RIGHT WING Labour threw its bomb into the Labour Party conference yesterday when it penned an open letter suggesting that the UK should remain in the EU Customs Union and the EU Single Market indefinitely. This will mean binning the 2016 referendum, in order to remain subject to the EU Council and its European Court of Justice.
The 30 Labour MPs and a handful of MEPs plus two minor union leaders and one TUC ex-general secretary (Monks) who signed the letter were responding to PM May’s Florence speech. This advocated a two-year transitional period from March 2019 to March 2021 in which Britain will remain in the Customs Union and Single Market, paying all EU dues and bending the knee to the European Court of Justice.
While Corbyn claimed that May had stolen Labour’s transitional period policy, as articulated by Keir Starmer, the right wingers ‘Open Letter’ went much further.
The right wingers declared: ‘So at our conference this week, Labour should commit to staying in the Single Market and Customs Union – ruling out no options for how to achieve this….’
In plain language, they want the UK to remain in the EU, in the single market and the currency union, and under the thumb of the European Court of Justice for ever, and they intend to propose this at this week’s Labour Party conference.
Yesterday, Corbyn responded promising to listen to their calls to keep the UK in the EU single market – but warning it could hamper the government’s ability to protect jobs and invest in industry.
Corbyn said the ‘important priority’ was seeking tariff-free trade access to the EU’s markets, and that it was necessary to ‘look very carefully’ at the terms of any trade deal to avoid restrictions on state aid, citing the UK’s steel industry as an example.
‘We need to be quite careful about the powers that we need as national governments,’ he said.
On the transitional period Corbyn said Labour’s version would last ‘as long as necessary’, adding: ‘It is impossible to say at this stage how long it would be.’
On the issue of free movement – which the government and Labour both say will end with the UK’s EU membership – Corbyn said he understood ‘the importance of workers moving from one place to the other’, but some employers had ‘grotesquely exploited’ the system to pay EU workers very low wages.
On the wages front, Corbyn would not commit to the 5% increase called for by some unions, but promised workers a rise in line with inflation – currently 2.9% – in addition to recognition of the ‘sacrifice’ they had made in recent years.
The Labour leader dodged questions about whether he would support illegal strike action by public sector workers against the pay cap, as backed by his ally, Unite leader Len McCluskey. Repeatedly pressed on whether he would back unions defying the law; in a period of acute capitalist crisis Corbyn said: ‘I will be with those workers demanding a decent pay rise.’
However, speaking on Sky News, Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said the party would not back unions in such circumstances. Asked about his plans beyond this period, Corbyn said the ‘important priority’ was seeking tariff-free trade access to the EU’s markets, and that it was necessary to ‘look very carefully’ at the terms of any trade deal to avoid restrictions on state aid, citing the UK’s steel industry as an example.
‘We need to be quite careful about the powers that we need as national governments,’ he said, referring to Labour’s pledge to renationalise the railways. There is only one way forward for Labour at this conference which meets in a period when even the bankers are predicting another collapse of the system. This is no time for double-speak!
Labour must end all equivocations and declare that the UK will leave the EU as soon as it becomes the government. Further it will not pay any divorce fees, and is determined to carry out socialist policies such as the nationalisation of the banks and the major industries, in order to bring in a planned socialist economy to provide jobs and homes for all.
It must also declare that it will support all strikes and will repeal all the anti union laws. In a period of acute capitalist crisis what the working class requires is a party that fights unequivocally for its cause, to put an end to the capitalist system without any double-bookkeeping!
