Brexit: let’s geton with it!Six principles to put leavingback on track

Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist

2 BREXIT – GET ON AND GET OUT WWW.CPBML.ORG.UK @CPBML

Let’s get on with it!The political establishment has never accepted thereferendum result. They will have to be forced to.

It’s time to be blunt about the government’s approachto leaving the European Union. It set out its policy in Julyafter the infamous Chequers cabinet meeting, publishingwhat it called a White Paper. But it’s more like a whiteflag.

It talks about “no direct” jurisdiction of the EuropeanCourt, but it means almost total indirect jurisdiction(and, it turns out, probably some direct, too.) It talksabout ending free movement of labour, but introducesthe weasel wording of a “mobility framework”. It talksabout leaving the EU but it means staying under the EU’sthumb. Call that Brexit? It’s not.

As if the EU needed any encouragement to playtough! Now they think they can get Britain to abandonthe idea of Brexit altogether.

But Brussels cannot be appeased. Its short-livedempire is crumbling, with open enmity between itsmembers and its weapon of the free movement of labourunder attack even in its heartland of Germany.

The EU’s desire to punish Britain is born out ofweakness, not strength. It dare not make concessions toBritain, for fear it will have to do the same for bordernations like Switzerland and even for its own members. Itdare not make it easy for other members to leave.

While the government is taking a “collaborative”approach to negotiations, the EU is just lapping up

concession after concession. We run the risk of settlingfor an even more slavish relationship than before June2016.

The “negotiations” – a big word for such supinesurrender – have been matched by lack of preparationsfor independence, such as building the necessaryinfrastructure to enforce control over our economy,borders and laws. In practice this amounts to sabotage.

And all the while parliament, with its massivemajority of MPs who voted Remain, is promoting thesabotage, supported by the Lords. Both houses talk aboutconstitution and sovereignty, but what they mean is thatthey are sovereign over the people.

Only the fact of the 17.4 million Leave voters – andno sign of regrets – holds them to any appearance ofcarrying out our decision. But appearance is all it is. Wemust act, and act now.

With real involvement we will find ways to compelthe government into leaving properly.

Let’s return to the simplicity of our decision. Reinstatethe red lines for Brexit. Control over our economy, ourborders, our agriculture and fisheries, our food, ourlaws, our workplaces.

That would terrify the EU would-be masters. Onlythen can real negotiations begin – from the true positionof British strength. •

Cover photo chrisdorney/shutterstock.com

Published by the Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist, 78Seymour Avenue, London N17 9EB. September 2018.

Contents1 Be prepared to walk away 3

2 Stop the wreckers 4

3 Build a new democracy 5

4 Plan for independence 6

5 Acknowledge our own strength 7

6 Make a clean break 8

Keep up with the news

For Brexit news and views visitcpbml.org.uk/leave, and follow us onTwitter, @cpbml

Want to read more from the CPBML?Subscribe to our bimonthly magazine,Workers. Go to our website,cpbml.org.uk. Find us on Facebook, @communistpartybritainmarxistleninist.And sign up to our free emailnewsletters using the form on our webpages.

@CPBML WWW.CPBML.ORG.UK BREXIT – GET ON AND GET OUT 3

1 Be prepared to walk away

The clarity of the 2016 referendum hasbecome obscured in a desperate – andfutile – search to come up with a plan thatthe EU will like. That’s not what we votedfor. We voted to leave.

The only plan the EU wants is one thatkeeps Britain in its coercive club. Thetangle of detail and objections is designedto trap us in the EU net. It’s clear that theEU wants a bad settlement that will deterany other country from leaving. So wemust insist the government be preparedto walk away from the table. We voted toleave, not to stay entangled with the EU.

Just look at the EU’s tactics. TheEuropean Commission has banned theEuropean Aviation Safety Agency fromtalking with the UK Civil AviationAuthority about fallback arrangements inthe event of no deal on Brexit,jeopardising travel across Europe.

Why such an extraordinary, punitiveact? Clearly, the move is designed to stepup pressure on the government to removethe no-deal option from the table.

Aviation is an easy target because it is notcovered by World Trade Organizationrules, unlike trade, and so lacks anautomatic fallback.

