On 23 September we, of Another Europe is Possible, are joining other individuals and groups opposed to Brexit to demonstrate the strength of our feeling on the matter by taking part in the annual National Rejoin March in London.
We have always seen the Brexit project as one driven by an agenda of far-right nationalism and xenophobia, and we consider that in our globalised world, there is no progressive agenda to be had in politics that does not embrace the principles of internationalism and open borders. By erecting trade barriers between the UK and its largest European markets, Brexit was bound to cause massive economic difficulties — difficulties whose most significant victims would be the poor and vulnerable. Brexit has caused major staff shortages in important sectors such as health and social care; brought endless red tape to small businesses reliant on European export markets; contributed to the emergence of a less tolerant and open society, and deprived young people in particular of a wide range of employment and educational opportunities they once enjoyed under the EU’s freedom of movement provisions.
In an interdependent world, in which capital is increasingly mobile, it is no longer possible to pursue progressive agendas by working through the political institutions of individual states alone. Political power increasingly eludes national governments as they seek to get to grips with problems such as climate change and unprecedented movements of population which demand international collaboration as the condition of their effective resolution.
In collaboration with similar groups in other European countries, we campaign for a more democratic Europe, one more effectively accountable to the citizens in whose name it legislates. Paradoxically, the shortcomings in EU policy making, from its cruel treatment of refugees and militarised external borders to economic policies of austerity, are often consequences, not of too much sovereignty having been transferred to the supranational level but too little. Because the EU’s governance structures remain largely intergovernmental in inspiration and do not therefore provide for the effective expression of legitimate opposition in and through them, so we have seen opposition come to be expressed as an opposition of principle, monopolised by the nationalist right, against the institutions as such. We therefore seek the kinds of reforms that can contribute to the emergence of genuinely transnational political movements of people working towards economic and climate justice, and of a genuinely European public sphere.
Paradoxically, Brexit has had the effect of producing the most significant and vocal movement of critical and progressive pro-Europeans in Europe. Another Europe is Possible has always sought to campaign against Brexit from a distinctively left-wing perspective. If you care about opposition to racism and xenophobia and about international solidarity, and if, like us, you believe that Brexit can be reversed, as recent shifts in public opinion suggest, then please join us and please help us to increase the chances of making the reversal of Brexit a reality by joining us in London on 23 September.
James Newell, Another Europe is Possible National Committee member
8th September 2023