Will French workers approve EU constitution?

An important referendum on the new European Union constitution is set for May 29 in France, the one country where the vote is too close to call. Because of this the struggle in France over the referendum has drawn Europe-wide attention.

In general, communist and far-left parties and most trade unions in Europe oppose the new constitution, which must be approved by all 25 members of the EU before it can go into force.

The constitution would strengthen the central authority of the EU in relation to its individual members, would increase the power of the European-based monopolies against the working class in the individual countries, would increase the police and repressive powers of the European states, and would invest more money into the EU’s joint military forces.

It would also strengthen Europe in its economic competition with the United States. But it would do this by strengthening European capital against the Euro pean working class. And it would weaken small farmers while helping agribusiness.

In order for the constitution to be adopted, it has to be ratified by every one of the 25 member states. Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary have already said yes, almost all by overwhelming margins in their parliaments. The lower house in Germany passed the constitution and the upper house will most probably pass it May 27. A referendum is scheduled in the Netherlands a few days after the French vote.

French workers hold the key

But all eyes are on France, where poll figures still show an evenly split electorate, with no clear trend emerging. The government and the major bourgeois parties in France are using their control of the media to push for a “yes” vote. Jacques Chirac, the right-wing president, has played an active part in this campaign.

The Socialist Party, which has held office in the capitalist government on and off since 1981, has officially endorsed voting yes. Still, many of the Socialist Party’s supporters, along with many Greens, agree with the left that the proposed constitution is a blueprint for wrecking public services and throwing open borders to globalization and the relocation of jobs.

Trade unions in France are so unanimous in their opposition to the new constitution that when one of them does not call for a no vote, it is big news. L’Hu man ité, the newspaper of the French Com mun ist Party, on May 15 reported that at least a thousand meetings or street rallies had taken place organized by partisans of the “no” vote.

Arlette Laguiller is spokesperson for Workers Struggle (LO), a far-left electoral party in France, which generally gets around 5 percent of the vote in the first-round presidential elections. She explained this constitution “will add a political dictatorship of the big Western European powers over the poorest countries to their existing economic control.”

Laguiller continued: “This constitution brings nothing to the people and the work ers, not even the notion of a minimum salary ... no guarantee limiting work hours, no mention of special rights for women, like the right to a divorce, contraception and abortion.” (Libération, May 14)

In Central Europe, where the EU constitution has been approved by parliaments, workers are very upset that the promises politicians made to them about jobs and economic growth have been discarded in favor of EU requirements—especially budget cuts and doing away with the vestiges of the social support provided under the previous socialist regimes.