Socialism and sovereignty .sx Giles Radice .sx How sovereign should the nation state be ?sx Recent events have underlined the continuing erosion of the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs of sovereign states , which has been the bedrock of international relations for most of the twentieth century .sx Iraq has its nuclear facilities forcibly exposed by UN inspectors .sx US Secretary of State James Baker pledges that genocide such as occurred under Pol Pot will never again be allowed to happen .sx The World Bank announces that its loans will henceforth be conditional not only on economic policies , but also on social and environmental policies and respect for human rights .sx As Frank Judd and John Clark put it below , " old ideas of national sovereignty must be tempered by agreed minimum standards of governance and shared responsibility " .sx To the internationalist Left , this emphasis on global community must be welcome .sx Respect for the rights and dignity of the individual should be upheld , whatever political entity that individual lives under .sx Cultural relativism can have no appeal to those who believe in fundamental freedoms .sx Yet there are dangers .sx Nicholas Wheeler and Justin Morris point out that unless a North-South consensus develops over what minimum standards should be , the New World Order will be seen by the South not as humanitarian enlightenment but as a new chapter in the history of Western colonialism .sx Helping create this consensus is perhaps the greatest challenge for the foreign policy of the next Labour government .sx There are dangers too in underestimating the continuing appeal of nationalism , as shown by the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union .sx While Western Europe forges ahead with integration , centrifugal tendencies in the eastern and south eastern part of the continent , as well as pressure from parts of the Community itself to create a Europe of the regions , demonstrate that the principle of self determination is as potent and problematical today as when President Wilson enunciated it in 1918 .sx Yet - Bruges group please note - even those parts of the former Soviet or Yugoslav empires pressing for independence are keen to pool their newly-won sovereignty within the EC .sx They understand , as Calum Mcdonald puts it , that " it is possible to be at the same time an ardent devolutionist and a committed unionist ; that is , to desire the greatest possible degree of government decentralisation within the widest possible political community .sx The question is where to draw the line " .sx With little over a month to go to the Maastricht Summit , where to draw the line between the EC and the member states is the most pressing issue facing Britain .sx The Conservative approach to the question of sovereignty is , like so many of their policies at the moment , incoherent .sx One day John Major is to be seen leading the Commonwealth towards an interventionist approach to human rights .sx The next day he is heard squealing with indignation at the 'interference' of the European Community in what passes for the British government's environmental policy .sx Overriding Zambian sovereignty , it seems , is fine , but overriding British sovereignty is not .sx There are hard choices to be taken at Maastricht .sx How far should the competence of the European Community be extended ?sx It is common ground ( outside the British Conservatives ) that currency speculators , multinational companies and acid rain clouds are no respecters of national boundaries - this is the rationale behind the Labour Party's commitment to closer economic and monetary union and a supranational approach to social and environmental policy .sx Even within these broad policy areas , what should be the nature of EC action ?sx Should EC standards be set high , to drag up conditions in Greece , Portugal and the other poorer states , or act simply as a floor to prevent competitive down-bidding under the Single Market ?sx If they are high , how will this effect eastern European states wishing to join ?sx In other words , can we deepen as well as widen ?sx Equally complex is the issue of the political arrangements needed to govern the evolving Community .sx Can we accept a Community in which the executive functions are carried out by appointees rather than elected representatives ?sx What role do we wish to assign to the necessarily independent and unaccountable Court ?sx Or to an independent European Bank ?sx Against this , as a Party committed to intervention where necessary , we must seek to ensure that the Community's institutional structure is coherent and effective , so that we can regulate the free market and mitigate its effects in a way we no longer can at national level .sx A Single European market requires political action at a European level if it is to be more than Thatcherism writ large black-square .sx Federation or union ?sx Ben Cosin .sx There seems to have been disproportionate sensitivity during recent debates on Europe over a single piece of terminology , the 'F-word' .sx What should be the true socialist response to the federalist approach to Europe ?sx The current controversy is not just about whether federal ( English ) is different from federal ( German) .sx It is also about centralisation , bureaucracy , the relation between state and society .sx In this , as so often , Mrs Thatcher has put her finger on the issue , though as usual in a wrong-headed way .sx At the worst , Brussels/Strasbourg will not be like the Soviet Union , but like a more jaded version of the US .sx Strong judicial and administrative organs , the French conseil d'etat writ large , will make decision-making cumbersome , impeding the parliament and the executive .sx The largest capitalist companies will not be too bothered , they have the money , power and specialized agencies to deal with any political set-up .sx All other groups will be put at an administrative and political permanent disadvantage - to top up the economic superiority already enjoyed by the monopoly capitalists .sx The Brussels bureaucracy is cumbersome not in its size , habitually exaggerated by its Poujadist opponents in the 'safeguards' movement and elsewhere , but in its scope and potential .sx As it ingests more and more aspects of the life of more and more nations , it will become tremendously complex and