PES Manifesto for European Elections June 2009

PES Activist

PES Activist

PES Activists Dublin
HI everyone

I thought you might find the attached manifesto of some interest. I attended the Council of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in Madrid last week as part of the Irish delegation at which the manifesto for the European Parliament elections was adopted.

Manifesto here.

The manifesto was created through a bottom-up, on-line consultation amongst socialists and social democrats across the European Union, by Trade Union represenatives and other civil society organisations (development bodies, charities, social solidarity organisations and other progressive pressure groups).

There are five key themes of the manifesto:

1. Relaunching the economy and preventing new financial crises
2. New social Europe – giving people a fairer deal
3. Transforming Europe into the leading global force against climate change
4. Championing gender equality in Europe
5. Developing an effective European migration policy
6. Enhancing Europe’s role as a partner for peace, security and development

I thought you might be interested on how the Left in Europe perceives the world at this moment and what policies we should be pursuing. The PES is the second largest group in the European Parliament at the moment behind the conservative, European Peoples Party (EPP). Given the polls across Europe we expect to become the largest party in the Parliament after the June elections.
 
"They say adapt to the market. We say shape our future."

I like this philosophy. And if you do become the majority party in the EU, I'm really going to want to move there. :)
 
Having just had a quick glance through the manifesto it seems completely at odds with the practices of at least one member party i.e.our own dear Labour Party.

Seriously, you should kick them out.
 
Darla said:
"They say adapt to the market. We say shape our future."

I like this philosophy. And if you do become the majority party in the EU, I'm really going to want to move there. :)
Click to expand...

They've been the majority party before.

Socialist parties have a tendency to get into government and start thinking, sheesh, maybe it would be a bad idea to nationalize the whole economy. And then they just become regular centre-left parties.

Except when they go way, way, way, way to the right like the British Labour party.
 
Darla said:
"They say adapt to the market. We say shape our future."

I like this philosophy. And if you do become the majority party in the EU, I'm really going to want to move there. :)
Click to expand...

There's room at my place in Dublin for you Darla if you ever decide to emigrate!
 
charver said:
Having just had a quick glance through the manifesto it seems completely at odds with the practices of at least one member party i.e.our own dear Labour Party.

Seriously, you should kick them out.
Click to expand...

LOL. Just for information, when the manifesto was being prepared our friends from the UK Labour Party often found themselves in a minority of one. That said, there's a lot of good that they have done in the UK and given a choice between Brown and Cameron I know who I'd be voting for if I lived there.
 
PES Activist said:
LOL. Just for information, when the manifesto was being prepared our friends from the UK Labour Party often found themselves in a minority of one. That said, there's a lot of good that they have done in the UK and given a choice between Brown and Cameron I know who I'd be voting for if I lived there.
Click to expand...

Clegg?
 
PES Activist said:
LOL. Just for information, when the manifesto was being prepared our friends from the UK Labour Party often found themselves in a minority of one. That said, there's a lot of good that they have done in the UK and given a choice between Brown and Cameron I know who I'd be voting for if I lived there.
Click to expand...

I'll admit that Labour did do some good things, but then so did the Conservatives under Thatcher. It's a pity that, in both cases, the good is a little smothered by the downright bloody awful.

I can opt for a party who lied to engineer an invasion of another nation, plotted to lock people up for 90 days without charge, sought to abolish the right to jury trials, want us all to carry identity cards, introduced top-up fees for university students despite promising not to, reduced social mobility, adopted a Thatcherite policy of deregulated markets and back-door privatisation, have systematically mismanaged every government department despite an enormous expansion of the civil service, and who are now trotting out a platform of demonising single-mothers and immigrants, after having made an almighty mess of the economy.

Or i can vote Tory and get a massive policy black hole.

Personally, i'm praying for, and i still can't quite believe i'm saying this, a Tory majority just large enough to thwart a Lib-Lab pact. And i hate the bloody Tories.
 
