UK - REFERENDUM

Vote Yes: For the Socialist United States of Europe!

Gerry Downing

We should call for a Yes vote in the referendum because as socialists we must ask and answer the question, is it in the interests of the working class and oppressed in Britain and internationally for the UK to remain in the EU or to leave it? That is our sole criterion. We are for a Yes vote primarily because we recognise that socialism in a single country is impossible. Indeed capitalism has long ago become impossible to sustain and develop in a single country and socialism must be built on a far higher level of wealth and productivity. An exit from the EU would strengthen nationalism and patriotism not only in the British ruling class but also in a big section of the British working class.

But surely we must not attempt in any way to confuse the Socialist United States of Europe with the present imperialist cabal that is the European Union? The United States of America was established in the War of Independence and maintained in the Civil War in revolutionary struggles. France’s internal customs borders were demolished along with the ancien regime by revolution in 1789-94. However both Germany and Italy were unified from the top down basically by reactionary political movements after failed revolutions.

Hoey and the Morning Star have pandered to ‘anti-establishment’ Strasserism. Five Labour MPs have left the pro-establishment Vote Leave Tory dominated campaign and founded the Labour Level campaign, funded and chaired by millionaire John Mills. They have (all?) now lashed up with the Grassroots Out (GO)! campaign which includes CAEF (Campaign against European Federalism), Ukip and sundry other racist scumbags. On the basis that it is more ‘anti-establishment’.

Hoey defended her conduct in a Morning Star article. They pointed out that Grassroots Out is led by hard-right Tory MP Peter Bone. They asked her if she finds it difficult to campaign alongside people she has such ideological differences with? She replied: “The reality is that if you really want to get out, every group has a slightly different perspective, and we can only win this referendum if we can all come together, I don’t think there’s a problem with that.” That’s pandering to Strasserism.

Vote Yes: For the Socialist United States of Europe!

But surely we must not attempt in any way to confuse the Socialist United States of Europe with the present imperialist cabal that is the European Union? The United States was established in the War of Independence and maintained in the Civil War in revolutionary struggles. France’s internal customs borders were demolished along with the ancien regime by revolution. However both Germany and Italy were unified from the top down basically by reactionary political movements. Trotsky explains:

“It has happened more than once in history that when the revolution is not strong enough to solve in time a task that is mature historically, its solution is undertaken by reaction. Thus Bismarck unified Germany in his own manner after the failure of the 1848 revolution. Thus Stolypin tried to solve the agrarian question after the defeat of the 1905 revolution. Thus the Versailles victors solved the national question in their own way, which all the previous bourgeois revolutions in Europe proved impotent to solve. The Germany of the Hohenzollerns tried to organize Europe in its own way, i.e. by uniting it under its helmet. “The leadership of the Comintern, and particularly the leadership of the French Communist Party are exposing the hypocrisy of official pacifism…  

The slogan of the United States of Europe is not a cunning invention of diplomacy. It springs from the immutable economic needs of Europe which emerge all the more painfully and acutely the greater is the pressure of the USA… In the person of the Opposition the vanguard of the European proletariat tells its present rulers: In order to unify Europe it is first of all necessary to wrest power out of your hands. We will do it. We will unite Europe. We will unite it against the hostile capitalist world. We will turn it into a mighty drill-ground of militant socialism. We will make it the cornerstone of the World Socialist Federation.”