Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials, 25 May 2016

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
25 May 2016

Under this system, the political scene is always more about show business than actual political content which would have any relevance to the rest of us. And there is no reason why things would be different with the "to Brexit, or not to Brexit" theatre. Except that it's getting more farcical by the day!

Already the "Leave" camp has produced a film called "Brexit: The Movie", which looks set to be released through the main cinema chains.

As for the "Remain" camp, Cameron has announced that he will not debate any of his pro-Brexit opponents. So we'll be presented with his "one-man show" on TV into the bargain!

This has caused so much upset among Tory "Leavers" that some of them want to trigger an early leadership contest against Cameron. Predictably so, too. After all, a number of Tory wannabees, like Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, chose the Brexit camp in the hope of being in a better position in the race for Cameron's job. And they were counting on the referendum debates, to campaign for themselves in this race.

These politicians are as short-sighted as one can be, when it comes to the interests of the majority of society. But when it comes to promoting their own careers, they are very long-sighted indeed!

Workers' interests are not represented

What has all this show-business to do with the EU? Nothing in fact. The issue of the EU has long been a pretext used by rival political cliques of the capitalist class in their on-going in-fighting. No more, no less. Just as none of their show business has got anything to do with the interests of the working class majority of the population.

The "Remain" camp warns of a job onslaught in case of Brexit. But they're the same politicians who've presided over, if not encouraged, the British bosses' onslaught against permanent, decent jobs, replacing them with low-paid casual jobs!

As to the "Leave" camp, its position is best summed up by one of its main donors, billionaire Peter Hargreaves, who is totally against flexi time, against extended maternity leave, against the right to limit the working week to 48 hours and against most other workers' rights introduced through EU regulations. Whatever they may say about "standing for British jobs", they are just like the other camp - standing only for British bosses against the whole of the working class.

And, of course, what both camps have in common, is their blaming of EU (or any foreign) workers for depriving British workers of their jobs and for undercutting wages. When, in fact, the past years' fall in wages was the result of the (very) British bosses' offensive against the working class since the beginning of the crisis, including by generalising the use of zero-hours contracts!

Our only camp is working class unity!

So, with both camps in the referendum representing so clearly the interests of the bosses, we will not have any means of expressing our own class interests with our ballot papers on 23rd June.

Indeed, what are our class interests? First of all, to make the capitalists pay for the crisis they have caused with their frenzied dash for short-term profits. To achieve this, we have a long way to go: and along this road, we will need to assemble workers from all sections and all nationalities to fight together against the bosses and their politicians, using all of our strength.

But beyond that, our interests are much broader and our ambitions should be much greater. Our capitalist enemies are all dependent on the subsidies and life-lines extended to them by their respective states. But we're not. We may have a British, Romanian, Polish or Pakistani passport, but we're all workers, exploited in the same way, by faceless shareholders, who live off our sweat and deprive us of any say in this society.

This is what makes the working class an international class. In our ranks, many different languages and cultural traditions not only can co-exist, but actually enrich one another. In fact, this was how mankind developed to the point where it is today, 60,000 years after our common ancestors emigrated from Africa.

We have no need for long-outdated nationalities and national states. Our country is the entire planet.

Of course, the "Remain" camp cannot and would not offer this. On the other hand, we certainly cannot and would not want the narrow, self-centred "fortress Britain" that the "Leave" camp is promoting.

If mankind has a future - based on a social organisation which has been freed once and for all from all remnants of private profiteering - it will have to be on the scale of the entire planet.