Bye, bye Jacques Delors!
In the TUC Conference in 1988 the chair of the EU Commission Jacques Delors succeeded in turning the British LO into becoming positive to giving more powers to the EU. He promised that Brussels would support the trade unions against Thatcher.
But the social Europe Delors spoke about never took place. Instead, we have seen the EU taking the fight to pursue deregulations and neo liberal politics. The final step to lose the support of the UK trade unions was the Directive on Services (tjänstedirektivet).
Guardian reports on this morning's historic decisions of the TUC Conference:
Of course, the shrinking group of Swedish Social Democrats that continue to say that EU is the workers' paradise will try to twist the TUC desicions and claim that it's about something else. They've always done that, and they will continue to do so. But facts are still there - the TUC has said "bye bye" to Jacques Delors and has started to see that today's EU is undemocratic and right-wing. This is indeed very good news!
But the social Europe Delors spoke about never took place. Instead, we have seen the EU taking the fight to pursue deregulations and neo liberal politics. The final step to lose the support of the UK trade unions was the Directive on Services (tjänstedirektivet).
Guardian reports on this morning's historic decisions of the TUC Conference:
The TUC took a strongly Eurosceptic turn this morning, voting to oppose further "liberalisation and militarisation" of the EU in the wake of the failed constitution. The conference, meeting for its final day in Brighton, broke with its traditionally pro-EU stance and voted by a large majority to oppose measures such as the creation of a proposed EU diplomatic service and EU defence agency and further liberalisation of European freight and passenger railways.
Of course, the shrinking group of Swedish Social Democrats that continue to say that EU is the workers' paradise will try to twist the TUC desicions and claim that it's about something else. They've always done that, and they will continue to do so. But facts are still there - the TUC has said "bye bye" to Jacques Delors and has started to see that today's EU is undemocratic and right-wing. This is indeed very good news!
Kommentarer
The issue that I think some people in the Swedish Social Democrats, as in new Labour, get confused about, is whether you are for “Europe” or not. Many brothers and sisters said in their speeches yesterday that they would not vote for a motion that was anti-European. But they would vote for this motion – because if we are against neo-liberalism in our own countries, why should we stop being against neo-liberalism at an EU level? There are almost none in new Labour who are for the Constitution now, and those around Brown are much more sceptical about the benefits of giving away power. I think this Congress decision is a very big turning point for the debate on the EU.
I don't object to common social criteria in the form of minimum standards - this is necessary if we are to have a common market between the countries. I also think this is what the European left should consentrate on - making it possible for countries to maintain and improve their social standards within the framework of the common market and avoiding social dumping.
However, I do say no to transferring the social area in its whole to the European level. One of many arguments for this is that we don't have one but many European social models, and that these differences would be too difficult to overbridge. This process of finding a common social model would take the energy from what's the real challenge - to improve social policies and workers' conditions in Europe and the world.
It's of course also a fact that I don't trust those people in charge of the EU now. The European integration so far has been made by socialists in coalition with the neo liberals, arguing that the social Europe would come eventually if we just got a common market. This has been a disastrous strategy for the aim of European socialists. Delors' arguments on a social Europe simply wasn't true, he was leading the European left in the hands of exactly those neo liberals that now want to "complete the common market" with the Directive on Services.
I can also add that Delors' strategy as Minister of Finance in France 1983 was causing a sentiment all over Europe that social democratic economic policies was impossible in the new global economy. This has been disastrous for the socialist movement all over Europe, and I would say that this was unnecessary. If Mitterrand's "night guests" at the time had succeeded in convincing the President to follow their proposals of leaving the ERM and continue the expansion, European politics would have taken a different turn.
I have been a bit tired of European issues for a while as I have been involved in these discussions for two and a half years without any real break in between (the euro referendum, the European elections and the Constitution debate). I have been using this summer for a well-needed vacation from the EU. But I will review the website soon, Rémi!