by Dan
Wright
The European
Union is a failed political project. What was supposed to be a union
based on common interests and mutual respect has become a tyranny of
neoliberal technocrats imposing their will on disenfranchised peoples
of Europe, especially those from less prosperous countries (see
Greece for details).
This reality
upsets some on the left, who hoped the EU could be a new political
and economic system that incorporated the best aspects of the
democratic state while avoiding the poison of nationalism.
Unfortunately, the EU fails on both counts—it is exceedingly
undemocratic and the ultimate effect of its callous operations is to
fuel reactionary politics.
In truth,
the EU, along with other transnational organizations such as the
World Trade Organization (WTO), have set back the cause of democracy
and equality in Europe for a generation. The modest gains made by
social democrats in individual nation-states have been undone through
the surrender of power and authority to transnational corporate
cronies and members of the European Commission.
So, why is
it that so many on the left are lamenting a form of undemocratic
liberalism that is finally starting to get its comeuppance? The
reaction on some parts of the left to the vote, which was cast by
people in the United Kingdom wishing to discard the yoke of EU
oppression, has been to impugn voters’ intelligence and claim that
the will expressed by the people, in a free and fair election, should
be disregarded completely.
Left-wing
Brexit critics cite the xenophobia and nationalism, which British
conservatives used to argue for leaving the EU, as grounds to
entirely dismiss the working class voters who stood up for their
rights. They are literally siding with the neoliberal (and largely
kleptocratic) transnational elite whom they constantly attack in
every other instance.
And to what
end? All they are doing is acting as neoliberalism’s useful idiots,
providing cover for antidemocratic policies of the elite they claim
to oppose, while further alienating working people with their smug
condescension.
The solution
to the problem of conservatives and reactionaries grabbing the mantle
of popular sovereignty and democratic accountability is not to attack
popular sovereignty and democratic accountability, but to take the
damn mantle back.
The
ascension of right-wing populism, both in the UK and the United
States, is not a problem of populism, but a failure of left-wing
movements to address and harness the power of the public’s anger at
inequality and injustice. While the left in the US dithered on Wall
Street corruption, the right launched the Tea Party and offered a
narrative for the 2008 financial crisis (poor people did it)—which
is as absurd as conservative Brexit campaigners blaming immigrants
for Eurocrat malfeasance and incompetence.
Eventually,
the left in the US did get its act together and responded to the
economic destruction brought by Wall Street and a corrupt government
by launching, among other things, Occupy Wall Street, as well as
supporting an insurgent candidate in the 2016 Democratic primaries.
Decrying the conservative backlash is not enough; the people need an
alternative.
All the
left-wing critics of Brexit are doing is justifying the status quo,
when they should be launching their own movements to lead the fight
against neoliberalism and win the people away from the reactionaries.
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