I had my first leaflet through the door today in connection with the European elections to be held on 22 May. It was from the UK Independence Party (UKIP), who advocate that Britain leave the European Union.
According to UKIP 'We have no control over our borders, but we also have no control over who we trade with, how much we pay to heat our homes and feed our families or how we just get on with our lives.'
Their use of 'We' here is confusing, since questions of borders and trade are for the one percent who own the means of production. But heating and eating and daily life are issues for the workers, the overwhelming majority who produce the wealth but get to enjoy very little of it. Do UKIP really believe that, if Britain left the EU, we would be much freer to live our lives as we wish? Do they really think that before the days of the EU or the Common Market most people were much better off than today? That there was no unemployment or homelessness or other examples of poverty?
UKIP are completely unaware that the problems of workers derive from the capitalist system, not from arrangements of borders and the reach of individual governments. But in thinking that they are, after all, no different from Conservatives, Labour or the LibDems; or for that matter from the SNP, Plaid Cymru or the Greens.
PB
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