BREXIT AND THE WORKING CLASS
On 23rd June, the people of Britain participated in a historic referendum to decide whether Britain will leave European Union or remain within it. This demand to leave EU has been termed as BREXIT, which is nothing but a short form for British exit from EU. The result of the referendum has gone in favour of Brexit. 72.2% of the electorate participated in the vote and among the polled votes 51.9% of votes went in favour of Brexit or in other words, in favour of 'Leave', whereas 48.1% votes went in favour of 'Remain'. It is significant that large section of poor people, especially workers and toiling people voted for Brexit. It also significant that the extreme rightist section of British people, and probably it will not be wrong to term this section as racist, islamophobic section also campaigned and voted for Brexit. On the other hand, comparatively wealthier, upper stratum of people of Britain, to be more correct, of England voted to remain. One indication of this fact is that the majority voters of the city of London voted against Brexit. However, 62% of polled votes of people of Scotland and 55.8% of polled votes of people of Northern Ireland went against Brexit. The feeling against Brexit is so strong in Scotland that it seems a strong possibility that Scotland may sever its ties with Britain to remain within EU if Britain eventually leaves European Union.
Why the poor people, especially the workers and toiling people, voted for Brexit, side by side with the far-right section of British people? Had they been influenced by the rightist ideology? On the other hand, why the upper section of British people voted to remain with EU? Why the British society is practically divided through the middle on the question of Brexit?
Before we try to search for answers to these vexed questions, a few words about the past relations of UK with European Union may be relevant. The relation of Britain with European Union or its predecessors is not same as that of other countries like France or Germany. Unlike other big countries of Europe, like France and Germany, UK has always kept some distance from the European Union. When European Economic Community (EEC) was first created on 1957, Britain did not join it. "The country subsequently applied to join the organization in 1963 and again in 1967, but both applications were vetoed by the then President of France, Charles de Gaulle. ?..On 1 January 1973 the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community (EEC), or "Common Market""1 Even when European Union was formed in 1992 on the basis of Maastricht Treaty, a section of British people opposed it. United Kingdom Independence Party or UKIP, which later became one of the major forces behind Brexit movement, also formed at that time. The relation or distance Britain keeps with European Union can also be understood from the fact that till date Britain has retained its own currency, pound sterling and did not fully dismantle its border controls. According to one American magazine, "Britain ruled the world for a while, and many conservative Britons just don't like the idea of their great, powerful nation submitting itself to a namby-pamby union."2 So, there has always been a fair amount of anti EU feeling or Eurosceptism, as it is being termed in the bourgeois media, among British people. The referendum has proved that now that section has become majority, may not be by far, but majority nonetheless.
Why this anti EU feeling or so to say, Eurosceptism increased in UK in the recent past? The root cause of this aggravation of Eurosceptism is the economic crisis of world capitalism which expressed itself strongly through the financial crisis of 2008. The crisis had accentuated, aggravated two problems of British people severely. Firstly, the austerity drive taken by the government in the aftermath, and as a fall-out of the financial crisis, sharply brought down the living conditions of lower stratum of British people, including the workers. Secondly, the financial crisis had increased the problem of immigration which not only have adversely affected the British workers, but also, increased the racism among British people. Whether right or wrong, a lot of British people hold the European Union or rather, association of Britain with European Union responsible for these two problems. Due to this reason, these problems have aggravated anti-EU feelings among a lot of British people.
Firstly, the problem created by the austerity drive. It is not difficult to understand how the living conditions of people deteriorated due to austerity drive unleashed by the government. A lot of government jobs have been curtailed. One researcher mentioned, that since it took power in 2010, the conservative party "within five years"?."had slashed £18 billion off local government budgets. Consequently, local authorities across the UK have had to cut one million jobs, close schools and hospitals and reduce welfare benefits. The Financial Times in July 2015 carried a special report on Britain's 'Austerity State', and its impact on 80,000 homeless families who local councils cannot accommodate and on the 1,50,000 elderly disabled who no longer qualify for assistance."3 Another important step taken by the government is the privatization of National Health Scheme (NHS), which has severely curtailed the facilities given by the state with respect to medical treatment. Previously, the people of Britain used to get free medical facility through this NHS. This free medical facility has been curtailed to a large extent.
A lot of people feel that the European Troika, that is, the triumvirate of the European Commission(EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), is mainly responsible for this austerity drive and by leaving EU they will be able to get free from austerity drive. Another related important point of Leave camp is that UK sends 350 million pounds every week to EU and if UK leaves EU that money will be saved and can be used to fund NHS.
