It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses

The Brexit has laid bare the political schism of our time. It’s not about the left vs. the right; it’s about the sane vs. the mindlessly angry.
BY JAMES TRAUBJUNE 28, 2016facebooktwittergoogle-plusredditLinkedIn email

It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses

I was born in 1954, and until now I would have said that the late 1960s was the greatest period of political convulsion I have lived through. Yet for all that the Vietnam War and the civil rights struggle changed American culture and reshaped political parties, in retrospect those wild storms look like the normal oscillations of a relatively stable political system. The present moment is different. Today’s citizen revolt — in the United States, Britain, and Europe — may upend politics as nothing else has in my lifetime.

In the late 1960s, elites were in disarray, as they are now — but back then they were fleeing from kids rebelling against their parents’ world; now the elites are fleeing from the parents.In the late 1960s, elites were in disarray, as they are now — but back then they were fleeing from kids rebelling against their parents’ world; now the elites are fleeing from the parents. Extremism has gone mainstream. One of the most brazen features of the Brexit vote was the utter repudiation of the bankers and economists and Western heads of state who warned voters against the dangers of a split with the European Union. British Prime Minister David Cameron thought that voters would defer to the near-universal opinion of experts; that only shows how utterly he misjudged his own people.


It's Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant…
The Brexit has laid bare the political schism of our time. It's not about the left vs. the right; it's about the sane vs. the mindlessly angry.

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Both the Conservative and the Labour parties in Britain are now in crisis. The British have had their day of reckoning; the American one looms. If Donald Trump loses, and loses badly (forgive me my reckless optimism, but I believe he will) the Republican Party may endure a historic split between its know-nothing base and its K Street/Chamber of Commerce leadership class. The Socialist government of France may face a similar fiasco in national elections next spring: Polls indicate that President François Hollande would not even make it to the final round of voting. Right-wing parties all over Europe are clamoring for an exit vote of their own.


Yes, it’s possible that all the political pieces will fly up into the air and settle down more or less where they were before, but the Brexit vote shows that shocking change isn’t very shocking anymore. Where, then, could those pieces end up? Europe is already pointing in one direction. In much of Europe, far-right nativist parties lead in the polls. So far, none has mustered a majority, though last month Norbert Hofer, the leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, which traffics in Nazi symbolism, came within a hair of winning election as president. Mainstream parties of the left and right may increasingly combine forces to keep out the nationalists. This has already happened in Sweden, where a right-of-center party serves as the minority partner to the left-of-center government. If the Socialists in France do in fact lose the first round, they will almost certainly support the conservative Republicans against the far-right National Front.

Perhaps these informal coalitions can survive until the fever breaks. But the imperative of cohabitation could also lead to genuine realignment. That is, chunks of parties from the left and right of center could break away to form a different kind of center, defending pragmatism, meliorism, technical knowledge, and effective governance against the ideological forces gathering on both sides. It’s not hard to imagine the Republican Party in the United States — and perhaps the British Conservatives should Brexit go terribly wrong — losing control of the angry, nationalist rank and file and reconstituting themselves as the kind of Main Street, pro-business parties they were a generation ago, before their ideological zeal led them into a blind alley. That may be their only alternative to irrelevance.

The issue, at bottom, is globalization. Brexit, Trump, the National Front, and so on show that political elites have misjudged the depth of the anger at global forces and thus the demand that someone, somehow, restore the status quo ante. It may seem strange that the reaction has come today rather than immediately after the economic crisis of 2008, but the ebbing of the crisis has led to a new sense of stagnation. With prospects of flat growth in Europe and minimal income growth in the United States, voters are rebelling against their dismal long-term prospects. And globalization means culture as well as economics: Older people whose familiar world is vanishing beneath a welter of foreign tongues and multicultural celebrations are waving their fists at cosmopolitan elites. I was recently in Poland, where a far-right party appealing to nationalism and tradition has gained power despite years of undeniable prosperity under a centrist regime. Supporters use the same words again and again to explain their vote: “values and tradition.” They voted for Polishness against the modernity of Western Europe.

