Millions of workers will vote in the elections to the European Parliament over the next few days. In the midst of a deepening economic crisis and sharp attacks on the working class across the continent, we look at how Marxists should address the working class in these elections
In the past, the leaders of the European Union and major imperialists powers such as Germany and France tried to present „Europe“ as a safe haven in a world of war and misery. Even if they told the working class, the smaller employers and the middle strata that they would have to make sacrifices to ensure the competitiveness and strength of the EU in a world marked by increase in global competition, they nonetheless claimed that the result would be an area of peace and greater social security. The European Union might not be paradise but it would at least offer protection against a world economic crisis.
Even these vague promises are now being trashed. In 2009, the EU will be hit extremely hard with its GDP expected to shrink by some 4%. Far from offering effective protection for all its peoples, the EU has been shown to be nothing but an alliance of imperialist robbers, each with their own semi-colonial satellites. Instead of an EU-wide „anti-crisis“ programme there has only been a series of national „anti-crisis“ policies that reflected the national priorities of France, Germany, Britain and so on.
The East European countries have been hit hardest by the recession. Hungry and Romania have had to declare state bankruptcy and come under IMF supervision. Did the EU protect them? Not yet. In the end Germany and France may step in with billions of euros – but only if these semi-colonies are prepared to fit in with their plans. The price will be relinquishing more powers to the leading imperialist states within the EU, giving them still greater domination of the politics and economics of these countries.
The political crisis of the European Union
The lack of an EU programme, the effective paralysis of the central EU institutions, reflect the unresolved political crisis of capitalist integration of Europe. This crisis goes back to the rejection of the EU Constitution in the French and Dutch referendums which reflected the popular discontent with „neo-liberal“ Europe. Even more importantly, the crisis has demonstrated the deep antagonism between the strategic aims of German and French imperialists (and their allies) on the one hand and Britain on the other.
The EU is now the largest capitalist market in the world, the European Central Bank the second strongest central bank in world and the euro the only currency able to challenge the dollar. Nonetheless, even though the EU has made a start on creating its own repressive apparatus (the battle groups) and has its own „armaments agency“ to coordinate military spending on contracts and now has its own colonial mandate in the Balkans (Kosovo) and even though about two thirds of all legislation for the EU-states is created by the European Commission and the EU Parliament, the EU is still far from a viable quasi-state a homogenous block under German and French rule.
The current economic crisis is both highlighting and sharpening this political crisis of the European Union. If they are to resolve it, the ruling classes in Europe, in particular, Germany, France and their allies, will have to take bold steps or they will find themselves stuck in a Europe which has ceased to go forward, which would mean falling further back in sharpening competition worldwide. This year’s EU elections reflect these growing tensions.
The elections in different parts of Europe
In the „core“ countries of the EU, that is, Germany, France and their allies, the election is almost invisible. It has a lower, in some cases much lower, profile than on previous occasions. It is likely that many will abstain in this election and there is a clear reason for this. The German and, albeit to a lesser extent, the French ruling class, and all the mainstream parties, are in complete agreement about the strategic importance of the EU for their national interests.
In Germany this means that the Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats as well as the Greens and the Liberals all present themselves as „pro-European“ and their campaigns are vacuous even by the standards of bourgeois elections. In doing this they are following the unspoken „national doctrine“ that „Europe“ (by which they mean the EU under German/French rule) is, „too important to become the subject of party political conflict“.
The less heat is created in the election campaigns, the more easily the same old politicians can keep in place the same old policies, that is, a continuation of the „informal“ Grand Coalition between the European Conservative and Social Democratic parties.
In Britain and other, more „distant“, imperialist countries, the situation is different. There, most of the election campaigns are „critical“ of the EU and are more or less overtly nationalist.
Of course, at heart, the content of these different campaigns is not as great as it might appear. All of the main parties, whether they are the open parties of the bourgeoisie or reformist parties, reflect the national interests of their ruling classes. In some countries, but particularly in Germany and France, „Europe“ stands for an EU led by „their“ nation or state while the Euro-„sceptic“ tone of the British parties reflects the fact that their bourgeoisie does not at present see their interest in the creation of a strong, united European Union with a common currency and a common foreign and military policy.
Finally, in many of the East European countries and also in some of the smaller imperialist countries there are both far right and also mainstream bourgeois or reformist parties (particularly those originating in the Stalinist parties) who campaign on overtly racist, chauvinist or semi-fascist nationalist tickets, presenting themselves as the reactionary alternative to a neo-liberal Europe.
