Yanis Varoufakis
DiEM25 members are currently
debating our collective stance viz. the European Parliament elections
in the UK (that, remarkably, may or may not take place). Since 2016, DiEM25 has
been on the right side of history regarding Brexit. Our position was the result
of a boisterous internal dialogue and a series of all-member votes that have
decided our stance. Members have access to our internal Forum where this
illuminating debate takes place. To participate, you must first join our
movement (please visit our site and click on
the Join button). For non-members, my latest contribution to this debate
follows:
Fellow DiEMers, dear comrades,
Since the Brexit referendum
was called, early on in DiEM25’s life, we have been consistently on the ‘right
side of history’.
We opposed Brexit on the basis
of the radical narrative IN THE EU – AGAINST THIS EU.
We were the first to warn
voters of the ‘Hotel California’ situation that would ensue if Brexit were to
win
After Brexit won, we sensibly
proposed a Norway+ arrangement for an indefinite period (of minimum 5 years) so
that, first, we respect the verdict of the people while, at once, eliminating
all the economic and social costs of Brexit. For a country almost evenly split
between Remain and Leave, that was the only sensible solution. A solution that
would maintain the UK as close as possible to the EU thus giving the people of
Britain an opportunity to debate amongst themselves, in the fullness of time
and without a ticking clock, both the UK’s constitutional arrangements and its
relationship with the EU in the longer term. Opposing the idea of a divisive
second referendum during the Article 50 process, we supported a future
referendum, to follow a full and proper People’s Debate, that would decide,
after 2022, whether the UK wanted to stay in Norway+, exit the Single Market
and Customs Union altogether, or re-enter the EU.
When Theresa May adopted her
hardline rhetoric but fell into the trap of a negotiation that was doomed, we
were the ones who, from the very beginning, exposed Theresa May’s colossal
negotiating errors – and called upon her to adopt our Norway+ proposal.
At every step of the way, we
proceeded with clarity and internal democracy. Our Forum was always active, our
DSCs, NCs and CC in the UK and beyond discussed Brexit incessantly and, most
importantly, our pivotal strategic decisions were made on the basis of
all-member votes.
As 2018 was drawing to an end,
we voted overwhelmingly to begin a campaign to extend Article 50, seeing that
PM May was heading for the rocks before the year’s end. The purpose
of that extension was to create the space of time necessary for the
singularly cathartic general election. [Time was simply insufficient to hold
the People’s Debate that ought to precede another referendum. Only a general
election could have cleared the air and justified a long extension to Article
50.]
History proved us right: This
Tory government is prepared to let the country suffer in the interests of
clinging on to a powerless office. Alas, the Tories’ tenacity at holding on to
their offices outweighed their internal strife. The result is that Mrs. May is
still PM and Brexit is stalled. So much so that we are now heading blindly
toward a European Parliament (EP) election in the UK under extraordinary
circumstances: No one knows whether they will be held for sure and no one knows
for how long the elected MEPs will be sitting the European Parliament.
Given that (for better or for
worse) the last people’s vote obliged the political establishment to take
Britain out of the EU, as well as the perfect uncertainty about the EP
elections will be held, it is hard to make a case that these EP
elections are legitimate. Already, the EP elections are being hijacked by the
extreme Leavers (who want the UK to crash out of the EU) and the extreme
Remainers (who want the UK to crash back into an unreformed EU run by smug
bureaucrats). Both extremes are striving to turns the EP elections into a
second referendum. This is intolerable because it is such a violation of basic,
democratic process; and not just because it is the perfect vehicle for Nigel
Farage and the extreme right.
And here comes our dilemma as
DiEMers.
Each and every one of us would
have relished the opportunity to campaign in the UK as we do in Germany, in
Greece, in France, in Denmark etc. under the banner of our EUROPEAN SPRING.
What could be better? We would love to take our Green New Deal up and down
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It would have been splendid to
cultivate our links with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party as well as Caroline
Lucas’ Greens and have DiEMers play a leading role in the campaign.
However, this is not the kind of election that suits either our
principles or our goals.
Firstly, it is an illegitimate
election. I could not for the life of me look a progressive leaver in the eye
and answer the question: “What right do you have to ask for my vote in an
election that the majority of the people voted not to have?” Secondly, it is an
election that reduces seriously the chances of a Corbyn government – for the
simple reason that it offers Blairite Hard Remainers within the party the
perfect opportunity to antagonise progressive leavers in order to pull the rug
from under Jeremy’s valiant efforts to unite progressive leavers and progressive
Remainers. If these efforts are undermined, Britain will continue to be ruled
either by a Tory government that pushes for a hard Brexit or a post-Corbyn
Blairite government which would be music to the ears of the EU establishment
that DiEM25 was founded to oppose and which, through its universal austerity
policies, is feeding the beast of xenophobic Euroscepticism everywhere in
Europe.
For these reasons I believe
that our enthusiastic campaigning in this EP election (if it takes place) would
be a mistake. But, at the same time, if these elections are to take place, we
cannot afford to sit idly by either. So, what should we do? Here is a
suggestion:
Noting that our original
European New Deal was put together with a view to being applicable not only for
EU countries but also for non-EU ones, our Green New Deal can be calibrated in
a way that it applies to the UK independently of the Brexit process/outcome.
The people of Britain do not know this. They have been led to believe that
either they are in the EU, in which case they must toe the line, or they are
outside the EU, in which case they are on their own. Either they are in the
European Parliament, in which case a paneuropean Green New Deal affects them,
or they are not.
Nothing is further from
reality. As DiEM25’s European New Deal explained two years ago, implementing a
Green New Deal across the EU and in the UK can be done independently of Brexit.
Indeed, we have gone to great lengths to show how 5% of Europe’s GDP can be
channelled to green investments by an alliance of UK and EU institutions.
Similarly with our proposals for fighting poverty, tax evasion, setting up a
Universal Basic Dividend etc.
My proposal is, therefore, the
following: Over the next week or so, the CC undertakes to put forward a variant
of our European Green New Deal in the form of a UK Agenda for Europe (UKAfE) –
an agenda that is independent of PM May’s dog’s Brexit of a process. Once this
is in place, DiEM25 UK must campaign up and down the country to bring
progressive Leavers and Remainers around this UKAfE. Instead of campaigning in
a toxic election, we should be intervening with a campaign for UKAfE – for a UK
that is central in Europe’s Green New Deal regardless of the shenanigans of the
two extremes battling it out in the EP elections. [Hopefully, the leadership of
the Labour Party will see the value in our campaign and, perhaps, adopt DiEM’s
UKAfE as its own.]
In conclusion, what matters
more than anything now is that DiEM25 helps free UK politics from the toxins of
Brexit. Campaigning in this toxic election, in favour of particular candidates
is not going to make much of a difference. Our voices will be lost in the cacophony
generated by the extremes of the Brexit debate in an election that should never
have been held (at least not in this manner). But, a campaign that opens the
eyes of UK’s progressives to the possibility that the UK remains central in
Europe under a Corbyn government on the basis of DiEM25’s Green New Deal and
its associated UKAfE? Now that would – or could – make a difference!
In short, my proposal is that
we play no direct role in the EP election campaign as such, lambasting Mrs. May
and the Tories for denigrating what should be a celebration of democracy. And
that, at the very same time, we campaign across the UK for our Green New Deal
and its UK equivalent – the UKAfE.
No comments:
Post a Comment