Perhaps politics will realign itself around the axis of globalization, with the fist-shakers on one side and the pragmatists on the other. The nationalists would win the loyalty of working-class and middle-class whites who see themselves as the defenders of sovereignty. The reformed center would include the beneficiaries of globalization and the poor and non-white and marginal citizens who recognize that the celebration of national identity excludes them.

Of course, mainstream parties of both the left and the right are trying to reach the angry nationalists. Sometimes this takes the form of gross truckling, as when Nicolas Sarkozy, who is seeking to regain France’s presidency, denounces the “tyranny of minorities” and invokes the “forever France” of an all-white past. From the left, Hillary Clinton has jettisoned her free-trade past to appeal to union members and others who want to protect national borders against the global market. But left and right disagree so deeply about how best to cushion the effects of globalization, and how to deal with the vast influx of refugees and migrants, that even the threat of extremism may not be enough to bring them to make common cause.

The schism we see opening before us is not just about policies, but about reality.The schism we see opening before us is not just about policies, but about reality. The Brexit forces won because cynical leaders were prepared to cater to voters’ paranoia, lying to them about the dangers of immigration and the costs of membership in the EU. Some of those leaders have already begun to admit that they were lying. Donald Trump has, of course, set a new standard for disingenuousness and catering to voters’ fears, whether over immigration or foreign trade or anything else he can think of. The Republican Party, already rife with science-deniers and economic reality-deniers, has thrown itself into the embrace of a man who fabricates realities that ignorant people like to inhabit.

Did I say “ignorant”? Yes, I did. It is necessary to say that people are deluded and that the task of leadership is to un-delude them. Is that “elitist”? Maybe it is; maybe we have become so inclined to celebrate the authenticity of all personal conviction that it is now elitist to believe in reason, expertise, and the lessons of history. If so, the party of accepting reality must be prepared to take on the party of denying reality, and its enablers among those who know better. If that is the coming realignment, we should embrace it.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/28/its-time-for-the-elites-to-rise-up-against-ignorant-masses-trump-2016-brexit/

So there ya have it, right and left got nuttin' to do with it, class is irrelevant, all you smart class traitors need to join up with your masters to suppress your suffering and (purposefully) confused brothers & sisters. You don't want people calling you ignorant, eh?

Goddamn I hate these sonsofbitches.

So there ya have it, right and left got nuttin' to do with it, class is irrelevant, all you smart class traitors need to join up with your masters to suppress your suffering and (purposefully) confused brothers & sisters. You don't want people calling you ignorant, eh?

Goddamn I hate these sonsofbitches

"Whose side are you on?" Let's make up sides and pretend they are real. Then we can pick which one makes us feel better about ourselves! This tool was talking about somebody not embracing reality!? Fuck me, he just got through saying that none of this had anything to do with economics and bemoaned right-wing governments taking over in various places while completely ignoring that NATO/EU installed a Nazi government in Ukraine that is currently murdering its own citizens with US state department blessings! (And, of course, US/NATO arms and mercs.)

This guy is a ruling class warrior, whether he knows it or not (I got no idea, he may be that ignorant). "Did I say “ignorant”? Yes, I did."

"Whose side are you on?" Let's make up sides and pretend they are real. Then we can pick which one makes us feel better about ourselves! This tool was talking about somebody not embracing reality!? Fuck me, he just got through saying that none of this had anything to do with economics and bemoaned right-wing governments taking over in various places while completely ignoring that NATO/EU installed a Nazi government in Ukraine that is currently murdering its own citizens with US state department blessings! (And, of course, US/NATO arms and mercs.)

This guy is a ruling class warrior, whether he knows it or not (I got no idea, he may be that ignorant). "Did I say “ignorant”? Yes, I did."

