What are the most urgent problems facing the working class today? (1) Low wages, still far below their pre-crisis level, (2) job insecurity due to the spread of casual jobs, (3) redundancies or wage and pension cuts by big companies like BHS or Tata Steel, (4) the housing crisis and (5), shockingly reduced welfare provisions for the poorest, while the NHS is left to crack at the seams.
We all know who's responsible for this: British bosses, who've been cutting their wage bills to line their pockets, and their government, which has cut vital services, from welfare to health and social housing, all the better to subsidise the wealthy.
These are the only relevant facts for us, workers. But don't try to find any of these facts - let alone their real causes - in the arguments of the EU referendum's rival camps. These politicians just live on another planet!
Where's our voice?
Of course, the fact that politicians belong to the world of the wealthy is nothing new. But, shouldn't it be the duty of working class organisations to be our voice against these vested interests?
This is not how the RMT and ASLEF leaders see their duty, though. The RMT leadership, for instance, has unusually made the effort to contact members, outlining "6 reasons to vote Leave". The problem is that it's a pack of lies!
Lie n°1: the RMT leaders claim that "EU rail policies are set to further entrench rail privatisation and fragmentation." But how could this make things worse in Britain where, by the way, privatisation was implemented before anywhere else and outside of any EU regulations? As to making "it impossible to bring all of rail back into public ownership", as they claim, it's up to each government, not to the EU - and therefore up to workers (and unions!) to fight for it.
Lie n°2: they claim that "the EU has promoted undercutting and social dumping leading to the decimation of UK seafarers" and threatening others. As if it was the EU - and not British shareholders - who used such tricks! And as if nothing could have been done against it, by joining forces across all nationalities to protect the right to equal pay for the same job! But did the RMT try? No!
Lie n°3: they claim that "the EU is developing a new policy framework to attack trade union rights, collective bargaining, (etc.,). This is already being enforced in countries which have received EU 'bailouts'." But in Greece, the only bailed out country so far, these attacks started before! And the same attacks have taken place in Britain, without a bailout and outside of any EU directive!
Lie n°4: they claim that "instead of protecting jobs and investment, EU austerity is driving UK austerity." Except that it's not the EU which drove austerity in Britain, but the greed of British finance capital!
Lie n°5: they claim that leaving the EU will "stop the attacks on our NHS" by preventing TTIP (a trade agreement with the US). Except that the NHS is sick for lack of funding from British governments and that, with or without Brexit, British big business will want to join TTIP anyway!
Lie n°6: they claim "the vast majority of the laws... are now made in the EU and not the UK. We have no say over those laws" and they urge us to vote Leave "for democracy". As if we, workers, had more of a say over laws passed in the Commons. The truth is, that whoever passes laws, we have more power by taking collective action!
We have no interest in their farce
It looks as if the RMT leaders are putting all their energy into blaming the EU rather than British bosses! In any case, they don't even seem to have noticed what's really happening in this referendum - as if they'd been stranded in their official train for decades, in some distant siding!
Indeed, the one thing that this referendum is no longer about - and, in fact, never was - is the EU. Initially, it was about Cameron's attempt to contain the growing fear caused by Ukip among his own Tory backbenchers. However, he has only succeeded in providing the "rebels" with a platform in the form of Brexit. And now, Tory Brexiters say they will trigger a leadership contest regardless of the referendum's outcome, while Cameron's would-be successors are lining up on the Brexit side.
The RMT leaders may have no problem with siding with the likes of Farage and Boris Johnson, while other union leaders, together with Corbyn, see no problem with siding with Cameron and the CBI. But we, workers, know better.
For us, there is only one camp - our own, which is not represented in this referendum. Both camps represent our class enemy. By choosing to scapegoat migrant workers, it is our class that they are attacking, our forces that they want to split. It is in our interests to refuse to have anything at all to do with this!