Translated "Avante!" Article by Albano Nunes, member of the Secretariat of the CC
The Council of Europe, which took place on the 23/ 24th June, was well exemplified European Union’s class nature and how its institutions and policies are entirely at the service of the great capital and powers and, more specifically, at the service of the great financial capital (more and more corrupt, speculative and parasitic) and Germany’s ambitions. And confirmed what was known for a long time: the rupture which took place along the capitalist integration process, from the Treaty of Rome unto the “ Europe 2020 Strategy” and the “ Euro + Pact”, reinforces its neo-liberal, federalist and militarist character in order to defend from the civilization conquests of decades of popular struggles.
The created expectations round this Summit were many. But the alarmism on the consequences of Greece’s eventual non-fulfilment together with the divergences’dramatiza tion among Germany, the ECB, the “Euro-group” President and the IMF itself on how to deal with the consequences of the garrotte imposed on the Greek people redounded in a last minute consensus. Not omitting the existence of real difficulties and contradictions. There exist, serious ones and that must be taken into account throughout the struggle’s development. Nor it could be any other way, before a crisis which persists and threatens to explode into a new crack within the USA, besides the Euro crisis itself and the European Union. But what spoke up were the capital interests and especially its most aggressive and dominating fraction, the financial capital. And the major decision was, nothing but, proceeding with the the extortion over Greece in order to, under “aid”, impose new sacrifices to the already martyr Greek people and transfer unto the great capital, starting by the German, public wealth calculated in more than 50 thousand million Euro.
But if it is a question of changing the private debt into public debt and the profiteering which is the most visible cause of the “sovereign debts” crisis of countries such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland, the fundamental cause resides in the capitalism own exploiting essence and the profit rate tendency drop, within a framework in which, liberated from the socialism counterweight as a world system, imperialism looks by all means, including the resort to war, destruction of the workers’ and the peoples’ historic achievements, imposing, by class collaboration or the open force, a brutal cost reduction of the working force.
It is a fact the “PIGS” are in the offensive front line, subjected to over-exploitation,
inherent to a subordinate and dependent capitalism. But the offensive involves the
whole European Union space, as reminded by the social - democrat Schroder “reforms”and his famous Hartz IV, or the very hard austerity plan already pursued in Spain together with the deplorable collaboration of the trade unions. Alias, the speculators intentions are currently in Spain, Italy and other countries from which, under the pretext of the Greek “contamination” danger, and new “reform” packages and austerity measures are requested, always against the workers and their labour and union rights.
It is within this context that Passos Coelho, even before presenting his Government’s Programme to Parliament, decides to announce, in Brussels, not only his intention of hastily accomplish and in force, the Troika aggression programme, but to reinforce the latter, with new anti-national measures, namely within the privatization field.
For those who worry mainly in giving satisfaction to the “markets” and their Euro employers, and consider he was given a warm welcome during the Summit “it couldn’t have been better”, Brussels is, in fact, an adequate stand. But he can be sure he will not find, in Portugal, the same welcome, and will have, just as during these current days, from the Viana do Castelo Shipbuilders (Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo), the right answer from the Portuguese.
