>From my vantage point across the Irish sea, it seems that the British left
was nearly totally opposed to Leave, apart from a couple wholly
inconsequential Trotskyist groups and a small fringe of Labour with a
history of anti-immigration stances. The Trotskyists, too, engaged in
xenophobic dog-whistling in their Leave campaign.
Anecdotally, there are already many reports of triumphalist racist abuse against immigrants and people who "look like" them, just as there were in the wake of Prop 187. This is only likely to increase as Leave voters begin to realise the only short-term effect of Brexit will be the hit to their wallet.
And yes, in answer to someone else's question, there almost certainly will be another Scottish referendum soon, and Northern Ireland's future is in question too (although personally I think it is more likely to vote for independence, or some kind of association with an independent Scotland, than for a united Ireland). That would virtually cement Tory control of the rump Britain for generations to come.
Speaking as someone who has always identified with the Eurosceptic left, I cannot see anything good coming out of this for the English and Welsh working class.
On 24 June 2016 at 19:21, James Creegan <turbulo at aol.com> wrote:
>
> I will remain agnostic on Marv's first "cent". I haven't thought about
> the possible economic effects enough to comment, although the markets are
> clearly not cheered.
>
> I think the second "cent" gives a wrong and misleading scent. True, the
> Ukip and the little England Tories will be the most immediate political
> beneficiaries of the referendum. But this doesn't negate the working
> class's own very compelling reasons for being against what has shown itself
> to be mainly an instrument of finance capital for removing economic
> decisions from the realm of parliamentary democracy and promoting
> neoliberalism and austerity. Have we already forgotten what the EU did to
> Greece? If the economic consequences of a Brexit are short of catastrophic,
> as Marv seems to think, couldn't this help convince the people of countries
> like Greece, Spain and Portugal, and maybe even Britain and France, that
> getting out in opposition to austerity pressures isn't a fate worse than
> death? Because a majority of Britons may have voted to leave for the wrong
> reasons doesn't mean the left shouldn't have voted the same way for the
> right ones. .
>
> Jim Creegan
>
> My two cents worth on Brexit:
>
> 1. Despite all the noise from the markets and the economic commentatariat,
> Brexit won’t have any appreciable effect on the conditions of the British
> and European working classes one way or another, nor on trade and
> investment relations between British and European capitalists.
>
> 2. Early Marxists and social democrats, notably August Bebel, referred to
> the mix of racism and anti-establishment sentiment driving the protest of
> the least class conscious and politically aware workers as “the socialism
> of fools”. Rather than an encouraging sign for the left, Brexit has to be
> seen within the context of the return of mass right-wing movements to to
> the US, England, and Europe.
>
> --
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