The European Union’s parliamentary elections revealed the fraying alliance between the U.S. and the European Union (EU), as well as the weakening of U.S. imperialism and its liberal world order. The voting also exposed the growth of openly fascist movements and the widening ruling-class splits within the most important countries in the EU. Finally, it underlined the urgent agenda for the main-wing, finance capitalist bosses as they move toward the next global military conflict.
The instability and splintering within longtime U.S. allies like Germany, France, and Britain, alongside the sharpening rivalry between the U.S. and rising imperialists in China and Russia, points squarely to an eventual world war. That’s the only way imperialists can solve their contradictions, even if only temporarily. At the same time, this volatile period offers a strong opportunity for Progressive Labor Party to organize and turn the guns around for communist revolution.
The old-guard European leadership includes the French banker president, Emmanuel Macron; Germany’s lame-duck chancellor, Angela Merkel; and Britain’s imploding Conservative/Labour establishment. They want to continue to ally with the U.S. main-wing bosses, represented by liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.
EU split
These Big Fascists, whose multinational alliances (like the EU and NATO) protect their long-term imperialist profits, are the ones who continue to hold lethal state power in both the U.S. and most of Europe. They’re still the main threat to the international working class. If anything, the far right’s recent surge enhances the liberal bosses’ ability to mislead workers into backing “the lesser of two evils.”
At the moment, however, the Big Fascists are under siege from more domestically-oriented bosses. These Little Fascists are crudely racist nationalists who share an isolationist, short-term, profit-taking outlook. They don’t want to be taxed for the next big war because their investments are less directly tied to imperialism. As finance capital finds its core interests threatened, the main-wing bosses will necessarily resort to fascism to unite and discipline their own ranks. Then they will intensify their attacks on the working class in preparation for World War III.
The growing split between these two camps can be seen in the EU parliamentary election results in the following countries:
In general, the centrist coalition that has run the European Parliament for decades lost its majority of seats, declining from 54 percent to 43 percent (npr.org, 5/27).
Weakening EU vacilates between imperialist rivals
The European Union, made up of 28 European countries, or 27 if and when Britain leaves, was created in 1993 to counter the almighty rule of U.S. imperialism in the post-Soviet era. The EU is essentially a borderless union to increase the bosses’ profits through a free flow of goods and labor. On one level, the Union has worked well for the blood-sucking bosses.
The EU’s trade structure has propelled it to become the world’s second-largest economy after China. It produced $19.9 trillion….China produced $23.1 trillion and the U.S. was third, producing $19.4 trillion(The Balance, 2/27).
As the EU rulers attempt to cope with both their struggling economies and waning political influence, some are turning toward China and Russia—and away from a weakening U.S.—for trade, alliances, and security. A number of countries are actively hedging their bets. In fact, the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China appears to be pushing much of the EU toward the China camp. France and Germany have publicly resisted U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat campaign to ban the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, though two British carriers “said they would not offer Huawei phones to customers who wanted access to their new 5G services” (New York Times, 5/24).
Meanwhile, Europe’s open fascists seem to be pivoting toward Russia. In a recent scandal in Austria, the deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right Freedom Party was forced to resign after a video showed him offering government contracts to a reported Russian oligarch’s niece (CNBC 5/22).
The main danger
Millions of workers in Europe are rightly skeptical about the EU, a capitalist creation that has created widespread unemployment and gross inequality. But because of the decline of class consciousness since the reversal of the communist revolutions in China and Russia, many of these workers are falling for the old divide-and-conquer trick of racism. “...In some countries, such as Poland and Germany, extremist parties have risen in popularity despite decent rates of G.D.P. growth. Migration, racism, demagoguery, and the development of social media have all played significant roles” (New Yorker, 5/30).
Despite the alarming rise of a new generation of open Nazis, the liberal Big Fascists remain the main danger to our class. These main-wing finance capitalists are committed to maintaining U.S. control over the Middle East and its cheaply extracted oil and natural gas. They are pulling out the stops to build a patriotic, multiracial mass movement to convince workers to fight and die in the next world war. They’re creating reformist anti-revolutionary mass movements like Black Lives Matter or the various European Green parties to channel working class anger into electoral politics and an agenda for war and fascism.
When workers lack class consciousness and a communist understanding of the world, they see reforming capitalism as their only option for a better life. They side with one camp of bosses or another. But relying on any bosses’ side is a lose-lose strategy for our class. Neither the Big Fascists nor the Little Fascists can make capitalism work for workers. They can bring us only exploitation, oppression, and a living hell on earth.
Fight for communism!
The rulers’ deepening instability means increased racism, sexism, nationalism, and attacks on the working class. But as we immerse ourselves in the rulers’ mass movements, injecting communist politics, exposing the bosses’ hypocrisy and fighting off their attacks, we will build confidence in the working class. This is a necessary step toward building an international communist movement and transforming the bosses’ wars into communist revolution. Only then will our class be able to seize state power and lead society for the benefit of billions, not the profits of a few billionaires. Join us!