SAYING NO TO LISBON TREATY AGAIN

From the moment that Irish people rejected the Lisbon Treaty on June 12 2008, it was clear that the European Union would force another vote, activists from the People’s Movement (PM) in Ireland told the RMT executive committee recently. PM secretary Frank Keoghan and Kevin McCorry thanked the union for the assistance it gave in the successful campaign last year and for its continuing support in any future referendum which EU leaders say must be held before October 2009. “Irish people expected their sovereign decision to reject the Lisbon Treaty to be respected and forcing this re-vote only serves to further highlight the contempt for democracy by EU institutions. “The EU is now entering a post-democratic phase,” warned Frank. Brussels and political elites have also ensured that France and Dutch voters that rejected the EU constitution in 2005 were not even allowed to vote on the reheated version called Lisbon. “When the Irish rejected Lisbon we were voting against a neo-liberal free-for-all, militarism and the removal of sovereignty and for Irish independence, decent public services and our neutrality,” said Kevin, who was formerly secretary of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association which fought for democratic rights in the north of Ireland. He said that the growing feeling in the country resembled the resentment felt by many in the 1970’s when democratic rights were withheld from nationalists in the north. “There is clearly a growing anger within communities that Irish political elites and Brussels are ignoring them. “This second referendum, whenever it comes, will reflect that and people will also be putting forward a people’s agenda for change,” he said. Kevin said that this meant calling for the return of political and economic powers taken by EU institutions as well as national resources like Ireland’s fishing grounds which have been devastated by EU policies. He said that the Irish Ferries dispute in 2006, when Irish seafarers were replaced by Eastern European labour at far lower wage rates, had alerted people to the dangers of social dumping. A number of European Court of Justice rulings such as the Laval and Viking cases has even increased the prospect of social dumping by attacking workers’ rights to national bargaining and giving employers powerful rights to displace workers at will. “Should Lisbon come into force this court would become the supreme court of a new superstate. “Yet the European Court of Justice has already made it clear in at least two cases that the “fundamental rights” in the Treaty’s Charter of Fundamental Rights could be restricted in the interests of a “common organisation of the market” or to advance “objectives of general interest pursued by the Community”. “In effect the market becomes the substitute for democracy, and human rights become marketised and that is a fundamental attack on workers rights,” said Frank. The Charter also guarantees “freedom to conduct a business in accordance with Community law.” But this is qualified in the EU’s objectives: “The Member States and the Union shall act in accordance with the principle of an open market economy with free competition”. In effect, this imposes a RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: february 2009 :: RMTnews 24 SAYING NO TO THE LISBON TREATY AGAIN People’s Movement representatives addressed the RMT executive recently to outline the campaign for a ‘No’ vote in Ireland in the upcoming second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty VICTORY: Peoples Movement members celebrate on June 13 2008