“Each Against All” dashes “United Europe" (1997)

Editorial from the July 1997 issue of the Socialist Standard

In recent weeks the great capitalist Euro project has looked in dire straits. Last month it suffered two massive body blows with the election of the relatively Eurosceptical French “Socialist Party” and Germany’s attempt to revalue its gold reserves in order to meet the strict Maastricht convergence criteria.

Each EU member state attempting to “converge” their economies and economic performance has proved tantamount to demanding the impossible. Wide structural differences between the Euro economies, ranging from differing import/export requirements, tensions between industrial and finance capital, and a less than synchronised trade cycle have meant that real progress on convergence since 1992 has been minimal.

But what lies behind the persistent talk of European federalism and a single currency? In actuality, what we have been witnessing has been the movement of the most dominant section of the capitalist class in Europe— generally based in Germany—to create the most powerful economic, political and military bloc on the planet, a bloc capable of challenging the dominance of the United States. What really worries other sections of the Euro capitalist class is that such a federal bloc will be dominated by German interests to the exclusion of their own. Hence the strategics of states like Britain and France which have centred on how best to contain German dominance—France by encouraging the cohesiveness of the other major European states and Britain by its obviously Eurosceptical and nationalistic posturing. All this being further proof, if any more is needed, that “unity” between capitalist nation states can be nothing more than a temporary charade, a mask for the economic manoeuvring and power posturing that is increasingly setting each nation state against all since the demise of the post-war bloc line-up.

For socialists the “European question” can only be a capitalist question and nothing for the working class to take sides about, despite all the efforts of the differing sections of the capitalist class to enlist the support of the workers, not least of all on the latest Amsterdam Treaty. A single currency in Europe is neither an economic panacea (as Germany and some neo-liberals argue) nor the real cause of the austerity and economic restructuring taking place across much of the continent, a product of capitalisms still lingering world economic crisis. In this respect, the single currency and the Maastricht convergence criteria provide the perfect pretext for attacking working-class living standards while, behind the scenes, remaining an object of intense disagreement among the rulers and owners of Europe.