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An international issue. German workers demonstrate for a 35 hour week me to this Euro-selection conference. funded by the taxpayers."

Why indeed would any socialist want this job? The fact is that the European Parliament has consultative power only, rather like the House of Lords - real power lies with the Council of ten Ministers and the 14 Commissioners.

There are, of course, those in the British Labour Party who believe that socialism will come through parliament alone - in the fullness of time. Well, one thing is for sure, socialism in Europe cannot come through the European parliament alone as present constituted.

Extra-parliamentary

So the most important role for a socialist Euro MP must be an extra-parliamentary role. That means making the links between the various struggles of the workers and the oppressed in Midlands Central and those in the rest of Europe. That means avoiding boring committee meetTHIS was Dave Spencer's speech when he was a candidate for the Labour nominatio in the Midlands Central Euro-constituency.

He lost the nomination to Blackman — right-winger whose slogan is "A square deal for Brita in and a new deal fo Europe."

One major was that leftin the sky, but there is really no other way comrades.

A Euro-MP would be useful in making these links. How he or she would do that, I will explain in talking about the two most important issues on which, in my view, the Labour Party should fight this election, that is on unemployment and the threat of nuclear war.

There are over eleven million people unemployed in the EEC at the moment and the situation is getting worse. One thing I learnt from my grandfather, who worked at the Humber Stoke car factory all his life, is that unemployment is the scourge of the working class. Not only does it eat into the individual's soul, but it divides us amongst ourselves, as we all fight for a job - the employed against the unemployed, the young against the old, men against women, white against black.

Maggie know this of course and so do her co-thinkers in Europe.

Unemployment does not come like bad weather, it can be created, it can be manipulated to break the back of the labour movement. We must not be played off one against another, and this means on a European scale too.

A classic case is the recent Poissy-Talbot dispute in France, where workers fought each other in the plant, as far against the multi-nationals must be built, not division.

It may not of course work out exactly like that, but the effort must be made, lessons learnt, the consciousness raised.

What was the response of our Tory Euro-MP, John De Courcy Ling? He went to meet the management of Peugeot Citroen to get reassurances on the future of Ryton and this only because there is an election in the offing.

Multinationals

The man is a dairy farmer from Henley-on-Thames, doing quite nicely thank you on the subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy - 70% of the EEC budget. He represents a different class from us, he knows where his bread is buttered.

There may be those who say a Euro MP should be fighting for special regional status for Midlands Central -to grab as much grant as possible to set up industry I'm not opposed to that in principle. But as I have seen on the West Midlands County Louncil, you can put money in to stimulate local industry and create a few jobs, then behind your back Dunlop come along and close down a whole factory throwing over thousand workers on the dole.

It is the multi-nationals that have to be tackled and that means working class solidarity, European and international if it comes to that.

One last example on this -involving the Ford foundry at Leamington. Ford have decided to produce a small car for the Ameriean market.

Picked off.

They plan to invest 350 million dollars in Mexico and

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by Dave Spencer

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