UNDERSTANDING THE ‘NATIONAL QUESTION’

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2013 :: RMTnews 27 This pamphlet has been published to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Desmond Greaves and the 75th Anniversary of the Connolly Association. Greaves pioneered the idea of a civil rights movement in Ireland and wrote extensively and critically about the early moves towards a corporate European superstate at a time when much of the left abandoned EU-critical ideas. With an introduction by RMT general secretary Bob Crow, this easy-to-read booklet carries two important articles on the connection between socialism and nationalism and in defence of national sovereignty. As editor of the Irish Democrat newspaper for many years Greaves was among the first to warn that the European Union would enable transnational corporations to dominate the economy and attack workers in Europe and beyond. He strongly advocated that the most important political task for all democrats and the labour movement is to defend the nation-state as the only mechanism which has evolved to impose controls on private capital. Greaves points out that one definition of the EU is of six broken empires joined together in a temporary alliance. Today these empires are embroiled in another imperialist effort to exploit the undeveloped world and revitalise capitalism in Europe. In the introduction Bob Crow says: “EU diktats privatising our national infrastructure, destroying British manufacturing and attacking workers’ rights originate in the think-tanks of monopoly corporations and are implemented through the EU institutions which are the antithesis of democracy and accountability”. As the EU centralises ever more power and abolishes democracy, workers’ rights and public services across Europe this pamphlet is a good starting point to understanding what is actually happening. Greaves, C Desmond: The National Question: Democrat Publications: 36pp: £2(plus 50p postage): ISBN 978-1-904260- 12-7 [Available from Democrat Press, PO Box 46295, London W5 2AG and Connolly Association, PO Box 753, Borehamwood, Herts. WD6 9JA]. UNDERSTANDING THE ‘NATIONAL QUESTION’ Connolly Association publishes works by Desmond Greaves on the centenary of the author’s birth