It is still true today, as when Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, that the struggle of the proletariat [working class] with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The first move in workers’ struggles is almost always against conditions, settlements, and laws within the borders where they live. Working-class liberation can be won only by a struggle which unites workers across the world around common aims, transcending those local details. Each new border creates a new hurdle to jump in the effort to unite workers globally. It can be jumped; but it is a new hurdle. ...Our arguments — against increased nationalism and creating borders — are a world away from the official “no” camp. We have no truck with UKIP types who want to keep the status quo and the Act of Union out of “patriotic” commitment to the United Kingdom. Will Hutton, no socialist but clear-headed on this issue, put it well in the Observer of 7 September: If Britain can’t find a way of sticking together, it is the death of the liberal enlightenment before the atavistic forces of nationalism and ethnicity — a dark omen for the 21st century... “[But the only alternative is] to trump half-cock quasi-federalism with a proper version... a federal Britain... a wholesale recasting of the British state... “The first casualty would be the Treasury, which would... become a humbler finance ministry. The next casualty would be the House of Lords... For united working-class struggle within a democratic federal Britain, within a democratic federal united Europe! workersliberty.org/node/23777
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 22:16:15 +0000
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