On the 31st May, the Irish people will be asked to vote in a referendum on the Treaty on
Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, commonly known
as the Fiscal Compact Treaty. The YES side in the campaign argue that this is necessary in
order to maintain stability across the EU, and the NO side argue that this treaty
represents an enshrinement and continuation of the austerity we have faced since 2008.
However, both sides, either through ignorance, cynicism or malice, portray the limitations
of people's agency and power as the ticking of a box on a piece of paper. --- Putting
aside the neo-liberal talk of 'stability' for a moment, it is interesting to examine the
crux of the NO campaign's argument. The ULA refers to it as the 'Austerity Treaty' in most
of its literature and Sinn Fein have put out posters bearing the words 'Austerity isn't
...