As the second reading of the EU referendum bill went through Parliament on 9 June, the right-wing campaign to exit Europe began in earnest. Unfortunately it is likely to be mirrored on the left.
More than fifty Tory MPs have formed “Conservatives for Britain”, ostensibly to support Cameron’s push for large changes to the UK’s relationship to the EU, in current negotiations with Brussels. It is clearly poised to lead the campaign for Britain to leave the EU, whatever reforms are achieved as these are unlikely to satisfy the Tories Eurosceptics. The campaign has apparently met twice since the election and already has an impressive media profile.
Meanwhile Cameron has not gone public on whether he will allow such MPs to campaign for an exit in the referendum. Boris Johnson, newly returned to parliament, is pushing for Tory MPs to be allowed to campaign for an exit. And UKIP’s Nigel Farage says he wants to lead the “ground game” of the No campaign.
At the same time the reactionary tenor of government policy takes further shape. Home Secretary Theresa May and Justice Secretary Michael Gove are pushing for a break with the European Court of Human Rights. Theresa May insists she will not agree to Britain being part of a resettlement deal for migrants rescued from the Mediterranean.
In the Europe talks Cameron is pushing for a deal that allows the government to further restrict migrants access to welfare. Cameron wants a four-year moratorium on migrants getting in work or out of work benefits. He might just win that in Europe. Any deal will allow Britain to impose at least some further restrictions on migration and migrants rights in the UK.
But despite the nationalist window-dressing, Cameron is also fighting on behalf of the British capitalist class, for their right to ignore European laws and regulations on workers’ rights, laws that interfere with their profits. Much of the EU legislation the political right in Britain would like to see abolished, it is in the direct interest of workers in Britain to maintain.
The brewing rebellion with eurosceptic Tory MPs, with UKIP fighting hard for UK exit, may mean that the UK will stumble out of the EU. This will actually be against Cameron and the CBI’s wishes.
But what is much of the left doing while the nationalist storm begins to gather?
The Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Party are in favour of UK leaving the EU. They try to explain how the left can be anti-EU without being dragged behind the right-wing and anti-migrant backlash. Both fail to show how this can be done, how the left can be more than a tiny voice, inaudible against the anti-EU campaign which has money, press backing and establishment support. Against a campaign that is all about putting up borders and actively restricting migrants coming to the UK.
And neither group clearly differentiates itself from the right wing. Neither advances the slogan “open the borders!” in their editorials on the issue.
The Socialist Party goes as far as to proclaim that “The alleged benefits of the ‘free movement of labour’ are in reality a device for the bosses to exploit a vast pool of cheap labour, which can then be used to cut overall wage levels and living standards.”
Our response to bosses exploitation of workers is not to advocate that workers are kept in their respective countries to be exploited by their own bosses. It is to do what construction workers on Teesside are currently doing and demand that bosses “pay the rate” for migrant workers.
The abolition of serfdom also allowed the emerging bourgeoisie to exploit a vast pool of cheap labour. Marxist socialists do not fight capitalism by advocating historical regression; we fight for the socialisation and democratisation of the economy, for labour to take control!
In the referendum, where there will be a choice between in or out of the EU, Workers’ Liberty will vote to keep the UK in the EU. We will do so for reasons similar to those that motivated our call to Scottish workers to vote against independence. In general, we are in favour of fewer and weaker borders and barriers between peoples.
We advocate the left forms a united campaign with the following aims:
• To defend migrants’ rights and oppose racism
• To vote against British withdrawal from the EU
• To fight for a workers’ Europe, based on working class solidarity
We advocate that the left unite to fight for these aims and campaign for these ideas inside the workers’ movement, and welcome the fact that some on the left have already started discussing a campaign for a workers’ Europe. The labour movement must learn the lesson from the Scottish referendum and not join a cross-class alliance with pro-EU Tories and others. Such a bloc discredited the labour movement during the Scottish campaign.
For working-class solidarity across Europe!
