scottish fleet in fight for life
WORKERS, JAN 2005 ISSUE
A report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution is demanding that 30% of the North Sea's fishing areas must be closed to British fleets. If the report is adopted the effects will be devastating, especially in Scotland, where it would kill off the Scottish fishing industry and the 40,000 jobs dependent upon it. As one fisherman said, "We could become the first island in history to sacrifice its fishing industry."
While the government pays fishermen to tie up and then destroy their boats, Spain and France are commissioning ever-larger factory ships to fish the deep seas of the Atlantic, where cold-water coral reefs are being destroyed, threatening species of fish that may never recover. In contrast, off the north coast of Scotland, better management has brought back herring and mackerel, and haddock stocks are high.
The EU-run International Council for the Exploration of the Sea has continually antagonised British fishermen over the years with its numerous short-sighted and ruinous interventions. Their catastrophic decisions have very little to do with science. If stocks of cod had been properly conserved in 1998 they would be sustainable now. But the ICES allowed a massive increase in the plunder of the fishing grounds, only to introduce quotas in a hurry when it realised its mistake. Savage cutbacks have meant the scrapping of 69 of the most modern boats in Scotland, worth over £1 million each.
The fishermen and their communities know they cannot look to Brussels for aid: they themselves are the best-placed to save their industry through direct action on land and sea.
• When Greece joined the European Union, it signed up to stringent budget deficit commitments. Now it is facing punitive measures from the EU over its alleged failure to meet its obligations to adopt monetarist practices. This has prompted action to take over Greece's financial institutions. Of course, no action was taken against France or Germany in similar circumstances.
Not only is the EU interfering in the affairs of Greece, it is also blatantly intervening in the Ukrainian elections — and Ukraine is not an EU member. In a similar move, the EU has decided to instruct the Romanian authorities that it does not accept recent electoral results, despite them receiving approval from independent observers. Romania is planning to join the EU in 2007, and the European Commission obviously wants a government of its choice. After Greece, Ukraine and Romania, comes Bosnia. Blatant EU meddling is trying to determine the shape and direction of the government, to make sure that the EU (and NATO) maintain a military presence — occupation remains in place.
While the world's attention is focused on Iraq, the sabre-rattling and refurbishment of European imperialism continues apace.