www.socialistworker.co.uk
A Brexit for workers
not for bosses
The Brexit crisis
The formal process of Britain leaving
the European Union has begun. Short of
political upheaval, Brexit is happening.
The task is to shape it.
However we voted in the referendum
last June, we now have to work together
to beat back the right and seize the
opportunities available.
Trade unions and the Labour Party
need to fight for a left Brexit, a Brexit
that strengthens working class people
and their organisations against bosses
everywhere.
The referendum vote last June has led
to a major crisis for the British ruling
class. Most big bosses wanted Britain
to stay in the EU. Moreover, capitalists
like certainty. Market stability means
they can predict how much money their
investments will make and how their
businesses will fare. The Leave vote
created huge uncertainty.
People voted to leave the EU for many
reasons. We in the Socialist Workers Party
campaigned to make the leave vote a
rejection of the EU as a racist bosses’ club.
For many it was simply, in Diane
Abbott’s words, a “roar of defiance
against the Westminster elite”.
But the Tory government has worked
hard to impose the most reactionary
possible interpretation of the vote, as a
racist rejection of foreigners, migrants,
and refugees.
Millions of EU citizens who have
made Britain their home are now faced
with losing their rights to live and work
here when Britain leaves the EU.
www.swp.org.uk
Staff at University College Hospital in London show solidarity with EU nationals
What the Tories want
The Tories are divided. A majority of
MPs and ministers voted to remain in
the EU, but now Boris Johnson and other
Brexiteers in the cabinet are pushing for
a “hard Brexit” that breaks completely
with the EU and turns Britain into a
free-market island that will attract bosses
from around the world who want no
restrictions on how to invest money and
exploit workers.
Theresa May decided that Brexit
means first of all ending free movement
for workers from the rest of the EU. This
makes it very hard to avoid a hard Brexit.
But the big banks and corporations based
in Britain are desperate to retain access to
the huge European single market.
May is trying to balance between them
and the Tory right, promising a hard
Brexit without tears that will somehow
retain the economic benefits bosses get
from being in the EU.
This promise will soon come unstuck.
The rift in the Tories over the EU has
‘Socialist Worker (Britain)’
@SWP_Britain
existed for decades, and is likely to reemerge during the negotiations with EU
leaders, as it becomes increasingly clear
that May cannot deliver.
The Tories’ tiny parliamentary majority
could rapidly be endangered.
But Labour is hardly in any better shape
over Brexit.
Some Labour MPs are more concerned
with seeking to overturn or block the
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Leave vote than they are with trying to
shape what sort of Brexit emerges.
MPs and trade union leaders who
campaigned to stay in the EU are now
pressing Jeremy Corbyn to stop defending
freedom of movement for European
workers. They accept the idea that the
vote to leave was motivated by racism and
want to capitulate to the scapegoating of
migrants and refugees driven by the Tory
government and media.
The Labour right’s attacks on Corbyn
have made it harder for Labour to oppose
the Tory agenda around Brexit.
The need for an alternative
The referendum on the EU deeply divided
the British left. But whatever stand we take
on the EU, we can unite in opposing the
kind of racist and neoliberal Brexit the
Tories are driving towards. We can also
agree that the austerity policies imposed
since 2010 have been feeding racism.
The working class movement can seize
hold of the debate and stop Brexit being
dominated by varieties of toxic Tory
solutions.
We can fight for a working class
solution that hits the Tories when they
are vulnerable. This requires a package of
progressive policies that halt and reverse
austerity and put the priority on raising
living standards and maintaining and
improving public services.
The EU doesn’t defend workers and
their rights, but that doesn’t mean we
should allow Brexit to be used to make
our conditions worse.
The crisis of the EU will continue.
Yet more austerity is being imposed on
countries like Greece, and the far right
is exploiting the anger these policies are
producing in elections in the Netherlands,
France, and Germany.
The fight for a different kind of Brexit,
which rejects racism and austerity, can
win allies elsewhere in Europe.
JOIN THE
SOCIALISTS
The Socialist Workers Party works with
everyone who opposes austerity, racism and
war. We defend Jeremy Corbyn against the
Labour right. But we believe the real power
to get rid of this lousy system—capitalism—
lies outside parliament. Our power is in the
workplaces, the colleges, in working class
communities and on the streets.
For more information or to join us, please get
in touch. Call/text: 07986 936 094
or join online: swp.org.uk/forms/join-swp
BREXIT
DEMANDS
Defend migrants,
defend freedom of
movement
Defend and extend the rights of
migrants and refugees. Full and
indefinite rights guaranteed for all
EU nationals. Maintain freedom
of movement for all workers from
the European Economic Area.
Reciprocal arrangements for UK
citizens. Let in all refugees, stop
scapegoating and deportations
Guaranteed rights
and funding
No reductions in workplace, social
or equality rights. Guarantee
continued funding for all social
projects funded by EU money.
Increase progressive
taxation on the rich
Finance extra spending by a
shift to progressive taxation
that makes the rich pay and a
clampdown on tax avoidance and
evasion by the rich
Oppose austerity
and attacks on
workplace rights
No more cuts and the reversal
of those that have been
imposed since 2010. Abolish
benefit sanctions. Immediate
implementation of a £10 an hour
minimum wage. End the ‘flexible’
working arrangements that
force workers into low-paid jobs.
Reverse anti-trade union laws
No trade deals that
stop nationalisation
No to the single market with its
restrictions on nationalisation
and drive to deregulate. No to any
deals with Trump. No to the return
of the TTIP deal or any other that
favours the multinationals
Invest in the NHS
and public health
Fund the NHS: Free healthcare for
all. Stop the privatisation of the
health service.
Housing for all
Build one million new council
homes. Abolish the council tax
and replace with a progressive
local income tax. Introduce rent
controls and a progressive wealth
tax. Scrap the right to buy and the
bedroom tax.
Tough action on
climate change
Effective action on climate
change, a ban on fracking and
an agriculture policy focused on
access to good-quality affordable
food and environmental
protection. Support the call for
One Million Climate Jobs.
Equality for all
Resist all attacks on the Human
Rights Act. No ‘Henry VIII’ clause
that allows ministers rather than
elected MPs to rewrite EU law.
Extend the powers and provisions
of the Equalities Act. Reverse the
cuts in disability benefits.
Abolish the Work Capability
Assessment. Increase pensions
and benefit rates.
Invest in public
transport
End the privatisation and
deregulation of public transport,
renationalise all rail networks,
train and bus services.
Referendums on
Scottish independence
and Irish unity
Brexit raises the issue of the
unity of the British state. People
in Scotland should have a choice
on whether to stay part of it—
unlinked from EU membership.
The people of Ireland also should
have the opportunity to decide in
a referendum to end the partition
of the island.
Internationalism and
global solidarity
For internationalism and solidarity
with workers across the world. Full
support for all struggles against
austerity and racism.