N°14-02/06/2021 The Heads of State and Government of the European Union (EU) gathered on May 7 and 8 in Porto, Portugal to give new impetus to social policies! set for 2030!
The EU is a construction of capital at the service of capital and therefore entirely organized around the achievement of maximum profit and capitalist accumulation. As a result, the ‘Europe of capital’ cannot be social. It is also a tool for integrating employee organizations into the co-management of capitalism on the basis of a fundamental acceptance of its policy. After a series of meetings with representatives of trade unions and employers, EU leaders on Saturday approved an "action plan" on the social issue that the Commission presented in early March. The Trade Unions – the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) created in 1990 is a class collaboration organization, the Porto declaration is counting on them: “The social dimension, social dialogue and the active participation of social partners have always formed the basis of a highly competitive social market economy”. Its "competitiveness" is the constant search for maximum profit by exploiting the people by every means. Capitalist Europe arranged with a sprinkle of "social" is a huge deception. This Europe was built against the peoples, it works against them. The ESM (European Stability Mechanism) was adopted by European heads of state in 2011. Ratified by Parliament in 2012, the Right and PS had approved and voted. With the MES, the austerity plans, the drastic cuts in public and social spending, the destruction of labor and social rights, the acceleration of privatizations, etc... are wreaking havoc in all European countries. But that is far from sufficient. Capital requires going much further and going faster. In the name of "competitiveness" everything is pulled down: wages, pensions, social security, allowances….In the Porto declaration we can read: We are determined to reduce inequalities, to defend "fair wages"... yes by leveling everything down! Indeed Young Europeans are urged to seize the opportunity of this Conference. "We are at a particularly important time for young people to express themselves," said Ursula von der Leyen.
The European rulers make speeches to better integrate young people into the strategy of capital by moving them away from political and social issues, by ruling with an iron fist in the interest of the dominant capitalist groups and giving capital the means to restructure and concentrate in the context of exacerbated competition between large monopolies on a global scale. The EU follows with labor law, unemployment compensation... anti-social laws which aim to lower the value of labor power, to ensure social order by rendering “harmless” all those who contest this order.
NO to capitalist Europe!
On the sidelines of this summit, thousands of demonstrators marched in Porto to denounce unemployment, insecurity or privatizations. “The workers consider that the necessary answers are not given. We must fight against this policy of low wages, precariousness and deterioration of public services”, said Isabel Camarinha, general secretary of the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), which organized the protest. The EU was created by the capitalists and their states, to give European capitalism the means to strengthen itself, to develop, to occupy a preponderant place in the global capitalist competition. Its objective: to remove everything that hinders the development of capitalism and its interests. Lower the price of labor power by all means make capitalist expansion the golden rule of economic development. The law of capitalist Europe is the fundamental law of world capitalism. Developing the struggle clearly directed against capitalism will bring it down. Let's do it without compromise. Now is the time to act without wasting time. Only the struggle will advance the demands of the peoples and not compromises with capital whether in Europe or in France.