PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT AND WAR

Friday August 02, 2002 16:07

by IST supporter - International Socialist Tendency

Socialist arguments for a No vote to Nice

57 Million people in the EU are living below the poverty line 8 percent of EU citizens live in poverty 23% of those in poverty are children The Irish people have already voted NO to the Nice Treaty. This was despite all the propaganda of the government, big business, church, farm and trade union leaders. It was the only democratic vote allowed in the whole of the 15 country EU. Yet instead of listening to the voice of the people, the bureaucrats and politicians of Europe want us to vote again. And the Irish government are doing their bidding. It makes a mockery of democracy. Vote NO!

NO TO MILITARISATION

We have entered a frightening new era of war. George Bush wants to launch a new war against Iraq. After that is finished he wants to attack other countries that he says belong to an 'axis of evil.'

The political elite of the EU are worried that they will loose out on the creation of economic empires. This is why they want to both align themselves with Bush - but also create their own special EU army.

This is called the European Rapid Reaction Force. The aim is to place a 60,000 strong force into a battle zone for up to a year. It is supposed to be capable of operating 4,000 kilometres away from the continent — in Africa and the Middle East.

There have also been moves to speed up the creation of a European arms industry, despite disagreements between the large manufacturers.

In July 2000, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain launched a Framework Agreement where they committed themselves to 'harmonise military requirements' and develop 'common user requirements'.

The Nice Treaty will give the EU new structures to expand its military-industrial complex.

The treaty calls for:

'the progressive framing of a common defence policy, which might lead to common defence'.

'co-operation between (EU states) in the field of armaments.' EU firms are already major arms dealers - now they will sell even more weapons which will stoke up wars in less developed countries.

a legal basis for European Rapid Reaction Force by establishing a 'Political and Security Committee (which) shall monitor the international situation in areas covered by the common foreign and security policy'.

The new Political and Security Committee will have power to send troops to areas of key strategic importance. They will use language like 'peace making' to disguise their war aims.

But as the former Fine Gael leader John Bruton said in the Dail in October 1999, 'Peacemaking means imposing, by the use of force, peaceful conditions under terms laid down by the peacemaker. It is very difficult to distinguish that from war making...'

The Nice Treaty states that the Political and Security Committee should 'exercise, under the direction of the Council, political control and strategic direction of crisis management operations.'

The new EU defence policy will be closely linked to NATO. According to the NATO Secretary General, the 'indivisibility of the transatlantic (US-European) link.. will be carved in stone. By 2005 NATO and the EU will enjoy a close and confident relationship at all levels'.

One of the annexes to the Nice Treaty specifies that the NATO Secretary General should attend EU Ministerial meetings and there should be regular meetings between EU and NATO military committee and staffs.

The Nice Treaty does not allow the EU parliament to exercise control over military policy. Instead a small group of top politicians, generals and bureaucrats will have considerable freedom to undertake military action to support the EU's multi-nationals.

NEUTRALITY DECLARATION WORTHLESS

All of this means that Irish neutrality is finished. Irish neutrality was often inconsistent and used as a cover to hide how Irish foreign policy was aligned with the US.

Yet the Nice Treaty goes much further and dispenses with any obstacle to Irish soldiers joining a Euro army to protect the colonial ambitions of the multi-nations. The government says that neutrality is protected by a special declaration it is adding to the Treaty. But this declaration is not a legal document and is highly contradictory.

· It says there will be no EU army - but Ireland is already sending 850 troops or one tenth of its army to join the Rapid Reaction Force.

· It promises a referendum if there are further moves to a common defence force - but it promised a referendum on entering the ill named Partnership for Peace - a NATO front organisation - and then broke its promise.

The declaration is not worth the paper it is written on. Moreover the issue is not just Irish neutrality but whether the EU should become military machine. This is why we should Vote No.

NO TO A BOSSES EUROPE

The EU promotes the privatisation of public services. Aer Lingus and ESB are facing privatisation because of EU pressure. Typically, the EU gives local politicians an excuse to privatise by letting them claim their hand was forced.

The Nice Treaty continues and expands the privatisation agenda. The key driving force behind these neo-liberal policies are business organisations such as the European Services Forum and the European Round table of Industrialists. This is a lobby group which represents 47 European based multi-nationals which include Nestle, Unilever, BP Amoco, Renault, Marconi. ICI, Olivetti, BT and Fiat. They have ensured that the Nice Treaty creates even more opportunities to put profit before people.

Article 133 of the Nice Treaty calls for 'the achievement of uniformity in measures of liberalisation'.

In simple language this means even more pressure to privatise and break up what remains of a welfare state.

The Swedish government, for example, has been criticised by the EU for having 'far too generous and unconditioned unemployment benefit'.

The Nice Treaty also allows the unelected EU Commission to open negotiations with organisations such as the World Trade Organisation.

This organisation is currently pushing through a General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) which aims to further de-regulate all public services.

This is a global set of negotiations to open up virtually all services sectors to competition from multi-nationals.

If it goes through, the postal service, hospitals, education, waste and water supplies will be opened up to multi-national 'service providers'.

The Nice Treaty allows the European Commission to 'fast track' negotiations on GATS. It states quite explicitly that the Commission can open negotiations 'in the fields of services and commercial aspects of intellectual property rights'. These negotiations are completely secret and even the EU parliament does not control, how they are being conducted. But leaked documents show that the EU is demanding that other countries, including some of the poorest Third World countries open up their water, waste and education services for privaisation.