Are you with the "ignorant masses"? Or are you with the Council of Foreign Relations, Zizek & BHL, John Kerry, the CIA, NATO, the IMF et al?
Phil Greaves




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzudto-FA5Y

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imperialism (http://www.thebellforum.com/category/us-politics/imperialism)


http://blackagendareport.com/sites/default/files/styles/image-400x300/public/FR_BritWhirlpool.jpg?itok=vxY53C9w (http://www.thebellforum.com/good_news_about_brexit)

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley In calling for the vote on BREXIT, the British guardians of the financial powers-that-be have shot themselves in all four feet. Trillions have been lost in money markets, “the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is on hold for now, and NATO provocations against Russia will take a back seat.” The U.S. is losing its Trojan Horse in Europe. “Let the sun finally set on the British Empire.”
Freedom Rider: The Good News of Brexit by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley “They want freedom from the big bullies on the school yard, the United States of America and finance capital.”
This week the world has to be thankful for hubris and political miscalculation. These two factors have temporarily thrown a wrench into the imperialist project. No one in the British or American establishment foresaw the “Brexit” vote (http://johnpilger.com/articles/why-the-british-said-no-to-europe) that called for a United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union.
The post-referendum recrimination and political chaos benefit humanity. The latest trade deal monstrosity, the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), is on hold for now and NATO provocations against Russia will take a back seat. Millions of people will get a respite from American meddling in their lives.
If there had been any inkling of a Brexit victory, Prime Minister David Cameron would never have agreed to put the matter to a vote. Even politicians on the right who made it a condition of supporting him may not have pushed the issue, either. Nor did the Labour party see Brexit coming. If so they would have been in front making the principled left case (http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/09/will-anyone-on-the-left-stand-up-for-brexit/) against neo-liberalism and United States hegemony. Instead they straddled the fence and meekly supported the Remain camp at the 11th hour.
Despite its well cultivated image of progress and enlightenment (http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/22/the-left-and-the-eu-why-cling-to-this-reactionary-institution/) the European Union is not a bulwark of peace and international cooperation. It acts as America’s 28-nation gang of enforcers, as it impoverishes Greece, or tears Ukraine in two or bribes Turkey (http://www.blackagendareport.com/turkey_europe_human_trafficking) to keep the desperate refugees they all had a hand in creating. But the EU nations are also victims of American power. The United States is the invisible senior partner (http://theduran.com/us-eu-spectre-brexit/) of the EU, making sure that it keeps the international banksters well funded, expands NATO and makes certain that no one steps out of the American orbit. Angela Merkel may want to end sanctions against Russia, or allow Greece to exit the Eurozone but both requests were dead on arrival because Washington opposed them.*
“The EU acts as America’s 28-nation gang of enforcers.”
While David Cameron and Barack Obama and the New York Times and the BBC all sneered at anyone who thought of leaving, ordinary citizens kept their own counsel. They watched as EU rules precluded deficit spending and created an austerity hell for the British people. Under American pressure the EU expanded its membership to include poorer countries whose people then had a right to immigrate to more prosperous countries like the UK. This race to the bottom for workers was not just the concern of xenophobes and racists but of people whose living wage jobs disappear.
The insults heaped upon the Leave voters by the establishment certainly didn’t help. It was bad enough that the Cameron government gutted Britain’s once proud national health system but late in the anti-Brexit campaign they added insult to injury by threatening to withhold even more money if the Leave vote won. In one of the worst acts of desperation, Cameron invoked the spirit of the much maligned Vladimir Putin, declaring that a Leave vote would only benefit the man turned into a villain by western politicians and media.
The warnings of economic catastrophe were ignored in favor of a desire for freedom from a cooked up union that exists to make capital flow more easily. It is true that the most visible Leave campaigners were motivated by anti-immigrant sentiment. That did not have to be the case. But the Labour Party are also under the sway of finance capital and the discredited specter of criminal Tony Blair. What passes for the left was caught flat footed instead of making the case for escape from the imperialist hostage takers.
“This race to the bottom for workers was not just the concern of xenophobes and racists but of people whose living wage jobs disappear.”
The media reaction to the vote is proof of how much the establishment want to stay within the bounds of the neo-liberal project. Voters who chose the Brexit route have been labeled as stupid, and we are told that 17 million people didn’t know what they were doing. Every instance of hate speech and hate crime is now blamed on the Brexit vote, as if there was an absence of racism and intolerance before.
Cameron will step down, but there is turmoil in the Labour party ,too. Their constituents voted to go and there were even more fissures along generational and geographic lines. Scotland voted to stay, and its leadership has already said that the referendum will not be binding upon them. There is talk of a second referendum, which makes a mockery of the constant shrieking about democracy in the capitalist world.
Other nations are watching and people in the rest of Europe are making the case for once again having their own currencies and leaving NATO behind. That is why they are vilified so badly. They want freedom from the big bullies on the school yard, the United States of America and finance capital.
Ordinary people may not be able to articulate their discomfort but they’ll speak up when given the opportunity to express their unhappiness. Some who voted to leave the EU may be well versed on the subject, some were anti-immigrant, others were fed up with politicians who lie to them about wars or austerity.
“Every instance of hate speech and hate crime is now blamed on the Brexit vote, as if there was an absence of racism and intolerance before.“
The end result of Brexit may be the end of the United Kingdom. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU while England and Wales voted to leave. Given another opportunity, Scottish people may choose independence. The New York Times and the Guardian may wring their hands about this possibility but no one else should care.
Britain committed some of the worst criminal acts in history ranging from slavery to colonialism. It violently repressed freedom movements and owes its wealth to its criminality. Now it acts in concert with the United States to sanction and to threaten. For now it is unlikely to play a major role in provoking Russia, which has suddenly moved down on the imperialist to-do list. Let the sun finally set on the British empire.
There is no downside to David Cameron’s impending resignation either. He is a symbol of every form of corruption in western so-called democracy. Cameron went to Libya to personally gloat after NATO overthrew that government, killed thousands of people and murdered president Muammar Gaddafi. The corporate media went to great lengths to connect Vladimir Putin to the Panama papers (http://www.blackagendareport.com/panama_papers_problem) scandal, but it was Cameron’s family who hid money offshore to keep from paying taxes. Cameron should suffer but he won’t. He will undoubtedly join the ranks of former heads of state who become well paid errand boys for the 1%.
Chaos can be a good thing. The current mess of post-Brexit politics is a sign that one part of the capitalist coalition is in trouble. They won’t give up easily and will do everything in their power to negate the will of the people. But this earthquake can’t be papered over easily and that is a good thing indeed.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. (http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/) Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.




