Roy Wilkes reports from the National Union of Teachers (NUT) Conference in Cardiff and suggests that No2EU may be more open than some might think.
No2EU held a very interesting fringe meeting at NUT conference on Monday. Rob Griffiths and Dave Nellist spoke. There were about 60 people in attendance, including quite a few SP members (many of them youth) from Cardiff , plus NUT delegates from a variety of currents.
Rob Griffiths spoke about the importance of a national trade union fielding candidates against New Labour. He said that they were aiming to include workers in struggle on the lists, and that the convener of one of the Visteon plants had agreed to stand. No2EU has already raised £55 000 and will be standing in every Euro constituency, and in two of the constituencies (the North West and the West Midlands I think) they will be mailshotting every household. There will also be television broadcasts. Griffiths said that the emphasis on opposing the posted workers directive was important because under that directive it is the bosses who control the movement of labour and they do so in a way that undermines trade union terms and conditions. Instead of accepting this situation, the approach of the left should be to resist it, but we should also oppose all racist immigration laws.
Dave Nellist explained that other left-of-labour initiatives hadn’t worked but that this one was different in that it was based on an important left wing trade union. Indeed, it has been the railworkers who had been instrumental in setting up the Labour Party in the first place. He said that after the Euro election there would be an evaluation of the initiative, based not only on votes received but more importantly on the strength of the alliance that was generated, with a view to exploring the possibility of a longer term alliance. Nellist said that after the election, any MEPs elected would meet with No2EU supporters in their constituencies to discuss what they should do next. He said that taking a worker’s wage was popular when he did it as an MP, and that this was the pledge of No2EU. The MEPs would concentrate not on sitting in Brussels but on campaigning both in Britain and beyond, including making links with other workers parties such as the NPA.
A member of the AWL criticised the initiative for pandering to nationalism, and said that the campaign should not be about the EU. I responded to that contribution by suggesting that opposing the Lisbon treaty wasn’t pandering to nationalism but was an essential component of any intervention into what is after all a European election. I referred to the ‘non’ campaign in France , which had been led by the LCR and which had marginalised the FN. I welcomed Rob Griffiths’ opposition to racist immigration laws but said that this should have been featured in the platform of the initiative. Socialist Resistance comrade Stuart said that the phrase ‘social dumping’ should not be used, and that the defense of industry, agriculture and fisheries was not class based. Interestingly, members of the SP in the audience were also critical of the No2EU platform as it stands and suggested that it should be more explicitly socialist.
Dave Nellist and Rob Griffiths both agreed with the criticisms that had been made by myself, Stuart and the SP members, and said that No2EU was a work in progress, and that the leaflet we were referring to was an early leaflet which had been rushed out. Nellist hoped that a convention would be held after the election to take the initiative forward. Rob Griffiths responded to criticisms from the AWL, who said that some people had been excluded from the initiative, by saying that the only people excluded were those who had opposed the initiative and wanted to prevent it from happening. Any left group that supports the initiative can be involved.
There seems to be an openness to this process which many of us hadn’t previously acknowledged. And it would seem that the platform of No2EU, and of whatever might follow it, is not a closed book but an evolving process.
Liam redux 
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