02THE LISBON TREATY: A VERY REAL DANGER

By Sam Hammond

The European Union identifies its origins in the Treaty of Paris (1951/52) that formed the "European Coal and Steel Community". In fact, the first formal discussions and plans for the European Community were laid down October 3, 1940, when representatives of the German Industrial Employers Confederation met with one of Hitler's senior directors from the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Gustav Schlotterer, an ardent Nazi and SS officer. The subject of the meeting was the European Community that was to be formed after Fascism won the war and reorganized Europe on a Corporate State model. The German corporations, already implementing slave labour and concentration camps into their productive process, needed a plan for the new Europe and Asia delivered to them by the Luftwaffe and the Panzers. In the words of Dr. Schlotterer: "...we want to create a rational division of labour in agriculture and industry because we want to achieve the lowest possible production costs within greater Europe..." and further "...in our view the economy of Greater Europe will be generated by the initiatives of the business community..."

      Does this sound familiar? If it wasn't for the mountains of corpses and genocide these people created, we might be fooled into underestimating the real consequences of these words. The Partisans, the Allied powers, and primarily the Soviet Union put a serious delay into the plans of the European capitalists who were French (Vichy) and Italian as well as German.

     The next round came with the assistance of United States and British capital which recruited their former enemies, launched the cold war against the socialist states, and orchestrated a split in the new World Federation of Trade Unions with the assistance of the AFL-CIO and the British Trade Union Congress. The class struggle was up and running at full tilt, as capital desperately tried to break up the unity and solidarity formed in the fight against fascism and diminish the national liberation movements supported by the socialist states. Anti-communism was the decisive weapon to split and divide the international working class, and unfortunately the social democratic leadership in general climbed on the bandwagon.

     The existence of the socialist states and the strong Communist and Workers Parties who had won massive support in the fight against fascism, and a resurgence of desire for a better post-war world, put serious obstacles in the way of the European capitalists and their new US sponsor. With the rebuilding of Europe using the Marshall Plan, the United States was able to be the main mover and shaker; the new political hegemony was expressed militarily in the formation of NATO.

     There followed a series of Treaties that were actually probing steps on a path leading to the establishment of single European market, with a uniform level of wages, cross-border labour mobility and the gradual decrease in the authority of parliaments and laws of nation states, their social programs and their labour movements.     The consolidation of capital and its control over nations was sold on the basis of each state having veto power. In reality, each treaty expanded the power of the EU while decreasing the authority of consensus. The big move was made in 2004, when a treaty establishing a constitution for the whole European Union was signed in Rome and put out to the member states for ratification.

     This would have been the largest blow to the working class throughout Europe to date. It was supported by opportunist left, social democratic and trade union leaders and organizations, and resisted by coalitions of Workers and Communist Parties and sections of trade unions. Voted down in referenda in France and Holland in 2007, the treaty was effectively derailed, a real setback for the corporations and their plan for a single European imperialist state. The citizens of France and Holland expressed massively the views of workers across Europe, most of whom had been denied democratic referenda, especially in the former socialist states, whose new capitalists are prepared to deliver their people into the cauldron for crumbs falling from the imperialist table. The shocking rebuttal drove capital into a strategic "period of reflection" to lick their wounds and consider their next step.

     The latest "Treaty of Lisbon" is a cynical affront to the democratic expression of the European peoples. It will not be voted on except in countries like Ireland, whose constitution demands a referendum.

     We quote from the statement issued by 28 Communist, Workers', left wing and progressive parties: "This Treaty is impregnated with neo-liberal policies that will further jeopardize economic and social gains of the workers and the peoples, whether through the liberalization of markets, the primacy of competition or the monetarist policies that do not take into account growth and employment; or by dismantling and privatizing public services, in keeping with the interests of the big economic and financial groups."

     Especially dangerous are the so-called "reforms" in labour law, referred to by Giorgos Toussas, a member of the Communist Party of Greece and the European Parliament, as "a middle ages for the working people" in his presentation at a meeting in Guimaraes initiated by the Communist Party of Portugal.

     Preceded by a "Green Paper" study titled "Modernizing Labour Law to meet the challenges of the 21st Century," the Lisbon Treaty enshrines the essential aim of the monopolies to suppress the collective rights of working people. It moves to replace these rights with individual work contracts and complete mobility across borders of the member states - but working under wages and conditions of the country of hire.

     The future European worker will be subject to permanent training and testing to achieve maximum production, quality and productivity to ensure maximum profits. This will be paralleled with a privatized educational system completely dedicated to this end. The destruction of collective agreements and their replacement with individual agreements will usher in the institutionalization of labour brokers who will hold the individual contracts, importing workers from the member countries with the lowest wages and poorest conditions. The new treaty will provide police and security forces to ensure safety of movement within the EU (scab herding and strike-breaking) under the new "flexicurity". This will have a lot of "flex" but not much "curity."

     This subject needs much more inspection, especially when viewed within the parameters of Canadian de-industrialization, the haemorrhage of manufacturing jobs, deep integration, Atlantica, TILMA, and the European/US/Asian squabble over our industry and resources. The European Union is not a passive regional apparatus. It is imperialist and neo-liberal, promoting massive privatization and a frontal assault on the public sector. The privatization of services, education, communications, postal and railroads are woven into the Lisbon agreement, and will become European law if it is ratified. The European corporations grasping for Canadian resources, energy and manufacturing will aggressively import these agendas into our social life and social programs.

     I would urge reading of the website of the Communist Party of Greece (http://inter.kke.gr), which links to other very useful sites on this struggle. I also have a document presented to the November 2007 meeting of Communist and Workers Parties by Peter Cohen on behalf of the Communist Party of Sweden; I would be happy to e-mail a copy to readers on request.

     (Sam Hammond can be contacted by email at shammond2@cogeco.ca)

Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint13/02%20THE_LISBON_TREATY__A_VERY_REAL_DANGER.html