FROM the barrage mounted by the corporate media globally, it would appear that the decision of the people of Britain to quit the European Union is an unmitigated disaster for Britain, for Europe and for the world. There are mournful requiems for the end of globalisation and a “liberal-capitalist” order. The crash in the world’s stock exchanges and financial markets indicate who is really hurt by “Brexit” – the masters of big finance and the banks. But there is an alternative view about the referendum held in Britain on whether it should remain in, or, leave the European Union. 52 percent of the people voted to leave. This decision is primarily a rejection of the EU straitjacket which has made its 28-member countries, prisoners of the neo-liberal order. The EU is a supra-national institution which is an instrument for promoting the interests of European big capital and international finance capital. The EU ensures that there are no restrictions on the free flow of capital between member states. There are regulations that the government fiscal deficit cannot be more than 3 percent of the GDP in any country by which limits are placed on government spending. The countries within the EU which have adopted a common currency, the Euro, cannot have an independent monetary policy either. They cannot decide on devaluing their currency or subsidising their exports. Under EU rules, governments cannot subsidise any industry, if it is in crisis. After the 2008 global financial crisis, the EU has promoted austerity measures through cuts in public expenditure and social spending. This has badly affected the working class and poorer sections who find their educational, health and pension benefits cut drastically. The neo-liberal policies have promoted inequality and concentration of wealth. In countries like Britain, it has led to the “financialisation” of the economy and de-industrialisation. Britain, under the rightwing conservative government, has seen savage cuts in the National Health Service, housing, social welfare and large-scale loss of jobs for industrial workers. The “democratic deficit” in the EU has long been recognized with the faceless bureaucracy in Brussels unaccountable to the peoples of the EU countries. The fate that Greece suffered when it sought to reverse some of the austerity measures when Syriza government was elected to power is a telling example. Greece was made to swallow the bitter medicine of more severe austerity measures ruthlessly imposed by the EU-European Central Bank-IMF troika. Remaining within EU and the Euro currency, no government can come to power and implement an alternative anti-austerity programme, nor can the people have a democratic choice other than that of the EU finance capital dictated policies. In Britain, the referendum was called to resolve the inner fight within the ruling Conservative Party. David Cameron, the prime minister, called the referendum confident that he would win it on the platform of remaining in Europe. But David Cameron’s miscalculation has now cost him his prime ministership. As far as the Labour Party is concerned, a substantial section of its following voted for exiting the EU. A major section of the Left, including the British Communist Party, the Trotskyite parties and others campaigned for leaving the EU. But the Left is a weak force in Britain. It was the rightwing forces who took the leadership of the campaign. They used the anti-immigration platform effectively. Under the EU rules, there is free movement of people and a large number of workers from the East European countries had migrated to Britain to work for lower wages. The capitalists have used the free movement of labour to beat down wages and to displace existing jobs of British workers. The rightwing such as the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) used the immigration fears and conducted a campaign tinged with racism. The xenophobia thus aroused is a cause for serious concern. A substantial section of the working class and people belonging to the regions of England outside London have voted for leaving the EU. This is a democratic decision taken by the people resisting the powerful campaign launched by the ruling class parties, the corporate media and the finance capitalists about how Britain would be doomed if it left the EU. However, it is true that given the present correlation of forces in Britain, the rightwing stands to gain in the short term. The prime minister who will succeed Cameron will be heading a more rightwing conservative government. On the other hand, within the Labour Party, there is a serious move to remove Corbyn as the leader of the Labour Party. The Labour Party, which has shifted rightwards steadily in the past three decades, saw the election of Jeremy Corbyn as its leader with a Left agenda last year. The rightwing within the Labour Party has, from the outset, been conspiring to remove him. Using the failure of the Remain campaign as the excuse, the Labour parliamentary party has voted against Corbyn as leader. This will initiate an intense inner-party struggle for the leadership. What was required at this juncture was the advancement of the Left agenda set by Jeremy Corbyn with a programme which consists of re-nationalising the railways and exercising social control over key sectors of the economy – an agenda which brings back the priorities of the people and not of finance capital. The struggle against racism and xenophobia of the far right can be countered only by putting forward such a Left programme and mobilising people around it. What has to be underlined is that the struggle for an alternative agenda can be advanced now that the EU shackles have been removed. Through Brexit, the British people have taken a step forward to recover their rights and democratic choice. They face a hard and protracted struggle ahead for a more just and equal society. (June 29, 2016)