However, probably, the most important effect of the economic crisis, which strengthened the Brexit movement, is increased immigration from different countries of Europe. According to one statistics, in the last year alone, 270,000 EU nationals has come into the Britain last year ? about 185,000 more than those who left. 4 A majority of immigrants are coming from other EU countries in search of better life and according to EU regulation nobody can restrict the movement of people within EU countries. One report mentions that, "employers replaced undocumented Chinese with EU workers several years ago. They tolerate the physically demanding work, only because wages back home are so unbearably low. A week's pay in London is equivalent to their monthly pay back in Hungary"5 (italics ours). In this way, the problem of immigration has also increased the joblessness of the British workers. Naturally they are very much aggrieved due to immigration.
The relation of the problem of immigration with the association of UK with EU is not difficult to understand. One of the conditions of joining the common market, which is one of the main aspect of EU, is there will be no barrier in trade and movement of people within this common market. Any citizen of any country within EU can go to any country, reside there, take up a job or can do business. There had been a process of immigration from and to UK also before 2008. But, the financial crisis of 2008 has accentuated this problem to a great extent. As the condition of some EU countries, especially the erstwhile soviet bloc eastern European countries, deteriorated to a great extent, much more than imperialist countries like UK, a lot of people from these countries migrated to UK in search of jobs. The bourgeoisie of Britain also encouraged this process as it provided them a way to get workers at much more lower wages and also helped them to keep the wages of British workers to a level with the help of this industrial reserve army.
So, these problems have in this way increased the anti-EU feeling among British people, especially its poorer sections, like the workers and toiling people. The ultra-nationalist section of British people always hated the domination of France and Germany over UK in EU. So, they took this opportunity to voice their anger and hate through the referendum. On the other hand, the upper stratum of British people in general supported 'remain' or opposed Brexit because association with European Union has benefitted them most. The period of association with EU had offered them a lot of opportunities to grow. So, generally they are in favour of 'Remain' or against Brexit.
However, we will not be able to understand the real problem behind Brexit until we understand the role of the ruling classes. It is being portrayed that the ruling bourgeoisie is totally against Brexit. If that is so, why did they go for referendum at all? From when the ruling bourgeoisie, especially of a imperialist country like Britain which for several centuries occupied a large part of world, trampled their people under the boot of military, crushed all signs of democratic aspirations of the people of colonies, who in recent past participated in the wars led by US in the Middle East, become so democratic that against their wishes they went for referendum to gauge popular mood and act accordingly? There had not been any strong mass movement due to which they had been forced to go this referendum against their wishes? Actually, the fact is ruling bourgeoisie of Britain itself is divided on this question. It is a fact that before the election of 2015 the conservative party itself was divided through the middle on the question of Brexit. To keep the conservative party united, the future Prime Minister David Cameron promised that after the election the question of Brexit will be decided by a referendum. A report of BBC NEWS says, "In his long-awaited speech, welcomed by many Conservative MPs, Mr. Cameron pledged to hold a referendum during the early part of the next parliament - by the end of 2017 at the latest - if the Conservatives win the next general election?The Conservative leader has been under pressure from many of his MPs to give a binding commitment to a vote on Europe".6 (Italic ours.) Not only the Conservative Party, but all the three main parties were divided on this question. The division within the political parties, which represent the imperialist bourgeoisie of Great Britain, makes it amply clear that the ruling bourgeoisie of Britain themselves are divided on the question and they are trying to resolve their contradiction on this question by involving the people through this referendum.
It appears from the campaigns of both the camps that the 'remain' or pro-European camp feels that the association with EU has helped Britain to develop from the 'sick man of Europe' to a strong position. They also feel that common market of European Union is very important for the economy of Britain and dissociation from EU will be disastrous.7
On the other hand while the 'Leave' or anti-EU camp does feel that the past association has helped the Britain to develop, they feel that in the present crisis of European Union that association should not be continued. Actually, the 'Leave' camp feels that in the EU Britain has to remain in subordinate position compared to Germany and France and EU is taking decisions in the interests of Germany and France. They feel that dissociation from EU may create a period of uncertainty, economic difficulty, but in course of time Britain will be able to develop its own relations with EU or non-EU countries, which will help Britain to develop further.8 So, basically the present economic crisis, especially of European Union has forced the imperialist bourgeoisie to think for a re-configuration of alliance among the imperialist powers. The debate on Brexit is actually a reflection of the contradiction among the imperialist bourgeoisie of Britain on the question regarding the future course of British bourgeoisie and its alliance with other imperialist powers in view the present crisis of world capitalism, especially of European capitalism.
