This Article was initially intended to provide an overview of the opinions, perspectives and viewpoints of Anarchists regarding the United Kingdom’s planned withdrawal from the European Union. I wanted to share viewpoints that could expose others to new ways of thinking about the issue, and to provide uncertain Anarchists with perspectives that come from similar political beliefs to their own. I intended to display viewpoints in a chronological order from the period before the general referendum to the time of writing in order to demonstrate how perspectives on ‘Brexit’ changed over time in the revelation of new information, and political outcomes. I also intended to provide my own opinion regarding the withdrawal. When first beginning to write the article, I attempted to write about my own perspective as a form of direct commentary to the viewpoints of others, but I felt that this distorted the views of other people, and overly prioritised my own. To prevent my own biases from affecting the article, I decided to refrain from providing my own opinion until the end of the article; as reflected in the introduction of the article, this decision was again changed, but the writing of the article ceased before I could act upon this second change. I decided to stop writing this article before it was finished as I felt that it was no more than an uninteresting series of summaries of the works and discussions of other people, whose, despite my best efforts to make the article as unbiased as possible, views I was misrepresenting. This misrepresentation seemed potentially harmful, as it could give people a false perspective of the people, views and organisations discussed in the article, and I did not feel that the Article was providing any real benefit, asides from maybe saving the trouble of directly searching for Anarchist perspectives on Brexit. I believe that my failure to achieve the goals of this article, and to write it effectively, was a direct result of my own inexperience. Despite the fact that it will remain unfinished, I have decide to publish it as a record of my progress within this blog, and, admittedly, to ensure that the time spent writing it was not entirely wasted. I now intend to write about my own opinion regarding Brexit in a separate article, which will focus entirely on that opinion in order to prevent it from distorting that of others. I hope that this failed article will provide some interest or benefit to you; you have my gratitude for taking the time to look at it.
In this Article, I hope to provide you with a collection of a variety of viewpoints and opinions, regarding the United Kingdom’s planned exit from the European Union, from a multitude of Anarchist perspectives. I also hope to express my own opinions on the matter, but shall strive to ensure that my own views do not unfairly distort my presentation of the views of others; to further prevent the distorting effects of my own views, I shall keep my own opinions in separate paragraphs to the opinions of others. It should be noted that their there is no single, definitive Anarchist perspective regarding this issue, simply because the Anarchist movement, as a result of the very nature of Anarchism, is composed of a variety of people with diverse ways of thinking, who, while sharing common beliefs, are not compelled to hold any specific opinion by any external body; as a result, the perspectives that I present, while being sourced from the Anarchist movement, are not the only perspectives that can be held by Anarchists, nor are they the only existing perspectives within the Anarchist movement. I have sourced the perspectives regarding this topic from articles that have been published by Anarchist organisations and media, as well as conversations, discussions, and debates that I have engaged in personally or have found within relevant forums. I believe that it is important to share Anarchist viewpoints regarding the United Kingdom’s planned exit from the European Union as I believe that Anarchists may benefit from learning about the opinions of others with similar political ideologies, and because I do not believe that there has been sufficient exposure to the alternatives to the most popular perspectives on Brexit. Please take note that, while I have striven to provide an unbiased overview of the Anarchist perspectives regarding Brexit, it is likely that my feelings on this issue have been an unconscious influence during my writing of this article; as with any potential source of information, you should neither use my article as a sole source of information, nor should you assume that it is without its flaws, and you have my recommendation that you perform your own research regarding the topic.
This article will require some prior understanding and comprehension of both Anarchism and ‘Brexit’, as well as some related terminology, but, in addition to providing introductory resources regarding these subjects in the ‘Sources and Resources’ section of this article, I shall now provide brief explanations of both Anarchism and Brexit, in order to avoid any confusion as to my definitions of the terms: Anarchism is a social movement and political ideology that encompasses a wide variety of opinions, organisational ideas, and beliefs, which are united in their rejection of unjust, coercive and imposed hierarchies that grant some form of power to a select group of people at the expense of others. As part of the aforementioned rejection of hierarchies, Anarchism seeks to remove State control of Society and abolish the Capitalist system, and, thus, can be considered a form of Libertarian Socialism. ‘Brexit’ is a term used to refer to the United Kingdom’s planned exit from the European Union, or ‘EU’, a political and economic union, which is composed of primarily European member-states. Arguments exist both in favour and in opposition of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the union as a result of the perceived benefits and problems that membership within the union provides. On the twenty-third of June in the year of 2016, it was indicated, by general referendum, that the majority opinion of the British public was in favour of the withdrawal, prompting the British Government to begin making arrangements for the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union. After a series of national and international negotiations, the United Kingdom is now planned to formally leave the union on the twenty-ninth of March in 2019. However, at the time of writing, the Government’s proposed withdrawal agreement has been rejected by the British Parliament, and it remains unknown whether an alternate agreement will be accepted, the withdrawal will proceed without any agreement, or the United Kingdom will now refrain from exiting the European Union. It is worth noting that the aforementioned general referendum was not a legally-binding decision, and the European Union has agreed that the United Kingdom can legally cancel its planned withdrawal from the union.
