CrisisJam

“God, Kinch, if you and I could only work together we might do something for the island. Hellenise it”

To the misfits of the world, to all of us who do not conform to the closing of humanity:

Now, more than ever, the world looks two ways at once.

1. There has been renewed talk lately that the ‘turn’ must come, that we are rapidly approaching some point where a widescale, popular resistance to the neoliberal way of life will manifest itself. Conor Kostick, in his talk on Irish soviets for Occupy University, speculated that future historians might even note that we have already passed the watershed without realising it. Now, it is unfair and inappropriate to read the tea leaves through the referendum campaign alone.

A few months back Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite trade union in the UK, said the following in an interview with the Guardian:

I didn't know why I was voting No, exactly. There were a few reasons, a nebulous fog of them, swirling around the pit of my gut and pulsing in my temples.

So, I decided to turn it on its head, think outside the box, innovate, get real in the real world. I went looking for reasons to vote 'Yes' and found jobs, stability, growth, and lots of talk of confidence that didn’t inspire any.

The Irish Exporters' Association tells us that a Yes vote will give:

On theJournal.ie on Monday Senator Katherine Zappone established her support for the Fiscal Treaty in an article titled, ‘I’ve always fought for those who have the least. That’s why I’m voting Yes.’ For many of us who are fans of her academic and political work it will have been a disappointing read - laced with conformism, neoliberal logic and uncritical repetition of conventional wisdom which serves the interests of the powerful.

In the midst of all the bluster about billions and bailouts, the most fundamental consequence of adopting the Fiscal Treaty into law has largely being ignored; namely the threat the treaty poses to the very nature of European democracy.

Much of the treaty debate has revolved around whether Ireland could access more loans if required and whether the treaty will mean greater austerity.  These are important issues, but the even more important issue of democracy has been somewhat neglected by comparison.  Put simply, ratifying the treaty would give its provisions immunity from constitutional challenge and would make it much more difficult to change economic policy through the election of a new government. The wording of what we are being asked to vote on is as follows:

Throughout the debate around the Fiscal Treaty any argument beyond the purely economic has been entirely marginalised; the Overton window on this discussion is a porthole. By Mike Morris.

To be sure...

You’d like to think it must have made some sense at the time, all those weeks ago when the various PR flaks for the Yes side decided that ‘Stability’ and ‘Certainty’ would be the keynotes for their campaign.