SCAEF Bulletin

April 2009

First Lead

Second Lead

“We must be open so that we can insist on openness from others.”

 

So wrote the arch-privateer Peter Mandelson while EU Commissioner for Trade.  He was putting the case for the EU’s bilateral trade treaties with developing countries outside the EU. 

These treaties, which have as a condition for entry to the EU market the abolition of domestic tariffs and government support for industry, have been blamed for de-industrialisation and impoverishment. 

 

War on Want has accused the EU of pursuing ‘an aggressive free trade agenda to open new markets’ which if continued ‘would push millions into poverty’.

 

Globalisation and protection

The current world economic crisis has now opened a parallel debate about globalisation and protection.

 

The leaders of the big industrial nations all say protection must be avoided at all costs.  So do all the big business interests in the EU.  Governments must not, they say, seek to assist their own industries or protect employment by direct intervention.

 

Globalisation, they say, must be defended.  And they point to the 1930s depression as an example of the results of protection.

 

But it’s not true.  Like the present crisis, that of the 1930s resulted from world-wide money market speculation, the free movement of capital and gold standard monetarist policies.  Protection was the attempt by some governments to limit the impact.

 

In fact the post-war recovery was based on exchange controls, managed currencies and massive government support for industry.

 

So what does globalisation really mean?  It’s simply the demand that big business be allowed to move wherever costs are cheapest.  It’s the demand that unemployment be allowed to do its work, unhindered by government, in forcing down wages and eliminating smaller companies.

 

That is why trade unions need to resist these siren calls and demand alternative policies for public sector investment in the productive economy, for managed currencies, controls over capital movement and balanced economies internationally.

This is also why the trade union movement should be to the fore in resisting the Lisbon Treaty and defending our democratic rights to control our own economy. 

As has been shown by the Alba project in Latin America, economic cooperation between nations can be far more effectively based on planned development  that is democratically organised in each. 

 

OPPOSITION TO LISBON TREATY MOUNTS

 

Despite all the efforts of the EU Commission, the Lisbon Treaty remains unratified and facing increasing opposition.

 

In the Czech Republic the fall of the right-wing, pro-Lisbon government has thrown ratification into chaos.  The required vote on the Senate has been postponed till May at the earliest.  In Germany ratification is subject to legal appeal on the grounds that the Lisbon Treaty undermines aspects of the German constitution. By German law this would require a referendum to ratify.  The outcome of the legal appeal will not be known till May.

 

Poland still has to start the ratification process and in Ireland the required referendum is unlikely to be held before September (see article on page 4).

 

Before then the EU elections will have taken place and are expected to show strong opposition to governments supporting the deflationary, neo-liberal policies being pushed by the EU Commission and the EU Central Bank.

 

Already the series of anti-trade judgements by the EU Court of Justice has brought a strong reaction from the European TUC.  These judgements have ruled that capital’s right to ‘free establishment’ is superior to labour’s collective bargaining and that strike action to defend existing conditions would render trade unions liable to commercial damages.

 

ETUC demands addition of special protocol

ETUC General Secretary John Monks has demanded that a special protocol be added to the Lisbon Treaty that would unconditionally defend rights to collective bargaining.   In a memorandum to the Czech presidency in January the ETUC demanded the addition of such a protocol to ensure that ‘fundamental social rights may never be regarded as hierarchically less important than economic freedoms. Indeed, the opposite is the case.’

 

The ETUC also wants to see the inclusion of the so-called ‘Monti clause’ in all legislation on the internal market, to ensure that the implementation of the four fundamental freedoms of that market does not impede collective bargaining rights or hinder the right to strike as defined by national legislation. 

 

Trade unionists in Ireland are demanding that such a protocol be added to the Lisbon Treaty before the vote on ratification. 

No to super-exploitation of overseas workers

On 13 March UNITE and GMB took up the case of a Polish subcontract worker being paid one third less than the agreed rate on the Alsthom Isle of Grain refinery site.  The government and the main contractors had previously denied that EU directives and ECJ judgements were being used to undermine collective bargaining conditions and exclude the existing workforce from employment.

