The EU

[Goatse]

What do you guys think of the EU? I mean, yes, it is a trading alliance but it also provides funds for developing poorer countries. So where do you stand on it?

[which doctor]

Are you serious!?!?!?!

[Gold Against The Soul]

It is a bosses club with neo-liberalism entrenched as it's philosophy - Free movement of goods, labour, capital and everything that goes with it.

[Goatse]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20, 2007 06:27 pm
Are you serious!?!?!?!
Yes, I was wondering what the stance is on the whole "funds to rebuild poor countries" side of it was.

[Ander]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20, 2007 03:12 pm
What do you guys think of the EU? I mean, yes, it is a trading alliance but it also provides funds for developing poorer countries. So where do you stand on it?
The World Bank also provides funds for developing countries...Does this make either of these two organisations less capitalist and/or anti-everything we stand for?

No.

[Tatarin]

What do you guys think of the EU? I mean, yes, it is a trading alliance but it also provides funds for developing poorer countries.

The US also provides funds for some poor countries, but the thing is that the poor are poor just because there is capitalism. Think about all the charity in the world, and for how long it has been that way - still, the gap between rich and poor widens. For all the billions the USA spend a day (and the EU for that matter), not a single African country have risen to, at least, a low western standard.

The EU also has overriding control of member countries, with much power centered around a small body - a kind of government people most likely will never actually see. Also, add the attempt to pass the European Constitution - a document that talks about economic freedom, but mentions almost nothing of social laws (and if it does, those are strongly leaned toward "defending" capitalism, or how the country state should work towards unlimited free trade).

Internet "piracy" is also something the EU fears, and the proposals they put forward can only be parallelled with IngSoc - that is, if you support this "piracy" (without even practicing it), like speak positively of it, suggest it or something like it - you will get four years in prison! Sure, maybe it isn't such a big thing, but if this is only the beginning of this "union", then just imagine how the future will look like...

Oh, and don&#39;t forget the EU&#39;s campaign for banning "communism". <_<

[Sentinel]

So where do you stand on it?

It&#39;s a reactionary-to-the-core, capitalist project aiming to centralise power and move as much of European decision making as possible further away from the workers in it&#39;s respective countries. I&#39;ve been opposed to it all my life, indeed, the &#39;No to EU&#39; campaign before the referendum (on whether or not Sweden should join) was the first political campaign I was old enough to partake in by my own initiative.

I was too young to vote back then, but took actively part in spreading flyers, demonstrating, etc. We lost by a very small margin. The picture of the social democrat and bourgeois party leaders sitting side by side, behind the same table in TV debates, allied against working class interests is burned forever in my memory as evidence of the corruptness of bourgeois politics -- be they pseudo-left or openly right wing.

It may now be very hard to get Sweden out of the EU, unless the union collapses totally -- a new referendum concerning membership is unlikely as the ruling class got it&#39;s will through the first time. But it&#39;s in the interests of all workers and obviously all true leftists to try and undermine the power of the Union and it&#39;s attempts to further consolidate it&#39;s power.

Realising this I voted in the referendum against the European currency -- the only time I&#39;ve ever voted -- and despite the massive funds the &#39;Yes&#39; campaign received from the people whose interests it represented, and despite the social democrat prime minister&#39;s efforts which included silencing the opposition within his own party, we did fucking win&#33;

The EU is still a new thing and it&#39;s not yet impossible to deal it hard, hopefully lethal, blows by opposing it actively. Let&#39;s unite the European working class against capitalist interest projects such as the EU, and make sure our enemies fail in &#39;uniting&#39; us under their whips&#33;

Fuck the European Union&#33;

[Dimentio]

I actually think we should mobilise the people for the European Parliament. It will be quite easy given the low voter turnout to conquer several seats there. Remember that any kind of future socialist system would need to be supranational, and that if the EU would&#39;nt exist, we would still have globalisation.

[seraphim]

................ Is Bollocks.



Edit: Ok so it&#39;s not very constructive but there it is. I just needed to get that one out of my system.