Was in a meeting last night on zoom with socialist comrades and Brexit was the topic of discussion. I have decided to clarify my thoughts here. I didn't get to articulate myself as well as I'd liked and have more to say on this so why not waste your time by getting you to sit through it :D
The idea is that the left should have voted Brexit. I disagree, now, with this position. At the time I abstained, but the damage from Brexit, on reflection, has led me to think the best choice would have been remain. That is clearly in the interests of the working class, while diminished horizons, poor terms and conditions, and the general exacerbation of hard right politics and ideology, are not. Those are the only consequences of Brexit; it was never about nor for the working class. It was a Tory/capitalist civil war. We should have left them to it, hence my original position, but with the caveat that we also explain to voters - the greater working class cohort, that the Brexiteers won over instead - what was really happening. That their class interests, their very livelihoods, were not served by those people. Instead those interests were used and their concerns - fears - stoked and manipulated to the point of murder.
We are where we are, now. Brexit has happened. This reinforces the need for us to speak to our comrades and explain what is happening. To prevent them falling for more divide and rule politics. This is what will now happen: as Brexit fails and businesses collapse Brexiteers (and, importantly, their media cheerleaders) will seek to blame everyone but themselves. It will be the fault of the stodgy oppressors in Brussels, the Trade Unions for demanding the impossible, foreigners for stealing your jobs (see Brussels), or just people for being lazy, unwilling to accept less. This latter will be pushed while the hard right government enabled by Brexit will strip rights and increase bureaucracy. All in direct contravention to what was promised. No sunlit uplands; no hundreds of millions for the nurses and doctors dying to keep us alive at this time. These are people so hungry for the opportunity to wage class war that they pushed a Brexit deal they didn't read at the threat of breaking international treaty law, risking civil war in Ireland, all during a pandemic. There could still be civil war as there are still those who oppose the Good Friday agreement now jeopardised by the Tories. We still aren't out of the woods when it comes to the threat of No Deal. As the interest of the ruling class are increasingly served by diminishing terms and conditions we risk jeopardizing regulatory alignment and acceptable standards in the eyes of the EU - our largest trading partner now - which could break the crap deal Boris 'won'.
Brexit has been a Pandora's box for the far right and the fascists, not just locally buyt globally. Farage was hailed, at an early Trump rally in 2016, as the 'architect of Brexit'. Seen as an advocate of 'freedom' (ill defined) he was cheered, and is still seen as the 'man of the people', despite obvious charlatanry and xenophobia. Farage, along with the ERG and the Tory government we now have, are not themselves fascists, however they are the government and the people that fascists want in charge and love to listen to. They are the compost that gives rise to the weed of fascism, and it is growing.
This is what a revolutionary position on Brexit should have pointed out. Our job shoudl not have been to take sides in a capitalist civil war. One only instigated to facilitate Cameron winning an election; temporal power at best. This demonstrates, at best, they ruling class simply doesn't care about us. THe consequences have been highly divisive and destructive; Cameron didn't care. He thought he, a remainer, would win.
Our job was, and still is, to point out to our comrades that Brexit is a power play. That, while we, the working class, have been ignored by politicians - of all stripes - and have been taken for a ride, the problem isn't one side of capital. It isn't the EU versus Britain. It's capital versus the rest of us. Our class interests must come first. This proposition, Brexit, offered us nothing and lies were used to convince us otherwise. We are not stupid, working class people are not fools, we can understand the truth, no matter how unpalatable, and the fact is remaining is best for us. Not the emboldening and elevation of a hard right government that will strip us of what even the EU, for all it's many faults, offers. That is the hard reality of Britain in 2016-21. Don't fight the class war on their terms.
As a result of Brexit, leaving the EU hasn't become more popular across the EU states. But it has emboldened the far right. The allies of con artists like Farage (and explaining why we see him as such is also important; debunking his populist persona). What will happen is that our society will continue to be divided. People wont' naturally see the situation for the disaster it is for the same reason they didn't see it coming; they have been lied to and manipulated by powerful interests. James O Brien says the same thing, but we also have to recognise that sneering centrists like that (and centrists shift with the restless centre point, which is now drifting ever more rightward) also do not have our class interests.
The only people that can salvage this situation are us: the working class. We must recognise that supporting Brexit was an error. But we should not do so with O Brien's brand of arrogance, nor recrimination and division. We leave that to the ruling class while we vicariously enjoy their hopefully self-destructive squabbling. That's all capitalism can offer.
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