With its anti EU stance, No2EU allowed itself to become the willing tools of some of the most reactionary political forces in the UK.

When Pierre Lellouche, the Minister for Europe in the French government, recently said the position of the Tory Party led by David Cameron on the European Union is pathetic and displays a bizarre form of Autism. My first thought was he could be describing much of the UK left, which has a programe on Europe which is straight out of the 1970s and which takes no account of the massive economic and societal changes which have occurred since that fateful decade.

              Indeed when a section of the left formed an electoral alliance to fight this years elections to the EU parliament they called it No2EU, which placed them alongside some of the most reactionary individuals and political party’s in the UK, including a large wedge of Tory MP’s and local councillors, the BNP and UKIP. *

If this section of the left does not quickly update it platform on the EU, come next years general election, on the EU, they will be placing themselves in the same camp as David Cameron's Tories, who are incidentally a far more serious threat to working class living standards that the BNP.

Cameron has made clear, if elected he will do all in his power to withdraw the UK from the EU’s working time directive and oppose the social chapter which has been at the heart of progressive Europe. If the Left does not wake up to the dangers which could flow if it continues with its simplistic sloganeering on the EU, it will be used as putty by some of the most reactionary political forces in the UK to bring about Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Saying No2EU may have been a sensible strategy in the 1970s; when there was a solid bank of left wing Labour MPs and the trade unions had over eleven million members, thus giving the Labour Movement real political power. But not today, when trade union membership is down to less than half that number, and the Labour parliamentary left is hanging on by its finger tips, and a sizable section of the working class have been atomized into millions of often politically demoralized and confused individuals.

Thus the left cannot afford, on a nationalist whim, to be party to removing from the statue book legislation that protects the rights of millions of people throughout the UK and the wider European Union. For were the UK to withdraw from the EU, this is what the impact would be. British workers would be further individualised, and in all probability thrown at the mercy of a vindictive class prejudiced Tory government led by old Etonian David Cameron.

Make no mistake Blue Labour would soon follow Cameron's lead over Europe and in the process move ever more into the US camp, resulting in those workers who exist outside of the trade unions having absolutely no one to fight their corner when unbridled capitalism came calling for their pound of flesh.

What the left must do is draw up a pro EU platform that defends the societal gains I have mentioned above and demands the EU implements policies that build on the social chapter and ceases pandering to the multi nationals by supporting Neo-liberal economics.  We should also be at the forefront of the campaign to democratize the EU so that the current democratic deficit that lies at the heart of the EU becomes a thing of the past.

* No2EU was an electoral alliance made up of the Socialist Party, members of Respect, Socialist Alliance, Communist Party of Britain, Bob Crowe and other leaders of the RMT trade union and various other leftists and trade unionists.