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Referendum Reaction. Reader JW writes from France:
Hello Laura,
I read with interest your post on the result of the French vote on the EU constitution referendum, and the articles that you pointed to as well.One important aspect of the result of the vote is the great interest the referendum generated. The fact that the text is incredibly long and difficult to read did not deter people from trying to read it, understand it and debate it among friends and family. (In mine too, my wife voted yes and I voted no - lots of discussion before we voted.) It kind of replaced soccer as the national sport in the last two months, and the 70% turnout reflects that. So the result is not a fluke. People knew what they were voting on, totally contrary to the lots of stuff in the press and media (overwhelmingly in favor of yes) about how the no proponents were playing on the ignorance and selfishness of the people.
The European socialist leaders, and especially the leaders of the Socialist Party in France, now find themselves in a pretty mess. They wanted a yes vote on a constitution which makes a free market economy mandatory. The social protection for workers which most of the British press and politicians claim to be too rigid is in fact mostly illusion: escape clauses and "explanations" which water all of that down, especially the famous article III-209 which guarantees that in case of a conflict between social policy (like protection for working people) and the need to maintain "competitiveness" it is the latter which trumps. Not only that: except for Parliament whose powers are much more limited than parliaments in any democratic country, the European leadership is not accountable to voters in any way. Yet the Socialist Party was pushing for this thing.
The European socialist leaders recently managed to bring about a "compromise" solution to the European laws on the maximum length of the work week: it is now 48 hours, averaged over 12 months, which means that a worker can be required to work more hours during some weeks but must be compensated for the long weeks by other short weeks. The previous law allowed member states to "opt out" of the 48 hour maximum but could not have a work week exceed 65 hours. This is progress? A 40 hour week has been standard in the developed world for many decades. The French socialist leaders are now in trouble because they have been pushing for the things mentioned here, which seem like treason to socialist principles to a lot of socialist voters. According to exit polls the socialist electorate voted about 60% no, a huge disavowal. I will enjoy watching the European socialist leaders squirm.
I hope you and your readers enjoy too. But I hope that progressive forces all over Europe take this occasion to mobilize for a European project in which voters have a real say about how things work, and that Europe continues to make progress toward promoting peace and social justice not only in Europe but everywhere.
Tuesday Update: Reader 'Auriga' writes in response to JW, above:
Your correspondent's surprise at the support of the European Socialists for the French EU vote is itself surprising. The Socialist
International was captured by US social democrats in the 1970s as part of a U.S. (and other) intelligence operations and then abandoned like so much spent ammo as these folks morphed into neo-conservatives early in the Reagan administration. It has not been a "socialist" organization for a long time...This repudiation of the SI is one of the reasons I find that vote heartening; it has hastened the SI's formal demise.
Now Schroeder has scheduled a vote that he is unlikely to survive. The real question: will the German Greens improve their electoral position? Quite possible. Bush is forcing a worldwide coalition against the U.S. and it is taking odd shapes.