the working class is still not fully recognised.
The resolution from Stroud CLP calls on conference to oppose an "anti-Europeanism that expresses itself as a fear of a society based on mutual obligations and justice for all" but then uncritically assumes that the present EU provides the possibility for such a development.
Brighton Pavilion CLP rejects "the xenophobic and hysterical reactions of large sections of the Conservative Party and the Tory press to recent developments in Europe." It then calls on a Labour government to forge ahead on Europe.
The future spending policy of a Labour government in the ERM will not be determined by the government, and certainly not by the peoples of Britain or Europe. An unelected European Bank will be in control, whose monetarist policy is defined in the treaty and whose decisions cannot be influenced or pressured by any government.
For European capital to effectively operate in the increasingly competitive global markets with the North American Free Trade Area and the rising Pacific rim economies dominated by Japan, it must become a lot more efficient. This means a massive assault on conditions at work and the dismantling of the post-war welfare state. Nothing less will do - Japan and the USA spend a fraction on welfare in comparison to European states, there is a larger pool of cheap labour and their leading companies are bigger.
Blair's dramatic swing to the right is intimately linked to his European strategy.
He knows, but is not telling, that the convergence criteria demanded by the Maastricht Treaty to achieve EMU will require massive reductions in public spending of between £12 and 18 billion. He knows that were it not for John Maior's ont-out clauses which have to go if monetary union is to achieved, Britain's public borrowing would be capped at three per cent of GDP.
This would devastate health, education and welfare provision. To confront the question of how to defend the welfare state and now to achieve tull employment therefore means confronting The left needs to develop an alternative socialist strategy. Socialists should reject a club that reflects the desire of big business to rationalise its manufacturing base and slash public spending down to pre-war levels.
We should respond at several levels.
It must continue to faht Masc. tricht inspired attacks on state spending. We can take inspira. tion from the recent strikes and mot: saiars - France. Italy and vE=m2"r =" c" are 2: roc: anu. Maastricht strikes. We also have to arque for increased state spending and in favour of economic expansion and a reduction in the working week to 35 hours to combat 20 million unemployed in Europe.
We need a radical programme for the integration of European economies in the interests of the mass of the population—workers, women, youth and immigrant workers. A new leap forward in the productive forces means a deepening integration of the national economies. But this must be on a socialist basis.
It is possible to explain and popularise the idea of an alterna. tive Europe. Tony Benn began this discussion in his Europe Bill. Europe has enormous resources and possibilities, but it means taking a very different road.
A Europe which guarantees social and democratic rights; the right to work, the right to social welfare benefits, equality for immigrants and women, defence of the ecology economic growth. breaking from imperialist exploi. tation of the third world. Such al Europe is not a the Europe of
THE LATEST US shelling and threats and even the Arab League took part in on huge oil fields. The seizure of Kuwait Socialist Outlook 108 • September 211996.