In my opinion this is by far the best analysis of the recent Brexit vote. See what you think.
Referring to the European Union, Choonara writes:
A neoliberal organisation, which has again and again acted in the interests of European capital, grinding the Greek people under the heel of austerity, supporting Francois Hollande’s assault on French workers and seeking to implement the TTIP free trade agreement with the US, with contemptuous disregard for any opposition, has suffered its greatest blow to date.And later, referring to issues that the capitalist ruling classes have always used to divide us, he writes:
Yet the mood of many on the left in Britain is despondent. For them, the referendum is seen as an outpouring of nationalism and racism directed against migrants from the EU.
It is a gross oversimplification to reduce this to a vote over racism.
Socialists have always recognised that workers can hold in their heads contradictory combinations of ideas, some based on solidarity and common struggle, other uncritically absorbed from society and reflecting the market ideology that sees us as isolated individuals destined to compete for jobs and resources. This is an unstable combination that can, in times during which mainstream politics and ideology are disrupted, explode to the right or to the left.
Our challenge is to combine struggles against racism with struggles against the wider attacks on the working class.