The EU constitution must be defeated through mass action

We live in a world of social insecurity and political instability. Our rulers know this and so do we. For them this is simply part of life: cut-throat competition between one other at both the corporate level and the level of the state and integrally related to fighting to keep up the rate at which they exploit “their” workers and the masses in less developed countries. It’s a matter of stay on top or go under.

To achieve this they are driven both to create bigger and bigger capital blocs, new free trade zones, and certainly in the case of Europe and East Asia, to try to create an embryonic superstate which can protect its constituent powers against the world hyperpower, the United States. On the other side, they have to slash labour costs, whether in terms of wages or the costs of social welfare, to weaken the workers movement and to defeat and demoralise radical political opposition.

Before we can develop a strategy to defend the interests of working people and the oppressed worldwide against the ruthless enemy that is Capital it is necessary to understand the driving force behind the political strategy of the ruling class in Europe. The system we are living in - capitalism in its final stage imperialism - is losing its dynamism and therefore threatens the capitalists with great danger, from one another and from the working class. It is no accident that the relative harmony which marked inter-imperialist relations in the last decade of the twentieth century has given way to mounting tensions. Of course, given the immense inequality between the power of the USA and all of its allies and rivals put together there is no immediate prospect of this tension breaking into open conflict. But with every decade since the end of the long boom the capitalist world economy moves more and more towards stagnation (see Table 1).

Table 1 Average annual GDP Growth per capita (in %)

1960-1969: +3.7%
1970-1979: +2.1%
1980-1989: +1.3%
1990-1999: +1.1%
2000-2003: +1.0%

Source: ILO: A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities For All (2004)

This is what really drives the ruling class on both sides of the Atlantic to constant pressure and sharp attacks against labour costs and the welfare state, all justified by the neo-liberal ideology of “the inescapable laws of globalisation”. It is this which drives our rulers to globalisation by violent means, with military interventions in the oil rich zones of central Asia, the Middle East, and to a lesser degree Africa and Latin America. The “war on terror” is a splendid pretext for creating or expanding their spheres of influence.

The USA is by far the hegemonic power of the planet. Despite having a smaller population than the enlarged EU (282 million compared with 455 million) its economy is bigger. The superiority of US to EU imperialism is even greater if one takes their political and military power into account. US military spending is 3 to 4 times as much as the combined EU-15 defence budget.

Pan-European State apparatus

To close the gap with the transatlantic colossus the main European imperialist powers- led by France and Germany- have to take drastic measures. They have to smash a series of surviving social gains of the European working class, to sharply raise labour productivity and therefore profit rates. They have to build up their state apparatuses to quell resistance to this process and to intervene politically and militarily to expand their influence around the globe. To be able to compete against US imperialism Europe has to “Americanise” it’s economic and political order at home.

The ruling class problem is that there is no unified pan-European bourgeoisie but a series of capitalist classes based on national states. The imperialist European Union is therefore a compromise, a bloc or coalition of the strongest national ruling classes. The majority of Europe’s rulers have concluded that their main problem is the lack of a unified European state apparatus. This is why they need the new constitution.

But the position of Germany, France and their smaller allies is not shared by all the other EU states and certainly not by Britain. This is the reason why there has been so much tug-of-war and diplomatic battles between Berlin and Paris on the one hand and London and its allies on the continent on the other. While the German and French rulers pushed for an EU with a strong pan-European state apparatus (which of course they intend to dominate) their British counterparts tried to avoid this and to build in as many veto rights for national states as possible. If Germany and France want a federal superstate able to stand up to the USA, Britain wants a “Europe of Nations”, i.e. a free trade zone.

The reason for this can be found in the structure of Britain’s global assets. British capital is one of the world’s leading foreign investors. In addition a lot of its investments goes to regions which are not in the traditional EU spheres of influence, such as Eastern Europe or North Africa, but rather to those under US tutelage. Since the EU is an emerging rival, US imperialism has a direct interest in preventing it from becoming too strong. This is why Washington supports and encourages London to slow, and when needed, block the EU unification process.

