Why We Need a Left Exit from Fortress Europe by Tariq Ali Lyrics
[Tariq Ali]
Dear friends, if we look at the European Union, simply from the vantage point of where we are--i.e. London, the capital of the United Kingdom--virtually the entire political elite is for Remain. If you look at the new newspapers, all the financial press--the Economist, the Financial Times, the liberal dailies, the Guardian, the Independent, the Mirror--are for remaining. the Murdoch press is slightly skeptical, but is ultimately in favor of remaining. So, there is a situation that is unbalanced. and the Fear campaign that is on now does remind one of the campaign against the Scottish right to independence, which of the last two or three weeks was totally dominated by fear. And it's exactly the same tactic that is being followed on this occasion. I mean, it is difficult to open a newspaper without reading some fear campaign, a story: if Britain leaves disaster will happen economically. Disaster will happen on this front, on that front, and on every other front possible.
So, let's just try and see what is at stake in this Referendum. I look at the Referendum not exclusively from the point of view of what is in the interests of the UK and it's majority population at the present time. It's wrong to just look at it from that point of view. I think if you look at the Referendum from what is happening in Europe as a whole and what Europe needs, then what becomes, what is otherwise, and should be, a tactical issue for the Left, should we stay in or stay out, there is no huge issue involved, there is no big principle at stake, except that tactically now, given what the EU has been doing since 2008, and in particular, it becomes absolutely crucial to deliver, if we can, a huge cake in Europe's backside, on it, hard, to provoke a British exit and to open up a debate within Europe itself as in what future it should have--the direction in which it is going.
I don't have much respect for the Remain campaign. I don't have any respect for the conservative-dominated Brexit campaign. It's a fight within the conservative party. And the notion that Boris Johnson is somehow evil personified and Cameron is good is something that I find not only distasteful but a complete falsehood. I mean, we are living in a...you know, we have just experienced one of the most vicious, Islamophobic, racist campaigns, against the guy who has been elected major of London--Sadiq Khan --just vicious. Who waged this campaign? The campaign was waged by the Conservative Party as a whole, led by Cameron and Zach Goldsmith. We now know that there were big clashes between Goldsmith and the party campaign, but they said this is the way we are going to fight the campaign--full stop--we don't care what you think. So, they did it and they lost. How is this any worse than what Boris would have done? He participated in the same campaign on Camerson's side. So, the notion that one side is utterly racist and the other side is not is just not even worth thinking about seriously.
Corbyn was under huge pressure within the party to join Cameron and have a joint campaign. This he rejected which is of course positive. His own position is not very good in my opinion. Because if had he come out against, it would have had a bigger impact and we would then have had a real debate within the labor movement as a whole. But he didn't do that. And his reasons for staying in are the same--change it from within. Now this is a position which is put forward by some on the Left: it is best to stay in and change it from within. Well, I ask, "How do you intend to change it?" How? We haven't had a single idea from these people as to how you are going to change Europe. Because, as even some of those who are in favor of staying in say, it is impossible to democratize the institution as is presently constituted. How are you going to do it? No answers at all.
There are possibilities, but they haven't come up with them. And those possibilities require a new constitution for the EU, massive democratization on local and regional levels as well as national levels, and economy which is not tied to the neo-liberal model of the Washington consensus. But noone has come up with that. I mean, we are waiting to hear how a new Europe is possible. Nothing. When I asked Vero Falkus[?] and his gang I asked, "have you even got a team of experts on your side who want to change Europe from within? At least write an alternative constitution for the EU?" Why? Not time enough? Well then what's the point of waging this sort of wishy-washy campaign if you haven't got any alternative. Who knows? they might have convinced me or some of us here, I have no idea. But given that there's absolutely nothing...otherwise, it just becomes sentimental, people just saying what they feel without much thought going into it. I mean, my dear friend Noam Chomsky has come out against Brexit on extremely narrow grounds that the right, the racist Right is supporting it. Well the racist Right [?] is also against coming out, so that doesn't get you very far. Ken Lowe[?] made this wonderful movie, is also in favor of fighting from within.
It's, you know, not a serious argument, unless we are told and given an alternative. Otherwise, we can say it about everything: another world is possible, another Europe is possible, another Asia is possible. Yes, they're all possible. But how do you get there? Is there a bridge to that possibility? Is there even a narrow path to that bridge? So far, no. So, it's difficult sometimes to argue the case, but I think we have to argue it that on every single level the changes in the structure of the EU and what it stands for is obvious. If previously we used to think that, o.k., economically Europe comes out and mouths platitudes "we all are for economic stability", this that and the other, it doesn't matter, because politically we can do what we want. Now, we have the politics and economics of Europe like this--totally bound with each other.
