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A very worthwhile article. Among other things, it relates changes in the class composition to the recent elections and to Brexit itself. This is not only in relation to the decline of the industrial working class but also in relation to the conflict between service workers such as health care workers and the administrators above them and how that conflict over bureaucratic demands shapes the world view of this sector of the working class. I'm reminded of the saying that the only two things in the middle of the road are a yellow strike and a dead skunk. In this case, almost all the remainers I know of took a middle-of-the-road position. More or less "keep things as they are". True, leaving the EU will make things dramatically worse, but for a large chunk of the working class that is not an argument. It's like a young apprentice I worked with at the time Reagan ran against Jimmy Carter. This guy was planning on voting for Reagan. I told him all the terrible things Reagan was going to do, and he replied: "I don't know what Reagan will do. I only know what Carter has done and I don't like it." In the case of the EU, I think the only way out of that trap would have been to organize an EU wide (and beyond) campaign for a real living minimum wage and minimum social services - that all workers receive. Within that, it could be explained that leaving the EU would cut across such a campaign and that it is impossible for British workers to keep what little they now have, and to improve on it, alone. But that is exactly where Corbyn was a "centrist", because any such campaign would have really, really violated the political norms, beyond which even Corbyn was willing to go. https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/13/the-center-blows-itself-up-care-and-spite-in-the-brexit-election/?fbclid=IwAR0AJb2Jr2-Muy6V5XtC8BaJtyIIqqOtcub08KxmDQnF2OcyV7Nx0UXtzA8 John Reimann -- *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black Jacobins" by C. L. R. James Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
