'Libertarians against Nice' to picket IBEC pro-Nice conference

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday September 19, 2002 11:03

by Libertarians Against Nice

contactLAN at yahoogroups dot com

1 PM, Friday, Sept 20, Burlington Hotel, Leeson st, Dublin 4

This Friday 'Libertarians against Nice' (LAN) will picket the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) pro-Nice conference 'Our Future in Europe - Nice and Beyond'* in the Burlington Hotel.

Andrew Flood speaking for LAN said
"IBEC have boasted that they will spend 500,000 Euro on a campaign urging a Yes vote to the Nice Treaty. This is of little surprize as the economic aspects of the Nice treaty form a recipe for European corporations to make yet larger profits at the expense of European workers. The Nice treaty is a formula for a bosses Europe.

The European Union is committed to a far-reaching programme of privatisation. Step one in privatisation is making people pay for public services so as to make them profitable and attractive to investors. We can see this here with the bin charges, the back door re-introduction of fees for Third Level education and increased outsourcing in all areas. Privatisation inevitably results in worse working conditions, greater inequality of services, lay-offs and wage cuts as bosses seek to cut corners to maintain profits in a competitive marketplace.

"The EU is also committed to negotiating far-reaching 'trade' agreements with international bodies like the WTO, made famous by the protests at its Seattle summit in 1999. Its brief history has shown that it serves to drive down environmental and labour standards across the world. For example, the state of California banned a petrol additive, MBTE, which had contaminated water supplies. A Canadian chemical firm sued California at the WTO. They argued that California should dig up and perfectly reseal all of its storage tanks to prevent the contamination, imposing a ban would be 'trade restrictive.'

"Nice & Article 133
The Nice treaty represents an important step in the EU's privatisation agenda. Nice will change Article 133 of the Treaty of Europe, so that the un-elected European Commission gains the power to impose "uniformity in measures of liberalisation". What this means is that they can order national governments to privatise services.

"Article 133 will also give the EU Council and Commission power to negotiate agreements with the WTO, rather then national governments. At the WTO summit in Seattle in 1999, the EU commission announced their support for a bio-technology working party, causing 15 EU trade ministers to issue a joint statement of disagreement. If Nice passes, their disagreements would be irrelevant.

We can see why IBEC want a Yes Vote, but these are the very same reasons why the workers of Ireland should Vote No. No to privatisation, No to a Bosses Europe.

-- ends ---

Note: Photo call at Burlington gates at 1.30

Libertarians Against Nice
http://more.at/stopnice
[email protected]
087 7501473
LAN, c/o PO Box 178, Cork

Further details of the IBEC conference at
http://www.ibec.ie/ibec/internet.nsf/LookupPageLink/IBEC_Opening