More... (http://blackagendareport.com/good_news_about_brexit)

God, I love that old lady...

May not agree with every bit of this but it's well done.


http://youtu.be/Bn_6sU7O43w

The curmudgeon in me is like an over-stimulated dachshund every time I play this.

British people vote to quit the EU – turmoil in the imperialist camp

brexitOn the morning of 24 June 2016, the result of the UK referendum on EU membership was announced. While 51.9% of the electorate (on a 70% turnout) voted to quit, 48.1% voted to stay in, giving the Brexit side a clear win.

As the result was announced, prime minister Cameron quit, sterling plunged and the ruling SNP in Scotland, whose residents voted overwhelmingly for remaining in the EU, hinted at independence. The FTSE slumped 8.7% on opening before reducing losses to 4.3% for the day. Bank stocks took a special hammering.

An explosive shock

The result was ” … a jolt”, said the Financial Times, “with the potential to fracture not just the Union but reshape the postwar order in the west. Brexit tugs at the bonds holding the bloc together, and collective standing clout of the members” (Alex Barker, ‘Geopolitics result puts 70 years of EU integration into reverse’, 25 June 2016).

“It is an explosive shock. At stake is the break up, pure and simple, of the Union”, commented Manuel Valls, the French prime minister (see George Parker and Michael Mackenzie, ‘Britain breaks with Europe’, Financial Times, 24 June 2016).

In the same article as the above comment by Mr Valls appears, the Financial Times admitted that “The vote reflected a roar of rage from those who felt alienated from London and left behind by globalisation [i.e., imperialism]”.

Again in the same issue of the Financial Times, Philip Stephens wrote that the vote represented a ” deep disgrumtlement with a political and economic system that is seen [and is!] rigged against the hard-working classes.

“For a decade or so badly skewed distribution of the gains of globalisation and widespread tax evasion on the part of big business were camouflaged by buoyant economic growth. Since 2008, the unfairness has been amplified by austerity: the wealthiest one per cent have been barely touched.

“Capitalism needed saving, but … bailing out financial institutions with taxpayers’ money, transferred stresses from markets to politics [Mr Stephens means to say ‘from the rich to the poor’].”