Before the General Referendum, opinions, regarding the potential withdrawal, within the Anarchist movement were divided and mostly constrained to individuals; there was no consolidated efforts by Anarchist groups to campaign either in favour or in opposition of Brexit, and the official position of the ‘Anarchist Federation’, potentially the largest Anarchist organisation within the United Kingdom, was to reject the ideas of both supporting the European Union and campaigning in favour of a withdrawal. While criticising the European Union for its role as “another layer of power over populations” and an “obstacle to the emancipation of the working class”, the Anarchist Federation warned, in an issue of its ‘Resistance’ bulletin, that the withdrawal could result in “serious consequences” for the solidarity within the Working Class of Europe via the promotion of nationalistic divisions, and that “Capitalism is global”, signifying that a withdrawal from the union would neither provide an escape from the international pressures of capitalist organisations, nor significantly reduce the control of the state. The ‘Worker’s Solidarity Movement’, or ‘WSM’, in Ireland, published “Observations on Brexit and Lexit [The left-wing support of Brexit.] in the UK EU Membership Referendum”, which also provided warnings about the damages to Working Class Solidarity and the continued influence of international capitalist organisations and states. However, this text, which is not an official policy of the WSM, but is “indicative” of their views, also raised concerns regarding the problems that Brexit could raise for the people, without Irish or British citizenship, in Ireland, such as migrants and asylum-seekers; a specific concern was that such people may have their ability to travel to the United Kingdom restrained, preventing their access to abortions, which are illegal in Ireland. The WSM also raised the issue that these people, “who are the ones likely to suffer the consequences of Brexit”, would not be able to vote in the general referendum. Another large concern of the Worker’s Solidarity Movement regarded the nationalistic and racist tendencies, groups and individuals within the campaign in favour of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, citing the assassination of Jo Cox, a member of the British Parliament, by a white-supremacist, who killed her as a result of her support of the European Union, and a ‘Pro-Leave’ poster, which had a strong anti-migrant sentiment and was reported to the Police for its potential violation of laws regarding discrimination against Race.
On the individual level, ‘Rage Against Capital’ supported the notion that Brexit would not provide any significant reduction in the influence of international capitalist organisations on the United Kingdom within a critique of the support of Brexit by the ‘Communist Party of Great Britain- Marxist-Leninist’, or ‘CPGB-ML’, stating that, despite the claim of the ‘CPGB-ML’ that the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union would “weaken Imperialism”, “imperialism, capitalism, and all other forms of oppression and oppressive institutions will still exist”, even if the United Kingdom withdraws from the European Union. In an online forum, the user, ‘MOAR_cake’, made the suggestion that, in the absence of the European Union, the government of the United Kingdom would simply seek other organisations to “replace the EU”, and made the argument that it would be more beneficial from an Anarchist perspective for the United Kingdom to remain in the union to “retain free movement”, allowing for British Anarchists to travel more easily and provide international assistance and solidarity. In a separate discussion on the forum, another user, ‘NoImagination90’, expressed a similar sentiment, claiming that “Brexit simply centralises authority in London, rather than sharing a bit with Brussels.”; NoImagination90 also voiced concerns regarding the Nationalistic tendencies of the campaign in favour of Brexit. In a ‘YouTube’ video, titled “How Not to Appeal to Young People- “Votin” ‘, ‘Libertarian Socialist Rants’ stated his intention to vote for the United Kingdom to remain within the European Union as the result of his concern that the ‘Conservative and Unionist Party’, the governing party of the United Kingdom at the time of the video’s publication and at the time of writing of this article, would use Brexit as an opportunity to “intensify and continue the ongoing assault” against unemployed, disabled and Working Class people, amongst others. Libertarian Socialist Rants, however, stated that they would possibly support the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union if a “strong enough” grassroots movement existed, which was “large and significant enough to exert enough pressure on the State” to implement policies that the European Union “wouldn’t necessarily allow”.
