tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47185630667577962842023-11-15T07:35:26.949-08:00Craig LewisCraig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4718563066757796284.post-68539747493227922852021-02-09T04:13:00.002-08:002021-02-09T04:13:55.848-08:00Scottish Independence 2021: The SNP, the Left and the Wider Movement<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This article
is just to provide some background on the current state of the independence
movement in Scotland. I’ll keep my contribution to Saturday’s meeting to just
two themes that I think come out of this. Firstly <b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Is there a left case for
independence”</i></b>. And secondly “<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are there any lessons from the Scottish
experience for LU Wales”</i></b>. Hopefully the discussion can then focus on
how the LU Wales Manifesto could be used to help shape a radical left platform
within the Welsh independence movement.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Political Context<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Since early
2020 there has been a significant shift in Scottish public opinion in favour of
independence. <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/19034565.scottish-independence-new-poll-20th-row-put-yes-vote-ahead/">20
consecutive polls</a></span> have shown support for independence above 50%, the
SNP on course to win a significant majority in May’s Holyrood elections and a continued
decline in electoral support for the three unionist parties. At the same time Nicola
Sturgeon’s personal approval ratings have risen across all shades of political
opinion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There are
probably two factors which have tipped the balance in favour of independence.
Firstly Brexit reinforced the “democratic deficit” in Scotland. There is a wide
perception, even among traditionally union supporting voters, that the country
has been forced to leave the EU against the expressed will of two thirds of the
electorate and that this will damage the economy, jobs and living standards.
Secondly the Scottish Government’s handling of the pandemic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both these factors are contingent and quite
possibly transient. Especially the later which is based largely on Nicola
Sturgeon’s undoubted skills as a popular communicator, and apparent competence
in contrast to Johnson’s homicidal libertarianism. Pandemic outcomes have in
fact been broadly comparable to those of the UK as a whole. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore it is fair to say that support for independence
still remains “soft” and finely balanced.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Against this
background 2021 is likely to be a crucial year for independence. Developments
within the SNP, the wider independence movement outside parliament and the role
of the left within it, will all be central to the outcome. As will the response
of the Johnson regime to the perceived “Scottish Problem”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The SNP: Strategy and Division<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Following
the 2014 referendum and the 2015 general election landslide, the SNP’s
membership base expanded massively. Drawn mainly from grassroots RIC members,
Yes group activists and Scottish Labour supporters disillusioned by the party’s
“Better Together” alliance with an extremely reactionary Scottish Tory party.
The SNP has retained much of that mass base and remains the second largest
party in the UK. Its popularity is indisputable and it looks set for a massive
victory in May. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">However
anyone following recent press commentary will know that deep divisions have
emerged within the party under Sturgeon’s leadership. These are now spilling
out acrimoniously into the public domain. Much press attention has focussed on the
Alex Salmond affair and the heated debates around the Gender Reassignment Act
and Hate Crimes Bill. Beneath this however are some long term political
differences over the strategy for achieving independence and the SNP’s social
and economic vision for an independent Scotland</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Despite its progressive social
policies, many of which are more rhetorical than real, the SNP leadership has
increasingly moved in a conservative direction.<u> </u>It has always been highly
centralising, and increasingly it has restricted internal party democracy, marginalising
its activist base and creating a tight knit group of “insiders” comprising
trusted ministers and political advisers. Many with links to various strands
within the Scottish business, financial and legal establishment. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The implications of this strategy are
reflected in the Scottish Government’s most recent economic blue print for
independence, the <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.sustainablegrowthcommission.scot/report">2018 Growth
Commission Report,</a></span> written by an ex-banker and updated to <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/towards-robust-resilient-wellbeing-economy-scotland-report-advisory-group-economic-recovery/">embrace
Covid recovery</a> by the Duke of Buccleuch’s estate manager. It embodies a
mainstream neoliberal approach albeit with a green tinge. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It openly advocates a decade of austerity to
reduce an anticipated fiscal deficit. The focus is very much on placating the
financial markets and meeting the EU “fiscal compact” rules. Ironically,
ignoring a central requirement for joining the EU, it proposes keeping sterling
as its currency and in consequence handing monetary policy to the Bank of
England and the Westminster Treasury. This whole approach has been widely
criticised within the party amongst grassroots activist who do not relish
selling austerity on the doorstep during a covid scarred referendum campaign!
Austerity politics has been widely discredited by the pandemic and even the
Tories have pumped unprecedented spending into the economy. Yet recently the
SNP leadership have doubled down on the Growth Commission proposals and refused
to amendment them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The second major difference within the
party has emerged over the strategy for a new referendum. The party leadership
have always been insistent that only a legally sanctioned referendum would
provide “international legitimacy” to independence. Effectively this hands the
granting of a referendum to Westminster under section 30 of the Scotland Act.
Johnson has made it clear he will reject another referendum, and Labour also
reject Scotland’s right to self-determination. Despite hard-line Westminster
resistance, Sturgeon has always argued that a victory in May on a manifesto
that proposes to organise a second referendum will be a clear expression of the
democratic will of Scotland, which cannot be ignored. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Both these strategies result from a
cautious and conservative desire to make independence palatable to finance
capital and middle class “soft no” voters. They take for granted the majority
working class support for the Party built up in 2014. They embody a vision of a
future Scotland where divergence from the current political, economic and
constitutional settlement is minimal. A vision correctly characterised by
critics as “independence-lite” or “constitutional nationalism”. Needless to say
this approach has generated enormous frustration within both the SNP activist
base and the wider independence movement. Frustration that has recently
resulted in a significant victory for the left inside the Party, with the
Common Weal group of members winning a number of seats on the NEC behind a much
more radical eco-socialist programme. The People’s Manifesto is based around 5
key demands: a “people centred economy”, housing reform, a National Care
Service, “a right to food enshrined in law” and a programme of “local democracy
and community empowerment”. These are immediate post pandemic demands and do
not require independence for implementation. (Kerevan). The grassroots uprising
within the SNP has also increased pressure on the Scottish Government to use
the Holyrood elections as a plebiscite on independence rather than wait for Johnson
to agree a referendum. Nicola Sturgeon and the leadership group have vigorously
resisted this. Instead they have announced an 11 stage “plan B” in the event of
Johnson continuing to refuse a referendum. This ultimately envisages a legal
challenge and the whole question of Scotland’s future being decided in the UK
Supreme Court. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Left and the Wider Independence Movement
in Scotland<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Radical Independence Campaign
(RIC) played a central role in the independence campaign running up to 2014. It
was instrumental in building working class support for independence through its
mass canvassing of working class communities in the main urban centres. It
brought activists together from across the left in a series of extremely large conferences
to debate strategy and tactics and develop the 5 eco-socialist and democratic
principles around which its campaigns were organised. It organised mass voter
registration drives which ensured the highest turn-out in Scottish electoral
history, reaching deeply into sections of society that rarely voted; especially
young people and those living in the most deprived areas. In the last few
months before the vote, its activism and mobilisation spilled over into the
wider SNP controlled Yes Campaign. The whole independence movement started to
take on the appearance of a mass social movement demanding a more democratic
and equal Scotland and an end to the politics of free markets and austerity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Since 2014 RIC has declined
politically. Much of its activist base went into the SNP following its general
election triumph in 2015. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An attempt was
made to build a left party (RISE) out of the remnants of RIC, which failed
dramatically in the 2016 Holyrood elections. A conference was held in 2019 to
revive RIC which was well attended but failed to re-start the campaign. At the
RIC AGM in January this year, major divisions emerged over a motion from the
original leadership to wind up the organisation. Local groups of RIC activists
who had continued to function supported relaunching the campaign with updated
principles to meet the challenges of the new political situation. Comrades can
find the substance of these debates <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rs21.org.uk%2F2021%2F01%2F31%2Fscotland-the-left-and-independence%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3ISnu15roVmtF7FuUEVLQoZVTOysEQthTBkUQTtgohcXhJOKJ7Td0fxD4&h=AT0OPevn3s8FHxt1evrzdliBI5gQlowPxS41ouQdZ5M6iIAMUDFRJfmw5ynmR63Zbb7BMqgzZobJ02Fu5X4GeFiZVlqX9BUVQUG8PvZzQEIyS32ZutEiI-JWH7Z3Fxz87eJaYQvQsFNRDW7Wk1Oj8A">here</a></span>,
<span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2021/02/03/freedom-come-all-ye/">here</a></span>
and <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2021/2/2/ric-was-the-future-once">here</a></span>.
In many ways the squabble over the future of RIC shows that the Scottish Left
has not been immune to the general decline and weakness of the UK Left to which
Steve Ryan alluded in his recent LU Wales article. The RIC debacle also
reflects the legacy of Lexit within the pro-independence left, which has led
some comrades to abandon internationalism except rhetorically. Instead they
have espoused a left variant of economic nationalism indicated by a continued
focus on the EU institutions as pillars of global neoliberal capitalism. A
position which totally ignores Scottish working class opposition to Brexit. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Events in the wider Scottish independence
movement have been much more positive however, and require the pro-independence
left to urgently address the need for a united organisation. Following the
independence referendum in 2014, “All Under One Banner” was formed by a group
of grassroots activists mainly from outside the SNP. Their marches and
demonstration grew rapidly and during 2018/19 attracted huge numbers (200,000
in Edinburgh in October 2019). Support took on an increasingly radical and
working class complexion, including trade union involvement. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>AUOB has this week launched a new membership
based national independence organisation: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Now Scotland</i></b>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2021/2/5/the-catalan-organizing-model-and-scotland-lessons-from-the-anc">This
is based on the Catalan ANC</a></span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,
which has played a vital role in promoting a progressive vision of Catalan
independence post-Franco. And has been instrumental in maintaining grass roots
resistance to the Spanish State’s reactionary crackdown following the Catalan
declaration of independence. <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.nowscotland.scot/">Now Scotland is grassroots based</a></span>
and encourages the development of local, community and workplace goups. It will
also organise national and regional assemblies, demonstrations and civil
disobedience if necessary as the movement develops. It has a broadly progressive
set of principles although as yet it has no detailed “programme” for
independence. Importantly it allows affiliations from both existing and new pro-indy
groups and organisations. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As the pandemic lifts Now Scotland is
set to become the focus of the independence movement outside the SNP, and it is
vital that all strands of the pro-independence left organise within it to help
rebuild mass working class support and a radical alternative to the
constitutional nationalism of the SNP leadership.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Fragmentation of the British State?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Len recently posted a link on the LU
Wales messenger group to an article from <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rs21.org.uk%2F2021%2F01%2F31%2Fscotland-the-left-and-independence%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3ISnu15roVmtF7FuUEVLQoZVTOysEQthTBkUQTtgohcXhJOKJ7Td0fxD4&h=AT0OPevn3s8FHxt1evrzdliBI5gQlowPxS41ouQdZ5M6iIAMUDFRJfmw5ynmR63Zbb7BMqgzZobJ02Fu5X4GeFiZVlqX9BUVQUG8PvZzQEIyS32ZutEiI-JWH7Z3Fxz87eJaYQvQsFNRDW7Wk1Oj8A">RS21</a></span>.
In it the authors claim: “It’s more than likely that the British state will
fracture in the coming decade”. Undoubtedly the break-up of the British state
could open up the prospect of progressive change in the UK and across Europe.
It would also pose a global challenge to international imperialism. Precisely
because of this the “unionist” British state will pull out all the stops to
prevent it happening. This is even more the case in the era of post Brexit
“global Britain”. Johnson’s reactionary nationalist project loses all coherence
if the UK fragments.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Recent events indicate the Tories and
the ruling class are increasingly worried but unsure how to respond to growing
tensions within the UK. They are combining direct attacks on devolution (eg under
the Single Market Bill and with targeted public spending such as Sunak’s free
ports.) along with a Westminster campaign to raise the profile of the Union in
Scotland. Examples of this include </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Johnson’s recent visit during lockdown, in the face of
Scottish Government opposition, the revamped Downing St “Union Unit” and the
increasingly worried chatter from pro-union commentators such as George
Osborne. Opposition is of course not just confined to the Johnson government. Starmer’s
Labour Party looks set to reprise “Better Together” unionism; combining
progressive patriotism with a firm rejection of Scottish self-determination. Gordon
Brown has once again been wheeled out to float his, largely discredited notions,
of “federalism”, apparently following discussions with both Michael Gove and
Keir Starmer. Such moves place Scottish self-determination in the hands of
mainly English voters who have consistently reject federalism. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
pro-independence left must develop a firm response to these attacks. This will
certainly require an eco-socialist programme that takes on board the current
triple crisis of international capitalism (economic, ecological and
epidemiological). A programme that stresses the centrality of international
solidarity and collective action in building a fairer, more equal country
embodying real advances for the working class. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But this
will not be enough. Independence cannot happen and that vision will not be
achieved without a clear break with the unionist British State and the <a href="https://www.gerryhassan.com/blog/the-state-of-the-union-and-independence-after-johnsons-jaunt/">atrophied
democracy embodied in its constitutional structures</a>. These have been a
source of ruling class power for centuries, and will remain to undermine even
the most progressive reform programmes, unless the left articulates a clear grass
roots republican alternative. An alternative where sovereignty genuinely
resides with the people, and democracy is deepened and strengthened within
communities and workplaces. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Additional references:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Kerevan George</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">: Why the Holyrood Election is not
only about our independence. (The National 08/02/2021)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Anderson Perry</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">: Ukania Perpetua? New Left Review
125 (Sept/Oct 2020)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Barnett Anthony</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">: The Lure of Greatness (part 3
Brexitannia). Kindle Edition<o:p></o:p></span></p>Craig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4718563066757796284.post-8139494687118521162018-05-22T07:32:00.000-07:002018-05-22T07:35:03.579-07:00Socialists in Wales and Scotland Should Defend Devolution<br />
Some Background<br />
Brexit will mean that powers reserved to the devolved parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but currently subject to EU jurisdiction will return from Brussels. Theresa May wants the most important of these to be repatriated to the UK Parliament instead, and has included this in the EU Withdrawal Bill. Effectively this would mean that for the first time Westminster could make laws affecting devolved matters like Agriculture, Fishing, food standards and public procurement without the need for consent from Holyrood or the Senedd. A series of talks between the Westminster government and the devolved administrations has taken place aimed at reaching agreement on which powers should be returned to which level of government. The UK government claims this is all largely a technical issue about replacing EU policies like the CAP with UK “frameworks”.<br />
However the Scottish government sees Westminster’s intentions as a “power-grab” and the Scottish Parliament has recently voted to refuse consent to the Tories’ EU Withdrawal Bill. All parties except the Scottish Tories supported the decision. Such a refusal of consent has not happened before. According to one Scottish political commentator it has created a “full blown constitutional crisis – a question of who rules” (Iain Macwhirter, Herald May 16). SNP MP, Ian Blackford, called May’s subsequent decision to proceed with legislation restricting devolved powers, “a democratic outrage”. <br />
Needless to say the Westminster and Scottish Tories have denounced Holyrood’s decision as a pro-independence stunt by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP; manufacturing discontent and stirring up anti-union sentiment over what are little more than minor administrative details. A position that has received a boost from the Welsh Labour Government’s decision to come to agreement with May on the transfer of powers to Westminster. At the same time, most of the mainstream media including the BBC has largely ignored the whole issue or parroted the Westminster line that it is a purely administrative matter of limited public interest.<br />
The Left and the “Westminster Power-grab”<br />
Is this really just an arcane tussle over obscure constitutional detail? Should the left be at all concerned with this wrangle over powers?<br />
Labour appears to be split over how to deal with the issue, with Welsh Labour accepting what it claims is an improved offer from May that will allow it to support her EU Withdrawal Bill, while Scottish Labour supports the SNP, Greens and LibDems in rejecting it. This may reflect fundamental differences within Corbyn’s party regarding the significance of devolution itself. More likely it is electoral opportunism from the Scottish party. Given its track record of broken “vows” during the independence referendum, it’s hard to see how Scottish Labour could ever get Corbyn’s recent pledge of enhanced “federalism” taken seriously in Scotland unless it was seen to join the SNP led fight to preserve the existing devolution settlement. Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, knows he must win a substantial increase in Labour’s Scottish vote to ensure a Corbyn victory in 2022.<br />
On the radical left (including the pro-indy Scottish Left) there has so far been a deafening silence on devolution. Presumably most of the left groups see it as a distraction from “genuine” class struggle politics. Fighting austerity, privatisation and deregulation, rebuilding trade union strength, resisting the Brexit driven rise of racism and xenophobia are certainly enough to be going on with. And then there’s Trump, illegal wars and the rise of the far right across Europe!<br />
Neverthelss socialists must defend the existing devolution settlement. To understand why, it is important to realise that the Tories are using the question of repatriating powers to rewrite the whole devolution settlement. Lost in all the turgid debate is the fact that the EU Withdrawal Bill (original clause 11, now clause 15 for the pedantic!) alters the meaning of “consent” in the various Scotland and Wales Acts that govern devolution. The Scottish and Welsh Parliaments will be deemed to have consented to allow Westminster to legislate on devolved matters so long as they have debated a “consent motion” or chosen not to. The outcome of the vote is irrelevant. If a parliament refuses to consent it will be taken as acceptance so long as there was a debate. If it refuses debate a Westminster proposal at all, it will also be taken as acceptance. One Scottish constitutional expert has characterised this as a “rape clause” – “no” is taken to mean “yes”! It gives the Westminster government wide powers to intervene in existing devolved areas not just those currently returning from Brussels.<br />
Scottish journalist Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp recently pointed out how significant this extension of central government power will be post Brexit. It would give Westminster the power, “to offer ultra free-market trade deals, for example to the US, without fear of a Scottish parliamentary veto”. (The National, May 17 2018). Post Brexit trade deals will require opening up the whole of the UK to intense free market competition and empowering unaccountable legal tribunals to challenge progressive reforms that threaten corporate profitability. The proposed Westminster powers to legislate in the devolved nations will make it far easier for an increasingly authoritarian Tory government to secure such deals by scraping offending reforms without consent from devolved parliaments. Free HE tuition, free prescription charges, government promotion of the living wage, procurement policies aimed at developing sustainability, social enterprise and decent employment rights, along with a host of other limited but progressive reforms within the devolved nations would come under threat.<br />
The changed devolution settlement will also make it easier for the UK government to expose key public services in Scotland and Wales to international competition. In Scotland, successive governments have retained a fully nationalised and integrated NHS. This would be a serious “obstacle” to a US/UK trade deal that would almost certainly require the whole UK health service to be open to America’s giant health corporations. The implications for jobs, pay and service delivery in Scotland and Wales where the public sector is the main employer would be enormous.<br />
In short the squabble between Westminster and the Scottish Parliament has direct implications for the Left in the devolved countries. Tory proposals to restrict devolved powers would seriously damage our ability to resist neoliberalism and the onslaught on workers’ living standards that is likely to follow any conceivable version of Brexit. Devolution, for all its limitations, has opened up spaces for progressive politics and the articulation of dissent. It has enabled more opportunities for engagement in democratic processes and it has led to some important reforms which, while limited, have made a serious difference to the lives of working class people. Defending these are reasons enough for the radical left to oppose the Tory “power grab”.<br />
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<br />Craig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4718563066757796284.post-63633647841444925932017-06-01T05:04:00.002-07:002017-06-01T06:58:53.230-07:00Resisting The Right-wing Putsch<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">“I feared we would never see this. I
feared a wide gap between Corbyn’s rhetoric as soon as May fired the starting
gun – clear, principled, uncompromising attacks on the rich and the
corporations, anger about rising social inequality, about decaying public
services, about grotesque greed at the top mirrored by rising poverty and
despair at the base – I feared this would not be matched by a concrete
programme for change. I was wrong.”</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Neil
Faulkner from Left Unity sums up the surprise and delight of much of the
radical left in England and Wales at the Labour manifesto. He and others
have characterized it as the “rebirth of reformism”. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;">The Left must Support Corbyn in England and Wales</span></h2>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Quite
correctly most far left groups outside Scotland have thrown their support
behind the Corbyn campaign and there is no doubt that in England and Wales,
Labour are doing far better in the polls than most mainstream and left
commentators anticipated. Corbyn has for the first time in a generation
fundamentally challenged the consensus narrative of privatization, free
markets, austerity and “humanitarian” war. It is of course a reflection of the
success of the neoliberal counter revolution since Thatcher that Labour’s
manifesto is seen as radical at all. The proposed reforms hardly stand
comparison with those of the Atlee government and they bear the hallmark of
compromise and accommodation with the Blairite rightwing of the party. The
manifesto has not broken with Gordon Brown’s “fiscal rectitude”. There is no
repudiation of “odious debt” incurred in the 2007 banking bailout; no wholesale
nationalization of the banks or threats of capital control. All necessary
components of a genuine alternative economic strategy capable of facing down
the inevitable ruling class offensive were Labour to come to power. A
lesson for any radical left government as the tragedy of Syriza so clearly
demonstrates. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Nevertheless
policies like renationalization of rail, energy, and the post; abolition of
student tuition fees; council-house building; hefty increases in funding for
the NHS, education, and social care; repeal of the bedroom tax, reversal of
cuts in disability benefits, and ending of the punitive sanctions regime; and a
national investment bank to channel public funds into major infrastructure
projects have all struck a chord with an electorate suffering the rigours of
austerity and falling living standards. So has the plan to pay for
reforms largely out of taxes on the rich and on corporations. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Corbyn
is currently polling higher than Milliband in 2015; a tribute to his campaign
and an indication that the anger at the base of society does not inevitably
have to fall prey to reactionary populism. Even academic pollster John
Curtice, whilst urging caution over Corbyn's ratings, concedes that recent poll
evidence: "certainly means that, so far at least it (the Labour
Party) has fought a much more effective campaign than it did the last time it
was led by someone on the left of the party" (Curtice 2017)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Jeremy Corbyn may not win</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> but he has
reinvigorated the movement for a radical alternative south of the border.
