Vote to stay in the European union
Socialist Resistance online2010sAlan Thornett explains why he changed his mind about the need for Britain to stay in the European Union.
A corrected transcript of the recording. The recording is the authority.
00:01 Alan Thornett: Okay, so this is a brief comment on the EU referendum debate. I want to argue the campaign is at a dangerous stage, at least for those of us arguing for a vote to stay in in order to avoid a xenophobic backlash. Since the elections last week the xenophobic right have moved into top gear. The media is full of rampant xenophobes [?]: Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, Liam Fox, etc., along with UKIP and Nigel Farage. And he's having an effect. The polls are neck and neck and the momentum is with the xenophobic right. As the campaign goes on it's getting more racist, and it's going to get a lot worse yet. For the first time in this campaign there's a real chance that the vote could go for exit. The main stay-in campaign, the mainstream Cameron stay-in campaign, which is arguing for staying in on a reactionary basis, to reduce workers' rights and [inaudible] etc., is in chaos [?]. This was shown by Cameron's [?] ludicrous claims that exit would result in a third world war.
01:01 The left, however, is split on the referendum. The Another Europe is Possible campaign argues for staying in on a left-wing basis. This includes Left Unity and the Greens and some to the left of Labour, including John McDonnell, and Socialist Resistance supports this. It argues for staying in on a totally different basis to the Cameron campaign. It calls for support for a social Europe, a Europe of the people and so on, for more democracy and [inaudible]. A similar position has been argued by Jeremy Corbyn. The SNP support an in vote from an EU-enthusiast position. For exit there is the so-called Lexit campaign. This is supported by the CPB, the Communist Party of Britain, Counterfire and the SWP. They attempt to separate themselves from the xenophobes but are actually drowned out in the process.
02:03 In my view they're making a big mistake. This is not because I have any brief for the EU. I was part of the struggle against the Maastricht Treaty and the single currency in the 1990s. In fact I can agree with most of what the Lexiters say about the EU. It is indeed an anti-working-class construct designed to help the member states more effectively exploit their workforce and drive through the neoliberal agenda. Today the real face of the EU is the role it's played in Greece: it impoverished a population in the name of the neoliberal agenda, and it will do the same to any other member state that steps out of line. The euro is not just a currency but a mechanism for the imposition of the neoliberal agenda. In Greece you couldn't effectively fight austerity today without being prepared to leave the EU.
03:05 The problem is that the class nature of the EU is not, however — the class nature of the EU is not the key issue when it comes to this referendum in Britain today. Just because we're for exit in principle does not mean that we are for exit from the EU whatever the circumstances and whatever the consequences, whether or not [inaudible] the referendum would benefit the workers' movement or set it back. In the 1990s I could not have envisaged the possibility that I could call for a stay-in vote in the EU in 2016. But we have seen the rise of UKIP and the Tory right in Britain and the rise of right-wing populism and xenophobia across Europe. I cannot be indifferent to that. This is not an exit proposition by a left-wing government in order to break free from EU-imposed austerity, for example. This is an exit proposition as part of a right-wing xenophobic project, and can only have a right-wing xenophobic outcome.
04:09 The referendum was not conceived in order to protect the working class in Britain from neoliberal policies but in order to placate the Tory right and UKIP and stop migration into Britain. It is a racist and anti-immigrant proposition. An exit vote under these conditions will be a victory for the Europhobes and xenophobes [?] and will push the political situation to the right. It will be represented as an endorsement of racism and anti-migration policies. It would boost the right not [only] in Britain but across Europe. It would also put those EU citizens living in Britain at the present time in a very difficult situation. Many are already trying to get British passports in order to prepare for the possibility. This is a very dangerous situation. Those on the left who are thinking of voting for exit should think again.
05:10 The Lexit campaign has argued that an exit vote is a way to defeat Cameron. The problem is that standing in the wings are Boris Johnson and Michael Gove — hardly a great step forward. The idea an exit vote would result in a Corbyn government is argued by the Lexit campaign, and [inaudible] loses touch with reality. When did a victory for the right result in a victory for the left? In fact, Lexit is a misnomer. There is no Lexit on offer. The only exit on offer is a right-wing xenophobic exit, with potentially disastrous consequences.
05:40 It's time for the left stay-in campaign to step up its campaigning activities around the referendum, raise its profile. We'll do all we can as Socialist Resistance to do that. We've just produced a small book, which is this small book, setting out our views on this in some detail. It's available on the Socialist Resistance website, and it's the only book that you will find that argues for — argues for a stay-in vote on the basis of a thorough analysis of the EU, its class nature and the role that it plays. And there's a growing support for the position, and why don't you get a copy. [inaudible]
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