EU: Stalinists get themselves into a twist … again

January 13, 2016 at 10:22 pm (Europe, Jim D, stalinism)

As Cameron signals that the EU referendum is likely to be held within months, the less moronic of the “left” anti-EU’ers are changing their minds in the realisation that “Exit Left” is a reactionary fantasy . Owen Jones, for instance:

“There is no influential left-leaning “exit” campaign; it is under the control of the right. A vote to leave would not be seen as a rejection of TTIP (try asking people on the street if they know what it is), but rather more to do with, say, opposition to immigration  … With Cameron in retreat, Labour can unite behind “in” while calling for a different EU.”

And just for a moment, it seemed that the Morning Star and its political masters, the Communist Party of Britain, had also reached the same conclusion, at last turning their backs upon decades of little-Englandism, finally facing the reality of modern capitalism and British political reality; on Monday January 11, the Star reported Communist Review editor Martin Levy telling party’s executive committee:

There is no Exit Left on the agenda, simply an exit, which could end up with a more right-wing, anti-working class government in Britain.”

It seemed that, at long last, the CP was facing reality.

Well, I don’t know for sure what Comrade Levy actually said at the CP’s executive meeting, but the Morning Star of  Wednesday 13 2010 published the following “clarification” [for which there is no link]:

The report on last Saturday’s executive committee (EC) meeting of the Communist Party of Britain was unfortunately truncated so as to give a misleading impression of the party’s position on the European Union referendum.

Mr Levy’s statement to the EC was that “while an EU referendum will create major divisions within the government, the major problem for the left is that the predominant case for a No vote is being made by right-wing Tories, Business for Britain and xenophobes such as Ukip.

“Unless the projection of the case for a left exit was speedily enhanced, the labour movement could be faced with an exit that resulted in a still more right-0wing and anti-working class government.”

Mr Levy highlighted the fact that many within the labour movement still erroneously view the EU “as a source of jobs and workplace rights, of protection of peace and stability within Europe.”

[…]

Only a vote to leave the EU contains the possibility of moving British politics genuinely to the left, in the context of a likely split in the Tory Party and a general election in which Jeremy Corbyn leads Labour to victory on a manifesto of socialist measures. The 2exit left” needs to be put on the agenda.

Readers may note that there seems to be little relationship between the Star‘s original report of what “Mr” (not “Comrade”?) Levy had to say about the referendum, and what the “clarification” has to say. Students of Stalinist re-writing of history and congenital lying about simple facts will not be particularly surprised.

So the CP and its mouthpiece the Morning Star remain wedded to little-Englandism and will side with reaction and racism in the forthcoming referendum. And maybe “Mr” Levy will be air-brushed out of history.