In the mass media fuss following Brexit, we have been hearing all sorts of weird things, but what they want in the end is simply to confuse the masses and above all the youth about the true meaning of this event, and to embellish the EU as an harmonious community where everyone is free to go around for tourism, study and work as they want.

Italian Marxist-Leninists have always been against the imperialist European Union, and they strive for our country’s total sovereignty and national independence. This would weaken the bourgeois ruling class in its ability to suffocate class struggle, and it would create better conditions for the struggle against capitalism.

First and foremost, it is necessary to be clear about the true nature of the EU. Contrarily to what its politicians, mass media and officials say, the EU is an imperialist coalition of bourgeois States, banks and monopolies which was born to attend to their interests. Its very founding acts, starting from the Treaty of Maastricht, force Member States to carry out merciless neoliberal economic policies in order to give “free rein” to free market by privatizing anything that can be privatized. The privatization of Ilva in Taranto, for example, was a result of Maastricht [Ilva is the name of a steel-producing plant charged with poisoning its own workers and the people living nearby for ignoring anti-pollution regulations—Translator’s Note]. Free circulation of labour-force guaranteed by Schengen is useful to big capital, as it can acquire qualified or non-qualified manpower at a lower price, using it also to blackmail native workers and attack their rights, won after hard struggles. “Solidarity”, considered one of the EU founding principles, proved to be nothing more than a lie as cruel austerity measures were forced upon Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy to save the European big finance, or in the Union’s handling of the refugee crisis. In other words, the EU is a project envisaged and carried out by European capitalists with the sole goal of expanding their profits. All to the advantage of big capital and high monopolistic and financial bourgeoisie; all to the damage of the proletariat, the working people, the unemployed and the peoples throughout Europe.

The EU cannot be reformed from the inside because its policies for austerity, liberalization, social massacre and negation of workers’ rights are not just temporary policies, but are rooted in its own founding treaties. All the proposals to “change European policies” or to create “a social Europe” and so on, including those championed by the Five-Star Movement and personally by its leaders Grillo, Di Maio and Di Battista, are nothing more than illusions which, in the end, keep the peoples inside the EU. We all have seen how European institutions blackmailed Greece after its referendum last year. This is why the working masses of European countries would find better conditions outside the Union, or, in other words, outside the yoke of economic and regulatory laws binding all Member States to adopt neoliberalist policies, curb workers’ rights, make jobs more unstable, and cancel collective contracts.

This is why Brexit is a devastating blow against banks and monopolies that are the actual rulers of the EU. The pro-EU media campaign that followed the referendum proves this. Most of the British media—not to mention almost the entirety of Italian media—campaigned for Remain. The campaign was also greatly financed by banks and multinationals such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Now, however, the lies, absurdities and reactionary proposals spread by them are really countless. Those who voted Leave are shown as uncivilized, racist old people who voted against the future of the youth, there are calls to nullify the referendum in defiance of the much-chanted bourgeois democracy, people are even attacking universal suffrage, and apocalypse-like scenarios of economic and social disaster are evoked.

The much-abused thesis of the “generation clash” is a lie, used to divide workers to the advantage of capital. It is a lie because 64% of 18-24 year olds and 42% of 25-30 year olds did not go to vote, and therefore it is not true that the majority of the youth voted to stay. It is a lie also because Leave won in many areas with a strong working class presence, not to mention that some trade unions, including the strong rail union, and a number of sectors of the reformist Left campaigned for Leave on the ground of a program against liberalizations and the TTIP. The influence of Ukip and xenophobe politicians and movements (i.e. the petty bourgeoisie impoverished by the crisis) undoubtedly played a role, but it was not as essential as it is said by pro-EU media; in fact, according to a recent survey, only 34% of Leave voters said immigration was the main reason why they voted Out. Anyways, the above-mentioned influence was possible only because the so-called “Left-wing” parties have sold themselves out to the EU and have left this struggle to reactionary forces. Much-feared economic consequences of Brexit, such as the increase of mortgage prices and university costs or worse living and working conditions for migrants, are entirely fault of the bourgeois ruling class, which throws its losses on the people’s masses, although this is no different than what happens in the EU of austerity, cuts to the social state and privatizations.

In the end, it is not true that leaving the EU means putting an end to an alleged economic prosperity that is just a mirage to oppressed and exploited masses. On the contrary, for the above-said reasons, Britain leaving the European Union is objectively an anti-imperialist action, regardless of the motivations of individual voters and the various forces that campaigned for Leave. The EU is weaker and more likely to be further weakened, given how Brexit has encouraged other European peoples.

This was by no means a Right-wing exit of Britain from the EU, as some “ultra-Left” and self-styled communist groups also say.

Anti-capitalists and anti-imperialists must support the result of this referendum, and take advantage of the momentum to promote our country’s exit from the EU, also to prevent reactionary, fascist and racist parties from using immigration-related problems to take the lead of this fundamental struggle. It would be partial and wrong to leave only the Euro while remaining inside the neoliberal bounds of the EU, as advocated by the Five-Star Movement, because this could even be counterproductive and have negative financial consequences for the masses.

The real Left-wing, anti-imperialist vote is to leave the EU, against capitalist austerity and privatizations. The fact that Right-wing and even fascist forces would also vote in the same way does not compromise this choice, nor it makes us their allies, since their vote would be based on goals totally opposed to ours. The same happens in the struggle against the fascist counter-reform of the Constitution, where anti-fascist forces have rightly rejected Minister Boschi’s coward attempt to put them on the same ground as Casa Pound fascists because they are all going to vote NO at the October referendum.

For us, this struggle is by no means a nationalist one, but an internationalist one. We bear no illusion that every problem will be solved after national sovereignty is taken back, because the capitalist economic system based on the exploitation of workers will remain in place. In order to usher into a future of freedom, democracy, peace, social justice and wellbeing, the proletariat, the people’s masses and the youth must get rid of capitalism and establish socialism, but this struggle necessarily includes the destruction of the imperialist European Union.