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 01 Dec 2013, 20:35
Interesting article on how Italians, Spaniards, and other Europeans are turning their backs on the European Project.
http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... pe/281928/ Any thoughts on the situation in Europe and the future of the EU? 02 Dec 2013, 01:04
In recent months there's been a lot of talk here in the UK, on whether or not we should leave the EU. I believe the Conservatives want to hold a referendum on the matter.
Now what is this…
02 Dec 2013, 01:17
Szabo wrote: Talk from many quarters over a considerable time: Features MORNING STAR Don't be fooled by the EU Trojan horse Tuesday 12 September 2006 DOUG NICHOLLS TUC Congress 2006. AT last year's TUC Congress, a motion was carried overwhelmingly which committed the TUC to campaigning against the then proposed EU constitution and against the various increasingly neoliberal directives coming from the commission. Such commitments cannot be overturned by the general council statement this year. The motion represented a step forward in thinking among trade unions and, especially, the TUC. Since 1988, when Jacques Delors seduced delegates with promises of milk and honey in a land of plenty, the TUC has been used by the European and British Establishment as a Trojan horse for pro-federalist ideas. While the overwhelming majority of trade unionists, like the British population generally, were against membership of the euro and against further integration, the TUC leadership continually pretended that such things were in our interests. Reality and the struggles of European trade unionists were ignored and the EU was painted as an idyllic illusion of utopia. Of course, illusions have a habit of fraying at the edges and thinning. For workers on the ground, a number of harsh problems began to occur. EU procurement policies requiring all substantial tenders to be opened across the EU meant that more and more British manufacturing firms were going bust. Manufacturing jobs have been lost at a higher rate under the Blair government since 1997 than they were under Thatcher. 'The struggles of trade unionists were ignored and the EU was painted as an idyllic utopia.' EU competitive market policies meant that British government appeals to invest in Peugeot's Coventry factory, for example, were delayed while the EU poured millions into Croatia to enable Peugoet to open up there with a third of the labour costs. Result, a further hole in Britain's manufacturing skill base. The EU drive to privatisation meant that increasing swathes of British public services were up for grabs. In fact, 16 unions got together in June for a national rally against the tidal wave of privatisation in everything from probation services to schools. This represented unprecedented unity among the unions concerned and challenged practically every European directive on services and industries. The well co-ordinated attack by the EU on final-salary pension schemes and the raising of pension ages, workers contributions and lowering of employers benefits reached a fever pitch in Britain earlier in the year, with the largest-ever strike action in defence of pensions since the 1926 General Strike. Yet few made the link with the European directive on occupational pensions which started it all. Trade Unionists Against the EU Constitution produced a widely distributed pamphlet on the sources in the EU of the Europe-wide pensions attack. 'Trade unionists are beginning to realise we should leave the EU federalist project altogether.' The EU open market in capital and labour led immediately to the dispute at Irish Ferries in which eastern European labour replaced Irish seafarers and to the Gate Gourmet dispute in which, again, eastern European Labour replaced British airport workers. A similar situation is faced by building workers in Sweden, who are challenging the undercutting of their rates in the Vaxholme case that is currently being considered by the European Court of Justice. Nevertheless, the EU has already shown on a mass scale that it considers it legal for migrant labour to create skills gaps in the country of origin and lower wages and worse conditions in the countries of destination. There has also been a huge influx of other migrant labour which is sharply undercutting wages in many areas and putting new strains on public services, to a point where local government is having to consider high local taxes. The government has lost count of legal and illegal immigrants. Recent research has indicated the full scale of the problem and capitalist spokespersons have revelled at the resulting suppression of wage levels. In this severe overall context, two things are happening. First, more and more trade unionists are coming to realise that we should leave the EU altogether and abandon the EU federalist project in favour of peacefully co-existing and co-operating independent nations. What various Latin American countries have done in this regard to escape the power of the dollar is considered by many to be a serious option here. Second, and, predictably, just as the EU attack on workers intensifies across the continent and very sharply in Britain, the good old TUC, this time aided by rank confusion by the so-called left, is renewing its drive to pretend that the fangs of European capitalism can be blunted by attention to the social agenda. Just as the illusion of a social Europe collapses, so the TUC seeks to resurrect it and fly in the face of reality. A ludicrous statement on the EU will be put to this year's TUC and delegates will sit in stunned silence as the general council, yet again, pretends that the emperor is wearing clothes. It is a statement of which Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher would have been proud. Doug Nicholls is secretary of Trade Unionists Against the European Constitution and general secretary of GFTU ************************************* The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
Soviet cogitations: 12389
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 18 Apr 2010, 04:44 Ideology: None Philosophized 03 Dec 2013, 06:19
Discussion over a possible independent Scotland, followed by an independent Northern Ireland, Wales, and even Cornwall may heat up if the U.K. did leave the EU. One can easily picture a scenario involving "back door" negotiations between Eu reps and the various nationalist groups to orchestrate a quid pro quo where (for example) Scotland breaks off, followed by UN recognition and immediate application for EU membership.
