Happy New Year!

2019 will be a year of change – again!  This could be the year of a second referendum in the UK and also the year of elections, for the European Parliament, in Belgium and of course the election by the new Parliament of the next Commission President.  Who knows, to top it all it might even be the year for an early UK general election.

I know many of us are exasperated about the ambiguity of our leadership on the most profound issue facing working people in Britain today.  Despite our unyielding commitment to social justice, equality, and the redistribution of wealth, we appear myopic to the need to create and genuinely guide the creation of European institutions capable of supporting and implementing the values for which we stand.

Jeremy Corbyn appears to be more interested in appeasing nationalism and privileging the role of national institutions than in continuing to build a European Union able to control multinational capitalism and achieve social change for the better across our continent.  Giving the appearance of preferring little Englander nationalism over a socialist Europe is not where we should be.  Nor is it why many of us joined the Labour Party.

We have always believed that we have more in common than we have apart, and this is why Brussels Labour will always campaign for a better Europe in which British people are not exiled from the construction of a peaceful, fair and just Europe but one in which we continue to contribute actively, in different ways and through our different walks of life.  Whatever happens this year that will not change.

Closer to home, this year we will also have the Labour International elections, a chance for Brussels Labour activists to shape our party more deeply beyond Brussels.  We need to make sure that Labour International’s agenda focuses on British Labour members’ real and tangible interests and preoccupations such as our rights in EU countries, our right to vote in the UK and definitely not least, the fight to keep the UK in the EU.

Our Brussels Labour executive is looking forward to seeing everyone at forthcoming branch meetings during the year.  Please continue to be as active as ever, and please, if you have ideas for activities and for the development of our branch, please do not hesitate to get in touch – we need your views and support – we can’t do it without you!

David Earnshaw
Chair, Brussels Labour