If he achieves a popular vote on the scale predicted by recent polls he will be
able to see off any post-election leadership challenge from the right.
His success would provide a potential platform on which to build a serious
radical left movement capable of winning mass support in the battles to come.
</span></div>
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 18pt; margin: 0px;">A vote for Scottish Labour is not a vote for Corbyn</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Socialists
in Scotland should welcome Corbyn’s success and support his anti-austerity
programme. Unfortunately, as Bob Fotheringham of the Scottish SWP recently put
it: “A vote for Labour in Scotland would not be a vote for Corbyn”. (Scottish
Left Review, May/June 2017). </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Since the 2014 referendum most sections of
the Scottish radical left and a large proportion of working class voters see
independence as the only viable alternative to further austerity politics.
Popular support was ebbing away from Labour in Scotland even before 2014 after years
of Blair / Brown attacks on public services, privatization and illegal war.
Careerism and deference to Westminster came increasingly to symbolize Scottish
Labour at both Holyrood and local government level. The Better Together
campaign finally convinced Labour supporters to defect on mass to the SNP.
During the recent local elections Labour lost control of all its main councils
including its flagship Glasgow City council. Latest polling puts its
General Election support almost 10 percentage points behind the traditionally
loathed Scottish Tories. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Events since the local elections only confirm
its political degeneration. Labour councilors have done local deals with
the Tories in places like Aberdeen and North Lanarkshire to keep out the SNP.
Its only remaining Scottish MP Ian Murray has called on Labour supporters to
vote tactically for the Tories where necessary; prioritizing defense of the
Union over opposition to May’s ultra-rightwing Brexit plans. (scotgoespop,
Learmouth 2017). Labour’s Election manifesto rejects a second referendum even
more implacably than Ruth Davidson’s Tories. This may reflect Corbyn’s
need to compromise with the Scottish party’s Blairite leadership and activist
base. Or it may reflect that deeper tradition of British Nationalism
embedded in the Labour Party (Miliband 1972). Whatever the cause, Corbyn has
demonstrably failed to fully grasp the national question and seems to have
abandoned his earlier “relaxed” approach to a second referendum. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">A
vote for Scottish Labour therefore would be a reactionary move on almost every
count. It would only strengthen the Tory “surge” in Scotland discussed below.
It would undermine the prospects for a second independence referendum and
consequently the possibilities for a radical alternative to neoliberalism in
Scotland. But on top of that it would actually strengthen Labour’s right-wing
and help destabilize Corbyn’s Leadership. It is hard to disagree with
Rise’s Cat Boyd when she writes that a vote for Scottish Labour would mean: “using
my vote for a narrow minded careerist who will use every opportunity to plot
against Corbyn regardless of the country’s or the Labour Party’s democratic
wishes”. </span></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">No Ordinary General Election</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> Unlike
the English Left, the radical left in Scotland has made little direct
intervention in this Election. But before examining why this is so, it is
worth briefly setting the General Election in its wider political and economic
context as a warning against complacency on the Left. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">May
has not gone to the polls simply to take advantage of disarray in the Labour
Party. Nor does she seriously believe that a new mandate will put
pressure on the Brexit negotiations. Much less is she trying to establish
her control over the madder wing of her Brexiteers so she can orchestrate a
“soft Brexit”, as some liberal commentators hopefully speculate. May has in
fact thrown in her lot with the hard right of the Tory party and their media
and corporate backers as part of a long term project to transform British
politics and the whole structure of British democracy in the post Brexit era.
We are facing no ordinary election.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">More
than three decades of neoliberalism has produced massive “structural reform” in
Britain and throughout western capitalism. Privatization, anti-union laws, the
enforcement of precarious employment practices, de-regulation of finance and
the dismantling of key aspects of the welfare state have transformed lives,
destroyed communities and depressed living standards for large sections of
working and middle class people. At the same time neoliberal reforms have
accelerated processes of fragmentation and isolation within working class
communities and hollowed out democratic control over civil society. In
turn this has alienated workers from forms of collective solidarity and
resistance adding to an overall disjuncture with the political process. The end
result has been to massively widen inequality of income and wealth in most
western societies but especially the US and UK. Yet neoliberal policy
has failed to restore profit rates sufficiently to raise economic growth much
above the historically low levels to which they sank following the long
post-war boom, contributing to increasingly severe financial bubbles
culminating in the Bank crisis of 2007-08. Since then the economies of Western
Europe and US have been stuck in what economist Michael Roberts has called a
“long depression”. All this has created anger at the base of society,
which when coupled with alienation from the political processes and the
degeneration of traditional forms of working-class solidarity, has furnished
fertile ground for rightwing populist ideas to take hold. Brexit and
Trump are both products of this shift to the right. As is the collapse of
social democracy across much of Western Europe and the growing support for
extreme right-wing parties. (Piketty 2014, Roberts 2016, Faulkner 2017, Giroux
2017)</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">May
and the hard Tory right are the political representatives of a highly class
conscious elite whose preferred solution to the failure of neoliberalism is a
redoubled effort to drive down living standards and the social wage in order to
cheapen production costs and raise profitability. Anyone who believes that May
means it when she utters platitudes about representing the interests of working
class people, should just look at her actions since coming to power, and her
Election Manifesto commitments. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Cuts
in Corporation Tax, relaxing bank regulations and restarting quantitative
easing all benefit the wealthy at the expense of working class living standards.
As does the new Trade Union Act by further restricting industrial action and
eroding pay and conditions. In a gesture of total contempt for those “left
behind”, selective grammar schools in England will be expanded while funds for
existing state schools are cut. Pushing ahead with planned benefit cuts and
austerity measures along with cuts to child tax credit, the odious rape clause
and dementia taxes contrast with inheritance tax cuts for the wealthiest and clearly
signal a continued neoliberal onslaught on working class people. Further
austerity measures like these are essential to the Tory and UKIP ultra-right
vision of Brexit. May means it when she says that no deal is better than
a bad deal. Yet British capitalism can only compete effectively following
a hard Brexit by further driving down costs of production, particularly labour
costs. Investment in productivity enhancing technology is precluded by low
profitability within the UK economy.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">This
will of course deepen social discontent which must be controlled both
ideologically and physically over the coming years. Already we can detect a
darkening authoritarianism in British politics. Not just the reactionary
British nationalism and anti-migrant xenophobia of the referendum campaign.
Nor just the sinister emphasis on strong and stable leadership. But more
dangerously May proposes to radically overhaul civil and human rights
legislation and calls for whistle-blowers to be prosecuted. Following the
Manchester bombing, rightwing Tories wasted no time in calling for new laws to
control “extremism”. It is early days, but when we combine this with a
tendency to redefine democratic forms of opposition as “sabotage” a worrying
trend emerges. Removing large sections of law making from democratic
scrutiny under the promised Great Repeal Act is another early warning sign of
centralizing authoritarianism. Set against an international context of rising
support for far right and reactionary nationalist politics across Europe and in
the states, May’s rightwing “power grab” is suggestive of the early
stages of what Neil Faulkner and others have characterized as “creeping
fascism”. (Faulkner 2017, Giroux 2017)</span></div>
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">The SNP, the General Election and the Radical Left in
Scotland.</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">If
this is the case, then the Scottish radical left must be incredibly serious
about its approach to these elections and their aftermath. During the campaign,
left groups in Scotland have generally contented themselves with little more
than abstract propaganda. For instance some groups are calling for a vote
for the most progressive candidate likely to keep the Tories out (Solidarity
and the Scottish Socialist Party). In similar vein the SWP argue the
radical left should back all “those candidates willing to mount an effective
opposition to cuts, austerity, oppose racism and the scapegoating of immigrants
and refugees”. But they caution against blanket support for the SNP
(Fotheringham op cit). Some on the extreme end of the Lexit spectrum in
Scotland like Jim Sillars urge abstention because of SNP support for the EU.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">To
some extent confusion on the Scottish radical left is understandable. A vote
for Scottish Labour would strengthen the unionist vote and undermine
independence. But the SNP is not a socialist party and its general politics and
more specifically its election campaign pose serious difficulties for the Left.
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">The Politics of the SNP and the “Tory Surge”</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Rhetorically
Nicola Sturgeon’s party has taken a firm stand against austerity and there is
no doubt that it has introduced or maintained progressive social policies over
its years in government. It has made significant attempts to mitigate the
effect of Westminster imposed benefit cuts such as off-setting the impact of
the bedroom tax. It has, to its credit, stood out against racism, xenophobia
and the politics of scapegoating. However the SNP has failed to lead a
serious campaign against austerity, preferring the “dented shield” excuse of
other devolved administrations like the Welsh Assembly. At both national and
local authority level the Scottish government has implemented cuts. The Unite
union in Scotland estimates that in the last year £600m has been cut from local
authority budgets (6.5% of local authority spending). 40,000 council jobs have
gone since 2009 and another 15,000 redundancies are in the pipeline. Its
pro-business economic policies mean that it has not seriously challenged
privatization, outsourcing or used its enhanced tax powers to tax the rich. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">The
SNP General Election strategy has been timid to say the least. Despite
passing a Holyrood motion calling for a second referendum and polls showing
substantial (62%) support even among No voters for holding one, the SNP have
not challenged May’s refusal to do so. It’s recently launched manifesto attacks
Tory Brexit plans and continues to urge a special deal for Scotland in the
negotiations and an SNP seat at the table. But May has persistently ignored
such demands and rejected a second referendum. The manifesto is silent on how
the SNP will confront this anti-democratic intransigence, and barely mentions
independence. Nicola Sturgeon’s party even opposes the “All under One
Banner” march in Glasgow on June 3. It sees independence supporters on
the streets during a General election as a distraction. This ultra-caution has
allowed the unionist parties to structure the election debate as a fight to
save the Union (Gerry Hassan 2017). And it is starting to pay off for the
Scottish Tories. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Ruth
Davidson’s vote “surge” is much overhyped by the unionist media. Most of
her local elections gains resulted from the collapse in Labour support outlined
earlier, not her much eulogized “charismatic” leadership. (Guardian Editorial
20.05.17). However they are no less real for all that. The most recent Scottish
poll puts support for the SNP down to 39% from nearly 50% in 2015 and the
Tories around 29% up from their low of the mid-teens. Under first past the post
such figures would probably not translate into the 15 seat gain some Tories
currently claim but even with a gain of 5 or 6, the Tory political and media
spin machine will go into overdrive. (Scotgoespop 2017)</span></div>
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Why the Left must
lend its votes to the SNP in this election</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">May’s insistence on defending “our
precious union” is not empty rhetoric. Nor is it just about grabbing
fishing and agriculture as bargaining chips in EU negotiations as some
nationalists argue. It is a central part of the Tory right’s authoritarian
restructuring of the British state outlined above. An independent or more
devolved Scotland, pursuing even mildly social democratic economic and social
policies, supportive of free movement, with a different EU relationship and
hostile to militarism and nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated. It would
undermine the Tory right’s vision of Brexit Britain as the freebooting
Singapore of Europe. It would be a massive blow to right-wing British
nationalism which is so closely entwined with the UK’s ability to project its
military power on the world stage and act as an international agent of US
foreign policy. (Davidson 2014)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Following the General Election a
reinvigorated Tory party with even modest Scottish gains will not just harden
its stance against another referendum, it is likely to go on the offensive
against the whole devolution settlement itself. (Michael Fry 1). There are
already signs of this. In her Scottish Conservative Party conference speech May
suggested that Brexit rendered the 1998 devolution settlement redundant.
