WHETHER British capitalism should remain within the crisis-ridden, sinking ship of the EU, or strike out on its own has immediately split the Tory party, forming a group of up to 70 eurosceptic Tory MPs, with a number of supporters in the Tory cabinet.
This is despite the fact that a referendum on the issue is at least 11 months away, probably on May 5th 2016, and that negotiations on deregulating the EU have not yet begun. PM Cameron has just begun preliminary discussions with the German government at the ongoing G7 meeting over the changes that the British ruling class want to see in the corporatist set-up of the EU, in which trade unions have a very limited role, as do Human Rights and Health and Safety Acts, much to the horror of the British bourgeoisie.
President Obama, present at the G7, has already intervened as he did during the Scottish referendum campaign to say, sitting next to Cameron at a press briefing, that he wanted to see the UK remain inside the EU, with the implication that the ‘special relationship’ between the two countries depends on it.
No doubt to earn Obama’s approval, Cameron issued an ultimatum that any agreement he reaches with the ruling and unelected European Commission, and European Central Bank, will have to be supported by all members of his UK cabinet, who will have to quit the cabinet if they reject it and want to campaign for the UK to quit the EU.
Already the Tory rebels are demanding that Britain has a veto over the application of EU law in the UK. Ex-Thatcher Finance Minister Lawson has already said that Cameron will not wring even minor concessions from the EU leadership. The prospect then is that, in the near future, there will be resignations from the Tory cabinet and an open split in the Tory Party, meaning that Cameron will need the support of the Labour Party to carry the referendum. Former Conservative minister David Davis said yesterday that Cameron’s stance was ‘rather unwise’.
Meanwhile, former cabinet ministers, Owen Paterson and John Redwood, have signed up to the newly-formed ‘Conservatives for Britain’ group to keep the pressure on Cameron. Steve Baker MP, who is co-chair of the group, said he believed some cabinet members would resign over the issue. ‘If we don’t get a sovereign Parliament, I would be quite surprised if one or two don’t resign, but that really is a matter for them’ he said.
Foreign Secretary Hammond commented that Treaty change would be needed so that any future measures agreed on, such as restricting EU migrants’ welfare entitlement, could be ‘sustained against judicial attack’. He added: ‘If you were talking about the House of Commons having a unilateral red card veto, that’s not achievable, that’s not negotiable because that would effectively be the end of the European Union.
‘What we are looking for is a system where a group of national parliaments could operate a red card.’ This of course would also mean an end to the EU, and is non-negotiable. Former Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke warned of the dangers, saying: ‘The Conservative Party must have a debate, and we had a pretty silly debate during the John Major government which led to our defeat in 1997.’
An EU split, and serious in-fighting will mean that the Tories will lose their majority. There is little doubt that Labour will prop Cameron up. The TUC opposed joining the Common Market in the 1975 referendum, then changed its position to take advantage of the then EU’s corporatist orientation.
TUC General Secretary O’Grady is now warning: ‘Since before the crash, the EU, along with the IMF and European Bank, has pursued an agenda of austerity, liberalisation and deregulation – including taking a sledge hammer to collective bargaining in the programme countries. . . ‘The government is playing with fire. They will not win blue collar votes to stay in the EU by weakening workers’ rights.’
The TUC is also warning that the TTIP trade deal between the EU and US will see irreversible privatisation of the NHS. However the TUC is refusing to demand that the UK quits the EU, despite the way that the unelected Troika of the EC, IMF and the ECB are attacking the Greek workers and the workers of Europe.
The News Line however supports the Greek workers and the workers of the EU and demands that Britain quit the EU, and that the working class of Europe overthrows the EU and replaces it with the Socialist United States of Europe.
