Richard Balfe Mitterrand (France) and Papandreou (Greece) lead Socialist parties already in. Will they support their colleagues Gonzalez (Spain) and Soares (Portugal) in their applications for EEC membership! BETWEEN NOW and the Euro-elections on 14 June, Socialist Action will debate inside the labour movement on what attitude socialists should take towards the Common Market.
the European Parliament for London South Inner, kicks off with his argument that socialists should use the EEC and its institutions as yet another means socialism internationally and combatting the Tories in Britain.
THE ÇOMMON MARKET is exactly what the name implies. It rests fairly on the capitalist novelicit of labour. The Treaty of Rome says little ana cares less or une aspiratons working people: But this should not cause us to turn our backs on either insocials l fight for the best deal we can get whilst we remain in the European Economic Community Set up in 1956 tailored to suit the needs of its original six members. for Germany; an agriculture policy for France and Italy; and the protection afforded by Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. easily into the Common Market. Dentheir difficulties.
that market membership is a mistake.
countries nave than Britain. done worst.
large sum of money worsened.
major responsibility industrialisation of dustry.
cial terms. Phrases like recur without where our money goes shopper to the farmer.
Even Britain's LIve.
ing Standard and £552 million in 1985 who live there.
queston une legitimacy or vowing.
the numbers maintain that body.
open our pages to the Member of of fighting for principles of the free goods. capital For the need to the was A free industrial market large trading bloc for highest.
elections Of the four countries who joined after the EEC was set up, only Ireland with its strong rural structure has fitted mark, Britain and Greece have all had All retain a strong body of Socialist opinion which feels Greece and Denmark being small been easier to satisfy Britain has undoubtedly Virtually every year that we have been in the EEC we have paid a In addition, our trade balance has This is not to say that ine for the deBritain does rest with Mrs. Thatcher, but that EEC membership has also harmed our ininfluence.
However, the debate about the EEC often resolves itself in the crude finananyone questioning The truth is that the money which The comes back to Britain from the EEC has a marked tendency to go to farming and agricultural big business. In other words, the EEC redistributes from the rebate - all £457 million - should be kept in perspecCompare it with the additional costs of the Falkland Islands. The EvenDecember, 1983) estimated that £624 million was spent in 1983; £682 million will be spent in 1984;
roughly fl million per head for the 1800 people The European elections on 14 June will be our first opportunity as a country to vote against Mrs Thatcher. Many people find the EEC boring. They even are the Cookiel same order as the GLC elections, and we are putting up a tremendous fight to General Elections will always poll But no one challenges validity of county councils or borough elections. Even Mrs. Thatcher has not yet challenged Ken Livingstone's position as Leader of the GLC We must be sure we fight the Euroon the issues which effect working people. Almost every item in the supermarket is regulated or controlled by the Common Market in some way. Yet our food policy is in the hands of Tory farmers.
The Conservatives in the European Parliament are led by Sir Henry Plumb, who used to run the National Farmers The Conservatives hold the chair of the powerful agricultural committee but they have been singularly ineffective in defending the interests of British consumers.
Unemplovment has also grown in the last five years. Thirteen million people are now unemployed throughout the EEC. One million of these have been unemployed for over two years. Whilst some countries, notably France and Greece, have made efforts to tackle unemployment, it is obvious that the western economies are bound together and that the United States is the biggest fact that Thatcher and Kohl have chosen to side with President Reagan against the workers of Europe, undermined any attempts to re inflate and create jobs. America is borrowing from the west to finance its military budget. This is keeping our interest rates high and maintaining the The European Parliament is just one of the many forums socialists can use to campaign for a new industrial The parliament misunderstood. On the one hand peoThen they rail at it for blocking Bri tain's rebate.
The truth of the matter is that very few parliaments have powers. A determined prime minister can generally run country with the assistance of a The job of the European Parlia ment is to raise issues and begin debates at an international level. The socialists Chancellor Helmut Kohl an ally of Thatcher in Euro anti-working class alliance in the European Parliament have camthe paigned effectively on a whole range of matters: the deployment of cruise and Pershing missiles, South Within the powers afforded us, we have fought to reform the agricultural policy and port of the TUC - to extend the rights of workers to more information and improved health and safety at work. The Women's Committee has continued to fight for equal opportunities. Indeed this has been one of the tew areas where a real advance has been achieved. The British government has the distinction of having been taken to the European Court of Justice on equal opportunity matters more often than any other government in the EEC often weekend.
plastic bullets, about Amenca, - with the unanimous sup- step along West Germany United Kingdom Denmark Netherlands Greece Rep. Ireland Italy Weekend conference on the world capitalist economy today. 3/4 March, Caxton House, St John's Way, London N.19 Admission £2 a day, f3 for the whole Tickets only from International, 328 Upper St, London N.J.
The Euro-elections are part of the ongoing fight. Socialist politics is not about an election every five years. I: is constan challenge the establishment. Elections are just one way of maintaining that challenge We must use every forum available. We must try to turn every fight into a Broad to the SOTt 01 socialist world we want to build. Who pays, who gains: 1983 -1.710 -1.112 Belgium/Luxembourg -231 +192 +217 +312 +447 +830
Socialist Action 17 February 1984
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Side 'our money'
The World Economic Crisis
with Ernest Mandel