Clearing the decks for Privatisation

international | eu | news report Saturday December 06, 2003 03:59 by seedot

Some news from the campaign - someday soon we will have to vote on something.

They'll call it the Constitution - the Book of the people.

Read a news report and then a link

Did a press conference today.
If you’ve never done one – they’re a strange way to talk to people. Instead of going for a pint (being irish) or food (european) or scheduling some whiteboard time (guess) you rent a room in a hotel and make quick speeches and then have a chat. I didn’t make one of the speeches, but I asked a question and partook of the chat.

The occasion was the coming to Ireland of Franz Stumann, DG of the Assembly of the European Regions. Franz smoked a pipe, was really informed and passionate and had a job I’d never heard of. But he had a copy of the proposed constitution for Europe and a huge desire to explain his view of what was going on.

The main thrust of his view is contained in the DAPSE release, which is elsewhere on the newswire. He sees the extension of the common commercial policy to include education, health and culture as an attack on our public society. He talked about QMV, and how now we don’t know how our ministers vote. He wanted to protect the idea of subsidiarity, of federation, in how Europe is organised.

Talking with him were Joe Higgins, Patricia Mckenna and Pat Cahill. Usual suspects with the welcome addition of Mr Cahill. This is a good thing – Bill McCamley at the social forum gave me hope. Trade Unionists turning up to talk about international trade negotiations is, IMHO, a good thing.

Joe had to rabble rouse and run – he knows and campaigns on this stuff, looked at the room and said hello all. Franz Sturmann then started to tell his story of the constitution.
In it, a theme started to develop – the social vs the economic. This was taken up by Pat Cahill who spoke of the Boston vs Berlin debate. Since Boston was coming to Berlin, this became less of a choice. He described the constitution as ‘Clearing the decks for privatisation’. Patricia McKenna gave some European context – the story of the non referendum in Sweden – after the Euro referendum, the people are unsound.

So…. Press conferences – stupid way to talk to people. EU constitution – well today was the kick off. Before the text is agreed, before the date is set, Bertie is meeting in Dublin Castle and DAPSE has a press conference.

I reckon there’ll be a better way to talk about the constitution in the Teachers club at the DAPSE seminar today (Sat. 11 am) (the press conference you just have to do). Learn your jargon – this one is going to run.