As the viewpoints that have been presented so far demonstrate, the opposition to Brexit, or the total abstaining from the issue, by Anarchist groups and individuals prior to the general referendum was primarily as the result of the belief that the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union would neither provide any real alleviation from international capitalist influences, nor provide any significant degree of autonomy to the majority of people. The role of nationalism and racism in the campaign in favour of the referendum was a frequently noted concern, alongside the restriction of people’s ability to freely travel between nations. There was no major support for the European Union itself, with all supporting arguments in favour of the United Kingdom’s continued membership within the union being the result of concern over the international well-being and solidarity of the European Working Class, which were threatened as the result of the constraint of the ability to travel to provide or receive aid, the use of the opportunity to damage the rights of the Working Class, and the creation of nationalistic, racist and otherwise xenophobic divisions between people.
Some Anarchists rejected the idea that the increased autonomy provided by a withdrawal from the EU would be insignificant; in response to the arguments provided by MOAR_cake, ‘Noaccountman’ disputed the potential insignificance with the claim that “Brits will have more influence on UK policy than EU policy” as “If a decision is disastrous for enough British people then the UK government might change it. There is almost literally no chance the EU will do that.”, evidencing their argument with the claim that out of “71” of the United Kingdom’s votes against the laws of the European Union, there was “not a single victory”. This claim may be inaccurate and misrepresentative as the official records of the European Union state that the United Kingdom has only voted in opposition of European Union law on 56, as opposed to 71, occasions, with this figure reflecting only 2% of the United Kingdom’s votes on the laws of the union. Some sources, particularly those in favour of Brexit, do claim that the United Kingdom has voted against the laws of the union on 72 occasions, but I have personally been unable to verify this claim. Within the other previously mentioned discussion, two users, ‘PlotinusGallacticus’ and ‘Agora_Black_Flag’, both separately discussed their favourable opinion of Brexit, with the former stating that the “decentralisation of government” could be “a means for total dissolution” of state power, and the latter holding the belief that the “EU consolidates power even further than it already is within the British state”, concluding that they “think undermining the EU is good and has broader implications for countries such as Ireland, Greece, etc.”. Agora_Black_Flag additionally suggested that if the opinion of the British government was to “swing left”, Anarchist support of Brexit would be greater as “Leftists oppose it because the Tories”, referring to the Conservative and Unionist party.
An extensive argument in favour of Brexit was made in a series of two articles by Mal Content of ‘Wessex Solidarity’. Mal Content advocated for Brexit as the reduction in the number of people that the European Union could influence, as a result of the United Kingdom’s exit from the union, made it a beneficial decision to support Brexit in order to “cut them [those granted power by the European Union] down to size by always devolving power to the smallest administrative unit possible”. The first of the two articles was focused on its criticisms of arguments made by those campaigning both in favour and in opposition to Brexit with the first conclusion of the article being that “The trouble with politics of course, is politicians”, a claim that was justified by the fact that the choices of politicians are dependent on the “vested interest” of those “who they are paid to lobby for”, and that set the chief precedent for the further conclusion of the articles. Mal Content questioned the claimed interest of politicians in national interest, asking “What possible common interest could there be between the oligarch in their penthouse and people sleeping in doorways over the road?” and proposing that “Whenever politicians use this term they mean the interest of the ruling elite in maintaining the value of its property and its dominance over the rest of us.”. The article then proceeded to quickly reject any economic argument, calling into question any benefit that the economy has had for the Working Class, while criticising its role in the inequality within society. This rejection of economic arguments is immediately followed by a call for people to “give the bosses a taste of their own medicine” by voting in favour of Brexit during the referendum, which, itself, received support for being “directly democratic”. The attention of the article soon after became more focused on the arguments made in opposition to Brexit; Mal Content disputed the claim of David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time, that “all countries friendly to the UK” want it to stay in the EU, arguing that this claim cannot be made for the majority of the inhabitants of the friendly countries, but only for the ruling bodies of those nations, whose morals are criticised with statistics regarding the large number of working class deaths that those ruling bodies are responsible for. “Sovereignty” was deemed as “another irrelevance” by Mal Content, who denied any real difference between “the sovereignty of a parliament full of crooked millionaires and politics graduates versus a load of crooked