SWP and the EU

Submitted by martin on 5 February, 2013 - 8:05

Under the headline “No easy solution in or out”, Socialist Worker (2 Feb) describes the divisions which exist in the ruling class and the Tory party over Europe.

It identifies these divisions as rooted in the divergent interests and strategies of different groups of capitalists, concluding that “Neither group really knows what to do for the best to pursue profits except to make us pay”.

Yet another box on the same page sides with one of the two capitalist factions, saying that SW will “argue to vote to leave [the EU] in any referendum”.

“The EU is a club for bosses” (and the UK isn’t?) … “In this crisis the EU has been used as a negotiating committee to push through austerity” (unlike the British cabinet and parliament?) … “We should oppose the EU as part of confronting the bosses’ agenda” (what is it they oppose, the bosses bit, or the Euro bit?)

Despite the protest that “socialists have no truck with the nationalism of the Tory right”, the inescapable conclusion is that workers in Britain have something to gain from Britain leaving the EU. But SW gives no actual explanation of why this might be the case.

Arguing for British withdrawal from the EU cuts against building links with workers in other European countries, and plays into the hands of the nationalist right.

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