Like all well-bred mercenary defenders of capitalism, Mr Stephens concludes thus: “Politicians must confront excesses. If they want to save liberal democracy [i.e., the rule of the bourgeoisie], they will have to reform capitalism” (‘How a cautious nation came to tear down the political temple’).

Obviously, Mr Stephens’ vision does not extend beyond capitalism, which to him is eternal rather than being a transitory phase in humanity’s long march from primitive communism to the higher stage of communism, when the dictum will be put into practice: ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’.

The referendum revealed deep divisions across Britain, with Scotland and prosperous London voting by a large margin to stay in, while working-class towns, seaside resorts and rural England backed the Leave side. Labour Party heartlands turned out in large numbers to deliver a staggering blow to the establishment and the status quo, bringing to an end Britain’s 43-year membership of the EU.

” This has been Britain’s most class-based vote of recent decades, with the normal cross-class alliances dissolving into an early 21st century ‘peasants’ revolt'”, wrote Mr David Goodhart of the Financial Times in ‘The outers’ message resonated with those who feel left behind’, 24 June 2016.

Defiance of big business

Thus it is as clear as daylight that the British proletariat has stood up to big business, the multinationals and the billionaires, to vote against continued membership of the European Union, despite all the threats to which it has been subjected and the scorn and derision poured on it for wishing to defy its masters and rebel against the austerity which has so undeservedly been imposed upon it. It has proved itself worthy of being dubbed the “puer robustus sed malitiosus’ (the sturdy but unruly boy’) to use the apt expression of Engels.

Need to fight xenophobia

Of course, the reasoning behind its defiance is immature, led as it is not by a proletarian party committed to forwarding its class interests, but by various bourgeois and petty-bourgeois charlatans with their own axe to grind. It is still infected with the xenophobia instilled into it by an imperialist bourgeoisie that needed to use its proletarians as pawns in the fight to subdue the colonies, the plunder of which made Britain great. This xenophobia today expresses itself as fear of the foreigner entering the country ‘to take our jobs’, a fear as great as it is irrational. Because of it, the proletariat is for the most part unable to see what is glaringly obvious, namely, that British jobs have mostly been lost as a result of the export of capital by the imperialist British bourgeoisie, hand in hand with technological advance and the gains in productivity; and that if a few industries have managed to hang on, it is precisely because many jobs could be very effectively done by cheap immigrant labour – thus preserving some jobs also for those born British that would otherwise also have been lost to the export of capital.

There are those who think that because of this wrongheadedness motivating a large percentage of the Brexit vote and the shambolic bourgeois leadership of much of the movement, we should be appalled and ashamed, not congratulatory. We would repeat, however, that what is admirable – even apart from the anti-imperialist outcome of the vote – is the defiant spirit of the oppressed masses. There is no escaping the fact that the areas where the Brexit vote has been highest are those which have become de-industrialised as a result of the export of capital and where the proletariat is most severely affected by the crisis of capitalism and the austerity measures that have been taken in a vain attempt to overcome it. In England and Wales, at least, it is the poor who have spoken, while those who are still more or less all right tended to go along with Remain.

As for the wrongheadedness, it is now very much the challenge facing those who seek to lead the proletariat to revolution to assist it in overcoming its bourgeois prejudices, and it should not be thought that they will prove unable to do so. As Mao Zedong rightly said, ” the revolutionary war is a war of the masses; only those mobilizing the masses and relying on them can wage it. (‘Be Concerned with the Well-Being of the Masses, Pay Attention to Methods of Work’, January 27, 1934, Selected Works, Vol. I. p. 147). It follows from this that any person who imagines that wrong ideas among the masses are incapable of extirpation is really giving up all hope of revolution and inevitably sooner or later falls into social-democracy (a search for the chimera of a kinder capitalism), class collaboration, or worse. It is necessary to have faith in the masses, i.e., the confidence that, under the leadership and guidance of a truly revolutionary party of the proletariat, in conjunction with the lessons dealt by experience, the proletariat will be able to reject xenophobia – which is irrational – and replace it with capitalophobia, which is entirely rational. We must work to ensure that whatever misguided ideas may have been harboured in the past by the proletariat of this community or that – and even acted upon sometimes – all are ready to come forward to fight shoulder to shoulder for their interests as proletarians against the capitalist system that is responsible for their misery.