political appointees.”, instead suggesting that the United Kingdom did not lose its sovereignty by joining the EU, but instead by joining the ‘North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’, or ‘NATO’, an intergovernmental military alliance; to support this claim, Mal Content cited the “absurdity of professed allies” being forced to fight on opposite sides in Syria as the result of members of NATO supporting opposing forces. In addition, Mal Content made the claim that Brexit could be advantageous in undermining the power and authority of international capitalist organisations as “the very fact of proles having a say in such weighty matters will terrify the global bourgeoisie”, evidencing their claim with the political and economic tension that was created by the 2015 Greek Referendum, in which the Greek Public voted to reject the conditions of the EU in providing Greece with financial aid. The article is continued with a dissuasion of the fears of people regarding the potential problems that Brexit could create; Mal Content suggested that the potential loss of social legislation could be solved by “direct organising with other workers”, citing the effectiveness of workers in causing political change within other European Nations. A quote, “Revolutionary syndicalism is international and does not rely on the political alliances of governments. When we make common cause with workers in European countries, or any others for that matter, we’ll sort it out between ourselves. The E.U. bureaucracy isn’t going to help us organise a Europe-wide general strike, is it?”, demonstrates the opinion of Mal Content that the actions of workers could replace and surpass the ability to secure better social conditions than the EU and other political bodies. Mal Content concluded the article by appealing to the fact that a number of controversial individuals and organisations oppose Brexit, providing an indicative reason for Anarchists to do otherwise.Critics of Mal Content’s first
Sources and Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism A ‘Wikipedia’ Article regarding Anarchism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit A ‘Wikipedia’ Article regarding Brexit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union A ‘Wikipedia’ Article regarding the European Union.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/17/uk/non-brits-guide-to-brexit-update-gbr-trnd-intl/index.html https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46318565 Two Articles providing simple explanations regarding ‘Brexit’.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-46481643 An Article regarding the European Union’s agreement that the planned withdrawal can be cancelled legally.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/23/eu-referendum-legally-binding-brexit-lisbon-cameron-sovereign-parliament A brief Article explaining that the general referendum is not legally binding.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa9zPc4IBEBfE1YnVyKd9rjYVZgRaIGJh A Series of informative, easy-to-understand videos regarding Brexit.
http://afed.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/resist160.pdf The ‘Resistance’ Bulletin of the ‘Anarchist Federation’ discussing their pre-referendum views on Brexit.
http://www.wsm.ie/c/anarchist-observations-brexit-lexit-uk-eu-referendum Observations of Brexit prior to the referendum from the perspective of the ‘Worker’s Solidarity Movement’, and one of its members, in Ireland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox A ‘Wikipedia’ Article regarding the murder of Jo Cox.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/16/nigel-farage-defends-ukip-breaking-point-poster-queue-of-migrants An Article regarding the ‘anti-migrant’ poster that was created in favour of Brexit.
https://libcom.org/news/brexit-tanks-eu-working-class-12062016 The Response of ‘Rage Against Capital’ to the perspective of a group of Marxist-Leninists in regards to Brexit. (Here is the perspective of the aforementioned group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw9GBn8tOCc)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/4omd4w/can_any_uk_anarchists_tell_me_their_opinion_on/?st=jr7cyo5x&sh=9bc4f36f https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/46qfxs/brexit_from_an_anarchist_perspective_why_voting/?st=jr7cyrib&sh=73d983f1Two Forum Discussions of Anarchists and their opinions regarding Brexit before the general referendum.
https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-facts-behind-claims-uk-influence/ An Article regarding the United Kingdom’s influence within the European Union.
https://www.votewatch.eu/en/term8-european-parliament-latest-votes.html#/#BOTH/0/2014-07-01/2019-01-23/0 European Voting Records.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66261/1/Hix_Brexit%20matter_2016.pdf Research by the ‘London School of Economics’ into the United Kingdom’s influence within the European Union.
https://wessexsolidarity.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/an-anarchist-argument-for-getting-the-fuck-out-of-the-european-union-by-mal-content/ https://wessexsolidarity.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/more-thoughts-on-the-eu-referendum-mal-content/ The arguments of ‘Mal Content’ of ‘Wessex Solidarity’ in favour of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-greece-idUSKBN0P40EO20150627 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33403665 Two articles discussing the 2015 Greek Referendum.
https://www.ukip.org/ukip-manifesto-item.php?cat_id=20 https://www.ukip.org/ukip-manifesto-item.php?cat_id=5 The policies of the ‘UK Independence Party’ regarding immigration and British Culture.