The crisis of working-class leadership
In the midst of economic and political crisis, with ruling classes and their parties discredited along with their neoliberal doctrines and large sectors of the working class disillusioned, angry and understandably fearful of the future, the elections could provide a tremendous opportunity for the workers‘ movement to rally the masses against the bosses‘ Europe and for a common European struggle against attacks on jobs, living standards and rights. However, this opportunity could only be realised if working-class organisations fought on the basis of a militant, coordinated and international class programme. To date, mainstream reformist and trade union leaders, not only at national level but all the way down to the workplaces themselves, have done the opposite. Instead of rallying the workers against the capitalists, they have begged for an alternative „Keynesian“ programme of state subsidies to bail out failing capitalists. Even when the large union federations responded to the call from the European TUC for mass rallies of hundreds of thousands on 16th May, they did not use these to rally the workers against the ruling class but to appeal to the „common“ interests of „German“, „British“ or, for that matter, „European“ industry.
A number of union officials and leaders have even gone down the road of „defending“ the narrow interests of „their“ plants or sites against workers from other countries or regions. All too often, the mainstream reformist and Labour parties express the same position politically – as with Gordon Brown’s call to defend „British jobs for British workers“. Even sections of the „left bureaucracy“ and the „far left“, like those who support the populist „No2EU – Yes to Democracy“ in Britain, have gone down this road.
Unlike most of the mainstream reformist parties of European Social Democracy, the parties of the European Left are generally opposed to the central tenets of the European bourgeoisies‘ policies, such as the Treaty of Lisbon, and call for an end to the wars and occupations, the withdrawal of European troops from Afghanistan, Africa and the Middle East, they demand Europe-wide social measures to improve the position of the working class such as reduction of working hours and maintenance of minimum wages. Nonetheless, in the final analysis, these parties are also committed to a „left“ bourgeois, Keynesian programme.
The most left-wing programme and candidacy put forward at a mass level in the campaign is the New Anticapitalist Party in France, the NPA. Its very characterisation as an anticapitalist force and the inclusion of revolutionary demands in its founding documents have drawn around this party an increasing number of militants and activists who see in it a break from past electoral strategies based on unprincipled compromise programmes. Even here, however, the platform put forward for the election is essentially a left-reformist programme and a retreat from previously published positions. This itself expresses the vacillations within the new party that will have to be overcome in favour of a consistent revolutionary policy if it is to provide a new leadership for the French working-class and a successful model for a Europe-wide alternative to reformism.
Tactics
There are no revolutionary parties or candidates standing in these elections and, consequently, no opportunities to use the elections to campaign directly for a revolutionary programme against the economic crisis engulfing the whole continent. Nonetheless, the elections will raise political interest and awareness and, right across the continent, millions of workers and militant youth, immigrants and activists from the social movements will see in them a means of defending their interests by voting for parties or candidates who they believe will represent them and will, at least, constitute a barrier to the most reactionary parties gaining in the elections.
Whether these forces put their faith in the long established social Democratic parties or in newer formations such as DIE LINKE or the NPA, revolutionaries should fight alongside them to achieve their goals. Whilst not sharing their beliefs in such parties, we have a common interest in seeing them successfully elected since it is in office that their inability, indeed their unwillingness, to really defend working-class interests can be most clearly revealed. By making common cause with their supporters at the same time as popularising the demands and methods of the revolutionary programme, our aim is to win the most determined militants to our own ranks.
Given the different national terrains within the EU, this tactic of „critical support“ inevitably leads to different conclusions in different countries. In countries such as Austria, Sweden and the Czech Republic, we call for a vote for the reformist, bourgeois workers‘ parties which still retain mass support, in these cases, the Socialist party in Austria, the Social Democrats and the Left Party in Sweden and the Communist party and the Socialist party in the Czech Republic.
In Germany, where the Social Democrats have continued to lose mass support as a result of their participation in a Grand Coalition with Merkel’s Christian Democrats, we call for a vote for DIE LINKE which, despite its reformist character, has clearly attracted the hopes and illusions of many of the most politically active and advanced sectors of the working-class.
In France, we call for a vote for the New Anticapitalist Party that has created a focus not only for millions of workers disillusioned with the past performance of the Socialist and Communist parties but also new generations of activists from the campaigns against the European constitution, the reduction in young workers‘ rights and the attacks on education. Within this movement, our militants will warn against the vacillations of the party leadership, expressed in the ambiguities and evasiveness of the election programme and fight to rally all those inside the NPA who recognise the need to fight for it to become a consistent revolutionary party.
In Britain, however, there is no party, nor even an electoral alliance, to which any support can be given. The governing Labour Party is in crisis, ultimately rooted in its loss of working-class support, and a succession of attempts to build electoral alternatives on inadequate minimum programmes have all collapsed. The latest of these, „No2EU – Yes to Democracy“, although promoted by the leadership of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, is not a step towards a new, class-based political party but a populist, cross-class alliance tainted by British nationalism that is doomed to repeat the Respect debacle.
Whatever the balance of political forces might be in particular countries, the overriding aim of all revolutionary tactics in these elections is the same: agitating and making propaganda for a programme of action against the crisis, demanding of all working-class organisations that they break with any class collaboration and subordination to the bosses and the estate and engaging a common fight against imperialism and capitalism in the European Union and internationally.