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The British far left is in no position to capitalize on the anti-EU victory. Pragmatically, radical leftist politics in the UK are notoriously factionalized, with myriad small groupings often expressing intense hostility to one another. For instance, the UK has multiple communist parties, the bulk of which trace their origin back to the original Communist Party of Great Britain founded in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. Yet in their modern incarnations they display an entrenched level of enmity towards each other, something akin to much of the UK’s far-left that makes a habit of splits, expulsions and a general inability to tolerate any and all partners not immediately willing to share a uniform ideological outlook.
The end result is, quite often, a leftist movement marked more by intrigue and mutual resentment than effective politics. As such, despite good intentions and at times very good arguments, the “Lexit” camp was always bound to be swept aside by a tidal wave of rightist sentiment, with any hope of striking a blow against the EU as a specifically neoliberal, pro-austerity institution at risk of being drowned out by stronger forces eager to capitalize on the virulent xenophobia that has characterized much of the Brexit vote. In this sense, a vote to leave the European Union in the hope of sparking a resurgence of anti-capitalist politics woefully underestimated the balance of political forces in this country.
full: http://www.towardfreedom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4305:brexit-s-aftermath-xenophobia-and-the-rising-right&catid=39:europe&Itemid=101
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