And if you look at it now, on virtually any level, starting with the economy, the economic prohibitions of Europe Union--and this is before the TTIP has even been made public--are such that Corbyn would not be able to implement even the mildest radical things in his manifesto. Renationalize the railways? Not allowed by the European Union laws at the moment. Not allowed. And even those working for Corbyn and John McDonald admit this. That as presently constituted, none of our policy prescriptions would go through. But then, "we would fight for a different Europe when we came to power." Forget it if you're not fighting now, educating people, regardless of whether we win or we lose. So, economically, it is a machine for neo-liberal capitalism and that is what it pushes.
Add to that, and we have clear-cut examples of that, we have seen what they did to Greece. Completely brutalize and wreck a country which was merely demanding 50% sovereignty to save the living conditions of it's people. Rejected. Either you do what we want, go down on your knees before us, or we will destroy you. This is what the Greek leadership was told time and time again. Unfortunately, having appealed to their own people and won the right to take on the troika and the EU, the Greek leadership at a crucial point, capitulated. No other word for it: the great capitulation. As a result, Syrzia will be wiped out in the next elections. Believe you me. Virtually the entire party membership, virtually the entire party membership has left. What remains are fulltime opperatics[?], members of Parliament, people employed by the Government in some capacity or another. All the activists who won the referendum, who won the election, are out of that party.
If you look at the Ireland and Portugal, what is happening there? Neo-liberal measures are driving young people out of the country. One in four of young people in Ireland have been leaving. This is the Irish way--migrate, migrate, avoid the crisis. And they've been migrating to North America, very few here, because here the unemployment figures are concealed but are quite high. Going to Australia, going to the English speaking world. In Portugal, half a million young people have left the country in the last four to five years and going to as far away places as Brazil and Angola to find work.
So, that's why I stress when I talk about voting to get out of the European Union, to punish the EU, it's not just for the sake of British workers; it's for the sake of European workers as well. That is an important thing to realize, which i don't hear any of these people talking about--the so-called Europeans. Where do they even talk about Europe? How often is Europe and European countries and their problems even covered in the Guardian? To take but one example. France is erupting even as we are gathered here. Hundreds of thousands of workers, students, others on the streets. What is the coverage here, of these so-called Europeans? They're not showing it to us. They're not telling us what is going on in France because that might change the mood. They couldn't hide the fact that Austria came within a whisker of electing a fascist as their president, literally a whisker. Austria was saved by a half-way decent independent Green who came second, showing the polarization taking place. And the conservatives and social democrats had to vote for the Green to keep the fascist out, which they did, but it could have gone the other way. And it's not that the president has power or no powers in Austria. That's irrelevant. The symbolism of this guy being elected president of Austria was there for all of us to see.
And now, who is responsible for this? Surely, all of these countries facing these crises--Spain, politically paralyzed; Portugal, Ireland, and Greece, effectively European Union colonies, not allowed to do anything without consulting Brussels or Berlin--that's what's going on, and we are told that all is well with Europe and that Farage and Boris Johnson combined will make things much worse. But, how much more worse can these things get? How much? What are we to expect? We know what's happening in Europe. We know that Barts[?] of Britain are in a mess. So, we have a parochial campaign being fought in Britain and an even more parochial one in Scotland which looks simply from the vantage point of...Scotland...well, tell the Scottish comrades that a small country in Europe, in the EU as constructed at the moment, will be crushed. Just see what they're doing to the others. And even the mildest measures being proposed by the SNP wouldn't be allowed. So, there is a lot to fight for in the weeks ahead.
What is the situation generally then in the [?] and say of relations between rulers and ruled in Europe. The European Union makes it virtually impossible for those who are ruled to challenge the rulers. So, democracy itself is increasingly truncated, increasingly hollowed out, both on a European level and on the level of national parliaments. That is a direct result of the policies that the EU has been forcing down the throats of people since the defeats they suffered at the constitutional referendum some years ago. That is what is going on and people are blissfully unaware of these things because they are never reported. And Europe is never seriously discussed in this country, expect for: who would you prefer to be ruled by Boris Johnson or David Cameron? With the Blairites saying let's have a block with Cameron and when Corbyn correctly refuses to do that, they get in David Miliband to do a walk with Cameron on the steps of the British Museum after giving some bogus lecture, and then Ed Balls is imported back (I don't know which part of the States he is in at the moment), he's imported back for a photo opportunity with Osborne wearing overalls and helmets to show "we're with the workers." Thank you very much.