An anti-imperialist triumph

The reasons why the Brexit vote is an anti-imperialist triumph, regardless of the subjectivity of those who voted, are as follows:

1. Brexit sets the stage for the disintegration of the imperialist bloc that is the European Union.

2. It sets in motion also the disintegration of the neo-Nazi imperialist NATO alliance. Although not every member of the EU is a member of NATO, by and large the membership of these two organisations is largely coextensive. The process of loosening the ties between different parts of NATO, which has been under way since the Gulf War in 2003, is likely to be much accelerated.

3. Consequent upon this referendum the pressure exerted by NATO and the EU on countries such as the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation will become far more incoherent as is likely to be revealed in the coming few weeks when the EU is due to discuss the question of extending for another year sanctions against Russia, with several countries in the EU, including Germany, Greece and Hungary, being already unhappy with NATO’s increasing hostility to Russia. Now that Britain is leaving the EU, this pressure is likely to ease considerably, this for the reason that Britain basically is a Trojan horse in the EU on behalf of US imperialism which effectually is the moving force behind NATO. It is not for nothing that even the US President, Mr Obama, going against normal conventions, intervened in the referendum debate imploring the British people not to leave.

There are several reasons which impelled the majority of British people to vote for an exit from the EU and undoubtedly hostility to immigration was a major factor. Behind that, however, is the pain which has been inflicted on working people since the beginning of the latest and worst crisis of imperialism in 2007 to the present.

With the communist movement weak and opportunism rampant in the working-class movement, with hardly anyone (though there are one or two honourable exceptions) explaining to the working class the cause of its misery, it is not surprising that the working people are inclined to blame their misfortunes on workers of foreign origin. However, the results of the Brexit referendum will shortly demonstrate that in or out of the EU, their misery is solely attributable to the workings of capitalism, and not the Brussels bureaucracy. The ruling class of all the imperialist countries are united in their desire and their efforts to pass the burden of the crisis on to the shoulders of the working class.

Besides, as long as the labour market can bear it, there is not likely to be a significant fall in the number of migrants coming to Britain. The only difference would be the country of origin of these migrants. Instead of Poles and east Europeans, it will be people from the Indian subcontinent and from Africa. If, consequent upon the referendum result, NATO’s ability to wage wars against oppressed peoples is weakened, as we expect, then the number of refugees who have been forced to leave their countries by imperialist wars might slow down, which would be good because these unfortunate victims of imperialist wars are not voluntarily trying to enter Europe. On the contrary, they have been forced at gunpoint and by the threat of starvation to leave the countries they love and where they wanted to stay.

Racism is the Achilles heel of the working class in the centres of imperialism. Unless it is checked with proper education of the working class in the spirit of internationalism rather than narrow nationalism, it will continue to divide, weaken and render impotent the struggle of the working class for its own emancipation through the overthrow of capitalism in a proletarian revolution.

Let the communists take up the noble task of inculcating the working class with the spirit of internationalism and concentrate its attention on the exploiting classes rather than fellow workers of foreign origin who are even more of a victim of the system.

That section of the bourgeoisie which mobilised for Brexit may be very happy in the aftermath of the referendum but the smile will be wiped off their faces when they realise the grievous harm that has been inflicted on imperialism in general and British imperialism in particular. Their intentions notwithstanding, it was very easy during the referendum campaign to glibly talk about Britain’s independence from the EU prison house, regaining its sovereignty, and going into the wider world in search of trade and investments; now that their wish has been fulfilled it can be expected they will discover the wisdom of the old adage: ‘Be careful what you wish for’!

Bourgeois parties in disarray

The referendum results also have serious implications for the political establishment. Both major parties are in disarray and split down the middle, with each half in each of them blaming the other half. David Cameron is being shunted out of no. 10, most likely to be replaced by that buffoon, Boris Johnson. He will find it no easier to control the viscerally divided Conservative Party, the majority of whose parliamentary representatives were in favour of remaining, than did David Cameron. Nor will his administration have any magic formula for curing the deep economic crisis of imperialism which is consequent upon the world crisis of overproduction. His government outside the EU will no more be able to conjure up non-existent demand for the massive overproduction than is the government of independent and almighty US imperialism. Instead of looking forward to being prime minister, he must be terrified of taking up that risky job rather than shouting from the sidelines making flippant comments of a type more commonly associated with 6-year old boys at posh schools.

Labour is in no happier position. The right wing of the party is blaming Corbyn for not conducting the campaign properly, but then nothing has changed, they never wanted Corbyn in the first place.

The outrage at the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox was shamelessly and cynically sought to be exploited by the Remain camp, but this didn’t work.

The Tory Party is divided. There have been deep divisions in the Conservative Party over the question of membership of the EU for more than 2 decades and prime minister Cameron took the decision to hold the referendum as a means of overcoming these differences. As a matter of fact, the divisions in the party are even deeper today after the Brexit vote than they were before and it would not be unreasonable to believe that these divisions could split the Tory Party and render it incapable of forming a government for some time. Not since the repeal of the Corn Laws in the first half of the 19th century, which devastated the Conservative Party, has there been such a deep rift in its ranks.

Finally, Britain may be the first country, but it will by no means be the last to bail out. In fact Brexit has prepared the ground for other countries to follow suit. The fantasy of a United States of Europe is disappearing by the day, and the process of the disintegration of the EU is well and truly under way.

Conclusion

In the aftermath of Brexit, and the havoc it is bound to wreak in the imperialist camp, Marxist-Leninists have an opportunity to build a serious communist party, representing the real interests of the working class and capable of leading the latter in the revolutionary overthrow of imperialism. Only under socialism can workers be freed from unemployment, hunger, want, homelessness and destitution; only under socialism can they secure freedom from war. Let Marxist-Leninists rise to the challenge.

DOWN WITH CAPITALISM!

FORWARD TO PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION !

http://www.lalkar.org/article/2484/british-people-vote-to-quit-the-eu-turmoil-in-the-imperialist-camp

The reasons why the Brexit vote is an anti-imperialist triumph, regardless of the subjectivity of those who voted, are as follows:

1. Brexit sets the stage for the disintegration of the imperialist bloc that is the European Union.

2. It sets in motion also the disintegration of the neo-Nazi imperialist NATO alliance. Although not every member of the EU is a member of NATO, by and large the membership of these two organisations is largely coextensive. The process of loosening the ties between different parts of NATO, which has been under way since the Gulf War in 2003, is likely to be much accelerated.

3. Consequent upon this referendum the pressure exerted by NATO and the EU on countries such as the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation will become far more incoherent as is likely to be revealed in the coming few weeks when the EU is due to discuss the question of extending for another year sanctions against Russia, with several countries in the EU, including Germany, Greece and Hungary, being already unhappy with NATO’s increasing hostility to Russia. Now that Britain is leaving the EU, this pressure is likely to ease considerably, this for the reason that Britain basically is a Trojan horse in the EU on behalf of US imperialism which effectually is the moving force behind NATO. It is not for nothing that even the US President, Mr Obama, going against normal conventions, intervened in the referendum debate imploring the British people not to leave.

I'm not sure if I agree completely with any of these points.

1. The majority of this "imperialist bloc" are subjugated by the the few and, in turn, those few feel subjugated by the "fiscal" dimension of the pact(s) that hold the bloc together (from a legal/politcal perspective).

2. "imperialist" is not a good enough slur? It remains to be seen how and when NATO falls apart.

3. this is just a sub heading of #2

Too much fancy footwork attempting a justification IMO. When did "burn this fucker down" go out of vogue on the left?

If the worker's understood the vote as being Brexit=Wrexit why would the left feel compelled to take a tamer "strategic" stance? The lie has to put to the capitalist claim that xenophobia is the driving factor rather than their constant siphoning of surplus value from the workers to themselves and the ever-expanding social squalor in all countries.

Its about immiseration, not immigration.

2. "imperialist" is not a good enough slur? It remains to be seen how and when NATO falls apart.

The Delian League comes to mind, with all that implies.