Women Say NO to Lisbon – Again

September 15, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

www.caeuc.org

Press Statement

Women Say NO to Lisbon – Again

Buswells Hotel, September 14^th, 11am

As feminists and pro-Europeans from the community, politics, trade unions, academia, the media, and entertainment we reject the Europe proposed by the Lisbon Treaty and call on women to Vote No Again.

We refuse to be bullied into voting Yes because “Europe has been good for us” – we’re not voting on a track record. Nor are we voting to stay in the EU. We are voting on a treaty that firmly places the interests of business, not people, at the heart of the European project. Why else would the employers’ lobby, IBEC, welcome Lisbon’s Article 14 which, it says, provides “the legal basis for the increased liberalisation of services of general economic interest”, specifically health, education, transport, energy, environmental, and audio-visual services? Why else would massive anti-union corporations such as Intel and Ryanair spend hundreds of thousands of euros promoting a Yes?

Should this matter to Irish women? The majority of those working in public services are women, and we also use public services more than men: health and pregnancy care; dealing with the education of our children, including those with difficulties; looking after the infirm and elderly; trying to access public services, especially in rural areas, using public transport. When these services are run down or of bad quality, it is women who bear the burden, or suffer directly. Far from strengthening and expanding public services and ensuring they are more accessible to those who need them most, the Lisbon Treaty would open the way to ‘for profit’ private company ownership of so-called ‘public services’.

Think of how long it can take to get treatment now, how expensive that nursing homes can be, or how irrational the present policy is on smear testing. The government contracted the US multinational Quest Diagnostics to run the service, which send smears to America for testing. There is no link to previous records, and local expertise is lost. The company is a business like any other, and could close any time. What would happen to our service then?

While Irish women are facing direct hits in child benefit and community development projects, the Brussels that gave us Lisbon and backs NAMA remains silent on the McCarthy Report. Colm McCarthy has said himself that the cuts are in large part driven by the need to meet EU rules by a deadline of 2013, imposed by the European Commission. Lisbon, which deepens the very policies that have caused the economic crisis, would make this bad situation worse. Article 136 gives the EU greater powers to pressurise members to stay within the limits of the Stability and Growth pact. This would mean further public spending cuts and more privatisation of public services, with further hardship for working people, particularly women.

As for equality or equal pay, Lisbon offers nothing new. The Charter of Fundamental Rights, which the treaty incorporates, by its own admission has no new tasks for the EU and is subject to many limitations (Arts 51 and 52). Many articles limit rights “in accordance with national laws and practices”. More important, the Charter ignores women’s human rights in numerous areas, including the right to childcare, reproductive and sexual rights, divorce, housing or the right to freedom and protection from men’s violence. The Charter has been a legal reference point for the European Court of Justice since 2000, but whenever the rights of workers have come into conflict with rights of business, the Court has favoured business. The same would happen with women’s rights: OK as long as business is not disrupted.

Much has been made of the Charter’s Article 5 which prohibits human trafficking. The implementation of this prohibition would require cross-border criminal and police co-operation. In Ireland’s case, greater cross-border police co-operation would be severely undermined given our current opt-out from this area . In the meantime, Irish women’s organisations have noted an increase in street-based prostitution since the downturn. Many women enter the sex trade because they are poor. This treaty, with its mission to “avoid distorting conditions of competition” and its commitment to “opening up” economies, would do nothing to address the root causes of poverty. Indeed it was EU competition policy which caused mass unemployment and poverty in eastern Europe, from where many women are trafficked.

Women have a tradition of anti-war activism – we do not want a more militarised EU. But Lisbon would give a legal base to EU ‘battle groups’, deepens links with NATO, and would require countries (even neutral countries such as Ireland) to increase their military capabilities (Article 42.3) – the only area in the entire treaty where more spending is encouraged.

The EU spends far more on weapons than on combating the effects of climate change. Incredibly, the Treaty contains only six words on climate change – “in particular combating climate change” (Art 191.1) – which do not commit the EU to taking any concrete action. This seems incredible given that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing us all in the 21^st century.

Finally, a treaty which safeguards competition and profit rather than the basic needs and rights of the majority of its citizens does not serve the interests of women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, the poor, ordinary working people, immigrant workers and their families, or hundreds of millions of people throughout the less developed world.

We call on women to reject the Lisbon Treaty because we are committed to achieving a European Union where Equality, Justice, Peace and Solidarity are primary goals and in which the well-being and interests of ordinary people – women, men and children – are paramount.

WOMEN CALLING FOR A NO VOTE

Cllr Rosaleen Branley, Sinn Fein, Donegal

Bairbre de Brun, Sinn Fein, MEP

Therese Caherty, People Before Profit, CAEUC – Sayno.ie

Íte Ní Chionnaith, Lecturer, School of Media , DIT, Iar-Uachtarán, Conradh na Gaeilge

Cllr Joan Collins, People Before Profit

Cllr Catherine Connolly, Independent

Cllr Colette Connolly, Labour, Galway

Jackie Connolly, Workers Party, Cork

Cllr Rose Conway Walsh, Sinn Fein, Mayo

Cllr Ruth Coppinger, Socialist Party, Mulhuddart

Cllr Edel Corrigan, Sinn Fein, Louth

Cllr Clare Daly, Socialist Party, Swords

Margaretta D’Arcy, writer and peace activist

Cllr Criona Ni Dhalaigh, Sinn Fein, Dublin

Cllr Jane Dillon Byrne, Labour, Dun Laoghaire

Bernie Dwyer, Radio Cuba presenter and documentary film maker

Rita Fagan, community activist

Carol Fox, Peace and Neutrality Alliance

Cllr Kathleen Funchion, Sinn Fein, Kilkenny

Cllr Marie Terase Gallagher, Sinn Fein, Donegal

Cllr Graine Mhic Geidigh, Sinn Fein, Donegal

Maura Harrington, political activist, Shell To Sea

Cllr Cora Harvey, Sinn Fein,

Sinead Kennedy, NUI Maynooth

Cllr Fiona Kerins, Sinn Fein, Cork

Patricia McKenna, People’s Movement

Cllr Louise Minihan, Independent

Eilish Moore, singer

Cllr Imelda Munster, Sinn Fein, Louth

Cathleen O Neill, educator and community activist

Bronwen Maher, former Dublin City councillor and political activist

Cllr Cathy McCafferty, Sinn Fein, Clare

Cllr Rachel McCarthy, Sinn Fein, Cork

Cllr Sandra McLellan, Sinn Fein, Cork

Marie O’Connor, author and health policy analyst

Cllr Therese Ruane, Sinn Fein, Mayo

Cllr Jane Suffin, Sinn Fein, Roscommon

Cllr Brid Smith, People Before Profit

Ailbhe Smyth, People Before Profit

Jo Tully, Irish Nurses Organisation, executive member, personal capacity

Cllr Pauline Tully McCauley, Sinn Fein, Cavan

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