Across the developed world there is great political restlessness with the failure of neo-liberal economics. In all areas of life the promises that globalisation, so-called free markets and trickle-down economics would benefit us all have proven to be the sick lies they always were. The latest manifestation of this restlessness and disillusionment with traditional politics has been the surprise “Brexit” vote exposing deep social divisions in Britain.

But why would a large section of the British working class side with some of the most reactionary, racist elements of the British ruling class to thereby create a majority vote for Britain to leave the European Union? The answer comes from the neo-liberal economic policies of the past generation whereby the rich have waged a relentless war on the working class using both the Conservative and Labour Parties to front their filthy scheming.

The working class across the developed world has seen their share of GDP (Gross Domestic Product – a measure of the wealth produced each year within a country) drop dramatically. In New Zealand the workers’ share of GDP dropped from around 55% in the 1980s to about 45% today, meaning households must work ever longer hours, on lower pay rates, to get enough income to sustain a reasonable standard of living.

The inevitable result has been standards of living have dropped with millions of workers and their families driven into poverty across the globe. In the Brexit vote these workers gave the fingers to the entire British political Establishment – Conservative and Labour Parties alike. It was a protest vote of grand proportions. Essentially the same coalition of the reactionary wealthy with strong working class support is a feature of the Trump campaign for the US Presidency.

Just as in other countries the US working class has been hammered and smashed. No less than 40 million Americans now live below the poverty line in the wealthiest country on the planet. Having been so brutally betrayed, why would anyone in the working class in the US or Britain be expected to vote for the likes of Hillary (Wall Street) Clinton or follow the British Labour Party’s call to remain in the European Union? In both countries the reactionary wealthy are portraying the problem as immigration – people from outside coming in to take working class jobs. In times of acute social stress it is always those who can most easily point to a scapegoat who will see their political fortunes enhanced.

In the US and Britain it is Donald Trump and Boris Johnson who are the immediate beneficiaries of the racist xenophobia they have roused (post-referendum, Johnson himself was stabbed in the back by his fellow Tories and deprived of his chance to become Prime Minister. But the new PM, Theresa May, appointed him Foreign Secretary, thus displaying a fine sense of irony. Ed.). Here in New Zealand it is Winston Peters who wants to don the Donald Trump/Boris Johnson political suit. Besides blaming immigration policies and immigrant workers for our economic woes, Peters has long-term associations with some of the most reactionary elements of New Zealand business such as the infamous anti-union, anti-worker Talley Brothers.

Until the Left is able to provide a coherent, message that it is the greed and corruption at the heart of capitalism which is to blame for the appalling situation low-income families find themselves in, then we shouldn’t be surprised at the Trump/Brexit developments. The challenge for progressive political forces is to sheet the blame home where it belongs – the corrupt, immoral system of free-market capitalism which is enriching a small elite at the expense of the rest of us.