The war in Ukraine, the consequences of the economic crisis and inflation continue to be the central issues. Now, the authorities have moved the Block expansion item to the agenda. It is one thing to say it and another to make it concrete. It is necessary to postulate an alternative strategic project: a Europe of workers, without borders, inequalities or racism.
By Ruben Tzanoff
Enlargement, with or without calendar
At the Bled discussion forum, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said: “We must set a clear goal. I believe we must be ready -on both sides- to enlarge by 2030”. During the fourth State of the EU message, the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, spoke about many topics, among them, she raised the need to “Answer the call of history” and open the door to new incorporations. With and without a deadline, both moved to the agenda the accession requests made at different times by Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
Summit and Counter-Summit
The next meeting of the prime ministers and Heads of State, called by Spain with Pedro Sánchez as rotating president of the EU, will be on October 5 and 6 at the “Alhambra Summit”. We will see how the issue of enlargement is reflected there. For now, the capitalist summit has already earned the rejection of the social sectors that call for the “Granada Social Summit” and, under the slogan “Another Granada, another Europe is possible” they will hold events, talks and demonstrations, in which a delegation from Socialism and Liberty (SOL), a section of the ISL in the Spanish State, will participate. Questions such as What is the EU? How is it, and what would the expansion entail?, are on the table.
More propaganda than reality
The Bloc is presented as an economic and democratic paradise, and the NATO it integrates as a champion of world freedom. Both statements are false. In the EU, the only privileged people are the businessmen and the bankers, with inflation and social cuts, the standard of living of the working class is deteriorating. And not only do there exist anachronistic and parasitic monarchies, but the regimes are increasingly repressive and racist. As for NATO, it is the most murderous warmongering organization on earth at the service of Western imperialist expansionism, which should be dissolved along with the CSTO.
A questioned project
The EU embodies a questioned project, hit by Brexit, and which has fallen behind North American and Chinese imperialism. Although they try to revive it, the crisis of the world capitalist economy, the inter-imperialist frictions in dispute for hegemony, the war in Ukraine and the workers’ struggles raise doubts about the real possibility of a recovery and expansion on solid bases.
“Forewarned is forearmed”
Even coming from semi-colonial countries with serious social and democratic deficiencies, any acceptance of membership in the EU would imply the execution of harsh “belt-tightening” for the vast majority and profits for a handful of local and foreign oligarchs. The resignation of sovereignty and the territorial acceptance of troops and/or military bases to wage war. Without any of this implying a qualitative leap in the standard of living. There is another possible direction to take.
Neither “Europeanists” nor “Eurosceptics”: Socialists
In the heat of mobilizations and strikes such as those in the United Kingdom, France, Spain and other countries, new political tools must be forged. To overcome the reformists of the PSOE, Sumar, Unidas Podemos and others. To defeat the right and the extreme right of the PP and Vox. To fight for a fundamental solution: that the workers and the people govern, with a regime of workers’ democracy in a socialist system and with the free Federation of European Socialist States.
Challenge and opportunity
The drift of SYRIZA, Podemos and other forces that first generated sympathy and then disappointment; it is a challenge and an opportunity at the same time. Many political and union activists, for the rights of women, immigrants and ecology, are looking for new alternatives. It is necessary to postulate a front of the extreme left, led by the CUP, Anticapitalistas, with IR, CR, CRT, IZAR and SOL and other groups. And go further, with the construction of a consistent left-wing party and promoting the regrouping of revolutionaries, as the International Socialist League (ISL) does.