RE: The French 'NO'

Hi!

I can confirm what Joseph Halevi just said. Besides Copernic, the ATTAC
organization also provided a lot of pro-European reasons for voting NO at
the referendum on the proposed constitution, and they did a lot of work to
provide information about the content of the constitution and some of its
not-so-obvious implications.

Besides the fact that the NO side won despite 95% of the editorials in
newspapers favoring the YES side along with the major parties, what really
struck me was the depth of the debates among ordinary French citizens. Last
Saturday, on the eve of the vote, I had supper with friends that were
neither intellectuals nor politically involved, and I was amazed at the
depth of their knowledge of the constitution. Both of them were phys ed
teachers in high schools, one favouring the no side while the other
favoured the yes side, and they were throwing at each other the contents of
various articles of the constitution to support their arguments. It was
truly amazing. In France there has been a democratic debate about the
content of the constitution, and whatever the result, this can only be
welcomed by any partisan of democracy.

Marc Lavoie

At 23:07 2005-05-30, Joseph Halevi wrote:
>European papers outside France have almost never reported on the intensity
>and the depth of the debate on the European Constitution in France. Now
>the French population is the best informed about the nature and the
>content of that - now rejected - constituion. Compare the situation in
>France with that of Spain. Also in the latter country there was a
>referendum in which a minority (less than 50%) of voters participated and
>voted more than 2/3 in favor of the constitution. However every public
>opinion poll showed that (a) a minority of voters would participate- a
>correct forcast, (b) that those who would vote would do so overwhelmingly
>in favor of the constitution - also a correct forcast, (b) that no one
>really knew anything about the content of the constitution and did not
>care much about it. Hence it is legitimate to conclude that the minority
>of Spanish actual voters approved of the consitituion out of inertia. In
>the end in Spain the European constitution obtained aound 3!
> 0% of the total eligible voters. In France the particpation rate was 70%
> of the electorate. What the rest of the Europeen press did not point and
> indeed carefully avoided was the depth of the discussion where every
> single article of the constitution was dissected and this is what caught
> the OUI front on the wrong foot. A leading group in the organization of
> the NON vote was the Fondation Copernic of left of center orientation
> containing many economists who also have worked with the Banque de France
> and with the OFCE, it contains also a large number of constitutionalists.
> And what these people pointed out was undeniable and it was not,
> indeed, denied by the YES front which actually took a flight of fancy
> and instead of talking to the content of the constitution shifted the
> aguments to grand geopolitics as a way to blackmail the population,
> indeed exactly with the same arugments as Mr Hermann which simply do not
> address the content of the issue. On the basis of those expost !
> (geopolitical) criteria any constitution, put together by EU, has be a
>ccepted thereby making the democratic procedure of acceptance or
>rejection null and void. To its credit the electronic version of Le monde
>- which sided for OUI - ran day after day a presentation of the articles
>of the Constitution and a debate on them so that by May 20th the whole
>content had been sifted through.
>To know more:
>http://www.fondation-copernic.org/
>joseph halevi
>
>The two main books are:
>
>Europe : une alternative
>Véronique Champeil-Desplats, Jean-François Faugeras, Michel Husson,
>Sébastien Leplaideur, Julien Lusson, Roger Martelli, Bernard Pignerol,
>Jérôme Porta, Michel Rousseau, Yves Salesse, Claude Taleb, Louis Weber,
>Francis Wurtz.
>
>Avec la collaboration de Christian Boisgontier et Pierre Khalfa.
>
>Cette note s'attache à définir ce que pourraient être de nouvelles
>fondations de l'Europe en rupture avec l'actuelle construction néolibérale
>et antidémocratique.
>
>De nouvelles fondations dans lesquelles les peuples pourraient se reconnaître.
>
>Cette note est tournée vers des propositions qui partent d'une idée
>essentielle : il ne doit pas y avoir de réforme institutionnelle séparée
>d'une modification de l'orientation sur le fond.
>
>Les peuples ne s'inscriront pas dans un projet centré sur le marché, la
>concurrence généralisée. L'Europe doit au contraire se construire sur la
>solidarité, la lutte contre le chômage, l'amélioration des règles
>sociales, le développement des services publics, la protection de
>l'environnement, d'autres relations avec les pays du Sud.
>
>Pour autant, on ne peut ignorer les questions de fonctionnement
>institutionnel. Comment se construira une citoyenneté européenne ? Quelle
>relation avec Etats-Nations ? Voilà des questions à traiter avant
>d'aborder les orientations en matière d'institutions.
>
>Table des matières
>
>Introduction
>
>Partie 1 : Une Europe libérale
>
>Chapitre 1. Coup d'oeil dans le rétroviseur.
>
>Chapitre 2. Le contrainte néolibérale
>
>Chapitre 3. La démocratie mise à mal.
>
>Partie 2 : Une autre Europe est possible
>
>Chapitre 4. Une Europe sociale.
>
>Chapitre 5. Un nouveau modèle de développement.
>
>Partie 3 : Des institutions pour L'Europe.
>
>Chapitre 6. Des l'Europe et des Etats
>
>Chapitre 7. Définir un système institutionnel démocratique.
>
>Chapitre 8. Un nouvel élan politique pour l'Europe.
>
>Conclusion
>
>Annexe : La Convention, une copie à revoir.
>
>
>
>Europe : une alternative
>
>Ed. Syllepse, 7 euros.
>
>En vente en librairie et auprès de la Fondation Copernic.
>
>Commander directement auprès de la Fondation
>
>
>Manifeste pour une autre Europe
>de Yves Salesse
>Langue : Français Éditeur : Le Félin (20 octobre 2003)
>Collection : Questions d'époque
>Format : Broché - 100 pages
>ISBN : 286645524X
>-----Original Message-----
>From: she_forum-bounces_at_itk.ntnu.no [mailto:she_forum-bounces_at_itk.ntnu.no]
>On Behalf Of arturo hermann
>Sent: Monday, 30 May 2005 7:50 PM
>To: she_forum_at_itk.ntnu.no; trond andresen
>Subject: Re: [HE] The French 'NO'
>
>
>Dear colleagues, to be honest I am not content with the result, though
>recognizing the many limitations of the EU Constitution project. The point
>is that the French 'No' would neither reduce the great power of
>corporations nor abolish capitalistic markets; rather, it would probably
>increase their power, in the absence of adequate supranational
>institutions aimed at limiting and regulating the action of these bodies.
>Certainly, European Union was also constructed to fit the interests of
>corporations, but, I would hope, also to meet other exigencies. I think of
>a supranational institution like EU essential for addressing problems that
>are in their nature supranational; the political action of the Eu cannot
>be conservative 'per se', as it is a reflex of the politics of the member
>countries, so in order to help construct a left-wing Eu we should first of
>all construct a left-wing politics, internationally oriented, across
>member countries. Please do not forget what happened in E!
> urope in the thirties when international relations broke down.
>
>Un "salutone" from Italy
>Arturo Hermann
>
>----- Original Message --
>---
>From: "trond andresen" <trond.andresen_at_itk.ntnu.no>
>To: <she_forum_at_itk.ntnu.no>
>Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 9:46 AM
>Subject: RE: [HE] The French 'NO'
>
>
> > Joseph Halevi kindly reminded me that there are three, not two,
> > countries in Western Europe outside the EU.
> >
> > Ooops and sorry. Maybe I unconsciously think of Iceland as part of
> > Norway... ;-)
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Trond Andresen
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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Received on 31-05-05