The rejection of the Constitution by France and the Dutch makes it even more urgent for us to get out of the EU... And why Britain must leave
WORKERS, JULY 2005 ISSUE
There is no such political entity as Europe and the sooner the right, left, ultra left and centre realise this the better. Workers have always known this which is why they liberated Europe from those seeking to impose their vision of it 60 years ago. Calls for a better Europe without the Constitution are chauvinist. There are only independent nations. The EU juggernaut has stalled, but not stopped; the enemy, in chaos, is regrouping. If sovereignty were truly respected, the process would have stopped by now. But the EU was established not to listen to the people but to dictate to them.
What is sovereignty? A country has sovereignty when the decisions that matter to the people of the nation are taken in the country not abroad. No foreign power holds sway. The people of the country have the right and the duty to determine what happens in Britain. We allow our rulers to govern Britain and we can withdraw that permission whenever we want. The sovereignty, the ultimate veto, rests with us. To sustain sovereignty a country needs economic independence. A country that does not control its economy is not free.
The European Constitution is designed to stop all EU member states from being independent sovereign nations running their own affairs. It would reduce each nation to a province of the new state.
A nation is a people living and working together in a historically constituted community which, in a particular geographical area over a considerable period of time, has developed as a single economic unit with its own arts, language, skills and culture for the enrichment of life. So Britain, France, Germany and Italy are nations, Europe isn't.
A dangerous momentum was started in Europe and consolidated in the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice Treaties, which in the absence of the Constitution remain in place. These enshrine Thatcherite economics, demand privatisation of services, destroy the capacity for the economic and agricultural independence of nations, remove power from nationally elected governments and create a drive to centralised foreign policy and military power in the EU to fight the resource wars of the 21st century. It's not just the Common Market concept that is dead, but the concept of a social Europe, though it was a convenient illusion for years.
The defeat of the Constitution leaves these lumbering giant dangers on the loose. No sooner were the referendum results in than the government declared its intention to progress with the Services Directive designed to deregulate and privatise public services throughout Europe, a directive hated even by the EU's fifth pillar, the European TUC.
Pensions attack
It wasn't the Constitution, but the EU Central Bank that ordered reductions in public pensions and measures to raise the effective retirement age, greater private involvement in healthcare financing, the extension of working hours, containment of labour costs and abolition of 'overly rigid' labour market regulations. It wasn't the Constitution but Maastricht's curbs on public spending that led to the withdrawal of long term government gilts which underpinned so many final salary pension schemes that were distinctive of the British industrial relations landscape.
In any event, key elements that appeared only in the Constitution are already being put into place. An office for a European President is already being set up. Member governments have already been told to prepare for a European diplomatic service. Heads of government have already agreed a special legal basis for the Constitution's proposed Defence and Armaments Agency. Battle groups for the European army are already being assembled.
The fact the Constitution was ever in a position to be put as a serious option to the people of Europe was a sign of appalling weakness on our part and of course theirs. More worryingly it was indicative of the tyrannical and centralised power that now exists through the EU structures over the whole of the continent. Where is the European Parliament in all of this ? Even if it were allowed more powers to move against the Commission, it would remain a parody of democracy — there is no such thing as a European people to elect it, so how can there be a European parliament? It is nowhere and never will be. Worse still, it is the Council of Ministers that we allow to determine the fate of the Constitution after the French and Dutch votes, thus further endorsing their unaccountable powers as tenuous as those that brought us the draft constitution in the first place. The Commissioners and ECB governors have no intention of standing aside in the face of market regulation.
The EU and its supporters are in disarray. Now is the time to remove them from power for all they have done against our people. It is time that all the countries of the EU left and formed new, peaceful and cooperative alliances. Even the state-funded Britain in Europe campaign is contemplating winding up. It never wound anyone up in the first place. Much like the institution it sought to promote.
We need a British model for Britain: independent trade unions, completely free, non-religious health and education services, habeas corpus, trial by jury, the industries and utilities in complete public ownership, no foreign ownership of our land, productive industries, agriculture and services, no free flight and import of capital and labour, but strict controls, everything in and out on our terms. A vibrant economy built on science and manufacturing investment, strict limits on land and capital ownership, cheap housing and an independent foreign policy.
In short we need the powers of self government, precisely the powers that membership of the EU and NATO and the special relationship with the United States deny.