Democrat June 2000 (Number 44)
The National Question
Contribution to discussion by Colin Bullen
The leading article by Jim Wheland is a timely warning of the fate which
awaits the ordinary people, not only of this country, but of the world,
if unbridled capitalism is allowed to continue its progress towards
achieving full 'globalisation', and illustrates that the fight against
the European Union, significant though it is, is only a part of a
greater war against world-wide corporatism. As those who feel no
allegiance to anything but their own self interest pursue ever greater
profits, regardless of the needs of their workers, we shall see a
society in which an elite, composed of financiers, bureaucrats and the
sort of corrupt politicians who run so much of Europe, supported by a
ignorant layer of celebrities from entertainment and sport, will enjoy
the benefits of unalloyed greed while everyone else will be reduced to
mere cogs in a totally ruthless, competitive world. No value will be
placed on anything except so called efficiency, and the means to make
money at other's expense, and workers will be held to ransom by multi
national companies forcing down wages by transferring operations to
wherever they can maximise profits.
Now that the Labour Party has succumbed to the pseudo Conservative Tony
Blair, supported by corporatists in the Trade Union movement such as
John Monks who, by pandering to the wishes of that ultimate capitalist
club, the European Union, would surrender our democracy to Brussels,
there is a crying need for the revival of a true mass movement which
rejects the soulless philosophy espoused by the right wing and seeks to
restore comradely concern for all to the forefront of its policies.
Jim Wheland is right that we must not allow a ideological objection to
nationalist sentiments to destroy our rights and freedoms. Of course we
reject the narrow racism of the right but a positive and progressive
nation state can protect its citizens, and this need not lead to
antagonism with other countries. If every working person made the effort
to hold their union leadership and their political representatives to
account we could take back the power to determine the shape of our lives
and defeat those who would turn this world into some gigantic version of
a laissez faire Victorian factory. All it takes is the combined will,
for these selfish elites number a few hundred thousand, while we number
in the thousand of millions.