Political Programme
Free Citizen1970Economy, the EEC and EuropeLaurent HoutanNo public scan is online for this item; the text below was read from a privately held copy.
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I quite agree with your last point of your Political Programme: ''no membership in the E.E.C.", not only because the entrance of our country in the E.E.C. would mean an increase in living costs - the fact is that Ireland would suffer greatly by entry into the Common Market because of its excentric position. If you consider that the geographical centre of the E.E.C. is roughly Strasburg, on the border between France and Germany, and that, if Britain enters this centre could shift to Brussels, Ireland is, in both cases, very far from the attraction cere, w means that no capitalist industrialist would be ready to settle a facty outside the circle of the greatest profit zone. A large part of Britain, on the ot} iand, ] within this zone, } their willingness to enter. countries or parts of countr’: are alread affected by this re’ nce to invest far from the ntr some parts of Ital. (the South especially) and parts of france (Britanny for example).
The Common Market is a capitalist organisation which is aiming at reorganising the disintergrati ng national economies cf \ European countries on safer es grounds. The socialist movemenis in Italy and France are hindered by the existence of this tighter conection between the countries of Printed and Published by the Peoples Democracy 88 i the E.E.C. - contracts between capitalists of the Six are signed every week to exploit further the i workers at the cheapest possible price. Joining the E.E.C. would } mean our refusal to fight capital4 ism.
P.D. seems to have been quite aware of this - and it is a proof of their political seriousness, the fact of which I have never doubted.
Yours, make up about 16% of the requirement’, That is 617 men only, a decrease of 40 inside seven months.
The quality of recruits too is worsening. In May 1970 Government figures showed that 1,625 applications were then "under consideration". That was seven months ago. Since then only 167 new men have joined. What of the other 1,458 being considered? Were they all rejected? Is the Army scraping the bottom of the barrel to such an extent that it is forced to reject exactly 90% potential U.D.R. mey? Does it take seven months for the Army to make up its mind about who is to harass motorists in Enniskillen