| Working Class Left |
Journal of the
| Reclaim the left |
First Published on the day after Britain's decision to recover its democratic rights 24th, June 2016
It looks from today's papers like being a ultra soft Brexit, with a referendum
attached rigged to present only soft Brexit or remain – a chance for remain to
overturn the ref against a demoralised leave vote with nothing to vote for.
The only ways to prevent that last outcome is 1. Tories elect a leave leader and
the Tories are revived as the Brexit party or 2 Corbyn resists his cabinet
pressure for a 2nd referendum.
Corbyn reportedly doesn't want a referendum, (most people are guessing that he
is pressurised to it by members of the cabinet, but like Elizabeth I he keeps them
guessing, won't say outright) The question is how long can he hold out,
surrounded by the cabinet who want him to give the middle classes what they
want.
What is at stake, even if the main aim is to win an election? It's a choice between
appeasing the middle class wing of the party or standing up for the working
classes.
This is a repeat of when Corbyn took over as leader, and made the wrong
decision which plunged the country into this conflict in the first place. If he had
stuck by his opinions he could have prevented the leave side from being
misrepresented in a most harmful way by the middle class media, (the Guardian
the Independent and the BBC, plus Sky). We would have had a 60-40 leave
outcome, and an 'orderly' and quick exit delivered by May's wretched deal which
would have passed with a bit of Labour support. And all the wounds would have
been healed by now.
The last thing the country needs is a referendum, especially one where no -one is
listening, and where the media misrepresentation's has the potential to generate
real damage in society since the aim of the remain side in any campaign would
not be to argue about the facts of the EU, (something they have to keep away
from as it would lose their case) but to concentrate on discrediting the leave vote.
This would spread mistrust and faux left wing bigotry on the one side and
alienation on the other.
Its not too late to repair some of the damage. Upholding working class opinion is
a way to unite the country, and the party (that oughtn't to be a strange idea!) -
and if he unites the country he will win an election. The cabinet threaten him
with losing middle class votes if he doesn't help bring about a Remain
referendum, as if losing working class votes won't matter..to the Labour party .
But they are forgetting that the reason he was the darling of their posh voters in
the first place is that he is 'authentic left'. As long as he still is seen as a
champion of the working classes, no matter if it involves uncomfortable truths at
Islington dinner tables, then the middle class left will swing behind him anyway,
because that's what they see themselves as doing too. Giving the middle classes
too much of what they want is actually counter productive. They'll be hating him
as if he was Blair within two years if he does that. The middle class are willing to
suffer a bit of punishment if it makes them feel genuinely left wing. What they
wont tolerate is being exposed as Blairites. They've tried Blairism, it didn't make
them feel good enough.
The alternative, to cheat your opponents out of the real prize of a referendum
win, call them names into the bargain, and then stamp on their necks and leave
them utterly and totally defeated and feeling that democracy itself is dead, and
that they have no place in society – beware that sort of victory. It cannot hold.
No amount of future blocks can stop a strong government from carrying out the
will of the people, and the Tory party is famously good at reviving itself with
vigour just when it seems all washed up. And their economic record will shine
brightly after a few years of the kind of difficulties Corbyn may experience,
including the embarrassment of when the EU blocks his nationalisation plans
and the middle classes realise the EU is what we said it was all along, a capitalist
club run from the Deutsch Bank
| Corbyn Weighs Up Demanding A Second Referendum - A Choice Between Appeasing The Middle Class Wing Of The Party Or Standing Up For The Working Classes. |