Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The scope of this debate needs to be broadened somewhat so the nature of the European Union, which is consistently referenced in a positive light in the Sinn Féin motion, is discussed. After all, the campaign Sinn Féin waged for a "remain" vote in the North was clearly a factor in producing the different result there by comparison with England and Wales. It is ironic that Sinn Féin campaigned to remain in the first instance and talked up the role of the European Union at a time when the deeply undemocratic anti-worker and anti-migrant nature of that institution had become more apparent than ever. It is on this basis that the political tradition to which I belong opposed the entry of Ireland, North and South, into the Common Market and opposed all treaties since then that have furthered the pro-capitalist and anti-worker nature of the European Union. It was presumably for those reasons that Sinn Féin adopted a similar position right up until the Brexit referendum.

The European Commission and European Central Bank, as two component parts of the troika, foisted a brutal diet of austerity on working class people in the South in addition to Greece and Portugal. Successive treaties have effectively written neoliberalism into law. The policies of Fortress Europe, which have contributed to the death of thousands in the Mediterranean, in a sense leave Mr. Donald Trump and the border wall he dreams about in the ha'penny place.

The word "Brexit" has become synonymous with the right-wing arguments that were made by UKIP, the DUP and a wing of the Tory party in favour of leaving the Union. Contrary to the dominant view of the UK capitalist class and a host of pro-establishment organisations, from NATO to the IMF, this minority within the political and economic establishment, for its own reasons which I do not have time to go into here, felt that UK business interests would be better served outside the European Union. They tapped into a pre-existing anti-establishment mood and used xenophobic arguments to further their aim. However, from a completely different perspective, there was and is a left-wing case against the European Union consistent with the arguments some of us have made for the past 45 years. The case for a left exit, or "Lexit", was made in Britain and Northern Ireland not just by the radical left but also by the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance, the largest public sector union in the North, and also the likes of the trade union RMT.

With regard to the specific concerns raised in the motion, the Anti Austerity Alliance stands for the maximum freedom of movement of people internationally and therefore opposes any kind of hard border between the North and South. Furthermore, it opposes the threats that are posed to the status of EU nationals living in the North and Britain and, likewise, the talk of retaliatory measures being taken against people in the North and Britain living in continental Europe. In so far as the Tories see Brexit as an opportunity for an offensive against the social and economic rights of workers, these possibilities have to be combatted by industrial and campaigning means by workers in the North and Britain rather than by appeals to this Government to negotiate a dispensation with the Tories.

A left Government here that sought to introduce the necessary measures to raise revenue through a steeply progressive taxation regime and then investment in housing, health and jobs would find itself on a collision course with the European Union and its fiscal rules, just as Syriza did until its capitulation in Greece. The course pursued by Sinn Féin in not arguing for a Lexit in the North indicates that if it achieved a place in government in the South, it would not fundamentally differ from the current Government or its Fianna Fáil-led predecessor in managing the system for the 1%, the richest, the minority at the top.

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