Europe and the British Left

Beyond the Progressive Dilemma
Explores how the European question has divided the Labour Party and the progressive left for over 50 years and makes the case for an approach that is critical of the European Union, yet pragmatically embraces its potential to facilitate and enable a radical internationalist politics.
The European question has divided the Labour Party and the progressive left for over 50 years. The contemporary left-wing antithesis to the EU harks back to Bennite anti-marketeer narratives: a neoliberal EU undermines the potential for national progressive policies in relation to labour markets, state intervention and finance. However, many make the case that the EUs four freedoms support a progressive politics: the single market project embeds social and workers rights, challenges member state support for large corporate interests and facilitates free movement for EU citizens.There is, in short, a progressive dilemma for the