Regarding defence:
The conclusion is inescapable: now is the time for the UK to reinforce, not wreck Europe’s security relationships, both through the European pillar of Nato and through cooperation with the EU. That means developing its own military capabilities as the US pulls back, as well as exploring a UK role in potential decision-making bodies such as a European security council.
Regarding the economy:
Labour should be open to renegotiating all barriers to cooperation – including integration with the single market in a Swiss-style deal.
Thoughts?
Dismantle the EU once you established close and successfull cooperation with other socialists and formed a functional organisation to replace it.
Calling for an end of the EU without having the means to replace its protective role for all its citizens, also workers, against foreign imperalistic powers makes you a tool of said powers, nothing else. An adaption to Chinese or American work ethics and worker rights is NEITHER a goal of the european working class NOR a socialist ideal, even if the former imperialistic power paints itself as being socialist.
The EU are a foreign imperialist power for much of the global south.
I didn’t mention China or America.
The EU absolutely obliterated the Greek economy and subjected them to austerity politics to pay off debts to other EU member states. Its key members (Germany, France) are neocolonial powers in their own rights, with Germany deepthroatedly supporting Israel while France maintains a hegemonic, colonial role over its ‘former’ colonies in West Africa.
The EU core extracts cheap labour from its periphery member states (mostly former Eastern bloc nations) and has no intention of reducing the massive wage differentials between member states that cause this effect. It ensures that no member state can nationalise industries, and works towards ‘liberating’ industries that are already nationalised so that German and French capital can pour into those industries and capture their market share and profits.
A ‘strong and stable’ EU is not going to be particularly easy to supplant now is it? Surely you want your enemies as weak as possible before dealing the finishing blow instead of propping them up and aiding their legitimacy despite their clearly imperialist aims and ends. The EU are all about that white supremacist ‘our garden vs. their jungle’, keep the savages out, kill the refugees in the Mediterranean and let the Albanians do our dirty work. No friends of mine or any well-read socialist.