CAEF Statement 17.6.16 from Democrat
The free movement of cheap labour
Immigration is where a person wishes to leave the country where they live to emigrate and throw their lot in with another country. They must agree to and accept the laws and economic ups and downs of their new home and respect the culture of that country including the language. They may become 'naturalised' after a period of residence.
Refugees and asylum seekers are those whose lives are threatened in their own country. This is part of long established international law, treaties and conventions.
The European Single Market of 28 EU Member States is defined as the 'free movement of capital, goods, services and people (meaning labour)'. The 1986 treaty known peculiarly as the Single European Act (SEA) was the launch of the Single Market consolidated in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. But, was it a peculiar name?
The right of all within the EU to free movement has and is being used to encourage and take full and calculated advantage of a large pool of labour by employers. Those people from eastern, central and southern EU Member States are being used to press down wages and undermine workplace conditions.
Part of this 'free movement is a continuous attempt to scrap the right to nationally agreed collective bargaining between employers and trade unions and professional associations. The European Court of Justice has ruled against collective bargaining and in favour of 'free movement of labour'. Several cases have been well documented such as Viking (Finnish seamen), Laval (building workers in Sweden) and Raufert (posted workers). The going rate for skilled and other workers in Britain is either one third the nationally agreed rate, minimum wage or a zero hour contract. In eastern and central Europe EU member states have had professional and skilled workers 'poached' by employers, especially in Britain. This is leaving whole areas, towns and districts without these professions and workers. Many families and children have been deserted which has resulted in huge social and economic problems.
The near unprecedented mass movement of economic refugees from outside the EU does not fall into the above categories. They are largely the result of impoverished countries due to a variety of reasons including crypto-imperialism. This includes military action against their governments by forces from within the EU plus the United States of America.
Economic refugees are largely men who should stay in their own country to fight and struggle for their rights and conditions, and, in support of their legitimate government. They should not be encouraged in any way, as Germany did, to come to EU Member States.
In total there are 25 million unemployed, a eurozone in an unsolvable deep crisis and the Schengen free movement area has collapsed. Greece has been turned into a colony within the EU with Spain, Portugal and Ireland close behind. There is a common austerity policy across all EU Member States.
A major factor in the solution to bring an end to this mass movement of economic refugees is for nation-states to cease interfering in the internal affairs of other nation-states. If this were to be brought about there would be a great deal more peace in the world with less wasted expenditure on the military-industrial-complex.
That is not all by a long way. The un-amendable secret take-it or reject-it TTIP would bolt the US and EU markets together with the free movement of everything, as would the EU-India Free Trade pact. Further afield is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). All these would overlap with the objective of doing away with the powers of national governments, nation states and democracy for the unaccountable transnational corporations and banks to rule the world and damn what happens to the peoples.
Notice was given years ago that the simple objective of the EU project was to unravel the French Revolution which established the nation-state and democracy, the American Revolution which established the right to self determination of a state. Even the half English revolution which ended the divine right of kings to rule over England could be further eroded. More recently the Russian Revolution has all but been unravelled.
A step towards defending the nation-state, powers of national governments and democracy must be a vote to leave the EU, take back full control of our borders and bring an end to the 'free movement of capital, goods, services and labour'. Having achieved the national leave camp objective, or not, then is the time to elect a government which will have the powers to legislate for the rational development of Britain for all its peoples.