As the dust settles on the
Prime Minister’s much-vaunted “renegotiation” of the terms on which he hopes
Britain will remain a member of the European Union, the media have quickly
moved on to the soap opera of which leading Tories will end up on which side.
Pundits
can hardly be blamed for not focusing on the detail of the supposed concessions
David Cameron has snatched from Brussels.
The
“emergency brake” on in-work benefits for migrants who are working and paying
tax in Britain is not only a demonstration of the Nasty Party’s nastiness, but
is also of a piece with the Tory war on all workers, whether born here or
abroad: the Institute for Fiscal Studies says 2.6 million families will be an
average £1,600 worse off each year as they are moved from tax credits to
universal credit.
As
for the celebrated treaty amendment, stating that the commitment to “ever
closer union” does not apply to Britain, this certainly does not mean Britain
“can never be forced into political integration.”
Provisions
in the Stability and Growth Pact preventing governments from borrowing to
invest in their country’s economic future, clauses in the Maastricht and Lisbon
treaties prohibiting state aid for industry and demanding the privatisation of
public monopolies — such rules have political repercussions.
Membership of the EU severely curtails the choices available to the electorates
of individual countries.
Socialism and even Keynesian social democracy cease to
be options available to voters, either because the levers of economic control
have been handed to unaccountable institutions such as the European Commission
and European Central Bank or because socialist measures themselves such as
renationalising industries or intervening directly in the economy are illegal.
The
brutal and pitiless immiseration of Greece at the hands of the EU-dominated
“troika” exposed the bloc’s free-market fanaticism and contempt for democracy.
So
too does its enthusiastic, if secretive, pursuit of the TTIP trade deal with
the United States, over the heads of national governments and in the face of
massive public opposition.
When
challenged by War on Want director John Hilary, EU trade commissioner Cecilia
Malmstroem did not even make a pretence of caring. “I do not take my mandate
from the European people,” she sneered.
But
many on the left continue to defend membership.
Some
argue that, rather than leave, we should campaign for a better EU — a more
democratic union which protects working people’s rights rather than corporate
profits.
This is the position of Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, and
apparently also of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The EU’s anti-democratic
structures and legal commitments to neoliberalism are embedded in a succession
of binding treaties which cannot be changed without the consent of every single
member state. This makes reforming the bloc virtually impossible.
Others
point to particular provisions of EU law which protect maternity rights or
holiday pay, and argue that the Conservatives would try to unpick these if we
left.
Of
course they would. But it is not just the Conservatives who have it in for
workers’ rights. The EU itself has demanded an end to collective bargaining
agreements, the imposition of “flexible” contracts and the deregulation of
entire industries.
Staying
in is no guarantee that our rights will be protected, especially once treaties
like TTIP further subordinate governments to transnational corporations.
The
labour movement must regain the confidence to fight for a better future, rather
than trusting in an anti-democratic institution to shield it from the
government’s blows.
Still
others claim that since the loudest voices calling for an exit are on the
political right, we have to vote to remain to avoid associating with them.
But
the big guns of the In campaign — the Prime Minister, Sir Stuart Rose, Goldman
Sachs, the US government — are not exactly friends of the labour movement.
The
British Establishment is more or less united in its determination to stay in
the EU. The status quo suits it down to the ground.
But
supporters of radical political change should vote to leave on June 23.
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