referendums

Long live Trump, long live Putin, long live Le Pen and long live the League!
— Matteo Salvini, Lega Nord leader

Marcus Ruiz Evans is author of California’s Next Century 2.0: Economic Renaissance, a leader of the YesCalifornia campaign for independence, and has lived throughout California including in LA, the Bay Area, Sacramento, the Inland Empire, the Central Valley, and is a Fresno, CA native.
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There can be little doubt that we are living through an extraordinary, and in many ways unprecedented, era. Times of uncertainty and tremendous upheaval for sure, but also positive times, in which large numbers of people are becoming energised and politically engaged. Political parties in many countries are fracturing, as internal differences surface and the old dualities of left and right fail to respond to the needs and demands of the people.

This week we unpack the historic #Brexit vote in the UK, which has sparked a political crisis and generalized a populist anti-immigrant sentiment.
For the musical break, we’ve got Caxton Press, with Broken Dreams.

It must have been clear from the very beginning on September 12, 2015, when cheers lifted the roof and people across the land stood up, punched the air and shouted “Yes!” as the results of the Labour Party leadership elections were read out, that Jeremy Corbyn’s victory would be quickly followed by determined efforts to unseat him.  And so it was.

Brexit could trigger a $500 trillion derivatives meltdown, by forcing the EU to allow insolvent member governments and banks to write down debt. Italy is in financial crisis and is already petitioning for that concession. How to avoid collapse of the massive derivatives house of cards? Alternatives are considered.

Oh, that poor old United Kingdom! Armies of political commentators based on all continents are now feverishly trying to define to what extent the Brits got fooled, or how severely they will soon get punished for their ‘bold move’.

I’m still trying to figure out how what is called The Left, in the UK and elsewhere, can hold two seemingly contradictory positions in its condemnation of the Brexit.  On the one hand, they laudably criticize the neo-liberal agenda of austerity, privatization of public resources, and all the rest of the retrograde policies that have returned Europe (and wherever else 21st century capital has managed to extend its tentacles) to a neo-feudal state.  On the other, they criticize the Brexiteers of every political stripe of caving in to some minuscule but megaphoned far Right Wing racist agenda

The ‘Brexit’ referendum vote, split 52% to 48% in favour of leaving the European Union, has been exploited by the ‘mainstream’ media to launch yet another assault on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. ‘Impartial’ BBC News, directed by former Murdoch editor James Harding, has been one of the worst culprits.

Like almost half British voters I voted “remain” in last week’s EU referendum, so I’m far from delighted with the outcome. But as the capitalists say, every disaster brings with it opportunity, so we must use this chance to call for some desperately-needed changes.
The main issues that were raised during the campaign were about immigration and sovereignty. To properly address the immigration question it’s essential to understand the main causes for it. There are two different but related reasons: Permanent War and Continual Growth.