Part 1: Introduction, by Alan Johnson
Two years ago I wrote a long post at Harry’s Place about why i was intending to vote leave ‘from the left’. Here, I collect links to 55 articles and videos that make the case for Lexit, i.e. a LEft-wing EXIT from the European Union (not from ‘Europe’).
The Lexit position has been almost totally ignored. Its supporters are rarely asked to set out their case in UK broadsheet newspapers, or on TV, or to join academic or think tank panels.
There have been a few reasons for this, some more respectable than others.
At the respectable end of things, Lexiteers are a very small minority of both the Left and of Leavers. And we have failed to make the transition from making a critique of the EU to setting out a compelling alternative for the future (not that anyone else has either, mind). We have simply not done the work to make ourselves relevant to the national debate before or after the referendum. We have created little or nothing in the way of conferences, websites, think tanks or journals. Symptomatic of our failure has been the trajectory of the Labour MP Gisela Stuart who, after playing a leading role in the leave campaign, has been more or less silent. Although Leave won the referendum 23 months ago, Lexiteers have not done the hard thinking and movement-building that could have sustained the elaboration of a compelling, left-wing and ‘national-popular’ vision of Brexit.
At the less respectable end of the spectrum, the Lexit case is ignored because it fails to pass what is the really decisive test in this country when it comes to gaining access to the national conversation: is your argument acceptable to a North London dinner party? Remainer and influential broadcaster Robert Peston admitted that after the referendum result he realized to his horror that every single person he knew thought that supporting Brexit was equivalent to ‘farting in public’. And that is the other reason. Lexit does not get much of a hearing because the UK left mostly refuses to see plain the many long-standing structural failures and injustices of the EU. Groupe pense, then.
And yet, still it moves. There does exist a left-wing and national-popular critique of the EU, as these pieces make clear. The idea of the ‘national popular’ was originated by the Italian socialist and internationalist Antonio Gramsci, and is explained below by the Greek socialist and internationalist Kouvalakis. It has long been part of the intellectual apparatus of many radical and internationalist Britons from Thomas Rainsborough to Edward Thompson to Billy Bragg. Who knows, it might yet be again.
I find no unified ‘Lexit position’ in these 55 pieces (which, I should point out, include a couple of voices – Owen Jones and Paul Mason – who after making the most trenchant criticisms of the EU decided to vote Remain, while others such as Wolfgang Streeck are commentators who influenced Leavers, rather than Leavers as such). The writers range from the Labour Right to the Revolutionary Left. The list is no more than what I found surfing the net for a day, so I make no claims for its comprehensiveness. Still, these articles, essays, interviews, opeds and videos tell us that 23 June 2016 made possible other futures for this country than simply getting into bed with Jacob Rees-Mogg or collapsing back into the arms of Jean-Claude Juncker.
Part 2: 55 ARGUMENTS FOR LEXIT
1. Tony Benn
Leave the EU to Restore Democracy
You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQY2CHx4d3U
2. Alan Johnson
Brexit: The Left Wing Case
28 March 2017
New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/opinion/why-brexit-is-best-for-britain-the-left-wing-case.html
3. John Rees
The Why and the What of a People’s Brexit
Counterfire
18 February 2018
http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/19465-the-why-and-what-of-a-people-s-brexit
4. Wolfgang Streeck
Brexit and the British Election
2017
http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:2525877/component/escidoc:2525985/mpifg_on17_3006e.pdf
5. Wolfgang Streeck
The Return of the Repressed
New Left Review
March-April 2017
https://newleftreview.org/II/104/wolfgang-streeck-the-return-of-the-repressed
6. Labour Leave
Lexit: The Movie
15 June 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq72f81kkM4
7. Mick Cash, Mary Davis and others
The EU is now a profoundly anti-democratic institution
Guardian
17 February 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/17/eu-is-now-a-profoundly-anti-democratic-institution
8 Steve Hedley (RMT)
Why leftists should vote leave and why unions support Brexit
23 May 2016
You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHV0haKc_Ho
9. Alan Johnson
Why I am Voting Leave
20 June 2016
Harry’s Place
http://hurryupharry.net/2016/06/20/why-i-am-voting-leave-by-professor-alan-johnson/
10. Susan Watkins
Keys to a present in crisis: political imbalances of the EU
Editorial Traficantes de Sueños.
You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SEn7yt_tlE
11. Tariq Ali
The Rotten Heart of Europe
Subversive Forum – The Future of Europe, Zagreb,
15 May. 2012
You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83PE-h-rnzI
12. Susan Watkins
Casting Off?
