Bob Crow argues that the European elections are an opportunity to register a protest against privatisation
SINCE No2EU – Yes to Democracy was launched, the European Commission has given the green light to privatise the British end of Eurostar and the European Parliament has voted to “liberalise” healthcare across the European Union. These two events alone reveal the EU’s obsession with imposing discredited free market dogma on our public services.
The EU has approved the use of £5.2 billion of public money to pay off the debt of Eurostar in order to sell it off. Yet no one asked the British taxpayers if they wanted their cash to be used, in the middle of a dire economic recession, to fatten up Eurostar in order to make it attractive to a private buyer. Nor were the public asked if they supported EU’s Health Services Directive which paves the way for private companies to take over the national health service.
Even more shocking is the fact that the directive, which represents the biggest threat to the National Health Service since it was set up in 1948, was rubber-stamped by MEPs because the Party of the European Socialists abstained.
Labour MP Gisela Stuart was quoted shortly afterwards as saying: “I bet you my wages that in 10 to 15 years, if this directive goes through, we cannot have a generally tax-funded NHS system.”
She knows what she is talking about, as she was one of those who helped to draw up the original EU constitution. She also described the renaming of the constitution as the Lisbon Treaty and the pretence that it was a different document as a “deeply dishonest process”.
The Lisbon Treaty still turns the EU into an anti-democratic state in its own right and abolishes the national veto – our right to say “No” in 61 areas and over issues such as energy, health and foreign policy. It also imposes outdated neo-liberal economic policies onto member states that have already decimated public services and led to an orgy of privatisation. Whether or not you support the treaty, it is clear that it changes the way we are governed. People deserve to be asked first.
The Irish were not fooled by the name change from constitution to Lisbon and voted to reject it last June. Yet that result has been ignored and Ireland is to be forced to vote again by October.
The British Government also made a manifesto pledge to give us a referendum on the issue and has reneged on it.
We believe that it unfair that the Irish get to vote twice, while we don’t get a chance to vote on it at all. Therefore, No2EU is calling on everyone who supports democracy and public services to turn out and vote on June 4 for our candidates, who are standing in every region of Britain. We are standing on a clear platform of opposition to the Lisbon Treaty.
Bob Crow is convenor of No2EU – Yes to Democracy and general secretary of the RMT