Miss Strangelove: "You feed giants laxatives so goblins can mine their poop before the gnomes get to it."
Soviet cogitations: 1533
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 10 Oct 2007, 15:55 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Member 06 Dec 2013, 03:05
Szabo wrote: Is it the Conservative's interest to leave the EU or is it to curb losing interest to Nigel Farage and UKIP? Comrade Gulper wrote: How many nationalist groups that have substantial power and recognition can there be? I mean outside of the UK, I can only think of Catalonia. We have beaten you to the moon, but you have beaten us in sausage making.- Nikita Khrushchev
05 Jan 2014, 21:45
Quote: Frankly, I imagine Tories/Labour/Kib Dems are all rattled by the workers obduracy. We oppose mass immigration. The EU is seen as the author along with the usual suspects in Westminster. Many in trade union movement have campaigned long and hard for referendum. As have others in Labour and Tory party, alike. Labour treachery enacting privatization and overseeing floods of immigrants to our shores have not been forgotten. Hence Milliband and Cameron offering up sops while doing next to nothing. Not in housing extra health provision or education resources. A million youth unemployed, why the 'need' to import labour. One reason and one reason only to cheapen the price. A race to the bottom. A successful meeting in London well attended, told it like it was: http://www.workers.org.uk/features/feat ... ement.html So Canute like, Milliband is trying to turn back the tide along with Cameron. Milliband has to respond and he has: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25607578 Digest this:  The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
06 Jan 2014, 15:02
Piccolo wrote: A graph confirming what we know already:  The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
06 Jan 2014, 15:30
Inside the EU or out of it...its not really a matter for the working class of Europe. Either way they face exploitation by the capitalist class.
Either position is 2nd best to World socialism. 
Soviet cogitations: 6211
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 04 Aug 2004, 20:49 Ideology: Democratic Socialism Embalmed 06 Jan 2014, 20:00
Easy enough to say, Yami, but how should we get there?
 "Phil Spector is haunting Europe" -Dr. Karl H. Marx 06 Jan 2014, 20:09
Erichs_Pastry_Chef wrote: By getting off our arses and trying to convince the working classes it's their best bet. How else can we do it?
Soviet cogitations: 6211
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 04 Aug 2004, 20:49 Ideology: Democratic Socialism Embalmed 06 Jan 2014, 20:21
You're not likely to get anywhere without a platform and a coherent vision. I have grown to deeply distrust anybody who simply says "socialism or barbarism" and expects that to be enough of a reason to push on to socialism, you appear to be doing nothing more than that.
"Phil Spector is haunting Europe" -Dr. Karl H. Marx 06 Jan 2014, 20:24
Erichs_Pastry_Chef wrote: Not at all. I do have a clear vision but accept that socialism can only come about once the majority understand it and want it. Though I accept that is a long, hard struggle. But I'd rather wait than end up with the Stasi, the politburo and the Trabant!
Soviet cogitations: 6211
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 04 Aug 2004, 20:49 Ideology: Democratic Socialism Embalmed 06 Jan 2014, 21:05
Strangely, had the Nazis, Americans and Adenauer listened to Stalin, Germany would not have been split. Thanks Obama.
