Preparing a working class “rally” in 2021

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
16 December 2020

Boris Johnson can’t seem to help himself from repeating the same pompous nonsense over and over when it comes to Brexit: that “Britain” will “prosper mightily”, whether there is a Brexit trade deal with the EU or not. When even his own experts have spelt out how the economy will shrink: more, if there is “no deal” and less, if there is a deal. But shrink, it certainly will!

     The ups and downs of the value of the pound say it all. As soon as EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said there was a path (albeit “narrow”) to a deal, the pound began to rally. But over the past 4½ years it has sunk many times, almost down to equity with the euro.

    So now, both the pound and the politicians are on standby, just in case a deal is struck before the 31st December. For MPs it would mean reconvening in parliament to vote, unless there is an extraordinary extension beyond the end of the year. And for the pound it would mean speculation unleashed and many fortunes made or lost on the financial markets.

    But what about the fortunes of the working class? Deal or no deal, Brexit from 1 January means price rises, job cuts, the erosion of rights and of course, the loss of freedom of movement. There is no question about it, this is a step backwards. But much of that can be reversed, if the working class rallies together to fight!

    The pathetic uselessness of this system, the bosses who control it and the politicians who take care of them, have been exposed by their incapacity to deal with this global pandemic. And now, four and a half years after his lying “Leave” campaign, Johnson’s Brexit irresponsibility has come to a head.

    So it is the irony of all ironies that he should tell the population that to keep the Covid virus at bay over Xmas, he is relying on our “sense of responsibility” - a sense of which he has no sense at all! It would be only right therefore, for us workers to show our own sense of responsibility by gathering our forces in the new year, in order to send Johnson&co packing. Just for a start...