More on Brexit
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Whether it is an endorsement or not to be emulated, one thing is certain, their Twitter (nor our own) has 600,000 followers.
Quite an accomplishment, sad to say, seeing what Galloway stands for, which I have never been able to pin down…except it always appears to be Gorgeous George Gallowayism.
Are they calling for a “one-time-only vote for the Brexit party” or simply stating unequivocally that Galloway is correct to call for this? Is there a difference?
No facility to ask them to clarify this either.
To me it just sounds like they can’t resist the temptation of ticking a box, that and they can’t be bothered to field the candidates.
600,000 followers? For the Communist Party Marxist-Leninist?
That’d make them far larger than others in terms of online presence.
The Euroelections and the rise of the Brexit Party face Lexiteers with the dilemma of whether or not to vote for Farage’s Brexit Party.
Some like George Galloway have chosen to support Farage’s new party. Others have even agreed to stand for it, such as ex-RCPer Claire Fox. Another ex-RCPer, James Heartfield (who has gone on record as voting for us in a local election) is also a Brexit Party candidate (in Yorkshire).
Others can’t bring themselves to do this and are advocating abstention. The Communist Party of Britain has put forward the slogan “Boycott the EU elections”, stating that “they are sham elections for a sham ‘parliament'” The Trotskyites of Workers Hammer take the same line, chanting: “Down with there EU! No participation in its pseudo-parliament!”
Meanwhile “Stand Up To Racism” are urging “Use our vote to stop racist, far right UKIP”. Since they are saying to use your vote this amounts to saying Vote for Anyone But UKIP not excluding the Brexit Party if you want. In fact one of their leaflets says as much:
“Whether you are Leave or Remain, these people are vile racist. Don’t vote for them”
In so far as the elections are a proxy referendum, this could affect the outcome (or, rather, the arguments about who did best) in that the 2-3% of votes cast that the Lexiteers will have brought the Leave side in 2016 could well have been what enabled them to cross the winning line.
Personally, I do think there’s a big difference between voting for Leave in the referendum and voting for the Brexit Party in these elections.
I would say that those who voted to leave with a view for the political situation that has ensued have been vindicated to a degree.
That doesn’t necessarily make said voter a euroskeptic or a “Lexiteer”, though of course the aforementioned parties would very much embrace these titles I am sure.
As such I would say that such a vote has more in common with abstention or spoiling (this is preferable relative to the former) now, than it does with directly endorsing the Utopia Britannia message in a party based election.
It has to be said, those advocating voting for the Brexit Party truly have lost the plot, not that they had a grasp of it in the first place
Here is James Heartfield’s defence of standing for the Brexit Party and calling for a vote for it. He doesn’t seem to realise that he is being used by those capitalists who financed the Leave campaign and are financing the Brexit Party and who want to escape completely from EU regulation of their financial dealings (and want the UK to align with US regulatory conditions rather than EU ones). They want every vote they can get even those of naïve Lexiteers.
At least he has the good grace to admit he’s an idiot. His statement goes a bit south from there.
As an ex member of the RCP (Ray Chadburn Party) he’s used to being in a political party that backs the capitalist class at every turn.
It may just be me, but whilst I can recognise the well meaning, but misguided ways of most leftist parties and people, I despised the RCP and their members more or less from the moment I met them.
We debated them at the Lonsdale pub in Newcastle in the eighties and I’ll never forget the look of shifty embarrassment on their silly juvenile faces when Steve Coleman asked them why, if they supported the IRA, were they not off risking their lives on the Falls Road, rather than striking a pose in Newcastle. Tossers the lot of them
A couple of two pennies worth from myself
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-brexit-party-pop-up-shop-and-its.html?m=1
Now that all the results are in the media are beginning to realise that the EP elections are not the sensational victory for the brxiteers they were saying last night.
The UK has 73 MEPs. Of these only 34 are brxiteers (Farague’s 29 plus 4 tories and I DUP). As all the lead Labour candidates were Retainers all the other 39 were Retainers (16 libs, 7 greens , 3 Scotland nats, 1 Welsh Nat , 1 Sinn Fein, 1 NI alliance party, and 10 labourites).
Farague’s party got 29, only 4 more than Ukip in 2014, the extra 5 at the expense of the tories. That’s not going to stop him proclaiming he won though.
Don’t know what this means from our point of view. Not much probably but it does show that xenophobia isn’t dominant.
The whole bundling together of the vote into
Brexit, Tory, UKIP
v
Labour, Lib Dem, Green, Change
Doesn’t really stand up as People’s Vote evidence though. Primarily as the fickle remain vote has just migrated within the latter, in Birmingham you still had Labour in first. Doesn’t mean the majority of the 77k were remain voters though, more likely just Labour traditionalists, the city itself is Euroskeptic on the whole.
I agree that result is no guide as to how people might vote in a general election or another referendum or even to if people want another referendum, if only because of the low turnout. Just commenting on the composition of the UK delegation to the European Parliament.
From our perspective. Does it show that we could have perhaps have presented a case where we tackled the brexit issue more directly? (NOT suggesting “side taking”, not doing that was the greatest thing about standing.
However, freedom of movement is an example, how under the wage labour system, this is used to undermine and divide workers, rather than as a means to share the planet and bring us together.
Free movement of capital on the other hand, is an important thing to talk about if we are going to explain why we aren’t “pro remain”. While of course making it clear were as critical of British Economic Nationalism / Relegating to US trade standards.
Here’s a comment from Philip Collins, one of Blair’s speech writers, in today’s Times on how he perceives Corbyn’s position on Europe:
He thinks Europe doesn’t matter much. In fact, it is a token of the new political divide. He thinks he is being vague on a second-order issue; he still thinks class is the primary point.
If Corbyn (or his speech writers) really thinks this, then he’s right. From a class point of view, it doesn’t matter much whether Britain is in the EU or not; it is a second order issue. The only difference between Corbyn and us would be that while he thinks reformism is the way forward we think socialism is.
However, if Collins is right and the perceived divide is now “cultural” between “lifestyle liberals” and those who favour “traditional values” then that would explain not only why Labour did badly in the Euroelections but also why we did worse than last time too.
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