) the unfortunately irrelevant Lexit (composed of the Socialist Workers Party, Communist Party Britain, the RMT union and Counterfire; while the Socialist Party and TUSC formed a separate group which I heard nothing from at all and honestly didn’t know existed) campaign who advocated Leave on the basis that the EU was a neoliberal camp and that a Leave vote would be an attack on the status quo and open the possibility for Britain to shift to the left.
Since the Leave campaign was essentially run by the right and the Brexit was based on the right-wing leave campaign, this position unfortunately had little or no impact on the referendum. If Brexit had been under a left-wing government with a left-wing anti-austerity position; hey, I would have supported it. But that was not the case and the slightest amount of reflection on both the objective and subjective conditions of Britain and the Leave campaign should have given left-wing Leave supporters some insight; but alas they always overestimated their power and their ability to influence debate and discussion in Britain and reality, as such, did not impact their positions.
The Remain camp essentially had two positions as well: the “mainstream” Britain Stronger in Europe and Another Europe is Possible including Labour Left, Greens, Left Unity, and the majority of trade unions argued for a more critical Remain position noting the problems in Europe but arguing that it could be reformed to serve the interests of the majority; it supported open borders and campaigned against the racism and xenophobia of the mainstream and “grassroots” leave campaign (its impact was probably not great either).
The mainstream in the Tories (which was the "mainstream" Remain camp) who are responsible for the introduction of harsh austerity (and which has nothing to do with EU mandate unlike in Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Italy) would (of course) never accept responsibility for the declining incomes of the majority, the lack of job creation, the insufficient housing and as such had little to employ as to why we should stay in the EU, actually, for the most part with some exaggeration, told the truth on exactly what would happen economically if we left the EU (stock market crashes, job losses, collapsing economy). Ironically, it was Leave supporter, Michael Gove (right-wing privatisation and free marketeer) now running for Tory leadership) that said, “People in this country have had enough of experts.”
The use of racism and xenophobia for the purposes of divide and rule led to an increasingly unpleasant and dangerous situation.
Jo Cox, a Labour member of the Remain camp was assassinated by a fascist Leave supporter disturbed by her support for migrants and refugees (she was a member of Labour Party supporters of Palestine and a prominent campaigner to support Syrian refugees). Not a member of the Labour Left, she was assassinated after a constituency surgery. Nigel Farage’s disgusting speech after the results of the referendum were declared said more about him than probably we wanted to know:
“We have done it without having to fight, we have done it without a bullet being fired. Dare to dream that the dawn is breaking on an independent nation. […] This is a victory for ordinary people, for good people, for decent people,” he said. "The people who’ve “had enough of the merchant bankers.”
The working class split on three lines: 1) those that had gone over to first to the BNP and then to UKIP and those angry at the ruling classes and their political proxies (both in Tory and Labour) accepted the lies and voted Leave. Some of them were quite happy with the racism and xenophobia of the Leave campaign as blaming migrants and outsiders is far easier than fighting against the reality in which you live; voting Leave does not make you a racist, but the racists all voted Leave.
2) 63% of Labour voters that actually voted, voted Remain, the remaining voters who identified as Labour, voted Brexit accepting the lies of the right-wing of the ruling class.
Like many trade union leaders supporting him (e.g., Len McCluskey leader of Unite the Union; interestingly Unite the Union took an excellent position opposing xenophobia and a pro-labour mobility position arguing that it is not immigration that is destroying wage incomes and work conditions), Jeremy Corbyn has spoken of the danger of free labour movement to British workers and this is not a good thing;
Finally, 3) then there was a large abstention vote who basically sat out the election. If the working-class were looking for guidance from the its supposed vanguard of the Left or the ruling class, they didn’t find it. Even though 2/3 of those that voted Labour in the last election voted Remain, you need to remember that the Labour Party has been losing votes in the north east and north west to first the fascist BNP, then to UKIP after the BNP vote switched to UKIP due to the complete lack of support from the Labour Party (an interesting take on the working class Leave vote can be found here. The rise of Britain First, a fascist grouping, is an alarming phenomenon.
So, Brexit in this circumstance meant essentially a right-wing populist line that has been bought hook, line and sinker. Racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and islamophobia are now normalised in British politics. Hey, sounds like the US ... it is a disaster of incredible proportions that goes well beyond Britain, Europe, the EU … what we are witnessing is a carnival of reaction and racism. With the right-wing in control of Britain, the Trump campaign in the US, the strong possibility of Marine LePen winning in France and a re-run of the Austrian Presidential vote (in which the Left-wing Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen won a narrow squeaker against a far right candidate Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer), things are looking absolutely hunky dory if you are a right-wing populist or fascist … what fun!
