Why you should vote no to Nice! Again....

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday August 21, 2002 17:00 by An Camcheachta - IRSP starry_plough at hotmail dot com PO Box 1981, Derry, Ireland, BT48 8GX

Front page editorial from the current Starry Plough/An Camcheachta, explaining why voters should oppose, once again, the (not so) Nice Treaty.

The Starry Plough/Am Camcheachta
August/Septmber 2002

http://www.irsm.org/irsp/starryplough/

Why you should vote no to Nice! Again....
In the not too distant future the electorate of the 26 counties are going to be asked for a second time to vote for acceptance or rejection of the Nice Treaty. Last year, 2001, the people of the 26 county state rejected the Treaty which was most distressing for the government and their capitalist allies in Europe. However Bertie Ahern and his intrepid band of governmental warriors, Soldiers Of Destiny and the Progressive Democrats, have decided that in the last referendum and subsequent rejection of Nice the electorate got it wrong. Therefore because of the obvious error of judgement on the part of the 26 county electorate we have to go through the entire process again hopefully, from the government’s point of view, this time getting it right.
This time the government are playing on the electorate’s emotional and dutiful conscience claiming that 'rejection of Nice' will prevent European enlargement thus preventing the peoples of Eastern Europe coming into the European Union and condemning them to a life of continued poverty. If this were the case, which it is not, then there could be a case for voting in favour of Nice. The pro Nice parties are trying to play the caring Western capitalist governmental role by saying 'its just about enlargement, we want to give the peoples of Eastern Europe the same chance we had' and 'what right have we got' to tell these peoples that they can not join our club. However this is not true because European enlargement could happen with or without Nice. According to European Union Commission President Romando Prodi "legally ratification of the Nice Treaty is not necessary for enlargement" he continues "enlargement is possible without Nice".
One of the main purposes why Western European governments are so anxious for Nice is that it will be easier for them, on behalf of capitalism, to exploit the impoverished working class of Eastern Europe in much the same way as did West German capitalism exploit to the hilt the working class of former East Germany. Nice has nothing to do with humanitarian concern for the people of Eastern Europe but solely to do with maximising exploitation of these peoples. The same hypocritical governments of Western Europe who claim to care for their brethren in the East operate a fortress Europe policy to keep out migrants.
On the domestic front the tactic of economic blackmail to force through a yes vote has already swung into play. The Irish independent 1.8.2002 headlines read 'cascade of job losses if Nice is rejected'. This prediction is according to the justice minister Mr Michael McDowell who, in speaking as government minister, is quite obviously trying to frighten people into voting in favour of Nice through the fear of unemployment. What Mr McDowell really means is if Western European and American capitalism can't exploit the labour power of the peoples of Eastern Europe thus amassing even larger profits then you people, who denied us access to these victims by rejecting Nice, will be thrown on the economic scrap heap.
However the statement, which even by the crass standards of a man like Mr McDowell, is easy enough to disprove if the economic experts of the tabloid and broad sheet press are to be believed. The tabloid Star reported on Saturday 3rd August 2002 'well into 2003 before unemployment stops rising' according to their expert, this prediction comes long before the second vote on Nice in October. Again The Irish Independent on the same day reported 'Dole queues lengthen as economy slows down', a paradox to the statement by Mr McDowell blaming the rejection of Nice for unemployment in the same broadsheet two days previous.
These predictions are coming long before the electorate go to the polls on the Nice Treaty which would appear to make a mockery of Mr McDowell’s statement that there will be a 'cascade of job losses if Nice is rejected'. How can the rejection of Nice be blamed for job losses when it has not yet been voted on? The independent continues 'the number of people signing on the dole has been rising by 280 per day since Bertie Aherns re-election'. It goes on 'the government was aware 10 months ago when preparing for the budget that job losses were set to soar’. This statement of fact has obviously got nothing to do with Nice. Remember this is the same broadsheet which two days earlier had printed McDowells claim that rejection of Nice would be to blame for job losses. Surely nobody can fail to see the contradictions.
Perhaps Mr McDowell and the government are expecting a possible second rejection of Nice and are already putting their scapegoat for unemployment in place. Either way they can't lose because if Nice is, hopefully, rejected again they can blame the electorate for causing their own unemployment through their rejection of Nice, and if for some strange reason Nice is accepted then they will probably blame an influx of Eastern Europeans on to the job market as the offending factor. Again The Irish Independent as ever faithful to the Irish bourgeoisie and their government stated on Friday 9th August 2002 that 'the government has defended its decision to give 75 million Eastern Europeans the right to live and work in Ireland'. It continued 'people from countries including Poland will be allowed to come here from January 2004 if the Nice Treaty is passed'. This kind of reporting is, of course, music to the ears of right wing semi-imbecile xenophobics who blame immigration for unemployment, in fact these extreme supporters of capitalism would blame any straw man for unemployment except of course the capitalist system itself. If the electorate reject Nice they will, according to Michael McDowell, have created a "cascade of job losses" and if Nice is accepted the electorate will be to blame for opening up the flood gates thus allowing Eastern Europeans to be scapegoated for unemployment.
The employing class are routing for a yes vote to the Nice Treaty, possibly for the reasons already outlined above, exploitation etc.. This way they can keep the lid on wages knowing that the probability of workers blaming greedy capitalist employers for their lot is unlikely compared with blaming cheap labour from Eastern European countries. On the 5.8.2002 The Irish Independent reported 'Employers stump up 1m. Euro for yes to Nice campaign'. The employers federation, the Irish Business and Employers Federation (IBEC) are asking member companies to come up with this cash. Now the employing class do not talk in these terms unless they can see a prize in it for themselves. The catch in this case will be cheap labour, an erosion of workers pay and conditions resulting in higher profits, and equally important a divided proletariat. That is if workers are naive enough to fall for the xenophobic card, let us hope not.
As long as capitalism exists so too will unemployment and it has nothing to do with Nice treaties or people coming from other countries. Neither has it got anything to do with the man in the moon or any other equally daft reasons put forward by the bourgeoisie and their allies. Unemployment is inept in the corrupt capitalist system which, we are constantly told, is the finest way imaginable to run our lives. Rest assured this or any other government will never blame this system for unemployment or any other social problems. Anybody who is waiting for that to happen will wait for hell to freeze over.