With Brexit, the alliance of European powers, which began its journey in the post second world war devastating condition and later developed almost as an all-European force and occupied an important position in the international balance of forces of imperialist powers after the fall of Soviet Russia, has entered a new phase. The Second World War had devastated the imperialist powers of Europe and the then condition forced them to leave their colonies in third world. In the next few decades the centre-stage of international domination was occupied by two big powers, US imperialism and the then Soviet Russia. In that period the European powers tried to consolidate their position mainly within Europe. In the name of peace in Europe, Germany and France started economic co-operation within Europe. Initially, nor Britain was allowed within that conglomeration by France, neither was Britain interested at that time. At that time there was a process of reconstruction of war ravaged Europe. Using that reconstruction work, the capitalism globally developed in a rapid phase and because of that, the period was called the Golden Phase of capitalism. Obviously, the European powers like Germany and France benefitted from this process. However, that phase of reconstruction ended within the end of decade of sixties and from the beginning of seventies a crisis again began to set in. At that time, Britain was the 'sick man of Europe'. In that condition, Britain was forced to join hands with the European powers. From the eighties, the western imperialist powers started a new phase of globalization and liberalisation to save them from the crisis which was started in the beginning of the seventies. In the decade of eighties, the ruling classes of Britain launched a massive attack on the working class and toiling masses of Britain in the period of Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher. In almost same period, the ruling classes of USA also launched similar attack on their working class and toiling masses in the period of republican government under Ronald Reagan. From the beginning of nineties, imperialist powers intensified the attack of globalisation on the rest of the world. On one hand, the industries from imperialist countries were transferred to the developing countries to use their cheap labour and also migration of workers from those countries was encouraged to use them as cheap labour in the imperialist countries itself. So, globalization increased the flow of people across the border of different countries.
Though the period of globalization helped the developed capitalist countries to extricate themselves from the crisis they had fallen from the seventies to some extent, they could not reach the level of growth seen in the early decades after the Second World War. More importantly it appears that they have reached the limit of growth. From the end of last century, the global capitalism is repeatedly facing one crisis after another, the financial crisis of 2008 being the most severe. Though the US imperialism has to some extent come out of the crisis for the time being, the European Union still has not been able to come out from the crisis. The crisis is pushing the imperialist powers for newer configuration among themselves. The Brexit is not only a reflection of the contradiction between two camps of ruling classes of Britain over its future course, but also a reflection of the process of reconfiguration of imperialist alliances.
It is certain that in future this referendum on Brexit will have far-reaching consequences on the European Union. Though it will be wrong to predict the doom for European Union, it is certain that it will go through further reconfiguration. There are many forces in other countries which are also pushing for separation from European Union. Those forces will be encouraged by the referendum of Britain. However, the ruling classes of many countries still feel that their only hope of tiding over the crisis lies with the unity of European Union. So, there will be struggle on the question of unity of European Union in the near future. What will be the result of that struggle, whether the imperialist powers of Europe led by Germany and France will be able to consolidate their position or they will be weakened that cannot be predicted at the moment. What can be predicted that the crisis has started a period where we will see newer configuration and contradictions within the imperialist powers, which will sharpen as the crisis will deepen further.
Though the referendum has taken decision in favour of Brexit, it is certain that actual Brexit will be much hard to achieve than this referendum. Not only there is contradiction within the ruling classes of Britain, the association of European Union had already started some irreversible processes. Already there had been talks about the future of immigrants. Even if Britain leaves European Union, the repatriation of the immigrants will be almost impossible. The ruling bourgeoisie of Britain also do not want complete stoppage of immigration, because it is helping them to exploit the cheap labour of immigrants and it is also helping them to keep the wages of British workers at a low level. However, from the point of view of the people also it is an impossible task. The repatriation of immigrants from Britain will also raise the call for repatriation of British people from other EU countries. Actually, the capitalism itself and the globalization phase of capitalism in particular have enhanced integration among the people and their culture, which is impossible to reverse. However, in the phase of capitalism, under the domination of imperialism it is impossible to achieve real unity of nations on the basis of equal rights. Such union like European Union is a union under the domination of imperialist powers and for the interest of imperialist powers. Real unity of people can only be achieved without the domination of imperialism, rather by eradicating imperialism, on the basis of equal rights of all nations, which can only be achieved in socialism.