[Transcription in process...]
Dear friends, if we look at the European Union, simply from the vantage point of where we are--i.e. London, the capital of the United Kingdom--virtually the entire political elite is for Remain. If you look at the new newspapers, all the financial press--the Economist, the Financial Times, the liberal dailies, the Guardian, the Independent, the Mirror--are for remaining. the Murdoch press is slightly skeptical, but is ultimately in favor of remaining. So, there is a situation that is unbalanced. and the Fear campaign that is on now does remind one of the campaign against the Scottish right to independence, which of the last two or three weeks was totally dominated by fear. And it's exactly the same tactic that is being followed on this occasion. I mean, it is difficult to open a newspaper without reading some fear campaign, a story: if Britain leaves disaster will happen economically. Disaster will happen on this front, on that front, and on every other front possible.
So, let's just try and see what is at stake in this Referendum. I look at the Referendum not exclusively from the point of view of what is in the interests of the UK and it's majority population at the present time. It's wrong to just look at it from that point of view. I think if you look at the Referendum from what is happening in Europe as a whole and what Europe needs, then what becomes, what is otherwise, and should be, a tactical issue for the Left, should we stay in or stay out, there is no huge issue involved, there is no big principle at stake, except that tactically now, given what the EU has been doing since 2008, and in particular, it becomes absolutely crucial to deliver, if we can, a huge cake in Europe's backside, on it, hard, to provoke a British exit and to open up a debate within Europe itself as in what future it should have--the direction in which it is going.
I don't have much respect for the Remain campaign. I don't have any respect for the conservative-dominated Brexit campaign. It's a fight within the conservative party. And the notion that Boris Johnson is somehow evil personified and Cameron is good is something that I find not only distasteful but a complete falsehood. I mean, we are living in a...you know, we have just experienced one of the most vicious, Islamophobic, racist campaigns, against the guy who has been elected major of London--Sadiq Khan --just vicious. Who waged this campaign? The campaign was waged by the Conservative Party as a whole, led by Cameron and Zach Goldsmith. We now know that there were big clashes between Goldsmith and the party campaign, but they said this is the way we are going to fight the campaign--full stop--we don't care what you think. So, they did it and they lost. How is this any worse than what Boris would have done? He participated in the same campaign on Camerson's side. So, the notion that one side is utterly racist and the other side is not is just not even worth thinking about seriously.
Corbyn was under huge pressure within the party to join Cameron and have a joint campaign. This he rejected which is of course positive. His own position is not very good in my opinion. Because if had he come out against, it would have had a bigger impact and we would then have had a real debate within the labor movement as a whole. But he didn't do that. And his reasons for staying in are the same--change it from within. Now this is a position which is put forward by some on the Left: it is best to stay in and change it from within. Well, I ask, "How do you intend to change it?" How? We haven't had a single idea from these people as to how you are going to change Europe. Because, as even some of those who are in favor of staying in say, it is impossible to democratize the institution as is presently constituted. How are you going to do it? No answers at all.
There are possibilities, but they haven't come up with them. And those possibilities require a new constitution for the EU, massive democratization on local and regional levels as well as national levels, and economy which is not tied to the neo-liberal model of the Washington consensus. But noone has come up with that. I mean, we are waiting to hear how a new Europe is possible. Nothing. When I asked Vero Falkus[?] and his gang I asked, "have you even got a team of experts on your side who want to change Europe from within? At least write an alternative constitution for the EU?" Why? Not time enough? Well then what's the point of waging this sort of wishy-washy campaign if you haven't got any alternative. Who knows? they might have convinced me or some of us here, I have no idea. But given that there's absolutely nothing...otherwise, it just becomes sentimental, people just saying what they feel without much thought going into it. I mean, my dear friend Noam Chomsky has come out against Brexit on extremely narrow grounds that the right, the racist Right is supporting it. Well the racist Right [?] is also against coming out, so that doesn't get you very far. Ken Lowe[?] made this wonderful movie, is also in favor of fighting from within.
It's, you know, not a serious argument, unless we are told and given an alternative. Otherwise, we can say it about everything: another world is possible, another Europe is possible, another Asia is possible. Yes, they're all possible. But how do you get there? Is there a bridge to that possibility? Is there even a narrow path to that bridge? So far, no. So, it's difficult sometimes to argue the case, but I think we have to argue it that on every single level the changes in the structure of the EU and what it stands for is obvious. If previously we used to think that, o.k., economically Europe comes out and mouths platitudes "we all are for economic stability", this that and the other, it doesn't matter, because politically we can do what we want. Now, we have the politics and economics of Europe like this--totally bound with each other.