It needed to be reviewed to “ensure that the right powers sit at the right
level” to “avoid any unintended consequences for the integrity” of a
post-Brexit UK. A “review” that would be facilitated by the recent
“Sewel Convention” decision, which effectively gives Westminster legislative
powers in devolved areas regardless of Holyrood consent.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Clearly allowing the Tories to
regain a significant foothold in Scotland will have profound consequences. It
will boost May’s authoritarian putsch and be a major setback not just to the
SNP but to the wider independence movement and the possibility of rebuilding a
radical left campaign for independence. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">The pro-independence Scottish left cannot
ignore this. Bluster and fudge is inadequate. The SNP has 56 of the 59
Westminster seats. Vague propaganda slogans urging a </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">vote for the most radical candidate will
almost always take votes from the SNP to the benefit of the Tories in current
political circumstances. The left must bite the bullet and urge a vote
for the SNP in this election.</span></div>
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Scotland needs a
unified Radical Campaigning Movement for Independence</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">I</span></u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">f the foregoing analysis is correct, after
the election the stakes will be very high indeed. There will be an urgent
need to build a radical non-nationalist independence campaign.</span></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="color: #3a3a3a; font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Building such a
movement is likely to be much harder than in the years before 2014. The
Lexit argument has divided the radical left across the UK and those who
advocated it are continuing to argue for a “people’s Brexit” or some variant of
it. Making that central to any new radical independence movement would be a
major mistake. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">A people’s
Brexit was never on offer and it is now abundantly clear that May and the
ultra-right are shaping Brexit. The immediate task is how to stop them, not to
sow illusions in how the process can be transformed in favour of working class
people. Objectively that would mean accommodating to the most reactionary
form of British nationalism. (Phil Hearse 2017). </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">In Scotland such accommodation
would be particularly disastrous. 62% of the Scottish electorate voted to
remain. Every local authority area including some of the most deprived working
class communities in Scotland recorded “remain” majorities. This is what has
triggered the Scottish Government’s decision to hold indyref2. Whether the left
likes it or not Scotland’s undemocratic ejection from the EU will figure large
in any future independence campaign. The Scottish economy is more dependent on
EU trade than most UK regions. EU exit will thus have a disproportionate
impact on jobs, living standards and public service provision north of the border.
(Michael Fry, The National 2). Some on the left may like to dismiss this as
“pro-business” europhilia, but the immediate impact of Brexit will be
devastating for many working class people in Scotland. No serious
left-wing case for independence can ignore this.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Of course no one on the radical
left would argue for making EU membership central to a second referendum
campaign. Brexit has barely altered support for independence since last
year’s referendum. <span style="color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0px;">There is no evidence that simply
making a “business case” for Scotland remaining would win over wavering “No”
voters (Craig Dalzeil 2017). </span>On any conceivable timescale for
independence it is likely that Scotland will be outside the EU for a period.
(McAlpine 2017). There is therefore adequate time and political space to forge
a united radical left approach to a second independence campaign<u>. </u></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">It must be a campaign capable of
challenging May’s creeping authoritarianism, resisting austerity and leading a
fight-back against racism and anti-migrant scapegoating. A campaign that
can challenge the SNP to confront May’s rejection of a second referendum and
stop compromising with her Brexit timetable. And most importantly of all, a
campaign that can articulate a more radical vision for an independent Scotland
and keep alive the idea that: </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">“<i>For us independence is not an end in itself rather the route
out of low pay, zero hour contracts and precarious employment, fuel poverty and
the growing wealth gap that results from policies that pamper the rich. And it
is the only escape route we have to avoid Tory Governments we did not vote
for.”</i> (Colin Fox, 2017)</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<br /></div>
</span><br />
<h4 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span></h4>
<h4 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">References and links</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Neil
Faulkner: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://ukandeu.ac.uk/has-labours-rise-anything-to-do-with-brexit/"><span style="color: blue;">http://ukandeu.ac.uk/has-labours-rise-anything-to-do-with-brexit/</span></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Neil Faulkner (2017): Creeping
Fascism: Brexit, Trump and the Rise of the Far Right, Public Reading Rooms
2017.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">John Curtice: </span></u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://ukandeu.ac.uk/has-labours-rise-anything-to-do-with-brexit/"><span style="color: blue;">http://ukandeu.ac.uk/has-labours-rise-anything-to-do-with-brexit/</span></a></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Ralph Miliband: Parliamentary
Socialism (second edition), 1972 Merlin Press</span></u></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Cat Boyd: </span></u><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">The National
23/05/2017. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Bob
Fotheringham: Not a terrible Troika: general election, Brexit and
Scottish independence, Scottish Left Review, Issue 99, May / June 2017</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Thomas
Piketty: Capital in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, 2014, Harvard
University Press</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Henry
Giroux: The New Authoritarianism, Znet: posted in Class, Economy, Politics/Gov,
Repression/US</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Gerry
Hassan: </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2017/04/19/the-continuing-battle-for-scotland-goodbye-to-british-politics-and-goodbye-to-britain/"><span lang="EN" style="color: #0563c1; margin: 0px;">http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2017/04/19/the-continuing-battle-for-scotland-goodbye-to-british-politics-and-goodbye-to-britain/</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Phil
Hearse: Right wing putsch, escalating racism, depening austerity: the real
meaning of Brexit, Transform journal issue 1, May 2017, Public Reading Rooms </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Scotgoespop blog: <a href="http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/"><span style="color: #0563c1; margin: 0px;">http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/</span></a></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Neil Davidson 2014: <a href="https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/commentary/yes"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/commentary/yes</span></a>)</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Michael Fry 1, The National , Jan
26, 2017</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Michael Fry 2, The National, May
30, 2017</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Andrew Learmouth: The
National, April 21, 2017</span></div>
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Craig Dalzeil 2017: <span style="color: #3a3a3a; margin: 0px;">(</span><a href="https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/10141/new-report-demographics-independence"><span style="color: #0563c1; margin: 0px;">https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/10141/new-report-demographics-independence</span></a><span style="color: #0563c1; margin: 0px;">)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Robin McAlpine 2017:
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/10240/robin-mcalpine-why-joining-efta-instead-eu-could-be-answer-scotland</span></u></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia";">
</span>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> <span style="color: #3a3a3a; font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">Colin Fox 2017: SSP statement on General Election May 2017 - </span><cite><span lang="EN" style="color: #006d21; font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">https://www.</span></cite><strong><span lang="EN" style="color: #006d21; font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">scottishsocialistparty</span></strong><cite><span lang="EN" style="color: #006d21; font-family: "georgia" , serif; margin: 0px;">.org</span></cite></span></span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Craig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4718563066757796284.post-48107481068565266352016-11-19T07:45:00.001-08:002016-12-17T05:16:21.961-08:00Greece 2016: Tragedy and Resistance.<br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Since it’s near bankruptcy in 2009, EU and international creditors have
subjected Greece to a relentless neoliberal experiment in forced economic
restructuring.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A series of austerity
packages have resulted in an economic and social collapse reflected in
Depression era economic statistics. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Spend
any time outside the well-known tourist areas and the reality of this becomes
all too obvious. From the homeless on the streets of Athens to the rows of
closed shops that you see as you walk round any provincial town.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Each one testimony to a small family business
destroyed and lives turned upside down. Listen to the daily TV reports of
crisis related suicides – 4 in the 2 day of writing this.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Talk to people even in remote mountain
villages like mine and you hear stories of families separated by migration as
young people leave driven by lack of hope. Or of the elderly and sick
struggling to get essential medicines and treatment. Our local hospital
recently put out an appeal for sheets and blankets.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Worse still watch in horror TV reports of the
eviction of a care home forced into bankruptcy by the new foreclosure law.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The elderly and frail carried out on to the
street of an Athens’ suburb and left dazed and confused amidst relatives, as bailiffs
seize the property and medical equipment.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">How has a government of the
radical left, elected on a clear anti-austerity programme found itself the
agent of such economic and social devastation? Only two days after winning a
massive 60% vote of confidence in last July’s referendum, Alexis Tsipras capitulated
and accepted all the so called “reforms” demanded by Greece’s Troika of
creditor institutions (EU, ECB and IMF) in return for a third tranche of
bailout funding.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The scale of its
retreat was staggering. Not only did the Syriza government </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">agree to all
the tax rises, pension cuts and additional austerity measures it had resisted
so powerfully for six months, it also agreed the hand-over of remaining
state-owned assets to a “Privatisation Fund” overseen by Troika
technocrats.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In a move that effectively
undermined Greece’s status as an autonomous sovereign state Tsipras accepted a
Troika veto over major aspects of Greek law making.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Tsipras’s climb down has totally transformed the political climate
in Greece.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> I was lucky enough to witness the events leading up to last year’s
magnificent “Oxi” referendum. The mass demonstration in Athens on July 3, the
politicisation of everyday life as people saw first-hand the class arrogance of
Europe’s political elite, debate and discussion everywhere in cafes, shops
around family meal tables was all reminiscent of the Scottish Independence
referendum; but sharper, more radical.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Today
the radical mood has imploded. Voter apathy abounds with recent polls showing
40% would abstain.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even among political
activists there is a worrying level of disillusion and disorientation.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Syriza’s popularity has slumped to the
mid-teens, right wing New Democracy has been the main beneficiary polling over
20% recently, whilst the fascist Golden Dawn still lingers in the wings as the
third largest party in parliament. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3 style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">Syriza’s
defeat: Strategic withdrawal or sell-out?</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Syriza is the only European example of a radical left government elected
on a programme to directly confront the neoliberal consensus.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Understanding the reasons for its retreat is
important.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It has implications for the
fight against neoliberalism and right wing nationalism throughout Europe as
well as the future prospects for a radical alternative in Greece.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is simply not enough to denounce Tsipras
as a class collaborator or write off Syriza as “left reformist” and consequently
predestined to fail: the position of many on the UK far left. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Syriza’s climb down after the July 2015
referendum needs to be set in context.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Neither
Alexis Tsipras nor Syriza were responsible for the financial crisis that
overwhelmed the Greek economy and most of western capitalism!</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The crisis and what Michael Roberts has
called “the Long Depression” that has followed represent capitalism’s historic
failure to address a long term decline in profitability.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nor can we blame the Syriza government for the devastation inflicted on
Greece by the series of bailout programmes agreed since 2008 and championed by
Greece’s home-grown oligarchy along with their political and media
friends.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In an approach best
characterised by what David Harvey calls “a process of accumulation by
dispossession” Greece has been subject to a massive set of “structural reforms”
aimed at</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">restoring profit rates and
reviving Greek capitalism. These have operated at 4 levels within the Greek
economy:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li>
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The transfer of Greek financial institutions to foreign ownership. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The destruction of small scale and “inefficient” private sector businesses. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">An increase in the exploitation of labour through draconian labour discipline, mass unemployment, the dismantling of welfare provisions, and replacing workplace protections and collective bargaining rights with precarious working conditions.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The wholesale privatisation of state assets at knock down prices mainly to foreign capital.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The bailout funds conditional on this reform programme were not used to
ameliorate the resultant social and economic devastation. More than 90% went
directly to German, French, American and other European banks that had indulged
in a frenzy of risky lending to Greek businesses, financial and state
institutions in the run up to the 2008 crisis.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Any criticism of Syriza must accept that Tsipras’s government tried at
least to resist this process of accumulation by dispossession.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was the only Greek government to do so. And
even after it gave in, it retained popular support because of that, and was re-elected
for a second time. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Syriza and its
supporters on the left point to this fact and generally argue there was no
alternative but to retreat in the face of European ruling class intransigence,
especially the ECB’s strangulation of the Greek banking system in the weeks
before the July 2015 referendum. This was a strategic retreat to keep open the
possibility of debt relief, whilst trying to mitigate the worst effects of the
new austerity measures.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">They see
themselves as fighting a classic “war of manoeuvre” which will allow them to
move forward with their radical agenda when the balance of class forces is more
favourable.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Syriza’s advocates point to
the fact that, within the austerity programme, Tsipras’s government has been
able to implement some mildly progressive social policies such as legalising
same sex relationships, citizenship for migrant children and a degree of prison
reform.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But this leadership narrative needs to be treated with considerable
scepticism in the light of Syriza’s political trajectory over the last 18
months.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Stathis Kouvelakis , a former
member of the party’s central committee argues that initially there was no
“sell out”, but a wrong strategy led to a defeat and subsequently to Syriza’s
political degeneration:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The retreat at the Eurogroup was not a
betrayal or a sell-out.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> There was real confrontation. The institutions
wanted to bring the Syriza government to its knees—because it is a real threat
to them. </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But the Syriza government
followed a wrong strategy</span></b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">—and to overcome that we need to tell the
truth. And the fact that it </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">presented
its retreat almost as a success</span></b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> is in a way more serious than the retreat
itself. It prepares the ground for further defeat.”</span></span></i><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (My emphasis)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's hard to disagree with this analysis. Effectively the strategy
involved pursuing an anti-austerity programme and demanding debt relief, whilst
at the same time maintaining Eurozone membership.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It underpinned Tsipras’s election campaign and
the approach <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span>taken to the subsequent bailout negotiations. To an extent this
“wrong strategy” was understandable.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">For
historical reasons staying within the EU and the euro was massively popular
amongst the Greek electorate. (It still has majority support in all recent
polls).</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Syriza felt its electoral
strategy had to recognise this political reality. At the same time even mainstream
economists had criticised the economic illiteracy of Troika demands for ever
more austerity and structural reform.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Syriza’s strategy was not however just based on Greek political
realities and the irrationality of Troika economics.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The leadership had a naïve faith in EU “solidarity”
and in the potential to reform Eurozone policy making through strategic
political alliances within the EU institutions. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This meant Tsipras’s and other leaders
continually opposed calls from the left to prepare alternative plans should the
negotiations go wrong.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As Kouvelakis says, none of this was the product of political
degeneration or class collaboration or other far left shibboleth. Much of it
did not go uncontested within Syriza at the time. Alternative strategies were
possible and were discussed. Debt cancellation and leaving the euro was the
most obvious.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But this would have meant
breaking EU rules and risking a forced Grexit; something Tsipras and key
leaders were politically unable to countenance. Those within Syriza who
recognised this strategic weakness were not sufficiently united or organised to
challenge the leadership strategy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Any radical left government can expect defeats and set-backs.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But a genuinely radical left leadership
should always confront the political circumstances it finds itself in, reassess
the situation and, if forced to retreat, at least do so in a manner which lays
the basis to take the struggle forward in the future.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unfortunately Syriza did not do this.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is this, more than the defeat itself that
marks the beginning of its degeneration as a party of the radical left. Since
then Syriza has become increasingly indistinguishable from mainstream social
democracy. It has accepted its subaltern role.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It has fully and faithfully implemented policies it was elected to
oppose and it has justified them on the basis that “there is no alternative” to
neoliberal solutions. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finance minister Euclid Tsakalatos’s speech to Syriza’s October
conference perfectly encapsulated what his government has become.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Referring to the latest tax rises, pension
cuts and reduction in minimum wages, he acknowledged that the poor would suffer
most.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">He confirmed that living standards
for the majority of ordinary citizens would fall further and economic growth
would be held back. But he argued that the debt relief that might follow:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“will be a signal to the markets …… and so investors can invest
long-term. This can offset the recessionary measures that we take”.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Effectively a government that came to power promising a radical
redistribution of wealth and power to the benefit of working class people, ends
up defending the standard neoliberal consensus. Tsakalatos justifies sacrifices
by those least able to pay as a price worth paying to placate financial
markets, boost inward investment and restore profit rates. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 105%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sparks of Resistance </span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lessons from the Syriza debacle have been hotly debated within the
European and Greek radical left.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I would
make only three main points.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Firstly a
radical left government is bound to make tactical and strategic mistakes.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dealing with these requires open and honest
assessment and the widest possible democratic debate within the party and the
wider social movements from which it draws its support.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Secondly whatever else we may conclude about Syriza’s experience in
government, it showed that a radical left alternative to neoliberalism can gain
mass popular support. The political consensus of the last 30 years is falling
apart.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The result does not have to be
the reactionary populism of Brexit or Trump. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Thirdly and more importantly Greek people continue to suffer and,
despite disorientation and disillusion, continue to resist.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Having declined since the mass mobilisations
of 2011 – 12, there are signs that popular opposition is rising again.
