Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials - 10 April 2019

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
10 April 2019

Short of having a crystal ball, no-one can possibly guess (at the time of writing), where the Brexit saga is going, or even whether it is going anywhere at all!
    May tried virtually everything to get MPs to endorse her withdrawal deal.  She tried to blackmail them into backing her up, by blaming them for holding up Brexit, in that vengeful speech she made outside Downing Street, on 20th March.  Then she tried to bribe her hard-Brexiteer rivals within the Tory party, by offering them her resignation in return for their votes.
    But none of this worked.  Three times her withdrawal deal was unceremoniously defeated - thanks to the opposition of her party's warring factions.
    So, now, she is making a big show of "national unity" by having talks with Jeremy Corbyn, in order to make what she calls a "compromise agreement" with Labour.

More political games

"Compromise"?  As if this word has ever been part of May’s vocabulary - that is, except when she was conceding ground to her own hard-Brexit bigots.
    So what exactly is she trying to do?  Is she trying to convince EU leaders that, after all, she hasn't entirely wasted their time over the past 2 years of negotiations?  And that, maybe, by getting them to grant her the longer, "flexible" extension to article 50 she's asking for, she would have enough time to produce a credible, alternative plan, which she can get past Parliament?
    Or is she just trying to protect her party's electoral future, by attempting to shift the blame for the Tory's Brexit mess onto Labour and Corbyn?  After all, it wouldn't be hard for May to accuse Corbyn of blocking Brexit and causing even more mayhem, if she offered no concessions to Labour.  That way, she would make sure that these talks do not get anywhere - which is exactly what she seems to have been doing so far.
    In fact, May is probably pursuing both these objectives at the same time, plus a number of others.  And for the time being that includes protecting her own position, for as long as possible, both as prime minister and Tory leader.
    In any case, none of these objectives has anything whatsoever to do with the "interests of the British people", that May keeps referring to ad nauseam, as if it was some kind of magic spell.
    May's policies are entirely and exclusively defined by personal and party political interests.  Just as are the policies of her former ministers turned rivals, who, from Boris Johnson to Dominic Raab, have now joined the long queue of those bidding for her mantle.  This is what is really behind the "national interest" that they all keep invoking.

Time to stop their mess!

For the working class Brexit was a con, right from the word go - a device which was designed to deceive voters in order to protect MPs' careers.  At the time, many MPs were terrified by the sudden rise of UKIP and they chose to adapt to it, rather than to challenge it.
    Today, nothing has changed: Brexit remains as much of a con for the working class as before; it remains entirely based on deceiving us with false hopes in an otherwise increasingly grim world.  And more than ever, it is being used to serve the careers and ambitions of its mostly Tory promoters.
    After the last 3 years of posturing and huffing and puffing by ministers and MPs, it is clear that the mess caused by Brexit will not be stopped - let alone reversed - by parliamentary means.  Those who have signed online petitions and joined demonstrations to express their opposition to the Brexit mess were right to do so.  But they've only voiced their opinion.  Getting the politicians and their capitalist masters to listen to the voice of protest, let alone yield to the demands which are formulated, is quite another matter.
    In this respect, however, the working class has one major advantage that no other social layer in society has: it produces all the wealth.  Without its labour, there is no transport, no electricity; there are no goods in the supermarkets, no vehicles made.
    With such a lever in its hands, there is no limit to what the working class could achieve, just by using its collective industrial muscle.
    Faced with today's political crisis and against the threat that the Brexit mess represents for its jobs and living standards, the working class is the only force which has the capacity and strength to stop the politicians' mad drive into chaos and the bosses' plans to use the Brexit-induced situation to attack jobs and conditions.
    But having the ability to do this is one thing, using it is another.  For this, the working class needs political organisation - its own party, a workers' party, which aims at using its collective strength in order to build a better world.