Essentially, what was a disagreement within the Tory party has now led to Britain's exit from the EU. Now, I am assuming that you have read the papers, but Remain won in Scotland, North Ireland, London, Liverpool and Manchester [Birmingham, the second most-populous city in the UK and Leeds (number 3) split 50-50]. However, the numbers that came out for remain were insufficient to beat back the right-wing populism of the leave campaign. Lord Ashcroft (Tory) actually did a poll of voters and the results are interesting, there are clear divisions among the voting population on how and why they voted the way they did, so go and read the article):
A majority of those working full-time or part-time voted to remain in the EU; most of those not working voted to leave. More than half of those retired on a private pension voted to leave, as did two thirds of those retired on a state pension. Among private renters and people with mortgages, a small majority (55% and 54%) voted to remain; those who owned their homes outright voted to leave by 55% to 45%. Around two thirds of council and housing association tenants voted to leave. A majority (57%) of those with a university degree voted to remain, as did 64% of those with a higher degree and more than four in five (81%) of those still in full time education. Among those whose formal education ended at secondary school or earlier, a large majority voted to leave. White voters voted to leave the EU by 53% to 47%. Two thirds (67%) of those describing themselves as Asian voted to remain, as did three quarters (73%) of black voters. Nearly six in ten (58%) of those describing themselves as Christian voted to leave; seven in ten Muslims voted to remain. The AB social group (broadly speaking, professionals and managers) were the only social group among whom a majority voted to remain (57%). C1s divided fairly evenly; nearly two thirds of C2DEs (64%) voted to leave the EU (lordashcroftpolls.com/...).”
The Aftermath
Given the thunderstorms the night before the EU referendum vote, one wondered whether Thor had decided to come and join the party. After the vote, it became pretty damn obvious that it was instead Loki. David Cameron resigned leaving responsibility for cleaning up the mess to someone else in the Tory party who supported Leave; the election of Conservative Party leader will occur in September before the Tory Party convention. So Cameron stays in office until the leadership election concludes and the new Prime Minister is chosen.
Boris Johnson, the erstwhile leader of the “mainstream” Leave campaign literally disappeared confirming everyone’s belief that he really did not support Leave, but was expecting a close Remain decision where upon he could take control of the Tory Party from his buddy Dave. George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer and Remain supporter) was not seen until after the weekend. The stock markets crashed on Friday the 24th of June (there has been some recovery following the crash, but it may be only a short-term stabilisation) and the value of the pound fell and has not recovered; the pound/dollar fell to a low (1:1.32), beating the time when Britain pulled out of the ERM (where the pound/dollar fell from 1.73 to 1.31). The pound/euro is at 1.19. Needless to say, within hours of the result, the truth starts to re-emerge. If the UK wants to remain in the European Economic Area (EEA), and believe it that the ruling class wants this, it will require an acceptance of free labour mobility. Oops …
The money not being sent to the EU? Well, it clearly won’t be used for the won't be used for the NHS, well, we we never really said that … so we were all hallucinating seeing that written on the side of the Leave campaign buses?
You know people are extremely unhappy about a result when over 4 million people sign a petition asking for a do-over (re-do) of the referendum, others are praying that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is never initiated, David Lammy MP (Labour) argued that it was not a binding referendum and Parliament should ignore the referendum results and Brexit-regret is still running strong! While young people voted overwhelmingly to Remain; insufficient numbers actually bothered to vote (but they are behind several demonstrations in opposition to the Brexit vote).
Nigel Farage's hopes of participating in the negotiation process of Brexit were dashed by the “mainstream” Vote Leave leaders who patted him on the head and told him to let the adults take care of things, which led to his incredible strop at the EU Parliament; if you would think that Farage would be graceful and demure in victory, then you have not been following his career closely – his semblance to a teenager in the heights of an hormonal bravado is frightening.
The Tory Leadership Race
Given the Brexit results, David Cameron resigned as leader of the Tory party, refused to initiate Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and essentially said, that can be the problem for the next leader of the Tory party (and until another general election, the future Prime Minister). His refusal to submit Article 50 instituting the divorce between the United Kingdom and the European Union means that Brexit and EU negotiations cannot start. Once initiated, negotiators have 2 years to get the “great” deal they were hoping for … sadly, the Norway Solution that is being touted as a response where the UK remains part of the EEA but has no control on any laws or rules passed by the EU, but still has to follow them is actually dis-empowering for the UK rather than offering a solution out of the problem of Brexit (so much for the bs about sovereignty).
