{"id":10428,"date":"2018-09-18T14:24:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T14:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/?p=10428"},"modified":"2018-09-18T14:24:58","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T14:24:58","slug":"the-eu-and-brexit-what-we-stand-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/litci.org\/en\/the-eu-and-brexit-what-we-stand-for\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU and Brexit: What we stand for"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union (EU) is a social war machine against the European workers and people. It is a response of the main imperialist European countries to the economic hegemony of the USA that began in the 1920s and was reinforced during and after WWII. Because of the division of Europe into its different states, imperialist Europe ceased to be the centre of gravity of the world economy.
\nBy Marcos Margarido & Martin Ralph
\nUnder the undisputed leadership of German capitalism, associated with France, the European states agreed to create the EU to overcome the fragmentation of their productive forces. But European integration under the control of \ufb01nance capital is based on a deepening continental division of labour that increases the differences and antagonism between the countries.
\nTo achieve this division of the continent governments and companies attack the working class and, after the 2007\/2008 crash, the division and attacks accelerated. In order to avoid \ufb01nancial bankruptcy, the collapse of the euro and economic depression, the major European imperialist governments rescued the banks, looted the peripheral countries of the EU, and initiated a renewed assault on workers\u2019 gains in the central European countries.
\nIn Germany there are \u2018mini-jobs\u2019, cuts to welfare bene\ufb01ts, increase in the retirement age, elimination of the minimum wage, etc. In France, labour and pension reforms have begun including an increase in the working day.
\nIn Britain, zero-hour contracts, bene\ufb01t cuts and privatisation of the NHS have become the norm.
\nIn the weaker European countries, national budgets were expropriated, and savage attacks imposed with the agreement of the European Bank, the IMF and the EU Commission.
\nGreece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy faced the harshest of these attacks, as precarious jobs became the norm and thousands of industries were closed with soaring unemployment levels. Countries like Greece and Portugal were effectively reduced to semi-colonies of German and European imperialism.
\nEU means capital integration and working-class fragmentation
\nThat is why we cannot agree with the many reformist parties in Europe who are integrated into the European Left Party (ELP), which the Left Unity in Britain is part of. The ELP defends the idea that the EU has a progressive role with its integration of the European population and that what is lacking is the democratisation of its institutional structures.
\nThe opposite is true. European integration for the bene\ufb01t of \ufb01nancial capital leads inevitably to the non-democratic management of EU governing bodies. The EU means immigration controls, refugee crises and ever-increasing attacks on workers\u2019 gains that further integrate capital and fragment the working class.
\nThat is why we \ufb01ght for the destruction of the EU of the capitalists and for the unity of the European working class in the struggle for a socialist Europe. This means \ufb01ghting the governments and capitalists in every country with the strategic goal of a socialist revolution across the continent, as the only way out against austerity, oppression and war.
\nBrexit does not bene\ufb01t workers Brexit is not aimed to bene\ufb01t workers but to strengthen a sector of British capitalism that is losing ground to German imperialism. It does not mean the improvement of working class living standards, but the opposite.
\nBrexit and austerity go hand in hand. The NHS privatisation will be accelerated, immigration controls will grow, wages will decrease, and more rights will disappear.
\nThe working class cannot expect anything good from British capitalism and its governments, it has provided innumerable examples of its willingness to increasingly exploit the working class \u2013here and abroad \u2013 since before the industrial revolution in the 18th century.
\nThat is why we do not agree with the Left parties in Britain, like the SP or the SWP, that put all their hopes \u2013 which is their main policy \u2013 in a future Labour government under Corbyn\u2019s leadership.
\nThey say that Corbyn would negotiate a \u201csocialist Brexit\u201d (whatever that means!) with the EU rulers, as if socialism could be negotiated with imperialism, inside and outside of Britain.
\nThe only way to leave the EU for the bene\ufb01t of the working class is uniting all the European working class to destroy the EU and defeat European capitalism. Corbyn will not do that, he will be forced to continue to compromise with British industrial and \ufb01nancial capital.
\nAs revolutionary socialists, we defend the destruction of the imperialist European Union, but we cannot do it that with Corbyn.
\nOnly a workers\u2019 government based on working class organisations can carry out these demands. Without that Brexit would only favour British \u2018sovereigntist\u2019 rulers.
\nA programme to unite the European workers is needed for this \ufb01ght. The outline of such a programme is:<\/p>\n