"What are the alternatives for those of us who are socialists, democrats and internationalists who do want to cooperate closely with European neighbours?"
"In theory it would be possible to have a genuinely democratic United States of Europe, along the lines of the American model." This "would involve the complete abolition of the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the Central Bank in Frankfurt" which "would be totally unacceptable to the European establishment."
"What the Left in Europe should be working for is a Commonwealth that brings in all the nations, east and west, committed to cooperate with each other and harmonize their policies, step by step, with the consent of each of the parliaments, rather like a mini UN, with an Assembly and Council of Ministers to oversee it, but with no power to impose on those countries that want to pursue policies that meet their own particular circumstances. This would need to be underpinned by the closest links between the trade unions and other progressive popular organizations across the continent."
Tony Benn, in "What Sort of Europe?", in "Free Radical. New Century Essays," 2003.
Tony Benn's idea of a "Commonwealth of Europe" is an excellent one and is explained further in his 1992 book "Common Sense". It is at present the option that I favour.
I think this is a very good perspective on the present problems we face with Europe.
Those advanced by the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 are even more relevant and appropriate.
Please see: https://diem25.org/ Democracy in Europe Movement
This type of thinking is an important contribution to the current debate for those of us on the left in England who recognized that the current EU is tyrannical and antidemocratic, and could not for such reasons bring ourselves to vote to remain in it.
I am well aware that Yanis Varoufakis himself quite ardently campaigned for a Remain vote in the UK Referendum. I disagreed with him on this particular point. His view was that the European Union is an important project which the UK should - in spite of all the serious problems the EU undoubtedly has - persevere with. Yanis Varoufakis has also said that the EU is a democracy-free zone and is not sustainable in its present form. In the referendum, I thought that it was better to send a message that the EU's behaviour was simply not acceptable. So I have voted Leave with no great hopes for the consequences other than that the EU is made more democratic by my action. Unlike Nigel Farage, I have no particular desire to see the EU totally crumble.
I agreed with Farage's analysis of what the leaders of the EU have been up to and I found some of his speeches to the EU to be compelling exposés of its malfeasance. But I totally despise and reject in every way Farage's nationalism and the xenophobia and the anti-immigrant sentiment that he is linked to.
For example, UKIP was mainly an English movement - why then did it refer to itself as a UK movement? In rejecting the EU in its present form, I in no way endorse a nationalist Europe of any kind.
I am a libertarian socialist. I would not describe myself as a "Marxist" as Yanis Varoufakis does. I am not sure if I have the same views on economics as he does. But in my attempt to understand economics - if I don't already - he is one of the major thinkers that I would look to to explain it.
I hate racism and nationalism and am not in favour of any migration controls.
I resent being associated with racism, nationalism and anti-immigration views simply because I voted to leave the EU.
I believe that what the German-led EU did to Greece was effectively racist and the rhetoric expressed by northern Europeans and particularly by Germans with regard to the social destruction of Greece by the EU (things like "Greeks are lazy", "they deserved it as they don't pay their way") was effectively racist. I have seen so much evidence of this that I cannot believe that this problem is not acknowledged more often. Perhaps it is regarded as so acceptable that it passes without comment.
I don't believe that the satirical linking of contemporary Germany and the EU to the Nazis by some Greeks was entirely inappropriate. The EU is not nazi, but it is tyrannical and arguably racist.
I voted to leave the EU in solidarity with the Greek people and to send a message to the EU and particularly to the Germans that what they did to Greece was not acceptable.
I regard my vote for Brexit as anti-racist because of what the German-led EU did to the Greeks.
The destruction of the Greek public sector by the EU did involve people dying.
In "And The Weak Suffer What They Must?" by Yanis Varoufakis, he says in the opening pages that the European Union "lost its integrity" by "crushing Greece".
That was the major reason that I voted to leave the E.U.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an anarchist and libertarian, I saw my vote to leave the E.U. as striking blow against two illegitimate bases of power - both the U.K. and the E.U. The result has significantly chastened and weakened both the U.K. and the E.U., with both entities feeling the need to justify their existence and their powers. In this sense I am very pleased with the result of my principled vote.
Another thing that I would like to say about my left-wing vote to leave the E.U. is that I believe it is by no means unrepresentative. Seeing as most voters are not nationalists or UKIP voters and never were, the result must to some extent represent a lot of people who voted to leave the E.U. but who are otherwise moderate in their views.
I think a lot of people voted for Brexit for the basic reason that they felt, perceived or suspected that the E.U. meant that power was being taken away from them, whether this is true or not. In other words, for essentially democratic rather than nationalist perceptions and reasons.
Were a similar referendum held in almost any E.U. country, I suspect that the result would be close or similar to the result in the U.K. and for very similar reasons. The people who run the E.U. know this very well.
Democracy, freedom and self-government are not ideas that are restricted to the nineteenth-century. They are of course still relevant today in the twenty-first century. If those who support the E.U. ignore this, and impute all opposition to it to nationalism, xenophobia and racism, they will never really get to grips with why the E.U. may be unpopular.