So, the Tories that fought so hard to maintain the union of Scotland and England (do you remember the Scottish referendum campaign where Conservatives and Labour supported maintaining the Union which has led to the essential elimination of the Scottish Labour party?), Wales and North Ireland will be possibly presiding over the break-up of the union. Scotland will certainly demand another referendum as they overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU (Nicola Sturgeon -- head of the Scottish National Party --- has played this beautifully insisting that she will do everything possible to ensure that Article 50 is not introduced, representing Scottish interests and the Scottish vote in the referendum and has already been in Brussels trying to see what she can negotiate; however, there are real issues involved in this as the Spanish State will do everything to block Scotland as it has its own problems with Catalonia/Catalunya which has wanted to separate from the Spanish State.
Another important point is that the Good Friday Agreement in North Ireland is predicated upon the United Kingdom remaining in the EU and that there is a serious possibility of the reinstatement of border controls between the Irish Republic and the North of Ireland; you know things are surreal when Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party (who strongly supported Leave) is telling its members to get Irish passports! I feel like I fell into a parallel universe!
Since Cameron allowed the right-wing of the Tory party to manoeuvre him into this extremely stupid referendum and was unable to provide a convincing argument for Remain (what he will blame his own party rather than the EU for the horrific economic policies instituted under the Con-Dem and Conservative party rule?!), he correctly has resigned. There will be Tory party leadership elections completed by early September.
Now, given the EU referendum vote, it is right and proper that a Tory Leave supporter picks up the reins of government. However, that person will not be the expected and bizarrely charismatic (don’t ask me why he is deemed to have charisma) Boris Johnson who has bowed out of the leadership race (unsurprisingly as he never was a consistent Leave person and probably expected to lose the referendum); the drama that Michael Gove stabbed him in the back treacherously, is nothing but drama; I am certain that Boris did not want to preside over the potential break-up of the United Kingdom nor the United Kingdom leaving the EU – I am also certain that his masters in the City (finance capital) are not happy at all with him.
Nevertheless, this person will be unelected (similar to Gordon Brown who took over from Tony Blair or when John Major took over after Margaret Thatcher’s fall) by the general population in an election; rather they will be chosen by the Tory party.
Tory candidates for leadership are (and it gets worse the more you know who they are and what they stand for): Theresa May (nominally Remain, but has been fighting to get the UK out of the European Convention of Human Rights for the past decade and who has already started raising the issue of deportations of migrants from the EU), Michael Gove (one of the Tory Leave campaign leaders, hard-core right of Tory party, neoliberal and full privatisation of public sector), Liam Fox (Leave, former defence minister caught up in corruption scandal, hard-right of Tory party, abortion opponent, and Neocon), Stephen Crabb (Remain, nobody, deeply religious Christian – yes, we do have Christian Zionists here too, just to add to the fun, current minister of Works and Pensions after Iain Duncan Smith quit over Leave, opponent of social security, thinks that homosexuality can be cured, views himself as working-class Tory or blue-collar Tory as he calls himself) and Andrea Leadsom (Leave; her, I had to look up as I have never heard of her before, and yes, she is opposed to gay marriage).
The Labour Party Attempted Coup
The strong possibility of an early election arises from the fact that the Tory Leave leader was not elected by the electorate. Many in Labour also want to get it done before the proposed boundary changes by the Tories (which will skew results in favour of the Tories) actually are implemented.
To add to the stupidity that we find ourselves in, the Labour right has moved to try and force Jeremy Corbyn out as leader of the Labour party (clearly demonstrating that they would rather lose an election than run on from the left). Clearly, their slogan is “better dead than red!”
The planned coup was months in the making and even so, it was actually incompetently done. A vote of no confidence was declared (ironically from Margaret Hodge, MP of Barking and Dagenham whose constituency voted 60-40% to Leave and there are not a hell of a lot of Tories living in Barking) on the pretext that Corbyn did not fight hard enough for the Remain Campaign. A back-room coup of the Shadow Cabinet that appears to be initiated by Hillary Benn (yes, the son of Tony who does not share his father’s politics and MP from Leeds Central which voted remain narrowly) led to mass resignations of shadow chancellors and junior members of the shadow cabinet . Corbyn lost the vote of no confidence with only 40 Labour MPs standing with him; but has refused to resign as Labour leader. Corbyn has now appointed a Shadow Cabinet much more to his liking rather than the mixed cabinet (containing Labour left, centre and right members) that he pulled together following his election.
