The Socialist Case for Remain

Colleagues,

A very brief piece in advance of tomorrow's historic vote. Although I am toiling on the thesis, and promised more 'stuff' related to it, I needed just to fling into a post two of the best pieces I have read recently which make the case for a left/socialist remain vote.

The first piece is by Paul Mason and was in The Guardian earlier in the week:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/20/brexit-fake-revolt-eu-working-class-culture-hijacked-help-elite

The second is by Dave Renton and appears in the latest edition of the Black Jacobin magazine:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/06/referendum-eu-remain-renton-migrants-ukip-farage-corbyn-labour/

I should also give a plug for an article by my Ruskin College colleague Ed Rooksby who writes from the same perspective and also features in the same edition as Renton:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/06/brexit-referendum-leave-remain-immigration/

I wanted to post briefly about this given the enormity of the EU referendum and as the tragic murder of Jo Cox illustrates, the referendum 'debate' has unleashed a set of reactionary forces that will be very difficult to curtail regardless of the referendum outcome.

It is these reactionary forces that illustrate the toxic case for Brexit and, as the articles make plain, will deliver very little, or nothing for workers, their families or communities, If any worker believes that their best interests are served/represented by Gove, Farage and Johnson then they need seriously to ask themselves whose interests these people serve.

Taking Gove, for example, who expounds on the pro-corporate nature of the EU, yet the self-same zealot has turned the UK education system, via academies and free-schools into a feeding frenzy for the private sector: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/24/academy-chain-fees-griffin-accountability-trustees

And now as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice he oversees a simultaneous expansion of the private sector's engagement in the criminal justice system matched only by the degree to which the private sector's practice has exposed systematic abuse, corruption etc. across the system: http://www.oye.news/news/child-abuse/g4s-serco-profiting-misery-children/

Without doubt the EU is a pro-capitalist, anti-democratic, monolithic body. Tony Benn's original position on the formation of the EU is one I still cling as to my own set of beliefs on what is wrong with a free trade area that, for example, propels free movement of labour to serve capital's interests.

But, what is on offer tomorrow on the Brexit ticket will not respond to this deficit when we turn our gaze to the pro-capitalist, anti-democratic current state of the UK. Further, the Brexit case rests on hatred, racism, xenophobia etc.

Please take a minute to read the three linked articles and make sure you spare time to get to the polling stations tomorrow. And, let's see what Friday brings.

In Solidarity

Ian