If successful, Theresa May and herBrussels counterparts will have thenecessary excuse to add another year tothe schedule in the event of “no-deal”.Perhaps the EU thinks that Britain willsimply forget to leave. It has another thinkcoming.

The first rule of negotiation is that youhave to convince the other side that youare serious. The EU appears to havemanaged that, with the governmentbending to every blackmail. Those whogovern in our name have failed to showthey mean business – because they don’t.

Preparations for no deal should havebegun the day after the referendum result.Instead we have had virtually nothing.This is no accident, but deliberate policyfrom a government happy to stoke fears ofa “cliff edge”. No wonder the EU has beenable to act with such arrogance, rejectingthis and threatening that, even though itsown position is weak.

Why is the government so frightenedof leaving without a negotiated agreementanyway? World Trade Organization rules

exist as a fallback for trade in goods. All this betrays a lack of belief in

Britain. It’s the same lack of confidencethat led to the initial vote to stay in theCommon Market in 1975, and that ledmany to vote to stay in 2016. It’s the samelack of confidence that capitalism hasbeen actively trying to instil in Britishworkers for decades.

Yet for all that, the fundamentals ofBritain are sound. We have a skilled andliterate workforce, an exceptional researchbase and abundant energy resources.What can we not achieve?

The clock is ticking. The battle forBrexit is not over. The forces opposing ushave many months to turn delay into thedenial of democracy that they seek.

Expect more and more “reports” fromcorporate interests seeking to maintainthe status quo.

Expect more delaying tactics from ourunrepresentative parliament.

Expect more and more moans fromsome politicians and civil servants thateverything is really too complicated andthey need more time.

The people must speak out.Campaigns left dormant after thereferendum must be stepped up. •

Read moreSee also: “Take control for an independentBritain”, Workers, July/August 2018.

Dom

inic

Raa

b m

eets

Mic

hel B

arni

er. P

hoto

Ale

xand

ros

Mic

haili

dis/

Shut

ters

tock

.com

4 BREXIT – GET ON AND GET OUT WWW.CPBML.ORG.UK @CPBML

2 Stop the wreckers

If the people of Britain are to forceBrexit through an unwilling andobstructive political establishment, weneed to know who we can rely on. Andthe simple answer is that we can only relyon ourselves.

Any allegiances to the establishedpolitical parties must be jettisoned. Partymemberships are meaningless now. Allthat matters is whether people and theirMPs are prepared to stand by thedemocracy of the referendum decision.

The opponents of Brexit know this.They have already ditched party politics.And from the moment they overcametheir shock at the referendum result, theymade their plans.

The political establishment has hadone aim in mind: to stop the referendumdecision being executed. In love with theEU and contemptuous of the Britishpeople, they will stop at nothing toundermine the fight for Britishsovereignty.

First David Cameron resigned, thusconveniently avoiding the need to fulfil

his pledge to invoke Article 50immediately – and introducing a delayuntil Theresa May became theConservative leader.

May then waited until the end ofMarch 2017 to invoke Article 50. Despiteher famous utterance of “Brexit meansBrexit” in July 2016, her transitionagreement and then the Chequers WhitePaper of July 2018 have marked her outas an obstacle to Brexit.

Cynicism is her trademark. So sheappointed Boris Johnson as ForeignSecretary, then took relations with theEU away from the Foreign Office. Nextshe created the Department for Exitingthe European Union, installing DavidDavis, but in September 2017 actuallyturned negotiation over to a Civil Servicemandarin who wants us to stay in the EU.

May waited until 2018 to declare herhand. The “red lines” of her January 2017Lancaster House speech are beingreworded out of existence.

In all this the antics of arch-RemainerMPs have served as a convenient foil. Ifyou want to see the real wreckers, lookinside the cabinet.

And then there’s Labour. JeremyCorbyn went into the 2016 general

election pledging an end to the singlemarket and to the customs union.

Then in a speech in Coventry inFebruary 2018 he called disingenuouslyfor “a” customs union with the EU, thenadded that it would have to be one whereBritain “has a say in future trade deals”.Short of actually staying in the EU, thereis no way that this would be possible.And he knew it.

