> And if it seems to be doing
> less for the working class than we would like to see, it is because of the
> dramatic global power shift toward the capital that took place during the
> past three decades.
Did the EU have nothing to do with this? It was near the start of the past three decades that the Single European Act was brought in.
> To sum it up, the problems that you are complaining about result from the
> vastly enhanced power of global capital, not because of the European
> governance structure. In fact, jettisoning the latter is jettisoning the
> only life boat currently available to the working class against the capital.
I don't think I ever said that they *result from* the EU structure, but the EU structure perpetuates and reinforces them. But no one on the left thinks that any national governance structures anywhere function in workers' interests, either, so to argue that A is better than B is fundamentally missing the point.
I'm not really thrilled with the metaphor but if the only lifeboats available to you are shitty ones, you don't get in the least shitty one since it's going to sink you anyway, you try to build a new one. The EU's centralisation of power in the hands of the corporate class makes that task more difficult, and whether or not it is theoretically institutionally capable of benefitting the working class at the same time isn't the issue. The issue is that it doesn't do so and it won't do so. That's not what it's there for.