There's no ignoring the EU

Originally published in the Morning Star 08 May.

The European elections next month will help shape the future of our continent and the world in which we live.

There are several arguments as to why the left should vote for candidates committed to engaging positively in Europe in these elections.

There is the "stop the BNP" defence. The neofascists will make a breakthrough unless the left mobilises and campaigns to persuade voters to hold their noses and go out and vote new Labour.

As the national treasurer of the Anti-Nazi League and a member of the steering committee of Unite Against Fascism, I buy the argument.

There is an acute danger that the BNP will win six to eight seats in the June 4 elections unless we mobilise to stop them, aided by the current anti-politician media feeding frenzy, the complicity of government in allowing and encouraging the bankers' greed and stupidity, and the consequent xenophobic cheap chant of "British jobs for British workers" rather than labour and trade movement action to ensure "Decent jobs for workers in Britain." Don't moan, organise.

Then there is the usual litany of the good things Europe has done for us. The social chapter plus health and safety legislation have led to better social protection, with longer maternity and paternity leave.

The adoption of the information and consultation directive means that trade unions get to be consulted on company plans rather that hear them on the local radio or read them in the newspapers.

The agency and temporary workers directive extends employment protection to groups of workers previously in a legal limbo and thus open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers.

The ongoing battle in the European Parliament to force upon a reluctant Council of Ministers a revision of the Working Time Directive could end an opt-out that means workers can work excessive hours leading to accidents in the workplace.

There is also the struggle to come to ensure a thorough revision of the Posted Workers Directive. Although originally designed to regulate the treatment of workers from one member state temporarily transferred to work in another, a series of legal judgements have turned it into a Trojan horse in the hands of multinational capital.

The European court judgements in the Viking, Laval, Rüffert and Luxembourg cases have meant the directive has been used to smuggle low wages and long working hours across member state boundaries. It is this that lay behind the dispute at Lindsay oil refinery earlier this year.

The prospect is that further judgements will only exacerbate the situation. The court can't be changed but the law can.

Socialist, Green and Communist MEPs, backed by Unite, the TUC and the ETUC, are campaigning to get colleagues and candidates to sign up to block endorsement of the new European Commission, which is due to take office later this year, unless and until there is a commitment to the necessary revision of the Posted Workers Directive in the commission's new work programme.

There is another reason for holding your nose and it's the most important for serious left activists. It's the argument about base and superstructure.

The evolution of industrial capitalism has changed the ground on which our battles have to be fought. In the late 19th century, capital and labour often fought out their struggles on the streets of our towns and cities, the factory floor and the council chamber. Then the battleground moved on to state and nation with socialists in western Europe attempting the parliamentary road to socialism.

Yet, if socialism in one country was ever to be possible in Europe, it is certainly one whose windows of opportunities are now firmly closed. Europe's industrial union - some call it the single market - is not some theoretical artifice born of wild federalist romantics. It is the product of hard-nosed businessmen, and a few women, driven to create process innovations giving economies of scale equalling and overtaking those of Japan and the United States.

But alongside scaling up production by an order of magnitude, this must be matched by the size of the domestic market.

Europe's economic, monetary and political union is the inevitable result not of the ideals of the supposed founding fathers of the union, but rather ruthless multinational capital a generation on.

Europe is not an optional add-on to nation state politics. It is increasingly the main game. Important skirmishes do still take place in Westminster and Whitehall. It will still make a difference whether Gordon Brown, Alan Johnson or David Cameron is in 10 Downing Street.

Yet the big battles will take place in and between Brussels and Beijing, Washington and Tokyo, with clashes between labour and capital at the European level and simultaneous co-operation and competition with and between the other key global actors.

As Bill Clinton said, "It's the economy, stupid." The political superstructure of the 21st century must be built on today's economic base. It would be easier if it was within the framework of the medium-sized nation state, but it isn't. It's complicated, messy and confusing. And the longer we fight on yesterday's battlegrounds, the more we handicap ourselves for tomorrow's struggle.

If we are to tackle climate change, deal with global nuclear disarmament and replace the threat of pre-emptive deterrence with negotiated resolutions, we need a strong European Union.

This necessity is merely reinforced by the welcome election of Barack Obama in the US. While new Bushes may haunt the future, even the most radical US president in half a century still intends to force the deployment of "star wars" technologies in Europe that will threaten us all and a new arms race. We need a strong Europe capable of saying No.