Jeremy Corbyn

It's time to choose

JEREMY CORBYN on why MPs must vote for a referendum on Wednesday.
LATER on Wednesday, Parliament will finally vote on whether there should be a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which concerns changing the structure of the European Union.
It is unclear what outcome can be expected.
The Liberal Democrats have hitherto supported all aspects of the treaty in debates in the House and delivered their 65 MPs loyally through the lobbies in every division.
For some curious reason, they have decided that there ought to be a referendum on EU membership itself, rather than on the huge changes that the treaty proposes.
Following their highly choreographed walkout last week, it could be that they are thinking of finally supporting a referendum.
The results of the postal ballots by the I Want A Referendum campaign are very revealing. The campaign sent ballot papers to half of the electorate in 10 constituencies and received between 30 and 40 per cent of them in return.
Of those people that voted, around 70 to 80 per cent did so in favour of a referendum.
At the very least, this would indicate a much higher level of public understanding of the issue and a much higher preparedness to engage in debate than political commentators have given credit for.
The issues surrounding the treaty are actually very serious, in that it enormously extends the powers of the European Commission and, by the appointment of the president and foreign affairs spokespeople, one can see the development of executive power - with some accountability to the commission, very limited accountability to the Council of Ministers or the European Parliament and almost none to national parliaments.
What is also explicit in both the Maastricht Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty is the imposition of a market economy on Europe, a control on borrowing made by any member states' government and serious control on the political choices open to any one member state.
Thus, the British government had to explain to the European Union why it proposed to take Northern Rock into public ownership, for how long it intended that to be the case and give assurances about the bank's future.
EU law makes it almost impossible for a government to take any industry into public ownership of its own free will because it would be accused of giving it illegal state subsidies.
There is a strong socialist argument against the Lisbon Treaty and the economic consequences that flow from it.
Later on Wednesday, every MP will have a choice. Every party that contested the 2005 general election pledged to hold a referendum on the European constitution and, as they all know, the treaty is very little different from the constitution.
Therefore, in all honesty, there ought to be a unanimous vote in the House for a referendum.
Trying to stop the Gaza 'holocaust'
THE Palestine Return Centre has sent out a very useful briefing on the facts and situation in Gaza.
On February 29, Israeli Defence Minister Matan Vilnai said that Gazans "will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves."
This is an extraordinary use of language to deal with the use of Qassam rockets which, while utterly deplorable, are nowhere near as lethal as the firepower used by Israel.
In less than a week, the Israeli military have killed 116 Palestinians and injured more than 300, including 66 killed last Saturday alone. The death toll is indiscriminate and includes a two-day-old baby and many children.
This figure is on top of the 91 Palestinians that were killed in February 2008 in all parts of Palestine.
There is no question that Gaza is facing the most appalling humanitarian crisis, ever since Western donors cut aid in April 2006. Indeed, UN official John Dugard has asserted that he believes that Israel is guilty of a war crime of collective punishment of the Palestine people.
Their condition is desperate, with 85 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza officially living in poverty and only 85,000 out of a population of 1.5 million receiving sufficient food to sustain healthy existence. This horror is deliberate and cynical by the Israeli military and government against the people of Palestine.
Last Wednesday, the Ha'aretz newspaper published an opinion poll which showed that 64 per cent of Israelis felt that their government should hold direct peace talks with Hamas. Only 28 per cent emphatically rejected the idea of talks.
There is a supine silence by so much of the Western media on this crisis and none of the "quartet," which includes US, EU and Russia, has even threatened any economic consequences, such as the EU trade agreement.
There is a huge body of opinion around the world, including in Israel, who do not believe that any peace is possible by imprisoning the people of Gaza and occupying the West Bank.
This Saturday, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is holding another demonstration outside Downing St from 4pm to 6pm.
NAFTA shows there's little Democratic difference
THE US elections are presented with unnerving frequency as a battle for personalities and one has to look very carefully to find any real political differences between the candidates.
Hillary Clinton pretends that she's always been against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which her husband forced through a reluctant Congress.
Barack Obama made noises against NAFTA to industrial workers in Ohio but apparently has assured the government of Canada that he doesn't really mean any of this and that he will continue on the NAFTA path.
The industrial workers of the Great Lakes state in the US have suffered extraordinarily through NAFTA, just as Mexican farmers and peasants have suffered by the flood of imports from US agribusiness and attacks on the structure of economic life in Mexico.
Last month, there was an enormous demonstration in the centre of Mexico called by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the presidential candidate of 2005 who was denied a recount of the much-disputed poll on the decision of the High Court.
He told the vast assembly in the centre of Mexico that it is 70 years since President Cardenas nationalised the oil industry in Mexico and that to now privatise it would put the lives of every Mexican in some difficulty and make the possibilities of development much more limited, as the private sector could cream off profits.
He has a very strong point. Last year, 30 per cent of all federal government income came from taxes paid by Pemex, the state-owned petroleum company.
Lopez Obrador also pointed out that, since 1983, more than 1,000 publicly owned companies have been privatised, including railways, mines, telephones, airports, airlines and banks.
Ever since the disputed election of 2005, Lopez Obrador has constantly pointed out the loss of taxation income and the problems that this creates for any government that is determined to improve the living standards of the very poorest people in the country.
The empire strikes back
ON TUESDAY, there was a significant demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice to protest against Exxon's attempts to freeze billion (£6bn) of Venezuelan assets held in Britain.
The democratically elected Venezuelan government is in dispute with Exxon about payments for oil exploitation in the past, which had been extremely profitable for a whole serious of US companies.
Their opposition to public ownership is so severe that they are trying to bankrupt the state of Venezuela by using legal means in Western courts.
Having been unsuccessful at defeating the government of Venezuela electorally, they have now resorted to these legal means.
It's important to stand up for the rights of the people of Venezuela and for their national resources to be used to provide schools, hospitals, housing and much needed new infrastructure rather than filling the coffers of the extraordinarily wealthy Exxon corporation.