 

Earlier, in February, solidarity action, which included workers at Grangemouth and Longannet, resulted in Total agreeing to the creation of 102 jobs for local workers at the Lindsey site.  This followed the allocation of an employment contract to an Italian firm which kept its workers on a barge in Humber  with no opportunity to withdraw their labour. It also followed the loss of employment by previously employed local workers. 

 

Derek Simpson, Unite joint general secretary, commented: ‘Lindsey is part of a much wider problem that will not go away just because the workers at Lindsey have voted to go back to work.  There are still employers who are excluding UK workers from even applying for work on construction projects. No European worker should be barred from applying for a British job and absolutely no British worker should be barred from applying for a British job.’

 

Unite has put forward a three point plan which includes demands that the government carry out an investigation into the practices of contractors and subcontactors in the engineering and construction industry to be followed by action from the government which will insist that companies applying for contracts on public infrastructure projects, sign up to Corporate Social Responsibility agreements which commit to fair access for UK Labour.  

Unite also demands that the government seek to overturn European legal precedents which allow employers to undercut wages and conditions. A European Court of Justice precedent gives employers a license for 'social dumping' and prevents unions form taking action to prevent the erosion of UK workers' pay and condition

What a Week !

 

The G 20 met. Jamie cooked for them. They issued a communication and Gordy played the world Chancellor. The people took to the streets protesting about jobs, the environment, nuclear weapons and illegal wars.

 

At one point the people involved in the above had a collective place to channel their grievances. It was called the Labour party. And, whilst a number of old Labour activists may have been involved in any of the causes above, the truth is that the official New Labour Party has pushed them to one side. The other problem the people have at present is that you would be hard pressed to draw a piece of paper between the political manifestos of all parties.

 

The Kettle

We also discovered a new word in the police vocabulary.  ‘The kettle'. This is a strategy by which the police herd innocent people into an area , then release them after a period of time in such a manner as to allow them, the police, to take pictures, video and still, of the protesters. This is all done in the name of enabling you and I to take part in peaceful protest.

 

On Saturday I listened to R4 Question Time. On the panel were Tory David Willetts MP. Labour Hazel Blears MP, a Newspaper Editor and Liberal Vince Cable MP. In response to a question as to whether the police had been to heavy handed the tory , labour and the editor all supported the police in what was a 'difficult' job. It was left to Vince Cable to remind the audience of a series of events, the reading out of a list of names at Westminster, a peaceful demonstration out side a proposed nuclear site and others where the police had used the anti-terrorist legislation and saying that, in the view of many people in the country, the fear was that we were moving towards a police state. This fear was leading to a number of people who would have liked to protest at the G20, not to join any of the demonstrations. This analysis received the loudest and longest clap from the audience.

 

Democratic Rights

Labour should take note of the concern the citizen has. The struggle for democratic rights in this country was built on the backs of the Peasants’ Revolt, the Chartist campaign and the trade union movements, all of which were suppressed and declared illegal. When citizens’s rights are removed they go underground with all the suffering that follows.

 

However the week did have a pleasant conclusion. The Fife Federation of Trades Councils under the leadership of Jim Philip RMT member held a rededication ceremony to remember the people from Fife who fought for the Republican side in Spain. This meeting was well attended and whilst Jamie did not do the cooking the sausage rolls, sandwiches, juice, teas and coffee suited the warm atmosphere of the comrades.

 

Oh lest I forget , whilst we are concerned over the drift towards an unaccountable European Union, this week saw us drift towards a centralised system of control over exports, capital movements  and restrictions on the rights of people.

 

 I am not aware of anyone who is on benefits or relies on the Welfare Sate for support who has caused the chaos throughout the world. But, the IMF and the World Bank will be granted more power and will start to reign in the welfare sate as a quid pro -co for the bankers who have caused the misery.