Workplace struggle is not yet on the scale of previous years but it has not
gone away.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Health
workers took strike action in early October as a result of deteriorating pay
and conditions and in opposition to further cuts in the health service.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prior to that workers struck against the
impact of water privatisation in Thessaloniki and Athens. In a significant
escalation of opposition to Syriza’s austerity measures, the main civil
servants’ union has called a general strike across the public sector for
November 24 and urged private sector unions to join them.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">State education has been cut to the bone
prompting campaigns by teacher unions for increased staffing and restoration of
funding cuts. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Outside the workplace, pensioners continue to oppose further
pension cuts on top of the 40% reductions imposed over recent years. The sight
of riot police teargassing them and baring their way to parliament during a
demonstration in September was another indication of Syriza’s political
transformation. As was the same police response to thousands of students, trade
unionists and members of radical left groups who defied bans on protests
outside Parliament during Obama’s recent visit.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Anti-racist and anti-fascist campaigners have
linked up with trade unionists, those organising refugee support and parent
groups to demand access to state education for refugee children. Local
community solidarity networks providing welfare, health and community services
remain a vital source of support in many working class areas devastated by the
demolition of essential public services. They too are an aspect of resistance
to the processes of “accumulation by dispossession”.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Just as importantly they provide “prefigurative”
examples of direct democracy and alternative modes of production and
distribution. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finally campaigns opposing privatisation have re-emerged.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Most notably the one led by Zoe
Constantopoulou, former Speaker of Parliament, aimed at stopping the sale of
the old Athens Airport site to private developers for a huge retail and luxury
residential complex.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Former Syriza MP Eleni
Portaliou argues that such campaigns are not just about resisting privatisation.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">They raise far more important issues about
what is happening in Greece. Greek state assets are being seized and privatised
to pay off “odious and illegitimate” debt. Such “confiscations” are the
clearest possible indication of Greece’s status as an EU “debt colony”. As such
they have the potential to rebuild a much broader social movement and help
reconfigure the radical left in Greece following Syriza’s political collapse.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">These and similar struggles demand and deserve international
solidarity. In Scotland we can take immediate steps by getting our union
branches, community campaigns and political organisations to affiliate to and
work with organisations like the Greece Solidarity Campaign, the various
refugee campaigns and others providing material and activist support to the
people of Greece.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But the best
solidarity the left can offer is to embrace the vision of collectivism and
resistance represented by these struggles, and build our own mass movement
against both European neoliberalism and the reactionary populism of Trump and
Brexit.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: rgb(246, 247, 248); font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 105%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The
struggle of the Greek people is also our struggle. Together we can win!</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: center;">
<span style="background: rgb(246, 247, 248); font-size: 12pt; line-height: 105%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Το αγονα του Ελληνικού λαού είναι και δικό μας!
Μαζί θα νικήσουμε!</span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">References</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Michael Roberts:<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The Long
depression, Haymarket 2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">David Harvey: 17 Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, Profile
Publishers 2015</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Stathis Kouvelakis: </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Clinging to Power</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/greece-austerity-syriza-election-tsipras-varoufakis/"><span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/greece-austerity-syriza-election-tsipras-varoufakis/</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Syriza Rise and Fall, NLR Jan / Feb 2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Eleni Portaliou – Greece a country for sale, Jacobin Magazine Sept
2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/09/greece-tsipras-memorandum-privatization-public-assets/"><span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/09/greece-tsipras-memorandum-privatization-public-assets/</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Michael Neradakis – Creditors Destroy Greece, Syriza does not resist
</span><a href="http://www.defenddemocracy.press/"><span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://www.defenddemocracy.press/</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Dimosthenis Papadatos Anagnostopoulos <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">http://rednotebook.gr/</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Euclid Tsakalatos – Speech to Second syriza conference, Athens 14
Oct 2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Alexis Tsipras – Speech to Second Syriza Conference, Athens Oct
2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Panagiotis Sotiris – The Dream that became a nightmare – Jacobin
Feb 2016</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">JK
Galbraith </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;">(</span><a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/imf-greece-debt-restructuring-by-james-k-galbraith-2015-06?barrier=true"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/imf-greece-debt-restructuring-by-james-k-galbraith-2015-06?barrier=true</span></span></a><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Panos Garganos: Socialist Worker (UK) 25/10/2016</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Craig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4718563066757796284.post-46270156556249366252016-11-19T07:34:00.000-08:002016-12-17T05:15:58.067-08:00Greece 2016: Tragedy and Resistance.
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-size: 20pt; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Since it’s near bankruptcy in 2009, EU and international creditors have
subjected Greece to a relentless neoliberal experiment in forced economic
restructuring.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A series of austerity
packages have resulted in an economic and social collapse reflected in
Depression era economic statistics. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Spend
any time outside the well-known tourist areas and the reality of this becomes
all too obvious. From the homeless on the streets of Athens to the rows of
closed shops that you see as you walk round any provincial town.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Each one testimony to a small family business
destroyed and lives turned upside down. Listen to the daily TV reports of
crisis related suicides – 4 in the 2 day of writing this.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Talk to people even in remote mountain
villages like mine and you hear stories of families separated by migration as
young people leave driven by lack of hope. Or of the elderly and sick
struggling to get essential medicines and treatment. Our local hospital
recently put out an appeal for sheets and blankets.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Worse still watch in horror TV reports of the
eviction of a care home forced into bankruptcy by the new foreclosure law.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The elderly and frail carried out on to the
street of an Athens’ suburb and left dazed and confused amidst relatives, as bailiffs
seize the property and medical equipment.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: left;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">How has a government of the
radical left, elected on a clear anti-austerity programme found itself the
agent of such economic and social devastation? Only two days after winning a
massive 60% vote of confidence in last July’s referendum, Alexis Tsipras capitulated
and accepted all the so called “reforms” demanded by Greece’s Troika of
creditor institutions (EU, ECB and IMF) in return for a third tranche of
bailout funding.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The scale of its retreat
was staggering. Not only did the Syriza government </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">agree to all
the tax rises, pension cuts and additional austerity measures it had resisted
so powerfully for six months, it also agreed the hand-over of remaining state-owned
assets to a “Privatisation Fund” overseen by Troika technocrats.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In a move that effectively undermined
Greece’s status as an autonomous sovereign state Tsipras accepted a Troika veto
over major aspects of Greek law making.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Tsipras’s climb down has totally transformed the political climate
in Greece.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> I was lucky enough to witness the events leading up to last year’s
magnificent “Oxi” referendum. The mass demonstration in Athens on July 3, the
politicisation of everyday life as people saw first-hand the class arrogance of
Europe’s political elite, debate and discussion everywhere in cafes, shops
around family meal tables was all reminiscent of the Scottish Independence
referendum; but sharper, more radical.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Today
the radical mood has imploded. Voter apathy abounds with recent polls showing
40% would abstain.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Even among political
activists there is a worrying level of disillusion and disorientation.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Syriza’s popularity has slumped to the
mid-teens, right wing New Democracy has been the main beneficiary polling over
20% recently, whilst the fascist Golden Dawn still lingers in the wings as the
third largest party in parliament. </span></span></div>
<br />
<h3 style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;">Syriza’s
defeat: Strategic withdrawal or sell-out?</span></h3>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Syriza is the only European example of a radical left government elected
on a programme to directly confront the neoliberal consensus.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Understanding the reasons for its retreat is
important.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It has implications for the
fight against neoliberalism and right wing nationalism throughout Europe as
well as the future prospects for a radical alternative in Greece.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It is simply not enough to denounce Tsipras
as a class collaborator or write off Syriza as “left reformist” and
consequently predestined to fail: the position of many on the UK far left. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Syriza’s climb down after the July 2015
referendum needs to be set in context.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Neither
Alexis Tsipras nor Syriza were responsible for the financial crisis that
overwhelmed the Greek economy and most of western capitalism!</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The crisis and what Michael Roberts has
called “the Long Depression” that has followed represent capitalism’s historic
failure to address a long term decline in profitability.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Nor can we blame the Syriza government for the devastation inflicted on
Greece by the series of bailout programmes agreed since 2008 and championed by
Greece’s home-grown oligarchy along with their political and media
friends.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In an approach best
characterised by what David Harvey calls “a process of accumulation by
dispossession” Greece has been subject to a massive set of “structural reforms”
aimed at</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">restoring profit rates and
reviving Greek capitalism. These have operated at 4 levels within the Greek
economy:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li>
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The transfer of Greek financial institutions to foreign ownership. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="margin: 0px;"></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The destruction of small scale and “inefficient” private sector businesses. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="margin: 0px;"></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">An increase in the exploitation of labour through draconian labour discipline, mass unemployment, the dismantling of welfare provisions, and replacing workplace protections and collective bargaining rights with precarious working conditions.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The wholesale privatisation of state assets at knock down prices mainly to foreign capital.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The bailout funds conditional on this reform programme were not used to
ameliorate the resultant social and economic devastation. More than 90% went
directly to German, French, American and other European banks that had indulged
in a frenzy of risky lending to Greek businesses, financial and state institutions
in the run up to the 2008 crisis.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Any criticism of Syriza must accept that Tsipras’s government tried at
least to resist this process of accumulation by dispossession.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It was the only Greek government to do so. And
even after it gave in, it retained popular support because of that, and was re-elected
for a second time. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Syriza and its
supporters on the left point to this fact and generally argue there was no
alternative but to retreat in the face of European ruling class intransigence,
especially the ECB’s strangulation of the Greek banking system in the weeks
before the July 2015 referendum. This was a strategic retreat to keep open the
possibility of debt relief, whilst trying to mitigate the worst effects of the
new austerity measures.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">They see
themselves as fighting a classic “war of manoeuvre” which will allow them to
move forward with their radical agenda when the balance of class forces is more
favourable.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Syriza’s advocates point to
the fact that, within the austerity programme, Tsipras’s government has been
able to implement some mildly progressive social policies such as legalising
same sex relationships, citizenship for migrant children and a degree of prison
reform.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But this leadership narrative needs to be treated with considerable scepticism
in the light of Syriza’s political trajectory over the last 18 months.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Stathis Kouvelakis , a former member of the
party’s central committee argues that initially there was no “sell out”, but a wrong
strategy led to a defeat and subsequently to Syriza’s political degeneration:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px 48px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The retreat at the Eurogroup was not a
betrayal or a sell-out.</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> There was real confrontation. The institutions
wanted to bring the Syriza government to its knees—because it is a real threat
to them. </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But the Syriza government
followed a wrong strategy</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">—and to overcome that we need to tell the
truth. And the fact that it </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">presented
its retreat almost as a success</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> is in a way more serious than the retreat
itself. It prepares the ground for further defeat.”</span></span></i><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> (My emphasis)</span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It's hard to disagree with this analysis. Effectively the strategy
involved pursuing an anti-austerity programme and demanding debt relief, whilst
at the same time maintaining Eurozone membership.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It underpinned Tsipras’s election campaign and
the approach taken to the subsequent bailout negotiations. To an extent this
“wrong strategy” was understandable.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">For
historical reasons staying within the EU and the euro was massively popular
amongst the Greek electorate. (It still has majority support in all recent
polls).</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Syriza felt its electoral strategy
had to recognise this political reality. At the same time even mainstream
economists had criticised the economic illiteracy of Troika demands for ever
more austerity and structural reform.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Syriza’s strategy was not however just based on Greek political
realities and the irrationality of Troika economics.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The leadership had a naïve faith in EU “solidarity”
and in the potential to reform Eurozone policy making through strategic
political alliances within the EU institutions. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This meant Tsipras’s and other leaders
continually opposed calls from the left to prepare alternative plans should the
negotiations go wrong.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">As Kouvelakis says, none of this was the product of political
degeneration or class collaboration or other far left shibboleth. Much of it
did not go uncontested within Syriza at the time. Alternative strategies were
possible and were discussed. Debt cancellation and leaving the euro was the
most obvious.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But this would have meant
breaking EU rules and risking a forced Grexit; something Tsipras and key
leaders were politically unable to countenance. Those within Syriza who
recognised this strategic weakness were not sufficiently united or organised to
challenge the leadership strategy.</span></span><br />
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Any radical left government can expect defeats and set-backs.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But a genuinely radical left leadership
should always confront the political circumstances it finds itself in, reassess
the situation and, if forced to retreat, at least do so in a manner which lays
the basis to take the struggle forward in the future.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Unfortunately Syriza did not do this.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It is this, more than the defeat itself that
marks the beginning of its degeneration as a party of the radical left. Since
then Syriza has become increasingly indistinguishable from mainstream social
democracy. It has accepted its subaltern role.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">It has fully and faithfully implemented policies it was elected to
oppose and it has justified them on the basis that “there is no alternative” to
neoliberal solutions. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Finance minister Euclid Tsakalatos’s speech to Syriza’s October
conference perfectly encapsulated what his government has become.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Referring to the latest tax rises, pension
cuts and reduction in minimum wages, he acknowledged that the poor would suffer
most.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">He confirmed that living standards
for the majority of ordinary citizens would fall further and economic growth
would be held back. But he argued that the debt relief that might follow:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“will be a signal to the markets …… and so investors can invest
long-term. This can offset the recessionary measures that we take”.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Effectively a government that came to power promising a radical
redistribution of wealth and power to the benefit of working class people, ends
up defending the standard neoliberal consensus. Tsakalatos justifies sacrifices
by those least able to pay as a price worth paying to placate financial
markets, boost inward investment and restore profit rates. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<h3 style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="line-height: 105%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sparks of Resistance </span></span></h3>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Lessons from the Syriza debacle have been hotly debated within the
European and Greek radical left.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I would
make only three main points.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Firstly a
radical left government is bound to make tactical and strategic mistakes.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Dealing with these requires open and honest
assessment and the widest possible democratic debate within the party and the
wider social movements from which it draws its support.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Secondly whatever else we may conclude about Syriza’s experience in
government, it showed that a radical left alternative to neoliberalism can gain
mass popular support. The political consensus of the last 30 years is falling
apart.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The result does not have to be
the reactionary populism of Brexit or Trump. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thirdly and more importantly Greek people continue to suffer and,
despite disorientation and disillusion, continue to resist.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Having declined since the mass mobilisations
of 2011 – 12, there are signs that popular opposition is rising again.
Workplace struggle is not yet on the scale of previous years but it has not
gone away.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Health
workers took strike action in early October as a result of deteriorating pay
and conditions and in opposition to further cuts in the health service.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Prior to that workers struck against the
impact of water privatisation in Thessaloniki and Athens. In a significant
escalation of opposition to Syriza’s austerity measures, the main civil
servants’ union has called a general strike across the public sector for
November 24 and urged private sector unions to join them.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">State education has been cut to the bone
prompting campaigns by teacher unions for increased staffing and restoration of
funding cuts. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Outside the workplace, pensioners continue to oppose further
pension cuts on top of the 40% reductions imposed over recent years. The sight
of riot police teargassing them and baring their way to parliament during a
demonstration in September was another indication of Syriza’s political
transformation. As was the same police response to thousands of students, trade
unionists and members of radical left groups who defied bans on protests
outside Parliament during Obama’s recent visit.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Anti-racist and anti-fascist campaigners
have linked up with trade unionists, those organising refugee support and
parent groups to demand access to state education for refugee children. Local
community solidarity networks providing welfare, health and community services
remain a vital source of support in many working class areas devastated by the
demolition of essential public services. They too are an aspect of resistance
to the processes of “accumulation by dispossession”.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Just as importantly they provide “prefigurative”
examples of direct democracy and alternative modes of production and
distribution. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Finally campaigns opposing privatisation have re-emerged.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Most notably the one led by Zoe
Constantopoulou, former Speaker of Parliament, aimed at stopping the sale of
the old Athens Airport site to private developers for a huge retail and luxury
residential complex.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Former Syriza MP Eleni
Portaliou argues that such campaigns are not just about resisting privatisation.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">They raise far more important issues about
what is happening in Greece. Greek state assets are being seized and privatised
to pay off “odious and illegitimate” debt. Such “confiscations” are the
clearest possible indication of Greece’s status as an EU “debt colony”. As such
they have the potential to rebuild a much broader social movement and help
reconfigure the radical left in Greece following Syriza’s political collapse.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">These and similar struggles demand and deserve international
solidarity. In Scotland we can take immediate steps by getting our union
branches, community campaigns and political organisations to affiliate to and
work with organisations like the Greece Solidarity Campaign, the various
refugee campaigns and others providing material and activist support to the
people of Greece.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But the best
solidarity the left can offer is to embrace the vision of collectivism and
resistance represented by these struggles, and build our own mass movement
against both European neoliberalism and the reactionary populism of Trump and
Brexit.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: rgb(246, 247, 248); line-height: 105%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The
struggle of the Greek people is also our struggle. Together we can win!</span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: center;">
<span style="background: rgb(246, 247, 248); line-height: 105%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Το αγονα του Ελληνικού λαού είναι και δικό μας!
Μαζί θα νικήσουμε!</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
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<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">References</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Michael Roberts:<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The Long
depression, Haymarket 2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">David Harvey: 17 Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, Profile
Publishers 2015</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Stathis Kouvelakis: </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Clinging to Power</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/greece-austerity-syriza-election-tsipras-varoufakis/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/greece-austerity-syriza-election-tsipras-varoufakis/</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Syriza Rise and Fall, NLR Jan / Feb 2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Eleni Portaliou – Greece a country for sale, Jacobin Magazine Sept
2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/09/greece-tsipras-memorandum-privatization-public-assets/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/09/greece-tsipras-memorandum-privatization-public-assets/</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Michael Neradakis – Creditors Destroy Greece, Syriza does not resist
</span><a href="http://www.defenddemocracy.press/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">http://www.defenddemocracy.press/</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Dimosthenis Papadatos Anagnostopoulos <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="color: #555555; margin: 0px;">http://rednotebook.gr/</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Euclid Tsakalatos – Speech to Second syriza conference, Athens 14
Oct 2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Alexis Tsipras – Speech to Second Syriza Conference, Athens Oct
2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">Panagiotis Sotiris – The Dream that became a nightmare – Jacobin
Feb 2016</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">JK
Galbraith </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;">(</span><a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/imf-greece-debt-restructuring-by-james-k-galbraith-2015-06?barrier=true"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/imf-greece-debt-restructuring-by-james-k-galbraith-2015-06?barrier=true</span></span></a><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;">
<span style="font-family: calibri;">Panos Garganos: Socialist Worker (UK) 25/10/2016</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Craig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4718563066757796284.post-73905648481335265702016-08-23T15:25:00.003-07:002016-08-23T15:29:55.295-07:00Some Thoughts on Lexit after the EU Referendum<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since the
referendum the debate on the UK radical left between those who supported a
“Remain” position and those arguing to leave the EU has continued. “Lexit” proponents, claim by and large, that
their predictions and strategy have been vindicated. Typical of this was the SWP’s assertion in the
immediate aftermath that:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The vote to leave the
European Union (EU) last week hasn’t just plunged the Tories and British ruling
class into crisis. It has struck a blow against US imperialism and the EU
bosses’ club, which imposes austerity across the continent.” (Socialist Worker
29/6/2016)</span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Counterfire claimed, in equally
triumphalist tones, that </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“the rich and
powerful …have suffered a massive reverse”</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">.
