Continuing the debate about No2EU-Yes2Democracy, former MEP Hugh Kerr argues why he thinks No2EU was wrong about Europe.

The launch of the electoral platform No2EU Yes to Democracy by the Railworkers Union could have been a historic break with the Labour Party and the beginning of the building of a new socialist party in Britain. Instead it was received with derision by the electorate and got far less votes than the BNP. It also crucially divided the left outside the Labour Party with its crude anti-EU policies. Many of us on the left are critical of the EU but like the vast majority of European socialists and trade unionists we want to see the EU changed to improve the lives of the people and not retreat into narrow nationalism.

The origins of the No2EU campaign came from a small group of people around the Communist Party and the Trade Unions against the EU. This group had done little apart from publish a largely ignored pamphlet on the Lisbon Treaty. However they saw the European Parliament elections as a way of increasing their influence, particularly if they got unions involved in an anti-EU slate.

For a slate that had Yes to Democracy as part of its platform this initiative was launched in a remarkably undemocratic manner. A small group of like minded anti-EU individuals and groups came together with, crucially, Bob Crow of the RMT. This group proclaimed their platform and their title in February and invited a few more small socialist groups who were happy to get involved and excluded anyone who raised awkward questions about the title or the programme or the tactics.

They publicly launched on March the 19th at a press conference which was largely ignored by the press, apart from an appearance by Bob Crow on the Daily Politics with Andrew Neil.

Here Bob quickly gave the game away, saying "we want to leave the EU and join the world". He also repeated the misinformation of the No2EU platform: that the European Parliament had no power that MEPs were going to earn £120,000 a year etc. Bob has been a long time opponent of the EU since his early days in the Communist Party. I suspect like Arthur Scargill he is in favour "of leaving the Common Market" However his virulent anti-Eu politics divide the left, they do not unite it.

The platform and the website of the No2EU campaign were riddled with ignorance and inaccuracies as well as anti-EU prejudice and not a little British nationalism.

Firstly it attempts to revive the debate over the Lisbon Treaty telling us what a terrible thing it is and demanding a referendum. The truth is the Lisbon Treaty is largely a tidying up exercise of previous EU treaties, and some of it does actually improve democracy.

For example, extending co-decision powers of the European Parliament to 80% of all directives. Crucially it also has a charter of fundamental rights in it, including the right to be a trade union member. The real scandal of the Lisbon Treaty debate is that the British Labour government has negotiated an opt out of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, denying UK citizens these rights and the trade unions have been largely silent on this.

Secondly, NO2EU says workers rights are being threatened by the EU and cites recent court cases which weaken EU legislation. However the inconvenient truth is that workers rights in Britain have largely been improved over the past 30 years by EU legislation, often in the face of strong opposition from British Tory and Labour governments. Measures such as health and safety law, rights to information and consultation, limiting workers hours and protecting their conditions have all been passed by the EU and often been blocked and weakened by successive British governments.

Yes there have been recent European court judgements which weaken some directives, and there is a big campaign across Europe to reverse these judgements and to strengthen these laws. This campaign is backed by the vast majority of European trade unions and socialists.  Yet the No2EU response is to refuse to join this campaign and rely on a British solution. Ironically Britain has the worst workers rights in Europe, as Blair and Brown are happy to boast, not least because the Labour government has refused to repeal the Tory anti-trade union laws. Also they might notice that a Tory government is very likely at Westminster next year and British workers may be in need of their rights being defended by the EU!

The third point in their platform is to refuse to take part in the gravy train of Brussels. Here they combine ignorance with stupidity. They declare that the European Parliament has no powers, it is only a talking shop. Yet anyone with basic knowledge of the EU knows that the European Parliament has powers of co-decision over 70% of EU law at present, rising to over 80% under the Lisbon Treaty. This means that they have the power to change, amend or reject laws just like the House of Commons does. The only difference is that MEPs are elected by proportional representation whereas Labour has a majority of 70 in the House of Commons based on the support of 20% of the electorate and one third of voters.

They also criticise MEPs salaries which they wrongly say are £120,000 a year, roughly twice what they currently are. In any case as we have seen recently in the expenses scandal, being a British MP is not a bad gravy train.

The answer to this is the principle of the workers wage:  that MPs and MEPs should take no more than the average wage of the people they represent.  After all Tommy Sheridan did this for 8 years as an MSP in the Scottish Parliament. However this proposal is perhaps not too popular with union general secretaries such as Derek Simpson, the general secretary of Unite. They rather like their own gravy trains. In his case he gets £126,000 a year, a free million pound house for life, and stays in the Waldorf when in London!

The fourth plank of the platform is to defend public services from privatisation.  They say they are under threat from the EU. The only problem with this analysis is that Britain has privatised more public services than any other country in Europe, and without any compulsion from Europe. Also the threat they mention from the services directive has been much reduced by a very effective campaign run by European trade unions working in conjunction with that supposedly powerless body, the European Parliament.

Yes we need to defend public services and workers rights, but we will do it far more effectively if we do it working together with trade unions and socialists across Europe rather than retreating into a little Englander position. After all the incoming Tory government is hardly going to be on the workers side!

