ECM 2012, Contribution of the Workers' Party of Belgium [En]

Contribution of the Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB)

European Conference of Communist Parties

Brussels, 1-2 October 2012

Since we met here in April 2011, the crisis of the world capitalist sysem has deepened. After a few short-lived hopes at recovery, the economy of the most developed capitalist countries has once again plonged in a recession. At the core of this crisis is the European Union. Many observers have already announced the impending disintegration of the Euro zone, the expulsion of Greece or the departure of Germany, bringing about the collapse of the European Union itself. Recently, we saw three of the major world speculators, Rothschild, Paulson and Soros, even gamble a few billions on the collapse of the Euro.

But what we observe at the same time, is that the big European monopolies are fighting by all means for the survival of the European construction. Not by taking radical measures against speculation, for that would disturb the sacred liberty of the markets. By all means, that means by comprehensively strengthening the budgetary, economic and political unification. The deeper the crisis, the faster the construction of the European superstructure. At no other moment of the European construction have we seen the Commission and the Council, two organs that are not even elected, appropriate for themselves so many powers in so short a time. Since our first meeting in 2011, they have equipped themselves with three addtional instruments to make the European workers bleed: the budgetary pact, the sixpack and the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance. The next council meeting, to be held right here on October 20-21, will discuss how to encompass all this with a Finance Minister of the Union. This way, we are developing quickly towards a political Union, as desired by Germany. Recently, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso pleaded for the transition from a conglomerate of national States to a form of European confederation, a stage that precedes that of a federal European State.

It is of course possible that the crisis and the revolt of the masses will put grains of sand in these wheels. But it is certain that we are facing an adversary who is no longer national, but who thinks and acts on the level of the continent. Even if there are profound gaps in terms of economic power between the North and the South on the one hand, and between the West and the East on the other, the concentration and centralization of capital are no longer realized at a national level but above all at the European level. That way, the crises of 1978 and 2008 have blasted into pieces whatever still existed of Belgium's so-called national capital. The holding Société Générale, that was born with the Belgian State and that fattened itself by means of the colonial extorsion of the Congo's wealth, was swallowed up by vultures even crueler than itself. The untouchable Générale de Banque, intermingled with Belgium's national industry for more than 150 years and worth three times Belgium's Gross Domestic Product, was gobbled up as a digestive by the French bank BNP-Paribas. In the other direction, we just came to know that the richest man of France, possessing the fourth richest fortune in the world, will take up Belgian citizenship and come to live in Brussels in order to escape taxes in France.

In short, and I repeat, we are facing an enemy that is reflecting and acting on the level of the European continent. Marx put forward the following lesson of historical materialism: the superstructure inevitably follows the development of the infrastructure. With the concentration and centralization of capital at the European level, the European big bourgeoisie is fighting to build a European State. An imperialist State, better capable than the current patchwork of nations to defend the interests of capital on a world scale. The appearance, next to its old competitors, the USA and Japan, of the emerging countries, headed by China, has doubled the EU's fervour to save the Euro and the European construction. The mere fact that the old Europe has to beg for financial help from China is revealing for the new correlation of forces. The European Union is a competitive war machine against the peoples and for world domination. This imperialist character of the European construction is supported by all bourgeois parties -- which does not withhold several of them to play the card of nationalism to divide the working class and the masses. We have a good example of this in Belgium, where the Flemish nationalist parties want the division, pure and simple, of the country.

If the Euro zone and the European Union should split up or explode, it would be because the masses can no longer stand the draconian measures imposed by the European Union. The various demonstrations and strikes of last week in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy show that there are limits to the level of suffering that can be imposed. The tolerance treshold of the population is about to be surpassed in Greece, Portugal, Spain and soon also in Italy. Entire branches of the national economy are being dismantled in order to reimburse the banks. Unemployment reaches more than 25% in countries such as Greece and Spain, and more than 50% among the youth. Several generations are being offered on the altar of profit, with no perspectives left for a decent life. In most European countries, all so-called remedies actually deteriorate the economic and social situation even further and make the masses' anger mount even higher.

In this extremely critical context for the European bourgeoisie, we have to ask ourselves the question of which strategy for the communist parties. The communist parties are at the vanguard of the mobilization to defend the social achievements, the collective services and the purchasing power of the workers, those receiving social allowances and their families. Everywhere we put our finger on the deeper source of this crisis, the capitalist system, and we explain that the only way out of this barbarity is socialism. However, we are forced to observe that there are three different strategies – outside of the one proposed by the Party of the European Left – that co-exist among us regarding the attitude to adopt vis-à-vis the European Union, notably on the slogan of national sovereignty. There are those parties that defend a return or a strengthening of national sovereignty as an intermediate demand, in order to create better conditions for socialist revolution. There are those parties that reject national sovereignty as a slogan under capitalism but who conceive the revolution at a national level, as a way to leave the European Union and build another Europe. I want to clarify the third position, undoubtedly in the minority, which is ours.

