Cameron’s EU deal
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His following blog reveals Cockshott's de facto anti-immigration stance even more clearly despite his caveats which in practice is unenforceable, imhohttps://paulcockshott.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/trades-unionism-and-migration/
Quote:There are powerful arguments on both sides. But the crucial point is that, as a matter of law, Article 50 notification commits the UK to withdrawal from the EU, and so is inconsistent with the 1972 act. Withdrawal is the object of the notification, and it is the legal effect. If, at the end of the negotiating period, parliament disagrees with the withdrawal which flows from the notification, there is nothing parliament could then do to prevent our withdrawal from the EU, which would frustrate the 1972 act. Therefore prerogative powers may not now be used.David Pannick in today's times. Basic point, it requires legislation by parliament to withdraw from the EU, MPs may yet frustrate the referendum…
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Interesting comment below Deborah Orr’s article:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/01/brexit-britain-elites-run-amok#comments – by someone called “John Hunter”:“In Brexit Britain the elites will run amok? The elite has been running amok for centuries in Britain their shock a day dismay at Brexit shows they fear the clear message sent from the electorate to the elites.The Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless of today’s zillionaires have taken living the good life to the next level.As tempting as it is to pillory today’s mega-rich and super-famous for their jet fleets, umbrella butlers, and incessant demands, the truth is that throughout history there have always been those for whom the best wasn’t quite good enough. “High maintenance,” in other words, is not a new concept while "the little people" suffer.But it is not the symptom that is being addressed it is the cause of this disease, this cancer.The Invisible Hand Of The Disogranized Masses has spoken.The next step could be full-blown anarchy if the electorate is ignored. If you collapse these extractive, debt-dependent crony-capitalist cartels, you collapse the entire status quo.Surprise, surprise. Workers in Britain, many of whom have seen a decline in their standard of living while the very rich in their country have become much richer, have turned their backs on the European Union and a globalized economy that is failing them and their children.The elite has been replacing stagnant real growth and income (and thus takes ) with debt. From payday loans to buy to rent loans the system is sick. The elite has been replacing investment in real-world productivity with speculation (i.e. financialization) along with that property speculation causing a housing shortage. The elite replacing free-market capitalism with protected, privileged Elites crony capitalism in which the few benefit at the expense of the many. The elites replaced local, decentralized democracy and ownership with central planning. Using “extend and pretend” financial trickery to mask insolvency, impaired assets/ collateral and non-performing loans rather than address the debt overhang directly via write-downs and liquidations of impaired assets.And it’s not just the British who are suffering. That increasingly globalized economy, established and maintained by the world’s economic elite, is failing people everywhere.Incredibly, the wealthiest 62 people on this planet own as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population — around 3.6 billion people. The top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the whole of the bottom 99 percent. The very, very rich enjoy unimaginable luxury while billions of people endure abject poverty, unemployment, and inadequate health care, education, housing and drinking water. The latest EU foreign policy document, titled “A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign And Security Policy“, calls for an extension of the Union's influence in regions as far as Central Asia and Central Africa. The EU Wants An Empire" Brussels Plans To Expand Into Middle East and Africa.Meanwhile, EU officials repeatedly voiced the idea of forming the Union’s own armed forces. On June 26, the head of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, Elmar Brok, said that the EU needs a common military headquarters that could pave the way for a united EU armed force, which would make the block’s policy much more effective and strengthen its role in the world. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for the creation of a united European army, which he said would be aimed at “deterring” Russia and strengthening the allianceThousands of comments have been made about Brexit in the past week. I've written many myself. Most discuss Brexit as the result of immigration issues, class war, political theater, a reaction against the European Union's bureaucratic power, sovereignty, etc. Other essays focus on the potential upsides or downsides of Brexit.What few if any commentators present is the idea that Brexit is a symptom of the Crisis of Capitalism. It is Capitalism that is experiencing a crisis.”
Meel, we have always argued that the State is the executive committee of the capitalist class, so should we be surprised if the supra-national state (as i see the EU sometimes described) exercises its political and economic power in the interests of its capitalists.I'm surprised the Balkans (last century) and currently Ukraine as examples of the EU's expansionism. Just how different would a NATO and an EU army be? Would it simply be the recognition that the US and EU interests are not always the same? There are already various structures of a proto-EU armyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_European_Union
TYPO I'm surprised the Balkans (last century) and currently Ukraine ARE NOT CITED as examples of the EU's expansionism.
Some people said that a Brexit vote would unleash a carnival of xenophobia. Unfortunately it seems to be happening. I met somebody from Portugal (and Portugal has been in the EU since 1986) who said that their daughter had received one of those letters from another schoolkid to take back home to their parents telling them to pack up their bags as people had just voted for them to leave. I suspect that this is more widespread than the media are reporting.And now whether or not to "Send 'Em Back" has become an issue in the Tory leadership contest whereas it never was in the referendum campaign, only "Stop 'Em Coming In". It seems that some of the candidates reckon this could be a vote-winner amongst the backward sections of society who are members of the Tory party, many of whom could well want this. One is the candidate who once called the Tory party "the nasty party". Presumably she banking on this being the case.
ALB wrote:Some people said that a Brexit vote would unleash a carnival of xenophobia. Unfortunately it seems to be happening. And now whether or not to "Send 'Em Back" has become an issue in the Tory leadership contest whereas it never was in the referendum campaign, only "Stop 'Em Coming In".It is a shame that our party wrote off this referendum as little more than a squabble between different factions of the capitalist class.British workers will find it harder to unite with workers of all countries and make common cause with them, if they are no longer working side by side with them.Large sections of the working class were taken in by the Brexiters' lies. The SPGB's 'northing to do with us' approach was absolutely the wrong way to go.If nothing in the real world of politics ever has anything to do with us, why would the workers at large want anything to do with us?
AHS wrote:ALB wrote:Some people said that a Brexit vote would unleash a carnival of xenophobia. Unfortunately it seems to be happening. And now whether or not to "Send 'Em Back" has become an issue in the Tory leadership contest whereas it never was in the referendum campaign, only "Stop 'Em Coming In".It is a shame that our party wrote off this referendum as little more than a squabble between different factions of the capitalist class.British workers will find it harder to unite with workers of all countries and make common cause with them, if they are no longer working side by side with them.Large sections of the working class were taken in by the Brexiters' lies. The SPGB's 'nothing to do with us' approach was absolutely the wrong way to go.If nothing in the real world of politics ever has anything to do with us, why would the workers at large want anything to do with us?
At the moment the socialist case can only be put to those sections of the working class who aren't taken in by the blandishments of the capitalist class. There is little or nothing we can do about that fickle section, who can only see solutions to their problems within capitalism–the only system they know–and react knee-jerkingly because they see other workers as part of the problem, rather than as its victims too.
If the referendum had been on an In/Out one on EU workers rather than formally on the legal question of the intergovernmental and trade arrangements of the UK capitalist class I'm sure we'd have taken a different position. Even so, we did of course denounce xenophobia and nationalism in our leaflets and articles as well as pointing out the world nature of the way out, eg in our leaflet:
Quote:If we want practical control of our own lives, if we want to confront these problems, we have to organise on a worldwide basis, not a national basis. We need to join with the vast majority of the world who do not own it, in order to bring the world under the democratic control of everyone …What else could we have said or done?
Brexit – No changehttp://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2016/07/04/eu-accused-trying-push-through-toxic-trade-deal-ahead-brexitGlobal Justice Now have released an expert opinion on CETA and Brexit which argues that if the UK doesn’t formally leave the EU before CETA is ratified, then it would be tied into the trade deal for a period of twenty years after announcing any intention to leave the deal.
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