John Hilary – Social Europe is dead, Global EU lives

This appallingly dishonest referendum campaign has reduced any debate down to frightening economic projections vs frightening xenophobic immigration statistics.  It is no wonder that most people say ‘that none of them can be trusted’; the exception being perhaps, the ‘reluctant’ 7.5% remainer, Jeremy Corbyn.

The most gaping omission has been the lack of focus on the institutions of the EU.

Laura Cartwright writes:

The absence of any discussion on neoliberalism in the referendum debate smacks of wilful ignorance from both camps, meaning that voters are left completely missing the bigger picture. The ‘Remain’ side is failing to question or critique the EU’s deep commitment to an increasingly discredited ideology which is continuing to increase inequality and stifle inter-generational mobility. The ‘Leave’ side is apportioning blame for our social, economic and political problems in the wrong place and seeking to retreat into a pre-globalised world of nation-state supremacy which no longer exists.

Unless we as citizens begin to ‘join the dots’ and start to question the cogency of a political economic doctrine which is preventing young people across Europe from reaching their full potential, discussions about being ‘in’ or ‘out’ are meaningless. As Irvine Welsh recently argued, whatever the outcome of the referendum the elites will ultimately win. Neoliberalism looks and feels the same, whether it’s imposed by those in power in the UK or the EU.

 http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-eu-debate-young-people-and-neoliberalism/?utm_content=buffer2f33f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Paul Mason puts it succinctly:

The EU is not – and cannot become – a democracy. Instead, it provides the most hospitable ecosystem in the developed world for rentier monopoly corporations, tax-dodging elites and organised crime. It has an executive so powerful it could crush the leftwing government of Greece; a legislature so weak that it cannot effectively determine laws or control its own civil service. A judiciary that, in the Laval and Viking judgments, subordinated workers’ right to strike to an employer’s right do business freely.

http://hurryupharry.org/2016/06/20/why-i-am-voting-leave-by-professor-alan-johnson/

John Hilary in the video clip remedies the omission.

We on the left, need to understand the imperative to stick together.  We share a very different vision of society from this most rightwing of Conservative governments, and the direction of travel of the current EU.  Whether we decide to vote remain, lexit or abstain, our differences lie in what we believe to be the best strategy for change and not in the outcome that we wish to achieve.  To succeed ‘Solidarity’ has to be our rule.