- Paperback: 193 pages
- Publisher: Pluto Press (7 Sep 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0745316956
- ISBN-13: 978-0745316956
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.6 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,049,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
A clear and compact oversight of the working of the different policy areas of the European Union. In addition he offers a short history of European unification, with a summary of the various treaties so far adopted. Text books and standard works concerning the European Union have as a rule the disadvantage that they are extremely thick and boring, written in an academic, distant style. McGiffen’s short book is a pleasing exception, a combination between a concise reference work and a critique of the EU. (Dusnieuws )
This critical guide to the EU is an attempt to explain how the EU really works from the euro and CAP to qualified majority voting and foreign policy. It draws both on experience and on research from an impressively wide range of sources. (Tom Easton, LOBSTER )
McGiffen writes with great clarity and an accessible prose style. He includes the key facts, but is concise enough to ensure that he is never boring. And he seems to be accurate. Certainly I could not identify and errors of fact. The book is also an invaluable work of reference...His chapter on the Euro is a minor gem. I have rarely seen a better essay on the fundamental flaws of the EMU project. (Roger Helmer, These Tides )
The book...gives voice to a kind of criticism of the EU largely marginalised in the political debate. it has a good index and contains a valuable list of recommended reading as well as extensive references to relevant web sites. (Millennium, Journal of International Studies ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
This critical guide to the EU is an attempt to explain how the EU really works from the euro and CAP to qualified majority voting and foreign policy. It draws both on experience and on research from an impressively wide range of sources. (Tom Easton, LOBSTER )
McGiffen writes with great clarity and an accessible prose style. He includes the key facts, but is concise enough to ensure that he is never boring. And he seems to be accurate. Certainly I could not identify and errors of fact. The book is also an invaluable work of reference...His chapter on the Euro is a minor gem. I have rarely seen a better essay on the fundamental flaws of the EMU project. (Roger Helmer, These Tides )
The book...gives voice to a kind of criticism of the EU largely marginalised in the political debate. it has a good index and contains a valuable list of recommended reading as well as extensive references to relevant web sites. (Millennium, Journal of International Studies ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
This work offers a clear and thorough critical introduction to the origins, development and current direction of the EU, and pinpoints the major debates animating decision-makers. Offering an illustrated analysis of each of the EU's major policy areas, the author places them in the context of the economic, political and philosophical bases that underpin the arguments both for and against the EU. Subjects covered include enlargement, internal and external security, the Euro, trade, the environment, employment, transport and regional policy. He explains how and why the debate about membership is frequently and falsely presented as if it were a conflict between "nationalism" and "internationalism," and argues instead that the EU is merely one of a number of possible solutions to the economic and political problems facing Britain and its other members.
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First Sentence
In 1957 six countries of western Europe signed a treaty designed to further the transformation of the economic and political life of the region. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
In 1957 six countries of western Europe signed a treaty designed to further the transformation of the economic and political life of the region. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Steve McGiffen's book gives a clear yet critical introduction to the origins, development and current direction of the EU. He is a long-time critic of the EU who works for the United Left Group in the European Parliament.
His brief, well-organised chapters cover the EU's treaties, institutions, enlargement, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Justice and Home Affairs, the euro, the internal market, external economic relations, employment, social policy, the environment, the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, transport, and regional and industrial policy. He includes an extremely useful and up-to-date survey of information available in books, articles and websites.
McGiffen shows that the EU is capitalist through and through, created by employers for employers, designed to leach power away from workers. The EU is not about democratic nations cooperating for peace, but about employers railroading Europe's nations into a single undemocratic 'superpower' (Blair's word).
Most importantly, he shows how the euro gives vast unaccountable powers to the European Central Bank, ending all democratic control over economic policy, and implementing an extreme monetarism. He shows how the euro strengthens capital's power to destroy European nations' welfare states, achieved by workers' struggles over the centuries. He cites the economist Melvyn Krauss: "Behind the euro's falling exchange rate is a life-and-death struggle between it and Europe's welfare state. Either the euro subverts the welfare state, or Europe's welfare state subverts the euro."
So the welfare state is at stake in the fight against the euro, but not only the welfare state. EU monetarism installs deflation as a permanent policy, cutting down jobs and industries across Europe: the EU mortally threatens manufacturing industry, so vital for our working class's very existence as a creative, world-making force. Without industry, there can be no independent, sovereign Britain.
So how do we stop the EU and the euro from destroying Britain? Not by rallying the forces of 'the left'. The idea of workers' nationalism alone has the huge potential of uniting all our class in the fight to save Britain. Renouncing the nation only weakens the class. As Ho Chi Minh always said, real internationalism begins at home.
His brief, well-organised chapters cover the EU's treaties, institutions, enlargement, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Justice and Home Affairs, the euro, the internal market, external economic relations, employment, social policy, the environment, the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, transport, and regional and industrial policy. He includes an extremely useful and up-to-date survey of information available in books, articles and websites.
McGiffen shows that the EU is capitalist through and through, created by employers for employers, designed to leach power away from workers. The EU is not about democratic nations cooperating for peace, but about employers railroading Europe's nations into a single undemocratic 'superpower' (Blair's word).
