{"id":8167,"date":"2016-03-17T17:09:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T17:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8167"},"modified":"2016-03-18T15:28:26","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T15:28:26","slug":"eu-vote-for-democracy-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8167","title":{"rendered":"EU: Vote for democracy and hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I vote for Britain to remain in the EU in June, and when I argue for the members of my union and others to do likewise in the months ahead, I will not be voting for the status quo.<\/p>\n

 
\nI will not be voting for the EU, which has sought to impose eye-watering austerity \u00e2\u20ac\u201d at the expense of the ordinary citizen, not the rich \u00e2\u20ac\u201d on Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

 
\nI will not be voting for the EU which is seeking to stitch-up a pro big-business trade deal, TTIP, behind the backs of the people of Europe.<\/p>\n

 
\nI won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be voting for the EU which takes a cavalier view of democracy and the rights of nations to make their own political choices.<\/p>\n

 
\nAbove all, I will not be voting for David Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s renegotiation package \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a deal designed to protect the financial interests in the City of London and to pander to anti-migrant, anti-welfare sentiment.<\/p>\n

 
\nSo what will I be voting for? I will be voting for hope, for solidarity, and for a more democratic Europe \u00e2\u20ac\u201d three tightly connected ideas.<\/p>\n

 
\nSince their election, the Tories have introduced one proposal after another to further weaken and undermine the trade unions, and to starve the Labour Party of its traditional source of funding.
\nNow it seems they need assistance from the movement they wish to destroy.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs a professional negotiator I would be tempted to make the most of a situation like this. But it falls to us to behave in a more statesmanlike way, and to look at the bigger issues.<\/p>\n

 
\nAt risk<\/strong><\/em>
\nPersuading Unite members to vote for a campaign led by such an overtly hostile and anti-democratic government will be a challenge but I know that many jobs, particularly in manufacturing, will be at risk outside the vast market of the EU.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut to win, we need hope too.<\/p>\n

 
\nFor eight years now Europe has been in a tunnel marked \u00e2\u20ac\u015bausterity.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Everything has been subordinated to righting the finance-first system that capsized in 2008.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to show people a way out, for Europe to speak as one voice for growth, for investment, for protection for the weakest.<\/p>\n

 
\nWe need a Europe that says it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more important for young people to get their future back than it is for bankers to get their money back.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut because I believe such a Europe is possible, and that it is the sort of Europe millions of people want, I will argue that Britain needs to be in the EU to help bring it about.<\/p>\n

 
\nDavid Cameron says he wants to stay in the EU, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his own calls in recent years for Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exclusion from the full range of EU employment and social laws that have created the belief among ordinary people that the EU is a big business club for the elite.<\/p>\n

 
\nCameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Europe will never make the British heart beat faster.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn the end, the outcome of this referendum will come down to the gut feeling of the British people, when they ask themselves the question: are they better off inside the EU or outside of it?<\/p>\n

 
\nSo what about solidarity? Can we rediscover a European Union of mutual assistance?<\/p>\n

 
\nAfter WWII, billions in US Marshall aid, European economic reconstruction and debt forgiveness all benefited Britain and Germany.<\/p>\n

 
\nDeeply impoverished<\/strong><\/em>
\nEU programmes have also helped some of what were deeply impoverished regions of Europe a generation or two ago to develop and build more prosperous societies.<\/p>\n

 
\nGiven the chance, I believe the peoples of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s European Union would again choose that same ethos of investment, which holds to account the global corporations and banks that have wreaked so much havoc in recent years.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Greek crisis last year showed a very different and less attractive face of Europe. Punishing austerity and the effective subjugation of the national democratic will put the EU in a very unattractive light indeed.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhat principle is being upheld when Greece\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health service is pushed into ruin, when a generation is reduced to beggary in order to ensure that banks are repaid on time? It certainly isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t solidarity.<\/p>\n

 
\nLikewise, can any European \u00e2\u20ac\u201d indeed, any human \u00e2\u20ac\u201d be happy at Europe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s handling of the refugee crisis. Angela Merkel has shown far more humanitarian consideration than most EU leaders or governments, including our own, but leaving wretched people to drown or be gassed by police, as we have seen at Calais last week, betrays every ideal for which Europe is supposed to stand.<\/p>\n

 
\nSolidarity<\/strong><\/em>
\nIt should have higher ideals, and solidarity is perhaps the most important.
\nLeaving the EU will develop solidarity not one bit \u00e2\u20ac\u201d rather it will speed up the rush to beggar-my-neighbour economics and anti-refugee brutality.<\/p>\n

 
\nMoreover, British workers rely on the social charter for a range of basic employment and social rights. They rely on it for fair treatment in the workplace, paid holiday, maternity leave and the protections afforded through the working time directive.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe EU does at least offer British workers these bare minimum protections.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut if the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bout\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 campaign were to prevail, many of those rights would be torn up by the triumphant Tory right faster than you could say \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMilton Friedman.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nHowever, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not good enough to look at Europe as simply providing the lowest common denominator of employment rights on elected governments.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe only lasting way to solve the big problems, like \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsocial dumping\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the practice of importing low-wage workers to dilute pay and conditions \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is for the EU to stop accommodating every wish of the army of corporate lobbyists stalking the corridors of Brussels.<\/p>\n

 
\nReal protection against such abuses would go a long way towards mitigating the concerns about the free movement of labour which we will hear a lot about in the weeks to come.<\/p>\n

 
\nSo I have a vision of a different Europe to the one on the ballot paper in June. Friends will call me utopian but I know that the better Europe I hope for will move from being a vision to an impossibility if we follow the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bno\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 camp.<\/p>\n

 
\nWe cannot fight for a better EU if we are out of it. So I will be voting for the future on June 23.<\/p>\n

 
\nThis feature first appeared in the Morning Star, March 17<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I vote for Britain to remain in the EU in June, and when I argue for the members of my union and others to do likewise in the months ahead, I will not be voting for the status quo.   I will not be voting for the EU, which has sought to impose eye-watering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[465,160],"wps_subtitle":"Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Len McCluskey will be voting for a better EU ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8168,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167\/revisions\/8168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}