And if you look at it now, on virtually any level, starting with the economy, the economic prohibitions of Europe Union--and this is before the TTIP has even been made public--are such that Corbyn would not be able to implement even the mildest radical things in his manifesto. Renationalize the railways? Not allowed by the European Union laws at the moment. Not allowed. And even those working for Corbyn and John McDonald admit this. That as presently constituted, none of our policy prescriptions would go through. But then, "we would fight for a different Europe when we came to power." Forget it if you're not fighting now, educating people, regardless of whether we win or we lose. So, economically, it is a machine for neo-liberal capitalism and that is what it pushes.
Add to that, and we have clear-cut examples of that, we have seen what they did to Greece. Completely brutalize and wreck a country which was merely demanding 50% sovereignty to save the living conditions of it's people. Rejected. Either you do what we want, go down on your knees before us, or we will destroy you. This is what the Greek leadership was told time and time again. Unfortunately, having appealed to their own people and won the right to take on the troika and the EU, the Greek leadership at a crucial point, capitulated. No other word for it: the great capitulation. As a result, Syrzia will be wiped out in the next elections. Believe you me. Virtually the entire party membership, virtually the entire party membership has left. What remains are fulltime opperatics[?], members of Parliament, people employed by the Government in some capacity or another. All the activists who won the referendum, who won the election, are out of that party.
If you look at the Ireland and Portugal, what is happening there? Neo-liberal measures are driving young people out of the country. One in four of young people in Ireland have been leaving. This is the Irish way--migrate, migrate, avoid the crisis. And they've been migrating to North America, very few here, because here the unemployment figures are concealed but are quite high. Going to Australia, going to the English speaking world. In Portugal, half a million young people have left the country in the last four to five years and going to as far away places as Brazil and Angola to find work.
So, that's why I stress when I talk about voting to get out of the European Union, to punish the EU, it's not just for the sake of British workers; it's for the sake of European workers as well. That is an important thing to realize, which i don't hear any of these people talking about--the so-called Europeans. Where do they even talk about Europe? How often is Europe and European countries and their problems even covered in the Guardian? To take but one example. France is erupting even as we are gathered here. Hundreds of thousands of workers, students, others on the streets. What is the coverage here, of these so-called Europeans? They're not showing it to us. They're not telling us what is going on in France because that might change the mood. They couldn't hide the fact that Austria came within a whisker of electing a fascist as their president, literally a whisker. Austria was saved by a half-way decent independent Green who came second, showing the polarization taking place. And the conservatives and social democrats had to vote for the Green to keep the fascist out, which they did, but it could have gone the other way. And it's not that the president has power or no powers in Austria. That's irrelevant. The symbolism of this guy being elected president of Austria was there for all of us to see.
And now, who is responsible for this? Surely, all of these countries facing these crises--Spain, politically paralyzed; Portugal, Ireland, and Greece, effectively European Union colonies, not allowed to do anything without consulting Brussels or Berlin--that's what's going on, and we are told that all is well with Europe and that Farage and Boris Johnson combined will make things much worse. But, how much more worse can these things get? How much? What are we to expect? We know what's happening in Europe. We know that Barts[?] of Britain are in a mess. So, we have a parochial campaign being fought in Britain and an even more parochial one in Scotland which looks simply from the vantage point of...Scotland...well, tell the Scottish comrades that a small country in Europe, in the EU as constructed at the moment, will be crushed. Just see what they're doing to the others. And even the mildest measures being proposed by the SNP wouldn't be allowed. So, there is a lot to fight for in the weeks ahead.
What is the situation generally then in the [?] and say of relations between rulers and ruled in Europe. The European Union makes it virtually impossible for those who are ruled to challenge the rulers. So, democracy itself is increasingly truncated, increasingly hollowed out, both on a European level and on the level of national parliaments. That is a direct result of the policies that the EU has been forcing down the throats of people since the defeats they suffered at the constitutional referendum some years ago. That is what is going on and people are blissfully unaware of these things because they are never reported. And Europe is never seriously discussed in this country, expect for: who would you prefer to be ruled by Boris Johnson or David Cameron? With the Blairites saying let's have a block with Cameron and when Corbyn correctly refuses to do that, they get in David Miliband to do a walk with Cameron on the steps of the British Museum after giving some bogus lecture, and then Ed Balls is imported back (I don't know which part of the States he is in at the moment), he's imported back for a photo opportunity with Osborne wearing overalls and helmets to show "we're with the workers." Thank you very much.
[Transcription in process...]