The chief EU negotiatior on GATS, Robert Madelin, has said that the education and sectors are 'ripe for liberalisation'. He conducts secret meetings with the European Services Forum and has said that 'we are going to rely on it just as heavily as on member states'. In other words, he will follow a pro-business agenda.

Voting for the Nice Treaty is therefore a vote for more de-regulation, privatisation and a free hand for the multi-nationals.

ENLARGEMENT - WITH LESS DEMOCRACY

Supporters of the Nice Treaty claim that it is necessary to prepare for a larger and more peaceful Europe.

But it is not true. EU Commission President, Romano Prodi has said that 'legally ratification is not necessary for enlargement. It's without any problem up to 20 members, and those beyond 20 have only to put in an accession agreement some notes of change, some clause'

Under the Amsterdam Treaty, the EU could expand from 15 to 20 member states. Yet despite all the rhetoric about a larger Europe, no date has yet been set for admitting any Applicant State. As the Czech Prime Minister put it, 'EU enlargement is always five years in the future'.

The real aim is to use the issue of enlargement to centralise power in the EU around a small number of large states.

Under the Nice Treaty, the big four states — Germany, France, Italy and the UK — treble their votes to 30 each, while Spain gets 28.

After that Holland gets 12, Greece, Belgium and Portugal 11, Sweden and Austria 9, Denmark, Finland and Ireland 7 and Luxemburg 4. Votes for the applicant countries have also been allocated ranging from 28 for Poland to 4 for Slovenia. The result is that the big six will be able to outvote the other 21 EU states. This, however, is only part of the picture.

The changes in voting allocation go alongside a change to 'qualified majority' voting. Under these changes a vote on the Council of Ministers would have to represent 62% of the EU population before it is valid.

This means that the big countries get considerable clout even beyond their voting allocations. Any three of them, for example, can block a proposal from the rest of the 27.

The weight of the big countries is also increased by a change in the way the EU Commission is established. After 2007, the size of the Commission will be capped at 20 and not all countries will have a commissioner.

Smaller countries like Ireland certainly will not but the Irish government accepted this once it was assured that its policy of cutting taxes on multinationals to a mere 12.5% was safe.

Even the Portuguese Prime Minister described the shift to greater centralisation as 'an institutional coup d'etat'.

EU multi-nationals want to use Eastern Europe as a source for cheap labour. Foreign direct investment in region has already risen to 9 billion annually.

There is no strategy to promote a balanced integration of the different economies. No special fund has been established to help the countries in Eastern Europe make the transition. There is no attempt to cut the working week to reduce unemployment.

Instead they will have to take on board 25,000 EU laws amounting to 80,000 pages of legal text, without changing one iota.

While the EU rulers talk about a common European homeland, they are implementing a 'fortress Europe' policy to keep out migrants from Eastern Europe.

The German government is already seeking delays to the free movement of labour rules within the EU to keep out Polish workers in future.

The Euro elite do not care about the people of Eastern Europe - they only want new opportunities for profit.

YOUR UNION DUES SHOULD NOT PROMOTE A YES VOTE

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and many of the union leaders are using your dues to promote a Yes vote. They have not consulted their members and have become so close to the employers that they ignore how the Nice Treaty promotes more privatisation.

The ICTU says it supports the Nice Treaty because it contains a Charter of Fundamental Rights.

But these rights are couched in a vague language that is virtually meaningless. What is much more significant is the omissions. The charter does not include key rights such as- the right to work; the right to decent housing; the right to a properly funded state pension; the right to a minimum income that keep pace with inflation; protection against sacking for union activity; the right to strike.

NO TO FORTRESS EUROPE

There are some who campaign against Nice on a right wing basis. Anti-abortion groups are against a 'godless' Europe. Another anti-Nice campaigners has critised the Treaty because it will let too many migrants in here.

Socialists have no truck with these arguments. It is part of the hypocrisy of the EU elite that they want to use Eastern Europe as a source of cheap labour - while Ministers like Michael McDowell deport 'illegal' migrants who come from these areas.

That hypocrisy should not be repeated on the NO side. The Irish people emigrated all over the world in search of work and freedom. Other people have exactly the same rights.

Migrants are forced to take low wages by bosses who use the work permit system or the fact that they are illegal to super-exploit them.

The answer is not to build a fortress Europe but to welcome these migrants by giving them full rights to work.

Instead of exploiting Eastern Europe and keeping its people out, we need to create militant workers organisations all over Europe to take on the boss class.

WHAT DOES A NO VOTE MEAN?

Ireland is the only country that has a referendum on Europe. We will be voting not just for ourselves but for all the citizens of the continent.

A No vote does not mean the end of the EU. It does not mean economic ruin. It simply means that people will have spoken out against a hidden agenda that is pushing for militarisation and privatisation.

It is a vote for more democracy — for an inclusive, open Europe that puts people before profit.

Right across Europe workers are facing right wing governments who want tax cuts for the rich and more 'flexible labour markets'. This is code word for increased pressure and stress on workers.

Today capitalism is leading to war, racism and more poverty. Only socialist policies can tackle the crisis it is creating. The banks and big business should be taken into public ownership. Instead of 'management by stress' we need workers control of production. Against the chaos that is being wracked on the environment we need democratic planning and control of our economy.