Our candidates have
received nearly 500 emails via 38 Degrees asking our attitude towards the
‘Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’ (TTIP). Here’s the reply we
are in the process of sending to them:
For years the World Trade Organisation has been trying to
change the rules of global trade in the interests of global investors. The US
in particular wants to ease the out-sourcing and off-shoring of jobs,
permitting employers to seek the lowest wages and weakest government oversight
protections around the world; and to incorporate patent and intellectual
ownership rules that will further restrict access to medicines for millions and
could be expanded to include even surgical procedures and not just drug treatments.
Overall, it is a bid to implement a globalisation policy of
trade harmony at the lowest common denominator that will further the interests
of global investors by relaxing various standards to weaker levels of consumer
and public protection. It would represent a further reduction in the
‘sovereignty’ of national governments and their already weak power to resist
the dictates of the world market. But these negotiations have not yet reached a
conclusion because some countries do not want to open their doors too much to
multinational corporations.
At the same time the EU and the US are negotiating a
‘Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’. One of the points under
discussion is a mechanism known as ‘Investor-State Dispute Settlement’ (ISDS), which
would give corporations the right to challenge a country’s laws. Clearly, this
is something more than a mere ‘free-trade’ deal. Even if a new reform or policy
applies equally to domestic and foreign investors, ISDS proposes to allow
corporations to receive compensation for the absence of a ‘predictable
regulatory environment.’
Another proposal in TTIP is for ‘regulatory cooperation’
which would give big business lobby groups wide opportunities to influence
decision-making, outside the normal democratic decision-making processes on
both sides of the Atlantic. The clear intention is to allow business to in
effect ‘co-write’ international regulations, as already happens at national
level.
The socialist attitude is that, at the end of it all, the
arguments within the WTO which have so far prevented agreement are a dispute
between vying capitalist factions, free-trader versus protectionist, foreign
versus native capitalist – competitors, fighting to defend or create conditions
that offer them the best return. Even so, among the casualties are working
people the world over, who will end up as collateral damage, more powerless and
more vulnerable than ever in the face of global capitalism. In short, this is a
problem of capitalism from which the working people of the world can never
emerge as winners.
The way-out for them is not the restoration of 'national
sovereignty' but the establishment of a world society, without frontiers, where
the industrial and natural resources of the Earth will have become the common
heritage of all humanity and used to produce what people need instead of for
the profit of those who own the world. In short, global socialism. Then, they
will no longer be the casualties of trade agreements – or disputes – between
different capitalist states.
Addendum
Our candidate for
Swansea West answered:
"The short answer to your question is capitalism only serves
the interests of a wealthy global minority. The long answer is that the
Socialist Party of Great Britain is an anti-capitalist party and are completely
opposed to the system of wage slavery in all its manifestations, including
trading agreements, cartels, monopolies, buying and selling, etc. A brief
description on where we stand on TTIP is attached and is taken from our monthly
journal the Socialist Standard. However,
if you are inclined to question myself personally, on the party case, you have
an opportunity to address your concerns at two debates the Swansea Branch are
holding with the Green Party and UKIP at 7.30pm on the 9th of March and the
14th April respectively. The venue for both of these debates is the Unitarian
Church, High Street, Swansea.
Yours For Positive Socialist Activity
Brian Johnson
Our candidate in
Folkestone & Hythe, Andy Thomas, responded email as follows:
“Whether or not the TTIP is adopted, life for the majority
of the world’s population will continue to worsen so long as capitalism
provides the global framework under which we live. Much of the NHS is already
run for profit by private companies (the Carer network for example), and it
matters little whether these companies are based in the UK or in the US. Those
parts of the NHS which are not directly privatised are still restricted in what
they can deliver because they are funded by taxes. The sources of those taxes
are private companies, which restrict what they pay their workers (or to the
State) in order to maximise profits. So whether privatised by US-based companies
or ‘nationalised’, the NHS will continue to suffer endemic crisis. Similar
comments apply to all public services.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain stands for the
replacement of a global system based on private ownership and corporate profit
by one of collective and democratic ownership of the means of producing and
distributing wealth. We will freely co-operate to produce what we need and
access will be based solely on our self-defined needs. In terms of the NHS that
means people will become doctors and nurses because that work is fulfilling in
its own right, and access will be based solely on medical need. In a society
without the limitations of money and profit there is no limit to what the human
race can achieve in all fields, including medicine.
This revolution in human affairs will only be realised if
the majority of the people in the world actively want it. So this must be
realised democratically, through the ballot box. By voting for the SPGB in the
forthcoming election you take the first step to bringing that about.”
Whilst our candidate
in Brighton Pavilion, Howard Pilott, replied to another email with contrasting
brevity:
“ We in the SPGB propose scrapping capitalism, which should
hopefully allay your fears.”
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