Brexit

"No deal" Brexit and the Irish border

In response to Theresa May’s defeat in her EU Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons on 15 January, and the looming prospect of a “no deal” Brexit, Irish transport minister Shane Ross told reporters at a press conference that he “would anticipate that there would be checks” on lorries coming from Scotland to the Republic of Ireland via Northern Ireland. Afterwards, speaking “privately” to Foreign Minister Simon Coveney (so Ross thought, but his words were caught on microphone), he asked whether or not he should have revealed that fact. Coveney responded: “Yes, but we can’t get into where...

Students should fight Brexit

Justine Canady is running as the left candidate for NUS President, challenging current President Shakira Martin’s move to suspend all NUS officer elections this year and shut down NUS democracy and campaigning, on the pretext of a financial crisis. NUS official policy is anti¬Brexit, but the NUS leadership has made no campaign on campuses on the issue. Brexit means higher borders, more xenophobia and racism in public life, and a victory for the far right around Europe. It is bad news for our movement, and all the oppressed: just look at the spike in hate crimes against women, disabled and LGBT...

The roots of Lexitism

The Brexit crisis at Westminster is also rippling across the left in Britain. Although the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) remains committed to its pro¬Brexit position, its report of its conference on 29¬30 December show that at least some of its members are uneasy. The SWP oppose calls for a second referendum. However, they now concede that if a referendum is organised, they would be in difficulties: the leadership would have to call a meeting to decide on the SWP’s position. If it is a choice between Remain and May’s Brexit, a possible option may be “active abstention” – a campaign to reject...

Should left back Corbyn on Brexit?

Solidarity approached Pete Willsman, secretary of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and a member of Labour’s National Executive, to give him space in an interview to explain CLPD’s line on Brexit, criticised in Solidarity 490. Pete wasn’t able to do an interview, but explained his stance in a text¬message exchange. W: CLPD is focusing on defending JC [Jeremy Corbyn], so we go one step at a time. S: But there’s going to be another step on 15 January come what may. And steps have implications for the future. It is becoming too late for a general election to be run before 29 March. So, for...

SWP under pressure? The Stalinist origins of their Lexit position

International Socialism, the theoretical journal of the British Socialist Workers' Party, has run an anti-Brexit piece. This follows a debate on the issue at the SWP’s recent conference. Wayne Asher’s article is a welcome indication that the SWP’s Stalinist position on Brexit (so-called Left Exit, Lexit) is coming under pressure from some of its members. Much of Asher’s assessment of the current situation is rational, although his account of the debate in Momentum bears little relation to events. Asher’s biggest mistake is to attempt to justify the International Socialists, (IS – the proto-SWP...

Build Labour fight against Brexit

The Another Europe is Possible conference in December voted to set up a new, freestanding Labour anti¬Brexit initiative. This campaign, “Stop Brexit – Labour for a Socialist Europe”, set up a steering group at the conference and will be holding its first public event, an organising summit, on 12 January (3-5pm, at SOAS in London). Activists in local Labour Parties and Left Against Brexit-type groups are also preparing to hold local meetings to support the initiative in a number of cities. The constituency of Labour members and supporters who are left¬wing and antiBrexit is vast but largely...

Open letter to Corbyn: fight Brexit!

“I think we need to respect the referendum. As I say, I think that there is a deal which can be struck within Parliament that brings everybody together, that respects the views and wishes of communities whether they voted Leave or Remain” —Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Secretary for Business, Sky News, 16 December. Comrade Corbyn! The 2016 referendum vote that the UK should withdraw from the EU, after 45 years membership, plunged Britain into a prolonged political crisis. Today, less than three months before Britain is due to leave, that crisis has not yet been resolved. The 2016 vote plunged...

Skwawkbox on “abstain”

The Skwawkbox website, which is close to leading officials in the Labour Party Leader’s Office, has floated the idea of Labour abstaining in the parliamentary vote on the Tories’ Brexit deal. That would let the deal pass even if the DUP and the Tory ultra¬Brexit right still vote against. On 6 January, Skwawkbox wrote: “To take effect, May’s deal must first pass the ‘meaningful vote’ in the Commons – stage 1 – and then an Act of Parliament must be passed to bring it into force. “Labour could not support May’s deal – but an abstention on stage 1 would bring things to the point where the DUP...

Commending evasion?

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD), a longstanding component of the Labour left, is promoting a model motion to “commend” the Labour Party leadership for its stance on Brexit. The motion accuses those agitating for a new public vote on Brexit of seeking to “overturn Labour conference policy”, on the grounds that we supposedly advocate a public vote *before* an attempt to bring down the Tories by a vote of no confidence in Parliament. In fact those who agitate for a new public vote are also those who express worries that the Labour front bench’s delay on proposing “no confidence”...

A cross-class Remain campaign would be a compromise of principle

The Brexit crisis is perhaps the most significant moment in politics in Britain for a generation or more. The internationalist, class-struggle socialist left must, within our capacities, intervene in that moment to articulate an independent working-class politics. The arguments between pro-Remain and pro-Brexit tendencies within the left are well rehearsed. Of equal importance are arguments within the pro-Remain left around substantive politics. Zoe Williams, the Guardian journalist and prominent supporter of Another Europe Is Possible (AEIP), set out the questions in a 7 December article for...

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