British progressives and the European Union: should we stay or should we go?
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Version 0 of 1. Owen Jones, George Monbiot and other usually thoughtful commentators on the left are making a fundamental error when they advocate a “Lexit” campaign to promote UK withdrawal from the EU (The left must now campaign for Britain to leave the EU, 15 July). It would be a classic case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Do they really believe that working people throughout Europe would do better left to the mercies of financial and commercial interests, whose control over individual governments would be enormously increased by being able to divide and rule. The idea that there could be a Europe of free trade without elected democratic oversight would mean abandoning any hope of social justice and would be likely to bring about a competitive undermining of workplace rights and benefits. Owen Jones is surely right in thinking that if Labour really wants a revival it must come out and support Brexit I share their anger and frustration at the way that Greece has been treated: it has shown up in high relief the fundamental political and economic ideological divide between the left and the right, not just in Europe but throughout the world. It can only be challenged if the left in Europe works together to confront not just localised injustice but the system itself. Syriza and Podemos, in their different ways, are challenging the system and have tested the strength of those wishing to preserve the status quo. It is as foolish to think things will be better if we left the EU as it is to believe the answer to challenging austerity and injustice in Britain would be to leave the country. To build a fairer, more just and accountable European Union requires the left to see it as a collective struggle.Peter LuffFormer chair, the European Movement • The lack of democracy in the EU, not to mention its love affair with multinationals, has always been obvious to progressives like myself, so it is heartening to see Guardian columnists come round to agreeing eventually, even if it takes a Greek tragedy to make them do so. May the trend continue. I have long broken with Ukip, the party I founded, on account of its crude xenophobia. But quitting the EU is still vital for Britain. Owen Jones is surely right in thinking that if Labour really wants a revival it must come out and support Brexit. Otherwise it will become as irrelevant as the pro-Europe Lib Dems and the pro-Cameron reform EU Tories. No progressive can support EU membership after the Greek debacle. Labour will simply look out of date if it continues to mouth platitudes about the EU furthering democracy after this demonstration of Herrschaft.Professor Alan SkedLSE • Perhaps the treatment inflicted on Athens is a warning not only to Greece that it needs to get its house in order but to others too, notably France. Perhaps it is a precursor to the inevitable need for political and economic union if Europe is to have a meaningful role in the global political economy in future. We may be in a moment of transition towards a fully integrated eurozone led by Germany, with common taxation and a European Central Bank able to deliver capital transfers to the European periphery as does the Federal Reserve in the US. A common currency needs this, and the only way to achieve it is through deeper integration. It is from this foundation that the left and socially progressive forces should work to reaffirm the social democratic principles of the EU’s founders, and farsighted leaders such as Jacques Delors, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl and Labour’s own Roy Jenkins. The EU now is beyond redemption. The mask is off, as John Hilary of War on Want put it at an anti-TTIP meeting this week Germany, frustrated by the failure of intergovernmental negotiation to deliver a federal Europe, has chosen to use its economic might to establish the federal Europe it has always craved. It is a difficult course, but the alternatives are not obvious. It is surprising that Owen Jones thinks leftwing progressives should give up on fighting neoliberal ideology in Europe but can win the battle by retreating to the home front, a la Ukip, in the most neoliberal of all the 28 member states, albeit one not shackled by the weaknesses of an ill-devised monetary union.Simon SweeneyYork Management School, University of York • A question for Owen Jones: why is it that the radical left in Greece (apart from the Stalinist KKE) is desperate to remain part of the EU despite suffering at the hands of the European bankers and rightwing politicians. The answer is that the European left are united in wanting to see a peoples’ Europe not a bankers’ Europe. The British left walking away from this fight will only strengthen those who represent the City of London and reactionary, bigoted, backward forces in British society and culture.Nick LongLondon • Thank you, Owen. That needed saying. The EU now is beyond redemption. The mask is off, as John Hilary of War on Want put it at an anti-TTIP meeting in Manchester this week. Greece has paid the price of daring to challenge the neoliberal holy writ. The unelected European commissioners play fast and loose with the rules. A European citizens’ initiative which requires a million signatures to force an official policy review was refused registration from the start. Now at 2.3m signatures from every EU country and heading for 3m, it will be interesting to see how they ignore that. Sign up, people, whatever your in or out intentions. Cecilia Malström, the trade commissioner responsible for driving through the toxic free trade deal, told Hilary: “I do not take my mandate from the people of Europe.” Of course not. Her mandate is from the corporate lobby. So what can we possibly hope for from such a venal institution?John AirsLiverpool Even the Syriza government supports continuing membership of the euro and the EU • It is almost always a rule of thumb in politics that when the hard left and right agree on a position, then said position must be illogical and unworkable. Yes, the Greek crisis has been horribly mismanaged by the EU, but even the Syriza government supports continuing membership of the euro and the EU. It is ironic that Owen Jones seems to think that “Lexit” might “help the left reconnect with working-class communities” yet it is the hugely popular left-leaning SNP that has insisted that continued membership of the EU is a red line that must not be crossed if Scotland is to remain within the UK.Paul MorrisonDerry, Northern Ireland • Having discovered that an increasingly pro-corporate EU is a capitalist racket, Owen Jones writes that the left must run its own separate campaign against EU membership – for fear of association with the hard right. There was just one no campaign in the 1975 referendum when Michael Foot, Tony Benn, Barbara Castle, Enoch Powell, Ian Paisley, the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Scottish National party, Plaid Cymru, the Ulster Unionist party and the Democratic Unionist party called for withdrawal. The communist Morning Star was the only newspaper to support them.Dr John DohertyVienna, Austria |