Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials - 28 March 2018

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
28 March 2018

So, as it turns out, the Leave campaign cheated in the Brexit referendum.  They used obscure accounting tricks to spend more than the already considerable £7m maximum they were allowed.  And they also did a Trump on voters, by using the services of companies linked to Cambridge Analytica in order to try to manipulate public opinion through social media.  But never mind, they still describe the result of this referendum as "the will of the people"!
    Of course, this is no surprise, coming from politicians who lied for months by claiming that Brexit would deliver £350m/wk for the NHS - among many other lies.
    Instead, the NHS is now collapsing for lack of funding, waiting times are increasing, patients with life-threatening diseases are not diagnosed in time to be treated, and some of those who are, are refused treatment on grounds of cost!  And while NHS workers are burning themselves out trying to keep the system working, it slides further into crisis.

From yesterday's Brexit con...

This has, however, not prevented Leave campaign twin leaders, Johnson and Gove, from being given positions in cabinet, together with many other minor Brexit bigots!  Cheaters and liars parading in government office - what an indictment of this political system!  Yes, a system which is still projected as a "democratic model" for the rest of the world... when it is not imposed at gunpoint on the poor countries' populations, as it was in Iraq!
    Of course, it's not just the Leave camp which is a bunch of cheaters and liars.  Much the same could be said of the Remain camp's referendum campaign.  But that's because this referendum was, first and foremost, a politicking game born out of the politicians' rivalries and determination to protect their cosy careers.
    It was a con right from the word go.  We were not offered any option which could possibly resolve the problems we faced.  It was a lie and a cheat, designed to divert our attention from the real issue - a decade of increasing casualisation and exploitation by the bosses, coupled with their government's on-going austerity attacks.
    For both camps, the main plank in this diversionary exercise was to find a scapegoat in order to cover up their anti-working class policies.  And both chose to point the finger of blame at our fellow EU workers, as if it was they, and not the bosses and their politicians, who were responsible for the rising poverty and inequality!
    By setting one section of the working class against another, both camps were hoping to drive a wedge within our ranks, in order to undermine our capacity to put up any resistance against their attacks.

... To today's Russxit farce

Today, May and her government are at it again -   another day, another scapegoat.  This time, it's Russia.  But the logic hasn't changed.
    That May's re-heated Cold War against Russia verges on farce, is illustrated by the fact that it is based on no evidence whatsoever.  She boasts of having presented her "allies" with an "intelligence dossier" which is so "convincing" that 23 of them rushed to expel Russian diplomats.  Or did they?  In fact out of the 100 expulsions, 83 were carried out by Trump and May, while the remaining 21 "allies" in May's grand "coalition" only expelled 17 - meaning that quite a few nodded, but did nothing!
    Significantly, while these symbolic expulsions are given such a high profile in the media, there is no question of expelling the billions of pounds invested by Putin's oligarch friends in the City or in London's real estate, nor the huge profits that BP extracts from Russia's oil resources!  For all the hot air, this isn't much of a Russxit, is it?
    As to May's "intelligence dossier", it remains secret.  No doubt May doesn't want it to face the same fate as Blair's ill-famed "dossier" on Iraq!
    The truth is, that far from having anything to do with Putin's dictatorship, May's "crusade" against Russia is allowing her to rally her party's warring factions - and to get the spineless support of a significant number of Labour MPs, into the bargain!
All very helpful to her, given she has just signed a pre-Brexit deal which has upset her Brexit bigots.
    But, above all, her scape-goating exercise is aimed at diverting our attention from the threats which have been emerging from the Brexit saga over the nearly 2 years negotiations - whether it is against our standards of living, jobs and pensions, or against the NHS and housing.
    This Cold War nonsense should be treated with the contempt it deserves.  We have more serious tasks to attend to: to prepare ourselves to use all the collective strength we can muster, to fight the coming attacks - and to start doing it now!