Quote: LeighGionaire "A Ten Point Plan For Labour To Regain The Workers Vote
1) Stop supporting the free movement of Labour! At one time Labour fought to save jobs in local communities whilst the capitalists told workers to ‘get on their bikes and find work’. Studies have proven that immigration has small impact on average wages but more significant impacts along the wage distribution, low-waged workers lose while medium and high-paid workers gain.
2) Guarantee that all legitimate asylum seekers and refugees will be welcome to find safety in our country.
3) Put Blair and Cameron on trial for their war crimes.
4) Nationalise the Banking system.
5) Use newly created public money to start building the infrastructure needed, new houses, new schools etc.
6) Pledge the British forces will never set foot on foreign soil unless working under a U.N mandate.
7) Pledge to help workers and unions in other countries in their struggle against global capitalism
8 Repeal all anti union laws enacted since the days of Thatcher.
9) Pledge to introduce proportional representation into U.K politics.
10) Pledge to ban fracking in the U.K and to promote a ‘Green’ energy bill.'"
I agree with that list. However, the decision to leave the EU is only even vaguely relevant to number (1). Yet unless we accept (1), we will have tariffs on all our trade, which will essentially bankrupt us and thus prevent us from spending money on anything from the rest of the list.
The real answer to free movement of people is not to erect a fence to keep them out, but to impose and enforce a national minimum wage which allows British workers to live with dignity and comfort, and prevents unscrupulous companies from undercutting those workers using cheap imported Labour. After all, if everyone who wants a decent job has one, then nobody really gives a stuff if some guys from Warsaw are working alongside them.
That's at the heart of this - firms who deliberately import and recruit workers on pay and conditions which would be below a level of decency for British workers trying to live a normal family life. And that's not going to be affected in any way by the EU exit. Indeed, the EU should be part of the solution, because by imposing common standards for workers (holidays, maternity leave, minimum pay) across the continent, it makes it much harder for firms to play the "You'll accept low wages, or I'm off to Slovakia" card.
The EU was part of the solution, not part of the problem. The marginalised working class should have been campaigning for the UK government to take a lead in strengthening EU employment legislation in order to prevent such exploitation by greedy firms.
Instead, we've voted for a group of charlatans who have already confirmed that free movement of Labour will continue outside the EU, and they will take this opportunity to remove the employment protections which the EU did actually impose (they call it "red-tape", and a few more people should have asked what it was before they merrily voted to cut it).
This was a decision of monumental self-defeating stupidity. I'm sorry if that gets people's backs up, but it was. In every way, this vote will make conditions for British workers worse. Our employment protections will be cut by the extreme right-wingers who are about to take over, free movement of Labour will remain, as it does with any country which wants to trade with the EU without tariffs, and there'll be fewer jobs and higher prices as firms pull out of the UK to relocate inside the EU, and imports become more expensive due to the devalued pound.
So yes, I support your list. But we just voted against every single item on it. This is the biggest facepalm in British political history.