Labour and the EU.

On September 7 the MPs in the British House of Commons began their debate on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. Acute divisions remain among Tory MPs about the terms of Brexit. Over summer, Tory Chancellor Hammond claimed that a Cabinet consensus had emerged and there would be at least a two year transition period following the technical end of Britain's membership of the EU in March 2019. This transition period would allow the continuation of the single European Market (and therefore, by implication, the right of all EU citizens to live and work in Britain during that time.)

At the beginning of September a convenient leak of a draft civil service paper assured the country that March 2019 would mark the end of the current rights of EU citizens to live and work in Britain. Instead, a draconian regime would operate in favour of 'British workers'. The document promoted a sack of measures all to the detriment of EU workers who might have the temerity to wish to come to the UK for work after the March 2019 deadline.

As soon as the civil service draft document came to light Teresa May's government asserted that there were 4 other new drafts covering the same ground. Nevertheless there was far from the normal government outrage about the leaking of 'draft 1.' Instead May took the opportunity to lecture her fellow MPs on the fact that closing down EU immigration to Britain remained the critical objective of her regime.

Leaving aside May's pathetic determination to overturn her 'failure' as Home Secretary - when she was completely unable to reduce immigration - May understands, in the way a fox's cunning works, that racist attacks on immigration have the best chance of solidifying a political force in Parliament and rebuilding a social bloc in parts of British society.

The leadership of the fight for Brexit in Britain (the Tory right and UKIP) moulded a new identity for the right in the UK in 2016. But Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party campaign in the June 2017 General Election overwhelmed the new right's momentum and recomposed the political leadership in society placing the decisive emphasis on mounting inequality, social solidarity through the defence of social services and international cooperation. The General Election contest gave a first victory to the Corbyn leadership, but the war is far from over. On the contrary, led by a desperate May, Brexit with a right wing face can re-emerge.

Keir Starmer, Labour's shadow minister for Brexit, has called for a deal which allows the UK's access to the European Market until 2023, coupled, as the EU insists, to free movement of EU citizens. This caused some on the left (see letters in the Observer 3 September etc.,) to attack the Labour leadership for prolonging the 'single market' rules that dominate the UK and EU economies. They also raised the possibility of the alienation of many potential Labour supporters who voted for Brexit.

Certainly the free movement of labour does not require the anti-socialist restrictions that form the main headings of the EU's 'free' trade arrangements. And the Labour Party leadership insisting that British business needs the time and space to continue its low wage, poor conditions approach, cuts against its own stated fight against austerity and poverty. The free movement of workers across their own Continent is a fundamental right of all of the citizens of that Continent. Where the EU ties the free movement of labour to anti-social (and rabidly anti-socialist) trade rules is exactly the point at which Continental labour becomes unfree. The EU market rules are designed to drive down the cost of labour. A lot of British business is based on huge tranches of cheap labour spawned and maintained by the EU's 'free market' rules. What the European, indeed the world needs, is fair trade. The absolute right of the majority of the world to move where they want and need is simply the extension of the 'rights' that the wealthy have always enjoyed.

Labour is right to oppose the European Union (Withdrawal) bill. It is, if nothing else, the means by which a lame and minority government can change vast swathes of legislation, including laws about safety, workers' rights, ecology etc., without Parliament's agreement. But Starmer has bundled this up with a confused version of the free movement of labour together with the EU's market rules, which is wrong. He did it (and received Labour support for it) because he believed that this would create a cover for allowing continued EU immigration tucked behind the 'requirements' needed by a lot of British employers. This mistake will rebound as May seeks to rebuild the new right.

First May and others will separate out immigration from their own version of a 'sweet' market deal. Hostility to immigration (including refugees and families) will have to be faced and fought on its own terms. Second, even employers who now use EU cheap labour will never support Labour - as the attitudes of most farmers and brewers already show.

Brexit is not and has never been, in itself, a decisive step to the right or to the left in Britain. It was initially used successfully by a new right that sought a US style future and who manipulated a new wave of racism to try and build an ultra capitalist political bloc against the remains of Britain's social welfare. After Corbyn's huge advance it has become a battlefield about the need for the maintenance of workers standards of living and the opening of a debate about what sort of society should be built in Britain. Grenfell Tower inhabitants dealt with disaster by becoming a vocal community of ethnicities, races, religions, immigrants and spoke in a new way for the common people. The momentum for defeating radical capitalism and constructing ideas among Britain's population about a different sort of country (ies) has been powerful. The new Labour leadership is a seminal part of that process. Be careful. Starmer is confusing the EU issue, as well as who are friends and who are foes.