DUBLIN (Reuters) - The victorious "No" campaign in Ireland's referendum on the EU reform treaty tapped into a growing disaffection among working-class voters who feel alienated from political elites in Dublin and Brussels.
Just as in 2005, when French and Dutch voters rejected a European constitution, the skepticism voiced in working class districts played a pivotal role, election results showed...
The constituency of Dublin South, which includes some of the Irish capital's most salubrious neighborhoods, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the treaty but many poorer parts of the city's north and west showed high levels of opposition...
"It is a huge rebuff to the Irish political establishment," said Joe Higgins, a member of Ireland's Socialist Party...
"This vote does tally with what the millions of French workers, millions of Dutch people did (in 2005)," Higgins said. "Throughout Europe I believe many working people and activists in the labor movement will see this as an opportunity to fight back against the neo-liberal economic juggernaut that's being pushed down their throats."
Among the comments following the referendum from members of the Irish government, is this:
Richard Bruton, deputy leader of Ireland's main opposition Fine Gael party, which supported the treaty, said voters lashed out without necessarily understanding the issues at stake.
"The treaty's benefits were very cerebral and a hard sell," Bruton said. "You had some chance maybe with the middle classes who would have been reading the broadsheets (newspapers) and listening carefully to the debate," he said.
So the working-class don't read the rags, Mr. Bruton? Then how did they know enough to reject your position and vote No in the referendum?
I liken this situation to that in North American with respect to the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The goal of proponents of the SPP is ultimately to set in place a supranational body. As with the case of the SPP, Europeans are dealing with an agenda that is being pushed by power elites, most particularly the Bilderbergers.
(Google 'Bilderberg' for all kinds of interesting tidbits. Of relevance to the EU is this 2003 BBC radio program.)
As we know from the protests already begun in the US and in Canada led by the Council of Canadians and environmental groups, the SPP has the potential to override sovereign rights in both countries. And you can bet that Canada would be the greater loser.
A similar fear in Europe is no doubt driving citizen defiance, as witness the results of this Irish referendum on the EU Lisbon treaty.
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