Brexit is a weapon against the working class - it must be fought as such!

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
19 December 2018

May has now managed to postpone the Commons' "meaningful vote" on Brexit to as late a date in the next year as she possibly could.
    This delaying tactic is designed to ensure that the vote takes place too late to leave any space for an alternative to her divorce deal - let alone to Brexit - to be considered.  May's plan is quite obviously to blackmail MPs into rubber-stamping her version of Brexit - or else they might be accused of pushing the economy over a cliff-edge at the 11th hour!
    In short, whether or not Parliament will have "reclaimed its sovereignty from Brussels" (as the Brexiteers boasted), it will clearly not have regained any "sovereignty" whatsoever from Downing Street, nor from its capitalist masters in the City.  But then, this is obviously no big surprise!

Brexit mayhem - self-fulfilling prophecy

So, for now, May, her ministers and their propaganda machine, have gone into overdrive to try to give some credibility to their Brexit plans.  And they're firing in every possible direction.
    First comes May's very own "project fear" - her government's contingency plans in case of a "no deal".  There's nothing new here, of course.  Over the past months, we've already been told endless horror stories about the M2 being transformed into a lorry park right down to the Channel Tunnel and about the NHS stockpiling medicines which are normally imported from the EU.
    But now we are told about thousands of soldiers being brought onto the streets.  What for?  No-one knows!  Is it to police the borders of "fortress Britain" against the alleged "threat" of invading hordes of EU citizens seeking entry after Brexit?  Or is it to protect the assets of Britain's wealthy against the anger - or, maybe the hunger? - of British citizens who will rightly feel let down by the politicians' Brexit saga and its dire effect on their living standards?
    In any case, the aim of this propaganda exercise is clear.  Anyone who dares to make a stand against May's version of Brexit, will take the risk of being held responsible for the resultant mayhem.
    That Brexit would mean mayhem for working people has always been on the cards, of course.  This was to be expected whichever form it took - including under May's very own packaging.
    Breaking up the complex web of economic ties which have been built between Britain and Europe over nearly half-a-century could not possibly be done without causing major disruption - and even less so against the backdrop of a prolonged world economic crisis, which can only transform such disruption into social and economic disaster!
    It took all the arrogance and irresponsibility of self-serving politicians like May and her warring hard-Brexiteer rivals to deny the inevitable outcome of their reckless overbidding.

Standing up for our class interests
                                   
The most ominous aspects of May's propaganda offensive are aimed against the working class.
    First, there is what business secretary Greg Clarke dared to call "the largest upgrade in workers' rights in over a generation".  This is just a rehash of measures already announced last February, supposedly to "protect" casual workers.  But in fact, it only gives new legal grounds for the bosses' over-exploitation of casual workers.
    So, casual workers will have to be "told from day one" what rights they have in terms of paid holidays, sick pay, etc.  But there is no plan to give these workers any statutory rights - so it will be all down to the bosses' "goodwill" and, as long as workers are "told from day one" what rights they do not have, the bosses will be OK!  Likewise for zero-hours contracts: after 1 year, those employed on such contracts will have the "right" to request a fixed number of paid hours and bosses will have a "duty" to consider their request, but no obligation to grant them anything!
    In short, there will be zero compulsion on employers to stop using casualisation to turn the screw of exploitation on workers.
    The second, even more poisonous, plank of May's offensive is contained in her White Paper on immigration.  It restates her "hostile environment" against migrant workers, by including those from the European Union.  By setting a minimum income of £30,000/yr for migrant workers to be allowed to work in Britain, it deliberately discriminates against the vast majority of migrant workers who are not paid such wages - but are just as vital as all other British workers, especially in the NHS, on building sites, on assembly lines, etc.
    Casual workers and migrant workers are major components of the working class.  Trying to drive a wedge between them and the rest of our class, as May does, is an attempt to divide our ranks, to weaken our capacity to fight back against what the bosses have in store for us: it is an attack against the whole of the working class and it will have to be fought as such!