 However if the platform of No2EU is confused, misleading and pandering to little englander positions, then its electoral strategy was just plain daft. As an early document says its "unique selling point" is that if elected their candidates won't take up their seat! When it was pointed out by people who understand the electoral system that this might allow their seats to be taken by Labour, Tory, UKIP or even BNP candidates, they quickly changed it saying "well we will nominally take our seats but we won’t go there"! So they planned to campaign for our vote, win seats, accept them, take the wages and allowances but refuse to go to the parliament, indeed to use these resources to campaign against the EU. This is such a silly idea that it hardly bears examination.

Recently at the Scottish Trade Union Congress I challenged Bob Crow on this and said "what about a situation where workers rights are being debated in the European Parliament and the vote is closely balanced?" He said even then he would refuse to go there. I believe this attitude will be greeted with the derision it deserves. Socialists and trade unionists have fought for hundreds of years for democratic rights in the workplace and society, and they expect that if they elect MPs, MSPs and MEPs they will go and argue for their cause however flawed the parliaments are. To ask them to vote for you and then refuse to represent them is actually an insult to the electorate and they will reward it with derision and indifference.

The tragedy is that this could have been a significant moment in socialist history: major trade unions breaking with Labour for the first time. Indeed they could have joined with socialists and trade unionists across Europe who are proposing a socialist alternative to the crisis in capitalism.

For example the European Left Party which already has 42 MEPs elected is putting forward such an alternative. In France they were getting up to 15% support. Instead No2EU stood on a programme much of which could be happily accepted by UKIP and the BNP. Indeed recent TV coverage of them both showed them also giving out leaflets headed no to EU.

One of NO2EU's proclaimed aims was to prevent the BNP being elected, but their divisive approach split the left vote, many of whom, like me, want to see a social Europe and a people's Europe and will want to vote for someone who is actually going to represent them.

In two areas of England it could have caused the loss of excellent Green MEPs Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert, both of whom have a good record of defending workers rights in the European Parliament. All my friends and family in London and the South East voted for them. In the North West the Green candidate came within 5,000 votes of defeating the BNP candidate Nick Griffin. Since there were 50,000 votes for the left parties it can be argued that by standing they helped the BNP get elected.

  In Scotland the situation was even worse.  Not only did we have NO2EU, but also a list from the SSP who narrowly voted against participating in No2EU. Arthur Scargill's tiny Socialist Labour Party also ran a list on almost exactly the same programme as NO2EU, despite having only a few members in Scotland. However due to the misinformation factor they outpolled both the SSP and NO2EU.

In addition the Greens, who have consistently outpolled the left in Scotland in European elections, increased their vote to 7.3% and arguably a Green Left candidate could have won a seat as they could have done in 1999 and 2004.

The NO2EU campaign largely failed to be reported anywhere except the Morning Star.  It pointedly carried a quote from John Foster, the CP member who was outrageously placed (and I use the term advisedly!) at number one on the list, and failed to mention Tommy Sheridan, Scotland’s best known socialist, who was placed at number 2. Indeed the CP in Scotland didn’t want Tommy on their list at all saying "he was a divisive element" - so much for building left unity!

It was just as well the press largely ignored the NO2EU platform since they were likely to ask them this basic question, if elected will you take up your seat? Tommy Sheridan, who is a sensible socialist, said of course he would. However John Foster, the number one on the list, is on record at a meeting at the STUC as saying “in no circumstances will he take up the seat, it is the Sinn Fein position” The official line was that a convention would be held after the election to discuss what to do next. However Bob Crow has made it clear that this was not to decide whether to take up any seats won, again he supports the Sinn Fein position, but how to continue the campaign against the EU. In his words "we want to leave the EU and join the world”. Given the undemocratic way that NO2EU was created no one should have any illusions that the discussions and decisions will be taken in a democratic manner.

Karl Marx famously remarked that history often repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce. Over 100 years ago the Railway Workers Union helped to create the Labour Party which historically represented the working class for many years and in 1945 helped create the welfare state. The tragedy of New Labour has ended up by betraying the working class and is coming to an end amidst the collapse of capitalism and the corruption of the expenses scandal. Labours 15% vote was their lowest since 1918 and they are headed for defeat. Ironically at a time when capitalism is in crisis and a socialist alternative should be clearly back on the agenda, as it is in many countries round the world, in Britain the socialist left is weak, divided. and irrelevant. It is therefore highly appropriate that NO2EU added an element of farce to the European elections on June 4th and deeply ironic that the RMT, the successor to the railway workers union, was central.

 This farce fortunately was largely ignored by the electorate and indeed the derisory vote that NO2EU attracted - 0.96% -   will see it rightly consigned to its place in the dustbin of history. Let us hope that it won't make the creation of left unity and a real socialist alternative more difficult in future.

Hugh Kerr was a Labour MEP from 1994-98 expelled in 1998 he returned to Scotland to help create the Scottish Socialist Party and he was its first press officer and chairperson. He is now a freelance journalist and Solidarity press officer.