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		Lefties in Euroland Let's give half a cheer for the Euro!
		"States like Britain no longer have the sovereign room for manoeuvre against the forces of capital." ationalists are opposed to the Euro; to their views its adoption will entail the surrender of yet more sovereignty to an emerging European super-state; centuries of tradition, together with British independence of action, will be cast away at a stroke - dreadful prospects to be sure!
						Britain's free market line - always provided that two conditions can be met: First, the working class must be strong enough to exert the necessary pressure on the state. Second, since concessions to the working class must necessarily impact adversely on the interests of capital, the state concerned must have the sovereign room for manoeuvre against such force as the class enemy can bring to bear. This second condition points to the heart of the matter that is sadly overlooked in the socialist argument; namely, states like Britain no longer have the sovereign room for manoeuvre against the forces of capital. Where has all the Sovereignty gone? Sovereignty here has not been signed away in favour of the Brussels bureaucrats and Frankfurt central bankers so mindlessly demonised by the Europhobes. Instead it has gone to the I.M.F., the World Bank and the W.T.O. - institutions dominated by the U.S.A. - and, not least, to the boards of the transnational corporations who dominate the global economy. Like it or not we live in a world in which sovereign states have signed away their powers to regulate their national economies. In consequence - aided by developments in transport and communications - goods, services and capital can flow freely across national boundaries. Continued on page 3
		Some socialists will also line up on the rejectionist side of the argument, albeit on very different grounds; their concern will lie with the power of an essentially capitalist Europe to restrict the sovereign capacity of the British state to act to the promotion and/or defence of British workers' interests. The socialist argument clearly predicates to the view that sovereign nation states can act with working class interests in view; reformist pressure from the industrial and political wings of labour movements has some achievements to its credit; these were secured on the basis of taxation of, and some control over, capital, so the argument must be that labour movement achievements can be best defended and/or extended in conditions that are free of interference from an emerging European capitalist monolith. Arguments of this kind overlook the following:  To begin with, Britain is a `capitalist state'. If British governments have, in the past, yielded to reformist pressures from the working class, they have, in more recent times, restructured their fiscal, economic and social policies so as to make Britain a land fit for capitalists to live in. No doubt a sovereign British state could be pressurised into reversing its more recent policies. What applies to a British capitalistic entity in this connection, however, applies mutatis mutandis to any other capitalist entity - including a Euroland, whose member states have not, in crucial respects, followed
	Exeter Socialist  page 2