A chance to land a blow against the EU agenda

Voters in the Essex constituency of Thurrock will have a unique opportunity to punch through the wall of silence erected by the political elite and vote for a referendum on this country's membership of the European Union.

The People's Pledge campaign is sending out ballot papers between now and April to allow constituents to have their say on whether they want a referendum or not.

Overseen by the Electoral Reform Society, the vote will put pressure on local Tory MP Jackie Doyle-Price who opposed such a poll when it was voted on in Parliament last November.

Other MPs, both for and against EU membership, chose to resist bullying whips and voted for a referendum that polls show the overwhelming majority of voters want.

If we can have a referendum on an obscure AV voting system that no-one wanted or a poll of Scottish voters about Scotland's place in the UK, why can't we have a vote on EU membership?

The No2EU campaign is supporting the Thurrock vote with leaflets, public meetings and cultural events.

Our message is clear - why should we, the taxpayer, hand over £50 million every day to EU institutions that have become a byword for corruption and graft.

The European Commission's accounts have not been signed off by accountants for nearly two decades, yet we still hand over £19 billion to it every year.

The EU is now imposing a "fiscal pact" which enforces endless economic austerity on the member states and demands pay cuts, increased taxation and the privatisation of public services.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow will be speaking in Grays, Essex, on March 22 to encourage people to get out and vote.

"We were told 20 years ago that if we accepted EU policies and the euro, working people would benefit from full employment, legal rights and decent public services," says Crow.

"Not only was this not true but EU structures are designed to protect and extend the interests of the kleptomaniacs of finance capital."

If you want to see where all this will lead you can see the future in Greece.

Last month the unelected, EU-imposed Greek government forced the latest sweeping austerity measures through a cowering parliament.

This latest bout of sado-monetarism demanded by the EU/IMF/European Central Bank troika involves sacking 15,000 public workers immediately and a further 150,000 by 2015.

Private-sector wages, the minimum wage and benefits must be slashed by 20 per cent and reducing pensions by 15 per cent.

All this is being imposed in order to secure another €130bn bailout which will never reach Greek soil as it will be immediately transferred to Europe's biggest banks which own the debt.

The more financial aid Greece gets, the bigger the debt and deeper the country's economic abyss.

This process of economic servitude is being repeated in Portugal and Ireland before being spread out across the empire.

It is a "structural adjustment programme" (SAP) for Europe being carried out directly by corporate power through EU institutions.

SAP was first introduced by monopoly capital in Africa and reduced a number of countries on that continent to economic basket cases from which people seek to flee in search of something better.

No matter to the corporations. It achieved what it set out to do - that is, hand over entire economies to Western financial oligarchs.

Greece needs to get out of the euro, regain control of its economy from the poison of EU dogma and rebuild its economy.

Britain needs to get out of the EU and regain the democratic right to run the economy how it sees fit, not based on the dead hand of EU diktat.

Yet the Con-Dem government supports this process as it imposes similar policies designed to make the poor pay for the crisis caused by bankers and fundamentalist neoliberal economics.

The people of Thurrock have a historic opportunity to put pressure on their MP and get her to listen to them or lose the next election.

Winning a vote will give ordinary people the chance to choose a different future for this country, one that is decided by votes in this country not by big business and its political mouthpieces.

If you live in Thurrock and have not received your ballot paper phone (01375) 371534.
The No2EU public meeting is being held on March 22 at 7.30pm at The Beehive Centre, West Street, Grays, Essex. Speakers include Kate Hoey MP, RMT general secretary Bob Crow and RMT president Alex Gordon.
A Folk for a Referendum music event is being held on March 23 at 8pm, with live music from Pancho and Lefty, Charlie Skelton and Phil Burdett at the White Hart Inn, Argent Street, Grays, Essex.