The Left and the Anti-Brexit March

The second largest demonstration ever seen on the streets of London took place at the weekend as up to 700,000 people marched against Brexit. For once it was not the usual suspects of the far-left, it was just ordinary punters who were concerned about the future outside the EU.

There was a Labour Party presence and a tiny smattering of two anti-Brexit left groups (Alliance for Workers Liberty & Socialist Resistance) who were lost in the massive crowd.  The rest were nowhere to be seen.

When I tuned in to Sky news during the afternoon I was surprised to see Lyndsey German the leader of the misnamed Stop the War Campaign (StWC) hanging around getting herself interviewed. Regrettably it was the end of the piece so missed what she had to say.

Lyndsey belongs to a breakaway group from the Socialist Workers Party called Counterfire and writes on their website:

I spent a little bit of time in Parliament Square on Saturday being interviewed about the People’s Vote march. I have always opposed the demand and to be honest, nothing I have seen or heard about the march has made me change my mind.

Clearly she was just there to get self publicity. Lyndsey is an intelligent woman who could have garnered this information the same way I did being housebound by watching the news broadcast and reading what people say on-line, but hey take the opportunity to make a parasitical intervention, that's the way the left has always worked. Lyndsey continues:

The demonstration showed that this campaign is dominated by the rich and powerful, and was a vehicle for middle class protest, not the empowerment of the most radical sections of society.

It was a demo enthusiastically promoted and reported by all sections of the media. The figures from the organisers may or may not be correct. It looked to me considerably less than the 700k so dutifully reported. But the claim that it was the second biggest demonstration in British history is almost certainly false. It says more about the organisers and their determination to get beyond the Iraq war demo than it does about making an accurate assessment of history.

This put down attacking the "middle class" and trying to claim the demo was from the "rich and powerful" sounds like the sort of formulation a "Strasserite" would use. When Lyndsey was in the SWP and still as a leading head honcho of the StWC these organisations always lied about the size of their party or gave false figures upping turnouts on demos and meetings. Cleverley taken photos hide reality.

Obviously Lyndsey does not think the "middle class" (if that formulation could be proven) component has any "rights" such is the arrogance of the Marxist caste. History has left them behind. The "working class" in traditional terms is no longer the majority class in society. The world has changed.

The Socialist Workers Party whilst hostile to the march contradict Lyndsey German's assessment of the numbers involved in the march and write:

Almost 700,000 marched for a "Peoples Vote" in London on Saturday.

This was a huge mobilisation—the largest in Britain since the 2003 march against the Iraq War. It shows the campaign has struck a chord with sections of those who voted Remain in the 2016 referendum or who have subsequently turned against Brexit.

But that doesn’t make it progressive or in the interests of working class people.

The People’s Vote is a cross party alliance with warmongering spin doctor Alastair Campbell giving leadership. Many people have pointed out that as director of communications and spokesperson for Tony Blair’s Labour Party he ignored a march against the invasion of Iraq which was three times the size of Saturday's.

There was also a strong anger against Jeremy Corbyn for “failing” to oppose Brexit totally.

Image: By Source, Fair use, Wiki

Meanwhile the dreadful  Corbyn supporting website the Canary approached the demo thus:

On Saturday 20 October, there was a bit of a protest in London. Something to do with Brexit, apparently. But meanwhile, in a small corner of Lancashire, a group of grassroots campaigners and locals had organised their own demo. And there wasn’t an EU flag in sight.

It was about "fracking" in Lancashire apparently. The jury is still out on that issue as far as I am concerned but that's a discussion for another day. This snide report is just the sort of attitude that Corbyn/McDonnell have about the EU but pretend otherwise.