Fight austerity alongside European workers
For a socialist united states of Europe
Editorial
If you want to fight back against austerity, then vote to remain in the EU and help link up with mass movements in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece that have fought back against the bankers and the billionaires. At a time when French workers are engaged in a major struggle to defend labour rights, a vote to leave means marching our forces out of a common struggle against a common enemy.
A vote to remain doesn’t mean endorsing the EU’s undemocratic institutions – it just means we will remain part of the common resistance to them. Within the EU we can step up the fight for an alternative to today’s Europe run by the bosses and the European Central Bank – instead we want a Europe run by the working class in the interests of the many, not the few.
If we vote to leave all the most right wing and reactionary forces will draw strength from it. They want to shut out migrant workers and refugees. Leading Tories have made clear that they see Brexit as the first step to tearing up even more protective legislation. Let Cameron’s words speak for himself: “In the name of social protection the EU has promoted unnecessary measures that impose burdens on businesses and governments and can destroy jobs. The Agency Workers Directive, the Pregnant Workers Directive, The Working Time Directive; the list goes on and on.”
Every Labour Party member and supporter, every trade unionist, every worker and student should therefore vote to remain on 23 June.
Jeremy Corbyn is right to mobilise the Labour Party against Brexit. All party members and supporters help to get the vote out. Young people are mainly against Brexit but need to be encouraged to register now and vote on the day.
But there is nothing to be gained from campaigning alongside the Tories on this issue. As we saw in the Scottish referendum, it is the kiss of death to line up alongside hated Tories like Cameron and Osborne.
Consequences
Already right wing parties are doing well in France, Austria, Hungary and Poland. Brexit would sharpen national antagonisms between states and increase the likelihood of the entire EU breaking up. Little imagination is needed to see it would not only deepen divisions between countries, but reinforce racism within them. And out of these divisions could come the threat of war.
Even the strongest powers, like the USA or China, are not really “independent” in a global economy. sovereignty of the British Parliament would be as powerless to stand up to the bond markets and ratings agencies, the stock exchanges and the IMF as they would be within the EU. In an era of ever larger transnational companies and banks, the necessity and possibility of struggles spreading internationally is even greater than in the past.
The EU is only an arena of struggle, not a social haven, but it is a wider one where we can unite millions of workers against a common enemy.
If the vote goes for staying we need to fight for the democratisation of the EU’s institutions, to replace all the treaties and laws that put the privileges of capital above the rights of working people to jobs, health, education and housing.
It means forcing concessions from our rulers which undermine their power and lead to the direct struggle for power.
Any victory we achieve in any single state, it will require extension and consolidation into a Socialist United States of Europe
