Tuesday 21 June 2016

EU Referendum: What would E.P. Thompson do?

 

Keith Flett suggests E.P. Thompson  would probably be for #Lexit - which might mean he would possibly be heading up a #HistoriansforLexit campaign...
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3 comments:

  1. Unknown9 July 2016 at 12:50

    I think not Keith. E.P. Thompson in my experience increasingly saw Europe as the key terrain on which many of the most important political battles of the future would have to be fought. He was, after all, a key figure in the European Nuclear Disarmament movement.
    John Palmer

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  2. Unknown9 July 2016 at 12:51

    I think not Keith. E.P. Thompson in my experience increasingly saw Europe as the key terrain on which many of the most important political battles of the future would have to be fought. He was, after all, a key figure in the European Nuclear Disarmament movement.
    John Palmer

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  3. Snowball26 July 2016 at 06:20

    Yes, John, thanks - E.P. Thompson was indeed a key figure in the European Nuclear Disarmament movement. But I don't think this settles the argument - because END was a grassroots democratic movement from below that was suspicious of fake internationalism from above from nation states. As END declared, 'The remedy lies in our own hands . . . We must commence to act as if a united, neutral and pacific Europe already exists. We must learn to be loyal, not to ‘East’ or ‘West’, but to each other, and we must disregard the prohibitions and limitations imposed by any national state . . . We must resist any attempt by the statesmen of East and west to manipulate this movement to their own advantage.'
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Nuclear_Disarmament

    The EU on the other hand is an undemocratic top-down capitalist bureaucracy that is not particularly pacific (eg. see the Ukraine) and led by states like France that have nuclear weapons. You can surely see the difference between Europe per se (and also European-wide grassroots movements like END) - and the EU as an institution that is part of the architecture of global capitalism? Cheers.

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