Euro-Politics Pawns

Whether Britain should stay in or get out of the EU is irrelevant as, in or out, capitalism will continue and so the problems it causes as a system in which profits have to come before people. The answer is not to retreat into an impossible “independent Britain” as the Brexiteers demand but to go forward to world society. It is only on a global scale that problems such as climate change, world hunger and global war can be tackled. Brexit has resulted in a variety of reactions. The effects of Brexit were immediate, causing trillions of dollars, pounds, yen, and euros to be lost on the world's stock markets. 

Many who voted in favour of leaving, did so because of the insular British fear of foreigners. As one so delicately put it, "We don't want no more bloody foreigners coming 'ere taking our jobs" but If any find themselves better off, it will only be very marginally so.

It might seem strange since the City stands to lose from Brexit, that those who funded the Leave campaign should include some financiers. But there are financiers and financiers. The City establishment tends to see some hedge fund managers as cowboys engaging in practices it doesn’t regard as entirely above board and which it is prepared to see regulated. It is precisely such regulation that the Brexit financiers wanted to avoid.

One of the Brexit supporters, the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, let the cat out of the bag when, in an article in the Daily Mail (12 April 2016), he painted a picture of what a Brexit Britain would look like in 2020:

“London, too, is booming. Eurocrats never had much sympathy for financial services. As their regulations took effect in Frankfurt, Paris and Milan – a financial transactions tax, a ban on short selling, restrictions on clearing, a bonus cap, windfall levies, micro-regulation of funds – waves of young financiers brought their talents to the City instead.”

Another example was the chemicals giant Ineos accused of exploiting Brexit to pressure ministers to get rid of environmental legislation. The company pushed the government to roll back measures that mean energy-intensive industries pay to develop low-carbon power sources In one document Ineos laid out its Brexit demands: “Outside the EU: simplify the UK policy mix and seek a single route to 100% exemption from policy costs and CCL [climate change levy]. Seek a low-cost alternative to EU ETS [the EU’s carbon trading scheme].”

That was their main aim, then, their manifesto for the referendum: allow all these practices which enhance their profits to continue. To achieve this, they in effect hired politicians, not just lightweights such as Hannan but also national figures like Boris Johnson and Farage, with a remit to go out and get a vote to Leave by any means. The lobbyists didn’t really care about the NHS or immigration but left it up to the politicians to deliver. Which, against all expectations, they did. The rest of the capitalist class are furious with them but are going to have to adapt to the result. Most of them still want a deal with the EU that allows them continued free access to the vast tariff-free single market with common standards and its coming extension to services, even if this involves accepting some free movement of labour and a payment to Brussels. Some of the soft-Brexit supporters might well be prepared to go along with this as long as there is no European regulation of their activities.

Capitalist democracy is government in the interests of a parasitic minority class OVER you. The sad thing is that so many workers were led to back this maverick section of the capitalist class in the belief that they were protesting against the ‘elite’, while in fact they were being duped into pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for a part of it. 

The notion that it is YOUR country is YOUR nightmare which helps produce cannon fodder for the capitalist parasite class, whenever it suits them to go to war over trade routes, raw materials, spheres of geo-political interest. You are only of consequence to the real owners of this country, while they can extract surplus value from your employment or use you to further their interests in a bloody conflict with your fellow workers of other lands and none. They will promise you ,"Homes built for heroes" or welfare, "From the cradle to the grave" in order for your continual slavish attention to their bidding, but withdraw any reforms when they feel the purpose of this, to buy off potential social discontent, has been served. Workers of the world have more in common with each other than with their home-grown, local, regional or global capitalist class. Real equality comes from common ownership, production for use and equal access to the social product rather than a parasite class gleaning profits from a wage-enslaved one.

Just in case the views above reflects your own thoughts, the Socialist Party has candidates in South East England so you have an option of voting for Mandy Bruce, Ray Carr, Dave Chesham, Rob Cox, Mike Foster. Stephen Harper, Neil Kirk, Anton Pruden, Andy Thomas, Darren Williams. 

Otherwise, the Socialist Party suggests that you spoil your ballot paper.