"Phil Spector is haunting Europe" -Dr. Karl H. Marx 15 Sep 2015, 04:09
EU migration shambles and the drive to war
http://www.cpbml.org.uk/news/eu-migrati ... -drive-war 9 SEPTEMBER 2015 Quote: The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
15 Sep 2015, 04:19
EU referendum: first moves
http://www.cpbml.org.uk/news/eu-referendum-first-moves 13 SEPTEMBER 2015 A referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU will happen with the next couple of years. It was promised in the Conservative election manifesto and Prime Minster Cameron has said it will take place by the end of 2017. The Labour Party initially said it would oppose a referendum unless there were plans for the EU to return powers to Britain. Now it has dropped that stance. The TUC view remains, as it has been for some time, that membership of the EU is a way to ensure workers’ rights are protected. It also agrees with the argument that leaving the EU would be bad for Britain’s economy. The main point the TUC made about the prospect of a referendum was that the franchise should be extended – to include EU citizens living here and Britons living abroad! Our class is going to need a clearer view of the issues and our choices than that. Shifting views Last year Cameron told the Conservative Party conference that he had just one thing to say to the EU: “the biggest issue today is migration from within the EU”. Cameron admitted he would need to achieve “full-on treaty change” to curb EU immigration. But EU President Juncker has said that free movement is a sacred and unbreakable EU principle, so treaty change is out of the question. Quote: Now Cameron has changed his tune and the issue of migration is no longer “at the very heart” of his renegotiation strategy as he declared last year. Instead he is promising us that he will reduce the EU’s powers and stop all further integration. But these steps too would need treaty changes and we know that the EU has never given back a single power to its member states. It has no reverse gear. The British government has admitted that there will be no EU treaty changes before the referendum, so Cameron cannot achieve significant reform of the EU before then. Yet he has been talking up the chances of reform, inflating people’s hopes and his party’s hopes. But as the EU will not reform as Cameron says he wants it to, why should he then urge that Britain stays in? Government backs down On 8 September, the government backed down on three key issues relating to the EU referendum. First, the timing: clauses were added ruling out holding the referendum in May 2016 or May 2017 at the same time as other local or assembly elections. This means that the issue of our EU membership will get the full and focused debate that it deserves. Second, the question: the government has changed the question from a formula that contradicted all recent referendum precedent that the change option should be the “yes” side of the question. But the Electoral Commission agreed with the view that was too weighted to the current status. It proposed a more neutral “remain or leave” choice that Cameron will probably have to accept. Third, the so-called “purdah”: the government was defeated in parliament by a big Conservative revolt, restoring rules to ensure that public authorities cannot use their resources or public money to sway the result in the last four weeks before the vote. A Labour amendment, further toughening these rules to the same extent as apply for general elections, was also approved. The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
21 Sep 2015, 16:47
 When Britain leaves the EU CPBML PUBLIC MEETINGS Tuesday 22 September 2015 19:30 Add to Calendar London CPBML Public Meeting, Tuesday 22 September, 7.30pm Brockway Room, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Over the past 50 years and more, Britain’s ruling class has battled to enmesh Britain in the European Union. With the euro in meltdown, come and discuss why Britain can only thrive outside the EU, and what Britain needs to do to retain its integrity, sovereignty and unity as an island of labour. All welcome. The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
27 Sep 2015, 04:31
http://www.cpbml.org.uk/news/holy-freedoms-capitalism
The holy freedoms of capitalism WORKERS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 The 2014 TUC Congress motion against the EU’s proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade treaty, said, “Congress notes that free trade agreements rarely, if ever, benefit working people and are pushed by corporations who use them as a means to maximise profits and further their own interests.” Precisely. That is why the ruling class and the EU push free trade. Perhaps we should stop calling it “free” and call it by its true name, “out of control” trade. The EU is built on the “free movements” of capital, labour, goods and services, that is, on uncontrolled movements of all four. Capital needs these “freedoms” in order to maximise its profits, and for no other reason. Alexander Stubb, Finland’s prime minister, recently called the EU’s “free” movement principles “holy”. So where do the organisations of our working class stand on these holy principles? They are starting to understand that the uncontrolled movement of goods and services, “free trade”, is not good for workers. It’s taken longer than it should have, but the realisation is dawning that the working class has to oppose free trade. Free trade policies stop us rebuilding Britain, and endanger the NHS and our education system. In what could turn out to be a huge step forward, Unite has acknowledged that it was wrong to support the EU-US trade agreement . Other unions should follow, and force the TUC to stop its shameful support for the principle of TTIP. The free movement of capital allows companies to disinvest at the drop of an interest rate. It also enables capital to hide in tax havens like Luxembourg, the EU’s in-house tax haven, run for 15 years by the new European President, Jean-Claude Juncker. The Labour Party (along with the others) lauds “inward investment”, defined as capital flowing into Britain. Never mind that this capital is used to speculate in housing, or to buy up football clubs, or to buy industries and asset-strip them. We don’t want inward investment, we want the money made in Britain from our work to stay in Britain and fund proper investment. The greatest backwardness appears when it comes to the free movement of labour. Holy or not, it has become a sacred cow for most unions. Never mind that this “freedom” encourages the modern slavery of workers moving at the orders of people traffickers, gang masters and cheapskate employers. Or that it means the theft of scarce skilled workers from across the world. (See November’s Workers, “Ebola: capitalist health exposed”.) In December, the GMB organised a day of celebration of immigration, oblivious to the fact that the only winners from uncontrolled migration are the employers, who lower wages, boost profits, make employment ever more insecure. The losers are the countries whose educated workforces are plundered by countries like Britain that no longer need to worry about training their own population – just steal skills from abroad. And of course those in Britain who will not live 12 to a house in order to survive on poverty wages – or who find that all the jobs are advertised in Poland anyway and never come up at Job Centres (yes, it happens, frequently). As the capitalist press gloats, the EU is an insurance policy against any government deviating from “austerity” (poverty) policies. So to rebuild our industries, protect our services, draw up our own trade policies and decide our migration policy, we have to leave the EU. The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
27 Sep 2015, 06:42
Hiya dodger.
