Scrap the Euro, Scrap the Treaty!
GORDON BROWN finally made his statement at the end of October, postponing British entry
to the European single currency until after the next election.
But even while outside the economic straitjacket of a currency controlled by
Europe’s top bankers, there will be no escape from the austerity offensive ushered in
by the Maastricht Treaty.
Elsewhere in Europe, resistance to Maastricht misery remains strong, as evidenced by a
resurgence of action by the French lorry drivers, and recent strikes in Spain.
However Brown has mode it clear that Labour still intends to join the new currency, and will therefore
be looking for ways to ensure that the British economy "converges" with those
which sign up for the Euro in 1999. Already Brown has effectively privatised the Bank of
England, handing over control of key levers in the economy to the tender mercies of
unelected bankers.
And he has upheld Tory cash limits on health, education and social service spending,
triggering a round of cuts this year and more to come in 1 998. With progressive taxation
ruled out as a point of principle, Labour must look to keep a firm lid on public spending,
if it is to prevent
public sector deficits exceeding the 3% limit imposed by Maastricht.
These are precisely the reasons that major unions including UNISON and the TGWU have
voted overwhelmingly against the single currency and the terms of the Maastricht Treaty.
But it is hard to
see any evidence of their leaders arguing for this policy. Instead there is the bizarre
spectacle of TUC leader John Monks apparently more enthusiastic for Monetary Union than
the CBI, mounting a one-man campaign to force the pace towards the single currency.
Top union leaders have been heard to complain in private that Monks has no mandate for
his line, but there is no sign of any fightback from senior figures on the General
Council, who have allowed the TUC to be railroaded into a policy that could slash the
services, jobs and living standards of their members.
UNISON’s Bickerstaffe seems happy enough to slap down his own members who take up
a fight in defence of public services, but clearly lacks the bottle to defend UNISON
policy in the media or challenge Monks. Bill Morris of the TGWU is more concerned to do
the government’s dirty work by breaking the Liverpool dockers’ strike than to
uphold his union’s policy in the TUC.
This issue will not go away. While the Tories tear themselves apart over the Euro, the
spineless refusal of union leaders and many on Labour’s left to oppose the Maastricht
Treaty leaves Blair and Brown in the driving seat.
The demand must go up from trade union and Labour Party bodies for the rejection of the
single currency to be coupled with a rejection of the Maastricht criteria, and for an
economic policy based on full employment and a restoration of public services, funded from
progressive taxation on big business and the rich.
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