On 23rd of March, just six days before the Government hopes
to take Britain out of the EU, there will be a ‘Put It To The People” march to
make the calls for another referendum. The Socialist Party will be in
attendance, offering our view on the Brexshit issue.
The government of the day’s job is to manage the affairs of
the British capitalist class as a whole, and if necessary, to sacrifice some
industries in the interests of others. There are dire warnings in the business
pages of what will happen to us if Britain leaves the EU. Less mention is made
of the trading opportunities that may arise in some other quarters with Brexit.
What trading alliances a particular country makes concern only its capitalists
not its workers. The Socialist Party has no concern with what is in the best
interest of the capitalist class, we can sit back and watch the show. The EU cannot
solve capitalism’s built-in contradictions. Neither can it ease the problems of
the working class. What is not an issue in the EU is the interests of the
working-class. True, there are standardised working conditions within the EU and
free movement of workers inside it, but essentially the workers’ position remain
unchanged. Instead of working for a purely UK, French or German firm, workers find
themselves belonging to a European based one. The motive force of the EU has
always been associated with it is economic interest—the drive for profit. The
task of the working-class, whether Britain exits or remains will still be to
get rid of the system that generates this drive for profit. And in setting
about that task the workers of Britain and the EU do hold a common interest. Socialists
are still internationalist because socialism as always is a world conception
and not a mere European one.
For the Socialist Party there is only one question —
capitalism or socialism? In other words, should the workers of the world
continue to operate a social system that can only serve the interests of a
minority; or establish a system that works in the interests of the whole of
mankind. The EU involves changes within a private property society. Socialism
involves the abolition of private property in the means of production along
with all markets and the profit. The interest of the working class of all lands
is to unite to achieve this end. Socialists take no part in the debate; our
advice would in any case be ignored by the ruling class, as we are dedicated
to the abolition of capitalism, not the solution of its successive recurring problems.
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