rigid .sx Its wealth of regulations , tending to a wealth of regulatory powers , are already evidence of this .sx Can countervailing forces come into play ?sx Those forces cannot be the independent power of the constituent nations ; their capitalists have already surrendered their 'independent' economic power in the interest of greater , multinational power and profit .sx It should not be the free play of market forces a la 1992 , even within the loose framework of the Social Charter - what is socialist or democratic about that ?sx Eventually the supranational state will require a unitary executive with some unfettered powers in reserve to deal with emergencies ; a state whose executive lacks such a reserve is not a state at all .sx But at present , EC action is less in danger from such a development than from an inability to concert action .sx All that is left with any serious chance of responsible and progressive governmental development is the unity of the legislature and the executive - the democratic and the sovereign power .sx Such a unity is flexible enough to adjust to social development so as to influence it , while permitting its independent development .sx In the UK it is known as the Crown in Parliament .sx Its peculiarity is that the legislature , important as the passage of laws may be , is more important as the permanent electoral college and constituent assembly which monitors the aptness of the government to social life .sx Only if the active ( not merely the reserve ) powers of the state are dependent on the legislature can this flexible combination be achieved .sx But there are other conditions for its development - constitutional as well as social .sx Here I focus on the constitutional issue thrown up by the issue of federalism .sx Federalism centralises executive power more than do confederation or alliance .sx But it also centralizes judicial and to a lesser extent bureaucratic power more than any other system .sx For by definition it divides governmental power permanently , on principle and as of right , into at least two segments - that of the central and that of the provincial governments ( they may be called , regional , national , Land , 'state' or whatever) .sx That division and its distinctions must be permanently policed .sx And the power that polices them must be a power greater than any that can attempt to blur them .sx Furthermore , it cannot be elected ; otherwise the distinctions it polices would not be principled and of right ( legal-judicial and constitutional) .sx Federalism therefore puts a supreme court above the government - and therefore above the people that elect the government .sx That is not the sort of government that socialists can tolerate , nor can consistent democrats .sx Liberals of all sorts , from American federalists to advocates of Charter 88 can tolerate it quite well .sx Democrats and socialists must oppose federalism for this if for no other reason .sx They cannot do so in the interests of 'national independence' .sx They must do so in the interests of good and progressive government on an EC scale .sx A unitary , not a federal , EC supranational state , governed by an EC executive responsible to the European Parliament , is the way forward for the socialists in the EC .sx The Tories are tearing themselves apart on the issue of Europe .sx It is time for us as socialists to say what our European beliefs are .sx Thatcher has yet again put her finger on the crucial issue - for or against Washington's dominance of the world .sx The answer is obvious ; the EC must be strengthened to provide the world with a counter-weight to the USA .sx The Party Conference to be held in 1992 on the EC will need to consider the balance of federation and integration at the level of our parties and at the level of the developing European State .sx Postcard from the edge ( of Brighton ) .sx Deborah Stoate .sx You may be forgiven for having missed the Fabian Society stall at Labour Party Conference this year , hidden as we were behind the monolithic grey British Rail edifice complete with hi-tech and sharp suits , and sandwiched between ten other socialist societies as diverse as Poale Zion and the Christian Socialist Movement .sx It took determination , a good map and sharp eyesight to find , however many did and renewed old acquaintances , bought literature and joined up .sx Fabian Conference News was - and this is said impartially of course - a triumph organisation , production and distribution .sx As one of that grim band of single-minded zealots , who thrust their literature at passing delegates , I can say that FCN was received with enthusiasm and sometimes even requested .sx Despite mutterings about Amazon rainforests and the hilarity with which " Getting excited " , the first headline , was greeted by a line of hard - bitten hacks , FCN kept the Society's profile high amongst much-increased competition .sx I attended the first Fabian fringe meeting - Frank Field and Janey Buchan ( Bryan Gould was indisposed ) discussing their kinds of socialism , ruled either by head or by heart and vividly contrasted in the style and content of their speeches - a contrast running through Conference as we struggled to define or even distinguish the Labour Party's kind of socialism .sx As PJ Barnum once remarked , and I paraphrase , it's impossible to please all the people all of the time .sx This Conference triumphed , in that respect , appearing at least to please most of the people - constituency delegates , unions and even voters - most of the time .sx For that compromise - or 'pragmatism' as it is now known - may indeed win us the next election .sx It became increasingly apparent that there was to be no big idea , merely the rehearsal of ( at most ) rejigged policies , but this time stated with passion .sx It was a Conference of sound bites , photo opportunities and new model PPCs , but it is the old-fashioned rhetoric and restatement of why we are socialists that I shall remember .sx For the first time in 15 years Labour felt like a party on the offensive .sx We pretended we could win in 1987 but this felt different .sx As they say in Alaska , 'If you ain't the lead dog the scenery never changes' ; now it would seem that , at last , we have an unrestricted view of the horizon ahead .sx Taking account of ethics .sx There is a myth that corporate reports are only for shareholders .sx