 29 Sep 2015, 06:02
hello Dagoth Ur--fellow pariah-- hope life is treating you well
The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
29 Sep 2015, 16:39
http://www.cpbml.org.uk/news/refugees-how-create-crisis
Refugees: how to create a crisis 29 SEPTEMBER 2015  20 September, Bregana, Slovenia: Police watching refugees and migrants on the blocked border between Croatia and Slovenia. Photo Photoman20/shutterstock.com NATO governments, led by the Obama and Cameron administrations, are scheming to win the support of the peoples of Europe for intervening in Syria, an illegal war of aggression. They are using the refugees to create social and political chaos in Europe in an effort to whip up popular pressure for NATO to deal with the “source” of the problem. Early in the war, NATO member Turkey set up huge refugee camps which at one point housed two million refugees from Syria, with $6 billion of US aid. The Turkish government was not holding the refugees out of altruism, but to use them for various purposes. The refugees could be sent into Syria as human shields for NATO-enforced “safe zones” there, which would be bases for attacking Syrian forces. Or they could be sent into Europe to put pressure on Europe’s peoples, causing a “refugee crisis”, which could then be blamed on President Assad, in order to create a pretext for NATO intervention in Syria. Encouraged The Turkish government forcibly kept the refugees in these camps until suddenly this April it not only allowed but encouraged them to leave. It has assisted the huge people-smuggling operation being run from several coastal Turkish cities. Also, the Turkish government allowed ISIS terrorists to recruit in the camps and it allowed them free movement across the border from Turkey into Syria. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says that some 219,000 people made the journey into Europe in 2014, up from around 60,000 in 2013, while around 478,000 people have arrived this year already. Almost 400,000 people claimed asylum in the EU in the first six months of 2015. ‘BETWEEN JANUARY AND JUNE, SYRIANS ONLY ACCOUNTED FOR 18.4 PER CENT OF ASYLUM CLAIMS IN THE EU.’ Between January and June, according to European Commission figures, Syrians only accounted for 18.4 per cent of asylum claims in the EU. Other nationalities were Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Eritreans, Ukrainians and Somalis. The six countries of the Western Balkans accounted for 26.6 per cent of the total asylum claimants. Those seeking asylum in the EU are largely young and male. 55.8 per cent are aged between 18 and 34; 72.4 per cent are male and 27.6 per cent are female. It’s no accident that destabilising flows of refugees are being channelled through the Russia-friendly countries of Greece, Macedonia and Serbia rather than through US allies Albania and Bulgaria. This shift to the Eastern Mediterranean and West Balkan route has been triggered mainly by refugees leaving their temporary accommodation in neighbouring countries to try to get into Europe. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees found that 60 per cent of the refugees arriving in Greece had previously been in Turkey, so their lives were not in danger. Unilateral Just as in the early 1990s the German government took a unilateral decision to recognise Croatia, which led directly to the war that destroyed Yugoslavia, now the German government has taken a unilateral decision to admit 800,000 refugees, breaking both EU law and international law. Merkel has opened the gates for mass migration into the Schengen area. She says she needs a million new migrants, but Germany has 1.97 million unemployed already. Clearly, she wants to use mass immigration to maintain downward pressure on German workers’ wages (stagnant since 1995). The OECD forecasts that more than a million people will arrive this year. Germany will be accepting one million, or so it says. The German government says it will spend an extra £4.4 billion to cope with this year’s record influx of refugees. But under the Schengen rules, it is impossible for a country to keep people in the country to which they have been assigned. The world is riven by class — not race, gender, age or disability. There is only one human race, and any ideas that promote divisions between us do the work of capitalism.
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Forum Index » Discussion » Current Events » Europeans turning their backs on EU project [ Go to page ][ 1, 2 ][ Next ]