THE spectacle of the Tory party tearing itself apart over the EU referendum will most certainly gladden the hearts of workers across the country.
Last week, the split between the pro Yes-ministers led by Cameron and the six pro-Brexit ministers in his government, including his old friend Michael Gove who faces the sack for pointing out that Cameron’s ‘concessions’ are not legally binding, openly turned into a vicious war after Cameron instructed civil servants to deny cabinet papers and ministerial briefings to the ‘Out’ camp in his cabinet.
This unprecedented move was designed to deny them access to official papers that could be used as part of their campaign to leave the EU. The head of the civil service, Sir Jeremy Heywood, grandly proclaimed that it was the job of civil servants to loyally support every policy of the government, implying that the pro-Brexit ministers like Iain Duncan Smith in the pensions department and Gove the justice minister are being not just side-lined but frozen out of government.
This is a Tory government where six of its ministers are in effect ostracised, banned and left spluttering their indignation at such dictatorial measures. Duncan Smith responded by demanding that his civil servants obeyed him not the prime minister and demanded that they risk the threatened disciplinary action and ignore Cameron’s instruction.
Duncan Smith was declaring himself beyond Cameron’s authority. With Cameron making a public scathing personal attack on Boris Johnson in the House of Commons last week, branding Johnson an opportunist who only backed Brexit in order to boost his chances of winning the leadership of the Tory party, the entire Tory party is ripping itself apart.
In another move, Cameron has announced plans to virtually disband every local Conservative Association on the unspoken grounds that they are to a man and woman stuffed with fanatical euroscpetics who are demanding that Tory MPs toe the line or face deselection.
With government ministers tearing at each other’s throats and the leadership declaring war on its supporters in the country and over 100 Tory MPs openly opposing Cameron on the issue, the Tory party is heading rapidly into a permanent split that will shatter it – whatever the outcome of the referendum vote.
This vote, on June 23, will in fact shatter the entire political landscape. The only way that Cameron can win, will be because of the support of the Labour Party and the leadership of the TUC and large unions like Unite and Unison, who have come out as enthusiastic supporters of the capitalist EU on the spurious grounds that it affords some legal protection for workers.
This relieves them of any responsibility for fighting for their members’ rights themselves, something they have always refused to do! Cameron is banking on Corbyn and the TUC rallying workers to the vote to stay in an EU that is collapsing by the hour.
If Cameron wins, it is odds-on that the massive eurosceptic wing of his party will split irrevocably and head off in the direction of UKIP or similar. This would mean Cameron could only rule in some form of national government with the right-wing of the Labour Party.
If the vote is lost, then Cameron, despite all his protestations to the contrary, will be forced out and an emergency general election called under conditions where the banks are collapsing and the working class is in revolt against austerity cuts and the smashing up of the NHS and welfare state.
With the capitalist class desperate to remain within the walls of the bosses club that is the EU in order to try and weather the developing economic crash, the way forward for the working class is clear. Vote ‘Out’ on June 23 and break with the EU.
The demand must be to immediately bring down the Tory government through the organisation of a general strike and go forward to a workers government and socialism. This must be linked to the fight of the working class of Europe to smash the bankrupt capitalist EU and advance to the Socialist United States of Europe.