16th December 2017
Socialist reasons to stay in the EU
First of all, consider the main reasons put forward by the leave campaign:
1. Control
The UK parliament has never not been sovereign. Any country is subject to international law, treaties and trade agreements. If the UK wishes to trade with Europe it will still have conform to EU standards, but if we are not in the EU we will have little say over those standards.
On human rights, these are not consequent on our membership of the EU but arise from the European Convention on Human Rights. This provides a minimum set of rights and there is nothing to stop the UK parliament going further. What, however, those who want to leave European institutions want to do is to abandon some of those rights, not a direction in which I would suggest socialists want to go.
Our membership of the EU provides few obstacles to measures such as nationalisation and workers rights. Indeed, there are countries in the EU that are ahead of us in these ways.
Overall, being in the EU gives us more control, not less.
2. Immigration
Many of the immigrants to this country come from outside the EU, particularly the black, Asian and Muslim people who are the objects of much racism, and would not be affected by our leaving the EU. The flow of refugees to the UK could even increase if we leave the EU since EU countries would not then have so much reason to prevent them coming to the UK.
Migration to and from the EU will generally settle down somewhat as living standards level out across the Union. We are also seeing, predictably, that many businesses need labour from elsewhere in Europe and are lobbying to ensure that there are sufficient exemptions to any immigration controls to allow this to continue.
So, overall, leaving the EU is unlikely to deliver the reductions in immigration that the leavers want.
However, this is not what is important.
What is important is that anti-immigration is driven by xenophobia and hatred which are in turn driven by people’s disaffection, powerlessness and lack of self worth. All of which need to be addressed, not by pandering to them, but by addressing the underlying causes and reducing them. They are corrosive features that are damaging to people and society wherever they occur.
What is also important is that immigration is generally a good thing. Demographically, immigrants tend to be of working age and make a positive contribution to the economy. In a country where the average age, and hence the number of people not in work, are going up this is particularly important. In addition, immigrants contribute to diverse, vibrant and tolerant communities. Much of the opposition to immigration comes from areas where there are, in fact, very few immigrants.
Continuing with some of the other reasons for remaining in the EU
3. Peace.
The nationalist tendencies driving separatist movements in Europe have taken us to war on many occasions. Indeed, the period from 1870 to 1945 is sometimes referred to as The European Civil War. And that was preceded by the Crimean war and the Napoleonic wars. In fact there is probably no previous 70 year period in history when two or more groups within the geographical area of the EU were not at war with each other (see Wikipedia’s List of conflicts in Europe ).
Within the EU, explicitly or implicitly, things have to be sorted out diplomatically. War is not an option. We have repeatedly seen how ready European governments are to go to war in other parts of the world. There is a very real danger that if the EU starts to fragment the forces of nationalism that lead to the break up will also lead to war.
4. Resisting international plutocracy
Outside of the EU the UK is going to be far more vulnerable to multinational businesses. We will be more dependent on the USA and subject to international trade agreements that really are a threat to us enacting socialist policies.
On the other hand the EU has shown itself as capable of standing up to companies like Google and Microsoft, requiring them to conform to European requirements and handing down huge fines if they do not (e.g. see 1bn fine for Google). The EU is acting against tax avoidance in ways the the UK government does not and could not (see EU blacklists tax havens).
This is not to say that the EU is perfect, but they can certainly achieve more than the UK can do on its own.
5. Workers and consumers rights
What many of the capitalists who are in favour of leaving the EU want is a race to the bottom. They want to abolish workers’ rights and sell poor quality, even unsafe, goods.
It is inherent in the nature of the EU to resist this. Those countries with the higher standards, particularly when they are relatively efficient like Germany, are not going to permit competition from others with lower standards. Nor are they willing to concede lower standards for their own people, particularly when they have more influential trade unions and consumer organisations that we have in the UK. (See, for example, European Court of Justice ruling on paid holidays for gig economy workers.)
