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Workers Power Global, London
At the summit in Brussels last December the leaders of the European Union set themselves the goal of "bringing Europe closer to its citizens". They twigged that tens of millions do not vote in European elections since they sense rightly that their representatives can make little or no difference, beyond setting up inquiries, asking questions and deliberating over the budget.
Now a Convention has been launched in which 105 politicians from the 15 member states and 13 applicant countries will deliberate for a year and come up with a scheme for a reform of the institutions of the European Union to put to an intergovernmental conference of EU leaders.
Apparently it did not appear ironic to the summiteers to propose at Brussels that a 100 or so MEPs, ex-Prime ministers and other superannuated politicians decide the fate of Europe for the next 30 years. How this will bring the EU closer to the people is not obvious to most. Indeed, real power to propose a reform lies with the dozen members of the Presidium - all made up of people from the existing member states.
The Presidiumâs membership is biased towards those that wish to move Europe in the direction of a unified federal state. Giscard DâEstaing launched the Convention on 28 February and made clear their aspirations:
"What has been created over the last 50 years will reach its limit. He argued that the Convention needed to come up with a plan that "matches our continental dimension and the requirements of the 21st century"
And in a warning to the USA he argued that a new Europe "would be respected and listened to, not only as an economic power it already is but as a political power which will talk on equal terms to the greatest powers on or planet."
As a public relations exercise one of the members of the Presidium is charged with launching a consultation with "civil society". But do not hold your breath. You can be sure will not involve the working people of Europe in the process through a democratically elected constituent assembly, based on one vote for all those living and working inside the European Union.
We abhor the lack of democracy in the EU. But we do not by idealise the national states or to support hypocritical "regional" reactionaries like the Bavarian CSU, the Northern League of Italy. We fight the lack of democracy at a European level by calling for a European wide Constituent Assembly, where all people living in Europe should have a vote for, where the people from all the states who want to enter the EU should be allowed to vote for.
In this course we want to debate out the future of Europe. The question of the European constitution has to be put forward in a clear call on all workers, youth, the oppressed - what kind of Europe do you want? A Europe of the bosses and imperialists or a Europe of the workers, the youth, the immigrants?
Such a struggle can unite all our social and democratic demands. Such a struggle will unite us on a European wide level even more. But we also know that even the most democratic bourgeois institution is based on capitalism and private property. We know that the bosses will not give up their power voluntarily or by majority decisions. They will try to use their armies, their cops, their secret services.
How to we prevent them from doing this? By building or own fighting organs nationally and internationally - mass assemblies, councils of delegates elected by them and recallable to them, by building defence organs of the workers and youth (pickets, anti-fascist defence, ...) as a step towards arming the class, by breaking up the chains of command in the bourgeois armies.
In short, by smashing the bourgeois state in a socialist revolution.
For us a European Constituent Assembly is not a goal in itself. But this struggle is a rallying point for the real solution of European unification: a United Socialist Europe, based on workers councils and the armed people; a United Socialist Europe which fights for the world revolution and international communism.
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What is imperialism?
Capitalism and the state
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Destroy IMF
WTO (or not!)
They rule
[A bit slow and needs Flash, but interesting nonetheless]