5. The labour movement and the contradictions within the EU
The parties of the working class are before the challenge to face in a class consistent manner the traps set up by the internal and external imperialist contradictions of the EU; to conduct within the social movements an independent ideological, political and syndical intervention that in the course of the class struggle cannot be confined or totally identified with certain governmental options of parties in power, which demand a certain degree of flexibility in order to cope with the internal economic sufficiency problems and circumstances of hard imperialistic encirclement of their countries.
For instance, the EU concludes agreements with third countries, at a bilateral or multilateral basis (WTO) sacrificing a part of the agricultural production of member-states leading the poorest farmers to their violent destruction in order to guarantee better market conditions for the promotion of industrial products to those third countries, which mainly can export agricultural products.
EU seeks, thought these agreements, to secure cheap raw materials for its industries, to exploit the cheaper –in comparison with its member-states- labour in agriculture, to obtain better conditions for exports in relation to its competitors eg the US.
If a state with a large agriculture output, from Africa or Latin America, considers as advantageous a bilateral economic cooperation with the EU, it is up to this state to make the agreement and secure a short-term economic benefit.
However, such agreements do not justify a communist, workers’ party to beautify the EU construction and record it as a “counter-pole” to the US imperialism.
The clear-cut positioning towards the imperialistic character of the EU it is to the benefit of the long-term national and internationalist class interests and to the benefit of the tasks of the labour and communist movement. At the level of social and political movement the incorporation in the structures of the EU should be excluded. Its internal contradictions should be utilized and deepened in favour of the workers’ and peoples’ interests, as well as the destabilization of its mechanisms and the obstruction of its policies so that the class struggle and the anti-imperialist struggle of the people will lead to the weakening of the EU, to the detachment of countries from it, and finally its dissolution.
-A comprehensive rejection of the European Constitutional Treaty together with the rejection of its previous fundamental treaties, the total rejection of the EU is a question of critical importance for the perspective of class struggle in Europe and beyond. The same goes for the rejection of the interstate imperialist agreements and unions promoted by the US.
The workers movement should say NO to the centres of imperialism regardless of their geographical seat.
The communist and workers movement cannot choose between “good” and “bad” imperialism, it cannot opt for the support of one or another transnational expression of the class enemy. The EU competes with the USA over markets control. Latin America, Africa, the relations with Russia and its allies (e.g. Belarus) and the relations with India and China are battlefields of competition.
The differences that occur between EU and US imperialism in international questions are clearly dictated by inter-imperialist contradictions and not by the different nature of both powers. In many cases indeed, if not in most cases, they did not hesitate to agree, when this guarantees the interests of both. Examples are the role of the EU in the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the war against the FR of Yugoslavia, the stance of European countries in the war against Iraq, the agreement of the French-German axis with the USA on questions of the Iraq occupation, the attitude of the 15 – under Greek presidency – towards Cuba, the classification of FARC, the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other people’s liberation movements as terrorist organizations, the EU’s participation in NATO’s plans for the Middle East, the campaigns to “democratise” countries of the former USSR, the approval of the coup against Chavez etc.
Of course, the working class movement of each country, when organizing its struggle, takes into consideration the inter-imperialist conflicts. People’s movements should utilize these contradictions in order to weaken the class enemy and to strengthen the class struggle aiming to overthrow capitalist power and to conquer the power for the working class and its allies.
For instance, the EU concludes agreements with third countries, at a bilateral or multilateral basis (WTO) sacrificing a part of the agricultural production of member-states leading the poorest farmers to their violent destruction in order to guarantee better market conditions for the promotion of industrial products to those third countries, which mainly can export agricultural products.
EU seeks, thought these agreements, to secure cheap raw materials for its industries, to exploit the cheaper –in comparison with its member-states- labour in agriculture, to obtain better conditions for exports in relation to its competitors eg the US.
If a state with a large agriculture output, from Africa or Latin America, considers as advantageous a bilateral economic cooperation with the EU, it is up to this state to make the agreement and secure a short-term economic benefit.
However, such agreements do not justify a communist, workers’ party to beautify the EU construction and record it as a “counter-pole” to the US imperialism.
The clear-cut positioning towards the imperialistic character of the EU it is to the benefit of the long-term national and internationalist class interests and to the benefit of the tasks of the labour and communist movement. At the level of social and political movement the incorporation in the structures of the EU should be excluded. Its internal contradictions should be utilized and deepened in favour of the workers’ and peoples’ interests, as well as the destabilization of its mechanisms and the obstruction of its policies so that the class struggle and the anti-imperialist struggle of the people will lead to the weakening of the EU, to the detachment of countries from it, and finally its dissolution.
-A comprehensive rejection of the European Constitutional Treaty together with the rejection of its previous fundamental treaties, the total rejection of the EU is a question of critical importance for the perspective of class struggle in Europe and beyond. The same goes for the rejection of the interstate imperialist agreements and unions promoted by the US.
The workers movement should say NO to the centres of imperialism regardless of their geographical seat.
The communist and workers movement cannot choose between “good” and “bad” imperialism, it cannot opt for the support of one or another transnational expression of the class enemy. The EU competes with the USA over markets control. Latin America, Africa, the relations with Russia and its allies (e.g. Belarus) and the relations with India and China are battlefields of competition.
The differences that occur between EU and US imperialism in international questions are clearly dictated by inter-imperialist contradictions and not by the different nature of both powers. In many cases indeed, if not in most cases, they did not hesitate to agree, when this guarantees the interests of both. Examples are the role of the EU in the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the war against the FR of Yugoslavia, the stance of European countries in the war against Iraq, the agreement of the French-German axis with the USA on questions of the Iraq occupation, the attitude of the 15 – under Greek presidency – towards Cuba, the classification of FARC, the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other people’s liberation movements as terrorist organizations, the EU’s participation in NATO’s plans for the Middle East, the campaigns to “democratise” countries of the former USSR, the approval of the coup against Chavez etc.
Of course, the working class movement of each country, when organizing its struggle, takes into consideration the inter-imperialist conflicts. People’s movements should utilize these contradictions in order to weaken the class enemy and to strengthen the class struggle aiming to overthrow capitalist power and to conquer the power for the working class and its allies.
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr