A VICTORY OF THE WORKING CLASS AS A MARGINAL EVENT
(Confrontation with Scholastic Marxism)
My humble opinion is that Brexit and
Grexit are not exactly the same phenomena. Grexit was mainly an
expression of people’s will (and that is why bourgeoisie did not
allow it) while Brexit mostly expresses the unwillingness of the
British (and partly American) bourgeoisie to subject itself to the
German interests in the EU. That is why for me Brexit is, to a great
extent, a bourgeois phenomenon and I do not agree with the
celebration of “a win of people’s will” that is on a large
scale trumpeted, as befits their wishes, by immature leftists... At
the same time I understand the disappointment of many Britons,
especially young ones, who do not want to live in a prison house of
national conceptions. Brexit is an expression of the Anglo-Saxon
bourgeois bloc distrust of the German-French EU.
Dimitar Anakiev, Facebook &
Izbris-blog, June, 26, 2016
A recent victory of xenophobic policy on the
referendum for exit from the EU has been declared, in almost all of
today’s Marxist journals, as a “victory of the working class”
since the EU is classified exclusively as an instrument of the global
capital super-government over the European nations.(1) These media,
however, pass over in silence an evident role that is played, in the
campaign for Britain leaving the EU, by global capital itself and in
which it is impossible to overlook the mega-capitalist Rupert Murdoch
whose media empire served as one of the major means of the campaign.
Likewise, Brexit enjoyed undisguised sympathies of the British crown
(see the accompanying picture). Though the reason for engagement of
the most reactionary forces of the British society in favor of Brexit
could be rather searched for in a bourgeois game of power – namely,
in the Anglo-Saxon capitalist lobbies opposing an increasing power of
Germany headed by Angela Merkel that has successfully met its demand
for cheap working force by “importing” more than a million
refugees from the devastated and plundered Near and Far East –
today’s Marxist regard the victory of the reaction as that of the
working class although no notable mobilization of the working class
in Britain ever took place, especially for the sake of the class
struggle; and for this reason Brexit greatly differs from the
unsuccessful Grexit that was dominated by extensive mobilization of
people and of the idea of class struggle. Today’s Marxists, tired
of a series of historical defeats and constant defensive and
stagnation, seem to be leaning, in their conclusions, more on their
wishes rather than facts. Instead of argument-supported discussions
they offer scholastic schemes and cheap demagogy, including, among
them, those “democratic” parts of the Trotskyist movement who
have recently resigned from their “undemocratic” curent since,
allegedly, they could not voice their opinions in it. Let’s just
have a look now at the “argumentation” of the scholastic
Marxists:
Editorial of 45th issue of La Tribune
de Travailleurs published on June, 29, signed by the
Editor-In-Chief in person who is also the leader of the
“democratic” Internationalist Communist Tendency (TCI)
Daniel Gluckstein, is entitled “Two of Three Workers” (“Deux
ouvriers sur trois”).(2) The title implies that two of three
workers voted for Brexit, that is, if we add to this information the
dominant dogma about progressivity of the working class, then
the assumed meaning is that Brexit is the result of a
proletarian action (instead of a bourgeois complot) and that, as
such, it is the first step of the impending revolution. Gluckstein
further states that the next step would be annulment of all the
actions of privatization. Yes, this might have been the next step if
the Brexit had been a result of the proletarian action. But it was
not. In Britain no mobilization of the working class, such as we have
seen in Greece, took place. Nor many years of street fighting,
either. Nor hand to hand fighting. Nor dead. Then what was there,
after all? Gluckstein does not mention any bourgeois precursor of
Brexit: the conservative government which itself has announced the
referendum (and which has wrestled with the EU to obtain xenophobic
concessions that are part of the same political package as Brexit)
does not mention Murdoch's media which were the main lever of the
Brexit campaign; neither does it mention the Crown, the main symbol
of Brexit. It is unusual for such high-ranking communist to overlook,
in his considerations, major actors of political developments and
then to proceed to elaborate at length the dogmatic theses which, as
a form of idealist thinking, do not belong to Marxism. Obviously the
text has an agitating character and is intended for cheering up its
membership; yet it has no analytical value and neither can it be even
a signpost that it obviously tries to be. Statistics is an important
method in estimating social events but quantity does not always
indicate quality. Dealings with statistics are often manipulative; in
this case we do not know the motives of these „two of three
workers“; yet, we claim, dogmatically, that these are
class-conscious workers setting out on the road to revolution. What
if, however, these are the workers who read Murdoch's Sun and
worship the Crown? By passing over Murdoch they have shown that they
consciously manipulate members and readers. Isn't it true that Hitler
was voted to power by workers? Isn't it true that Milošević and his
fascist program was supported, for the whole decade, and on several
elections voted to power by Serbian workers? Of course, they were all
media-manipulated but that is exactly what we are speaking about
here. Facts are stubborn (“Les faits sont têtus”), says Lenin.
In the same issue of La Tribune de Travailleurs
we come across the article entitled, “June, 23, Vote of the
Class” (“23 juin: un vote de classe”) by a big agitator (though
a poorer analyst and polemist) Dominique Ferré. This author also
calls upon the dogmas to assist in explaining the statistics
distributed to all sides of the world with a special emphasis on
Northwest and Northeast. His agitating talent is, however, even more
evident in his other text published in the same issue of La
Tribune de Travailleurs. The article in question is “The
European Union favors workers’ immigration? What is being mocked
here?” (“'Union européenne en faveur des travailleurs immigrés?
De que se moque-t-on?”). Though the author claims that the
xenophobic reasons are not a true political actor on the scene but
that xenophobia is a mask covering up the class character of Brexit,
the facts speak otherwise. This article wants to conceal and reduce
the political significance of the German import of more than a
million refugees. The economic importance of this event is first-rate
whereas its negation and concealment can be only amateurish
dilettantism which serves its own purposes (while wishes are that the
dogmas are efficient even when they are not) instead of serving the
facts. But, as we know and like to quote, following Lenin, facts are
stubborn (Les faits sont têtus). What is in question is not
just a light, non-invasive kind of import of cheap work force which
is expected to build up even more the powerful German economy –
which is in itself dramatic enough – but also the fact that
Germany, due to refugees, will stop paying in its economic surplus to
the common EU funds so that its position will be even more or almost
absolutely strengthened at the expense of its competitive Anglo-Saxon
capital. Of course, neither does this article mention Murdoch nor its
media empire that has led the Brexit campaign; instead, as carriers
of the Anglo-Saxon nationalism are mentioned marginal figures such as
Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. The simplified ideological
manipulation which completely denies the reality of capital and its
power is intended for uneducated readership. A typical cheerleading
gesture! That is why in the texts by Dominique Ferré we often find
metaphorical expressions (“The right cherishes its ugly head...”)
whereas Daniel Gluckstein’s texts also start with poetic phrases
(“The wind of panic blows through the leading circles of the
capitalist class...”). Metaphors are usually used in political
discourse to induce emotional reactions and reduce analytical demands
of readers. Metaphors blur facts, conceal them. That is why they are,
in political discourse, typical means of demagogy and populist
approach.
The text by the American Trotskyist Alan Benjamin
entitled “Brexit Vote in Britain and Its Lesson for US Workers”
with the subtitle “The Meaning of the June 23 Vote in Britain to
Leave the European Union” published on August, 15, on the web site
of the Socialist Organizer, in essence, sums up the texts from the
French La Tribune de Travailleurs, issue 45. Though somewhat
more serious and analytical in its tone than his French colleagues,
the author, stylistically, remains at the same level of scholastic
presentation besides using the same emphases. At one point he says
that the EU is a framework imposed by imperialists for lowering
wages, democratic and workers’ rights while making working
conditions more difficult (and destroying union independence) as well
as democracy itself, all over Europe. It has to be attacked with even
more Brexits, Frexits or Grexits, all over Europe. Still, such a
claim does not explain why the Swiss have similar problems though
Switzerland is not a member of the EU. Should Switzerland be
destroyed, too? And what about the USA? This kind of rhetoric does
not explain why Slovenia, though a EU member, has managed, to a great
extent, to preserve its public health care system inherited from
socialism while Serbia, though not a EU member, has completely
destroyed the same, from socialism inherited, system of public health
care. Obviously the explanations propounded by scholastic Marxism are
too simplified and schematized up to the point where they cease to be
Marxism. They are much more in need of followers than people whose
thinking about reality is far more penetrating. And this is a
characteristic of Stalinism rather than Trotskyism.
Alan Benjamin does not tell us what kind of Frexit
he wants: is it of the kind that has just been announced today by
Marine le Pen? Is it going to be another “win of the working class”
smiling at us even if financed by Putin? Tragic is not to see any
difference between Brexit and Grexit since it means, in essence, to
deny five and more years of street fighting in Greek cities in which
millions of Greeks took part with many dead young people killed in a
direct clash with the regime. What kind of mockery is being put up by
scholastic Marxism? By those very Trotskyists who claim to be
Trotskyists longer than Trotsky himself? Instead of schematic,
dogmatic babbling, it would be better for them to engage themselves
in analytical issues. First and foremost, I would be interested in
the answers to the questions of relevance for estimating the
political events they describe:
- Has the working class of Britain become stronger or weaker by exit from the EU?
- Has the British capital weakened or strengthened once it broke free from Germany’s hug?
- Is a crack in the bourgeois formation (of the EU) the reason for workers’ celebration if it is not a result of the class struggle and increased power of proletariat?
- Is the EU to be understood as Zubatovshchina and its legal frame used for mobilization of workers? Or should it be destroyed by nationalism?
- Can balkanization of the EU be a goal of workers’ struggle?
September
4, 2016, Radovljica
(1)-European Union is called
“prison of nations” - what was the nick name of Austro-Hungary;
today Spain is called like that. It is overlooked that the EU is an
alliance of sovereign nations. Despite the obvious democratic deficit
of the EU, the referendums to join the EU should be mentioned. In
Slovenia almost 90% of citizens voted for the entry into the EU and
in Croatia, more than 2/3 of the voters. The phrase "prison of
nations" is clearly not effective and inaccurate; it sounds more
like a parade cliché in expressing, targeting (again) emotions of
readers; the phrase is not really dedicated to the factual accuracy.
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