We must see the result in a wider perspective. It is not just a matter of a no to EMU as such, but also to EU and the development of it to a centralized super state. It’s a defiance of the politics of EU and EMU that has been carried out in Sweden the latest decade. It’s a rejection of the progress of giving up our power and independence to the EU and a no to a political development that is hostile towards the people and puts the interests of capital before work, welfare and workers’ rights.

The Swedish people’s deep disbelief in and resistance to the EU as a whole laid the foundation to this victory. Ever since the Swedish entrance into the EU the government and parliament has tried to make us, the people, more positive towards the EU and accept the Swedish membership. They have failed once more. The referendum showed that the demand of a Swedish withdrawal from the EU is still anchored in a large part of the Swedish people.

The outcome puts great demands upon the government and parliament.

- Obviously the outcome must be respected. The decision of the people shall be followed.
- The convention of the future of Europe has proposed a new constitutional law that will bring more supernational structures and will mean that more power will be moved from the member countries to Brussels. In respect of the outcome of the referendum, the Swedish government must lay forward its veto against the proposition for this new constitutional law.
- The government and its party allies must change the direction of the economic politics. There must not be any EMU politics in Sweden after the people said no to it. Sweden must break the rules of the stability pact and reinforce a political line with full employment as major political goal. The public sector must be rebuilt and parts of it that has been privatized must be brought back into public ownership.

This puts a very big responsibility upon the shoulders of the Left Wing Party, the government ally. The Social democrats will not analyze the outcome of the referendum this way. The Left Wing Party must therefore live up to what it said during the campaign leading up to the referendum, and following its no to EMU also fight the ongoing politics of EMU.

The people’s NO to EMU is a landmark in Swedish politics. For more than 20 years, the working class and the large parts of the people have been pressed backwards in field after field. Big business and its politicians in government and parliament have won in field after field. But this time they were defeated. The powers that be lost and can loose again. The working class won and can win again.

Revolutionary Communist Youth,
the evening of the 14th of September 2003