In the next six months, a referendum will be held in the South on the EU Reform Treaty now known as the Lisbon Treaty, since EU Prime Ministers signed off on it in that city in December.
The Lisbon Treaty started its life as the European Constitution, which was finalised in 2004 by all the EU Governments. However as the process of ratification was underway in 2005, the Constitution was rejected in referenda held in France and Holland. This torpedoed the exercise and resulted in the formulation of the most recent Lisbon Treaty, which is really the same Constitution somewhat modified.
A major factor in the rejection of the Constitution was the hostility of the French and Dutch working class to the neo-liberal economic policies being pushed by the EU. There was particular concern over the abuse by employers of migrant workers in driving down wages and conditions – the familiar “race to the bottom”. This was wrongly portrayed by some commentators as xenophobia among the majority of the working class in those countries.
Over the next months as the campaign for the referendum develops, we will explain in much greater detail why the Socialist Party will be strongly opposing the Lisbon treaty. In summary it is because the Treaty consolidates the drive toward rightwing, neo-liberal policies, especially the privatisation of public services. It also consolidates the move toward an EU army and armaments industry for the purpose of giving the EU greater weight in the international arena.
Over the next year, all the EU member states will have to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. The governments of France and Holland found a simple solution to the mass opposition in their countries. They won’t put it to a referendum. The establishment politicians will make the decision instead. And the EU likes to style itself as a model of democracy!
This means that the Irish government will be under massive pressure to make sure the Treaty is approved in the vote. Every wing of the establishment – political parties, the media, the churches, business and trade organisations – will be pressed into service on the “Yes” side. The right wing leaders of the trade unions, now firmly part of the establishment, will also be involved.
The Green Party, with members of the European Parliament and Dail Deputies, played a prominent role in opposing previous treaties most recently in 2002 when the Treaty of Nice was re-run. Now the Greens’ leadership have utterly capitulated on this question as on just about every other issue.
The millionaire-owned press can be expected to play a dirty game to get the Treaty passed. To discredit those opposing, the Irish Times has highlighted the possibility of the extreme right wing French National Front Leader, Jean Marie Le Pen, coming to Ireland to help the “No” campaign. This was a manufactured story with reporters deliberately pushing this repulsive racist to say during press conferences that he might come “if he was invited”.
A lot of prominence is also being given to a right wing, so-called thinktank, Libertas, which is opposing the Treaty. Libertas was set up and funded by a character called Declan Ganly. He is a speculator who made a fortune dealing in privatised enterprises in Russia and in the privatisation of public property in Albania in the 1990s. In these countries privatisation amounted to a blatant robbery of public property to the benefit of local and foreign speculators. One can get an idea of the types involved from the fact that Ganly hired the corrupt politician, Liam Lawlor, as a consultant to his “privatisation voucher scheme” in Albania.
Ganly and his associates in Libertas are opposing the Lisbon Treaty from a very right wing position. There is a real danger that over the next months the debate will be seen to be between the right wing establishment “Yes” side and the even more right wing, self appointed clique, Libertas.
However, the Socialist Party will insist on a genuine Left opposition being heard, counterposing a democratic, socialist Europe of workers to the capitalist club that the EU is.
