The TUC Congress has demanded the government hold the referendum on the renamed
EU Constitution which it promised two years ago. The overwhelming vote is
humiliating for Gordon Brown who claimed just weeks before the conference
that the TUC would reject such a call. The euro-federalist TUC hierarchy also
got slapped down by the elected TUC general council for trying to force through
a fudge on the issue in the form of a statement. Delegates overwhelmingly
backed a GMB motion calling for a referendum on the treaty which is described
as “a Trojan horse to provide unfettered privatisation throughout the EU”.
Resisting huge pressure to remit the motion, GMB general secretary Paul Kenny
told delegates that the government had made an election pledge to hold a referendum
and the treaty was fundamentally the same thing. He said that refusing such
a vote “by means of ducking and diving may cost the Labour Party at election
time”.
Arguing against a referendum, the Community union made incoherent claims
that the Tories would win an election if there was such a vote, an argument
echoed by Kevin Maguire in the Daily Mirror.
Paul Kenny responded to this absurd claim by pointing out that big business
interests and the CBI supported the treaty and opposed a referendum.
Bizarrely, an RMT motion outlining details
of the Constitution and calling for a no vote was narrowly defeated. This
was due to a late decision by the Unite union – which is made up of T&GWU
and Amicus and constitutes 48 per cent of conference votes – to oppose the
RMT motion. RMT general secretary Bob Crow argued that as conference supported
a referendum it should decide which way it would vote.
He said that TUC policy
was already against the Constitution and it was clearly the same document
which the French and Dutch rejected in 2005. He said that the ‘new’ treaty
“would mark a further transfer of power to unelected mandarins in Brussels
and undermine democratic advances fought for over centuries”.
However, Unite
(Amicus) general secretary Derek Simpson claimed that a no vote meant ‘disengaging’
from ‘Europe’. Yet, as the PCS general secretary Mark Sewortka told delegates,
the RMT motion only dealt with what was in the treaty and it was not ‘anti-union’
to oppose the constitution.
The RMT motion won the backing of many unions
and a number of delegates spoke in support. Bob Oram of the public sector
union Unison warned that the treaty was “an attempt at creating a federal
Europe with one currency, one government, one foreign policy, one military
machine, one industrial policy and the complete freedom of labour, capital,
goods and services and a free market which will include health and education.
“It is slow a incremental process happening in a way we need to understand
and recognise,” he said.
Bakers delegate Tony Richardson stormed that the constitution was “undemocratic,
it’s centralising, it’s a privateers’ paradise and it’s certainly not
a friend of workers”.
Fire Brigade’s Union delegate Mick Shaw warned that the treaty would
privatise public services, drive down wages and hand power to secretive,
unaccountable institutions. Aslef delegate Brian Corbett said that his
union had not been ‘got at’ and warned that if the constitution was
imposed it would signal the end of the welfare state and democracy as
we know it.
See also following related pieces
from September 2007 issue:
Stop turning the EU into a super-state
What they say about the Constitution
More centralisation says former German President
from July 2007 issue:
Demand a referendum
The new Treaty is identical to EU Constitution
'Exclusive Mandate" trick to consolidate EU state
Disguising the EU Constitution
Annex 1
Blair's infamous 'red lines'
[Return to
Democrat index]
[To
subscribe to Democrat] (members receive each issue free through
the post)
[Membership
form]
[Order form for
material]
[Details
about our Campaign against Euro-federalism]
[Home page] [top]