It was a reckless attempt to hold hisparty together and enlist the aid ofRemainer Conservatives to bring downthe government – whatever theconsequences for Brexit and for Britain.What happened to Corbyn’s electionpledge to act “in the national interest”?

Others have played their shamefulparts. Opportunistic separatists lookingto turn any difficulty into petty advantagefor their own causes. Equallyopportunistic trade union leadershipsmore loyal to the perceived interests ofthe Labour Party than they are to theinterests of their own members. And ahost of special interest groups with theirown noses deep in the EU trough.

In the fight to implement thereferendum, there will have to be areckoning. The wreckers must go. •

Read moreSee also: “Corbyn’s speech: cynical,disingenuous, reckless”, published oncpbml.org.uk on 6 March 2018.

Phot

o IR

Sto

ne/s

hutt

erst

ock.

com

@CPBML WWW.CPBML.ORG.UK BREXIT – GET ON AND GET OUT 5

3 Build a new democracy

Delivering Brexit constitutionallydepends on forcing the desired outcomeonto a divided government andrecalcitrant Westminster MPs, so manyof whom supported Remain.

The problem, bluntly, is themachinery of what is calledparliamentary democracy, but whichincreasingly is revealing itself asinherently anti-democratic.

The whole course of events since June2016 has shown that the people of Britaincannot rely on parliamentary democracyto carry out the referendum instruction.

Brexit is not politics as usual. It is themost important political issue since theCivil War in the 17th century. At its heartis the question of whether Britain willexist as an independent nation. So thefailure of parliamentary democracy todeliver on the referendum is not failureas usual. It shows that the entire systemneeds to change.

The political establishment wasshocked to the core by the vote in 2016.It had assumed it could carry on rulingin the name of the people without

worrying about what the people think.The battle to enforce the result of the

referendum must be fought out in everyarena – local and national, workplace,trade union. It will start as a form ofresistance movement, but it must becomemore. We say it again: Take Control.

Britain needs a real democracy, apeople’s democracy where ourrepresentatives do our bidding or losetheir jobs. A democracy wheresovereignty resides in the people. Themechanisms are not yet to hand, but theymust be created. And they can only becreated in the battle with those who areseeking to betray Brexit.

Referendums are the best expressionswe have now of real democracy,government by the people. In 2016 everyindividual registered to vote was asked:the EU, yes or no? People responded in amassive turnout. They knew leavingmight involve hardship, but voted onprinciple – to be free of rule from abroad.The decision must be carried out.

The opponents of Brexit say themargin of victory was insignificant. No.It was clear. 17.4 million voted to leave –numerically the largest vote ever foranything or anyone in Britain.

They say people didn’t understandwhat they were voting for or were ledastray by Leaver lies. Actually, researchby Rob Ford, professor of politicalscience at Manchester University, showsthat people made up their own minds.And they didn’t trust what politiciansfrom either side said.

What people did trust – according tothe research – was that whatever decisionthey made in the referendum would becarried out. If there was that trust, we cannow all see how badly misplaced it was.

Opponents say the referendum wasn’tvalid because it bypassed parliament.MPs in particular are fond of definingdemocracy as the supremacy ofparliament. Yet for years MPs noddedthrough EU diktats without debate, inthe form of parliamentary secondarylegislation. So now they pit parliamentagainst the people.

People have assumed that all theyneed to do is elect their representatives,and then they can sit back while thoserepresentatives do the business. But if wedo that, we will never have sovereignty,never have true independence, nevertake control. To take control, we all haveto be involved. •

Read moreSee also: “Time for a new democracy”,Workers, July/August 2018.

6 BREXIT – GET ON AND GET OUT WWW.CPBML.ORG.UK @CPBML

4 Plan for independence

Everything we do before and afterdeparture has to prepare and develop ourcountry – its industry, infrastructure andassets – for this demanding newsituation. That requires control over whatwe make and how we trade. And withoutplanning there is no control.

In the fog of negotiations a negativeline of thought has emerged – the call for“free trade agreements” after Brexit. Wedo not want global corporations to rideroughshod over our economy, as hasbeen proposed, for example, with TTIP.That would be the opposite of takingcontrol.

