THE EU BENEFITS BIG BUSINESS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2016 :: RMTnews 28 EXCLUSIVE CROYDE BAY OFFERS FOR RMT MEMBERS Mid-week Autumn offer only £166.25 for four nights for up to 6 people. Available for a self-catering cottage on the following dates: Monday October 3 to Friday October 7 Monday October 10 to Friday October 14 Monday October 31 to Friday November 4 Monday November 7 to Friday November 11 New Year’s Eve at Croyde Bay Resort December 29 to-January 2 including a gala dinner Hotel and self-catering accommodation available Five per cent RMT discount off tariff rates W hat does RMT’s policy of backing Brexit mean for black and ethnic minority members and their families? asks RMT member Glen Hart. We have seen the insurgency of far-right groups and political parties across Europe, using the refugee crisis and terrorist attacks to promote faux- nationalism on the basis of Islamphobia and anti- immigration rhetoric. This has encouraged right- wing parties like UKIP and their counterparts in Europe, along with the right-wing media, to exploit the Brexit campaign, capitalising on divisive politics based on people’s fear and hate. As a consequence, it has not only split the Remain camp on the right of politics, it has also split those on the left who do not want any type of association with xenophobic or racist sentiment. One argument, often repeated, aimed at the left-wing case for exiting the EU is that voting to leave will strengthen the right-wing populist groups whose anti-immigration arguments have dominated the media over the last few years. However, what this approach fails to take into consideration is the rise of xenophobia and racist, right-wing parties taking place while we’re currently in the EU. Fortress Europe has not in any way prevented non-EU migrants, including thousands of women and children being left to die in the Mediterranean. Others, detained in border camps, are often systematically abused, abandoned and sometimes tortured. It is demonstrably wrong to suggest that their plight and the life’s of others will improve because we remain in the EU. Their plight is already dreadful. Furthermore, the argument for or against the EU have nothing to do with immigration. Immigration is “dog whistle” politics used by the right to help distract working people from actual issues more fundamentally affecting their daily lives – low wages, high rents, worsening public services, attacks on the NHS. In the 1965 general election, considered Britain’s most racist, a similar backdrop of anti- immigration narrative was provided that eventually cumulated with Enoch Powell infamous ‘River of Blood’ speech. Wafer-thin race relations legislation followed, as a foil to tougher immigration laws. The EU is not a socially progressive institution as it is sometimes presented. It is an organisation designed to benefit big business and the mask is now slipping. The EU establishes permanent austerity for its member states. This has already been confirmed by its treatment of Greece, Portugal and Italy. In Greece particularly, the vast majority of workers have had their lives devastated by EU diktat! In addition, a key feature of the politics of austerity is the disproportionate effect it has for historically oppressed communities – which is an additional layer of injustice and injury arising from EU and home-grown anti-labour policies. Overall, RMT policy is right. Continued membership of the EU offers nothing for working people in the UK and even less for black and ethnic minority communities. THE EU BENEFITS BIG BUSINESS