The Austerity Treaty: Is the call for a referendum a sensible strategy?

national | eu | opinion/analysis

Friday February 17, 2012 10:47

by Gregor Kerr - Workers Solidarity Movement - personal capacity

The fiscal treaty, as agreed by EU governments, is clearly an austerity treaty and will impose serious levels of economic and financial pain on Irish workers for years to come. In his blog ‘Notes On The Front’ Unite economist Michael Taft says “The Government, in signing the Fiscal Treaty, has effectively committed itself to introducing up to €6 billion more in tax increases and spending cuts in the medium-term, over and above what it has already planned”.[1]

The prospect of such an approach is horrific and should shock all of us into action. Unless this is resisted we can expect even further tax increases, wage cuts and a slashing of all public services over the next couple of years.

The fiscal treaty, as agreed by EU governments, is clearly an austerity treaty and will impose serious levels of economic and financial pain on Irish workers for years to come. In his blog ‘Notes On The Front’ Unite economist Michael Taft says “The Government, in signing the Fiscal Treaty, has effectively committed itself to introducing up to €6 billion more in tax increases and spending cuts in the medium-term, over and above what it has already planned”.[1]

The prospect of such an approach is horrific and should shock all of us into action. Unless this is resisted we can expect even further tax increases, wage cuts and a slashing of all public services over the next couple of years.

The Irish government has clearly made every effort to try to avoid putting this treaty to a referendum of the people. Indeed, the Irish Times reported on 1st February that the treaty was specifically designed to minimise the likelihood of an Irish referendum[2]. The response of most on the left has been to call for a referendum. Michael Taft says at the end of the article quoted above “there is no question we are heading into substantially more austerity stretched out over a longer period – so much so that it might make Richard Tol’s prediction of a decade of austerity seem optimistic.

Boy, do we need a referendum”.

Meanwhile Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy has launched an online petition, saying “The government is scared of this going before the people because of the verdict that people may pass, given their experience of EU/IMF imposed austerity so far….. If thousands of people sign the petition, it can help create the massive political pressure that will be needed to force the government to hold a referendum.”[3] And on January 24th a Campaign Against the Austerity Treaty was launched at a press conference in Dublin hosted by the Campaign for a Social Europe and attended by representatives of a number of left political organisations.

Sensible?

But is the call for a referendum the most sensible strategy for building opposition to this treaty and this policy? Do any of those calling for a referendum really believe that if we reject the treaty in a referendum that our wishes will be respected and that international capitalism will see the error of its ways and cancel its efforts to make us pay the gambling debts of international financiers?

See full article at http://www.wsm.ie/c/austerity-treaty-ireland-call-refer...ategy