Translated "Avante!" article by Angelo Alves, Member of the Political Committee and of the PCP International Department
Three recent news reveal the crisis’ dept, in which Europe is immersed and simultaneously the European Union policies’ nature and consequences within the capitalism crisis framework.
Last week, the Red Cross published a report which illustrates, with numbers, Europe’s deep social crisis. Out of the 52 analysed countries, 34 hold poverty rates above 10% of the population. As one is aware, some of them have much higher rates, as the Greek case, in which more than a fifth of its population lives in poverty. But this is just but a face of reality. Considering the risk of poverty, the number of people jumps to the 120 million, signifying that the current trajectory of an authenticable social deconstruction and of wide unemployment massification, in a short space of time, the situation will become similar to Latin America upon the 80’s and 90’s crisis, both in number of poor population and unequal social indexes. Some organizations perspective the increase of poor population, within the European Union, round 2,5 million per year, during the next 10 years. The social catastrophe scenery is no more hypothetic. Hunger, for example, is the proof. According to the already mentioned report, more than 18 million people in Europe seek for food aid and more than 43 million are incapable to suppress their daily food needs, currently.
And in the name of what? Of “ fighting the crisis”. The EU insists, and governments, including the Portuguese, prattle on the recovery is near. Some have touched the wound. An unsuspected Nottingham Business School professor states, in an TV interview, that the European Union is on its way to catastrophe, once the financial institutions and governments have not resolved any of the economic problems and it is a fallacy to mention economic growth considering the current unemployment rates, which will rise in the future.
These are but some data which illustrate some of the European Union policy consequences. There exist other severe consequences. Many are astounded on watching the news that divulge Laurent Lopez ‘s victory, a National Front ( Fascist) candidate in Brignoles, in the South of France. They forget, or do not want to remind, that within a frame of deep social crisis, national sovereignty oppression, development asymmetries increase, caused by the capitalist nature of the integration process, disillusions upon disillusions towards social-democracy, and the inexistence of strong communist parties and union movements, what more “natural” than the far right-wing rise its head. The perception that the European Union is an “aggressor force” has been used by the far right-wing in order to , once the left-wing critics are hesitating and indefinite concerning the EU ’s policies, matrix and nature.
But what does one see on looking outside the EU “borders”? A fortress, imperialist power, a European Union practising policies which nature does not differ from the National Front speeches’ vomited xenophobia. How the EU looks upon immigrants is one of the outstanding examples and last week’s news on the death of hundreds of human beings in the Mediterranean, close to Lampedusa, are the proof of a real war against people who fled from poverty, hunger or war (developed and carried out by the EU itself), just as the refugees and immigrants from Libya. The FRONTEX results , a programme which represents a real war plan against human beings, is revealing: since the mid 90’s, 20 000 immigrants were pushed towards death.
As said at the beginning, these three news are a proof of Europe’s severe situation. They are linked, simultaneous expressions of the imperialist hub development : the European Union, being more and more urgent to defeat and overthrow it, through our struggles.