Trading freely and independentlywith other countries across the world ona mutually beneficial basis is nothing todo with these rapacious new agreements.Britain should make its own decisionsabout trade in the light of how we shouldbe developing our own country.

Some free marketeers say just importas cheaply as possible from elsewhere –be it people, goods, energy, food,transport. That’s the path to dependenceon others, not independence.

Indeed, the lie that nations and theirpeoples can’t provide for their own futureis at the heart of the EU project. Openborders, EU control over trade anduncontrolled immigration make itimpossible to plan a future – both hereand in the countries enduring widespreademigration of their peoples.

With Brexit the state must implement avision for Britain and target investmentwhere we need to transform industry,infrastructure and skills.

Instead of scrapping bursaries andcharging fees for student nurses whileimporting nursing and medical staff fromall over the world – especially poorerparts of the EU – we should plan for askilled NHS workforce.

Instead of allowing foreign fleets toplunder our fishing grounds, we shouldplan how to protect and increase thefishing industry – and provide materialand financial support now.

Instead of EU-required transport oflive animals, bring in our own humaneregulations. Enforce import controls tostop the spread of plant diseases.

Instead of EU blackmail over bordertrade issues, initiate studies into how toexpand the electronic recording of the

movement of goods in and out of thecountry. This will deal with the Irishborder issue. Manufacture the devicesneeded, if necessary in government-supported firms.

Instead of reliance on EU-controlledsystems like Galileo, keep our militaryforces independent and protect ourdomestic procurement industries.

Instead of EU-inspired rail and busprivatisation, take national control toenhance our transport andcommunications network to sustain anincrease in our economy.

Instead of relying on open-door EUmigration while dumping millions ofyoung people into unemployment orminimum wage drudgery, raise theirskills in a planned and concerted way.Enlist the young for the future so thatBritain will have the skills to succeed – akey foundation for the country to thriveas an independent nation.

Some have already started planning.The fishermen, for example, and theunions representing merchant shipping.Others are slower off the mark – orrefusing to recognise what they must do.

We cannot stand still, we have toadvance to independence. •

Read moreSee also: “Keep Britain out of the Free Tradetrap”, Workers, March/April 2018.

Phot

o W

orke

rs

@CPBML WWW.CPBML.ORG.UK BREXIT – GET ON AND GET OUT 7

5 See our own strength

Those who want to stop Brexit showcontempt for democracy, and contemptfor the people. They also show the deeplack of self-confidence in Britain’sestablishment circles. They assume we areweak and the EU is strong, while thereverse is true.

Across Europe, people are rebellingagainst EU rule. In March Italy delivereda stunning rebuke to Brussels in a generalelection which saw eurosceptic partiesgarnering more than half the vote.

Countries like Hungary, Poland, theCzech Republic, Austria and Denmarkare refusing to cooperate with the EU’simposed refugee policy, leaving Brusselseither impotent or hectoring (or both).

The German government led byAngela Merkel was brought to the brinkby a revolt against the EU’s freemovement. The Schengen area,supposedly one where all cross-bordermovement is frictionless, is now riddledwith border checks.

Meanwhile, the EU has become abyword for debt. Over the last four yearsthe European Central Bank has had a

programme of quantitative easing (QE),effectively taking and recycling the baddebt from the balance sheets ofcommercial banks on behalf of euromember states.

The scale is staggering. In all the bankhas committed €2.4 trillion to thepurchase of government bonds;equivalent to 43 per cent of EU GDP.Much of the debt is in Italy, where itaccounts for 130 per cent of the country’sGDP (second only to Greece).

To put things into perspective, Britainis the fifth largest economy in the world.The City of London, for all its problemsand its scant regard for industry, is aglobal financial centre in a way that Parisand Frankfurt can only envy. Britain’suniversities and scientific research are abyword for excellence.

So why is the government acting asthough we will crumble and dissolve ifwe stand up as an independent nation?Why the self-denigration of a nation?

We need the kind of backbone shownfleetingly by the government when theEuropean Commission said Britain willno longer have access to the developmentof the most important parts of the Galileosatellite positioning system (developed in

large part with British expertise andmoney). The EU also barred Britishcompanies from bidding for Galileocontracts – on the basis that they are asecurity risk!

