THE 61 per cent ‘no’ vote in Holland, on a 62 per cent electoral turnout, against the EU constitution was no surprise after the French events, and suggests that if states such as Germany and Italy, where there is intense anti-EU feeling, had held referenda, the ‘no’ vote would have been on the Dutch scale.
It is more than obvious that if there was ‘democracy’, the drive for an EU capitalist state would be given up as being opposed by the vast majority of the people.
But of course there is no above class democracy, and the needs of the European bosses require that the drive for a united EU capitalist state is speeded up, using whatever dictatorial methods are appropriate for the task.
As Kenneth Clarke explained yesterday; if Thatcher had held a referendum over any of her policies, including the attacks on the trade unions, none of them would have been accepted – they would all have been rejected. He urged that a more serious attitude was needed to drive the EU project forward.
However, the French and Dutch votes have intensified the political crisis of the EU states. This in turn has deepened the EU economic crisis, which was raging well before the referendum votes.
The euro hit eight-month lows after the Dutch vote, falling to $1.2158 overnight, its lowest since September.
Last Thursday, days before the French revolution began, the Stern magazine has revealed that German Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, called a secret meeting attended by the Bundesbank chief Axel Weber. This discussed the risk of an economic meltdown of the Eurozone, beginning in debt-ridden Italy, and the possible break up of the single currency, with Germany and other states having to break away.
This was before the French vote! Stern, for itself, declared that ‘the euro is destroying us’, adding that ‘monetary union was one of the worst economic blunders made by Germany since 1945’.
Again, this was before the French and Dutch events that have enormously exacerbated the economic crisis of the EU, putting gigantic pressure onto the euro.
The German Chancellor yesterday went to Luxembourg for emergency talks on the future of the European Union.
Both Chancellor Schroeder and Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker are advocating that the voting on the EU constitution is completed, meaning that there will be referenda in Britain, Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Portugal.
The implication is, that when the referenda are completed, a way will be found to proceed to adopt the constitution, either with a majority of states approving it, with 10 states already approving it by vote in parliament, or that the ‘no’ states will be given an opportunity to change their position through a parliamentary vote. The constitution is to be imposed regardless of what people want!
Britain is taking the lead with a different position. Blair is opposed to carrying on with the referenda, since Britain is likely to have the biggest ‘no’ vote in the EU.
The British position is that the main issue is not to impose the constitution, but to impose deregulation, privatisation and the 48 hour week all over Europe.
The British position is that until the workers of Europe have been given a good hiding by the bosses there can be no real advances. The constitution will come afterwards, as the fruits of a victory over the working class.
This is what Straw and Blair have been ‘reflecting’ on. These are the issues to be discussed behind the scenes at the June 16th meeting in Brussels.
For the working class the issue is clear. It will fight for its class interests, whatever combination of bourgeois leaders it faces, and however the economic crisis of the EU states develops.
It must not allow dictatorship, privatisation, deregulation, wage cuts and mass unemployment to pass.
In place of the discredited Labour and Socialist parties that support the forming of an EU capitalist state through the destruction of the rights of the working class, the workers of Europe must build sections of the Fourth International in each country.
These will organise the socialist revolutions that will overthrow the European capitalists, and create the conditions for socialism throughout Europe, and advance to a Socialist United States of Europe.