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Watermark said:
Anyway - how is the Irish Labour party doing? They rarely seem to go above 10% of the vote.
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Hi WM. The governing coalition in Ireland is in meltdown at the moment. Labour has been consistently recording 14-15% support in the three most recent national opinion polls. Given that we were at 11% at the last General Election, this is quite an impovement for us. The local and European elections next June will be a real test of teh different parties' popularity.

European Elections:

Ireland has 13 seats in the European Parliament, one of which is held by the PES (Proinsias de Rossa in Dublin). Ireland loses one seat, down to 12, in the new parliament, due to recent accessions by Eastern countries. We expect to retain the seat in Dublin and are working hard to win a seat in Ireland East, which is the commuter belt for Dublin.

Local Elections

Labour had a very sucessful camapign the last time these elections were fought in 2004. We won 101 out of 883 seats in the country. We also became the largest party on three out of the four local councils that make up the greater Dublin area, including becoming by far the largest party on Dublin City Council. We also did well in other urban centres across Ireland. However, Ireland has a large rural voter base and we did spectacularly badly amongst these voters. Apparently, farming communities don't have a lot of time for the urban proletariat :-) Damn them and their cows.

This time out we're anticipating holding the gains we made last time and reinforcing our position on urban local councils.
 
charver said:
I'll admit that Labour did do some good things, but then so did the Conservatives under Thatcher. It's a pity that, in both cases, the good is a little smothered by the downright bloody awful.

I can opt for a party who lied to engineer an invasion of another nation, plotted to lock people up for 90 days without charge, sought to abolish the right to jury trials, want us all to carry identity cards, introduced top-up fees for university students despite promising not to, reduced social mobility, adopted a Thatcherite policy of deregulated markets and back-door privatisation, have systematically mismanaged every government department despite an enormous expansion of the civil service, and who are now trotting out a platform of demonising single-mothers and immigrants, after having made an almighty mess of the economy.

Or i can vote Tory and get a massive policy black hole.

Personally, i'm praying for, and i still can't quite believe i'm saying this, a Tory majority just large enough to thwart a Lib-Lab pact. And i hate the bloody Tories.
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I don't disagree with your criticisms of New Labour, Charver. For all of the good that Labour has done, and continues to do, in office, the issues you raise have been pretty shameful. However, I watched PMQ's this afternoon, and I have got to say that there is no way that I could ever be persuaded to vote for that spiv, Cameron, and the truly awful and self-obsessed Clegg.
 
Well anyway, Clegg may be an idiot who's taken his party to the right, but the Libdems are still the most leftwing party in England (coming from a party that was considered centrist twenty years ago, it really tells you how far Labour has gone). I think a Lib-Lab coalition would polish off most of the bad points of Labour, such as their fascist anti-terrorist policies. So I'm hoping Labour doesn't lose quite as bad as its looking like they are and that the Libs aren't wiped out in southern England by the Tory surge, so that there will be a hung parliament. Whoever the Libs would go into coalition with (due to the Conservatives anti-Europe, anti-immigration, and anti-stimulus posturing, that's almost certain to be Labour), it'll be better than either party alone with a blank check.

Because, you know Charver, however nice Cameron may be looking, remember, he still has all the same Thatcherite Tories behind him. And they will have a ton of influence on his policies.

Then again, in some ways, this election seems eerily similar to 1992. The Chancellor is now leading, the parties lead in the polls is collapsing, the opposition is widely expected to win, and few people suspected they'd win a majority. Labour may very well win the next election. Due to Britians electoral system, they could very well come out two or three points behind the Conservatives and still have a bare majority.
 
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PES Activist said:
Hi WM. The governing coalition in Ireland is in meltdown at the moment. Labour has been consistently recording 14-15% support in the three most recent national opinion polls. Given that we were at 11% at the last General Election, this is quite an impovement for us. The local and European elections next June will be a real test of teh different parties' popularity.

European Elections:

Ireland has 13 seats in the European Parliament, one of which is held by the PES (Proinsias de Rossa in Dublin). Ireland loses one seat, down to 12, in the new parliament, due to recent accessions by Eastern countries. We expect to retain the seat in Dublin and are working hard to win a seat in Ireland East, which is the commuter belt for Dublin.

