The poisonous atmosphere of this Brexit quagmire

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
6 June 2018

The more May and her warring party factions get bogged down in their Brexit quagmire, the more they expose the absurdity of the national borders that they are trying to drag out of their irrelevance.
    So, for months, now, they have been staring clueless at the vexed question of the border which separates Northern Ireland from the Republic.  Scores of convoluted schemes have been produced to turn this artificial border line into a hard border with the EU, while keeping it, somehow, "immaterial".  But one after the other, each one of their schemes has fallen apart, either because it was ridiculously impractical, ridiculously expensive, or both.
    Meanwhile, the so-called "benefits" of this British-built border for the Northern population were exposed for what they really are, when voters in the Republic decided to recognise a woman's right to decide whether or not she wants to have a child.
    For the women of Northern Ireland, no such choice was ever on offer.  Not only did they never have the limited rights introduced in Britain in 1967, but they won't benefit either from the progress now made in the Republic.  May's bigoted ally, DUP leader Arlene Foster, will make sure of that!
    As it turns out, May's Brexit politicking has already turned the "immaterial" border between the North of Ireland and the Republic into a hard border for women!

Feeding racism of all kinds

Another illustration of the criminal absurdity of the politicians' obsession with borders, nationalities and "navy blue" passports, was provided by the Windrush scandal - and the vicious policy of treating poor working class people like criminals which was behind it.
    Decades of blaming "foreigners" for the dire state of Britain's underfunded public services and social housing, allowed May to introduce her "hostile environment" policy against migrant workers and her immigration targets.  And it provided the basis for the Westminster Brexiteers' vicious campaign against EU workers in the run-up to the 2016 referendum.
    In the name of defending "Britishness" - whatever this means, in this 21st century! - and protecting what they call "our borders", these politicians have created a poisonous atmosphere within the Home Office and Immigration services - and, indeed, across the whole of society.
    As a result, foreigners - or anyone who doesn't "look" British for that matter - have become a legitimate target for faceless bureaucrats who abuse their powers in the full knowledge that, whatever they do, they'll be covered by officialdom - and not just bureaucrats, but also employers and landlords trying to get rid of their workers and tenants.
    For the likes of May, Johnson, Gove and Co, all this nationalist demagogy is just a political game - a means to win votes and advance their careers.  But for those at the receiving end of the "hostile environment", no matter their origin or nationality, this is a constant threat which has already destroyed the lives of thousands - and it cannot be tolerated!

Nationalism, a weapon against us

The whole Brexit saga has been constructed around one, and only one, idea - that what defines people is nationality, not class.  Therefore British workers are supposed to have the same interests as their British bosses.  And we are supposed to believe that we'll be safer and happier once we've been locked up behind the Brexit borders, well away from Europe.
    But this is a lie, of course.  The impregnable British fortress that May and her Brexiteers want to build around us is designed to be a prison in which an isolated "British" working class will be made to slave away in order to defend the "British" economy - i.e. boost the fat profits of British capital.  The way the bosses are gearing up for Brexit, cutting costs and jobs in every possible way and forcing ever more workers into casual jobs, speaks for itself: this is what they and their politicians have in store for “after Brexit.”  We can already hear what they'll be saying: "shut up and work harder".
    So, no!  We, workers, have no interest in common with our exploiters, whether British or otherwise.  What they "earn" is just what they steal from the value we produce with our labour.  The more they earn, the less we do.  It's as simple as that.  And this is what really defines our position in society, as workers who produce all the value, as opposed to the capitalist parasites who own everything and live off our labour.
    This is why our only allies are those workers of all nationalities, in Britain and across the world, whose labour is being exploited by the capitalists, just as ours is.  It is this indissoluble link that ties us to our class, the international working class, that May and her Brexit politicians would want us to forget with their nationalist nonsense, flag waving and xenophobic "hostile environment".  But we shouldn't and we won't!