Putting it up the People

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.