YESTERDAY, under orders from Tory leader Cameron, most of the King’s horses and most of the King’s men of the major trade trade unions and the Labour Party gathered to make a desperate effort to save the hated Cameron government from a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the working class in the June 23 referendum.
This desperate last minute effort was made necessary because the mass of Tory supporters are not willing to turn out to see ‘little’ Britain become a minor part of the would-be greater Europe of the EU, with the strings being pulled from Berlin and Brussels and with the European Central Bank and the IMF (now hated in Greece and Ireland) in charge.
The last straw for the Cameron Tories came after his latest threats – that a vote to leave the EU would see pensions cut, bus passes for the elderly abolished and wages cut – got a most hostile response from those it was meant to frighten into voting ‘Remain’ – to the point where it was obvious, even to Cameron and Osborne, that the game was up. It was either call in the Labour and trade union leaders to try and get the working class to vote for Cameron and Osborne on June 23, or resign.
Yesterday midday saw the Labour shadow cabinet, the leaders of the major trade unions (with the honourable exception of the RMT, Aslef and the Bakers) gathered at Congress House to swear allegiance to the Cameron drive to force the working class to remain in the EU.
Corbyn, the Labour leader who is known to oppose the EU, once again left his political backbone at home to lead the charge to keep the Cameron government in office. He emphasised the extraordinary situation saying: ‘This is a coming together of the Labour Shadow Cabinet, the General Secretaries of the members of the General Council of the TUC and many members of our party’s National Executive. This is the labour movement saying that we are voting to remain in the European Union next week.’
Everybody knows that the truth is that they are voting to keep the Cameron government in office, austerity measures and all, and to make the working class accept the EU.
Corbyn added: ‘We are saying that because we want to defend the very many gains that we have made by trade unions across Europe that have brought us better working conditions, longer holidays, less discrimination and maternity and paternity leave.’
Corbyn and Co are voting to keep Cameron in office so that the EU, which has destroyed the Greek economy, can allegedly defend workers’ rights in the UK against the same Cameron government that Labour is now desperate to keep in office! This is the logic of Corbyn in Wonderland! It would be much easier to get rid of Cameron by smashing the Tories on June 23!
Corbyn concluded: ‘It is the Labour position, it is the trade union position, to vote to remain.’ In fact, it is not the Labour position and the trade union position. A growing number of Labour MPs support ‘Leave’ and the position of the RMT, Aslef and the BFAWU trade unions is the principled position that is supported by the majority of workers.
Their statement said: ‘It’s a myth that the EU has won workers’ rights and protections for workers. Nearly all the laws that protect workers in Britain are UK laws which have been won by the struggles and campaigns of the British trade union and Labour movement.
‘In fact, the EU and its European Court of Justice have accelerated their policy agenda which attacks trade union rights, job protections and wages. The TTIP trade agreement being negotiated between the EU and the United States will promote big business at the expense of sovereign governments and their organisations including our NHS. Environmental regulations, employment rights, food safety, privacy laws and many other safeguards will also be secondary to the right of corporations to make even bigger profits . . . The EU is anti-worker and cannot be reformed.’
Workers be warned. The Labour and trade union leaders who are now seeking to rescue Cameron will join him in a national government if he wins the referendum and the Tories split, and if he loses, will offer the same service to cheat workers of their victory.
So vote Leave on June 23 to bring down the Tories and to go forward to a workers’ government through a socialist revolution.
