Seeing the bosses' point of view even before they do: euro-fanatic TUC chief John Monks French government having outdone even Thatcher's gang of asset-strippers in the scale of privatisation in the dash to cut back. government spending in readiness for the Euro. In spite of all the evidence of the ways on which the structures and restrictions of EMU work against the interests of European workers, Monks has been only one of an increasingly vocal band of right wing bureaucrats urging an early British entry to the single currency. U ntil now they have largely been content to grumble in the wings that by not joining the currency in January British business has somehow "missed the boat". This line is similar to that argued by disgraced former EU economics commissioner Yves de Silguy, who recently had the nerve to claim that the failure to enter from day one was a "European tragedy" for the Blair governNow it seems that GMB leader John Edmonds will link up with the renegade AEEU to launch a new right wing offensive aimed to commit the TUC to campaigning actively for the single currency.
A fight over the euro at the TUC will put pressure on UNISON's diffident leadership to defend its conference policy, which until now the union's Millbank-run political staff have contrived to relegate to the background.
It could also push the issue back into the limelight, and trigger a new round of debate on the implications of the euro within the trade union movement.
Socialists should maintain the line of fighting for maximum solidarity with European workers against the bosses and bankers who are so keen to impose the single currency and the austerity that goes with it.