It is certain that Brexit or no Brexit, the condition of workers and toiling masses of Britain will remain same. In fact, the problems faced by the workers and toiling masses are actually product of globalization, not only of the association of Britain with EU. It is not difficult to understand that regarding the austerity drive the ruling imperialist bourgeoisie of Britain did not and could not have any separate policy other than the policy taken by the ruling classes of EU. Rather, they had for long followed the policy of globalization which not only had created present situation but also started the present phase of attack on the livelihood of working people. Take for example the case of NHS. One of the logic of the "Leave" was that the money which the UK is giving to the EU can be used for National Health Service (NHS). One observer noted, "Their campaign bus was emblazoned with the pledge "Let's give our NHS [National Health Service] the £350 million the EU takes every week." However, the said observer also revealed their hypocrisy, "Yet within an hour of the Leave result, Farage (Leader of UKIP and one of the main leaders of 'Leave' camp) announced that this was a "mistake" and the money was not guaranteed"9 , Even in the case of problem of immigration, we can see that this is actually not a problem of association with EU. Are not there a lot of people from non-EU countries, especially of Asian countries who migrated to UK and are working there? Actually it is an integral part of the policy of imperialist globalisation that the factories of developed will be transferred to the developing countries to exploit their cheap labour and also use the immigrants from underdeveloped or developing countries as cheap labour in their country itself. So, the policy of immigration is a part and parcel of the policy of globalization. So, the increase in flow of immigration is actually a result of policy of globalization which has been taken by the ruling classes of UK much before its integration with EU and even if Britain leaves EU the flow of immigration will not stop. So, the working class and toiling masses of Britain must understand that the debate of Brexit is actually a debate among the ruling class of Britain over their future course. Brexit or no Brexit, the condition of working class and toiling masses will not change. To change their lives, the working class must rise up against the ruling classes as an independent force and remove the bourgeoisie from political power and seize political power themselves to ensure revolutionary transformation of British society, free of capitalism and on the path for socialism. This is the only path for real emancipation of working class and toiling masses.
But, the majority of so called communist groups of Britain, instead of organizing the proletariat on the basis of an independent class position, took position either in favour of 'Leave' camp or 'Remain' camp. In this way, they helped either camps of British bourgeoisie to use the workers and toilers in their struggle for power and thus betrayed the cause of the working class. We hope that the working class themselves will rise up not only against the ruling bourgeoisie but also the agents of bourgeoisie in their camp, and organize themselves as an independent class force as against all camps of the bourgeoisie and take the real path of emancipation. Only the path of socialism can emancipate them from the exploitation and all the basic problems like unemployment, poverty etc. but also ensure real unity of nations on equal basis where people of all nationalities will be able to live peacefully and in a fraternal condition.
---1 WIKIPEDIA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_withdrawal_from_the_European_Union
2 The (American) Idiot's Guide to Brexit By Eric Levitz http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/06/american-idiots-guide-to-brexit.html#
3 Blame the austerity state: EU peace project is crumbling, Brexit will fuel far right parties and further unrestJune 28, 2016, 2:00 AM IST Nur Laiq. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/blame-the-austerity-state-eu-peace-project-is-crumbling-brexit-will-fuel-far-right-parties-and-further-unrest/
4 No, Not So Great Britain Dean Nelson.http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-commentary/brexit-desperate-uk-that-needs-to-reboot-itself-or-isolationist-uk-that-has-shot-itself-in-the-head/
5 When they call Brexit a 'working-class revolt', they mean the white British working class https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/hsiao-hung-pai/when-they-call-brexit-working-class-revolt-they-mean-white-british-working-class
6David Cameron promises in/out referendum on EU 23 January 2013 BBC NEWS http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-21148282
7Campaign of remain camp in http://www.strongerin.co.uk/get_the_facts
8 UK was 'sick man of Europe' Now we're racing ahead - we must LEAVE, says BORIS JOHNSONONCE Britain was known as the 'sick man of Europe'. Now our nation is racing ahead economically and has no need of the failing European Union. By BORIS JOHNSON
9 Blame the austerity state: EU peace project is crumbling, Brexit will fuel far right parties and further unrestJune 28, 2016, Nur Laiq. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/blame-the-austerity-state-eu-peace-project-is-crumbling-brexit-will-fuel-far-right-parties-and-further-unrest/
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