Merseyside TUSC rally: Standing up for the working class in the EU debates

Lindsey oil refinery construction workers striking against EU-backed undermining of nationally agreed trade union conditions, photo by Sean Figg

Lindsey oil refinery construction workers striking against EU-backed undermining of nationally agreed trade union conditions, photo by Sean Figg   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Hugh Caffrey

Nearly 70 people crammed into the meeting hall at the Casa to hear Merseyside TUSC’s “socialist case against the EU” last night, including many young people and first-time attendees of TUSC events.

Audrey Glover, speaking for former TUSC Preston councillor Michael Lavalette, explained the dreadful conditions enforced on refugees by the racist EU, including 300 lost children in the Calais refugee camp.

Daren Ireland, RMT regional organiser, detailed the pro-privatisation role of the EU which is now demanding further privatisation of rail services, and challenged any pro-EU person to explain how the EU could be reformed.

Angela Grant, TUSC candidate and PCS member, argued that we need to “bust the myth” that the EU is in favour of workers’ rights, and explained the real situation for working and poor people in Britain today.

Roger Bannister, TUSC candidate for Liverpool mayor and member of Unison’s NEC spoke (in a personal capacity) powerfully about the direction of the EU towards ever-greater austerity and privatisation, and lacerated those who should be standing up for working class people but instead pass the buck to the neoliberal EU.

The speakers argued for internationalism and socialism as the alternative to the bosses’ EU, and a Leave vote on Thursday 23rd as a necessary step in breaking with austerity. These were sentiments clearly shared by the majority of the floor.

TUSC’s meeting is the biggest left or union debate on Merseyside to date about the EU referendum, showing the popular appeal of a socialist case against the EU, and a fraction of what could be achieved if the official labour movement did its duty.


This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 15 June 2016 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.