Thread by @LadLabour

To change the EU is Mission Impossible says @DrLeeJones

Leftist Remain&Reformers (R&Rs) acknowledge Lexit criticism of neoliberal capitalism entrenched by EU but say it requires transnational response, not retreat to national politics.

@tfbrexit #FBPE #Remain #Brexit

What's the best response to this?

First, R&Rs of all stripes fear democracy and the demos
- but Brexit voters were not duped & are not dopes, they made an informed choice, however imperfect.

Mason / Varoufakis highlight *danger* of Brexit is return of fascism.

Second, despite criticising Brext "folly", R&Rs haven't "presented any plan, viable or otherwise, for reforming the EU.. This is not due to a failure of imagination. It is because the EU cannot be reformed along socialist lines. it is actually very hard to change the EU at all."

EU proudly proclaims it's based on rule of law i.e. treaties:
- Maastricht, entrenching neoliberalism
- Lisbon, codifying the EU constitution

Law-based is good isn't it? Actually no because the laws / treaties are cast-iron, in practical terms immune to change - that's the idea.

8-step process of changing treaties:
"The barriers to any serious change of the EU treaties are obviously formidable; indeed ... practically insurmountable."

"To begin with, a majority of EU member-state governments (i.e. at least 15) must first agree to the potential change."

Alright, so we need 15 consenting socialist / soc. dem. EU govts. But partly due to EU treaties & policies, left-wing politics in EU has been hammered.

UK is only exempt due to #JCorbyn and ... Brexit, which eviscerated UKIP.

It gets worse. At step 5 of 8 (!), the council president (Tusk: "special place in hell" for Brexiters) " has the power to stymie change." S/he can stuff the required Convention with cronies.

And individual countries can further obfuscate change by vetoing.

Difficulty of change is a feature not a bug, it's “economic constitutionalism” (Gill):
"the locking-in of certain ways of organising and governing the economy as 'constitutional' principles that, like all constitutions, are deliberately hard to change."

"The EU has constitutionalised free-market principles" hence irrevocable integrity of Single Market invoked by EU to block Brexit at every turn.

But ... having said all this, the EU is transnational so doesn't it require a transnational response?

Marx - although capital is global in operation, scope for changing it is primarily national:
"The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie”.

Jones: "The EU’s structure is based around insulating transnational capital from the vagaries of democratic politics. The EU offers no political structures amenable to challenging transnational capital."

So the opposition at national level is imperative, it's where working class resistance has historically been most successful via popular sovereignty and national democracy. It's not invariably nationalist. Despite shortcomings, it's far more responsive to pol pressure from below.

Brexit is a necessary but insufficient condition of socialist change & genuinely socialist internationalism (compared to phony EU version) - it's our best chance & must be our starting point to move forward.

"Fighting neoliberal hegemony in Europe cannot be done using the very instruments of that hegemony. The fight must be taken to a more promising terrain. The only institutions still potentially open to popular control remain those of the nation-state."

---> Remain&Reform is a dangerous liberal fantasy.

See thefullbrexit.com/remain-and-ref… for full article.

PS.
With EU parliamentary elections coming up shortly, the weakly democratic EU parliament is toothless in all this - pretty much a bystander.