+600 Members Worldwide Branches in 40 Countries

LABOUR INTERNATIONAL - BACKGROUNDER FOR PRESS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION
ENTENTE CORDIALE - DEMOCRACY ON THE MOVE

At the London Anglo-French 26-28 March summit, ‘entente cordiale’ was upgraded to ‘entente amicale’ while Gordon Brown took it up a notch to ‘entente formidable’. Substance will be put into it with cooperation on defence, nuclear projects, immigration, aid and development and pledges to stand together on UN reform, climate change, trade and financial regulation.

British and French citizens are no strangers to increasing enthusiasm for cross border entente.
Around 300,000 mostly young French people, live in the UK. Many work in London, the 7th largest city of French citizens, savouring its flavour and seeking a modernised economy to increase their salaries. Sir John Holmes, former British Ambassador in Paris indicated some 500,000 British live and/or own property in France with a conservative estimate of 50 billion euros property investment. Magnets are life quality, work, cheaper property, love of France, climate. (1)

Some British citizens living in France recently set up Labour International in France (LIiF), a
branch of Labour International (LI), the British Labour Party’s overseas global section. LI serves it members abroad, contributes to Labour party policy with its overseas perspectives, cooperates with national and regional sister parties and community groups, and promotes the Labour Party’s agenda.

LIiF’s members’ goals are to maintain a Labour Government in the UK, link with socialist groups and institutions in France and contribute to local government. For instance, Treasurer Brian-Thomas Richardson, just won a seat in the municipal election at his home, Couture, Charentes. He found the election fascinating because ‘Here we have our closest neighbours doing it in a completely different, yet equally democratic way. I look forward to being involved in the local decision making process and understanding more the " small commune " side of French everyday life.’

Currently LIiF in France is preparing its first national meeting on 10 May 2008 at the Partie
Socialiste’s (PS) Paris Headquarters in cooperation with Labour International’s executive committee. LIiF Secretary Eric Green underscored that: ‘In the Paris Conference we shall together provide a solid foundation for the future progress of the Labour Party in France and the Socialist Movement in Europe. It will be the first national conference to be followed biennially by similar conferences’.

Discussions on these LIiF themes will be followed by a meeting focussing on LI’s International contributions to Labour Party policy, Branch development, Overseas voting rights and the the Party of European Socialists’ (PES) 2009 Social Manifesto. Participants will include LIiF members and representatives of the PS, PES French activists, LI Geneva/France voisine branch and the LI executive. The last are from Denmark, France, Spain, Switzerland and the USA.

Central to overseas voting rights is the fundamental democratic right of 5.5 million British citizens abroad to vote in Britain. That right to vote is a fundamental tenet of the British Constitution. The right to vote without time restrictions is wholly consistent with relevant international instruments. However, unlike many other countries, the UK is one of the most restrictive in depriving its expatriates of these democratic rights.

British citizens living abroad for more than 15 years can no longer vote in British elections. Even the franchise for the expected referendum on the EU constitution treaty would have excluded British overseas residents who were not eligible to vote in UK parliamentary elections, despite being EU citizens and living within the EU.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Labour International has campaigned since 1996 to maintain franchise for all British citizens abroad. It strongly supports taking a leaf out of the French legislative book whereby French citizens abroad never lose their vote and the voting procedure for expatriates is uncomplicated. French socialists abroad can vote for 3 senators to represent their interests in the Senate. Senator Richard Young expressed dismay that Britain, famed for its civil liberties tradition, could deny voting rights to expatriates. (Geneva Eurosocialists meeting 13 May 2005)

Sir John Holmes’ report stresses ‘Concern at being “disenfranchised” does seem to be growing. An issue to watch’. While some Westminster MPs are bewildered and bemused at the bother, it was given fair and square ‘watch’ this year. Take a look at:

- BBC News ‘Politics at a distance’ by Lucy Wilkins on 2 January
- This Europe, ‘15 years of Belgitude’ by Gareth Harding, Editor, on 14 March
- (first printed in The Bulletin, Belgium)
- The Wall Street Journal ‘One man no vote’ by Gareth Harding on 14 April
- French News ‘Shocking Lack of Votes from Abroad’, by Brian Cave in April.

As for the Socialist movement in Europe, the centre piece for discussions will be contributions to the Party of European Socialists’ 2009 Social Manifesto. This innovative road map, launched for the first time in Europe pivots on forward political solutions to global problems through A New Social Europe, Europe in the World, Democracy and Diversity, Saving our Planet.

Labour International’s 10 May meeting thus seamlessly slots into Europe Day on 9 May 2008, the anniversary celebrating the initiation of the European Union on 9 May 1950. Then, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman gave a speech calling for European countries to combine their coal and steel production under a single European institution. This paved the way for a European Union aspiring to unite its peoples in a European home, where ‘its not them and us, its you and me’
in the words of the poster for the 2008 European year of Intercultural Dialogue.


(1) Holmes: Number of British residents and property doc. Paris 2006


Dr Sylvia Moore, Deputy Chair, Labour International April 2008

________________________________________________________________________________

For further information please contact:

Eric Green at ericlgreen286@msn.com  tel 0545300248
Sylvia Moore at Ssindamanoy@aol.com


You can consult

LIiF at www.labourenfrance.com ,
Labour International at www.labourint.org.uk
Red Rose Forum at www.redrose.square.com , (LI members’ discussion area)
British Labour Party at www.labour.org.uk ,
PES at www.pes.org