Brexit

Speculation is mounting that the UK, as part of its ongoing wrangle with the EU, may trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, plunging its whole Brexit agreement into doubt. The Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed in October 2019 and signed in December 2020 as a means of avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland. Instead, Northern Ireland would, in effect, remain part of the EU’s Single Market for goods. Checks would take place between Northern Ireland and Great Britain — creating an Irish Sea border. Despite initially agreeing to this, Unionists and the Tories are now...

Martin Thomas, author of Corbynism: What Went Wrong? , responds to the reviews of the booklet by Mike Davis and Urte March in this issue of Solidarity and earlier ones by Richard Price and Andrew Coates online . Solidarity and Workers’ Liberty work to transform the existing labour movement, not to create “our own” labour movement alongside it. We do our work by organising and educating for the battles of today, which, as yet, perforce, are “reform” struggles. That far we agree with Mike Davis — that nine-tenths of the work for the socialist revolution is “in the womb of the existing society”...

This year marks the centenary of the partition of Ireland and the creation of the Northern Ireland (NI) state. It comes after a rare period of relative peace in the territory, and Unionists might have hoped that the celebrations could have been less contentious than previously. In fact the stability of both NI and Unionism have been thrown into question by the emerging impact of Brexit. The imposition of a customs border in the sea between Britain and NI, in flat contradiction to explicit promises made by Boris Johnson, has become a flashpoint for loyalist insecurity and anger. Street rioting...

Hundreds of thousands of EU migrants face losing their access to benefits, healthcare, livelihood, and even their right to remain where they now consider home, as UK “settled status” applications comes to an end on 30 June. The “settled status” process itself it a betrayal of the promises made in the run up to the EU referendum, when migrants were repeatedly assured their status in the UK would be safe in the event of Brexit. Most applications have been approved, but many have been given insecure “pre-settled status”, some have been rejected outright, and unknown numbers have not applied. The...

Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, spoke to Sacha Ismail in late March 2021. For an interview Clive did with us in March 2020, see here . There could still be another 30,000 deaths as we approach the end of lockdown, and maybe much more. Even with the vaccine program at full tilt, in the absence of a proper test and trace system, an isolation system and social support for people, it’s still potentially a dire situation and could still overwhelm the NHS. [This was even before the "Indian variant" of Covid was widely discussed.] NHS workers have launched their demand for a 15% pay rise...

Under the standard legal doctrine of “pacta sunt servanda”, international treaties like the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement with the European Union are binding until and unless a formal process of withdrawal is completed.

Labour for a Socialist Europe is working on short pledges for Momentum National Coordinating Group candidates to sign up to — on free movement and migrants’ rights, extending the Brexit transition period, and fighting nationalism on the left. See labourforasocialisteurope.org for more

Photo by Max Böhme on Unsplash On 26 March, meeting over Zoom, the steering committee of Labour for a Socialist Europe agreed to launch a campaign to extend the Brexit transition period. There was discussion about how easy it would be for this campaign to get grip, but consensus about the importance of raising a flag and starting to prepare for when the issue pushes itself to the fore. (For L4SE’s initial statement, see bit.ly/extendtransition ) Just three days later (29 March), the Sunday Times reported that, despite “senior sources” saying there was “no way” Boris Johnson would consider a...

If you want to convince people, you have to argue what you believe to be true, and be seen to be convinced yourself. If your message is: "Tell us what you want to hear, and we'll play it back to you", you will be seen to be shifty and unreliable. And rightly so. Labour-aligned people who have back Leave should be treated with respect, and given honest arguments. They know that Labour has been pushed, bit by bit - by steady rank-and-file pressure on the reluctant leadership - into a de facto Remain position. Labour opposes the actual deals negotiated with the EU and supports a referendum which...

Another Europe is Possible (AEIP) is holding its conference on 14 December. It has advertised “interactive and informative sessions and workshops, a thorough discussion of our strategy, and elections for [the] National Committee”. Some committee members argued that with the election on Thursday 12 December and conference on Saturday 14 December, we may not even know the make-up of the government on the day of the conference. It is difficult to submit thought-out strategy documents, because we do not know what the election result will be. The eventual compromise decision is that there will be a...