EU referendum

EU referendum

  • In

    Votes: 503 47.9%

  • Out

    Votes: 547 52.1%
  • Total voters
    1,050
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For all those saying it's just rabid right-wingers who want out, have a read of this:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/pa...socialists-support-neoliberal-undemocratic-eu

It's published under a Creative Commons licence so I think I'm free to quote liberally from it.
The EU is now, more than ever, defined by its fanatical commitment to the rule of market forces, privatisation and the rolling back of the power of national governments. This ideology of neoliberalism explains the EU’s enthusiasm for the politics of austerity, which it has imposed throughout the continent as a response to the global financial crisis. But, just as austerity has failed in the UK, it has failed throughout the EU. Twenty-three million are unemployed thanks to EU-driven austerity. Living standards have collapsed thanks to EU-driven austerity. Far-right groups have gained strength thanks to EU-driven austerity. Renewed tensions have emerged between nation states thanks to EU-driven austerity. Public services have been decimated thanks to EU-driven austerity. When economies crashed, the EU’s answer was to impose more crippling austerity as part of any bailout condition. This served only to generate deeper impoverishment and social tensions.

The EU’s commitment to neoliberalism means its laws are designed to encourage private enterprise at the expense of public ownership. As a result, we have seen an accelerating transfer of ownership and control of industry from elected governments to big corporations.
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And to prove members have little freedom of action:
The recent Tata steel crisis threw into sharp relief the pernicious effects of EU law on ownership. Understandably, many trade union leaders and some Labour MPs demanded the government nationalise the Port Talbot steelworks. But missing from their demands was any recognition that such a move would undoubtedly have breached EU law, which prohibits member states from using public money to rescue failing steelmakers
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This adds to what I was saying earlier, that's it's much easier to close UK factories than those in other EU countries as Tata's European business has stayed largely unaffected. So it's hardly a level-playing field even though we're in the EU. We make it easier for companies to shut plants yet the EU ties both hands behind our back if we want to rescue them.

And for those who don't accept that the EU has prolonged austerity, it's an EU rule that budget deficits can't exceed 3% of GDP, meaning the classic Keynsian model of running a deficit in a recession in order to stimulate growth, can't be deployed.

And for those who still maintain that the EU is some sort of workers paradise, the author says this:
Even today, the broad sweep of workplace law - such as on pay, terms and conditions, dismissal, industrial relations and disputes - remains completely outside the remit of the EU. (This is why, for example, the Tory government is able to push the Trade Union Bill - the biggest assault on workers in a generation - through parliament without any opposition whatsoever from the EU.)

The image of the EU as some great protector of workers is hard to reconcile when considering that, in keeping with its neo-liberal objectives, it promotes zero-hours contracts under flexible labour market rules and deliberately weakened collective bargaining arrangements in the bailout countries.
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And finally, the author repeats what I've been saying all along, about further political integration being a necessity. This is painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain.
To avoid further bailouts, the EU is now demanding deeper economic integration between member states. This can happen only if there is closer political union. This, in turn, would mean even more power being transferred from national governments to unelected bureaucrats and bankers. The EU superstate is no longer a distant threat; it is a growing reality.
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There is no "status quo" or "safe option" in this decision. It's either get out or go much further in. And if it's the latter, things are going to get much worse as fr as political extremism goes. Why do you think the EU wants its own army? Probably so Brussels can order French troops to put down riots in Austria or Greece.
 
RichardDunneOwnGoal said:
But Mac, either way you're in some form or another aligning yourself with people who you detest. If you vote to remain you're an ally of the people who seek to privatise the NHS, people who depress the standard of living of working people in this country to line their own pockets.

What's more, there is a broad spectrum of people who wish to leave the EU, and they're not all motivated by the same ambitions.

To allow a tiny minority of extremists among those supportive of a leave vote to deter you from voting leave is incredibly folly, IMO.

I just see a lot of people voting against their best interests and not trusting themselves and the electorate to get it right in the longterm following an out result, it depresses me frankly.

And as PB rightly pointed out, it's the EU itself which is fuelling the rise of the far right.

I just can't reconcile the fact that people believe emboldening the status quo is the best way to insure their futures, when it's precisely the status quo which is strangling them. As I said, depressing.
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How is voting to Remain allying myself with people who want to privatise the NHS?
 
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