New Left Review 100 (new series)
July-August 2016
https://newleftreview.org/II/100/susan-watkins-casting-off
13. Lee Jones
The EU locked in neoliberalism and locked out its people. Brexit is the alternative
LSE Blog
10 June 2016
14. Lee Jones
The EU Referendum: Brexit, the Politics of Scale and State Transformation
The Disorder of Things
24 May 2016
15. Stathis Kouvelakis
An Open Letter to the British Left
Jacobin
7 May 2016
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/brexit-referendum-remain-leave-corbyn-racism-xenophobia-greece-austerity-eu/
16. Stathis Kouvelakis
The EU Can’t Be Reformed
Verso Blog
26 June 2016
https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2726-the-eu-can-t-be-reformed
17. Stathis Kouvelakis
Brexit, Europe and Greece
Verso Blog
19 September 2016
https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2841-stathis-kouvelakis-brexit-europe-and-greece
18. Alex Gordon
The Left Case Against the EU
London Says Lexit
14 June 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ckVc6mTA14
19. Tariq Ali
Why the Left Should Support Brexit
Dangerous Times Festival
29 May 2017
https://www.politicalirish.com/threads/tariq-ali-on-why-the-left-should-support-brexit.13004/
20. Costas Lapavitsas
Why They Left
Jacobin
7 July 2016
21. Costas Lapavitsas
If the left got its act together, things would change drastically
Masina
8 February 2018
http://www.masina.rs/eng/costas-lapavitsas-left-got-act-together-things-change-drastically/
22. Wolfgang Streeck
Social Democracy’s Last Rounds
Jacobin
25 February 2016
23. Wolfgang Streeck
Markets and Peoples: Democratic Capitalism and European Integration
New Left Review 73 (new series)
January-February 2012
https://newleftreview.org/II/73/wolfgang-streeck-markets-and-peoples
24. Wolfgang Streeck
Exploding Europe: Germany, the Refugees and the British Vote to Leave
Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute
September 2016
http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:2342475/component/escidoc:2342473/mpifg_p16_31.pdf
25. Perry Anderson
Too Frightened to Change a Hated Order
The Nation
6 March 2017
https://www.thenation.com/article/too-frightened-to-change-a-hated-order/
26. Richard Tuck
Brexit: a prize within reach for the Left
Policy Exchange
17 July 2017
27. Reuben Bard-Rosenberg
The Radical Case Against the Single Market is not Myth
Counterfire
19 February 2018
28. Lee Jones
The Left and Brexit: No More Excuses
The Current Moment
1 July 2016
https://thecurrentmoment.wordpress.com/?s=The+left+and+brexit&submit=Search
29. Martin Hall
What Does Corbyn’s Brexit Speech Really Mean?
26 February 2018
Counterfire
http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19482-what-does-corbyn-s-brexit-speech-really-mean
30. Giles Fraser
Call me a liar, an idiot or a wrong ’un if you like, but I’m still voting leave
Guardian
15 June 2016
31. Paul Mason (who voted Remain)
The Left-Wing Case for Brexit (one day)
Guardian
16 May 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/16/brexit-eu-referendum-boris-johnson-greece-tory
32. Maurice Glassman
Why should Labour support the undemocratic EU? The case to leave
Labour List
2 June 2016
https://labourlist.org/2016/06/why-should-labour-support-the-european-union-the-case-for-out/
33. Maurice Glassman
Why Brexit is a chance for national renewal
Prospect
13 March 2017
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/why-brexit-is-a-chance-for-national-renewal
34. Giles Fraser
The wrong sort of voter? There’s no such thing, AC Grayling
Guardian
21 September 2017
35. Gisela Stuart and Frank Furedi
After Brexit: Reimagining Sovereignty. Gisela Stuart in conversation with Frank Furedi
21 September 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRf9K4RFd00
36. John Green
To Brexit or not to Brexit
Morning Star
14 December 2017
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/brexit-or-not-brexit
37. Owen Jones (who voted Remain)
The Left must put Britain’s EU withdrawal on the agenda
Guardian
14 July 2014
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/14/left-reject-eu-greece-eurosceptic
38. Owen Jones, Jon Trickett, Kelvin Hopkins
‘There is no carte blanche from the left any more’: UK Left-Wingers Heading for EU Exit
You Tube
6 July 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rawS3CIm7ec
39. Jo Guinan and Thomas M. Hanna
Lexit: the EU is a neoliberal project, so let’s do something different when we leave it
New Statesman
20 July 2017
40. Richard Johnson
Brexit could be an opportunity for the Labour Party, not a tragedy
LSE Blog
Date?
41. Paul Johnson
Labour should not be the champion of EU free movement
LSE Blog
28 January 2016
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2016/01/28/labour-should-not-be-the-champion-of-eu-free-movement/
42. Neil Davidson
After Brexit: Will the EU Crack Up?
International Socialist Review
Fall 2016
https://isreview.org/issue/102/after-brexit
43. Perry Anderson
The Italian Disaster
London Review of Books
22 May 2014
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n10/perry-anderson/the-italian-disaster
44. T.J.Clark
I Voted Leave
London Review of Books
14 July 2016
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n14/on-brexit/where-are-we-now
45. Vince Mills
A progressive Brexit is possible
Morning Star
2 March 2018
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/progressive-brexit-possible
46. Clive Heemskerk
Corbyn’s Brexit Opportunity
Socialism Today
September 2016
http://www.socialismtoday.org/201/brexit.html
47. Hannah Sell
On Yannis Varoufakis reform agenda
Socialism Today
June 2016
http://socialistpartyscotland.org.uk/2016/06/07/working-class-case-eu/
48. Hannah Sell
The Single Market: a neoliberal tool of the bosses
The Socialist
23 August 2017
49. Chelley Ryan
Attempts to overturn Brexit are misguided
Morning Star
27 February 2018
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/class-dimension-brexit-debacle
50. John Haylett
Bad Faith Arguments over Ireland and the EU
Morning Star
10 March 2018
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/bad-faith-arguments-over-ireland-and-eu
51. Lee Jones
The Mail’s ‘Brexit bias’ witch-hunt is wrong, but raises uncomfortable home truths
LSE Blog
30 October 2017
52. John Foster
What a different kind of customs union could look like under Labour
Morning Star
2 March 2018
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/what-different-kind-customs-union-could-look-under-labour
53. Pauline Bryant and Vince Mills
Getting the Best Out of Brexit
Radical Options for Scotland and Europe
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/radical-proposals-post-brexit-scotland
54. Alan Johnson
Gründe für die Krise der Europäischen Union (Karsruhe Dialogues, 2017)
You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJCGl872loM
55. Anonymous Academic
I voted for Brexit – why do academic colleagues treat me like a pariah?
Guardian
15 September 2017
