THE ‘Leave’ victory in the just-held referendum constitutes a huge revolutionary victory for the working class and the poor of the UK who voted in their millions to quit the anti-working class bankers and bosses dictatorship that is the European Union.
Their vote delivered a huge blow at the Tories, and has smashed the Cameron leadership of that party. Cameron has resigned and his co-leader Osborne is still in hiding, leaving the country without a government and in the hands of the civil servants.
In these situations it is usual for the opposition to move in for the kill, to put an end to the badly wounded animal that is the Tory party with the unresistible demand for a general election now.
This has just not happened, since the Labour Party long ago gave up representing the interests of the workers and the poor, to become a tweedle dee alternative to the Tory party.
Labour supported the EU and the ‘Remain’ campaign’ after its leader Corbyn bottled out of the fight after being a lifelong opponent of the EU. The Tory party shipwreck has happened and even now the Labourites are helping to keep what is left of it afloat.
In his speech on Thursday June 2nd Corbyn announced that he was going to vote ‘Remain’, saying the following to explain his capitulation. ‘A vote to “Leave” means a Conservative government would then be in charge of negotiating Britain’s exit.
Everything they have done as a government so far means we could not rely on them to protect the workplace rights that millions rely on. A Tory Brexit negotiation would be a disaster for the majority of people in Britain.’
Now he has the perfect opportunity to admit that he should have listened to the working class and represented their view, and that with the shipwreck of the Tory leaders he is demanding a general election so that Labour will be in charge of the ‘Leave’ negotiations.
He, however, has done nothing of the sort and has been rewarded with a coup attempt led by Hilary Benn to remove him from the leadership so that the Blairites can form a national unity government with the split and divided Tory Party. While News Line is opposed to the right wing witch-hunt, it is obvious that in this crisis situation the working class requires a party with a lot more steel in it and possessing a lot more resolve than Corbyn’s Labour!
The working class requires a revolutionary party to lead it since the world capitalist crisis that is breaking apart the Tory party is also putting an end to the remnants of reformist Labourism.
However the working class has only just begun its work, and there is much work to be done. It not only defied the Labour Party with its vote, it defied the trade union leaders and the leaders of the TUC – they voted with the Tories. Only Aslef, the RMT and the Bakers union stood with the working class and opposed the EU from a socialist stance!
As is well known the Tories threatened retribution if they were rejected in the form of massive cuts and attacks all round. They can be expected to be as good as their word, and the working class must be ready for the next phase of the struggle.
It must purge its unions of leaderships that supported the Tories in the referendum. Immediately the trade unions must be made to move into action to defend all of the gains of the working class.
This means that the wave of closures in the NHS must be stopped by the trade unions refusing to accept the closures of children’s facilities and A&Es at hospitals such as Ealing and North Middlesex. They must be occupied and kept working normally by the trade unions. The Tories must not be allowed to close down the NHS as a form of retribution for the ‘Leave’ vote.
Every job and pension scheme must be defended, and war must be declared on zero hours contracts that have even got into the universities. Zero hours contracts must be banned, along with benefit cuts so that there is no return to the conditions of the 19th century.
Above all in the battles that lie immediately ahead, to ensure that the UK quits the EU, and against the anti-working class measures that a Tory government or a Tory-Blairite coalition will introduce, requires that the revolutionary leadership of the WRP and the Young Socialists must be built up to mobilise the working class to take the power and establish a workers government and socialism. There is not a moment to lose!
