Britain: No-Deal Brexit Is Imminent
Reject both the Imperialist EU and Imperialist Britain! For the United Socialist States of Europe!
Article by Joseph Adams, RCIT Britain, 09.10.2018, www.thecommunists.net
At a recent EU Council of Ministers meeting in Salzburg (Austria) Teresa May’s plan for Brexit, which has been agreed at Chequers, was rejected. Prime Minister May took a very aggressive stance and replied to their rejection of her hastily conceived plan. The Tory Party which is split and divided showed that this was May’s last throw of the dice. Both the hard Brexiteers Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson reject the plan. May has very little negotiating room left. Effectively Britain is very close to a no deal Brexit.
“Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chair of the European Reform Group of hard Brexit Tories, said that Salzburg was a failure and repeated that it was time to abandon Chequers. “There is still no reason to suppose that Chequers can work either for the UK or the EU. Chequers proposes that the UK shares a common rulebook for goods and food after Brexit in an attempt to prevent a return of customs checks for goods crossing the Irish border, a plan so unpopular on the right of the Tory party that Boris Johnson and David Davis resigned rather than support it”. [1]
The Tory Party Conference meets this week in Birmingham and there are sure to be demands from the Tory right and hard Brexiteers that May should resign and a new leader appointed. There is no doubt that Boris Johnson is the favoured choice of the hard Brexiteers to replace May in the event of an election for a new Tory Leader.
Since the Meeting of Council ministers in September the European Union has now rejected May’s proposals formally.
“European Union diplomats have rejected Teresa May’s Conference Pitch that Brussels must move first to break the deadlock over Brexit negotiations While the British government insists the ball is in the EU’s court, European diplomats speak of a more complex diplomatic dance, in which both sides publish papers during an intense negotiating period leading up to a crunch summit on 18 October. Officials also repeated warnings that the EU will not accept the economic part of May’s Chequers plan, fearing it would hand British business a permanent competitive advantage, over EU rivals”. [2]
Meanwhile the Labour Party was in Conference last week and confusion reigns over their Brexit position. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour party, initially accepted the result of the referendum for Brexit with a Customs Union but the Blairite right are opposed to Corbyn and will do anything to remove him. So far they have organised several coups against him because of his opposition to war, austerity and partial nationalisation. This is anathema to the Blairites who represent the undisguised capitalist and imperialist elements in the Labour party and are pushing for a second referendum. They are desperate to stay in the EU for the defence of Sterling and the single market. They are totally contemptuous of the workers, oppressed and migrants. Blair while in government advocated strict immigration policies which are no different from the Tories racist and chauvinist policies against migrants and refugees. Corbyn has unfortunately capitulated to these elements. His shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer is a Blairite and did his best to placate those on the right of the Party.
Tony Blair, the war criminal and former Prime Minister, interviewed in the Evening Standard reiterated his support for a second referendum in defence of the Single Market as the only way to defend British capitalism.
“Brexit is going to be 100 per cent owned by the Tories. I don’t believe Labour will vote for the Tory deal on Brexit, and it will allow Labour to say we would have got you a better deal than these guys,” he said, adding: "I have a feeling the 17 million who voted to leave are going to be short on gratitude, and the 16 million who voted to remain are going to be long on memory.” Speculating about what would happen if the PM’s Brexit deal was defeated by MPs, he said: “If it’s defeated in the House of Commons, she doesn’t need to resign and there doesn’t need to be an election. “She can simply say, OK, I put the deal before Parliament and they rejected it. Now it’s right that the people have the vote… they should have the final say. It’s actually perfectly rational. It’s to say… no let’s decide whether we like the deal or not.” [3].
It is obvious in this statement by Blair who completely identifies with capitalism that he is even prepared to prop up May while the majority of Labour party members want her gone. The Blairites are desperate to turn the party into a undisguised pro-capitalist party, split the party and unite with the pro-European Tories and Liberal Democrats. As far as they are concerned the working class and the oppressed are an irrelevance.
The Labour party conference in the end passed a compromise solution on Brexit both Corbyn and McDonnell were persuaded to go along with this compromise supported by the Blairites and in particular Starmer.
“Labour’s Brexit resolution, freshly adopted at conference 2018, is already subject to divergent interpretations. Let’s look carefully at what it says. First, it states that Labour must vote against the Tory Brexit deal unless it meets Labour’s six tests, which now seems extremely unlikely. If the deal is rejected by the House of Commons, and if this government defeat doesn’t trigger a general election (obviously a fervent hope of all Labour members, but one that is far from certain given the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act), Labour is keeping all options open – including a popular vote”. [4]
The RCIT in BRITAIN and its supporters advocated an abstention vote at the 2015 Referendum. We reiterate our position that neither imperialist option – imperialist Britain outside or inside the imperialist EU – is a solution for the workers and oppressed. There is no “lesser evil” – both options are bad for the working class! In our response to the centrist group “Red Flag”/ L5Iwe again confirmed our internationalist perspective over Europe and Brexit.
“Basically, the comrades of RF/L5I fail to understand that the European Union – like the British nation-state – is first and foremost a political project of the imperialist ruling class. It is not a project to advance the productive forces or to increase migration (see the barbaric Frontex regime at the borders of the EU). It is a project to improve the conditions for the European imperialist monopolies to exploit the working class and oppressed and to give them more leverage against other Great Powers like the U.S., Russia or China. The key task for Marxists is to help the workers vanguard taking an independent class position. Hence the RCIT steadfastly defends the orthodox Marxist position – which until 2015 was also supported by the L5I itself – to reject support either for the imperialist EU or for the imperialist nation-state. We stand for an independent position of the working class and, therefore, refuse to support both the pro-EU faction and the anti-EU faction of the imperialist bourgeoisie.” [5]
The RCIT in BRITAIN puts forward the following demands to unite all sections of the working class and oppressed:
* For a campaign inside the labour movement and the trade unions to reject both imperialist camps – Remain and Brexit!
* No to European or British Imperialism. For an indefinite general strike to bring down this Tory government!
* Reject reactionary Immigration Laws being proposed by the Tories to restrict EU migrants coming to Britain!
* For Open Borders all migrants and refugees! For the right of migrants to speak their own language, to wear their own dress and follow their own customs. For self-defence guards to protect migrants and the oppressed from fascist or police provocation!
* For a Workers Government!
Footnotes
(5) https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/is-a-socialist-transformation-of-the-imperialist-eu-possible/