The No2EU campaign, which the Communist Party is a member of and which the YCL supports, is gearing up for the EU elections this coming May.
It has published a a useful short pamphlet summarising its arguments with an introduction by RMT general secretary Bob Crow
He writes that 25 years after then European Commission president Jacques Delors addressed TUC Congress in Bournemouth promising full employment, better workers’ rights and protection from Tory free market policies in return for full support for the ‘European project’, it is clear that delegates were sold a pup.
Unemployment in the Eurozone remains at a record 12 per cent.
In countries forced to make huge spending cuts in return for ‘bail-outs’ by the ‘Troika’ of the IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank youth unemployment tops 60 per cent.
In Britain and across the EU, health care, education and every other public service face the same EU demands for privatisation and opening to market forces which, of course, the Con Dem coalition is only too happy to oblige.
The proposed EU/US trade deal currently under negotiation also contains mechanisms to remove the ability of member states to decide what sectors, such as the NHS, should stay in the public sector and hands power to unaccountable tax avoiding corporations.
Collective bargaining rights are also being hollowed out by EU diktat and European court rulings which encourage social dumping and severely weakens trade union powers to defend workers.
Over 30,000 Belgian protesters marched through Brussels in June to oppose EU demands to abolish the country’s wage-setting mechanisms agreed with trades unions.
The Belgian government has already implemented harsh EU austerity measures but economic affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn announced that Belgium must conform by next year or face a 780 million Euro fine.
The EU catch-all phrase ‘free movement’ also hands bosses the ability to dictate the terms of employment through exploiting a reserve army of labour in the relentless pursuit of profit.
Please distribute the pamphlet widely, arms yourselves with the arguments and get the arguments for a progressive left exit from the EU into our workplaces & communities. no2EU pamphlet
Comrades in the North-West should attend as a priority the No2EU – Yes to Workers Rights (North West England) 2014 election launch – this Tuesday, 11th February 2014 at The Waldorf Pub, Piccadily, Manchester
