Bulletin No42 Janvier 2024 On June 9, the elections for the European Parliament will take place. Each country of the European Union will appoint a number of deputies according to its population. For France, the number is 81. The election will take place proportionally from a national list which must be equal. Our party decided at its 9th Congress to present a list in these elections to lead the political battle on the questions of the role and direction of the EU. He will do so without developing the slightest illusion about the democratic character of this election, nor about the role that the European Parliament can play in defending the interests of workers in France and in Europe. This is all the more true as all the political forces represented in Parliament accept the framework of this EU without fundamentally calling into question its capitalist character and its place in imperialist rivalries.
Our political work on this issue is based on the analysis that we make of the capitalist nature of the constituent countries of the EU and therefore of the EU itself as a construction acting in the field of the global imperialist system and organizing itself to defend the interests of monopolies.
The trend towards centralization of the means of production, as political tools to establish the domination of the capitalist class, is not new. Let us remember what Marx and Engels say in the Communist Manifesto about the economic concentration of capital and its political translation. “The bourgeoisie increasingly suppresses the dispersion of the means of production, of property and of the population. It agglomerates the population, centralizes the means of production and concentrates property in a small number of hands. The necessary consequence of these changes was political centralization…” We are impressed by the timeliness and political accuracy of this text written in 1848.
How does it translate into this European Union which was conceived on the baptismal font of the European Coal and Steel Community Founded in 1951 and 1957, the Treaty of Rome which established the European Economic Community (EEC) with as objective economic, economic, military and ideological submission to US imperialism within the framework of the Cold War against the USSR.
The true heads of state are the owners of the major means of production (1) and exchange in each country. Political staff, including at the highest level, are at their entire service. The ESM (European Stability Mechanism) weighs very heavily on the States required to accept the draconian conditions imposed on them to repay what the ECB (European Central Bank) will advance to them. It is a supra-national “European” takeover of the economy of our countries which is obliged to respect the discipline of capital . The result of these " pacts" and measures of all kinds which follow one another is the continued impoverishment of the peoples of this Europe and of ours in particular. The right-wing or socialist governments of European countries have gradually put in place structures to strengthen the integration of countries and peoples. The Euro is an instrument for the economic and political integration of countries in the European Union and a tool for strengthening the means of European capitalism in global competition. The Euro is part of the capitalist monetary war between great powers. With the MES austerity plans, drastic reductions in public and social spending, the breakdown of labor and social rights, the acceleration of privatizations etc. are wreaking havoc in all European countries. But this is far from enough. Capital requires going much further and going there faster. In the name of “ competitiveness ” everything is pulled down: salaries, pensions, social security, compensation…. “ Non-competitive ” companies and services are condemned, employees are deprived of jobs. By imposing the free movement of workers in the European Union, by demanding the opening of the “ labor market ”, the capitalist leaders of Brussels, with the agreement of the Member States, knowingly organize pressure on employment and wages of workers. ! The European Union is seeking free trade agreements with other economic groups or countries.
On the military level, the EU countries have placed themselves under the control of the dominant imperialist country: the United States through their participation in NATO of which France is part of the integrated command. As a result, they are pawns in the service of US interests which set the strategy: From aggressions against Yugoslavia leading to its dismantling, to those against Syria, Iraq, Libya, to active participation in the imperialist war on the territory of Ukraine, to unwavering support for the colonial state of Israel, the EU countries unabashedly assume the role of defenders of the interests of Western and especially American imperialism. Responding to the demands of the United States everywhere, military budgets are soaring to the detriment of the needs of society, leading to a spiral of war dangerous for world peace. This is why we are campaigning for France's withdrawal from NATO and the dissolution of this military pact. So the EU is neither prosperity nor peace that it trumpets as its reasons for being.
If the objective of the European Union is the creation of a powerful imperialist pole serving its large monopolies, it is nonetheless crossed by contradictory interests as evidenced by the deep differences that have appeared on energy and defense issues. The weakening of Nations, or even their disappearance in certain areas if it makes it possible to better combat popular demands, does not put an end to the reality of the national framework as a terrain of class struggle.
It is therefore all these questions which will be the subject of our political battle. Because the reality is the capitalist and imperialist character of European construction, we will endeavor to organize workers in the struggle to combat capitalism and the negative effects of its development by showing that the only way out is to put end to this predatory system of Man and nature and which everything shows is harmful for all of Humanity and to build a society without exploitation of Man by Man, a society of cooperation of producers of wealth and peace and solidarity between peoples.
(1) 50,000 lobbyists currently work in Brussels. Influence groups financed by large multinational companies which defend their economic interests and influence the people who hold power. Particularly with elected officials to guide laws in the interest of large economic and financial companies.
1.5 billion euros are invested in lobbying expenses each year in Brussels, an overwhelming part of which is to defend industrial and financial interests.
*Total reported spending almost €2.5 million in 2019.
*113 million euros per year in total cost of lobbying for tech companies (Meta, Apple, etc.) which influence European Union policies.
In this vast process of influences, American companies are the most strongly represented. Up to 20%, to tilt EU policies in their favor against 1% for China!
All these figures show the extent of interference by big companies.
Everyone remembers the scandal of Greek MEP Eva Kaïlí, then vice-president of the European Parliament, who was arrested at her home in Brussels. 1.5 million euros were seized that day by the Belgian federal police during 16 searches.