Stop Brexit! “People’s Brexit” is an illusion

Submitted by SJW on 4 July, 2018 - 11:46 Author: Ana Oppenheim of the Another Europe is Possible campaign spoke to Solidarity.
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Q: Labour’s current policy on Brexit is framed by Keir Starmer’s “Six Tests”. These tests, if applied, would almost certainly rule out Labour endorsing any Tory Brexit. Why aren’t the six tests enough?

A: We know that a Tory Brexit deal will not meet those six tests or be compatible with socialist values like defending migrant rights or workers’ rights. So, what happens next is key.

That’s why we’re campaigning for a people’s vote: a referendum on the deal, with the option of remaining in the EU. Because democracy is about people being able to change their minds — and that’s especially important as it becomes clear what a disaster Brexit will be.

Q: So if Labour’s “six tests” almost certainly means rejecting Brexit, why are we hearing so much talk of Labour delivering a “People’s Brexit”?

A: Firstly, Labour is not in government, and is unlikely to be in government in the next year. So it won’t be down to Labour to deliver Brexit. I think the “People’s Brexit” line is being adopted out of fear of scaring away Brexit voters. But it is an illusion. It is not going to happen any time soon, and a progressive Brexit is simply impossible full stop. We should campaign for a people’s Europe, not a people’s Brexit.

Q: Won’t opposing Brexit cost Labour the election?

A: I don’t think so. For most people the priority is not Brexit itself. It is concerns about jobs, houses and wages, and Labour has answers on them.

We won’t win votes by triangulating. 2017 showed that we didn’t win millions of votes by moving towards the centre. Now is the time to be a radical voice, defending migrants, defending principle, supporting internationalism, while giving people solutions that they can believe in.

Q: But while a majority of members appear to be anti-Brexit and in favour of a referendum on the deal, many left wing activists and officers in Labour and some trade unions strongly oppose a turn against Brexit, even if they privately disapprove of Brexit. Why?

A: There are two categories of such people on the left.

The first is a group that says that loyalty to Corbyn is the only major priority on the left. But that ignores Corbyn’s support for party democracy, an empowered membership, standing up for principles, and so on.

There is a second category who believe that a socialist exit from the EU is possible. They talk about the problems with the EU, its attacks on refugees and so on. But you can’t build socialism border by border. There aren’t local solutions to global problems. We need an international movement for socialism that goes across borders and takes on global capital.

Q: You talk about an international movement to defeat capital. But how do you square that with advocating membership of the EU, which is an emphatically neoliberal, pro-capitalist entity?

A: What is the alternative? Brexit is a nationalist project that goes against the principles of international co-operation. The EU is fundamentally flawed. But so is the British state. Going back to nation states is not the answer.

The EU provides freedom of movement and a framework for uniting the left internationally. We have to confront capital, sooner or later. But building more nationalism, more borders, stands in the way of building the international workers’ coalition we need.

Q: Some activists who disagree with stopping Brexit or organising a referendum on the deal argue that if Brexit is reversed, or if there is a threat that Brexit might be reversed, there could be a rise in the far right in response. What do you think of that?

A: The Brexit vote has already empowered the far right. There has been a surge in hate crimes and larger far right marches. The labour movement has to oppose the far right.

We are not saying: stop Brexit in parliament. We are saying: give people a vote on the outcome.
Brexit means an increase in the forces of the right. Brexit will hurt everyone, but also especially marginalised groups. And we have to stand up against that.

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