From Unity, 21 June 2008

Stunning victory: Ireland says “No”

by Ernest Walker

The campaign in the Republic to reject the Lisbon Treaty culminated in what can only be described as a stunning victory that will have repercussions throughout the other member-states of the European Union. The president of the Czech Republic has already declared that the treaty is finished, but we all know that it will not go away that easily.
     The disparity of the “No” campaign may have worried some people on the left, but it seems that this actually enhanced the chances of winning. We would find it difficult to rub shoulders with those who were campaigning on the question of abortion, as we would with those from Libertas, especially its founder, who compared the European Union as something akin to the former socialist countries of Europe.
     One article in the Guardian was entitled “A godsend to every crank in Ireland—on the left and right,” but the author had to admit that it would be likely that the treaty would have been defeated in many countries had it been put to a referendum. He then gives us a rundown on who voted against: areas that depend on fishing, working-class areas in the cities, right-wing Catholics, old-fashioned nationalists, people in rural areas, and finally certain rich business interests. He then puts up, unknowingly, a good argument for voting No by stating: “The lack of accountability and transparency in how decisions are made makes people deeply suspicious of a more powerful centralised Europe.”
     Of course we on the left know that the treaty is about cementing the principles of the so-called market into law and restricting the rights of trade unions, as witnessed in the Viking and Laval cases. It is deeply worrying that the Irish Labour Party and the Executive of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions supported the Yes campaign. Having said that, five voted for, eight unions abstained, and four voted against the Executive.
     As regards those who claimed that some of the arguments used by the No campaign were spurious, they should be the last to talk. How could they expect people to read, never mind understand, a 287-page legal document which was, according to one newspaper editorial, “deliberately drafted to obscure its genetic origins—a twice-rejected constitution?” It was obviously drafted using the old British army maxim: that bullshit baffles brains.
     The Taoiseach, Brain Cowen, didn’t do the Yes campaign any good when he said that he hadn’t read the Treaty, which obviously influenced some voters to take the football referee line, that if you aren’t sure, don’t go for it. The suggestion from some commentators that, as the Irish have been one of the main beneficiaries from the EU, this vote is seen as some form of ingratitude, is as rock-bottom an argument you can get. They voted, for whatever reason, against the dictates of the unelected and for that we should be grateful.
     Éamon Gilmore, leader of the Irish Labour Party, at least commented that: “The Lisbon Treaty is dead.” In the words of one comedy actress, “Yes, it is!” Hopefully.

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