FEDERALISM
(comments: tony.papard@btinternet.com)
I am a federalist. I don’t think of myself principally as British, English or even Anglo-Greek-Cypriot. I think of myself as a European. I would love to be a citizen of a United States of Europe, with a single currency and a democratic European Parliament. The present one has too few powers because many national governments in the EU do not believe in federalism, just an economic union of national states. Some, like Britain, wish to retain the national veto, passport controls and all sorts of restrictions which prevent the emergence of a democratic super-state.
The British don’t understand federalism because we have never had a written constitution. The various nations which form the UK and the British Isles have never had a federal system, and only recently has devolution brought some sort of national assemblies/parliaments to Scotland and Wales (but not to England, and certainly not to Cornwall which some consider to be a separate Celtic nation.) A federal system devolves power both upwards and downwards, and there can be a great degree of autonomy for states within the federation.
Moreover, a federal constitution doesn’t have to be written in stone. It can be developed, revised, amended from time to time. You can have a rather rigid federation like the USA or the old USSR, or a looser one which grants more autonomy to member states, and allows them to leave the federation if they so wish. I would support this sort of federation. In the American Civil War, for instance, the Southern States were misrepresented as fighting for slavery. What they were really fighting for was the right to break away from the Union and form the Confederate States of America. They had every right to do this. If federalism is imposed by force it becomes colonialism.
But it is a fact of life in the 21st century that nation states, in order to survive, must increasingly come together in close economic and political unions, and federalism of some sort seems the most logical outcome. I was against the break-up of the Soviet Union and the Yugoslav federation, and following the terrible wars and bloodshed which ensued these ‘independent’ states are finding they can’t survive on their own and are nearly all clamoring to join the European Union. The old USSR and Yugoslavia needed drastic democratic reforms, but they did not need to break-up into individual nation states. Maybe the Baltic States should have left the USSR and joined the EU, and perhaps Slovenia would have left the Yugoslav federation and joined the EU, but that is what I mean by a truly democratic form of federalism. It must be flexible.
The trend for centuries has been towards bigger nations. Remember England was once a collection of warring kingdoms – Wessex, Murcia, etc.. No-one would want to go back to this situation. But true democratic federalism can devolve a lot of power and autonomy to nations, states and provinces which belong to a bigger political unit.
Following the break-up of the Soviet Union the Commonwealth of Independent States was established. This is a very loose grouping of former Soviet republics, but should these republics decide to adopt democratic socialist constitutions the CIS could form the basis of a Union of Socialist States, and I for one would be happy for England and the other nations of the British Isles to join if they so wished. Such matters would have to be decided by referenda. In my article on Socialism I describe how a Socialist Constitution might work, after achieving a big majority vote in a referendum. Joining any sort of federation, or leaving it, would require a similar majority vote in a referendum.
Personally I would at this stage like Britain to adopt the Euro and work to turn the EU into a fully-fledged federation. I exclude Northern Ireland (which is why I don’t use the term United Kingdom, also because I am a republican). Ireland should be reunited and become a member of the EU as a single entity. Or the separate nations of the British Isles could join a federal EU – England, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Northern Ireland, Irish Republic, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, etc.
This could apply in other member EU countries also, with the Basque country and Catalonia becoming member states in their own right, for instance.
Member states or groups of member states should always be free to break away from the Union after following agreed procedures (such as achieving a big majority in a referendum and going through the necessary formalities of secession). For instance, should a group of socialist states emerge, as described above, they could break away from the EU and form a Socialist Federation (United Socialist States of Europe?)
I wouldn’t even mind Britain becoming the 51st state of the USA if the British electorate voted against membership of a European federation. (Or preferably the indivdual nations of the British Isles each becoming U.S. states in their own right or in groups, e.g. England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Channel Islands, etc.) We do have a lot in common with the USA – language for a start. By becoming a state (or states) of the USA we would adopt the dollar as our currency, have freedom of movement within the enlarged USA (which might have to be renamed to accommodate extra states outside North America), and we would elect Senators and have a vote in Presidential elections. It would not be ideal for a socialist like myself, but I could live with it. Becoming a state (or states) of the republican (small ‘r’) USA would be preferable to remaining an outdated United Kingdom battling along in splendid isolation outside the big federations of the USA, EU and probably others which I believe will dominate the world in the late 21st century and beyond.
So I am an internationalist and a federalist. I envisage a world formed of large super-states or federations, linked together in a looser world confederation in the form of a much strengthened United Nations. I believe member states of the various federations should be free to leave one Union and join another if they so wish, after following the proper democratic procedures. I don’t believe there is any future in individual sovereign nation states existing in isolation. In the interest of peace and progress, we MUST come together in bigger political and economic federal unions.