Marxists want to live in an independent country for the same reason as everybody else: because no one can be free in a country where the laws are made outside that country.
We don’t want our country to be ruled from abroad. Still less should it be run by the European Union, whose fundamental treaties give priority to the so-called four freedoms – capital, persons, goods and services.
Rule from Brussels means handing over the direction of the country to the European Commission, which acts in the interests of the transnational companies. These companies – the instigators of globalisation – are the enemies of independent nations.
‘The transnationals subordinate everything to one measure: profit.’
The transnationals subordinate everything to one measure: profit. Anything that stands in their way is to be destroyed, especially established wages, conditions and standards of living in countries like Britain. And especially nations.
That’s why the EU – backed up by judgements from the European Court of Justice – has given companies a fundamental right to switch countries in search of lower and lower labour costs.
How can we make Britain a better country to live and work in if most of the key decisions are reserved for a foreign government? More particularly, how can Britain transform its transport, energy and industry when EU rules enforce privatisation and limit state investment?
With independence the state can and must implement a vision for Britain and target investment where we need to transform industry, infrastructure and skills.
- Instead of scrapping bursaries and charging fees for student nurses while importing nursing and medical staff from all over the world – especially poorer parts of the EU – we should plan for a skilled NHS workforce.
- Instead of allowing foreign fleets to plunder our fishing grounds, we should plan how to protect and increase the fishing industry – and provide material and financial support now.
- Instead of EU-required transport of live animals, bring in our own humane regulations. Enforce import controls to stop the spread of plant diseases.
- Instead of EU-promoted rail and bus privatisation, take national control to enhance our transport and communications network to sustain an increase in our economy.
- Instead of relying on open-door EU migration while dumping millions of young people into unemployment or minimum wage drudgery, raise their skills in a planned and concerted way. Enlist the young for the future so that Britain will have the skills to succeed – a key foundation for the country to thrive as an independent nation.
- Instead of an EU army and reliance on EU-controlled systems like Galileo, keep our military forces independent and protect our domestic procurement industries.
Politics is changing, and not just in Britain. The great referendum of 2016 is a symptom, not the cause. A new, epic struggle is defining our times, shaping the fight between the two contending classes. It is a new form of national liberation, centered on sovereignty and control over our material and intellectual resources, and it is worldwide.
Waging that war, winning that war, will become a condition of survival for workers in every country.
For working people there is a clear, stark choice. Either we live in an independent Britain deciding our own future, or we become slaves to international capital.
This fight for national independence will not cease when we leave the EU – an indispensable first step. It will never cease while capital exists.