With
Tories in power Brexit would be meaningless
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As has
been mentioned in previous article,
Brexit could play a much more critical role in the future course of
Europe, apart from being treated just as a result of national pride -
wounded Britons alarmed by the sirens of patriotism.
While
the Brussels-Berlin axis will seek to implement all the conditions of
the Greek experiment inside the EU, the Labour party under Jeremy
Corbyn could become an example against this dark future. While the
Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras, suffered a heavy defeat as went unprepared
in the battle with the ruthless neoliberal priesthood, Corbyn should
go to the battle with the neoliberal regime after a good preparation
and a well-constructed plan.
Costas
Lapavitsas explains why only outside the EU, the UK will have a
chance to turn left - with a Labour government under the Corbyn
leadership - in order to implement progressive policies for the
benefit of the vast majority:
The
European Union has become a hardened, entrenched set of institutions
defending neoliberalism. In Europe these institutions centered on the
single market and the single currency, the euro. Combined, together,
they ensure that neoliberal policies dominate the European Union,
individual countries, and the union as a whole.
On top
of that, what you also have, is the prevalence of neoliberal
ideology. Not just the institutions and mechanisms, but also ideology
- the prevalence of this ideology, across the institutions.
Particularly the main decision-making institutions, which together
with the practice of these institutions ensure neoliberal dominance
across the union.
It’s
obvious that the notion that this structure could be mobilized in the
interests of working people in Europe is absurd. There’s no other
word to describe it.
Britain,
in a sense, has always been semi-detached from the rest of the
European Union. But even so, it demonstrates the ability of the
European Union to impose restrictive measures on not just progressive
government or left-wing government; on any government.
In the
case of Britain, there is no Corbyn government - although I hope and
wish that there will be one and soon if this country is to go
anywhere, because it’s not going anywhere at all at the moment.
Obviously, such a government will not be subject to the limitations
and framework and institutions of the Monetary Union, because luckily
for Britain, it is not a member of the Monetary Union. But it will
still be constrained by the mechanisms, practices and regulations of
the European Union.
The
rules and regulations of the European Union on these things (state
aid and public procurement), are very very restricted, thoroughly
neoliberal, and would stop a radical Corbyn government from affecting
the kind of changes it wishes to affect.
Some
people hastily come out and say, ‘Oh, the European Union doesn’t
stop us from doing anything.’ They are wrong, because any kind of
radical change such as Britain needs and such as we would like to see
- in terms of changing the social structure of this country and
supporting the poor, the working class and so on - would require
decisive measures of state aid and public procurement to support
productive jobs. And that would be stopped by the European Union, no
doubt as well of that.
The
European Union, at the moment, represents the most blatant bypassing
of democracy that we’ve seen in advanced, developed capitalist
countries in decades. And it does that by using precisely those
institutions that presumably the left will change. It bypasses
democracy and it bypasses the democratic will, as that is expressed
through elections, in the most rigid, thorough and systematic way.
And it does that because the regulations of the institutions allow it
to do so.
The same
goes for parliament, and the same goes for all other decision-making
institutions. Those who think that you can march through these
institutions and effect change, either don’t understand how the
institutions work, or they’re not honest to people when they tell
them that they can change them. You can’t change them. You can only
break those institutions, smash them. Rupturing those institutions is
the answer if you want progressive, radical policies in Europe.
With Tories in power, even after a definite Brexit, we should not expect much of change for the British people. That's because the conservative right has been taken over completely by the neoliberal doctrine, already since the 70s and 80s in the motherlands of neoliberalism: the US and the UK. The Tories have nothing to offer apart from the typical neoliberal policies that the EU dictates to the member-states. That's all they know and they are 100% devoted to this political perception.
On the
contrary, a Labour government under the Corbyn leadership after
Brexit will be much more flexible to apply progressive policies that
will benefit most of the Britons. Of course, with UK's power
structure and the elites still in an advantageous position - after
decades of policies that limited the power of state institutions - it
will not be a piece of cake. Yet, without the additional tight
scrutiny of the EU neoliberal monster, it will be much easier.
The
Thatcherian plague that began to infect Europe forty years ago, could
be defeated in the place where it was started. And then, the Leftist
'cure' against neoliberalism could spread throughout Europe.
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