The Brit Left and Lexit Left and
it's consequences...unintended and otherwise.. no left Exit
I want today to reflect today on
the legacy of the Lexit left cosign of June 23rd of 2016. Many of its
supporters quite legitimately describe themselves as Marxists or
value as I do the massive contribution of Marxism to analysis and
critical theory. However Marxism is a product of European thought and
forms the bed rock of continental philosophy, resistance and cultural
analysts . The traditions of the Marxist left in the UK has a problem
with our background of analytical thought and legacy of Methodism as
a dampener of radical change. The European Marxist tradition with its
aims of equality of power and access to information to all and of a
new classless society..is a vital current that we all gain from a
close contact with Europe.
I have traveled extensively in
Europe I have met political activists from all of its countries. When
I speak to such people about the Lexit Left they smile sadly and tell
me that they do not understand the Lexit outlook. The traditions of
Europe are more socially transforming, more able to challenge and is
more likely to succeed. It is Europe that has a long history of
revolution , of social transformation. It is the Europe of the
Commune of Rosa Luxembourg , Lenin was in exile in Switzerland and it
was the domain of Tito, of Gramsci and of course Marx. There has been
no radical figures transforming British society, Methodism, Cromwell
and Ramsey MacDonald saw to that.
The institutions of the E U are
bureaucratic and powerful and have lots wrong them, they protect
wealth and privilege and yet the powers of reaction and dominance are
far more powerful in the UK and our * special relationship" with
the USA entrenches them more. The radical and left wing parties of
Europe are closer to power than the left in the UK and in North
America. The chances for transformation to a people's Europe is
closer than it is in the UK. Corbyn has great promise and great
opportunity to build an Ecosocialist society here but it would be
easier had we remained. A linked European economy would have made
transformation easier, change in one of the European countries would
allow change, equality and transformation to cross into other members
of the EU.
The Lexit Left campaign while
understandable gave confidence to the right. It allowed the growing
intolerance to move up a gear and develop a new confidence. The rise
of hate crime sped up over Brexit, it gave impetus to allow people of
the right to argue for a continuation of the Thatcherite revolution.
In many cases the Lexit Left were largely but not exclusively linked
to the old Brit Left that failed to understand Welsh ethnicity and
mistook it for crude right wing nationalism. The Ecosocialist and
Republican thinkers in Wales and other parts of Europe and the UK
have a legitimate anxiety over the blind spots of the old Brit left.
Europe and the EU offer greater changes of transformation to a
classless socialist society than that of a UK tied to a Trump USA.
Europe created Marx, Gramsci, Tito
and others the blind spot of the Brit left is their Freudian like
denial that they have a Eurosceptic I'd that bares a resemblance to
that of the right. Our blind spots teach us more about ourselves..
the Lexit Left has much to reflect upon...The EU is far from perfect
and exists often to defend in equality and capitalist rule.....NAFTA
is far worse and there is worse to come....Europe was a better
hope....the Lexit left and the unintended consequences of their
campaign has put the transformation of our society back several
generations..it may even have adverted a revolutionary change as
effectively as English Methodism did..The only left exit is one from
capitalism.
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