Local Elections

Labour had a very sucessful camapign the last time these elections were fought in 2004. We won 101 out of 883 seats in the country. We also became the largest party on three out of the four local councils that make up the greater Dublin area, including becoming by far the largest party on Dublin City Council. We also did well in other urban centres across Ireland. However, Ireland has a large rural voter base and we did spectacularly badly amongst these voters. Apparently, farming communities don't have a lot of time for the urban proletariat :-) Damn them and their cows.

This time out we're anticipating holding the gains we made last time and reinforcing our position on urban local councils.
Click to expand...

I know Fine Gael is riding high in the polls right now. Could they win a majority? I hope not. Why does Labour always cooperate with Fine Gael again? What's so much better about them than Flail? Is it just all of you teaming up against the big guy?
 
Watermark said:
Because, you know Charver, however nice Cameron may be looking, remember, he still has all the same Thatcherite Tories behind him. And they will have a ton of influence on his policies.
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The way i see it is both our dearest right-wing parties have nothing much to offer and the Lib Dems are all but irrelevant.

Choosing between the Tories and Labour is a little akin to being given the the option of which pineapple you'd like inserted down the shaft of your cock.

Both are going to be pretty painful but i know that Labour won't be content until they've shoved a cactus up my arse as well.
 
Watermark said:
I know Fine Gael is riding high in the polls right now. Could they win a majority? I hope not. Why does Labour always cooperate with Fine Gael again? What's so much better about them than Flail? Is it just all of you teaming up against the big guy?
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It's been a long time since the Irish people elected a party with an outright majority in the Dáil (Parliament). We don't trust any one party enough to give it a majority on its own. Fine Vague won't therefore win a majority on their own and will need a coalition partner to govern.

Labour's co-operation with Fine Vague is largely a legacy business. In the past, ZANU FF were the big boys that everyone organised against. That put Labour in coalition with Fine Vague pretty much any time we went into government. Things have changed now. FF are courting Labour's support given their own collapse in the opinion polls. Fine Vague have swung quite dramatically to the right and have been proposing policies that Labour would shoot down in an instant.

Labour's current position is that it will not discuss coalition options this side of the next General Election. Once the people have spoken and the number of seats each party has won is known, then and only then will we discuss a programme for government with the other parties.
 
You guys are all crazy. The only reason that any lefty can delude themselves into believing the Labour government in Britain is to the right is Iraq. So what? Leftwing countries go to war all the time, look at their desire for action in Kosovo.
Oh and I suppose as well they abandoned their long-standing desire to nationalize industry, though even then they nationalized water service.

Under Labour we have seen staunch gun control with banning all handguns, crime has soared with being weak on crime (read Tony Martin case to see just how bad it's got with criminals being able to sue for lost wages), taxes have soared and social welfare spending is at an all time high:

"THE crippling weight of taxation on the average family has risen by 51 per cent since Labour came to power, figures revealed last night.


Gordon Brown has presided over a tax burden soaring at more than twice the rate of inflation in real terms, according to the damning report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance."
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/62147/Revealed-How-your-taxes-have-soared-under-Labour

You need to understand that life has gotten worse in Britain because of the obvious massive growth in government, I just don't see how any rational person could believe that they are to the right. The numbers speak for themselves.

Look how much better Ireland did after big corporate tax cuts. It went from one of the poorest countries in Europe to one of the richest.
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/2002/fgeconomic/index.htm
http://www.seoulshamrock.co.kr/ireland_rises_from_rags_to_riches.htm

The problem with you lot is you are all likely too young to remember just how shitty life was before both Thatcher in Britain and before taxes were slashed in Ireland. Rightwing, less government and less taxes means more prosperity for all.
 
It's important to realize that Socialism is not something that brings wealth, it is something that can be afforded by wealthy countries. You don't see any POOR leftwing countries like Venezuela who give a rats ass about global warming precisely because it is an issue that only wealthy lefties can afford to care about and because easy wealth brings unease about the future and a desire to sacrifice wealth.
 
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