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Volume 46 Number 5, March 8, 2016 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
Commentary:
The fact that David Cameron has had to declare that his current tour of the country in the referendum for a "Yes" vote to remain in European Union (EU) is "Project Fact" rather than "Project Fear" rather underlines his desperation to stop any serious discussion on how people should vote and reveals his true aim to stampede through a "Yes" vote in the referendum in June. The EU referendum was called on February 20, just hours after Cameron claimed to have achieved radical reshaping of Britain's place in the EU, and a "special status" for the UK. The choice of June was opposed by many including those who support the "Yes" campaign as coming too close to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland Assembly elections. Nicola Sturgeon First Minister of the Scottish Parliament, Carwyn Jones First Minister of Welsh Assembly and Arlene Foster First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly wrote to David Cameron to urge him to defer the date. Cameron ignored their concerns that a June date will confuse the process and it would not give any time for people to consider such an important matter as whether Britain should remain in, or withdraw from the EU.
David Cameron's referendum campaign is indeed a "Project of Fear" designed to gloss over the serious issues and is just as shallow as is his claim to have achieved Britain's "special status" in the EU. Whilst Cameron tries to give the illusion that he is achieving advantages against the other European powers by threatening them with the referendum he also wants to make sure that their interests are also served by stampeding through the "Yes" vote to continue Britain's membership of this elite club of the monopolies in the EU.
On Sunday, the Cabinet Office published a "detailed document" which has already been reportedly described by some in his own Cabinet as another "dodgy dossier". The warning was of what the Prime Minister called a "decade of uncertainty" if Britain leaves the EU, ridiculously citing negotiations with other European and non-European countries over the terms of "access to their markets" as the reason Britain cannot leave its membership of the EU. But what the Prime Minster also wants to hide in this fear campaign is that far from being a victim of Brussels, where he claims he had to "negotiate" a new deal, Britain as one of the old colonial powers along with Germany and France has always dominated the European Union and all its member countries on behalf of the monopolies and financial oligarchy he represents. The British monopolies and financial elite are in rivalry to dominate Europe and this is his aim, an aim he shares with the other members of his cabinet that want a "No" vote and who think the interests of the monopolies can be better served outside the EU. All of their concerns have nothing to do with the interests of the people of Britain, and Europe and their future.
Rather that submitting to this climate of fear and the aim of the Prime Minster to stampede through a "Yes" vote the working class and people should look to their own interests and aspirations in this referendum to inform themselves of how they should vote. Having time for people to properly evaluate the issues would enable people to see that a European Union dominated by the European powers and their monopolies is a block to the progress of the working class and people to defeat the pro-austerity and pro-war agenda of the dominant powers in the EU. In deepening the discussion people would see that the EU of the monopolies has imposed extreme measures of impoverishment on Greece as well as other European countries overriding the sovereign governments of those countries. The EU bloc is also an alliance with the US implementing so-called "free trade" agreements such as TTIP (the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) to further allow the penetration of US and European monopolies to privatise public services and interfere in the affairs of European countries, overriding the sovereignty of the people and their governments. The EU as a bloc also seeks to weld EU countries to the warmongering NATO alliance and the inter-imperialist rivalry on the side of Anglo-US imperialists aim of world domination regardless of the wars, illegal invasions, proxy interference, devastation, death and mayhem they create.
To have this proper debate would mean that more and more people would see the EU for what it is. A block and hindrance not only to the sovereignty of European countries but also a factor for compromising the sovereignty of the peoples of Scotland, Wales and England. Such a discussion would reveal that leaving the EU of the monopolies would remove another major block to progress. It would enable the working class and people to go for sovereign states on a new basis, where the working class and people, if they so desire, can decide on a free and equal union between them which will put the English ruling elite at Westminster in their place. This would support the same struggle for the working class and people of other EU countries and further enable all to embark on a line of march to establish modern sovereign socialist states. Britain leaving on this basis indeed would start to end the anachronism of a Europe of the monopolies dominated by the big powers and open the possibility for genuinely uniting the peoples and countries of Europe on a new equal basis that serves the interests of all the peoples of Europe and the world.