And that the vote heralded </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: MNimrod;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">an intensification of class struggle.”</span></span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: MNimrod;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The
Socialist Party capped even this by predicting the probable </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">collapse
of the Tory Party”</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. And the result
has been widely characterised within left leave circles as a “working class
revolt”. This Blog examines such claims in so far as that is possible so soon
after the referendum. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most left remain
supporters argued before the referendum that the Lexit case was based on blind
hope rather than serious political analysis.
This was not a referendum called by a radical left government in the face
of anti-democratic EU imposed austerity as was the situation in Greece during
the Oxi referendum. The UK vote was not
about whether the European Union was a “businessman’s club”. Something no one on the radical left would
dispute. Rather it was a referendum called
by an overconfident prime minister as a way of managing Tory party divisions
and seeing off a UKIP challenge. It was always going to be a debate between two
factions of the Tory party divided over their approach to the EU and
globalisation. As a result Lexit was universally
ignored and consequently unable to stop a massive shift to the right amongst
poorer working class communities and the resulting rise in racism and nationalism.
It was a dreadful mistake by those left groups involved.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brexit: A
Working Class Revolt?</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lexit
supporters place much emphasis on polling by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft to justify
two major claims. Firstly that the Leave
vote was an uprising by the poorest section of the working class and secondly
that racism and xenophobia, though, part of the picture, were less important
than anti-establishment anger and frustration after years of political and
economic neglect. For instance “a
Socialist Party reporter” argued that the data was clear evidence that:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The ‘Leave’ vote
represented a working class revolt against the establishment. While there were
differences in attitudes geographically, among different age groups, ethnic
backgrounds and so on, the key determinant of how people voted was social
class. “</span></span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Socialist Party
Website)</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whilst
Charlie Kimber (SWP National Secretary) has written:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“There was a strong
class element. A detailed poll by Lord Ashcroft showed the AB social group (professionals,
managers, lecturers and teachers) were the only social group where a majority,
57 percent, voted to Remain. C1s (most white collar workers) divided fairly
evenly. But nearly two thirds of C2s (skilled manual workers) Ds (other manual
workers) and Es (pensioners, unemployed, people on benefits) voted leave.”</span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42976/Dont+give+racists+the+credit++for+the+Leave+vote"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42976/Dont+give+racists+the+credit++for+the+Leave+vote</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Others
drilled down into the Ashcroft data to discern evidence that this working class
revolt was not primarily driven by racism but was indeed a radical revolt:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Many who supported
Remain, including left wingers and liberals, argue the result was fuelled by
racism over immigration. But the idea that Leave was a racist vote by the
“white working class” doesn’t add up. The three towns outside of London where
the “White British” population is not a majority produced Leave votes. So in
Luton 45 percent of the population is “White British”—it voted Leave by 56.5
percent on a 66.2 percent turnout. Similarly in Slough 34.52 percent of the
population is “White British”—people there also voted Leave by 54 percent on a
62.1 percent turnout. Meanwhile in Leicester 45 percent of the population is
“White British” and 48.9 percent voted for Leave on a 65 percent turnout.</span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">People in London backed
Remain more strongly, but Leave still had strong support among many working
class people in the capital.”</span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42976/Dont+give+racists+the+credit++for+the+Leave+vote"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42976/Dont+give+racists+the+credit++for+the+Leave+vote</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Using
the Ashcroft data in this way is tantamount to abandoning Marxism as a means of
analysing the class struggle. Struggle
is always contradictory and dynamic. Using static bourgeois social categories
to determine the class nature of the Brexit vote simply emphasises divisions
within the working class. It is part of the ABC of socialism, that capitalism
creates such divisions; gender, ethnic origin, nationality, access to
educational opportunities, skill, income, part-time/ full time, permanent /
temporary employment and a whole range of other subdivisions. The role of socialists is to break down these
sectional divides not laud one section of the working class and demonise
others.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Without
getting bogged down in Lexit psephology, it is worth pointing out that the ABC1
social categories include large numbers of teachers, nurses, doctors, college
lecturers and other public sector workers.
Many of them have been involved in significant strike action recently,
fighting pay cuts, defending conditions of employment and opposing redundancies.
In other words they are at the forefront of the resistance to austerity. For Marxists they are as much a part of the
modern working class as unskilled factory workers and service sector workers on
zero hours’ contracts. Yet Ashcroft’s poll showed they overwhelmingly voted
Remain. As did most trade union members and members of the Labour Party. As did
voters in every Scottish local authority (including the most deprived areas of
Glasgow and the central belt). It is
also a strange working class revolt that does not include major working class
centres such as West Belfast, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and
London. An even stranger one that does
not include two thirds of Asian voters, 73% of Black voters and 75% of young
voters the vast majority of whom are working class by any definition. This leaves aside the fact that 2m plus working
class EU migrants were denied a vote.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is no doubt that those in social category C2DE
voted by a margin of 2:1 for leave. Leaving aside that the C2 category includes
some self-employed and small employers whose categorisation as “working class”
is tenuous, it is obvious that a large part of this vote was driven by a desire
to kick back against the establishment after years of economic and political
neglect under both Tory and New Labour governments. The geography of the largest leave votes speaks
for itself. (</span></span><a href="http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/</span></span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">)</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But this was only part of the story. Even a
conservative extrapolation from the Ashcroft data shows fairly convincingly
that the C2, D, E vote accounted for just short of 40% of the Leave vote. The
bulk of the leave vote came from the wealthier sections of society. Some we
would include in any definition of the working class, some we would not. </span></span></div>
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial-BoldMT; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Andrew Flood</span></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></span><a href="http://links.org.au/node/4739"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://links.org.au/node/4739</span></span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">)</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So any serious analysis of the nature of the
referendum result gives us a picture of a working class split down the middle
between Leave and Remain. Not a particularly revealing conclusion but one that lends
no support to the notion that the Leave vote was an unambiguous working class
revolt. However to the extent that the leave vote was a revolt of the poorest
sections of the working class, the real question must be under whose leadership
and what ideas lie behind it? Neil
Faulkner answers this succinctly in a recent article on Left Unity’s website:</span></span></div>
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“</span></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Brexit vote is a victory for right-wing leadership of the discontent.
It is therefore a victory for the racism with which the entire Brexit campaign
was laced. There is a fundamental difference between workers being led by
right-wingers and racists, and workers acting for themselves in a mass movement
based on class unity and class struggle.”</span></span></i><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is
counterproductive if not delusional to try and sweep this under the carpet in
order to justify wildly optimistic pre-referendum predictions. No one on the left would suggest that all
Leave voters are racist or even that the majority of those expressing
anti-migrant and xenophobic sentiments are irredeemably committed racist
right-wingers. Racism is endemic in capitalism. In all sections of society not
just the working class. It has a </span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">material base in the sense that people are forced to
compete for jobs, homes, and public services</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Working class
communities impoverished, divided and angered by years of economic policies designed
to suck wealth into a privileged elite, can easily be won to racist and
xenophobic ideas by populists appealing to traditions of British nationalism. The British Left has an excellent history of
building resistance to fascists and racists when they appear on our
streets. But we have not had the
strength or the unity to build a mass social movement within working class
communities which is capable of providing a compelling alternative to the
racism and reactionary nationalism pedaled by mainstream Leave politicians like
Farage, Gove and Johnson.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Ruling Class in Crisis?</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Events during the two weeks following Brexit
certainly felt like a major political crisis.
Within 48 hours the value of the £ and the stock market crashed, Cameron
resigned, the leaders of the Brexit campaign stabbed each other in the
back, far right populists throughout
Europe rushed to endorse the leave vote and call for the break-up of the EU and
the Blairites launched their coup attempt against Jeremy Corbyn. The political elite seemed to flounder and
divide as it became clear there was no strategy for leaving the EU.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two months later things are starting to look less
febrile. It is far too early to judge
the economic and political impact of Brexit but we can already discern some
pointers to the nature of the political crisis we face. And again they do not seem to confirm the
optimistic scenario predicted by Lexit. The ruthless speed with which the Tory party
ousted the Cameron / Osborne clique and regrouped around Theresa May seemed to
stun some observers. Although it was easily predictable before the referendum
for anyone not blinded by Lexit ultra leftism:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“In
short if there is no evidence that the Tories are falling apart ……. talk of
disarray amongst the ruling class and opportunities for socialists after a
Brexit is misleading to say the least. All the evidence suggests that the
most likely scenario following a Brexit is a rejuvenated hard right Tory / UKIP
government with the solid backing of key sections of the British ruling class.
Socialist should never underestimate the class consciousness of our ruling
elite. Current rhetorical divisions will largely melt away following a Brexit.”</span></span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><a href="http://craiglewiis138.blogspot.co.uk/"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://craiglewiis138.blogspot.co.uk/</span></span></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> In the weeks
following the vote, the Tory party has shown no sign of “falling apart”. Socialists Worker’s lead prediction the week
after the referendum that </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The British
ruling class is in chaos – and the Tory civil war over the European Union
referendum is escalating”</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> now looks a little premature to say the least. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A number of factors suggest that, to the extent there
is a political crisis, it is one that the ruling elite are moving swiftly to
control and steer to their advantage. Theresa May’s government reflects a
triumph for the hard nationalist right of the Tory party. May herself is from the authoritarian wing
despite lukewarm support for remaining in the EU. Supporters of a “hard
Brexit”, which sacrifices access to the Single Market in order to “regain
control” over immigration, are in charge of EU negotiations along with future foreign
and trade relations. Despite the rhetoric about doing something for those “left
behind”, the early signals suggest a government intent on using the shock of
Brexit to deepen the neoliberal, free market offensive on working people. Cuts
in Corporation tax, relaxing bank regulations and restarting quantitative
easing all benefit the wealthy at the expense of working class living
standards. As does pushing ahead with
the Trade Union Act further eroding trade unions’ ability to protect members’
pay and conditions. In a gesture of total contempt for those “left behind” selective
Grammar Schools in England will be expanded. May’s government is to press ahead
with abolition the Human Rights Act. Whilst
keeping Jeremy Hunt in charge of the NHS is the best indication yet that the
assault on public services will continue with renewed vigour. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just as there is no real sign of the British ruling
class falling apart, the predicted collapse of the EU seems equally elusive. Brexit has certainly been welcomed on the
European far right, with calls from the likes of Marine LePen in France, Gert
Wilders in Holland and the neo-Nazis in Hungary for exit referendums. But there is no real sign of the much
forecast contagion spreading across other member states. If anything popular
support for the EU has hardened since 23 June in the largest EU states as the
potential economic impact of Brexit on living standards, jobs and free movement
have become more apparent.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-poll-idUKKCN1002A0"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-poll-idUKKCN1002A0</span></span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> . </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nor has the European radical left shown much sign of
following Lexit in abandoning internationalism and welcoming a right-wing led
British exit - with the exception of a few electorally insignificant far left
groups such as Antarsya in Greece. For
instance Portugal’s Left Bloc, at its convention earlier this month, denounced
the EU institutions as anti-democratic and committed itself to fighting Troika led austerity, even if that means
leaving the Euro. But asserted that Europe is a key terrain of struggle for
Socialists resisting neoliberalism. For them it is as important as the national
struggle. Speaking at the Convention’s closing session Catarina Martins said:</span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: DroidSerif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“But we never stopped
affirming — nor shall we ever — that the European space is a space for the
struggle of the left. We find people, movements, parties that are our people,
and it is with these forces that we want to conquer the power of Brussels and Berlin.”
</span></span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<a href="http://leftunity.org/portugal-the-radical-left-steps-forward/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: DroidSerif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://leftunity.org/portugal-the-radical-left-steps-forward/</span></span></i></a></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Economic Impact of Brexit</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most Lexit supporters are reluctant to address the
potential economic impact of Brexit on working class people. At the SWP’s
Marxism event for instance Alex Callinicos, a leading member of the SWP,
dismissed predictions of the likely impact on jobs, living standards and growth
as mere “speculation”. At this early
stage of Brexit this is partially true. And we must always be wary that much
mainstream media prediction reflects special pleading from various sections of
British capitalism seeking to lobby politicians in advance of the exit process.
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Also in discussing the referendum’s economic
implications, it is important to set Brexit in the context of a structural
crisis facing global capitalism reflected in persistently falling profit rates A crisis which one Marxist economist calls
“the Long Depression”. Since the
financial crisis workers’ living standards in the UK have fallen further than
any other EU country except Greece. But
this was not caused by the EU, where most countries have seen a slight rise in
living standards over the same period, nor by Brexit. It was the culmination of ruthless policies
of austerity, cuts, privatisation and attacks on trade unions pursued by
successive UK governments over more than 30 years, as they struggled to restore
profitability at the expense of working people.
(Michael Roberts 2016). </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nevertheless some clear trends are emerging which
suggest Brexit will compound the effects of this crisis on the very people who
voted for leave in such large numbers. The falling £, rising stock markets,
falling interest rates and planned cuts in private sector investment are not
abstract phenomena. They impact on the
daily lives of workers through their effects on, jobs, pension scheme deficits,
business takeovers, funds “repatriated” from Brussels, despite recent pledges
for some sectors such as HE and Agriculture. Moreover it is hard to see access
to the single market being replaced by trade agreements with China, the US,
India or anywhere else without further downward pressure on UK wages and
working conditions to ensure competitiveness. In designing a response to the
current political situation, the left should not dismiss such economic factors.
They directly impact on the ability of working people and their organisations
to fightback.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How should
the Left Respond?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For all the
reasons outlined above, it is highly unlikely that Brexit will lead to the kind
of spontaneous intensification of class struggle that Left Leave advocates
anticipate. The Tories have swiftly regrouped
and all the signs are that they will continue to pursue a reactionary
anti-working class agenda. The ruling
class is not yet in anything resembling a crisis, although it is clearly
divided over how to resolve the long term decline of profitability within
western capitalism. To the extent that the Leave vote was a revolt of the
poorest sections of the working class, it is a revolt led by reactionary
nationalism and racism. The radical left has not been strong enough to
counteract this. </span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Such
conclusions are of course denounced as pessimism by the Leave supporting left.
But if socialists do not correctly characterise the situation we face then we
will develop strategies that make no sense to the mass of working people and
leave us sitting on the side-lines as events unfold. Worse we may in consequence demoralise and
deactivate the very workers and activists who must take the struggle forward. Unity
on the left needs to be built urgently. But those comrades and left groups who
voted Leave need to recognise that they got it horribly wrong, and stop trying
to retrospectively justify their mistakes.
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Those on the
left who voted remain did so for progressive reasons. To resist the poisonous
nationalism and racism of the mainstream Leave campaign. To avoid giving a boost to the emergent far
right across Europe. To defend the workplace and environmental protections
underpinned by EU law. To protect freedom of movement and the rights of migrant
workers. And to assert and build international solidarity between those resisting
austerity and neoliberalism throughout Europe. To characterise the majority of
the working class who took such a progressive stance as a remote metropolitan
elite is ultra-left nonsense. We need a
serious debate on the left around what some have called “transitional demands
and actions” that can halt the shift to the right post Brexit and develop
reforms and political spaces that start to challenge capitalism not just manage
it. That debate of course must take
place within the immediate struggles we face in the aftermath of the Leave vote.