6. Parliament does not have a mandate to take the UK out of the EU
Britain has not voted to leave the EU. Slightly over a quarter (26.7%) of the UK population voted to leave, nearly as many (24.8%) voted to stay and the rest either chose not to vote (19.8%) or were not allowed to vote (e.g. residents without UK citizenship and young people).
In any case the referendum was only advisory. The result gave insufficient mandate and there is insufficient consent for the UK to leave the EU.
The idea that the leave vote “won” and that is therefore “the will of the people”, the democratic decision that must be complied with, is a classic example of the fallacy of winner take all democracy. There is something strange about the argument that we have to listen to the views of those who voted leave (actually not their views, only a yes/no choice that they were given the opportunity to make on one particular occasion) but we can ignore everyone else.
Since the referendum, the general election of June 2017 was called in order to strengthen the Tory government’s authority in the EU negotiations. The result reinforced their lack of mandate.
It is Parliament's responsibility, acting in the best interests of all citizens and residents of the UK to decide whether we leave the EU. In particular they have a responsibility to the young people who did not have a vote and who will have to live with the consequences of Parliament’s decisions.
The majority of MPs were in favour of remaining in the EU. The realities of trying to leave the EU should have demonstrated to them even more clearly why it is in their constituents’ interests for the UK to remain in the EU.
7. The aggressive right wing must be opposed.
It is probably the case that one of the biggest motivations for Parliament to bring the UK out of the EU is fear of a violent reaction from the right if they do not. (See, for example, Death threats to Dominic Grieve) Whilst this may be couched in terms such as we must not suggest that the minority of the population who voted leave are wrong, the converse is to suggest that everyone else is wrong.
Have we not learned the lesson that appeasing the militant right is a road to disaster?
8. Becoming more socialist
Yes, the EU is a capitalist organisation. As are all the countries in it, including the UK. But if the UK moves to be a more redistributive and socialist society the EU is not going to stop it and, if anything, will make it easier. Those who think we could be some sort of halcyon socialist state by being outside of the EU need to come up with a realistic road map of how we would get there.
The main mechanisms for becoming a more equal society are tax and spending. The EU does not prevent the UK from having fairer and higher taxation and other countries in the EU have higher taxes than the UK. There is no general constraint on government spending, particularly in areas such as education, health and social services. There may be some constraints on government borrowing, but we should be bringing borrowing down anyway. Why should we be paying the rich in order to access the money that we could have collected from them in taxes?
Policies such as nationalisation are possible within the EU (see, e.g. EU rules and nationalisation). Part of the UK’s railway and bus operations are already nationalised – they belong to the German government.
9. It will better for the Labour party if it comes out unequivocally to remain in the EU.
Electorally this will benefit Labour in the next general election. Put simply, most of the people who voted leave are not going to vote Labour anyway. On the other hand a majority of the remain voters support Labour and they are likely to desert Labour in significant numbers if it does not support remaining in the EU.
The fact that a majority of Labour held seats voted leave does not mean that Labour voters voted leave. In fact a majority of Labour voters in these constituencies voted remain. It was non Labour voters who swung the referendum. (See Labour's Brexit dilemma).
In addition, it was areas with the stronger remain vote that saw the bigger swings to Labour in the 2017 election (see Brexit and the election).
Taking clear stands generally benefits a party, which will have been a factor in Labour’s success in 2017. On the other hand, Labour’s current position on Europe is probably not doing it much good.
Many people have come, or come back, to Labour after the disillusionment of New Labour. Many may be disillusioned and desert the Party if it does not take a principled pro-EU stand. Particularly many who are behind the move towards a radical, grass-roots party. There may be those on the Right who are rather hoping this will happen.
10. Most people will be worse off if we leave the EU – but probably not the rich.
“There is overwhelming or near-unanimous agreement among economists that leaving the European Union will adversely affect the British economy in the medium- and long-term.” (Brexit, Long-term economic analyses). Inequality the UK is likely to get worse if it leaves the EU (EU and GINI). It would seem that the worst inequality occurs in particular areas of the UK and is the result of UK government policy, not EU policy.