Now that the referendum campaign is in full swing, big numbers and "definitive" arguments are being thrown at us from both sides in order to get our votes.
However, given the politicians' record of lying, we can't trust their numbers any more than their arguments - which we have few means of checking.
Most of the polemics so far have been over what's best for the British economy or for Britain's "national interest" - meaning, what's best for British bosses. So why should we care? It is we, workers, who produce all the value in this society. Why should we be concerned by the interests of a minority of parasitic profiteers?
As to the arguments which are supposed to concern us, they are only designed to conceal the real issues.
A DELUDED CAMPAIGN
Thus, would Brexit threaten 3 million jobs, as Osborne claimed last week? It would certainly cost some, judging from the way big companies like BMW, Ford or Nissan threaten their workers with job cuts if they don't vote for "Stay" - but how many is anybody's guess.
The "Leave" camp claims that this is a red herring and that companies would retain access to the EU market. But how would they do it, except by undercutting their EU competitors - meaning by cutting our wages and conditions?
And conversely, judging from the on-going cuts in real jobs which are barely replaced with non-jobs across the economy, what guarantee is there that staying in the EU will preserve decent jobs either? None whatsoever!
Either way, protecting our right to make a decent living will be a struggle; a matter of balance of forces in which we will have to impose our own requirements on the bosses. For instance, that all available work should be shared between all available hands, without loss in pay. After all, isn't it high time they paid up, for their crisis?
Among the arguments which are supposed to influence our votes, one is particularly vicious. And, ironically, used by both sides! Indeed they both claim to protect us from the alleged "threat" of EU workers undercutting our wages. The "leavers" want a quota system for EU migrants while the "stay" camp claims that Cameron's cut in EU workers' benefit rights will do the trick.
But either way, this is just an attempt at setting one section of the working class against another. To claim that EU workers are pushing wages down is a lie. It is their very British bosses who are pushing wages down and our interest is to fight alongside these workers for decent pay for all!
NO STAKE FOR THE WORKING CLASS
A working-class movement worth its name would clearly say that this referendum is just a diversion.
But most union leaders have joined the "in" camp, in the name of "preserving jobs" - possibly as a way of making us forget their own failure to organise any fight against the bosses' savaging of jobs since the beginning of the crisis?
Meanwhile one union at least, the railway union RMT, has joined the "out" camp, ironically presenting its stance as part of the "tradition of progressive and socialist opposition to the EU", in the words of the RMT's Mick Cash.
But what is "progressive" - let alone "socialist" - in siding with Boris Johnson, Gove or Farage?
Among the RMT's "six key reasons for leaving the EU", one is "to end attacks on rail workers" supposedly due to the EU's privatisation agenda. As if privatisation didn't start in Britain long before anywhere else in the EU! Likewise for the claim that renationalising the railways would be impossible within the EU. Wasn't Network Rail renationalised? And aren't both the German and French railways state-owned?
Another of the RMT's "key reasons" is "leave the EU to end austerity". As if Osborne's austerity was dictated by the EU and not by British capital! Across the EU, workers have faced similar policies, not because of the EU, but because of the bosses' offensive in the crisis. And no-one should forget that if the EU played a direct role in turning the screw on Greece, it was as an agent of international banks - including British ones!
The RMT urges "leave the EU to support democracy", adding "leave the EU to end attacks on workers' rights". But what is democratic about a British parliament which protects the interests of British capital and has raised more obstacles against workers' right to strike than any other EU country?
No, the RMT's stance is no more "progressive" or "socialist" than Farage's - only its rhetoric is. The working class has every reason to refuse its support to both camps. Doing otherwise would be to condone their shared pro-business agenda!