</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Len Arthur: </span></span><a href="http://lenarthur01.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/from-here-to-socialism-bridging-gap-2013.html"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://lenarthur01.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/from-here-to-socialism-bridging-gap-2013.html</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">)</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In England
and Wales socialists face two key struggles. Both are defensive and result from
the rightward shift in UK politics following Brexit. In the first place we need to defend our
communities from the explosion in racist attacks since the referendum. The UK
Left responded quickly and decisively to the rise in race hatred following the
vote. The joint Peoples Assembly and Stand Up to Racism demonstration in July
pointed the way forward, and since then there have been local mobilisations
throughout the country wherever the EDL or other far right groups have tried to
mobilise - from Southampton to Edinburgh. But the left must urgently come to
terms with the fact that racism and xenophobia is embedded in some of the
poorest working class communities. It is something that must be confronted and
not glossed over as a secondary issue. As a minimum the Left should make no concessions
to anti-migrant sentiment or compromise over free movement of labour. Some confused arguments have surfaced from
Lexit supports over this. The CP for
instance argues that free movement cannot be unequivocally supported because it
is a product of the EU Single Market and holds down wages in receiving
countries. But the answer to low pay and pressure on public services is an end
to austerity, increased public spending and the restoration of free collective
bargaining for trade unions. Trying to
find a left compromise with mainstream Brexit demands for immigration controls
will only fuel racism and xenophobia.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Obviously
the second key issue around which the left must unite is defence of Jeremy
Corbyn’s Labour Party leadership. The issue here is not just careerism or
opportunism in the Labour Party. A
defeat for Corbyn will be a generational defeat for the radical left (in
England and Wales at least). The
neoliberal consensus that developed over the last 30 years and the long term
profit crisis of capitalism which spawned it, has hollowed out the Labour Party
and removed the economic basis for social democratic reform on which it was
founded. A Corbyn led Labour Party with
a clear anti-austerity and progressive agenda cannot therefore be a return to
old style social democracy. It is
potentially much more significant than that.
It could provide opportunities for the radical left to develop new
transitional demands and actions of the type mentioned above. Demands and actions that can both halt the
post Brexit shift to the right and open the way for genuinely transformative
reforms which challenge the power of capital. But for this to happen the radical left must
actively work to ensure the movement around Corbyn develops beyond the Labour
Party into a social movement embedded in workplaces and communities, linking
parliamentary and extra parliamentary activity and struggle. It must not be refocussed on internal Labour
Party battles. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Challenges
for the Left in Post-Brexit Scotland</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Scotland the
Lexit debate poses additional challenges for the radical left. The overwhelming 62% majority for Remain has led
to speculation about a second independence referendum. There is not hard evidence
yet of a sustained increase in support for independence. Nevertheless sections
of the SNP are pressing for a second independence campaign sooner rather than
later, and the Scottish Greens have already launched their Indyref2
campaign. If a second independence
referendum does emerge, a revival of something like the Radical Independence
Campaign will be essential. Not just to
provide a progressive vision of an Independent Scotland; but also to challenge
the rightward drift of the SNP as it seeks to present a pro-business case for
independence aimed at middle class “No voters” who supported Remain. </span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But uniting
in a revived RIC will be a major problem for the Scottish radical left. As yet there has been little debate on this,
but Lexit supporters already plan to make a Scottish EU exit central to any
future Indyref2 campaign. In language not untypical of the whole Lexit debate,
a left wing academic from Glasgow University recently denounced the
“Europhilia” and “fake internationalism” of those on the Scottish left who
supported a remain position and asserted:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“… </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">we must argue for Indyref 2 and for a </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">new referendum on EU membership</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">
in which the actual nature of the EU can openly be discussed” (Davidson 2016 –
my emphasis)</span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Following
the overwhelming endorsement of EU membership in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sc</span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">otland, it is hard to see how such a strategy can have much appeal
outside political academia. As one of
the current candidates for depute leader of the SNP recently put it:</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> “The possibility of a second independence referendum
is predicated upon the constitutional outrage of Scotland being taken out of
the EU against the wishes of the people who live here”. </span></span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Tommy Sheppard)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If
therefore, as seems likely, a further EU referendum in Scotland does not happen,
where would that leave the Lexit Left? Having
denied that the EU can ever be a terrain of struggle for socialists, they
cannot with any degree of credibility join with others on the Left in support
of a radical vision of Scottish Independence which accepts Scotland remaining
in the European Union. Presumably under
those circumstances Lexit comrades must argue that Scotland is “better
together” with a post Brexit UK dominated by the politics of right-wing
nationalism. Such is the hole they have
dug for themselves.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Additional references:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 108pt; text-indent: -108pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Michael Roberts: The Long Depression, How it happened,
Why it happened, And what happens next, Haymarket 2016.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tom Sheppard: 45%+62% = indyref2, Scottish Left
Review, July/August 2016</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Neil
Davidson: Scotland after
Brexit, Jacobin magazine, July 2016</span></span></div>
<i></i><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><b></b><u></u>Craig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4718563066757796284.post-16292505083089497052016-08-23T15:21:00.003-07:002016-08-23T15:21:40.798-07:00
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Since the
referendum the debate on the UK radical left between those who supported a
“Remain” position and those arguing to leave the EU has continued. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Lexit” proponents, claim by and large, that
their predictions and strategy have been vindicated. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Typical of this was the SWP’s assertion in the
immediate aftermath that:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“The vote to leave the
European Union (EU) last week hasn’t just plunged the Tories and British ruling
class into crisis. It has struck a blow against US imperialism and the EU
bosses’ club, which imposes austerity across the continent.” (Socialist Worker
29/6/2016)</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Similarly<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>Counterfire claimed, in equally
triumphalist tones, that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“the rich and
powerful …have suffered a massive reverse”</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And that the vote heralded <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: MNimrod;">an intensification of class struggle.”</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: MNimrod;"> The
Socialist Party capped even this by predicting the probable </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">collapse
of the Tory Party”</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the result
has been widely characterised within left leave circles as a “working class
revolt”. This Blog examines such claims in so far as that is possible so soon
after the referendum. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Most left remain
supporters argued before the referendum that the Lexit case was based on blind
hope rather than serious political analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This was not a referendum called by a radical left government in the face
of anti-democratic EU imposed austerity as was the situation in Greece during
the Oxi referendum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The UK vote was not
about whether the European Union was a “businessman’s club”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something no one on the radical left would
dispute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather it was a referendum called
by an overconfident prime minister as a way of managing Tory party divisions
and seeing off a UKIP challenge. It was always going to be a debate between two
factions of the Tory party divided over their approach to the EU and
globalisation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result Lexit was universally
ignored and consequently unable to stop a massive shift to the right amongst
poorer working class communities and the resulting rise in racism and nationalism.
It was a dreadful mistake by those left groups involved.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Brexit: A
Working Class Revolt?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lexit
supporters place much emphasis on polling by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft to justify
two major claims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Firstly that the Leave
vote was an uprising by the poorest section of the working class and secondly
that racism and xenophobia, though, part of the picture, were less important
than anti-establishment anger and frustration after years of political and
economic neglect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance “a
Socialist Party reporter” argued that the data was clear evidence that:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“The ‘Leave’ vote
represented a working class revolt against the establishment. While there were
differences in attitudes geographically, among different age groups, ethnic
backgrounds and so on, the key determinant of how people voted was social
class. “</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Socialist Party
Website)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Whilst
Charlie Kimber (SWP National Secretary) has written:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“There was a strong
class element. A detailed poll by Lord Ashcroft showed the AB social group (professionals,
managers, lecturers and teachers) were the only social group where a majority,
57 percent, voted to Remain. C1s (most white collar workers) divided fairly
evenly. But nearly two thirds of C2s (skilled manual workers) Ds (other manual
workers) and Es (pensioners, unemployed, people on benefits) voted leave.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42976/Dont+give+racists+the+credit++for+the+Leave+vote"><span style="color: windowtext;">https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42976/Dont+give+racists+the+credit++for+the+Leave+vote</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Others
drilled down into the Ashcroft data to discern evidence that this working class
revolt was not primarily driven by racism but was indeed a radical revolt:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Many who supported
Remain, including left wingers and liberals, argue the result was fuelled by
racism over immigration. But the idea that Leave was a racist vote by the
“white working class” doesn’t add up. The three towns outside of London where
the “White British” population is not a majority produced Leave votes. So in
Luton 45 percent of the population is “White British”—it voted Leave by 56.5
percent on a 66.2 percent turnout. Similarly in Slough 34.52 percent of the
population is “White British”—people there also voted Leave by 54 percent on a
62.1 percent turnout. Meanwhile in Leicester 45 percent of the population is
“White British” and 48.9 percent voted for Leave on a 65 percent turnout.</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">People in London backed
Remain more strongly, but Leave still had strong support among many working
class people in the capital.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42976/Dont+give+racists+the+credit++for+the+Leave+vote"><span style="color: windowtext;">https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42976/Dont+give+racists+the+credit++for+the+Leave+vote</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Using
the Ashcroft data in this way is tantamount to abandoning Marxism as a means of
analysing the class struggle. Struggle
is always contradictory and dynamic. Using static bourgeois social categories
to determine the class nature of the Brexit vote simply emphasises divisions
within the working class. It is part of the ABC of socialism, that capitalism
creates such divisions; gender, ethnic origin, nationality, access to
educational opportunities, skill, income, part-time/ full time, permanent /
temporary employment and a whole range of other subdivisions. The role of socialists is to break down these
sectional divides not laud one section of the working class and demonise
others.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Without
getting bogged down in Lexit psephology, it is worth pointing out that the ABC1
social categories include large numbers of teachers, nurses, doctors, college
lecturers and other public sector workers.
Many of them have been involved in significant strike action recently,
fighting pay cuts, defending conditions of employment and opposing redundancies.
In other words they are at the forefront of the resistance to austerity. For Marxists they are as much a part of the
modern working class as unskilled factory workers and service sector workers on
zero hours’ contracts. Yet Ashcroft’s poll showed they overwhelmingly voted
Remain. As did most trade union members and members of the Labour Party. As did
voters in every Scottish local authority (including the most deprived areas of
Glasgow and the central belt). It is
also a strange working class revolt that does not include major working class
centres such as West Belfast, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and
London. An even stranger one that does
not include two thirds of Asian voters, 73% of Black voters and 75% of young
voters the vast majority of whom are working class by any definition. This leaves aside the fact that 2m plus working
class EU migrants were denied a vote.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">There is no doubt that those in social category C2DE
voted by a margin of 2:1 for leave. Leaving aside that the C2 category includes
some self-employed and small employers whose categorisation as “working class”
is tenuous, it is obvious that a large part of this vote was driven by a desire
to kick back against the establishment after years of economic and political
neglect under both Tory and New Labour governments. The geography of the largest leave votes speaks
for itself. (</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">)</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">But this was only part of the story. Even a
conservative extrapolation from the Ashcroft data shows fairly convincingly
that the C2, D, E vote accounted for just short of 40% of the Leave vote. The
bulk of the leave vote came from the wealthier sections of society. Some we
would include in any definition of the working class, some we would not. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial-BoldMT; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Andrew Flood</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">. </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://links.org.au/node/4739"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://links.org.au/node/4739</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">)</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">So any serious analysis of the nature of the
referendum result gives us a picture of a working class split down the middle
between Leave and Remain. Not a particularly revealing conclusion but one that lends
no support to the notion that the Leave vote was an unambiguous working class
revolt. However to the extent that the leave vote was a revolt of the poorest
sections of the working class, the real question must be under whose leadership
and what ideas lie behind it? Neil
Faulkner answers this succinctly in a recent article on Left Unity’s website:</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><u><span style="font-family: calibri;">“</span></u></span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Brexit vote is a victory for right-wing leadership of the discontent.
It is therefore a victory for the racism with which the entire Brexit campaign
was laced. There is a fundamental difference between workers being led by
right-wingers and racists, and workers acting for themselves in a mass movement
based on class unity and class struggle.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is
counterproductive if not delusional to try and sweep this under the carpet in
order to justify wildly optimistic pre-referendum predictions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one on the left would suggest that all
Leave voters are racist or even that the majority of those expressing
anti-migrant and xenophobic sentiments are irredeemably committed racist
right-wingers. Racism is endemic in capitalism. In all sections of society not
just the working class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has a </span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">material base in the sense that people are forced to
compete for jobs, homes, and public services</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <span lang="EN">Working
class communities impoverished, divided and angered by years of economic
policies designed to suck wealth into a privileged elite, can easily be won to
racist and xenophobic ideas by populists appealing to traditions of British
nationalism. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The British Left has an
excellent history of building resistance to fascists and racists when they
appear on our streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we have not
had the strength or the unity to build a mass social movement within working
class communities which is capable of providing a compelling alternative to the
racism and reactionary nationalism pedaled by mainstream Leave politicians like
Farage, Gove and Johnson.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The Ruling Class in Crisis?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Events during the two weeks following Brexit
certainly felt like a major political crisis.
Within 48 hours the value of the £ and the stock market crashed, Cameron
resigned, the leaders of the Brexit campaign stabbed each other in the
back, far right populists throughout
Europe rushed to endorse the leave vote and call for the break-up of the EU and
the Blairites launched their coup attempt against Jeremy Corbyn. The political elite seemed to flounder and
divide as it became clear there was no strategy for leaving the EU.</span></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Two months later things are starting to look less
febrile. It is far too early to judge
the economic and political impact of Brexit but we can already discern some
pointers to the nature of the political crisis we face. And again they do not seem to confirm the
optimistic scenario predicted by Lexit. The ruthless speed with which the Tory party
ousted the Cameron / Osborne clique and regrouped around Theresa May seemed to
stun some observers. Although it was easily predictable before the referendum
for anyone not blinded by Lexit ultra leftism:</span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">“In
short if there is no evidence that the Tories are falling apart ……. talk of
disarray amongst the ruling class and opportunities for socialists after a
Brexit is misleading to say the least. All the evidence suggests that the
most likely scenario following a Brexit is a rejuvenated hard right Tory / UKIP
government with the solid backing of key sections of the British ruling class.
Socialist should never underestimate the class consciousness of our ruling
elite. Current rhetorical divisions will largely melt away following a Brexit.”</span></i><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://craiglewiis138.blogspot.co.uk/"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">http://craiglewiis138.blogspot.co.uk/</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"> In the weeks
following the vote, the Tory party has shown no sign of “falling apart”. Socialists Worker’s lead prediction the week
after the referendum that </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">“The British
ruling class is in chaos – and the Tory civil war over the European Union
referendum is escalating”</span></i><span style="font-family: calibri;"> now looks a little premature to say the least. </span></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">A number of factors suggest that, to the extent there
is a political crisis, it is one that the ruling elite are moving swiftly to
control and steer to their advantage. Theresa May’s government reflects a
triumph for the hard nationalist right of the Tory party. May herself is from the authoritarian wing
despite lukewarm support for remaining in the EU. Supporters of a “hard
Brexit”, which sacrifices access to the Single Market in order to “regain
control” over immigration, are in charge of EU negotiations along with future foreign
and trade relations. Despite the rhetoric about doing something for those “left
behind”, the early signals suggest a government intent on using the shock of
Brexit to deepen the neoliberal, free market offensive on working people. Cuts
in Corporation tax, relaxing bank regulations and restarting quantitative
easing all benefit the wealthy at the expense of working class living
standards. As does pushing ahead with
the Trade Union Act further eroding trade unions’ ability to protect members’
pay and conditions. In a gesture of total contempt for those “left behind” selective
Grammar Schools in England will be expanded. May’s government is to press ahead
with abolition the Human Rights Act. Whilst
keeping Jeremy Hunt in charge of the NHS is the best indication yet that the
assault on public services will continue with renewed vigour. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Just as there is no real sign of the British ruling
class falling apart, the predicted collapse of the EU seems equally elusive. Brexit has certainly been welcomed on the
European far right, with calls from the likes of Marine LePen in France, Gert
Wilders in Holland and the neo-Nazis in Hungary for exit referendums. But there is no real sign of the much
forecast contagion spreading across other member states. If anything popular
support for the EU has hardened since 23 June in the largest EU states as the
potential economic impact of Brexit on living standards, jobs and free movement
have become more apparent.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-poll-idUKKCN1002A0"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-poll-idUKKCN1002A0</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="font-family: calibri;"> . </span></span></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Nor has the European radical left shown much sign of
following Lexit in abandoning internationalism and welcoming a right-wing led
British exit - with the exception of a few electorally insignificant far left
groups such as Antarsya in Greece. For
instance Portugal’s Left Bloc, at its convention earlier this month, denounced
the EU institutions as anti-democratic and committed itself to fighting Troika led austerity, even if that means
leaving the Euro. But asserted that Europe is a key terrain of struggle for
Socialists resisting neoliberalism. For them it is as important as the national
struggle. Speaking at the Convention’s closing session Catarina Martins said:</span></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: DroidSerif;">“But we never stopped
affirming — nor shall we ever — that the European space is a space for the
struggle of the left. We find people, movements, parties that are our people,
and it is with these forces that we want to conquer the power of Brussels and
Berlin.” </span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://leftunity.org/portugal-the-radical-left-steps-forward/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: DroidSerif;">http://leftunity.org/portugal-the-radical-left-steps-forward/</span></i></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">The Economic Impact of Brexit</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Most Lexit supporters are reluctant to address the
potential economic impact of Brexit on working class people. At the SWP’s
Marxism event for instance Alex Callinicos, a leading member of the SWP,
dismissed predictions of the likely impact on jobs, living standards and growth
as mere “speculation”. At this early
stage of Brexit this is partially true. And we must always be wary that much
mainstream media prediction reflects special pleading from various sections of
British capitalism seeking to lobby politicians in advance of the exit process.