The government’s initial response wasrobust, saying that Britain will develop itsown system. Without British skills thewhole project could take three yearslonger, cost billions more and almostcertainly work less well.

It should start right now: the actionsof the EU have shown that Britain cannotconceivably rely on the European Unionfor any part of its national security. Yes,there will be a cost, but it is a cost worthpaying.

The EU is faced with losing the UK –its second-largest economy, accountingfor 15 per cent of its economic muscle,and the destination of much of itsmanufactured goods. They need us. Wedon’t need them.

Britain is also the EU’s second largestnet contributor, so Brexit will potentiallydeprive the EU of between €11 billionand €14 billion a year – a hole membernations either cannot or will not fill.

No wonder the EU is worried. It isthey, not us, who have everything to fear. •

Read moreSee also: “EU space blackmail”, WorkersJuly/August 2018.

New

cast

le a

nd t

he T

yne

brid

ges.

Pho

to M

icha

el C

onra

d/sh

utte

rsto

ck.c

om

8 BREXIT – GET ON AND GET OUT WWW.CPBML.ORG.UK @CPBML

6 Insist on a clean break

Of all the misleading words used by thegovernment during the Brexit process,one of the worst must be “transition”. Itgives the impression of a period duringwhich things change, during which wemove out of the EU. But look at thedetail, and everything about thetransition indicates that it’s a journey tonowhere: a holding pattern designed tokeep us locked into the EU forever.

There’s no transition, simply a delay.Britain will stay inside the EU untilDecember 2020, paying out billions,subject to its laws, but without any say inits decisions.

It’s as close as makes no difference tothe “vassal state” that some ingovernment had been saying wasunacceptable. No matter, they say now,keep your “eyes on the prize”.

But that prize is getting further away,not closer. On 27 March 2018 May hintedthat timetables for leaving the EU’scustoms union “might need to berevised” – in other words, extended.

In July 2018, the Chequers proposal

on Britain’s future relationship with theEU confirmed the fears: there is no realtransition planned, just submission to theEU (without the fig leaf of a vote in theEuropean Council). An EU colony,permanently.

When we voted in June 2016 to leaveit was in the expectation that Article 50would be invoked the next day. Yet for allthe deliberately deceptive wording in thegovernment’s Chequers proposal, we arestill far away from leaving EU controlover our borders, our laws, our economy.

Under the transition agreement,employers can continue to freely importcheap labour until December 2020 – afurther 21 months – so that they can putoff having to invest in technology andtraining British workers.

Yet under the proposal, this state ofaffairs might continue indefinitely, allmasked by a liberal sprinkling of theword “sovereignty” which, when used bythis government, means nothing.

It talks about Britain reclaiming itsrepresentation at the World TradeOrganization able “to make credible andbalanced offers to third country tradingpartners” – yet committing to a commonEU rulebook on trade in goods that

means we would be unable to negotiatetrade treaties that include goods.

It talks about taking “sovereign”decisions about free movement of labour,but explicitly leaves the door open tousing that sovereignty to allow virtuallyunlimited EU migration into Britain. Thegovernment needs to be told: there’snothing “sovereign” about surrenderingsovereignty.

The fishermen are still left in limbo.“The UK will control access to fish in itswaters,” the White Paper says…beforegoing on to say, “Any decisions aboutgiving access to UK waters for vesselsfrom the EU, or any other coastal stateswill be a matter for negotiation.” What’sto negotiate? If we are sovereign over ourwaters, we decide.

And all the while, as the fishermenpoint out, the transition agreementmeans that the EU can squeeze Britishfishing out of existence, and thegovernment won’t be able to lift a finger.By 2020 there may be almost no fleet leftto protect.

Enough. Britain voted to leave, for aclean break. Now the people will have toforce the political establishment to carryout its will. Only independence will do. •

Read moreSee also: “The Chequers plan is a repackagedMoroccan model”, Robert Bates, published onbrexitcentral.com on 11 July 2018.

Phot

o M

anop

_Phi

msi

t/sh

utte

rsto

ck.c

om