European Union

A briefing on the proceedings and the issues at the Socialist Alliance special conference of 12 October 2002, on the euro, can be downloaded from this site .

By Martin Thomas Many socialists unsure on the euro say that the question for them is whether it is possible to make an internationalist campaign for "no to the euro" sufficiently strong that it will become not just a quirky adjunct to the Murdoch/Tory "no" campaign. In fact, I think, a genuinely internationalist campaign for "no" (as distinct from one run by people who, for the sake of self-delusion, make peculiar private "internationalist" interpretations of their "no" vote) is no more possible than a square circle. Whether I'm right or wrong about that, we now have new information. Even if...

From Solidarity 3/12, 12 September 2002 Even if a strong internationalist campaign for "no" were theoretically possible, it certainly will not happen. At the Socialist Alliance National Council on 7 September, John Rees of the SWP said flatly and clearly that he wanted a "no" campaign run in unity with "other left forces", including, by name, the Communist Party of Britain. The Communist Party has a long, long tradition of British nationalism - on Europe especially. Many socialists unsure on the euro say that the question for them is whether it is possible to make an internationalist campaign...

The principled arguments for abstention seem pretty clear to me. It's like that game you played as kids: which would you rather… (swallow a live worm or a live spider)? Thanks, but no thanks. We don't want a bosses' Europe of unelected bureaucrats driving to privatise the last vestiges of our public services, but neither do we want a go-it-alone Britain saturated with rank nationalism, where workers are herded behind the flag as if we have some common interest with our exploiters.. But you've got to choose. That's the game. A worker's Europe is not on the ballot paper. You can't campaign for...

The Socialist Alliance will hold a special conference on the euro in early October, almost certainly on 12 October. The deadline for motions is 31 August. The debate will be about whether we trade on opposition to "capitalist Europe" (as if Britain were less capitalist), by trying to cook up a supposedly-socialist version of "no to the euro" alongside the unashamedly nationalist versions we will get from the Murdoch press and the Tories, or whether we focus on workers' unity across Europe as the necessary response to the remorseless processes of cross-border capitalist integration. Two draft...

Neither euro nor pound! By Martin Thomas The Socialist Alliance will call a special conference, probably in the autumn, to discuss Europe and specifically to reconsider its views on the euro. If Tony Blair calls a referendum on Britain entering the euro, what should the left say? The TUC is in favour of Britain entering the euro, and the Tories will lead the campaign to "save the pound". Yet some leftish unions, like UNISON, are also anti-euro. At its policy conference in March 2001, when British entry to the euro was a distant prospect which socialists could discuss on its merits, without...

On January 1, 2002, 12 European countries introduced Euro notes and coins. Only three EU states - Sweden, Denmark and the UK - stood aside. What should the left say? Does it matter to us? The underlying process is this: Europe is being united, from above, in the interests of the European capitalists. The capitalists are merging the separate European economies for their mutual benefit. Britian joined the European club late - in the 1970s - because the British capitalists had more links with US or Commonwealth capitalism, and less with mainland Europe. And that's why parties like the Tories are...

Those who cry against a European single currency, that it would mark a fundamental “surrender” of British sovereignty, are correct. It would. A single currency will be a giant step in the direction of European unity and a decisive move towards the creation of a European state. Europe has already achieved an irreversible though uneven and incomplete level of economic integration and unity. “Europe” already determines much of what happens within the member states of the European Union. The question is not whether there will be a united Europe, but, what sort of European unity? The creation of a...

Should Britain sign up for the “euro” — the single European money — in 1999, in 2001 or in 2002? That is, assuming the “euro” goes ahead: even a moderate disturbance in the rickety regime of world capitalism could wreck all the various governments’ careful projections for 1998. There is not much for workers on either side of this debate. Whether there is one money-unit in Europe, or ten, or twenty, the basic problem remains that the wealthy classes have lots of money and we have very little. Governments across Europe, including the supposedly left-wing governments of France and Italy, are...