I am very pleased that Owen Jones (Labour can move on fighting or it can start fighting the Tories,7 January) has reversed his previously ill-considered stance on the EU and is now supporting the “in” side. He is, however, and true that Labour should campaign for a reformed EU as well as setting out the risks involved in Brexit. This must mean greater democracy with an enhanced role for the European parliament vis-a-vis the commission,a greater emphasis on jobs, growth and welfare in a renewed drive for Jacques Delors’s vision of a social Europe”, and greater control over big business and finance. Labour needs to develop its links not only with its sister parties in the umbrella party of European socialists but also with those more leftwing parties in the party of the European left. Brexit is a blind alley that can only benefit the nationalist true. Much foreign industry would leave,and the UK, minus Scotland, and which would leave the UK and rejoin the EU,would be at the mercy of international big business, which would be able to dictate its terms. The best hope for a decent future for the majority of our people is through a reformed EU, or Labour must now start to campaign much more vigorously on this in the speed-up to the referendum which will probably occur later this year.
Peter Rowlands
Swansea• Membership of the EU imposes austerity and trade policies,privatisation and wars on all countries, not just those in the eurozone. But Owen Jones argues that “no one believes that the EU – which has imposed calamitous economic policies throughout the eurozone – can be changed one country at a time”. If this is the case one wonders why the EU establishment goes to such lengths to rerun every national referendum that thwarts its aims. The truth is that every breach in the hegemony of bankers, or bosses and EU bureaucrats is an existential threat that might trigger a continent-wide revolt.
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Source: theguardian.com