5 Reasons Lefties Should Vote to Stay in the European Union

wetpinkorthodoxy:

Sometimes an issue isn’t about what it appears to be about and sometimes a referendum isn’t about what it should be about.

Left-wingers like me have plenty of reasons to be anti-EU, such as the secrecy around TTIP, the issues around sovereignty and the free trade mission of the EU. But the referendum isn’t really about any of that, it’s about scapegoating migrants and blaming the European Union for the fuck-ups of successive British governments.

So here are 5 reasons that left-wingers should vote to stay in the EU:-

1) The only reason we’re having this referendum is because of migration. A vote to leave is a vote in support of UKIP.

Between 2000 and 2011, EU migrants gave Britain £20 billion more in taxes than they took out in benefits. EU migration is economically beneficial for Britain and it’s also the right thing to do. If people from Poland or Romania or anywhere else can have a better life in Britain whilst also contributing to the British economy, there’s no good reason why they shouldn’t come.

Make no mistake, this referendum wouldn’t be happening if it wasn’t for public hysteria around migration. EU migration has nothing to do with the state of our public services, which would probably be in an even worse mess without the money migration has brought in. A vote to stay in Europe is a vote to stand up to xenophobia and scapegoating.

2) There is no legitimate sovereignty in Britain anyway.

The European Union is not the most democratic institution, but then neither is Britain. We have an electoral system that ignores voters in safe seats and prioritises fickle swing voters. That system works to the advantage of the Tories more often than not. Once the election is over, a party with a ruling majority can do almost anything it wants. It uses the whip system to bribe MPs into supporting its plans, whilst the House of Lords offers ineffective scrutiny because it’s based on patronage rather than democracy.

And the Tories are planning to take things even further by changing constituency boundaries and reforming opposition party funding. You want to complain that Europe isn’t democratic? At least the European Parliament is elected using the D’Hont system, which is better than First Past the Post. The politicians who rule us from Brussells with no proper mandate are just as legitimate as the ones that rule us from London with no proper mandate. The difference is that the London politicians are just a little bit more right-wing.

3) Leaving the European Union would definitely hurt the British economy and British workers.

It’s important to understand that Britain is a neo-liberal free-trade country and this will not change if we leave the European Union. If we aren’t part of the European Union, we will seek to negotiate similar deals to the trade agreements we have now and we will get them on less preferable terms than we have now. Leaving the EU isn’t going to turn Britain into a social democratic paradise.

Leaving the EU would definitely cost us jobs, because we will lose much of the international trade we have now. The US have already said that they wouldn’t bother to negotiate a specific deal with the UK if we leave Europe.

And leaving the EU would further put British workers at risk by jeopardising the employment rights guaranteed by our EU membership. It’s our membership of the European Union that guarantees our rights to maternity leave, safety in the workplace and protection against discrimination. If those guarantees were gone, would you trust a Tory government to protect those rights?

4) The reason we want to leave is a result of British arrogance. Quite frankly, it’s time we got over ourselves.

Britain is not a great country. Britain is not a terrible country. We are just a country like any other and it’s time that we accepted that. The history of Britain is heavily characterised by one long quest to maintain and expand an empire that brutalised millions of people across the world. That is nothing to be proud of and it’s definitely left us with a superiority complex. We developed that superiority complex in order to justify the horrible things we’ve done.

But Britain doesn’t have an empire anymore and we have to learn that we are not a major power now. Our arrogance is dangerous - look at the way vanity over our “special relationship” with the US affected our decision to go to war in Iraq. We are so overly protective of our national identity and our independence, but the European Union is no threat to these things. The EU has clearly accepted that we are never going to be part of the Eurozone and that we don’t want any “closer union” than what we have right now.

I want Britain’s relationship with the rest of the world to be based on realism. I want us to a country that admits to its past mistakes and works to make amends. I want us to be part of the world without trying to control it. I don’t want us to be isolationist freaks with delusions of grandeur - we have too many of those already.

5) Our distaste for UKIP and xenophobia should take priority over our left-wing criticisms of the EU.

You may claim that you oppose the goals of UKIP but you don’t like the European Union for other reasons. In this case, I’d ask you to consider which is the lesser of two evils. Look at the people who want us to leave the European Union: Nigel Farage, Marine La Pen, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove… I’m not saying you should vote to stay in the European Union out of spite towards these people, but you should certainly think twice before siding with them.

If the country votes to leave the European Union, it will be regarded as a defeat for David Cameron. I’d like to see the Pigfucker resign as much as anyone, but think about his possible replacements. The likely candidates are Boris Johnson, George Osbourne, Theresa May, Nicky Morgan, etc. Things can always get worse and they definitely will if the Tories move further to the right than they are now.

A vote to leave the EU also lends legitimacy to UKIP. This is a party with a long history of xenophobic, racist, homophobic and misogynist statements and policies. What left-wing purpose is served by helping these people achieve their aims? Is the threat of TTIP really anywhere near as important as the threat of UKIP and everything they stand for?

The European Union is not like the Scottish Independence Referendum. In that referendum, the Scottish people had a genuine chance for self-determination because they have a left-wing party that represents the views of many and has significant support in Scotland. Without Europe, the UK will be left to the mercy of right-wing politicians who have rigged the entire system in their favour. Left-wingers might not like the idea of voting to stay in Europe, but there is no preferable alternative on the table here.