I will tackle it using an example. Our party has been waging, for several years already, a campaign against austerity and budget cuts by propagating as a direct alternative a tax on fortunes that could yield 8 billion Euro, or 2% of Belgium's GDP. To stress that such a tax would only touch the 2% richest Belgians, we baptized it the 'millionaires' tax'. The campaign pops up every time anti-people measures are decided, in a way that the word 'millionaires' tax' has already become a concept in the national press. It was at the heart of the discussions among the masses and in the media when mister Bernard Arnault, the first fortune of France, demanded Belgian citizenship to evade taxes and plan for his heritage without the French State's interference. You should know that Belgium is considered by the OECD just like the Cayman Islands, because of its fiscal benefits for the capitalists and the wealthy.

The bourgeois parties often reply to us: yes, but over the past twenty years all other European countries have progressively liquidated a tax on fortunes. The only exception is France, and see what happens: all the wealthy French flee with their fortune. We have always reponded to them: the only way to remedy this is to reintroduce such a tax everywhere in Europe, and it is for us, in Belgium, to set the example. So why not, and I address myself to the parties present here, why not launch such a campaign in the whole of Europe? You can count for yourself how much 2% of the GDP, now amassed in the coffers of the wealthy, could do to greatly diminish the suffering of the popular masses. Until now, there is even nothing in the Lisbon Treaty, the European constitution, that goes against imposing such a measure at a national level. But our party wants to go beyond that. Why not counterpose such a measure at a European level to the memoranda, the budgetary dictates, the privatization orders and the attacks on the pensions?

Some may formulate objections.

• Is it not the reformist way of the Party of the European Left to propose 'another Europe'? Let's be clear, comrades, we don't have any illusions that the European State in construction can be reformed. We don't believe in 'another Europe' under capitalism, not any more than that we believe in 'another Belgium' under capitalism. But we think that there is no qualitative difference between the bourgeois and imperialist character of the national State and the character of the European State under construction. Let's not forget that the construction of this European State can take place only thanks to and because of the political will of all bourgeois parties, social-democrats, nationalists and ecologists.
• No, this is not the reformist road of a “democratic and social” capitalist European Union. But from a strategic point of view, we exclude that the socialist revolution will take place only in Belgium or in any other isolated country of the European continent. We think that socialist revolution will be made at the level of at least part of the continent. We think that socialist revolution will face an enemy that is organized at the level of the entire continent or of parts of the continent. We defend the point of view that we should orient ourselves towards this future and not go backwards towards the national sovereignty of the 19th century.
• Is formulating demands toward the European Union not tantamount to accepting the EU as a reactionary State? No, it is not accepting it, but departing from the fact that it exists and that it will not really disappear without socialist revolution, without its replacement by a European federation of socialist countries. And even if there are breaches, they will not serve to return to the nation-states as they existed before the Rome Treaty. So why not get used to thinking and acting at the level of the continent, as the employers, the bourgeoisies,... and up to the Party of the European Left are doing? It is to our advantage to unify the objectives of the struggle against the European State under construction.
• Any immediate demand can always go in two directions: either to conscienticize and organize the masses, to make them advance and to accompany them in the struggle, with the perspective of socialist revolution; or to sow illusions and try to mitigate the contradictions of capitalism. As on the national level, we do not believe that we should stop putting forward immediate demands – not just defensive ones but also offensive ones – just by fear of them leading to a reformist road.

Of course the privileged terrain and the responsibility of each communist party is to be found in its own country in the first place. That is where it has struck roots, that it knows the particularities and that it has the power to act and to organize the vanguard and the masses. But wouldn't we be farther yet in the development of our practical collaboration on a European level if we would have the conviction that the final battle will not only take place in our own country but on the level of at least part of the continent?

For seven years now we have been organizing meetings with four communist parties of neighbouring countries, those from Germany, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Belgium. We work both at political unification and practical collaboration. Every year we hold a conference on a specific theme, we come out with common statements and dossiers, we organize common militant work during European demonstrations in Brussels or in Luxemburg. We may say that we try to work in the same strategic direction, which helps us to learn and to advance faster.

We can ask ourselves if the international impact of the struggles and demonstrations in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France would not be much greater if the workers could unite on common European slogans.

Even if differences on the road and the tactics to be followed for socialist revolution will remain, we think that it would be beneficial for us to advance to more practical work together, to develop common campaigns, and, why not, to already reflect about a common approach for the 2014 European elections.

These are some issues we wanted to submit to you.

Jo Cottenier, member of the Party Bureau of the Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB)