DVD REVIEW - A GUIDE TO ACTION

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: november/december 2008 :: RMTnews 16 Want to know how the European Union is privatising rail networks in member states? Interested in exactly how the Lisbon Treaty would undermine democracy? Need to know how European Court of Justice rulings attack trade union rights? Then this DVD is for you. This timely film, produced by the union in the wake of the Irish voters rejection of the repackaged EU constitution, explains in accessible and simple language how the anti- democratic direction of the EU affects transport workers. The film shows how the privatisation of our railways and other public services are enshrined in a series of EU directives which take decision- making out of the hands of the citizens of member states and transfers these powers to faceless and unaccountable mandarins in Brussels. The film is divided into three sections the first, introduced by Brian Denny of Trade Unionists Against the EU Constitution (www.tuaeuc.org), looks at the Lisbon Treaty and offers an excellent crash course into the workings of the EU. Veteran democracy campaigner Tony Benn explains that the Lisbon Treaty actually enshrines right wing, Thatcherite economics as a constitutional goal, a move so reactionary that it doesn’t even exist in the US constitution. As Benn says, “Lisbon is an absolute charter for multi- national companies to run Europe”. The Treaty also lays the basis for an EU army and a military- industrial-complex, which will allow Brussels to carry out military adventures in its own right. RMT general secretary Bob Crow points out that in Ireland, the only country to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, it was the progressive forces which voted ‘No’. “It’s not strange that big business voted yes and working people voted no” he says. RAIL PRIVATISATION Ian Jack – author of The Crash that Stopped Britain, the book about the Hatfield rail crash, talks about the lowering of safety standards as a result of privatisation. He argues that the high- speed railways so admired in France, Germany and Spain were created by the nation and state intervention, not the market forces which the EU wants to impose. Alex Gordon from the RMT’s Council of Executives explains how Britain’s disastrous rail privatisation programme was modelled on EU directive 91/440. There are several interviews with campaigning European trade unionists that are experiencing the EU rail privatisation model pioneered in Britain. RMT members also explain how EU diktats undermine national collective bargaining and leads to the casualisation of jobs and ‘social dumping’. “This obsession with market competition will actually drive the salaries of our members down and down,” one member says. TRADE UNION RIGHTS In the final section, Institute of Employment Rights director Carolyn Jones looks at recent European Court of Justice rulings which attack hard-won trade union rights to defend their members. Carolyn and John Hendy QC explain in detail how the ECJ is seeking to shackle trade unions by giving itself the right to decide on whether strike action is valid or not, something that even Margaret Thatcher could not achieve. Anyone who is opposed to the privatisation of the rail industry or concerned about the ongoing assault on democracy and union rights across Europe needs to see this film. It makes a complex subject digestible and is ideal to show at branch meetings and other gatherings as an opening to a discussion on campaigning for the nationalisation of the rail industry and to defend democracy here and across the EU. Steve Silver reviews an RMT film, available to members free, explaining union policy against the Lisbon Treaty and EU directives that privatise our public services DVD Review A GUIDE TO ACTION Send for your free DVD to RMT DVD, Unity House, 39 Chalton Street, London, NW1 1JD Name .................................................................... Address ................................................................ .............................................................................. .............................................................................. Email.....................................................................