There are 3 reasons for the attempted that I can ascertain: 1) they do not want to run an election from the Left (this is besides the fact that Corbyn actually has the support of the Labour base) and they also are probably concerned that he may actually win an election from the left which they really do not want; 2) they are moving quickly (and stupidly) as the Labour Left has not completely consolidated the party apparatus and they do not want them to do so; and 3) Corbyn has repeatedly threatened to bring Tony Blair up on war crime charges over Iraq and his people are obviously worried as it will not only be Tony Blair in the dock.
So, with the Tory Party completely in disarray, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP; the Members of Parliament that are in the Labour Party which is to the right of the base of the party and do not like the Trade Unions nor the Labour Left leadership) have tried to force a leadership election.
If they get Corbyn to resign, that would trigger leadership elections immediately. But Corbyn at this point simply refuses to resign. As such, if they want leadership elections, someone will have to call a leadership contest, but they seem reluctant to do so as though they do not want to face the repercussions. One serious problem that the Labour right has is that they need to find a candidate which will have the support of some of the right-wing trade union leadership while also gaining the support of the base. Given widespread support of the Constituency Labour Parties for Corbyn, this will probably prove problematic. Moreover, if they do get a leadership race and somehow find a candidate among those attacking Corbyn, it is likely that Corbyn will win against possible plotters. Andrew Burnham could possibly give a good fight, but he has not left the shadow cabinet and seems intent on running for Mayor of Manchester. In fact, give Burnham credit for what he said on twitter about the attempted coup in a series of 3 tweets on the 26th of June:
Burnham: 'I wont be part of a coup' xAt an uncertain time like this for our country, I cannot see how it makes sense for the Opposition to plunge itself into a civil war. 1/3â Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) June 26, 2016 xI have never taken part in a coup against any Leader of the Labour Party and I am not going to start now. 2/3â Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) June 26, 2016 xIt is for our members to decide who leads our Party & 10 months ago they gave Jeremy Corbyn a resounding mandate. I respect that & them. 3/3— Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) June 26, 2016
Burnham: 'I wont be part of a coup'
At an uncertain time like this for our country, I cannot see how it makes sense for the Opposition to plunge itself into a civil war. 1/3â Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) June 26, 2016
At an uncertain time like this for our country, I cannot see how it makes sense for the Opposition to plunge itself into a civil war. 1/3
I have never taken part in a coup against any Leader of the Labour Party and I am not going to start now. 2/3â Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) June 26, 2016
I have never taken part in a coup against any Leader of the Labour Party and I am not going to start now. 2/3
It is for our members to decide who leads our Party & 10 months ago they gave Jeremy Corbyn a resounding mandate. I respect that & them. 3/3— Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) June 26, 2016
It is for our members to decide who leads our Party & 10 months ago they gave Jeremy Corbyn a resounding mandate. I respect that & them. 3/3
Whether he is playing to the gallery or not, Burnham has not resigned and has stood behind the democratically elected leader. The same cannot be said of Angela Eagle who has been accused of being one of the plotters and who wants to become Labour leader. Having stayed out of the original resignations over the weekend, she then resigned on Monday. It is claimed that her leadership bid is put on hold waiting for Corbyn’s resignation (which he has not done); but there are other problems, her local Wirral constituency group has backed Jeremy Corbyn. Moreover, a close look at her voting behaviour and Polly Toynbee's support may bring her into trouble as she has voted badly in a number of situations; she supported the Iraq war, supports Trident, and supported the increase in tuition fees under Blair but opposed their increase under the Con-Dems to £9000. For someone that actually was a business secretary she seem to be somewhat gaffe prone or she is an economic illiterate (her insistence that there was no housing bubble just before it burst was laughable), and she came 4th (out of 5 candidates) in the elections for deputy leader only at the leadership elections only 10 months ago. So, not a top choice and certainly she will not win against Corbyn; but she is the so-called soft-left that they are looking for; Owen Smith (Labour MP from Pontypridd, Wales) is also considering running for the leadership. Easy pickings for Corbyn …
There are issues to be resolved if there are new leadership elections; whether Corbyn himself will be able to run without need of nominations, whether he will meet the threshold of 15% members of the PLP (you can bet your last pound that they will not be throwing him the necessary nominations this time). If he gets on the ballot, there is no question that he will win it and instead of standing in unity behind their leader, the PLP has literally thrown the party into crisis in the attempt to unseat Corbyn at a time when the Tories are at their weakest in quite a while.
