LEXIT: WHY WE NEED A LEFT EXIT FROM EU

LEXIT: WHY WE NEED A LEFT EXIT FROM EU

People Before Profit will be calling for the EXIT vote on Northern Ireland and Britain from the European Union. Should a majority vote to leave, we shall be campaigning for Southern Ireland to leave as well. We favour the break-up of the current structures of the EU on left wing grounds.

Up to now the political establishment in the South has been arguing that it is ‘in Ireland’s interest’ that Britain as a whole stays in the EU,

They claim that if Northern Ireland leaves the EU, border controls will re-appear on the North-South border. However, the common travel area between Ireland and Britain predates the EU.

The Northern Secretary, Theresa Villiers stated that ‘There is no reason why we have to change our border arrangements in the event of a Brexit because they have been broadly consistent in the 100 years since the creation of Ireland as a separate state.’

A similar argument pertains to exports from Ireland. Once again, an Anglo-Irish Treaty, which opened free trade between Ireland and Britain, pre-dates the EU.

The Soutern political elite are trying to cloak their support for the EU in a nationalist green jersey. They want to avoid discussion on the real issue: Does the EU serve the interests of working people? Or is it a ‘bosses club’?

The EU’s treatment of 'peripheral’ countries like Ireland and Greece after the 2008 economic crash gives us some insights.

The Irish Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, stated in the Dail that the European Central bank – one of the key institutions of the EU – informed him that if he burned bondholders at Anglo-Irish Bank that a ‘bomb would go off’ in Dublin.

A ‘bomb’ meant a financial explosion rather than an incendiary device. The EU prefers to use financial methods rather than military intervention to change the policies of elected governments.

Greece illustrates precisely the EU’s method of ‘banks not tanks’. When the left wing Syriza party was elected to government, the EU simply changed the rules that its bank reserves ratios were reduced. The result was a run on Greek banks and a turning of the financial screw until the Syriza government eventually capitulated.

There are five main grounds on which the People Before Profit will be advocating a No vote.

1.      Neoliberal policies have been sealed into the EU institution.

Budgets are no longer determined by national governments but are restricted by an 'Annual Growth Survey’ that is promoted by the EU Commission. Since the crash of 2008, the EU Commission has promoted an increase in the retirement age to 68; ‘labour activation’ policies to conscript youth into low paid schemes and increased use of indirect ‘user fees’ such as water charges.

The unelected European Central Bank also wields tremendous power and uses it to promote ‘balanced budgets’ which cut back on social spending. The ECB and national central banks are ‘independent’ of democratic decision making. The current bill in the Dail to reduce mortgage charges, for example, means little because the ‘independent’ Central banks says it has no intention of restricting bank profits.

The Directorate General of Competition cracks down on state aid and promotes privatisation. Any public service defined as a ‘service of general economic interest’ must be ‘opened up to market competition.

2.      The EU is developing military structures to fight ‘resource wars’.

Under the cover of ‘humanitarian interventions’ the EU promotes a new style colonial policy in its dealings with the developing world. It has created its own ‘battle groups’ for emergency responses. It actively fosters an arms industry. It has a ‘mutual defence clause’ to involve member states in wars after terrorist attacks.

3.      The EU is fundamentally undemocratic.

It is an executive run institution where elected Members of European Parliament are restricted in what they can propose. The unelected EU Commission proposes legislation and then complex, shadowy structures known as ‘trilogue committees’ hammer out deals. This structure gives huge scope of corporations to lobby the political elite behind closed doors. The conduct of the EU in staging secret negotiations over TTiP shows exactly how it operates. Even elected members of the EU parliament are denied access to treaty negotiations.

4.      The EU legitimises racism though fortress Europe.

The EU-Turkey prevents refugees fleeing from war entering the EU. They are first sent back to Turkey and then monitored by a regime that refuses to sign conventions on human rights. Refugees from countries like Eritrea where there is life time conscription into the army are effectively denied entry as refuges. By framing the refugee crisis as a major problem that cannot be accommodated, the official EU gives succour to the far right racist and fascist who are growing on the continent.

Supporters of the EU claim that it protects workers rights. But this is untrue. There are some EU sanctioned measures that arose in the boom period of Western capitalism when elites wanted to expand the workforce and so gave legal protections for equal pay or contract staff.

But these rights were also fought for by workers across Europe and cannot be so easily taken away. Much of what is associated with the EU are minimal terms and should be contrasted with the Laval and Viking judgements which deny ‘posted’ or migrant workers equal treatment under registered agreements.

Nor does the EU care much about human rights. It gave Ireland a special protocol, for example to women claiming access to reproductive rights – even on the grounds of market competition. The much vaunted Charter for Fundamental Rights does not fundamentally undermine a corpus of EU law which is essentially about market competition and building up big EU corporations.

Leaving the EU will be part of a process of creating a different Ireland North and South- one which puts people before profit.