Alex Miller
On June 10, Scottish voters will go to the polls to elect seven new members of the European Parliament. The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), which has six members in the Scottish Parliament, launched its MEP election campaign on May 17.
The SSP has been at the forefront of the anti-war movement in Scotland, and its manifesto for the European elections urges voters to use the election as a referendum on British PM Tony Blair's disastrous decision to involve Britain in the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq.
While other opposition parties in Scotland are also urging voters to use the elections as a referendum on the British Labour government's participation in the US-led war against Iraq, the SSP's election manifesto (available at <http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org> notes that the SSP is the only party committed to the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.
The SSP is also urging voters to elect an MEP from Scotland who is opposed to the European Union's plans for making the continent into a profiteers' paradise.
"The immediate priority of the rulers of the EU is to restructure the economies of Europe to enable free market capitalism to flourish and profitability to soar", the SSP manifesto explains.
"This is entirely in tune with the ethos at the heart of the European Union, which is pro-big business, pro-free market and anti-public sector. At the heart of the EU project is the principle of maximum freedom for capital. It is, in essence, a regional version of unbridled globalisation: a vast economic bazaar where multinationals reign supreme, where profit is sacrosanct and where the peoples of Europe are forced to participate in a race backwards, a race to the bottom."
The manifesto argues that, with the entry of 15 new countries into the EU, the big companies will have the best of all worlds at their disposal — countries such as Poland, Hungary and Latvia have "an educated workforce and a reasonably well-developed infrastructure. At the same time they offer sweatshop wages and conditions and bargain basement tax rates. And on top of that, they now offer direct access to the lucrative free market that is the European Union."
The manifesto explains how the draft EU constitution will force member countries to join the euro currency zone and to surrender monetary policy to the European Central Bank. In addition, the EU growth and stability pact "forces national governments into a financial straitjacket, imposing draconian penalties against any government that allows its budget deficit to rise above three per cent of its national GDP... [I]t could have a devastating impact on Scotland and the UK in the event of a future recession, when tax revenues decline steeply and welfare spending rises sharply."
The manifesto explains that an SSP MEP would be committed to fighting to reduce the power of the undemocratic political institutions of the EU, such as the Council of Ministers and the European Commission, which are "designed to protect the political and economic elites of Europe from the pressures of ordinary people".
Like the SSP MSPs, an SSP MEP would live on no more than the average wage of a skilled worker, fully disclose all expenses claims, and publish a monthly digest of their activities in the Scottish Socialist Voice, the SSP's weekly paper.
While opposed to the capitalist EU, the manifesto explains that the SSP is "an internationalist party" which stands for European political unity "based on voluntary co-operation from below" — "a Europe in which all nations are equal. A Europe based on social equality. A Europe whose economy is based on public ownership. A socialist Europe."
The SSP has been vigorous in building links with other European left parties, pan-European progressive movements and the European Social Forum.
From Green Left Weekly, June 2, 2004.
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