In a statement the United Left Alliance (ULA) has said that it fully supports the petition launched by Thomas Pringle TD and the Dail Technical group seeking a referendum on the proposed new inter-governmental fiscal treaty agreed on Monday by 25 EU leaders.
The United Left Alliance called on other TD’s and Senators to sign the petition to the President Michael D Higgins, calling for a referendum – saying Oireachtas members should support the call for a referendum if they had any commitment to protecting democracy in Ireland and across Europe.
The ULA said the treaty was an attempt to lock Ireland and Europe into a strait-jacket of failed austerity and neo-liberal economic policies that would inflict even more suffering on working people and ordinary citizens, and would strangle any hope of real economic recovery.
The ULA said the call for a referendum had to be matched by a sustained campaign of grass-roots resistance by workers and ordinary citizens against the disastrous policies of austerity, privatisation and bank bail-outs.
A spokesperson for the ULA said: "Enda Kenny and other EU leaders are showing complete contempt for the wishes and needs of ordinary citizens by trying to impose a permanent regime of austerity and cut-backs and then denying them even the right to vote on such a plan."
This treaty locks Ireland and the rest of Europe permanently into a failed regime of austerity which is causing immense suffering for ordinary people and which is propelling us towards a 1930’s style economic depression.
It is absolutely clear after three years of austerity that the policies being pursued by the EU and ECB are not making the situation better but making it far worse. The disastrous consequences of austerity are plain to see in Ireland but they are now becoming increasingly evident right across Europe, where growth is collapsing and unemployment is rising rapidly.
We would be mad to continue down this road, but to force us into such a disastrous economic strait-jacket without even consulting the people is simply outrageous.
Before the election the Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore promised a ‘new politics.’
It now turns out that new politics did not mean more democracy and accountability but actually an intention to collaborate with EU leaders in dismantling democracy in Europe.
They also promised to “get Ireland working again” and instead they are planning to ram a treaty down our throats that will mean almost certainly permanent mass unemployment, emigration and poverty for vast swathes of our society.
We need to urgently mobilise in this country and right across Europe against the anti-democratic austerity madness.
If other TD’s and Senators have even the vaguest commitment to protecting democracy and the welfare of ordinary citizens, the very least they will do is sign this petition calling for a referendum on this treaty.
For more info/confirmation:
Sara O’Rourke 087 2886646
Michael O’Brien 087 2400331