The new Constitution - towards a superstate?

The final draft constitution seems to be a step forward for the section of the European ruling class which wants to create a strong imperialist EU. But there is little to rejoice about for the working class in the draft constitution. It makes clear that neo-liberal doctrines are the economic policy framework of the EU: “Member States and the Union shall act in accordance with the principle of an open market economy with free competition.”

All national legislation and constitutions, all national labour codes, collective bargaining agreements etc. can be subordinated to EU directives if a sufficient number of the larger states are agreed on it. In addition every member state will be bound by international agreements signed by the European Union with the international financial bodies such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Trade Organisation. The new power centre of the EU state apparatus will be the European Commission whose president is chosen by the governments of the EU but who then chooses all the other members of the Commission. The Commission alone has the power to initiate European legislation. The European Parliament has the right to agree or disagree with proposed legislation but only within the constitutional framework of a neo-liberal policy.

Fight together

The mass strikes and demonstration of workers in Austria, France, Italy and Germany last year showed the will of ordinary workers and their families to fight back. The resistance to Gerhardt Schröder’s Agenda 2010 has been unique in its scale, especially for a Social Democratic government to face such a mass revolt by its own “natural supporters.” But it also showed the weakness of the leadership of the workers’ movement. The struggles of 2003 have also shown once again the rotten decayed character of the mass reformist workers’ parties and the incompetence, cowardice or outright treachery of the union leaders.

To be effective, the workers’ movement must renew its leadership from the bottom to the top. It must start to play a leading role in mass social movements and it must do so at a European level. That is why the European Social Forum in London in October presents such an opportunity. The struggles ahead need to be coordinated at a continental level. This is what the Assembly of the Social Movements, which will meet at the end of the ESF, must set out to do. Yet, in the ESF, too, there is a crisis of leadership - reformist forces like Attac want to paralyse it and eventually pull it in behind the French and German governments.

The only way for the British working class and oppressed to fight the creation of a new more powerful and imperialist EU is to ally with its class brothers and sisters across the Channel. The European workers movement, the millions of youth and immigrants who come out on the streets to fight against war and social injustice - this is the force to stop the bosses offensive.

This is why we must not fight against the EU constitution in alliance with the right wing populists like UKIP, the Tories, or the traditional Little Englanders in the Labour Party. Any attempt by the Left today - impressed by UKIP’s rise - to play the anti-European card will prove disastrous, just as it was in the 1970s. Then it poisoned militant workers with chauvinism, tied them in a common campaign with vile racist Europhobes like Enoch Powell and diverted them from the class struggle.

The British constitution with its monarchy, royal prerogative, unelected judiciary and Privy Council is just as undemocratic and in the service of rapacious capitalism as the new European one will ever be. We need to fight against the continuing social onslaught on public services, jobs and pensions and fight hand in hand to defend them together with the European working class. If we don’t, if each national working class worse rallies behind the populist patriots of Right or Left then we are headed for disaster. United we can win, isolated we are bound to lose.

Our Europe

There is not one major challenge we face today which can be solved on a national scale. This is why Workers Power and the League for the 5th International is fighting for a Socialist United States of Europe. Unlike the Eurosceptics we ardently want Europe to be united but not under the command of a tiny class of bosses and bankers. We want to unite our continent and our world in the interests and under the control of the vast majority of its people - the workers, the immigrants, the youth, the poor farmers, the unemployed and racially oppressed.

We want to unite the workers of Europe, not to foment jealous competition one with another. We want the workers of all countries to unite on the basis of a common plan and social ownership of the means of production to eradicate poverty and unemployment and to create jobs and a decent living standard for everyone.

We want Europe to be united but not to create a European superstate as a rival to US imperialism, fighting it for world domination. This could end in only one way- world economic chaos and a Third World War of unbelievable destructiveness. The alternative is to reach out our hands to our American brothers and sisters and to those fighting imperialism on all continents. That is why we are fighting for a United Socialist States of Europe and for world revolution. If you are not already part of that fight, join us in it!