</span></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Also in discussing the referendum’s economic
implications, it is important to set Brexit in the context of a structural
crisis facing global capitalism reflected in persistently falling profit rates A crisis which one Marxist economist calls
“the Long Depression”. Since the
financial crisis workers’ living standards in the UK have fallen further than
any other EU country except Greece. But
this was not caused by the EU, where most countries have seen a slight rise in
living standards over the same period, nor by Brexit. It was the culmination of ruthless policies
of austerity, cuts, privatisation and attacks on trade unions pursued by
successive UK governments over more than 30 years, as they struggled to restore
profitability at the expense of working people.
(Michael Roberts 2016). </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: calibri;">Nevertheless some clear trends are emerging which
suggest Brexit will compound the effects of this crisis on the very people who
voted for leave in such large numbers. The falling £, rising stock markets,
falling interest rates and planned cuts in private sector investment are not
abstract phenomena. They impact on the
daily lives of workers through their effects on, jobs, pension scheme deficits,
business takeovers, funds “repatriated” from Brussels, despite recent pledges
for some sectors such as HE and Agriculture. Moreover it is hard to see access
to the single market being replaced by trade agreements with China, the US,
India or anywhere else without further downward pressure on UK wages and
working conditions to ensure competitiveness. In designing a response to the
current political situation, the left should not dismiss such economic factors.
They directly impact on the ability of working people and their organisations
to fightback.</span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How should
the Left Respond?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For all the
reasons outlined above, it is highly unlikely that Brexit will lead to the kind
of spontaneous intensification of class struggle that Left Leave advocates
anticipate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Tories have swiftly regrouped
and all the signs are that they will continue to pursue a reactionary
anti-working class agenda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ruling
class is not yet in anything resembling a crisis, although it is clearly
divided over how to resolve the long term decline of profitability within
western capitalism. To the extent that the Leave vote was a revolt of the
poorest sections of the working class, it is a revolt led by reactionary
nationalism and racism. The radical left has not been strong enough to
counteract this. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Such
conclusions are of course denounced as pessimism by the Leave supporting left.
But if socialists do not correctly characterise the situation we face then we
will develop strategies that make no sense to the mass of working people and
leave us sitting on the side-lines as events unfold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Worse we may in consequence demoralise and
deactivate the very workers and activists who must take the struggle forward. Unity
on the left needs to be built urgently. But those comrades and left groups who
voted Leave need to recognise that they got it horribly wrong, and stop trying
to retrospectively justify their mistakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Those on the
left who voted remain did so for progressive reasons. To resist the poisonous
nationalism and racism of the mainstream Leave campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To avoid giving a boost to the emergent far
right across Europe. To defend the workplace and environmental protections
underpinned by EU law. To protect freedom of movement and the rights of migrant
workers. And to assert and build international solidarity between those resisting
austerity and neoliberalism throughout Europe. To characterise the majority of
the working class who took such a progressive stance as a remote metropolitan
elite is ultra-left nonsense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need a
serious debate on the left around what some have called “transitional demands
and actions” that can halt the shift to the right post Brexit and develop
reforms and political spaces that start to challenge capitalism not just manage
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That debate of course must take
place within the immediate struggles we face in the aftermath of the Leave vote.
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Len Arthur: <a href="http://lenarthur01.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/from-here-to-socialism-bridging-gap-2013.html"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://lenarthur01.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/from-here-to-socialism-bridging-gap-2013.html</span></a>)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In England
and Wales socialists face two key struggles. Both are defensive and result from
the rightward shift in UK politics following Brexit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the first place we need to defend our
communities from the explosion in racist attacks since the referendum. The UK
Left responded quickly and decisively to the rise in race hatred following the
vote. The joint Peoples Assembly and Stand Up to Racism demonstration in July
pointed the way forward, and since then there have been local mobilisations
throughout the country wherever the EDL or other far right groups have tried to
mobilise - from Southampton to Edinburgh. But the left must urgently come to
terms with the fact that racism and xenophobia is embedded in some of the
poorest working class communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is something that must be confronted and
not glossed over as a secondary issue. As a minimum the Left should make no concessions
to anti-migrant sentiment or compromise over free movement of labour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some confused arguments have surfaced from
Lexit supports over this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The CP for
instance argues that free movement cannot be unequivocally supported because it
is a product of the EU Single Market and holds down wages in receiving
countries. But the answer to low pay and pressure on public services is an end
to austerity, increased public spending and the restoration of free collective
bargaining for trade unions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trying to
find a left compromise with mainstream Brexit demands for immigration controls
will only fuel racism and xenophobia.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Obviously
the second key issue around which the left must unite is defence of Jeremy
Corbyn’s Labour Party leadership. The issue here is not just careerism or
opportunism in the Labour Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
defeat for Corbyn will be a generational defeat for the radical left (in
England and Wales at least).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
neoliberal consensus that developed over the last 30 years and the long term
profit crisis of capitalism which spawned it, has hollowed out the Labour Party
and removed the economic basis for social democratic reform on which it was
founded. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Corbyn led Labour Party with
a clear anti-austerity and progressive agenda cannot therefore be a return to
old style social democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
potentially much more significant than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It could provide opportunities for the radical left to develop new
transitional demands and actions of the type mentioned above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Demands and actions that can both halt the
post Brexit shift to the right and open the way for genuinely transformative
reforms which challenge the power of capital. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for this to happen the radical left must
actively work to ensure the movement around Corbyn develops beyond the Labour
Party into a social movement embedded in workplaces and communities, linking
parliamentary and extra parliamentary activity and struggle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It must not be refocussed on internal Labour
Party battles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Challenges
for the Left in Post-Brexit Scotland</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Scotland the
Lexit debate poses additional challenges for the radical left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The overwhelming 62% majority for Remain has led
to speculation about a second independence referendum. There is not hard evidence
yet of a sustained increase in support for independence. Nevertheless sections
of the SNP are pressing for a second independence campaign sooner rather than
later, and the Scottish Greens have already launched their Indyref2
campaign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a second independence
referendum does emerge, a revival of something like the Radical Independence
Campaign will be essential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not just to
provide a progressive vision of an Independent Scotland; but also to challenge
the rightward drift of the SNP as it seeks to present a pro-business case for
independence aimed at middle class “No voters” who supported Remain. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But uniting
in a revived RIC will be a major problem for the Scottish radical left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As yet there has been little debate on this,
but Lexit supporters already plan to make a Scottish EU exit central to any
future Indyref2 campaign. In language not untypical of the whole Lexit debate,
a left wing academic from Glasgow University recently denounced the
“Europhilia” and “fake internationalism” of those on the Scottish left who
supported a remain position and asserted:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“… <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we must argue for Indyref 2 and for a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>new referendum on EU membership</u></b>
in which the actual nature of the EU can openly be discussed” (Davidson 2016 –
my emphasis)</i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Following
the overwhelming endorsement of EU membership in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sc</i>otland, it is hard to see how such a strategy can have much appeal
outside political academia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As one of
the current candidates for depute leader of the SNP recently put it:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The possibility of a second independence referendum
is predicated upon the constitutional outrage of Scotland being taken out of
the EU against the wishes of the people who live here”. </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Tommy Sheppard)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If
therefore, as seems likely, a further EU referendum in Scotland does not happen,
where would that leave the Lexit Left?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having
denied that the EU can ever be a terrain of struggle for socialists, they
cannot with any degree of credibility join with others on the Left in support
of a radical vision of Scottish Independence which accepts Scotland remaining
in the European Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Presumably under
those circumstances Lexit comrades must argue that Scotland is “better
together” with a post Brexit UK dominated by the politics of right-wing
nationalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such is the hole they have
dug for themselves.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Additional references:</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 108pt; text-indent: -108pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Michael Roberts:<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Long Depression, How it happened,
Why it happened, And what happens next, Haymarket 2016.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tom
Sheppard:<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>45%+62% =
indyref2, Scottish Left Review, July/August 2016</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Neil
Davidson:<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Scotland after
Brexit, Jacobin magazine, July 2016</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Craig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4718563066757796284.post-52257219884687218942016-05-26T10:04:00.000-07:002016-05-26T10:12:36.430-07:00The Left Can’t Afford to Get it Wrong on the EU. Why Socialists Should Vote to Remain<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The EU debate is dominated by well-resourced Leave and
Remain campaigns promoting right-wing, pro-business arguments about the UK’s
future relationship with Europe. They mainly reflect divisions within the Tory
party (Cameron’s chief reason for calling the referendum) and also the wider
British ruling class. It is vital that socialists get their response to the EU
debate right. The outcome of the referendum will not just determine the character
of the British state for the foreseeable future. It will also determine the prospects for
building a socialist alternative over the next decade or more; both in the UK
and throughout Europe. It is not
surprising therefore that a significant debate has broken out between Marxists
and others on the radical left about whether or not socialists should call for
an EU exit. This post is an attempt
to address some of the important issues raised by that debate. It supports the Left
Remain position. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A Left Leave group has been formed supported,
amongst others, by the SWP, the Socialist Party, the CPGB, Scottish Left Leave,
some labour and trade union left figures and other smaller far left
groups. A number of left wing academics
and commentators such as Tariq Ali have also supported a left leave position. This
post examines the Lexit case, analyses its shortcomings and proposes a
socialist case for voting to remain in the EU. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">According to a recent article in Socialist Review by Joseph
Choonara, the socialist case to remain is based on certain key propositions. These
include that the EU “secures free movement”, that the EU “protects workers” and
that a Brexit will shift British politics further to the hard right. He dismisses
all of these as myths which are deeply “pessimistic”(Choonara 2015). Tariq Ali at a recent
meeting organised by the Scottish left group Rise, argued along the same lines;
claiming, at the same time, that EU social and workplace protections were largely illusory and that
meaningful rights came only from struggle not the EU. As so often in debates on the left, Choonara
and Tariq have been highly selective in their critique. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">There is in fact much common ground between the left remain
and leave positions. Firstly all
socialists would agree that the EU is a capitalist project. From its inception as the European Coal and
Steel Community to its present institutional form its prime aim has been to
increase the competitiveness and profitability of European capital. Secondly
the institutions of the EU, as currently constituted, are undemocratic. The European Parliament has
limited powers and the Council of ministers and the unelected Commission and
ECB increasingly dominate decision making – especially within the Eurozone. Thirdly
the institutions of the EU have become instruments for imposing austerity and
neoliberal policies on member states, even where this is opposed by the
democratic wishes of their populations; and even, as in Greece, where it causes a breakdown in civil society and
a humanitarian crisis for ordinary people.
Finally the refugee crisis has shown that the liberal notion of “free
movement” of labour actually disguises an institutional racism expressed now in
a “fortress Europe” response of staggering inhumanity towards those fleeing
violence, war and destitution.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">EU Social
and Workplace Protections</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Notwithstanding all this, comrades on the left who advocate
a leave vote are making a fundamental mistake.
An examination of their arguments shows them to be long on rhetoric and
short on serious political analysis. To start with there is the question of
positive EU workplace and social protections. Lexit supporters generally
dismiss these as trivial at best, or at worst misleading delusions of the trade
union bureaucracy. However these
protections are real and important to the daily lives of thousands of workers
in the UK. They may have been conceded
grudgingly and for primarily business reasons such as ensuring fair competition
and a “level playing field” for firms operating in the EU’s Single Market, but they
are there and they are under threat from the mainstream advocates of Brexit.
When politicians like Gove, Johnson and Duncan Smith talk about reducing
the burden of red tape on businesses, they really mean scrapping such things as
EU rights for part-timers to claim fulltime work, rights for agency staff to
equal treatment, rights to paid holidays, limits on work time and all the
protections against injury and work related ill health stemming from EU Health
and safety Directives. In fact removing these protections is essential to their
vision of a post Brexit Britain. To
compete globally as an isolated medium size economy through bilateral trade
deals would mean massively reducing UK costs of production, particularly labour
costs. This could only be achieved by
further driving down living standards and removing costly workplace rights. Outside the EU this becomes so much easier. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Left leave supporters show a staggering indifference to EU social
and workplace protections. But, like so
many of their arguments, they do not explain why these protections are of
little consequence. They simply counterpose rights won through class struggle
within the British state with supposedly weaker EU rights. In doing this they
come close to re-writing history and they certainly ignore the impact of working
class organisation and agitation on EU law making. So for instance Choonara claims:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i>“British health and
safety provisions largely emerged in the 1970s and because they were won in a
period of union strength and worker militancy, they go further than is required
by the EU. “ </i>(Choonara 2015)</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Whilst it’s true that the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act
came out of a period of worker militancy, it imposed only vague “general
duties” on employers. All key health and
safety regulations since 1977, from managing safety at work to the design and
maintenance of protective equipment, has emanated from EU directives. They have
not been perfect but they have massively improved the rights of workers granted
by the 1974 Act. Moreover most of them were shaped, in part at least, by trade
union organised campaigns co-ordinated across EU member states. Very
few union reps involved in day to day struggles to improve safety at work, in
the face of hostile managements, would argue that these rights are unimportant.
(TUC 2016)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Having peremptorily dismissed EU workplace and other rights
such as environmental protections, Lexit supporters usually justify a leave
vote by advancing four key propositions.
Firstly, in the words of a Left Leave leaflet from Counterfire , neoliberalism “is hardwired
into the EU and its laws.” h<a href="http://www.leftleave.org/5-reasons-to-leave-the-eu">ttp://www.leftleave.org/5-reasons-to-leave-the-eu</a>. Secondly the
EU is undemocratic and unreformable. Thirdly that, as Alex Callinicos argued
recently, European neoliberalism is more likely to be broken at the
national level (Callinicos 2015). And fourthly that exit will destabilise the British ruling
class, opening up opportunities for socialism in the UK and the EU more
generally. Each of these is examined
below.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Is
Neoliberalism “hard-wired” into EU Law?</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The EU is a “businessman’s club”. As such it reflects neoliberal orthodoxy in
its approach to economic and social policy.
No one disputes the recent horrors this has produced. Lexit comrades
rightly point to the inhumane treatment of the Greek people. They cite the vile
racism underpinning the EU’s “fortress Europe” refugee policy. And they
highlight the contempt for democracy in the imposition of Troika-led structural
adjustment programmes on those Eurozone states worst hit by the financial
crisis. But to what extent is neoliberalism
actually “hard-wired” into EU law? </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Left leave proponents claim that EU law would prevent a
future Corbyn government from implementing progressive policies such as the
social ownership of energy and railways. This genuinely is a pessimistic argument. With the lessons of Syriza’s capitulation so recently
clear, surely a radical left Corbyn government would deploy whatever mass popular
support it had to resist EU neoliberal laws? If
it was ultimately thrown out of the EU, a whole new left wing dynamic really would
open up. A situation that would contrast totally with the scenario following a
voluntary exit orchestrated by hard right populists like Gove and Johnson. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">In reality though the "leave" comrades once again
over-exaggerate their claims. There is
no doubt that EU laws in recent decades have increasingly promoted free trade,
privatisation and have generally asserted the rights of capital over the rights
of working people. But EU law has not prevented Germany from municipalising
energy provision and it has not prevented the operation of publicly owned
railways throughout much of the EU. In Germany 90% of passenger services are
run by the state railway company; in France both the main train operator and
the infrastructure operator are state owned; the same applies in Italy; the
Spanish railways are virtually entirely in public ownership; as is the case in
Belgium and Holland; even in Sweden which has started to privatise its railways
80% of services are still publicly owned and run. (TSSA) </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">As another example of hardwired neoliberalism, Scottish Left
Leave on their website state “the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) has directly
limited TU rights”. <a href="http://www.euleftleave.scot/">http://www.euleftleave.scot</a>. It’s tempting to reply – not half as much as Thatcher,
Major, Blair and now Cameron have done! But the website correctly points out that
recent ECJ judgements (Viking, Laval etc) have restricted aspects of collective
bargaining and industrial action. However a simple glance at the European Trade
Union Institute’s website shows the persistence of collective bargaining
throughout the EU and its remarkably wide coverage . . 98% of French workers are covered by
collective agreements, in Belgium 96% are covered, in Sweden the figure is 88%,
in Holland 81%, in Italy 80%, in Germany it is 62%. In contrast in Britain, where neoliberalism
really is “hardwired” into our anti- trade union laws, just 29% of workers are
covered by collective agreements. None
of this is to dispute the fact that the political and corporate elites who dominate
EU policy making have pursued a vigorous anti working class agenda. But it does
cast doubt on the Left Leave claim that EU law is more unassailably neoliberal than national
legal structures. <a href="http://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Relations/Across-Europe/Collective-Bargaining2">http://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Relations/Across-Europe/Collective-Bargaining2</a></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Class
Struggle and Democratising the EU</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A still more contentious argument claims the EU is so undemocratic
that socialist should have nothing to do with it. Leave advocates, however, never explain how Brexit
would in any way challenge the EU’s institutionalised contempt for democracy. Leaving
and denouncing the EU from outside would not stop the Troika imposing inhumane
pension reforms against the democratic will of Greek citizens. It would not stop TTIP with its undemocratic
legal procedures. It would leave
untouched the fiscal stability pact that locks the poorest Eurozone economies
into endless austerity. Anti-democratic
neoliberal policies like these are not a product of EU institutions. The prevailing rules, laws and structures of
the EU are those agreed by representatives of the neoliberal elites who
dominate policy making within member states. There is nothing intrinsically unassailable
or unreformable about them. But
challenging them requires challenging the politics they reflect.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Impotently calling for the EU to be broken up while making
vague rhetorical statements about international solidarity is not the way to
fight-back. At best it is mere
propaganda. Active, concrete engagement
with those struggling to resist neoliberalism across the EU, in communities, workplaces
and on the streets must always be central.
