<nettime> England leaves Europe

[Alex Foti <alex.foti@gmail.com>]

As Nigel Farage toasts to the independence of the UK, it's in fact
England leaving the EU. At first glance it's the Thatcherite South
and the deindustrialized North (and Wales) who have voted to leave,
while Scotland has voted to remain, like Northern Ireland. A second
Scottish referendum has already been invoked, and a referendum on the
reunification of Ireland is not impossible (Sinn Fein has already
asked for it). Cameron will resign and Boris or Gove will take his
place. Labour voters have voted 2/3 to stay and 1/3 to go.

Although we could debate or months on englishness, britishness,
napoleon, bismarck etc - i.e. is England part of Europe in a
historical sense? Definitely yes, although Stratford-upon-Avon voted
otherwise;) The point is the majority of English voters don't feel
part of the Continent in a political sense, and maybe they haven't
since Waterloo. Anyway, panic in financial markets this morning is
quite a spectacle and neoliberal instability could have passed a
threshold beyond which it will never regain confidence. I want to
sketch here the likely geopolitical consequences of brexit and discuss
how plausible they are.

America distances itself further from England (a process that started
with the failed vote over Syria) and gets closer to France - yes they
are rabble-rousers and bossnappers but they have been on our side
since day 1 and now vs isis. A US rapprochement with Germany is only
natural at this point - Hillary (she will win, i think) and Angela
could rekindle the Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft and find a
common position on Russia (meaning NATO) and Turkey.

For its own interests, the US will probably push for further political
integration of what remains of the EU, or possibly only the eurozone.
The point is do we (continentals;) want it? If I can paraphrase
Garibaldi when he said: "O si fa l'Italia o si muore!" - i would
say Either We Do Europe Now or We're Dead - meaning the chauvinists
and the xenophobes will bring us back to the European nation-state
that defends itself against migrants and any threat to its supposed
cultural identity, unless we fight for a European Republic, by
coagulating a transnational party for equality, ecology, gender,
cyber, labor rights built on citizen participation and debate, that
builds on the successes of Podemos and En Comù in Spain a= nd
Catalunya, and other instances of radical democracy across Europe, to
dislodge the financial oligarchy and the European Commission which
have brought us to disaster.

we desperately need a platform, a strategy, a treasury, and possibly
self-defense militias..

ciao for now

lx



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