"In theory it would be possible to have a genuinely democratic United States of Europe, along the lines of the American model." This "would involve the complete abolition of the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the Central Bank in Frankfurt" which "would be totally unacceptable to the European establishment."
"What the Left in Europe should be working for is a Commonwealth that brings in all the nations, east and west, committed to cooperate with each other and harmonize their policies, step by step, with the consent of each of the parliaments, rather like a mini UN, with an Assembly and Council of Ministers to oversee it, but with no power to impose on those countries that want to pursue policies that meet their own particular circumstances. This would need to be underpinned by the closest links between the trade unions and other progressive popular organizations across the continent."
Tony Benn, in "What Sort of Europe?", in "Free Radical. New Century Essays," 2003.
Tony Benn's idea of a "Commonwealth of Europe" is an excellent one and is explained further in his 1992 book "Common Sense". It is at present the option that I favour.
I think this is a very good perspective on the present problems we face with Europe.
Those advanced by the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 are even more relevant and appropriate.
Please see: https://diem25.org/ Democracy in Europe Movement
This type of thinking is an important contribution to the current debate for those of us on the left in England who recognized that the current EU is tyrannical and antidemocratic, and could not for such reasons bring ourselves to vote to remain in it.
I am well aware that Yanis Varoufakis himself quite ardently campaigned for a Remain vote in the UK Referendum. I disagreed with him on this particular point. His view was that the European Union is an important project which the UK should - in spite of all the serious problems the EU undoubtedly has - persevere with. Yanis Varoufakis has also said that the EU is a democracy-free zone and is not sustainable in its present form. In the referendum, I thought that it was better to send a message that the EU's behaviour was simply not acceptable. So I have voted Leave with no great hopes for the consequences other than that the EU is made more democratic by my action. Unlike Nigel Farage, I have no particular desire to see the EU totally crumble.
I agreed with Farage's analysis of what the leaders of the EU have been up to and I found some of his speeches to the EU to be compelling exposés of its malfeasance. But I totally despise and reject in every way Farage's nationalism and the xenophobia and the anti-immigrant sentiment that he is linked to.
For example, UKIP was mainly an English movement - why then did it refer to itself as a UK movement? In rejecting the EU in its present form, I in no way endorse a nationalist Europe of any kind.
I am a libertarian socialist. I would not describe myself as a "Marxist" as Yanis Varoufakis does. I am not sure if I have the same views on economics as he does. But in my attempt to understand economics - if I don't already - he is one of the major thinkers that I would look to to explain it.
I hate racism and nationalism and am not in favour of any migration controls.
I resent being associated with racism, nationalism and anti-immigration views simply because I voted to leave the EU.
I believe that what the German-led EU did to Greece was effectively racist and the rhetoric expressed by northern Europeans and particularly by Germans with regard to the social destruction of Greece by the EU (things like "Greeks are lazy", "they deserved it as they don't pay their way") was effectively racist. I have seen so much evidence of this that I cannot believe that this problem is not acknowledged more often. Perhaps it is regarded as so acceptable that it passes without comment.
I don't believe that the satirical linking of contemporary Germany and the EU to the Nazis by some Greeks was entirely inappropriate. The EU is not nazi, but it is tyrannical and arguably racist.
I voted to leave the EU in solidarity with the Greek people and to send a message to the EU and particularly to the Germans that what they did to Greece was not acceptable.
I regard my vote for Brexit as anti-racist because of what the German-led EU did to the Greeks.
The destruction of the Greek public sector by the EU did involve people dying.
In "And The Weak Suffer What They Must?" by Yanis Varoufakis, he says in the opening pages that the European Union "lost its integrity" by "crushing Greece".
That was the major reason that I voted to leave the E.U.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an anarchist and libertarian, I saw my vote to leave the E.U. as striking blow against two illegitimate bases of power - both the U.K. and the E.U. The result has significantly chastened and weakened both the U.K. and the E.U., with both entities feeling the need to justify their existence and their powers. In this sense I am very pleased with the result of my principled vote.
Another thing that I would like to say about my left-wing vote to leave the E.U. is that I believe it is by no means unrepresentative. Seeing as most voters are not nationalists or UKIP voters and never were, the result must to some extent represent a lot of people who voted to leave the E.U. but who are otherwise moderate in their views.
I think a lot of people voted for Brexit for the basic reason that they felt, perceived or suspected that the E.U. meant that power was being taken away from them, whether this is true or not. In other words, for essentially democratic rather than nationalist perceptions and reasons.
Were a similar referendum held in almost any E.U. country, I suspect that the result would be close or similar to the result in the U.K. and for very similar reasons. The people who run the E.U. know this very well.
Democracy, freedom and self-government are not ideas that are restricted to the nineteenth-century. They are of course still relevant today in the twenty-first century. If those who support the E.U. ignore this, and impute all opposition to it to nationalism, xenophobia and racism, they will never really get to grips with why the E.U. may be unpopular.