The Socialist Labour Party is totally committed to complete withdrawal from the European Union, or Common Market as it was originally called. That is the only way Britain can begin to regain control of its economy, sovereignty and its political powers.

The European Union is a capitalist club that makes it easy for multi-national companies to exploit workers throughout its member states, while the sovereignty of those states is increasingly meaningless, and we are all at the mercy of a vast, faceless bureaucracy.

lt is a costly business too for the people of Scotland, England and Wales; membership of the European Union means we suffer an annual net loss of at least £12 billion, simply because we are in the EU.

Under the Maastricht and Nice Treaties, things will get even worse; Maastricht means still more public spending cuts dictated from Brussels, and thus even higher unemployment and deeper poverty. The so-called Social Chapter has not in fact helped Britain; it has not even restored the rights and benefits that workers enjoyed over a quarter of a century ago.

The true political nature of the European Union is now becoming evident; we saw this in the Summit which took place in Nice towards the end of 2000. The drive to establish a European army (a concept first advocated by Adolf Hitler), the introduction of taxation policies such as VAT, laws which over-ride laws adopted by the British people, do not represent an advance in either economic or human rights. On the contrary, the laws now emanating from Europe mean that the British working class is infinitely worse off then it was in the 1970s.

Our Party is committed to Britain's complete withdrawal from the European Union. Only by coming out of the European Union can we begin to put things right economically and socially; everything from the Health Service to child care depends on it.

We are opposed to joining the euro and committed to fighting to regain not only independence from a capitalist European super state or a United States of Europe, but we are committed to campaign for true internationalism so that we can have fair and reasonable trading links with the rest of the world.

Opposing the European Union is part of the Socialist Labour Party's internationalist outlook. We want Britain to come out of Europe and into the world, developing and expanding links with nations in Asia, Africa, the South Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, including countries like Cuba which has endured over 45 years of economic blockade and sanctions because the United States fears Socialism. There would be an immediate net gain of £12 billion if Britain left the European Union, with billions more income from international trade.