But challenging neoliberalism within the EU institutions and policy
making processes is also an aspect of resistance. A number of EU-wide left organisations like
the European Left Party, Another Europe is Possible and the new Varoufakis led
Diem25 are doing just that, whilst also seeking to build and link up resistance
to the neo liberal project within member states. These organisations are not perfect but they
are not the rotten reformist entities of Lexit mythology. What benefit does the UK left gain by cutting
itself off from such organisations? For
socialists there should be no contradiction between fighting to democratise the
EU and building mass resistance to the Troika on the streets of Athens. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lexit or Internationalism?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">This leads to the third reason advanced by leave comrades
for supporting Brexit. They deny that the EU can be a valid terrain of struggle
for socialists at all. Prioritising the national struggle is the only way to
defeat neoliberalism. Alex Callinicos of
the SWP explained why recently:</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> “Strategically the problem is,
since the 1980s but more especially as a result of the eurozone crisis, a
Europe-wide neoliberal regime is being constructed. </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Breaking this is most likely to happen at national level”</span></b></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> (Callinicos 2015, my emphasis)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Less theoretically, Paul Embery (FBU London Secretary) on
the Open Democracy UK website has insisted that the EU is a key “pillar” of
austerity and that if we want to defeat the “enemy at home” and elect a
progressive Labour government: </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i>“the first
step to achieving that is getting out of the EU”. </i><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/paul-emery/why-on-earth-would-socialists-support-neoliberal-undemocratic-eu">https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/paul-emery/why-on-earth-would-socialists-support-neoliberal-undemocratic-eu</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">It is hard to see how this “stageist” theory of resisting
ruling class attacks can be justified. Why does building an effective
anti-austerity movement or progressive alternative to neoliberal orthodoxy within
the UK depend on exit from the EU? Even
in Greece, Spain and Portugal where resistance to the Troika’s neo-colonialism
has been strongest, those calling for an EU exit or the break-up of the EU are
a small minority. In Greece for instance both main proponents of exit have
failed to attract mass popular support. The
Greek communist party (KKE) polled only 5.5% in last September’s election; well
below its recent high water mark of 8.5%. Whilst the far left Antarsya which
has links with the UK’s SWP polled a miniscule 0.85%. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Across Europe working
people are starting to fight back against austerity and neoliberalism. There have been mass strikes and
demonstrations in France against the Hollande government’s labour market “reforms”. Tens of thousands of German workers have been
on the streets in recent months protesting against the secretive and
undemocratic TTIP trade deal. General strikes and mass demonstrations are once
again an everyday occurrence in Greece. Whilst throughout Europe thousands of
ordinary people have campaigned and provided support for refugees in defiance
of the EU’s racist fortress Europe policy.
Left leave comrades claim they are internationalists but it is hard to
see how isolating ourselves from the rest of the EU makes it easier to build
meaningful solidarity with such emerging struggles. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Anything that unites working people in the same struggle
across borders helps breakdown the barriers that divide us, and develop an
understanding that the enemy we face is organised internationally and needs to
be resisted internationally. Because it
is a capitalist project, the EU constantly creates class antagonism and
generates common struggles across EU member states as a result of its policies.
Being part of the EU makes those struggles more obviously “our” struggles in
the UK, and international solidarity more obviously part of the solution to
“our” problems. Being outside the EU does not make solidarity with Greek
workers fighting the Troika or German workers resisting TTIP impossible but it
does not make it so obviously integral to UK workers in their own struggles. Therefore building international solidarity
becomes harder. As Len Arthur from Left Unity Wales has argued:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> “… as socialists, we recognise that the
problems of capitalism are international and can only have international
solutions. The existence of the EU means that as its policies operate across
national boundaries so the challenges faced by the working class constantly
have international dimensions which provide opportunities for solidarity and
action on this basis. The fight against austerity in Greece, and now Portugal,
is much more obviously our fight as being part of the EU than if we were
outside. Similarly the politics of right wing governments in Hungary and Poland
require to be challenged as much as our own UK government for the same reason.”</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="http://leftunity.org/the-eu-debate-for-a-yes-vote-and-internationalism/">http://leftunity.org/the-eu-debate-for-a-yes-vote-and-internationalism/</a></span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Calling for Brexit and prioritising the national struggle undermines
international solidarity. But worse still it has led some Lexit supporters into
making significant concessions to the reactionary arguments of the mainstream
Brexit campaign. For example in his Open Democracy piece Paul Embery asserts:</span></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“And while as trade unionists we must oppose
attacks on immigrants, we must also recognise that the EU’s policy of open
borders has given rise to an explosion of cheap labour and contributed to the
undercutting of wages (a reason why the policy enjoys the support of big
business), caused real social tensions, placed public services under
pressure…”,</span></i><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Again on the
Left Leave website there is an article by the author John King in which he
argues that:</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>“The </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>future
of Britain</i></b><i> lies in building ever better trade relations with the
economically expanding parts of the world, such as the Commonwealth
countries. </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Britain would be liberated</i></b><i>.” </i>(My emphasis)</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He goes on to
make the argument that:</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>“The
less you have the more your </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>identity
matters</i></b><i>, and the powerful elite do not have the right </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>to sell this off to the EU</i></b><i> or anyone else.” </i><a href="http://www.leftleave.org/">http://www.leftleave.org</a>, My emphasis) </span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">It is not the factual inaccuracy of such statements that is
striking. Although almost every independent
study suggests free movement benefits society, and there is little evidence
that migrant workers take jobs, push down wages or put additional pressure on
public services (Jonathan Wadsworth, Immigration and the UK Labour Market LSE
2015). And how the Left leave campaign
would justify the loss of jobs attendant on reorienting UK trade from the EU to
the Commonwealth is anybody’s guess (about 44% UK exports go to the EU, less
than 10% to Commonwealth countries).
What is much more striking is the concessions such arguments make to right-wing
national chauvinism. They stress national “identity”, British exclusivity and
concede the UKIP argument that migration and free movement cause economic and
social problems. No matter how you qualify it with attacks on the bosses, this
is a short step from calling for controls on “our” borders. A step that will inevitably lead to blaming
migrants for the economic crisis not the profit system and the ruling elites
who benefit from it. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Prioritising the national struggle has also led Lexit
supporters to ignore opportunities for building international solidarity with
actually existing left political organisations as mentioned above. The European
Left for example comprises left parties from 21 countries. It operates within the European Parliament through
the European United Left / Nordic Green Left. But it also has a programme of international
opposition to neoliberalism together with a programme of campaigning demands
and actions. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Such existing examples of practical internationalism are of
immense importance in resisting the nationalist and xenophobic agenda promoted
by the mainstream Brexit campaign. Again
Len Arthur of Left Unity argues:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“The existence of the EL adds an absolutely key dimension to the
referendum debate, particularly in challenging the right. UKIP, and the like,
attempt to frame the debate in terms of the UK and people taking back power
almost as a form of liberation. This becomes the peg on which to hang populist
policies such as scapegoating migrants and refugees for causing all the
problems experienced by workers…….</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><i>Having an internationalist alternative programme and strategy which
addresses how these problems are related to the failures of capitalism and
their neo liberal policies, backed up with a real international political
organisation, provides a direct and internationally based challenge to the
right and their nationalistic populism. Ignoring this possibility, as many on
the left are doing, at best weakens the internationalist case and, at worst,
plays into the hands of nationalist populism.” </i>(http://leftunity.org/the-eu-debate-for-a-yes-vote-and-internationalism/)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Will Brexit
Open Up Opportunities for Socialists?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Finally, perhaps the most crucial argument for a left leave
vote, is that it will throw the British and EU ruling elites into disarray and open
up opportunities for socialists. Some
even argue it could bring about the downfall of the Tories and the election of
a radical Corbyn government. Here it is worth stressing that whether or not to
leave the EU is not a fundamental principle for socialists. An exit which
undermined the European ruling class’s neoliberal project, and brought to power
a radical left UK government with a socialist internationalist perspective would
be worth supporting. The possibility of de-stabilising the British state with
its warmongering and austerity politics was a key reason why the majority of
socialists in Scotland called for a Yes vote to leave the UK.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Is such an optimistic scenario really on the cards following
an EU exit? According to the Left Leave leaflet
mentioned above: </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> “</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Brexit would tear the Tory party apart and
could well bring them down.”.</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Similarly in his Socialist Review article Choonara argues:</span></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> “The</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> fears of a referendum campaign dominated by
Nigel Farage have certainly not been realized, and there is no evidence from
polls of a surge in support for UKIP. The argument has instead been dominated
by the rival wings of the Conservative Party, led by David Cameron and Boris
Johnson. But this debate, far from strengthening the right, is paralyzing and
weakening it.” (Choonara 2015)</span></span></i><br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 18.75pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Unfortunately
all recent evidence suggests that the Tories and UKIP are not about to fall
apart as Choonara suggests. The recent local and devolved nation election
results were far better for Corbyn than many predicted. They bore no relation to the disaster portrayed
in the media and by Blairites within the Labour Party. But they showed support
for the Tories holding up and no significant breakthrough for Labour outside
London. In Scotland the Labour vote collapsed and the Tories became the leading
opposition party for the first time in more than 30 years. In Wales the UKIP
vote rose significantly giving them 7 seats in the Assembly. They also came
second in both the Ogmore and Sheffield Brghtside by-elections. Votes for the various far left factions in
Scotland were insignificant representing a retreat from the influence of the
Radical Independence Campaign 18 months ago. None of this suggests the Tories or UKIP are
about to fall apart. Nor does it suggest
a radical left alternative with mass appeal is about to break through following
a Brexit.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 18.75pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Since
the financial crisis there have been many fantastic local and national campaigns
against austerity politics in all its variants. Such as those organised by the
Peoples Assembly, Unite the Resistance, the National Shop stewards Network, TUC
bodies, Greens and CND. There have been some significant national and local
strikes and industrial action campaigns most notably the recent junior doctors’
strikes and before that the mass public sector pension strikes. There’s even been a mini-strike wave going on
in Scotland involving teachers, lecturers and local authority workers. But the
sad truth is that, despite last summer’s magnificent Corbyn victory and all the
hard work of activists from many different traditions over a number of years, the
radical left in the UK, has not yet managed to build an anti-austerity movement
capable of attracting mass support around a credible alternative to the
neoliberal consensus. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">This
contrast markedly to the position the left faced in the last European
referendum. In the 1975 Europe
referendum most of us on the radical left argued for a leave position on
similar grounds to those proposed by comrades today. But then there were real opportunities for a
radical alternative to the emergent EEC businessman’s club. There was a strong, confident trade union
movement with 13 million members that had recently destroyed the Tory
industrial relations bill and later had effectively brought down the Heath
government. There was a large and
credible Labour left with a coherent (if flawed) “Alternative Economic
Strategy”. There was a Communist Party of 30,000 members with a significant
influence in a large and militant shop steward network. There was an emergent
new left which through its Rank and File union organisations was able to
influence a whole layer of public sector union activists. Today Union
membership is half the size. With a few
notable exceptions union leaderships are weak and mistrustful of their members.
The Labour Party has not yet shaken off the long shadow of Blairism. The radical left has not grown significantly
and is probably more fragmented. It struggles to be taken seriously by the mass
of working people. </span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">In
short if there is no evidence that the Tories are falling apart and UK radical
left forces have as yet failed to make a mass break-through, talk of disarray amongst
the ruling class and opportunities for socialists after a Brexit is misleading
to say the least. All the evidence
suggests that the most likely scenario following a Brexit is a rejuvenated hard
right Tory / UKIP government with the solid backing of key sections of the British
ruling class. Socialist should never underestimate the class consciousness of
our ruling elite. Current rhetorical divisions will largely melt away following
a Brexit. Larry Elliott, the Keynesian
economists, recently summed this up quite succinctly:</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 18.75pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“But
the sky would not fall in (following Brexit). Britain would remain a member of
the EU for at least two years after a no vote and the full weight of the UK
political establishment would switch from warning about the perils of Brexit to
ensuring that the costs of divorce would be minimised” (</span></span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Guardian
Finance 16 May 2016) </span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Brexit would be a victory for the rightwing
nationalist and xenophobic agenda of those leading the mainstream leave
campaign. Anti-immigrant rhetoric would be turned into vicious immigration
policies which would spread insecurity and fear amongst migrant workers who
have made a life here. In turn this will
make it easier for the hard right to unleash a carnival of reaction including
further attacks on the welfare state, the NHS, working conditions and workers’
living standards. All the while scapegoating migrants the poor and the
vulnerable.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 18.75pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">But
the implications of Brexit go way beyond the immediate impact on working
people’s lives in this country. Socialists
must never forget that across Europe increasing anger and disillusion with
neoliberalism and the growing disconnect between citizens and their ruling
elites is fueling the growth of the far right.
In Poland, Hungary and other former Eastern Bloc countries hard right parties
are in government. In Belgium the prime minister is from the hard nationalist
right. Even in traditionally liberal Scandinavia the hard right has made
significant gains; with the Danish Peoples Party now the second largest party
in parliament. Geert Wilder’s neo-fascists currently top the polls in
Holland. Whilst in France the far right
Front National was the dominant party in recent regional elections, and polls
show Marine Le Pen as the likely front runner in the 2017 Presidential elections.
In Greece the openly Nazi Golden Dawn became the third largest party in last
year’s elections at a time when some of its key leaders were in jail awaiting
trial on charges connecting them with the murder of rapper and left activist
Pavlos Fyssas. A Brexit which ushered in
a rightwing Tory / UKIP government in the UK would be a massive boost to this
growing menace. It would fuel rightwing
nationalism across Europe and be a massive set back to all those struggling
against it.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #444444; font-size: 14.0pt;">Lexit: A Perspective Based on Blind Hope</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Nick Wrack of the Socialist Project argues that: </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> “</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">In essence, the Lexit argument is to present a perspective based on
nothing but blind hope.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">This article has tried to show why this is very much the
case. The left remain position is simple.
We should not make it easier for the Tories and their corporate backers
to plough ahead with their agenda of austerity, privatisation, xenophobia and
racism. We should not cut ourselves off
from those fighting austerity and neoliberalism within the EU. The fight for a
different EU is not an alternative to class struggle it is part of it. We
should not, make concessions to cultural and identity nationalism. We should not waver in our support for free
movement and our demand for open borders.
And we should not irresponsibly minimise the benefits of social and
workplace protections wrung from the EU (limited as they are). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">A final point on where “blind hope” can lead. All recent
opinion polls show the two main right-wing campaigns to be neck and neck.
Increasingly both sides are resorting to the most lurid and populist scare
stories to sway the vote. World war 3 will break out if we leave the EU; a Nazi
super-state if we don’t! In an attempt
to mask their reactionary vision and win working class votes, the mainstream
Brexit campaign has adopted UKIP’s strategy of posing as anti-establishment and
pro-worker. Boris Johnson recently denounced the EU for supporting “nauseating”
levels of executive pay at the expense of workers, arguing
that: </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“big companies are taking more and more out, while those on the shop
floor are getting in real terms less and less”</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">. (Guardian 17/5/16)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Left leave supporters will no doubt condemn this as the
cynical populism that it is. But Johnson is stealing arguments used by the
Brexit left. Without a clear
internationalist perspective to counter such nationalistic populism, Lexit
comrades are in danger of giving left cover to the most reactionary politicians
in Britain. If Brexit happens and the hard
nationalist right are given free reign, then as Len Arthur puts it:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">“</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Socialist who argued the exit
case will be saddled with that responsibility. Hair splitting over nuances of
difference and meaning will be a very poor fig leaf.”</span></i></b><br />
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<b>References (Websites in text)</b><br />
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A Callinicos 2015: The internationalist case against the European Union, International Socialism 148</div>
J. Choonara: Should we stay or should we go? Socialist Review July / August 2015<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">TSSA: Are EU rules really a barrier to reuniting the railways under public control http://www.tssa.org.uk/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">TUC : Hazards at Work 2016 edition.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Jonathan Wadsworth: Immigration and the UK Labour Market LSE 2015</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Craig Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01456663802063778462noreply@blogger.com0