Socialist Party Sutton

SUTTON AND THE EU

At the first of our local discussion meetings we talked about the EU campaign and its importance for workers in Sutton.

Both official campaigns, Remain and Leave, focus mainly on what is good for business and finance - what is good for their profits. Firms with mostly EU contracts, tend towards Remain; those with a more global reach, favour Leave.

The Tory and UKIP Leave campaigns bang on about immigration - scapegoating foreign workers for low wages, job insecurity, homelessness and much else. But these crises are caused not by workers, but by corporate greed and capitalist crisis!

Who caused the closure of BHS (Sutton High Street)? Big business carpetbaggers; not immigrants.

The Remain campaign is also dominated by Tory Etonians. Along with pro-EU Labour politicians and spineless trade union “leaders”, they argue that the EU will help workers!

But workers of Greece, for example, have paid a very heavy price for their continued EU membership - having been betrayed by the false leaders of Syriza. Jobs, wages, working conditions, social services, pensions - have all been slashed! Official unemployment is around 20%. Youth unemployment is higher still.

Is the EU is helping French workers? NO. They are currently striking and demonstrating in their millions against their pro-EU “Socialist” government!

The only pro-worker campaign for Exit is being run by TUSC, and by some left trade unions (eg RMT) and parties like the Socialist Party.

This campaign explains that the EU is a thoroughly pro-corporate organisation. It demands austerity across all EU states. As Dave Nellist said (TUSC national chair), the EU is continent-wide Thatcherism!

The “local” Guardian recently reported how private firms were currently bidding to provide waste collection and related services in Sutton and some adjacent boroughs.

The report failed to say that this is precisely what EU rules demand - that all public services to be privatised.

But privatisation is usually much more expensive than direct labour. Privatisation requires a complex bidding process, an evaluation process, then an ongoing contract management process. The price charged to the council by the successful contractor will also include a comfortable margin for profits. (And once contractors seal the deal, they inevitably find ways of increasing fees over time).

For the contractor's employees, however, there is continual pressure on them to deliver more for less - constant downward pressure on wages, conditions and pensions.

A socialist council would bring these contracts back in house - but to do that we would have to battle hard against EU rules.

Unfortunately, Sutton Labour Party is not a fighting workers' party. No surprise there isn’t a single Labour councillor! And local Labour favours staying in the EU.

In or out of the EU, though, the vast majority of workers and youth will have to continue the fight for a better life and a better future. The Socialist Party will be supporting them.

So we say -
No to the EU
Yes to a voluntary, socialist united states of Europe.

For more discussion about why the EU is bad for workers - click HERE.