with the other European leaders is that they have not yet been able to inflict the sort of crushing defeat on the working class that the Tories managed to do in Britain.
No doubt he will be able to pass on plenty of tips on how to do this -tips he has picked up during his cosy chats with Margaret Thatcher.
He can also get plenty of advice • from his newly appointed Minister to do in Britain. ers'rights throughout Europe. Labour is as equally determined as the Tories to maintain a British veto over immigration and defence.
Under Blair Britain will remain an island fortress within Fortress Europe. Immigration policy, desible common denominator. We argue the exact opposite.
We are not opposed, in the abstract, to a common currency - the question is in whose interest does it operate?
But we need to take the argument DURING the harsh years of Tory rule, many union leaders effectively gave up any hope of fighting or winning demands from British employers.
A growing school of thought emerged within the TUC and union bureaucracy which pinned the future hopes of the British trade union movement on developments in Europe.
This was, we hasten to explain, nothing to do with linking up with the continued militancy of the working classes across Europe, or borrowing from the fighting spirit of the French lorry drivers and others who have repeatedly flouted the lawand defied governments to win their demands: no the TUC focus was on the bureaucratic intrigues of the European Parliament as the saviour of working class interests.
This was intensified when first Thatcher and then Major refused to sian the so-called "Social Chapter", which gives the EU a wafer-thin veneer of concern for "social" Issues while driving forward towards a single market and single currency designed to increase competition and facilitate the free movement of capital.
The same mythology has been perpetuated with Labour's Immediate announcement that it will now sign up for the Social Chapter, which offers a package of employment protection measures including a ceiling on working hours, minimum holidays and equal rights for part-timers, along with improvements in health & safety legislation and the right of an employee to join a trade union.
Obviously we in support of these reforms.But with its prior commitment to retain the Tory anti-union laws, which place no requirement on employers to recognise or negotiate with unions, this is, like so many New Labour policies, a hollow gesture.
As the Renault workers have found out, EU legislation does not guarantee job protection: and as the German miners showed, only class action can beat back the offensive of the employers and EU governments.