European Union

No to little Englandism

As the banker James Pierpoint Morgan said, everybody has two reasons for things they do: the good reason, and the real reason. A new pamphlet, The Big EU Con Trick, from a “Trade Unionists Against the EU Constitution” (TUAEUC) gives several good reasons “why trade unionists should demand a referendum on the EU’s Renamed Constitution”. The new “Reform Treaty” contains many of the proposals that were in the draft EU constitution a few years ago. That constitution was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands (in 2005). Tony Blair had promised a referendum on it (which didn’t happen...

Opt-out from rights

"Extremely disappointing". I guess that from TUC general secretary Brendan Barber that counts as militant talk. Anyway, it is the sum total of the unions' reaction to Tony Blair getting the European Union to agree to an opt-out for Britain from the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Charter was agreed in Nice in 2000, but will become legally binding only with the Reform Treaty agreed by EU leaders on 23 June. It is an attempt by EU member states with relatively wide citizens' rights, like Germany and France, to stipulate minimum rights in other EU states so that those states cannot...

Against the Europhobes, against the Euro-capitalists: For a workers’ united Europe

There are two basic lines of possible working class policy in relation to the European Union. The first advocates building on what the bourgeoisie has created and uniting the working class across the EU to fight the bourgeoisie for democratic and social reform and, in the course of doing that, building towards socialist transformation by working-class revolution on a European scale. Such an approach does not imply backing what the dominant capitalists and their servants do, or the way that they do it. It does commit us to counterpose working class measures on a European scale to the bourgeois...

Human rights, Polish style

The accession of Eastern European countries to the EU is supposed to have helped bring up respect for human rights there to “modern” standards. Maybe not. The “Law and Justice Party” government’s attempts to suppress opposition and minorities began with the banning of the gay pride demonstration in Warsaw in June last year and led to the violent suppression of a civil society demonstration in Poznan in November 2005 — both, of course, in clear violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Now, after a week long police siege, Warsaw authorities have closed down Le Madame, a pub and...

Summary notes on the debate on Europe

Summary notes on Europe for the international meeting of June 2005/ notes sommaires sur l'Europe, pour la réunion internationale du 18 juin 2005. (In English and French). By Martin Thomas [Points 1 to 5 of section A, excluding the annexes, summarise the basics of our argument] A. 1. The construction of the European Union is an effort by the European bourgeoisies to integrate capitalism on the European scale, to create a larger and more adequate space for the development of the productive forces, which for many decades have collided with the limits of the national frontiers established in the...

The European left and the EU

A survey of the attitudes to the EU and the draft European constitution of the two main link-ups of the European left, the Party of the European Left (Communist and ex-Communist parties) and the European Anti-Capitalist Left (which includes some revolutionary groups). Excerpted from an article by Martin Thomas in Solidarity 3/55, 15 July 2004. The EACL is more militant about denouncing the EU as it is. But its vagueness gives the denunciations a paranoid-nationalist edge. "Governments are more fragile, but the EU... is a machine to destroy the social and democratic gains that the working...

Draft motion on 48 hour week

Draft motion on the 48 hour week and the British "opt-out", prepared for Cambridge Trades Council, June 2005. 1) Cambridge and District Trades Union Council notes: a) Workers in the UK work the longest hours in Europe. Nearly 4 million workers in the UK regularly work over 48 hours a week. 16% of workers work over 60 hours a week, compared to 12% in 2000. b) The proportion of the UK workforce working over 48 hours a week is four times higher than the EU average, and sixteen times higher than the proportion of the Dutch workforce working over 48 hours a week. c) Workers who regularly work more...

Industrial news in brief

The European Parliament has voted to scrap an opt-out from the rules limiting the working week in the EU to an average of 48 hours, but the ruling won’t come into force for another three years and it could still be blocked if the UK Government wins support in the Council of Ministers. UK unions are rightly pleased about the Euro-Parliament vote. Under the current system — used more in the UK than elsewhere — individuals can opt out if they “want” to work longer hours. The EU “Working Time Directive” guarantees workers 11 hours’ rest per day and regular breaks; a weekly working time of 48 hours...

France's Turkey veto

In the end, despite lobbying by the Polish government and others, the EU constitution signed by 25 member states on 29 October did not contain references to Europe’s “Judaeo-Christian roots” in its preamble. But the question whether the EU should in some senses be a club only for Christians rumbles on, including, strongly, in France. To come into effect, the constitution has to be ratified by the 25 states. Nine are committed to holding referenda on the constitution, allowing their populations as a whole to decide whether they accept the constitution. That will not be easy to achieve. In...

European Social Forum: You have to be there!

By Joan Trevor Last-minute preparations are being made for the 3rd European Social Forum, less than a month away. While it’s far from being the ESF we — or many others — would have wanted, it will still be an immensely significant and enjoyable event. Taking place mainly around Alexandra Palace in north London, and in the Bloomsbury area of central London, the ESF and fringe events are likely to draw 20,000 people — anti-capitalists, ecologists, socialists, NGOs, trade unionists, pacifists, of all shades of opinion. Readers of Solidarity should be there! The seminar programme, shrunken...

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