Moreover, we are moving towards a serious confrontation if the right of the party actually succeeds in bringing about a leadership challenge. If they do not allow Corbyn to participate, they will lose what tiny shred of democratic legitimacy they have. The need for a party like Left Unity is quite clear (and I am so glad that we kept the party going) as a place for those on the left struggling if the shite hits the fans as Corbyn will not leave the Labour Party in all probability as he has spent his life as a member of the party. There is a high probability that those that joined Labour to support Corbyn will not stay if the right seizes control of the party again.
If Corbyn participates in the leadership race and wins again, there is the possibility of a right-wing split off of Labour and the struggle between the left and the right for control over the name, party apparatuses, and monies will start. At that point, the left outside the Labour party will probably need to join the fray … So we are interesting times as an understatement …
Increased racism and xenophobia
The racism and xenophobia during the referendum campaign was horrible; the poster on the top of the aticle from Farage’s people went up the same day that Jo Cox was assassinated. It was so bad that Tory Baroness Warsi left the Leave campaign and switched to Remain; she being one of the Tories that supports the reintroduction of the death penalty).
There has been a rise in racist and xenophobic attacks since the Brexit vote. According to the Guardian there has been a five-fold increase in race-hate reports to the police; the figure of 57% rise in these attacks since Brexit has been confirmed in the press. These attacks have concentrated on Poles who are the largest European migrant group in Britain; however these attacks are not limited to European migrants from the EU.
Poles are being harassed : xenophobic graffiti was smeared on a Polish community centre in West London. Polish children are being bullied at school; families are having signs posted through mail boxes telling them to go home; Polish families are worried and for good reason. A Spanish and a Turkish restaurant in Lewisham in London (which voted overwhelmingly to remain) have had their windows smashed.
A Muslim Halal butcher shop has been firebombed in the West Midlands; British Muslims and other Asians are being harassed. Black Britons have been racially abused. A Jewish woman has been told to “fuck off back to Israel with the other yids,” and in heart of Covent Garden (Theatre district in London), chants have been heard of “First the Poles, then the Gays ” I guess they couldn’t figure out where to send them back to … what Kennington?! Soho?! Broadway?!
What the Brexit campaign has done is to normalise racism and xenophobia; while they certainly existed before, they were viewed as socially unacceptable. Racism and xenophobia were not invented by Brexiteers. What they did do was stoke its fires and a political campaign based on it (and spread throughout the media) provided the legitimacy for open racism and xenophobia; even the political assassination of a member of parliament by a fascist did not delegitimise it. It was this that the left-wing Remain campaign feared and it was this that has come to pass. In many senses, this was inevitable as the mainstream Vote Leave campaign actually threatened that Turkey was imminently entering the EU, the Better Off Out campaign of right-wing Tories and “grassroots” Leave campaign ran a right-wing populist campaign using xenophobia and racism at its heart. One the genie is out of the bottle, it is really hard to stuff him back in again. Years of campaigning and struggle will be needed to reverse this, if it can be reversed.
What next for the left? What needs to be done?
Immediately, united fronts need to be built to struggle against racism and xenophobia; those have to include those members of the left that see this as a working class victory. Support for immigrants and migrant communities is essential as there is a possibility of deportation and continued hate-crimes. The nature of the contradictions in Britain will mean that we probably cannot predict what will happen; we need to be vigilant against the forces of reaction and supportive of progressive developments when they arise. The young have been out protesting against Brexit, we need to stand with them and fight.
Divide and rule has been extremely effective. We need to link the struggle against austerity, the struggle for human rights and the protection of working conditions, the welfare state and to preserve and strengthen the public services (e.g., the NHS, education) that we have fought for so long to achieve and to ensure access for all.
Part of this must be fought in the context of Brexit negotiations and the preservation of the EU Convention of Human Rights; but the rest will need to be fought in our communities to build cooperation and solidarity with each other, to struggle together daily against the advances of the forces of reaction that threaten to tear down our solidarity, to tear down our communities and to separate us one from the other to strengthen the right-wing forces of reaction in Britain. This is not an easy task, but this is not only a problem for Britain. There is a general rise of the far-right in Europe, in the United States and we need to work to build international solidarity between the working class and peasantry in the world, to struggle together against the forces of reaction for the future.
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