Most importantly, he shows how the euro gives vast unaccountable powers to the European Central Bank, ending all democratic control over economic policy, and implementing an extreme monetarism. He shows how the euro strengthens capital's power to destroy European nations' welfare states, achieved by workers' struggles over the centuries. He cites the economist Melvyn Krauss: "Behind the euro's falling exchange rate is a life-and-death struggle between it and Europe's welfare state. Either the euro subverts the welfare state, or Europe's welfare state subverts the euro."
So the welfare state is at stake in the fight against the euro, but not only the welfare state. EU monetarism installs deflation as a permanent policy, cutting down jobs and industries across Europe: the EU mortally threatens manufacturing industry, so vital for our working class's very existence as a creative, world-making force. Without industry, there can be no independent, sovereign Britain.
So how do we stop the EU and the euro from destroying Britain? Not by rallying the forces of 'the left'. The idea of workers' nationalism alone has the huge potential of uniting all our class in the fight to save Britain. Renouncing the nation only weakens the class. As Ho Chi Minh always said, real internationalism begins at home.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As I write, there's only been one other review of this - Mr Podmore's - who gave it a very decent review, which I can't quibble with, but only gave it 3 stars. I feel that was probably a mistake. Anyway, I want to bid up the stars.
Steve McGiffen is the editor of Spectrezine website, (which is a sort of EU watch). This book is basically a quick critical overview and intro the the history and structure of the EU; and therefore a good place to start, and a handy reference, to be followed up by Booker and North's 'the Great Deception' which is much bigger and is the only comprehensive and accurate account of the EU project
Steve McGiffen is the editor of Spectrezine website, (which is a sort of EU watch). This book is basically a quick critical overview and intro the the history and structure of the EU; and therefore a good place to start, and a handy reference, to be followed up by Booker and North's 'the Great Deception' which is much bigger and is the only comprehensive and accurate account of the EU project
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Devastating attack on the European Union
6 July 2004
Format:Hardcover
Steve McGiffen's book gives a clear yet critical introduction to the origins, development and current direction of the EU. He is a long-time critic of the EU who works for the United Left Group in the European Parliament.
His brief, well-organised chapters cover the EU's treaties, institutions, enlargement, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Justice and Home Affairs, the euro, the internal market, external economic relations, employment, social policy, the environment, the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, transport, and regional and industrial policy. He includes an extremely useful and up-to-date survey of information available in books, articles and websites.
McGiffen shows that the EU is capitalist through and through, created by employers for employers, designed to leach power away from workers. The EU is not about democratic nations cooperating for peace, but about employers railroading Europe's nations into a single undemocratic `superpower' (Blair's word).
Most importantly, he shows how the euro gives vast unaccountable powers to the European Central Bank, ending all democratic control over economic policy, and implementing an extreme monetarism. He shows how the euro strengthens capital's power to destroy European nations' welfare states, achieved by workers' struggles over the centuries. He cites the economist Melvyn Krauss: "Behind the euro's falling exchange rate is a life-and-death struggle between it and Europe's welfare state. Either the euro subverts the welfare state, or Europe's welfare state subverts the euro."
So the welfare state is at stake in the fight against the euro, but not only the welfare state. EU monetarism installs deflation as a permanent policy, cutting down jobs and industries across Europe: the EU mortally threatens manufacturing industry, so vital for our working class's very existence as a creative, world-making force. Without industry, there can be no independent, sovereign Britain.
So how do we stop the EU and the euro from destroying Britain? Not by rallying the forces of `the left'. The idea of workers' nationalism alone has the huge potential of uniting all our class in the fight to save Britain. Renouncing the nation only weakens the class. As Ho Chi Minh always said, real internationalism begins at home.
His brief, well-organised chapters cover the EU's treaties, institutions, enlargement, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Justice and Home Affairs, the euro, the internal market, external economic relations, employment, social policy, the environment, the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, transport, and regional and industrial policy. He includes an extremely useful and up-to-date survey of information available in books, articles and websites.
McGiffen shows that the EU is capitalist through and through, created by employers for employers, designed to leach power away from workers. The EU is not about democratic nations cooperating for peace, but about employers railroading Europe's nations into a single undemocratic `superpower' (Blair's word).
Most importantly, he shows how the euro gives vast unaccountable powers to the European Central Bank, ending all democratic control over economic policy, and implementing an extreme monetarism. He shows how the euro strengthens capital's power to destroy European nations' welfare states, achieved by workers' struggles over the centuries. He cites the economist Melvyn Krauss: "Behind the euro's falling exchange rate is a life-and-death struggle between it and Europe's welfare state. Either the euro subverts the welfare state, or Europe's welfare state subverts the euro."
So the welfare state is at stake in the fight against the euro, but not only the welfare state. EU monetarism installs deflation as a permanent policy, cutting down jobs and industries across Europe: the EU mortally threatens manufacturing industry, so vital for our working class's very existence as a creative, world-making force. Without industry, there can be no independent, sovereign Britain.
So how do we stop the EU and the euro from destroying Britain? Not by rallying the forces of `the left'. The idea of workers' nationalism alone has the huge potential of uniting all our class in the fight to save Britain. Renouncing the nation only weakens the class. As Ho Chi Minh always said, real internationalism begins at home.
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