Brexit

Tories out, Brexit out!

Solidarity goes to press soon after Tory prime minister Theresa May decided to delay the parliamentary vote on her EU withdrawal deal, maybe until January, and to seek “reassurances” from the EU to sweeten the deal. The deal would have been heavily defeated if put to the House of Commons as scheduled on 11 December. This impasse makes great openings for the labour movement. We can bring down the Tory government, force an early general election, stop Brexit, and save free movement within Europe. That requires Labour shifting to a clearer, sharper version of the “Remain and Reform” policy it...

The anxieties of Brexit Britain

Jonathan Coe’s latest volume Middle England has been widely described as the best “state of the nation” novel of the last decade, and deservedly so. Whilst Ali Smith’s Autumn was an impressionistic take on the immediate aftermath of the referendum – the first post-Brexit novel – Coe’s book manages to balance the coverage of political events in the run up to June 2016 with an intimate look at how it all unfolds in the lives of characters last seen in Coe’s two Rotters’ Club novels, as well as introducing many new ones. The story starts in 2010, taking in Gordon Brown’s encounter with “some kind...

Dishonouring Harry Leslie Smith’s memory

Readers will probably remember Harry Leslie Smith, who died in the early hours of 28 November aged 95: his moving speech to the 2014 Labour conference made a lasting impression on all who heard it. He’d first attracted attention in 2013 when he wrote an article for the Guardian declaring that he’d no longer wear a Remembrance Day poppy. He was a World War Two veteran who described voting Labour in 1945 and the subsequent creation of the NHS, as the proudest and most exciting time of his life. Until the day he died, he remained a passionate defender of the NHS (his passion derived, in part...

Unite members protest for free movement

Dozens of activists in the Unite union — from a wide range of its industrial sectors — have protested against general secretary Len McCluskey’s reported comments against immigration. According to the Guardian (5 December), McCluskey warned Labour leaders against their hesitant moves towards favouring a new public vote which could stop Brexit. He “spoke about tackling people’s concerns about immigration and the exploitation of immigrant labour. He said there would be a sense of betrayal among the members if we went for a second referendum”. The activists respond: “The idea that free movement...

Europe and climate change

Clive Lewis spoke to Solidarity One thing that hasn’t been talked about much around Brexit is how that relates to environmental issues. How do you see that connection? Clive Lewis: Leaving Europe will mean that we will have less input into one of the biggest economic blocks in the world, and probably one of the most progressive, although that comes with some large caveats. This limits the amount of influence that we as people who are concerned about climate and economic justice can have on it. That can’t be a good thing. If we can in any way prevent that, while still respecting the terms and...

Best for Business?

In the closing speech at the Another Europe Is Possible conference on 8 December, Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle recommended Best for Britain as the group with which AEIP should combine to form a joint campaign in a new public vote on Brexit. Because the speech was right at the end of the conference, no one had a chance to point out that an amendment passed earlier in the day, moved by Ben Towse and insisting that AEIP must above all voice an independent left-wing line, contradicted this proposal. But it did. Events the next day (9 December) dramatised the argument. AEIP, rightly, was on the...

General election and a new vote

Labour is inching back towards the “Remain [in the EU] and Reform” stance it took in the June 2016 referendum, but only inching. The deep discredit of the Tories’ Brexit formula makes it urgent for Labour to switch back fully — and in the meantime for anti¬Brexit Labour people to organise to develop a pro¬Labour, anti-Brexit public profile. John McDonnell, on Newsnight 21 November, said bluntly that even if the Tories were to let Labour form a minority government now, in terms of the 585¬page withdrawal formula, the subject of the vote on 11 December, “we’re talking about finalising a deal, we...

Planning a Labour voice against Brexit

The following statement has been endorsed by a number of labour movement activists including Andrew Coates, Sacha Ismail, Kelly Rogers, Julie Ward MEP, Catherine West MP, and Zoe Williams, and includes a proposal to be put to the conference of Another Europe Is Possible on 8 December. With Theresa May’s deal likely to be defeated in parliament [on 11 December], and a number of key parliamentary blocs losing confidence in the Tory government, we are facing a period of political crisis and upheaval, and a general election looks increasingly possible. As Labour members and supporters, we want our...

AEIP conference, issues and debates

After opening itself out so that people can join as members, rather than just being an office with initiatives which activists on the ground can support, Another Europe is Possible is calling a conference on 8 December in London. Members will be able to debate and vote on structures and strategy. Workers’ Liberty will be attending the conference, and we encourage all socialists to attend and join the campaign to stop Brexit. We will be supporting a number of proposals and amendments. One, also backed by some leading AEIP figures, calls for a specifically Labour anti¬Brexit campaign, supported...

Brexit and fighting the far right

Stopping Brexit isn’t anti-fascism Callum Cant takes issue over the 9 December counter¬demo The Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA) are obsessed with trade unions. When their march was blocked in October, their leadership couldn’t stop themselves from fantasising about beating up organised workers. For many of their supporters, the organisation’s high point was when a DFLA group launched a serious physical attack on RMT members in a pub in Whitehall. The essence of their politics is a hatred of the organised working class. This is not a new dynamic – indeed, Clara Zetkin wrote about the...

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