The Common Market and Socialism

Richard Cooper's reply to my letter to the Week of lst May, 1967, on the Common Market is much more restrained than his original article in its references to those who take the view which I do and there is much on which I agree with him. I object as much as he does to making working people bear the cost of the rise in food prices and to a possible cut of £1 a week in real wages. However, he gives only one side of the picture. If Britain remains outside E.E.C. things will not stay more or less as they are at present. On the contrary, the chances are that with increasing competition from overseas capitalist rivals many British firms will in any case be driven to rationalise and to seek investment funds from wherever they are available. These firms, either under their present management or, if they are taken over by foreign concerns, under new management, will seek to increase the pressure on their workers, E.N.V. and Roberts Arundel are two examples which spring readily to mind in which this has occured, and there are many others. Furthermore, the Government will become increasingly involved in backing up curbs on wages, etc., as it has already been doing during the course of the last few years, at times when the weakness of British capitalism is reflected in an adverse trade balance and pressure on sterling. To speak of cuts in real wages fairly, one must recognise that these have taken place before British entry into the Common Market and we can be sure that they can well occur again if Britain remains outside. Whether we go in or stay out, the real issues which will determine the future are the cutting back of overseas military commitments and defence cuts in generals the extension of public ownership and socialist economic planning, etc. I personally believe that on balance in the long run the possibilities of socialist development within the Community are greater than those outside, particularly as I believe that, outside, dependence on the U.S.A. will grow. If we become more and more a part of what is being called the Atlantic Community rather than part of Europe, we shall have no real control over our own affairs in Britain. The case of those socialists who oppose an application to join E.#.C. rests on the argument that there are better opportunities, given the present political and economic outlook in Britain, of building socialism if we remain aloof. This case was well argued by Michael Barrett Brown and John Eughes in 1961 (NLR Pamphlet) but it has not been made in 1966/67. The reasons in my view, are obvious. Few who really know believe in these opportunities, and those who oppose entry into Europe do so on the basis of a blind faith that something will turn up. In these circumstances I remain of the opinion that the struggle for socialism is a long haul and that we shall have to organise on a wider basis than Britain alone to achieve it. For this reason on balance I support Britain's entry into Europe, despite the contrary arguments.